Natalie’s Blog

Note: For best viewing, be sure to move your cursor off the video once it’s playing—otherwise the video controls will be in the way.

This is the newest video, taken on Natalie’s 3 month birthday:

This video is proof that parents will go to great lengths (and make themselves sound like idiots in the process) to get their kids to smile and/or talk:

Here is Natalie and Clara on their first play date! So cute!! I love how Clara is trying to hold Natalie’s hand:

This one’s an oldie, but a goodie! Taken when Natalie was just 8 days old, it’s why Uncle David says he will call Natalie “Bonk” for the rest of her life. It’s hard to believe she was that little! I thought she’d be bonking her head forever, but she’s got control of it now. Whew:

Friday night Amy went out to dinner with the other moms from her breast-feeding support group. I was looking forward to spending some quality time alone with my daughter. After Amy left, Natalie and I laughed and cooed at each other for a little while, but she soon became fussy. I fed her one bottle of formula, which she gulped right down, but she still seemed tired and cranky.

I decided that even though it was only 7:30 I’d try to get her to bed, since she was obviously tired, and there wasn’t much else to do with her in this state. Usually Amy nurses Natalie to sleep, so I wasn’t sure if she would go to sleep without Mom.

I took Natalie up to her room to get ready for bed, and she was her usual happy self on the changing table. The festivities were short-lived however—when I swaddled her up she started crying hysterically, not at all pleased to be in a baby straight-jacket. I tried for a while to give her another bottle, but she flat-out refused. Finally, in desperation, I removed her from the swaddle and laid her back down on the changing table. She calmed down immediately, but it was quite apparent she did not want to go to bed.

At this point Amy called and said that they hadn’t even ordered yet. She would either have to leave right then and come home, or I would have to get Natalie to sleep. I was so close to telling her: “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I’M DOING PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COME HOME RIGHT NOW!!!” but for some reason I told her I’d keep trying to get Natalie to sleep so that she could stay out.

After we hung up the situation deteriorated quickly. I instantly regretted telling Amy to stay out and contemplated calling her back. But I pressed on, though it became harder and harder to distract Natalie from crying and no matter what I did she wouldn’t take the bottle. Finally, when she was really having at it, I decided to swaddle her again, figuring if she was crying anyway, why not?

Once swaddled, I tried rocking her to sleep in my arms. It worked in the hospital three and a half months ago, but she didn’t seem to remember. Then I turned out all the lights, put her over my shoulder, and paced back and forth in her room singing softly to comfort us both. After what seemed like an eternity, but was probably only five minutes, she stopped screaming. I continued pacing for about 10 minutes (while Natalie sniffled and gurgled reluctantly) and then sat down and stuck a bottle of breast milk (my secret weapon) in her mouth. She started drinking it immediately.

Holy crap was I excited, but I stayed calm and let her eat. After a few minutes she started sucking intermittently and I suspected she might be falling asleep. The only problem was, the lights were still out and I couldn’t see a thing. I pondered my fate for a few moments, and decided I would need to have the light on if I had any hope figuring out her state and getting her into the crib. If I was going to disturb her it would be better to do it sooner than later.

As carefully as possible, I held her, with the bottle still in her mouth, against my body with my left arm and stood up just far enough that I could flick on the light switch (the light was already dimmed) with my out-stretched right arm.

I managed to pull off my maneuver without her tumbling onto the floor, and she was still sleepy-eyed by the time I sat down. I let her finish the bottle, and then gently removed it from her mouth. Her eyes stayed closed for a good five minutes before I called Amy to brag. After hanging up I sat with Natalie for another 10 minutes to make sure she was good and asleep, and then quickly popped her in the crib.

When Amy came home, I told her I had a whole new respect for her job. The next morning, Amy happily reported that Natalie didn’t wake up to nurse until 3 am, meaning she slept 7 hours straight—a new record. Then she said that I should be in charge of putting Natalie to sleep every night. Uh oh… perhaps I shouldn’t have been quite so successful!

This picture is actually from Wednesday night, but Amy thinks it’s cute and made me post it:

We saw Dr. Labian again this morning, who said Natalie looked great! She actually called in the nurse who saw us last week to show her how well Natalie had healed already. They both remarked that they couldn’t believe it was the same baby they’d seen the week before. Sadly, Dr. Labian is leaving the practice to move to California. We really liked her and we’re sad to have to find another pediatrician, but luckily she recommended 3 other female docs in the same practice who we can switch to.

Natalie had her first day with Nama while I went to work. The first two hours she napped and then I came home to nurse her. Nama reported that she was fussy and missed me in the afternoon—but that she was able to get Natalie to nap by walking her around the house in the stroller. I didn’t really have anything scheduled in terms of work, so I came home at 4 pm when she woke up from her nap. I was very sad to leave Natalie, but we’ll all adjust.

Here’s a picture of her:

Natalie is healing up nicely. What a trooper she was through the whole ordeal! Even with her sore face, congestion and difficulty nursing, she was hardly fussy. She’s no longer taking tylenol and is breathing and nursing just fine. Last night the last of the dermabond fell off her nose—looks like she’ll have a bit of a scar from that cut, but I think it will fade as she gets older. The pediatrician warned us that she would likely get two black eyes because the bruising would naturally settle there. She had a little bruising under her eyes, but it faded within a day—not nearly as bad as the doc predicted. We see Dr. Labian again on Wednesday so she can recheck Natalie’s septum to make sure there’s no damage there.

As for me, I’ve stopped reliving the scene before bed every night…now I’m up worrying about going back to work on Wednesday! I know Natalie will be in excellent, loving hands. Nama is watching her on Wednesdays and Grandma Susan is watching her on Thursdays. I just don’t have any desire to return to work, which is surprising to me. But they say that motherhood changes you and boy are “they” right! Who would want to work when they could spend all day with sweet Natalie?

Here are some pictures, as requested by Nama, so everyone can see how well Natalie is healing.

It’s amazing how fast she’s changing…the day before this picture was taken, she had absolutely no interest in that toy, or any toy. But last night she played with it for about 10 minutes! Then she threw it on the ground…but that was fun too.

Okay, let me start by saying that Natalie is OKAY. Repeat, she is FINE! But we had quite a scare…

Tuesday was such a beautiful day that I decided it would be fun to take Natalie for a walk in the stroller. She was strapped into the stroller on the front porch when I turned my back to lock the door. The next thing I knew, the stroller was upside down on the sidewalk. Stupid Mama didn’t put the brake on, and our porch isn’t exactly level.

My heart skipped a few beats as I hoped the straps kept Natalie from actually hitting the ground. But when she started screaming a split-second later, I knew she was hurt. I got her out of the stroller, called 911 and attemted to comfort her. Her nose was bleeding and I feared it was broken. Police and ambulance came quickly (although it felt like an eternity!) and determined that Natalie should go to the ER (duh).

The ER doc and the trauma surgeon examined her and sent her for X-rays and a CAT scan. The X-ray found no broken bones, thank goodness. Unfortunately, the CAT scan showed a TINY contusion on her brain and she was admitted overnight for observation. The doc said the fact that she cried right away and continued to cry as they examined her was a very good sign. He said the contusion was so small that if he didn’t know that she hit her head, he would read it as a blip on the film rather than an actual injury. She has a cut on the bridge of her nose that the trauma surgeon treated with dermabond instead of putting her through the additional trauma of getting stitches.

The swelling on/in her nose caused a lot of congestion, so she had some trouble breathing (babies her age don’t know how to breathe through their mouths yet). It was difficult for her to nurse—poor thing had to stop every few seconds to catch her breath. Once they gave her some tylenol, Natalie was back to her old self—charming the nurses with smiles and laughter. She actually “talked” a lot last night and today—I think she’s been telling us all about what happened to her.

Chris and I stayed with her all night in the hospital and the nurses monitored her pupils and vital signs. She had some trouble sleeping and didn’t sleep more than 2 hours at a time. As long as the tylenol wasn’t wearing off, she was in pretty good spirits, considering. This morning she was examined by a neurologist and a speech therapist, both of whom gave her clean bill of health. The speech therapist actually said Natalie has the “vim and vigor of a 4 or 5 month old”!!! They did another CAT scan, which was completely clear. We took her to our pediatrician after leaving the hospital, who thought that once the swelling goes down she should have an easier time breathing.

Since coming home this afternoon, Natalie was a little more sleepy than usual—little wonder after all that excitement—but is smiling, laughing, and talking like she normally does. She hasn’t figured out that it hurts to touch her face and cries when her hands brush against it. We’re trying to prevent that from happening, but sometimes her hands are too quick!

Needless to say, I feel incredibly guilty about the whole thing and hope that Natalie will forgive me! It may be that it takes Mama longer to get over this than Natalie…

Here are some pictures, not for the faint of heart…

This one was taken 3 hours post-accident. Breaks our hearts, poor thing…

Why do they make the hospital cribs look like torture cages??

My new favorite picture of Chris, all decked out to stay with Natalie during her second CAT scan.

Already looking better and in good spirits the morning after.

We all survived our first long trip together! Actually, Natalie was great. Friday was a very exciting day for her: her first train ride…

…and her first airplane trip! She was very interested in and entertained by all the new things and people to see. While she didn’t nap quite as much as she normally does, lucky for us she did sleep a little, as you can see.

On the plane ride to Austin, Natalie had TWO dirty diapers! She normally only poops every other day or sometimes every third day, but of course when we’re 30,000 feet in the air and in close quarters with lots of strangers, she pooped twice. Chris the champion dad changed her both times. The plane wasn’t even equipped with a changing table, so he had to lay her across the (closed) lid of the toilet in the tiny airplane bathroom and balance her through turbulence. Thank goodness we have a very study, waterproof changing pad!

And on the plane ride home, she had a really dirty diaper that leaked (also known as a “blow out”) onto her pants! We were descending (seat-belt sign lit) so we had to wait until we landed to change her this time. We stuffed a burp cloth in her pants to avoid any further leakage. It must be something about air pressure…

Here’s a picture of Natalie dressed up for the South by Southwest Web Awards Ceremony. Cute, but she didn’t actually end up wearing the dress because I thought she’d be too cold (it was raining out).

Unfortunately, buzzfeed.com did not win the best blog award, but they did have a successful promotional party.

Unbelievable….3 months has passed since Natalie was born. Ya’ll know we’re not ones to believe in miracles, being scientifically-minded and logic-oriented people. Yet every time I look at her I think “where did she come from?” Yes, I know TECHNICALLY where she came from, but it still seems like some sort of miracle to me.

Natalie is a very happy girl and smiles, laughs, coos, and “talks” more and more as she grows. We’re falling more and more in love with her every day.

Chris took a whole series of beautiful pictures for the occasion of her 3 month birthday. View them here.

I guess it will be a few years before she can sign it, huh?

When I first I took a picture of the card, Chris smartly pointed out that I would need to black out the SS number. So I tried a few things in photoshop, but couldn’t get it to work. So, as you can see, I settled for the low-tech option.