Covering the Basics, Nicknames, and other ways in which we are very weird parents

When we first got home with Kaylee, and I mean this was maybe the second or third night home from the hospital, we hadn't learned about scheduling or feeding increments yet and were just feeding her whenever she cried at night. So this second or third night home, we were astonished when our brand new baby slept for nearly six hours. Six hours! We said. She's not sleeping through the night, but how nice is that!

And then we went to the pediatrician. He said that, because she had not established a weight-gain pattern, that it was potentially very bad for her to go that long without food. And thus, we started scheduling her feedings every 2-3 hours. During the day, this provided some much needed structure and sanity. At night, however, this means that I stay up until 9 or 9:30 and feed her. At 12, Sze gets up. At 3, it's my turn, and at 6 he starts his day, so he works a bottle into the morning routine. This boils down to a pretty good system, except when it's not, which is often. I wake up when the alarm goes off for either of us to get up. He wakes up if she cries for more than about 5 minutes, which is longer than it takes for me to get up, get the bottle, put it in the warmer, and find her pacifier so she won't wake up her daddy because he has to work in the morning! SHHHH!!!

Well, Friday we had another trip to the pediatrician. Kaylee has had some stomach issues which were leading to slower weight gain, so we were crossing our fingers for a good week. Hurray! She is up to 8.15 lbs! Since she has now established two consecutive weeks of really good gain, I asked the doctor about spacing out her night-time feedings.

"Oh, I wouldn't let her go more than about 6 hours between feedings at this point, but start gradually spacing them out."

I don't think I would have been happier if I'd actually heard angels singing. 6 hours??? That's like a full night's sleep! So, last night, we turned off the alarms, and, as life is circular, returned to plan A. We'll feed her when she wakes up hungry. And, while it didn't end up equaling 6 hours of uninterrupted rest, it did equal 4 - she woke up at 1 and 5, hurray! Progress! Now if we can only get her to sleep in the nursery...

The process of getting her to go to sleep is one in which we show our off-kilter stripes pretty clearly. Many of the forums recommend the four B's for bedtime: Bath, Bottle, Book, Bed. Bathtime I discussed before as a traumatic experience she'll have to tell her therapist ALL about when she's older. Bottles are pretty self explanatory, though difficult to administer when she shoves her hand or my elbow into her mouth as a source of nutrition. The books, however, are pretty far from your average nursery rhymes.

See, bedtime is kind of Sze's domain. As I have her all day, he attends to her most of the time in the evenings. So, when he sits down to read her a story, he picks up pretty much whatever the closest book is. This has included The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Good Omens, and Top Gear Magazine. And I thought I was warping her with Alice in Wonderland. When either one of us sings to lull her to sleep, it's rarely actual lullabies. I hum the violin solo from Sheherezade or sing Gershwin's Summertime. Sze is starting her early on classic rock, with variations on a theme of Hotel California and Simon and Garfunkle's Sound of Silence. We'll rock her, bounce her, and call her every name under the sun except the one we gave her. "Oh, what is this fuss, my little tadpole? Are you a little velociraptor? Of course you are. Oh look, honey, she's being a frog. Can you hold the progeny for a second? Thanks. Oh, aren't you the cutest bean on Earth!"

For such a small person, she's developed a fairly discerning taste in music. She conducts the orchestra by waving her little arms in tempo with the music when we listen to my Joshua Bell and Yo Yo Ma Pandora station. She does the happy baby dance in her swing, kicking her feet and wiggling, when we listen to Big Band on my Michael Buble station. And she likes the Beatles, but who doesn't like the Beatles?

This weekend has been a very busy one, and will continue to be so. Friday was an adventure in grocery shopping and a trip to see the doctor. Yesterday, we had friends come from Northern Virginia, and we took a walk to Cold Stone for fantastic ice cream. Kaylee had a poo apocalypse, hurray! Gross. And we had a vegetarian feast and watched Loony Toons. Today, we're going to Charlottesville with some friends to drink good wine, and then having dinner with my old roommate/hubby, Angela, and her fiance, Dave, I hope.

As part of the vegetarian feast, Jackie, Fran, and I made this fantastic chickpea salad. Chickpeas, or garbanzo beans, are a really great low calorie/high protein option for vegetarians and omnivores alike, and they have a fairly mild flavor that gives a good canvas to which you can add all kinds of other flavors. This is a slightly time consuming recipe, simply because there are a number of steps, but trust me, the end result is worth it. Don't skimp on fresh mint, and use fresh lemon juice if you can.

Greek Chickpea Salad

1 green bell pepper
1 red onion
1 tomato
1 cucumber
1 small can sliced black olives
1 can chickpeas
3-4 tbs fresh mint
Salt and Pepper
Ground Cumin
Ground Coriander
Crushed Red Pepper flakes
Lemon Juice
Olive Oil

Put the top shelf of the oven as close as you can to the broiler. Preheat the broiler to 500 or Hi, whichever your oven does, and cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Slice the pepper in half and place it on the sheet. Quarter the onion, removing the skin, and make a pouch of aluminum foil for it, covering the onion with olive oil. Also place on the baking sheet. Broil for about 10 minutes, watching carefully, until the skin of the pepper is blackened and charred. Remove the pepper and put it in a plastic zip bag for 15 minutes. Put the onions back in the broiler for 15 minutes as well.

Peel the cucumber, the chop the cucumber and the tomato into bite sized pieces. Put them in a large bowl and combine. Drain the olives and add them.

In a small skillet, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the chickpeas, seasoning liberally with salt, pepper, cumin, and coriander. Add about a 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes: they are very potent. Add about a tablespoon of lemon juice, and stir until it cooks off. Remove from heat, and combine with vegetables in the bowl.

Remove peppers from the bag and peel with your fingers, then deseed and chop into bite sized pieces. Add to bowl. Chop onion into smaller pieces and also add to the bowl. Stir in mint, salt, and pepper, and enough lemon juice and olive oil to coat like a dressing (maybe a 1/4 cup?). Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes to let the flavors combine.

Buon Appetito!