Two links:

1. I’ve had my first blog interview over at Grilling the Gurus, if you’re interested. Thanks to Jack Franklin for the opportunity!
2. Steven is now two months old! I’m posting letters to him at my other blog from now on. Here’s the latest one with plenty of cute photos and even some video.

It’s definitely stretching me to take care of a baby, sleep two hours at a time, try to work from home, and take care of housework and meals. (Exercise isn’t even in the picture right now, despite well-intended Groundhog Day resolution goals!) I’ve been really amazed at how interesting a little baby can be - every day I am overwhelmed by cuteness! (I’ll have to change the tagline on my blog to “I take cute pictures of babies” since I don’t have kittens anymore!)

One of these days, I hope, I’ll be able to sleep through the night, dust off this blog, and go for a run. Until then, hope you are doing well, and thanks for keeping this in your RSS reader list!

I’ve been eating this dessert practically every day for the past week! (Before that, I was eating ice cream sandwiches made with Eggo waffles.) I had to make a second batch of cookies after we ran out of the first batch because I was addicted to the lovely combination of vanilla ice cream and soft chocolate cookie.

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup baking cocoa powder (I’ve been using sweetened cocoa powder and reducing the sugar, which seems to work nicely, too.)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat softened butter, sugar, and eggs together until fluffy.
3. Add dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt) and mix well.
4. Add chocolate chips and mix in.
5. Drop batter onto cookie sheets and bake for 8-10 minutes until the centers are just set. I make generous-sized cookies — probably about 3 tablespoons of batter for each cookie.
6. Cool on a wire rack. (If the centers look gooey but you don’t want to overbake the cookies, leave it on the cookie sheet and cool.)

A couple months ago, Steve and I experienced Swedish meatballs in the Ikea food court for the first time, served with a heaping pile of mashed potatoes, gravy, and a side of lingonberry sauce. Delicious and cheap! We bought a bag of frozen meatballs, two packets of gravy, and a jar of lingonberry sauce to have later.

A couple nights ago, I finally broke open the bag of Ikea meatballs and baked them, made the gravy, and made mashed potatoes and green beans to go with the meal. We had happy tummies afterwards.

Slightly Garlicky Green Beans

1. Chop a couple cloves of garlic coarsely.
2. Heat olive oil in a skillet.
3. Add garlic and cook for a minute.
4. Add green beans. Pour in a little bit of water to create some steam and cover.
5. Cook until beans are tender but still bright green. Uncover if necessary to boil off the water.
6. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve.

The next night, I had some meatballs left over, most of a jar of lingonberry sauce, but no more mashed potatoes. I also had a fridge full of veggies from our CSA box. Having watched hours of Food Network while nursing Steven, I felt inspired to be creative and came up with what I’ve dubbed an “Ikea Salad,” complete with lingonberry vinaigrette. (I also made some nachos, which you can see in the background.)

Ikea Salad with Lingonberry Vinaigrette

1. Wash and mix together any combination of vegetables (and fruit) that you want. I used lettuce, arugula, carrots, strawberries and avocado. Toss in a bowl.
2. For the vinaigrette: In a small bowl, mix together two parts olive oil, one part apple cider vinegar, one part lingonberry sauce, and a small bit of salt and pepper until combined.
3. Heat Ikea meatballs.
4. Serve the veggie/fruit mixture with Ikea meatballs and lingonberry vinaigrette.

In my best Food Network chef imitation voice: “Doesn’t that look beautiful? All those colors! [Take a bite carefully. Chew. Swallow.] Mmmm. Perfect. The avocado is so creamy, and you’ve got that wonderful sweet-salty combination with the meatballs, strawberries, and lingonberry vinaigrette. Over the top!”

How I did on my May goals:

• Start doing pushups and situps again daily.
• Walk briskly three times a week. (I did start to get back into running, however, when I did manage to get out and exercise. I’m up to 6 minutes out of 30.)
• Plan menus weekly.
• Use up CSA box produce. (Except for the bunch of lemon verbana, which I’ve decided I don’t like.)
• Work 1 hour every weekday (5/5-5/18). Work 2 hours every weekday (5/19-6/6). (I did great the first couple weeks, working 3 hours on some days! This last week has been a lot more touch-and-go, but I’ve been settling the baby into a scheduled routine, so I think my work times will be more regular, as well.)
• Use daily tracker sheet again to start getting back into daily routine.
• Transition to using non-disposable diapers. This has gone very well! The BumGeniuis diapers are great, although we’ve had to adjust the liners as Steven started peeing more, going from the newborn liner to the “normal” liner to doubling up liners at night.
• Learn how to discreetly breastfeed in public. I’m still a little awkward, but I feel comfortable breastfeeding with a blanket tossed over my shoulder.
• Read book out loud with Steve. We’re reading Watching Baseball Smarter together.
• Follow through on daily/weekly spiritual goals. I’ve managed to be consistent with devotional times but haven’t done much else with my other goals.

For June, I’m going to ditch my normal format and just concentrate on:

1. Working at least 15 hours a week (averaging out to 3 hours each workday)
2. Having a daily routine:
   • During Steven’s first morning nap:
     • Devotional time
     • Putting away dishes
     • Making bed
     • Personal care: Exercise, getting dressed, brush teeth, etc.
     • Housework (may be sacrificed on exercise days)
     • Blogging (may be postponed on exercise days)
   • Next two naps: Working
   • Before bed:
     • Straighten up one room
     • Clear sink of dishes
3. Walking/running at least 3 times a week, building up on the amount of time I can run. Should be up to 15 minutes by next review day if I increase 3 minutes each week.

I’ve lost track of the various books I’ve been reading over the past few months, but here are some that I can recall…

Passage by Lois McMaster Bujold - This book continues The Sharing Knife series (coming after Beguilement and Legacy), where Dag and Fawn set out on a belated honeymoon journey to the sea. Along the way, they pick up lots of companions, begin trying to educate farmers about Lakewalkers, and meet several challenges. I love Bujold’s books, and this one is no exception.

The Tale of Hawthorn House by Susan Wittig Albert - The newest offering in the Beatrix Potter mystery series. Beatrix finds a baby on her doorstep, left by a mysterious woman who can jump tall fences and disappear. As the mystery of whose baby this is gets resolved, some interesting new relationships between different characters are forged. Fun, fast read, and it’s not necessary to have read the previous books in the series.

Why Didn’t Anyone Tell Me? by Melanie Bowden - A collection of stories about women and their post-birth experiences, this book shows the variety of challenges that new mothers face, from postpartum depression to non-stop-crying babies to breastfeeding problems. In each chapter, the mothers are refreshingly honest about the struggles they faced and also share things they learned or things they would have done differently. The author wraps up each chapter with a summary (more of an analysis) and some “take home advice.” I read this book a few weeks before giving birth, and I’m thinking of reading it again now that the reality of having a baby has sunk in!

The Nursing Mother’s Companion by Kathleen Huggins - Plenty of illustrations and practical information about breastfeeding, although I didn’t read the chapters about nursing an adopted baby or multiple children!

The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding by La Leche League International - This book was about three times as thick as The Nursing Mother’s Companion, because it includes chapters about general parenting issues in addition to breastfeeding. I found that the photos and illustrations were not as helpful as The Nursing Mother’s Companion. I’m doing this from memory, but I think this book came down pretty hard on the idea of “scheduling” a baby. (I’ve noticed that most breastfeeding books I read discourage having a schedule for your baby.)

Child of Mine: Feeding With Love and Good Sense by Ellyn Satter - If Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child is the end-all resource on sleep from infancy to adolescence, Child of Mine is the go-to book for feeding your child from infancy and up. I only read the first few chapters, ending with the chapter about starting solid foods. Ellyn’s main point is that eating is a partnership between the parent and child; the parent cannot force the child to eat. The parent should offer good, nutritious food and a structure for the child to be able to eat; however, it’s then up to the child to actually eat. Ellyn believes that most eating and weight issues with children are a result of an imbalance somewhere in that equation; for example, the parent believes that the child is under- or overweight and thus is trying to force-feed them or stave them. The book offers advice, and plenty of stories, for how to develop a healthy relationship between you, your child, and food.

The Best of Ogden Nash edited by Linell Nash Smith - I’ve always enjoyed the few Ogden Nash poems that I’ve read, so I snatched this up when I saw it in the new books section of the library (and eventually bought it because Steve really liked it, too). I haven’t read this cover-to-cover but have definitely browsed through the majority of the poems. Here are some of our favorite short poems — but don’t worry, there are plenty of longer poems in the collection!

Biological Reflection
A girl whose cheeks are covered with paint
Has an advantage with me over one whose ain’t.

The Cow
The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.

The Duck
Behold the duck.
It does not cluck.
A cluck it lacks.
It quacks.
It is specially fond
Of a puddle or pond.
When it dines or sups,
It bottoms ups.

Green Babies, Sage Moms by Lynda Fassa - An accessible primer on how to be organic and environmentally-friendly from pregnancy and onward. The end of each chapter has suggestions for implementation at three different levels of commitment. Food, makeup, toys, environment/decor, and every other aspect of raising a child “green” are discussed.

Hamish Macbeth and Agatha Raisin books by M.C. Beaton - I’ve been continuing to work through both series. Agatha Raisin, while rather irritating in the first few books, is slowly growing on me; she’s losing her crusty shell bit by bit as the series develops.

Parking Lot Rules by Tom Sturges - Each short chapter in this book for “raising amazing children” has a parenting tip, or a “rule” — from the Parking Lot Rule, which is to teach your children to pay attention and stay right next to you in the parking lot, to the First Bite, Last Bite rule, which is to teach your child to eat the first bite of whatever new food you offer so that they can get the last bite of every other dish that they want (such as your yummy dessert), to The Truth Reduces the Punishment by 90% Rule (which is pretty self-explanatory). Tom stresses respect throughout the book, and these rules both help you to treat your child with respect as well as to teach your children to respect you and others. I liked many of the ideas in this book and will probably be checking it out from the library again in the future to review his tips.

SPQR X: A Point of Law by John Maddox Roberts - Our library doesn’t have many of Roberts’ Roman mystery books, which makes me sad, because I enjoyed reading this one (#10 in the series, and it’s not necessary to have read previous books). I picked this up after reading a good review on Orson Scott Card’s blog and have requested all other books available in my library system.

Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale - Another enjoyable book from Shannon Hale. Dashti is a maid to Lady Saren, who has been condemned to live bricked up in a tower for seven years for refusing to marry the man her father has picked out for her. Great storytelling; I wasn’t familiar with the fairy tale that this was based on, so I enjoyed the twists and turns of the story.

The Lull-a-Baby Sleep Plan by Cathrin Tobin - This book’s premise is that there is a “window of opportunity” when a baby is 2-4 months old for them to learn to sleep through the night. The book discusses the physiological signs that indicate your baby is ready and presents some specific suggestions for how to lull your baby to sleep.

Runemarks by Joanne Harris - Maddy Smith was born with a strange birthmark — a runemark — in a world where the old Norse Gods are dead. Or are they? This fantasy novel, written for children, was wonderfully hefty (but not too hefty) for this adult, but the ending left me a bit unsatisfied (perhaps because it’s set up for a sequel).

With a bookmark: (Books I just started reading, or books I’ve been “reading” for ages. Most recent first.)

• Eating in the Dark by Kathleen Hart
• Watching Baseball Smarter by Zack Hample
• Sacred Attitudes by Erica Ross-Krieger
• A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson

In the library book box:

• Vegetable Harvest by Patricia Wells
• Herbs by Patricia S. Michalak
• Garden Watering Systems by Sunset Books
• A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology by Jim Endersby
• The Strayed Sheep of Charun by John Maddox Roberts
• The River God’s Vengeance by John Maddox Roberts
• Conan the Valorous by John Maddox Roberts
• Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden by M.C. Beaton
• Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryham by M.C. Beaton
• Agatha Raisin and the Love From Hell by M.C. Beaton
• Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came by M.C. Beaton
• An Ocean of Air by Gabrielle Walker
• Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson
• Courage for the Earth by various authors

Up until now I’ve had a password-protected personal blog for family and close friends with daily-life-type-posts. For various reasons, I’ve decided to move to a WordPress.com blog instead and to no longer make it private (although I’m using the WordPress.com setting that keeps search engines from indexing posts).

If for some reason you find yourself wanting to know all about Steven’s sleep schedule, how productive or unproductive I am in a given day, or what we did on the weekend, you’re welcome to dive into the somewhat wordy and sometimes-but-not-always interesting world of the Happy Hafflys: www.happyhafflys.com. I post a lot more often to my personal journal blog than to this blog because I don’t have to think as hard about what I’m writing.

I’m breaking my blog silence again to quickly post what is, for now, the cutest photo of Steven that I’ve taken:

Things are generally going well.

• Work: I’ve been able to work a couple of hours each day, and after Memorial Day I’ll be opening my doors again for business and making a concentrated effort to use my time efficiently so that I can work more.
• Baby clothes: Steven is still a relatively easy baby… and growing! He’s grown out of the “newborn” size clothes and is probably going to grow out of most of his “0-3 month” clothes very soon.
• Diapers: We’ve transitioned to our BumGenius diapers and have been using them for about a week. I’m doing laundry every other day (mixed diapers and other stuff). They’re working well for us, although we had two days of constantly leaking diapers until I figured out that Steven had grown faster than I expected and was already soaking through the smaller “newborn” diaper inserts! We transitioned to the larger, normal diaper inserts (or doubled up the newborn inserts) and it’s been fine since then.
• Routines: My routines and goals have fallen by the wayside as I was focusing most of my non-taking-care-of-Steven time on a major work project, but again, I’m hoping to restart next week!
• Cat: Nutmeg has been terrorized by the neighbor’s cat and has been mostly an indoor cat for the past couple of months, although she’s starting to venture out more. Her “safe place” is now under our bed, so we don’t see her much except when she’s hungry!
• Garden: We put in two tomato plants and they seem to be thriving! Last weekend we planted pumpkin and corn seeds and we’ll see if they start to grow. All the other plants that were here before we moved in are looking rather pathetic, if not completely dead, unfortunately… A couple weekends ago, Steve and I bought some lumber and built a compost bin, or, as Steve calls it, a “compost palace.” It was perhaps not the most financially sound decision, as it would have been cheaper to buy one of those garbage-bin-like compost bins from Costco, but it looks pretty and it was fun to work on a project together.

I’m hoping that blogging will be one of the things that picks back up after Memorial Day, but at this point, Steven, work, and personal care are my main priorities!

Dear Steven,

In the past month, I…

• Worked about 25 hours. Total.
• Slept no more than three hours at a time (and usually two)…
• Changed about 220 diapers…
• Took 191 photos of you…
• Celebrated my first Mother’s Day…
• Ate lots of foods that I couldn’t eat in the previous nine months, including ice cream, sushi, and Sonic cherry limeades…
• Didn’t keep track of what I did with my CSA box, books I read, or other things I usually keep track of…
• And fell in love with you.

You were a big baby, and it took a long time to get you out into the world — 75 hours, specifically. I will try not to hold that against you.

Seriously, there is nothing that I regret about my labor and delivery experience, except that I didn’t get to hang out with you much right away because you got whisked away to the nursery for observation to make sure that you could breathe okay. Thankfully, you were fine, and we’ve been with you ever since. Except for the one afternoon when Grandma and Grandpa babysat you so that your dad and I could go on a sushi date.

The first thing that 95% of the people who meet you say is: “Wow! Look at that hair!” And that’s just referring to the hair on your head; usually they don’t get to see your adorably furry back, shoulders, arms, legs, and ears. Now that you’re a month into life, the hair on your back is gone, but you still have furry ears and arms. We affectionately call you “furry beast” every now and then, but that nickname won’t last for long.

It took about five days for me to finally not have swollen feet and ankles, but it took about two weeks before I stopped crying every day from residual hormones. I’d cry when you cried too long, cry when something didn’t go well, cry if your dad’s tone of voice was just the slightest bit snappy, and sometimes cry for no reason. The first few nights were rough on you, too, because you didn’t know how to fall asleep. We rocked you and shushed you and swaddled you to try to soothe you. Being out in this big, bright world must be somewhat overwhelming for you. Your main expression these days is a slightly frowning look, as if you’re asking yourself, “What am I doing here?!” Our friend Stanford likes to say that “babies look like they are slightly traumatized by the world for the first couple of months,” and we have to admit that he has a point.

It’s funny for me to think that this house, which is still so new to us, is the one that you’ll grow up in. You’ll think that it’s been here forever, although this is only our third month here. We’re still figuring out how to take care of the lawn and learning the intricacies of the hot water heater. Another thing that’s new for us is having family REALLY nearby — your Auntie Angela (my oldest sister) just moved to town two days ago, and we’re so glad that you can grow up thinking it’s normal to hang out with your cousins and aunt and uncle. We’re excited about the free babysitting, too! And your Grandma and Grandpa are just half an hour away, and so is Auntie Ayren and her family, so you have lots of adoring fans nearby.

You’ll grow up to find that your parents are just a little bit silly. We like to take pictures of you next to Nutmeg (who otherwise seems to ignore you) and giant stuffed monkeys. We like to poke our fingers into your increasingly chubby cheeks and make you “smile” or “talk.” We get a kick out of anytime you suddenly fling your arm up and ask you, “Yes, Steven, do you have a question?”

Your daddy and I have been best friends for the past seven years, so it’s taking some adjusting to suddenly find ourselves sharing our time with someone else. But just by being your parents, our relationship has deepened in a lot of ways. I think your dad respects me more after seeing me go through labor, and he tells me lots how he appreciates me for taking care of you and stuff around the house while he’s at work. I appreciate him for being a domestic hero and tackling dishes and dirty diapers and for encouraging me daily. And I absolutely love watching him interact with you. When we got home from the hospital, he carried you around the house and gave you a tour, chatting with you the whole time. I hope that you guys can be best buddies your whole life; I know that he can’t wait to show you how to throw a baseball!

These days, you pretty much eat, sleep, pee, and poop. Sometimes you cry, but not very often. Sometimes you’re awake, and you look around with your big dark eyes. Steve loves to hold you during these times, when you’re calm and alert, just hanging out. Sometimes we think you’ve gone to sleep and peek in on you, but you’re just laying in bed, all swaddled up, with your eyes wide open, quietly looking around. It’s terribly cute.

When you’re awake, I love watching (and documenting) your ever-changing expressions. You’ve got a lot of them.

And you made my day two days ago when you gave me four big smiles all in a row, even after I grabbed the camera and shoved it in front of your face!

So, maybe this first month hasn’t been very eventful or productive, at least not in the way that I’m used to. But thanks for making it an easy first month of parenthood for us; at least in month one, you’ve been one of those Easy Babies. It’s been so fun to finally get to meet you! We love you so much, and we hope you realize that every day of your life.

Love,

Mommy

See all Month 1 photos on Flickr.

I didn’t have many goals for last month:

• Do something active daily until the baby comes
  (My feet and legs swelled up again, which pretty much made it terribly uncomfortable to do anything active.)
• Use up all veggies from CSA boxes
• Keep calling CSA meat place
• Finish work projects
• Lead an activity for small group
• Follow through on daily/weekly spiritual/character goals

This month, I’m also not being terribly ambitious. Most of my goals have to do with getting back into routines:

• Start doing pushups and situps again daily.
• Walk briskly three times a week.
• Plan menus weekly.
• Use up CSA box produce.
• Work 1 hour every weekday (5/5-5/18). Work 2 hours every weekday (5/19-6/6).
  Starting small.
• Use daily tracker sheet again to start getting back into daily routine.
• Transition to using non-disposable diapers.
  I’d researched different types of non-disposable diaper solutions before the baby came and decided to get BumGenius pocket diapers. I decided I wouldn’t try actually using them until we were a month in, though, because who wants to do laundry every day when you first get home from the hospital? So we’ve been using disposable diapers for now, but I’m hoping this will be the month when we can transition to the BumGenius diapers!
• Learn how to discreetly breastfeed in public.
  This relates to my longer-term “social” goal of being in a satisfying small group. If I can master the skill of discreetly breastfeeding in public, I’ll be able to participate more with the group.
• Read book out loud with Steve.
• Follow through on daily/weekly spiritual goals.

At the hospital, we got a sheet of paper with a little chart for keeping track of how often the baby was fed and how many wet/dirty diapers the baby had. Naturally, not too long after we got home, I had to create my own version of the form! (Well, and their form only had room for tracking six days.)

Especially when breastfeeding, it’s important to keep track of wet and dirty diapers because sometimes that’s the only way you know if your baby is getting enough to eat, since breasts don’t come with handy measuring marks on the side. The form that I’ve designed has space to keep track of when you feed the baby, what side the baby feeds on and how long, how many wet/dirty diapers are generated, and some extra space for notes.

Click the screenshot for a larger view.

Download

I have two downloads — one specifically for the first six days of a newborn’s life, with the number of expected feedings, wet diapers, and dirty diapers, and a generic one that can be filled out for days 6-28.

• Baby Tracker Week 1 - baby-tracker-newborn-1.pdf
• Baby Tracker Days 6-28 - baby-tracker-newborn-2.pdf

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

How to use

• Fill out the date.
• For the generic form, you can write in the number of days old that your baby is.
• In the timeline, write the time that you start feeding.
• In the “feeding” bar, write how many minutes the baby ate. If breastfeeding, you can specify which side the baby ate with a “L” or “R” for left/right.
• Keep track of how many wet and dirty diapers are generated. I use “W” and “D”, you can use whatever shorthand you want!
• The “notes” area can be used for whatever you want. I’ve been using it to note how long the baby sleeps as well as times when he is especially fussy.