visiting my grandfather

Last weekend we brought baby Doodle to see his great-grandfather (his only living great grandparent) on Long Island. We've been caught in awful traffic on Staten Island, in Brooklyn and Queens many many times, thankfully this was not one of them. We made it in three hours with a stop to go to the bathroom in a Home Depot and one wrong turn, which I will argue was not my fault.

Grandpa was doing quite well on Saturday. He was walking around well. He designated his bedroom as the smoking room so baby Doodle didn't have to be around air filled with cigerette smoke. While my aunt and cousin were fishing in the bay near Grandpa's house Mr. Doodlebug and I helped Grandpa clean the pool (the same pool I told my friends was olympic sized when I was nine and didn't know better). I was impressed with how well my 83 year old grandfather could maneuver the net to capture the pine cones and needles that had sunk to the bottom of the pool. This is not an easy task for an able-bodied 28 year old let alone an elderly person. The deep end of the pool is nine feet and the pole attached to the net is about 12 feet. So you can imagine how difficult it is to get the right angle and balance the long pole with the weight of the water.

My aunt made a delicious dinner that night. I was proud of my grandfather for eating so much of it. He doesn't normally eat or like to eat healthy foods. We had baked halibut, trout and red snapper with fingerling poatoes, fresh corn on-the-cob and a Greek salad. For dessert we had home made tiramisu.

The next day Grandpa reported that it took him a half hour to get out of bed. He walked extremely slowly to the kitchen table and managed to throw his body into the chair. He didn't have his teeth in yet, but he was even more difficult to understand than most mornings. I was worried about him, and I'm glad we brought baby Doodle to see him again. I'll try to make it a regular trip.

It must be awful getting old and not being able to function normally any more. Grandpa is a good sport about it though.

Is my baby manipulating me?

We've had an on-off relationship with baby Doodle's crib -- the one in his own room. The routine when BD sleeps in his crib has been that we put him in it after he eats for the last time, around 9:00 p.m. He sleeps there until he wakes up for his first morning feeding around 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. Then he goes back to sleep in the co-sleeper next to our bed until he wakes up again for the day, anywhere from 7:00 to 9:30 a.m.

Baby Doodle was sleeping in his room for about a week pretty successfully. Then he got Roseola. We kept BD in our room because he had a high fever and we wanted to keep an eye on him, not to mention that he was waking up a lot due to his discomfort. Now we are trying to have BD sleep in his crib again, but he doesn't seem to want to sleep the whole night in his own room. The first night back in his crib after the Roseola was gone went well. He slept most of the night there and only came to our room when he needed to eat in the morning. But since then there hasn't been much of a routine. He starts every night in his crib, but some nights he's woken up 5 or 6 times making one of us trapse all the way downstairs to put his pacifier back in or to relocate him to the middle of the mattress -- he has a habit of rolling over and lodging himself against the slats with his arm sticking out.

Last night Mr. Doodlebug was on baby duty. BD woke up just two hours after we put him down. Mr. D went downstairs and calmed BD, he fell back asleep. Then about a half hour later BD was up again for no apparent reason. Mr. D did not want a repeat of the night we had to go downstairs six times so he brought him up to our room around midnight. BD slept until 4:00 a.m. when he woke up to eat. He went back to sleep until almost 8:00 a.m.

Given last night's behavior, I'm inclined to think that BD just didn't want to sleep in his room by himself. I put the bumper back on his crib yesterday to prevent him from hurting his head and getting his arm stuck. I wonder if he didn't recognize where he was when he woke up, or if he prefers sleeping in the co-sleeper next to mommy and daddy.

I'm going to be on baby duty tonight, and I'm going to see what happens if I don't go downstairs when he wakes up. It will be interesting to see if his whines escalate into cries and then screams, or if he'll just fall back asleep.

Paris is like so fourteen years old

Paris Hilton has a new album -- I didn't know she had any albums. According to the AP, of her new album, she says, "I, like, cry, when I listen to it, it's so good."

It's a good thing baby Doodle is so cute

Yesterday was one of the worst days I've had with baby Doodle since he was 3 weeks old. He cried and cried and screamed and acted like I was tearing off his limbs one by one. He acted like this for most of the day whether I was hold him or not. I think it may have been the lack of sleep. He slept through the night the night before but his "naps" during the day lasted no more than 15 minutes. He didn't feel feverish, and I don't think he's teething yet, though he does drool a lot, pull on his ears from time to time, and chew on his fingers and anything else he can get his hands on.

Yesterday was also the first day Mr. Doodlebug had to work late at his new job. I took baby Doodle to my knitting circle where I didn't knit, but hung out with a fellow knitter and friend. Mr. D met us at the coffee shop at 8:30pm. It was a very very very long day.

Luckily, Mr. D was on baby duty last night. Unlucky for him baby Doodle woke up twice because he had rolled over and his arm was sticking out from between the slats on his crib. I guess he didn't find that position comfortable. Baby Doodle then slept until 7:00 this morning. So I got a good amount of sleep last night. I hope BD takes at least one long nap today. It is difficult to get much done when you have a screaming baby in your arms who screams even louder when you try to put him down.

I've hit another rut in my social life. There was a really big rut I worked my way out of when we moved here last July, but I'm feeling rather lonely again. When we first moved to Philly Mr. Doodlebug had a job lined up. He didn't start his job until a few weeks after we moved in to our first house. We used that time to unpack, figure out where we wanted things, shop for furniture and paint two rooms (the family room which was red, including the ceiling, with black trim, and our bedroom which was dark blue on two walls and stark white on the other two). I didn't have a job and was looking for one when I found out I was pregnant. I decided I wouldn't pursue any career-building jobs (I had just received my Masters in education) because I knew that I wanted to stay home with our baby for at least the first year.

I took a trip up to Vermont where my parents and brother still lived. While I was there a friend of a friend who I had interviewed with at the National Constitution Center called and offered me a temporary job. It was a three month gig as the Director of Programs at the Center. I told him that I was pregnant and had morning sickness and asked if I could work 10 to 6 instead of the normal 8:30 to 5:00. He said no, and I said then I don't want the job. He called back the next day and said 10 to 6 would work fine for them. So I started at the end of August.

I met some cool people there who I like very much. One of them was pregnant and due the week before me. We got along well. We ate lunch together most days and talked about what our bodies were going through and how hard it was to sleep etc... She invited me to her baby shower and I invited her to mine. I thought we'd be friends for a while and that our kids would play together when they got old enough. I ended up staying at the Center for five months then leaving because I was bored and getting more and more tired as my pregnancy progressed so I quit at the end of January. Before I got the job and after I quit were quite lonely.

It's harder to make friends at my age (28) when you move to a city where you don't know anyone, and you're married -- so the motivation to go hang out at a bar or something isn't there, you'll just end up talking to each other anyway. It's not like college where you have a built-in social scene and you live in a dorm with a lot of other people who are all looking for friends, and you don't have husbands and wives and kids. I think Philadelphia is espically hard because a lot of people who live here are from here, so they have well established social lives and routines. In DC most people are not from there so there aren't rigid social lives. Everyone is out to have a good time and meet new people -- of course I was younger then (21-27).

It took a lot of getting used to to be home alone all day with no friends, at least none who were also home during the day. I made good meals for Mr. Doodlebug and myself, I cleaned, did the laundry, all the household duties, but I wasn't satisfied with that kind of life. I thought once the baby is born I'll have my hands full and won't care that I don't have many people to hang out with.

I did meet two other pregnant women -- girlfiend and Jenn. Girlfiend had her baby on March 8 and Jenn hers on April 15. I hung out with them some, and again thought we'd be friends for a while and our kids would play together. Girlfiend and I have become closer friends and I enjoy hanging out with her, the fiendling and boyfiend. But Jenn and the other mother who I met at the Center are not responsive to my emails and phone calls. I am at the point where I don't want to keep calling when they're not returning my calls. On second thought, maybe I will give each of them a call again today and see if something is going on. I know that I can get wrapped up in whatever is going on in my life at the time (the lump, Roseola, my Dad's visit) and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I think the reality is they both have friends and family nearby who they spend their time with and hanging out with me is only squeezed in when they don't have other plans already, which is rare, especially in the summer.

wah wah wah. I've gone on long enough with this pitiful post. I have baby Doodle, and he's healthy, at least for the time being. He's usually quite good company.

pictures

Baby Doodle looking like a shocked adult in his diaper.

On his 4 month birthday getting ready for take off (Super Baby style).

Thinking hard about how his finger tastes.

It is Roseola

Baby Doodle has Roseola. The rash is gone from his head and face and has moved to his chest and back. Yesterday the three of us went for a four hour walk -- it was going to be much shorter when we started out -- and baby Doodle was a trooper. He slept a little, enjoyed the trees and wind a lot, and only whined a tiny bit. When I was changing him on the bottom stair of the "100 steps" I noticed that his rash had moved to his chest and back. He has not had a fever since Thursday night, and he's more himself today than he has been in a while. It's nice to have my happy go lucky baby back.

Now baby Doodle is very congested, especially in the mornings. It's difficult for him to breathe while he's eating. I can hear him trying to pull in some air through all that snot. He can usually work the snot out to the edge of his nose by rubbing his face fiercely against my shoulder and collar bone. (Oh the things you talk about when you have a child.) I hope his labored breathing sounds worse to me than it is for him. He hasn't let his congestion keep him from being the good, happy baby that he is.

we're not out of the woods yet

I am eating my words. We have not survived baby Doodle's first illness, yet. He now has a severe rash on his head, neck and face. The top of his head is the worst. I am currently waiting for a call back from the after hours nurse at CHOP (Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia) where our pediatricians' office sends their calls when they're not open. The rash already looks better than it did when I got back from the grocery store and Mr. Doodlebug said, he's up in his crib and has a rash on his head. That's how quickly he got it. When I left for the store he did not have a rash and when I got back it was really obvious. We've done some Internet research and the most likely cause is Roseola, but that rash is usually on the chest, not the head, according to one website.

I am beginning to get really depressed about all of the problems baby Doodle has had. I feel like it's one thing after another. I wonder if there is something that I am doing that is causing him to be sick. I am pretty good about washing my hands (always after diaper changes). I wash his clothes after one wear, and sometimes one wear only lasts an hour or two. I keep his sheets and towels clean. But maybe I am not being vigilant enough. I hope I am not making my baby sick. We have been to the pediatrician or CHOP five times in three weeks, and we might be going back tonight if they want to see him.

If there were ever something seriously wrong with baby Doodle I don't think I would be able to handle it. So for his sake and mine, I hope this rash is nothing too serious.

102 degrees -- not the temp outside anymore

We have survived baby Doodle's first illness. Wednesday evening he had a temperature of 102. I was worried and alarmed at how high it was. I gave him a dose of baby Tylonol and gave him a bath to cool him off. When we went to bed his fever was down to 101.3. We had transitioned him, fairly successfully, to his own room just nights earlier, but now he was back in our room with us so we could keep an eye on his extremely hot body. I should rephrase, he slept in our room so I could keep an eye on him. Mr. Doodlebug seems to sleep through everything, even worrying, and I know he was worried. Baby Doodle slept fitfully. I was up everytime he whimpered and all the times in between because he wasn't making any noise. Finally, it was morning and baby Doodle and I got up. His temperature was 101.7. I called the doctor and they told to bring him in.

The doctor checked his ears, mouth, throat, heart, breathing etc. . . and found no obvious reason for his fever. She said he may have picked up a virus from me -- or anyone else he spends time with -- that I didn't know I had because I've already produced the antibodies. She said if it gets high again to bring him back on Friday (today). His temp went up to 101.7 again yesterday so I gave him some more baby Tylonol and a sponge bath. It only took the Tylonol about 20 minutes to kick in. His whole body, especially his head cooled down noticeably. Baby Doodle slept in our room again last night, but this time he slept peacefully and Mr. Doodlebug was on night duty -- meaning he slept on the side of the bed with the co-sleeper.

This morning he woke up at 6:30am, I fed him and he went back to sleep in our bed until 9:30am. When I took his temperature (rectally) it was 98.8! He's back! and I'm so happy.

His fever was one thing, but he was definitely sick and not himself. He normally smiles at anyone who looks at him. He is good natured and talkative. But Wednesday and Thursday he was lethargic, didn't seem to care where he was or who was talking to him or what toys I was dangling in front of him. Now he's back to his old self.

Though I didn't do much to make his illness disappear, I feel a slight sense of accomplishment now that we've survived baby Doodle's first sickness.

Have I mentioned that he had an EKG on Monday? I'll write about that tomorrow.

Sabrina's is dead to me -- Long live Dairyland

Sabrina's Cafe in South Philly is good, but not that good. We put our names on the list for a party of three plus a baby at 12:25 pm and were told it would be a 45 minute wait. That would mean we would be seated at 1:10 pm. We walked through the market, bought 7 limes for a $1 and other inexpensive produce, sampled di Bruno's cheeses, and fed baby Doodle. We went back to wait for our name to be called at 1:00. After checking with the hostess we found that it hadn't been called yet. We waited in the 92 degree heat for the hostess to say "Mr. Doodlebug, party of three." We watched as other parties were seated. We watched as other people asked where their names were on the list. We, too, asked where our name was to get into what seemed like the most coveted dining establishment in all of Philly. I overheard a woman complaining about how long it had been and requesting water. A waitress came out with a basket full of chocolate croissant pieces and passed them around to the famished and annoyed customers. Finally, we were called and seated in the air conditioning of one of the dining rooms at 1:45. We had waited for an hour and 20 minutes even though we had been told 45 minutes.

Sabrina's is always crowded for breakfast, brunch and lunch on the weekends. We knew this. And we've been there before. You would think that a place that gets that much business would have a pretty accurate method for estimating the wait time. Unless they were just trying to get us to wait and once we've invested this much time we might as well keep waiting. . . When we were told 45 minutes, we thought we could wait that long. And we could, but my hunger was getting the best of me as we passed the hour mark. Once seated, our waitress came by and said she'd be back to take our order. Fifteen minutes later she served the table behind us one piece of cake and one cup of coffee, checked on the table to the side of them, then stumbled upon our table with a look on her face that clearly said she had forgotten we were even sitting there. With one spoon and a used napkin in her hand she said, "I've got my hands full but I can take your order now if you're ready." Oh yea, we were ready. We ordered our meals, ate and left. I noticed a middle aged man dressed in a crisp, clean white apron who appeared to be the owner checking on the customers whose food had already been delivered. Ours had not at the time. If he had come to our table I would have told him that we are not going to go back to Sabrina's. There are lots of great places to eat in Philly where you don't have to wait for nearly an hour and a half.

On our way home we stopped at Dairyland on the corner of Ridge Av. and Mitchell St. in Roxborough. We went through the drive through, did not have to wait at all, ordered our water ices (mango-lemon combo for me) and were on our way. What a contrast. I absolutely love Dairyland. You can get a cone with two flavors of hard ice cream (huge portions of each) for $1.80, a "small" cone of frozen yogurt that measures at least 5 inches dipped in delicious peanut butter dip for $1.90, a small water ice for $1, and seven homemade ice cream sandwiches for $5. When the line at the drive through is long, as it was the other night, the staff of cute high school girls come out and take your order while you're on the line, then your order is ready when you get to the window. Now that is efficient and much appreciated. Dairyland, have you been reading my diary?