And the great day came...

Andrew's new trick: sleeping through the night! For about the last week, I've been able to put him down at 10 PM or thereabouts, and then he's woken up at 7. We backslid last night and woke up at 2 AM, but I'm hoping he goes back to staying down for the count tonight. His night wakings really haven't been too bad, since I just pull him into bed, nurse him, and (sometimes) put him back. Still, no night wakings at all is better yet! I'm hoping he shifts to going down earlier, but I'll certainly take this for now.

(To be clear, I'm not doing any kind of sleep-training with him, nor do I plan to until he's much older. I'm just lucky enough to have kids who like to sleep at night. Yes, I know you hate me now.)

Naps are much more difficult, partly because of the chaos created by his sisters, partly because he's still a little thing, and partly because I think he may just not be a great napper. He is slowly starting to develop a three-nap pattern, but it's still not consistent, and the naps rarely last longer than an hour. Some days we don't have any naps at all to speak of, which turns him into a gnarly thrashing beastie, and since the girls have basically given up naps, such days are looooong. We'll see what happens with that as he gets bigger.

He also has enough head control for a Bumbo seat.The head-control thing was a big deal with the girls, because it's just plain hard to maneuver two tiny floppy babies. There's only one Andrew, of course, so it didn't make quite as much difference, but it's still helpful. Also, he loves the Bumbo, which I speculate is because it makes him feel like he's more a part of things than when he's just lying in his bouncy seat. The kiddo does not like to be ignored, and he seems to have more patience for sitting in the Bumbo while I fold laundry or whatever than for being in his bouncy seat.

At his two-month checkup, he was 23" tall and weighed 12 lbs even, up from 8 lb 4 oz at two weeks. For comparison, Claire weighed 12 lbs even at her SIX-MONTH checkup. I don't quite know what to do with a child who is growing in accordance with his age. Claire and Katherine wore 6-9 month clothes until around their first birthday, and even a few 3-6 month things. Andrew's in 0-3 months still, and probably will be for another couple weeks, but I think he'll be moving up around Christmas.

He is generally a happy little guy, and he's starting to get really cute. He's smiling, at me and G and Grandmama and the dogs and especially his sisters. He's starting to make happy noises at his toys, and to wave his hands at them. Today, he managed to get the ear of his giraffe into his mouth, and he cooed and squealed about it like anything. He's also starting to gnaw on his fist, though he really prefers his pacifier.

He's a joy, but it's going so fast!

Twin dilemmas: the potty edition

So, we're potty-training here. Katherine is ready for it -- she's very interested in matters scatological, wakes up dry, and announces when she has dirty/wet diapers. Claire likes to sit on the potty, but she is clearly not as interested in it as Katherine, and not as aware of when she is going in her diaper. If she were a singleton, I wouldn't even try to train her for a little while.

Problem is, she insists on doing everything that Katherine does. Right now, I'm sitting in the kitchen with them, doing the bare-bottomed thing. We did it yesterday morning, and Katherine peed in her potty, while Claire peed on her chair. Today, Katherine has peed twice(!), while Claire hasn't done anything so far. When Katherine goes, I get really excited and praise her, and then I dish out a piece of Halloween candy. Since they are old enough to understand about fairness, this causes a giant problem, because Claire wants a piece too.

On the one hand, it seems wrong to give her a piece, because it's a reward for using the potty, which she is not doing. On the other, not treating her just causes a tantrum, and I worry she will transfer the frustration to the whole potty process. But then, she is at least sitting on her potty enthusiastically, which is a good thing, and is all I should expect of her at this point. I don't really expect Katherine to go exclusively in the potty either, for that matter -- I'm just working on getting her going there on a regular basis right now -- but if Claire goes, it's really just a matter of good luck.

I'm compromising by giving Katherine two pieces for each potty usage, and Claire gets one "because you sat on the potty so well!". However, it's an inherent problem of having multiples, the conflict between fairness and individual maturity. I suspect future versions of this conflict won't be so easily solved with a few extra M&Ms.

All better?

I haven't posted about my postpartum appointment, largely out of frustration. The short version is that I'm still anemic despite supplementation, the pelvic exam was AWFUL, but neither that nor the ultrasound (also miserable to the point of tears) showed any smoking guns. I'm not running even a low-grade fever, and don't have an elevated white blood cell count, so Dr. Pro doesn't think I have an active infection. She did some hand-waving about breastfeeding and hypoestrogenism, but basically said she doesn't know why I'm hurting, since there's nothing obviously wrong.

I am still hurting, though, and consistently. I sometimes wonder if I'm just being a whiner, because after all, it's not crippling pain, and I can function normally most of the time. It's like an uncomfortable period, where you're aware of feeling crappy in the back of your mind, but don't hurt so much that you're balled up and writhing. Still, I haven't made it through a day without naproxen in... I dunno, weeks, and on bad days I wish I had something a little stronger. The funny thing about pain, though, is that it's two-dimensional -- there's the level of sensation, and then there's the duration. Even a low-level pain which goes on for weeks takes on an outsize presence in your head. The longer it goes on, the less you feel like just tolerating it, and the less energy you have for coping with everything else.

We talked about what to do next, and that wasn't a very satisfactory discussion. She initially didn't seem inclined to pursue it farther, but when I mentioned that I was very seriously considering getting my tubes tied, she said she'd want to do a D&C and a hysteroscopy at that time. I don't understand the linkage -- if she thinks they're worth doing, they shouldn't be dependent on the tubal ligation, but if she doesn't, don't do them just because you're there -- but it's a moot point now. I'm booked for the lap, the tubal ligation, the D&C, and the hysteroscopy at some point in December (I don't know the exact day yet).

I hope some answers come out of it.

Moving

For months now, I haven't seen what the fuss was all about, never felt the much-vaunted charisma. Tonight, though, I'm watching his acceptance speech on CNN with tears pricking in my eyes. I've watched election night since 1984, the year I had a playground fight with my friend Daniel over Reagan vs. Mondale, and I've never been so moved.

Tomorrow, I'll remember all the reasons why I voted for the other guy today. I'm pretty sure that in a year or two, I'll be griping about him, because I have some fundamental disagreements with his policies. But I wish that weren't so, because I like feeling as proud of my president and my country as I do right now.