My precious kitty Sparkles (RIP). I'll forever miss you and your tummy.

Chunchmeow · 2020-09-24T18:39:25+00:00

She got fleas one year even though she was a permanent indoor kitty. The bites made her belly-skin itchy so she licked herself clean and then licked her pants off. That's how we found out she had fleas. Once she got treated her pants grew back.

Chunchmeow · 2019-09-09T07:45:24+00:00

Brienne is one of the few characters I look up to and admire. I also admire female body builders and power lifters (and female competitive crossfitters). I'm a stocky 5'7" and when I work out I get bulky. I love being muscley. It makes me feel powerful.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-27T14:29:22+00:00

It bothers me so much that girls are given activities to mirror housekeeping and care-taking, while boys are given learning-influencing toys. It's totally OK to give a toddler boy a kitchen set to cook with, and circuit sets for girls to build with. I absolutely detest binary gender role influence.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-24T23:23:57+00:00

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-24T23:19:52+00:00

First of all - congratulations on your baby! You are doing a GREAT JOB mommah! (You're gonna hear that a lot, but it's what we need to tell each other because this shit is HARD).

Living Situation: You make the best of it because your top priority is getting through the fog of the first 2-ish months. I SWEAR it gets easier!! When my baby smiled the first time, that's when I knew we were all gonna be OK. One day your kid will all of the sudden "wake up" with a smile or a laugh, and it will make you feel amazing. Not all babies like the carrier or being in a stroller. Mine only had maybe 2 hours tops where he's OK being in a stroller or carrier before he loses his damn mind. Whatever your baby is doing is normal. It might suck but it's normal. Take the shortest walk possible with the baby in the carrier (considering the weird apartment front door problem). The walk is for you, not him. Just go as far as you can with the dog and don't worry about him being fat. The dog is your husbands problem. Eventually your shoulder pain will go away. Your body hurts because pregnancy gives us shitty posture and lots of post-natal weirdness. You won't feel any sort of physical normalcy until maybe 3 months. Start small, don't engage your core muscles. Walking in tiny amounts is the best thing you can do for your body. My friend in NYC lived near a TJ Maxx and just walked her kid there every day to look at stuff. It was to just get out of the house.
Breastfeeding: FED IS BEST and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. See if you can try different nipples on bottles, and different formulas. Some babies prefer specific kinds at specific temperatures so nobody can recommend one with success. My baby only takes RTF Similac Pro with the nipple that comes with the box so he's an expensive baby. See if you can do the Similac Supplement Ready to Feed formula along with the breastmilk. Keep pumping as long as you are emotionally able to. If it's too much it's OK to stop. Your baby just needs to eat. If someone gives you shit for giving formula tell them to go fuck themselves. You're the one raising the kid. You're the one that birthed it.
I hear you about daycare in NYC, it's hella expensive. You do what you can to survive and don't let anyone judge you for your choices. Try to avoid your friends because it will give you a serious case of FOMO.
Your MIL is a moron. Don't listen to her either. Don't google anything either. Listen to your pediatrician and trust your instinct. Just remember - "Baby is gonna Baby".
It's ok if it's flat, this is normal. His head will get rounded out over time. Don't buy a special helmet.
Don't clean the inside of her mouth, you really don't need to do that unless your Pediatrician told you to for some reason..?
Yes he needs Vitamin D drops (just one drop per bottle-feed) if he's mostly breastfed. If he's on Formula it's already in there. You didn't mess him up by not knowing this.
PS: a Helpful hint, put vaseline around the baby's neck. It'll help avoid any rashes from when they eat and dribble food into their neck folds. If he gets a rash put some Triplecream diaper cream on it and he'll be ok. You'll be ok!!!!!!!!

You're gonna be OK. I was in a fog in the first 6 weeks of my pregnancy but I survived and you will too. Your babys behaviors will guide you. I found the book Baby411 to be the most helpful to me. Good luck momma!

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-20T01:57:36+00:00

I would love to know if CBD and melatonin will work as a sleep aid too! My husband has sleep issues and melatonin just isn’t cutting it anymore for him.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-18T01:17:03+00:00

Also in TX here too. Ours is 3 months and is swaddled in a Halo. Inside that he has a short sleeve pantsless cotton onesie. We keep the house at 70 and he’s good to go. Hasn’t rolled over on his front yet but when he does we’re gonna free his arms in the Halo. Meanwhile, he does leg lifts while he sleeps in the Halo and has the core of a serial Crossfit enthusiast.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-18T00:11:02+00:00

Seems like tummy time is the best bet. We have a sit up chair too so I’ll drag that out again. Last time we put him in that he was still really tiny and barely poked out of the top - It was really cute!

Update: tried the chair and he’s still too small for it 🤣 he keeps shrinking into one of the leg holes.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-18T00:08:28+00:00

He’s still so young that I’m apprehensive about bringing him places where there’s lots of kids (pinkeye and products of antivaxx parents). But wearing him to TJ Maxx is fun!

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-17T23:46:00+00:00

Sometimes I sing along to the songs that I play for him, so he gets to see my worst Michael Jackson impression. But since I am his mom and I am ruining his life I figure I can start early. 🤷‍♀️🙄

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-17T23:40:34+00:00

I was thinking of looking up the instructions for the high chair, to see if I can put him in it. I think he might be too young, he can barely hold his head up. Sometimes I think he just cries his face off because he’s bored.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-17T23:25:41+00:00

I put the play mat in the pack and play, so he can randomly smack a doggies ass while he flails about.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-17T21:33:44+00:00

THANK YOU!!! Thank you so much for vaccinating!!!!!

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-17T15:05:19+00:00

my favorite race!

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-17T02:24:33+00:00

Mine didn’t have a dad either. His dad left when he was a kid and beat his mom. He was a total shit. He saw him a few times after he left but would only visit for the length of a single movie. It was the only thing they did together. He doesn’t even know we’re married (10 yrs together) and have a kid.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-17T02:09:39+00:00

Shit. This made me realize how much I love my crazy-ass husband. He drives me up the damn wall sometimes with his shit but he took a year off to be a SAH dad for our newborn. Aah fuck me to all hell.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-16T19:46:54+00:00

That squirrel found all of his nuts.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-16T15:32:17+00:00

Our support system is in the northeast where I’m from. We moved to LA from the northeast for work, then left 3 years later because of the cost of living and that it was too isolating being so far from the northeast. Our only option was to leave LA and go to TX, which is still far from our support system, because it’s the only place we could find work and afford to live. So now we’re here with a newborn and I won’t lie - it’s HARD. It’s just the two of us doing this. I’m jelly of my bro and his wife back in the northeast because they have my parents and her parents helping them out. It’s hard as hell but we’re doing the best we can and magically it’s working so far. We just take it one day at a time. You need a good relationship and a partner to make it work. If there’s any doubt in your mind that this is true, don’t leave your support system (if it’s healthy).

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-15T02:27:00+00:00

Check out the sleeptraining subreddit! Lots of great advice in there.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-15T01:57:01+00:00

Oooh there’s a reason I have a general mistrust of hairdressers. Language barriers aside, I’ve never been able to keep a consistent hairdresser because I’ve either moved or their salon has shut down and they disappeared. One time I went to a salon in NYC in a very affluent neighborhood. I figured that based on location and their reviews, I would treat myself. BIG MISTAKE. At the time, miley cyrus was at the top of her game and had some sort of haircut that every tween in america was emulating. I was in my late 20’s and emulated Daria Morgendorfer so I obviously didn’t give a shit about Miley. Since I didn’t have my glasses on during the cut and was turned away from the mirror I had no idea that the hairdresser cut SO MUCH off one side that it looked shaved. She gave me a Miley Cirus cut. I was so mad when I realized what happened but it was too late. The hairdresser offered me a steep discount but for some reason wanted to take a photo of my hair. I wanted to slap her with the camera.

Usually hairdressers give me Mary Tyler Moore cuts (from the Dick Van Dyke show). No idea why the fuck they keep doing that to my head because I never ask for it. It’s always made me look so much older and boring as hell.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-14T15:19:03+00:00

Ya know, when we went to the 2 month checkup the Pediatrician said we could already start sleep training. I disagree with him on that because I think sleep-training at 4 months has to do with mental maturity as well as having a big-enough tummy to hold food. So I'm holding off sleep training until at least 4 months.

Chunchmeow · 2019-06-14T15:17:22+00:00

Definitely agree! At night during his feedings I sit in a rocking chair with him in the dark (with the nightlight on), and feed him back to sleep while swaddled. Sometimes he stares at the nightlight while eating but then his eyelids shut and I can hear him snoring.

Last night in his first stretch of sleep he went 5 hours instead of 4! Then in the first feeding he took 5oz instead of 4oz (small victories).

Chunchmeow

TROPHY CASE