Archive for category Quincy
Epiphanies
Posted by MarlenaG in Parenting, Personal Expressions, Quincy on February 27, 2010
I have been having a whole lot of epiphanies of late. Be it about the new chores I have to take care of, I’m still figuring all that out but to be honest I am really getting the hang of them. I am still learning to change with Q’s wants and needs. I’m sure all these years of learning and growing with the hubs has helped me a great deal. I’m still trying to figure out life and the meaning of it for me and my role as mother, wife, friend, sister, daughter and grand daughter. I’m thinking that I may have to continue to experiment.
I’m starting to realize all over again that I know nothing at all. I keep learning more and more and feeling like maybe I have a handle on life and then again I find myself surprised and feeling clueless all over again.
What brought all this on? I’m at a new cross roads. In the not too distant future we will be welcoming a new family member to our home and I’m still trying to figure out just how we will approach this change. The first question everyone has is how am I going to go about my recover from delivery. I am sure that this time I will do all I can not to try to jump back into full swing of things until a couple weeks postpartum. I’m simply determined to focus on my new beautiful addition and my beautiful big boy and my incredible husband.
The other question that keeps coming up is will I be working after having our newest bundle of joy and I have yet to figure out the answer to that one. The hubs has made his decision and though I think it is sweet I’m not sure if that works best for our family. We shall see.
I guess it all goes back to the entire stay at home mom vs. the working mom debate. I love contributing financially to my family. I love my job. Don’t get me wrong, my job is tough, even stressful but I do get something out of my job that is really satisfying. On the other hand, the idea of staying home with my babies, keeping a home and leaving the money making to the hubs is exciting. There is so much I fee like I am missing from the day to day with my toddler. I can only imagine what I would miss from his relationship with his newest sibling. I enjoyed my 10 weeks home with Q and I am excited about having at least as much time with our newest baby. I’m already dreading leaving my boys for work. But there is still the question if I will be as good of a mom without work. I am able to drop everything quickly to play with or cuddle my son. Will I be so quick to do that without my working? Do I get some kind of down time or selfish time when at work when all I have to think about is work and the goal directly in front of me?
The epiphany here is that maybe just maybe things in this aspect of life aren’t so straight forward. If you asked me five years ago I would have told you that I had every intention of being a stay at home mom from the moment I found out that I was pregnant. That I just couldn’t ever imagine working once I had my first child. Now, shockingly, I have no idea what the plan is while I am expecting my second child. I just want what is best for my family and I am still trying to figure out just what that means to our family.
I’m still trying to figure out what is best for me. With my myriad of health problems I know that pushing too hard is a huge detriment to myself. I’m starting to really take the time to stop and rest. I’m figuring out what my body needs and how to meet those needs. I’m learning to put myself as a priority, which is incredibly hard as a mother.
The big epiphany is there is just so much to figure out and that I may NEVER figure it all out and that is ok. That is half the fun of this ride we call life. Don’t worry, in time you will hear me spout lots of stories about my boobies again. What did you think I would post without mentioning my boobs? LOL! Yeah, no, not going to happen, after all I’m a mom. 
Music
Today on my lovely morning walk I was listening to my favorite Pandora station and heard the Isley Brothers ‘Footsteps in the Dark’ and all that kept playing in my head is ‘It was a good day’ by Ice Cube. I then recalled all the times I would get excited over a ‘new’ song and my mother would immediately let me know that either it was sampled from another song or a remake of a song that I should listen to. In the beginning I would fight valiantly determined to prove that she was wrong, but in a short period of time she would prove she was right and in this process she imparted a great respect of ‘older’ music.
I have lived with many different family members which has helped form who I am in a multitude of ways. I am in awe of how much it has formed my tastes in music. Music is huge in all parts of my family, everyone has a passion about some genre. One aunt insists on listening to her favorite motown or country while we eat. My uncle and mother have a soft spot for anything Luther Vandross, the even saw him perform together. My paternal grandmother loves gospel, and soul music.
The moment my husband, then fiance, went out to visit my Father’s side of the family he proved himself to be a good choice when given permission to play my late grandfather’s records and had most of us remembering a plethora of great memories. He just kept choosing songs on different albums that either made us laugh while reminiscing or just look at each other with tears in our eyes knowingly. Shortly after that My grandmother, my aunt, my father, even some of my cousins let me know that he was a good choice and he was approved.
I met my husband because of music. He was the DJ at a cousin’s wedding, he was cute, and he was the only single man at the venue I wasn’t related to. I asked him to dance and from the moment on both of us were twitterpated. The moment I knew that he was something special was when he sang to me while going for a drive. The moment I knew that he was ‘the one’ we were listening to the radio while watching the fire works for the fourth of July. It is only appropriate that a dancing fool marries a DJ.
I love to sing, though I rarely make anyone listen. My adorable toddler boy regularly sings along with anything and everything. Thankfully we think we are raising yet another music lover. Music is just such a moving wonderful thing. I wonder just how quiet and boring life would be without music. ::shudders:: Never mind, too quiet, must search out more music.
The Weaning
Yep, here I go talking about boobies again.
I am currently awake at the wondrous hour of 3am because my beautiful precious son is awake and has nursing needs but I announced that I am done breastfeeding my son and want a break. I explained to my ever loving husband that Thursday night will be the last time our son will nurse because I just can’t handle the draining of my energy and the lack of sleep, I just couldn’t do it anymore.
So as we make it through our first night attempting wean him completely we slowly worked out a plan. Bottle of warm cows milk and Sprout while keeping me hiding in our living room until I am texted that is safe to return. This our second round, which to be honest is a surprise. I didn’t expect to get any sleep and I was able to get a whole four hours so far.
I must admit, part of me was really hoping that the hubs would do this wake up so it was a little smoother of a transition but I reacted like usual and woke up enough to cuddle in hopes that is all my son wanted. My attempts were futile and he kept trying to find my breast so as to latch on for a wee hour morning snack. Finally I sucked it up and kissed our son good bye and ran down stairs to start warming up some milk for his next bottle. The crying ensued and I felt like the 45 seconds were the longest EVER. Then I came back to a fumbling husband trying to soothe our toddler in the dark, not only was he awake to help me but he even was standing and rocking our baby boy.
I am now downstairs listening to my son randomly share his disappointment that I didn’t just join him and offer my breast. I am not sure if the powers of Sprout have been used just yet but my son doesn’t sound interested in any of this kicking the habit of the ta-tas.
I love you little man, but this is for the best for us all. Momma just can’t do the breast-feeding anymore. Momma needs her rest and would love to be done with your stage of nursing.
Of living insects, and dying electronics
Posted by RyanG in Photography, Quincy on September 6, 2009
We finally took Quincy to our local Museum of Natural History for the Butterflies Alive! exhibit. It’s been open for months now, and is ending September 21st. They’ve been doing this for years, and my wife and I have never visited. It was actually extraordinarily enjoyable, and I got some pretty nice photos, if I do say so myself. You can check them out on Flickr.
The whole thing was pretty cool. They had this very large screened in area with blowers and double doors at both the entrance and exit. This was of course to prevent any butterflies from escaping. Once inside, they had lots of plants and a great garden feel. Of course, Quincy was more interested in the many fountains than in the actual butterflies which we were there to see! Go figure!
Not long after we arrived a group of women and girls arrived together, and a bit of a commotion ensued. Apparently one of the butterflies had decided that the womans hair was an excellent place to disguise itself! I got a couple shots, but my instinct to kneel when shooting Q or the butterflies got the better of me, I should have gotten a more arial angle! Really, there is a butterfly on top of her head, just click the picture to see it bigger.
Once we left the butterfly exhibit Q was pretty much done, and he made that very apparent. We did manage to grab a few shots of him in some of the gratuituous cutouts though. Unfortunately, after we got those shots, I dropped the flash I’d been using handheld to illuminate my shots. It wasn’t a very long fall, I lost my grip of it from about hip height (maybe 3ft tops) and even slowed it’s decent by gently “catching” it with my foot, kinda like a hackie sac stall, before it hit the ground. No parts flew off, there were no cracks, overall it seemed rather uneventful. Imagine my surprise when the thing wouldn’t turn on anymore! Evidently, this is a resonably common problem with the Nikon SB-600, as a quick google search revealed several accounts of people having this problem even without having dropped it. I think I may be dismantling the thing and taking a look soon. Meanwhile I’ve only got a single light which I can only use in manual mode with my camera. 
If all else fails, I suppose I’ll be hitting up an authorized service center.
All said, it was a very enjoyable day. For this face, it’s worth it!
Boobies!
Did I get your attention? 
Breast, boobs, ta-tas, they are a very popular topic in my household. Not for the reason you may think, but rather because of breastfeeding. I have been successful in nursing my child for nearly 20 months. I have attempted to wean him for nearly 7 months. I wish I was joking.
When I first began to nurse my son it was a struggle. I learned that my failed induction, twenty hours of labor and my long recovery from my c/s slowed my milk from coming in. I was forced to *gasp*, supplement with formula for the first couple of days home. I was encouraged to drink beer, eat oatmeal, drink lots and lots of fluids and eat eat eat. I was just terrified that I wouldn’t be able to provide the food my son needed.
I knew there are worse things that could happen. I knew that formula is great and it has come a long way. But I got my natural birth taken away, I didn’t even get to have a vaginal birth hopped up on an epidural. So breastfeeding was one of those things that I was determined to have.
When the pediatrician checked our son out when he was nearly a week old and told me that he was gaining quite nicely and it was obvious my milk had finally come in. Then he said those wonderous words, “You don’t need to supplement with formula anymore.” I was beaming and grinning from ear to ear. I think I even made my husband repeat it to me a couple times on the way home.
Because my son broke out into a few pretty wide spread rashes prior to six months I was told to start removing certain things from my diet to see if it helped him. Months later we were told that we could start adding solids to his diet but with certain provisions. Due to the fact that I have allergies and asthma, the pediatrician told us to be cautious with dairy, eggs, berries, nuts, citrus, and strawberries. Because we were so nervous about possible reactions I was making his food at home.
My son would play with the food, maybe eat a few bites but was focused on nursing. It was like it was his favorite past time. I felt like a failure and a success at the same time.
I took my son to his nine month appointment and was told to stick to the restrictions I was given but to add fat every chance I had to the solids my son ate as he was a little on the light side. So olive oil was added to all veggies with fresh herbs.
We survived to his 12 month appointment and we were given the green light to start adding foods from the restricted list slowly. I was told that he was still light and not gaining ideally but he had made a small improvement in gaining. I was encouraged to wean him asap.
My son loved most foods we gave him but he was very suspicious of cows milk. I kept attempting to start slowly taking nursing sessions out and he would protest. Most that talked to me told me to wean him cold turkey or would tell me to keep doing a good job nursing him. My neurologist even told me to just stop nursing my son, then looked at my son and said, “Never mind. He is just too cute to deny.” Thanks.
So after many attempts to stop cold turkey I am now down to nursing my son only during the evening and at night. He is not interested in a bottle, a sippy cup or pacifier at night, he only wants me.
I still dream of weaning my son but I just don’t have the stamina to go through night after night of the screaming and knowing that all I have to do is let him cuddle with me and nurse. I keep trying to distract. I keep trying to start a new routine. My husband has tried to be the one to put our son down for naps and for the night, he is successful for some naps and has yet to be successful for putting him down for the night.
We will keep trying, we won’t give up. We have learned a lot. The biggest lesson we have learned is our child is as stubborn as his parents. We don’t give in often, he is told what he can and cannot do and those are consistent rules that are upheld all of the time. This is the one area that neither of us seem to be able to stick to as both of us are desperate for sleep every night so that we can preform well the following day.
One last time, BOOBIES! LOL! Hey, I have to keep laughing. 
Babies and Such
Once you have one child often family and friends wonder when and if you will have another. In the hubs and my case, most know that we want another child. The debate soon after having our son, literally a couple hours after delivering our son, of who would take care of him the next time we would be in L&D. The other question that came up for the entire first year of our son’s life was when we would start trying, I had hoped to wait for 4-5yrs. while my husband wanted our children closer in age 2-3yrs apart. We had plans.
In my morning stupor I am starting to question our plans. I definitely want a sibling for my son, I would love to give him one soon but I’m not sure how soon that will be. I think I am on an information overload. I have read so much about secondary infertility. Too many articles about parents who got pregnant easily with their first and yet they need assistance from a reproductive endocrinologist to get pregnant with their second child. Now I am freaking out. What if we are one of those couples?!? We got pregnant the first time very easily. Are we doomed to have a long arduous road to try to give our son a sibling? Will we be able to provide a sibling for our child? Is now the right time to try to conceive? Should we wait a bit more?
This is my own personal freak out. Husband this is why I wake up at 6am on a Saturday morning. I know I over think EVERYTHING but I am at a loss as to what to do and to plan for right now. Sometimes I am such a girl sometimes, ewww.
Our new baby boy
Our new baby boy (Quincy Joel) was born January 2nd at 8:20pm. He didn’t seem interested in arriving naturally, so after 20 hours of labor a c-section was performed. He weighed in at 7lbs 6oz and 20″.
He’s been great, but kept us busy thus the delayed blog entry. I’ll likely blog about him here in the future as interesting stuff happens.
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