Dianthe’s Blog

the morning came quickly - i now have a new position with the show (which i’ll get to later) and i have to be at the studio at 4:30am instead of 5:30 - this requires me to get up around 3am - so of course Sydney would pick last night as the perfect time to not go to bed until 1:30am - did i mention that she went to bed the night before at 10:30pm? straight rotten - and she is all mine!!

so, in case you missed the first break of the show, i’m no longer on the phones - i have a new bigger and better gig - there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff that i’ll be working on - but the big thing is that i’ll be writing a daily blog/synopsis of the show - so if you missed something on the show, you can refer to the synopsis to see what you missed - and then of course catch it on the K-Pod - i’ll also be moderating a chat room that will be just about the show - and as i write the blog, i’ll incorporate the listener comments from the chat room - it’s a big change for me and a chance to expand my writing skills, so i’m super excited about it!!

you can just call me Elsie - cause i am producing milk like a big old cow - now don’t get me wrong - i’m not complaining - i know that i’m really fortunate to be able to produce so much milk, especially when i know a lot of women aren’t - but so far today, i have pumped 18 ounces - that doesn’t even include the 3 or 4 times i’ve actually nursed Sydney since i got home - even when i’ve had a beer or eaten oatmeal, i’ve never pumped that much - how crazy is that??  oh, and just an fyi to those who are or will be breastfeeding - this is the greatest website ever - kellymom.com - you will find the answer to every breastfeeding question you’ve ever had!!  oh, and someone asked me about breast pumps - i have the Medela PISA and i LOVE it - it has a battery pack so you can travel with it - and it has bottles and an ice pack so you can pump on the go - up to 20 ounces!  and if you’re freezing milk, get the Lansinoh bags - you can freeze them flat and it takes up a lot less room in your freezer!

i have become a cloth diaper freak!!  i love them - i’m really trying not to spend too much money on diapers because part of the appeal is that it’s cheaper than disposables - but there are so many cute ones out there - we started off with Kissaluvs Size 0s - while these are cute diapers - you have to put a cover on them - and they are great newborn diapers because they contain BF poo like no other - we haven’t had any blowouts!! but now that Sydney is getting bigger, she can fit into the really cute diapers - i started building my diaper stash before Sydney was born and since i was sure that Spike was going to be a boy - i didn’t buy any girly diapers - girls can get away with wearing boy colors, but it doesn’t work as well the opposite way - so now, i’m all about the girly diaper!  so far, i have Bum Genius, Swaddlebees and Blueberrys - i ordered some new girly prints of the Blueberry’s over the weekend and they should be here on Thursday - i can’t wait to take pictures of Sydney in them!!  so freaking cute!!  and so easy - i just throw them in the washer and dryer and bam - new diapers - and did you know that the sun will bleach away poop stains??  it’s like magic!!

ok - as promised - new pictures of Sydney

she’s discovered her hands!!!

Sydney in her sling

and it’s back to the grind - though it’s not really fair to call it the grind since i love my job - and as much as i love my baby girl and i miss her like crazy when i’m away from her - i miss the real world - it’s been tough for me because we have no semblance of a schedule - and i’m a girl who likes order and routine - so i’ve missed the news a lot - and while i’ve tried to keep up with my love of celebrity gossip - i just don’t have the time to read all my usual websites - i have to depend on the headlines from my MSN homepage - and the entertainment news segment from my local midday news - of course that’s if i was able to catch the midday news - i’ve also been eating like crap - and since i’m breastfeeding, that’s no bueno - i haven’t been eating enough because my appetite is pretty much gone - i went from eating breakfast every day to not getting a chance to eat until 2 or 3pm - and by that time, i’m either too tired to eat or nothing sounds good - and since i’m not taking in enough calories, my body is retaining all of my fat instead of shedding it - those people who say breastfeeding melts away the pounds - they LIE!!!  i dropped 25 pounds pretty quickly after i had Sydney and then i stalled - so i decided to join Weight Watchers - i signed up online but i was too tired/busy to get to a meeting - so for 3 weeks, i stayed at the same weight - then the one week i decided to have ice cream every day, i lost 5 pounds!!!  see, you do have to eat to lose weight!  anyway, after 2 weeks officially on WW (meaning i’m attending meetings), i’m down another 4.4 pounds - and since i’m having trouble eating all of my points every day (you get a ton of extra points for nursing), i’m pretty excited about the weight loss - after going into delivery at 206 pounds (YIKES!!!), i am currently at 165.2!!  not bad for 10 weeks - i’m 15 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight - 30 pounds away from my wedding day weight and 40 pounds from my ultimate goal weight - what i weighed when i met Kelley!!!  and i am determined to get back to that weight - Kelley’s not too enthused about me being that thin again - but since i’m not losing the weight for him, i’m not that concerned what he thinks - after all, it didn’t stop him from asking me out!!  anyway, i’m sure there will be no shortage of food at the KKITM studios, so once i get back into the swing of things, i’ll be meeting those point totals in no time - and using Flex Points too!

i had my first post-Sydney wedding this weekend and it went fairly well - the wedding part was great but i was away from Sydney all day long - i left home about 2:30pm and the reception wasn’t over until 11pm - that’s a long time to go without nursing - have you ever tried to find time to pump in the middle of a wedding reception?  thank God for my assistant!!  it was almost midnight by the time i got home - and just my luck - it’s the one night Sydney decides to go to sleep at a decent hour - plus, she’s going through a growth spurt - so she slept until 5 or 6am - so needless to say, i pumped a pretty good amount yesterday - with what i’ve built up so far, we’re going to need an additional freezer soon!!

so, i go back to work on the show tomorrow - i’ve already left Sydney for long periods of time, so i’m not too freaked out about that - but this will be the first time i’ve left her with anyone but my mom - we’ve hired someone to come stay with Sydney and i completely trust her - she’s great with Sydney and Sydney seems to like her - but it’s still hard to leave your baby - fortunately, when i leave for work, she’ll be here with Kelley - so that makes it a little easier on me (plus i loaded my iPod with pictures of her - i’m SO a mom!!) - but unfortunately, Monday is our long day - and i probably won’t be home until 1 or 2pm - it’s going to be a VERY long day …

or at least it should be, according to one of my girlfriends - and after this last week, i think she may be right …

so because i’m clearly the worst mom in the world, Sydney is still not sleeping in her crib - we try every night but it never lasts for more than 45 minutes - then she’s up and we can’t get her back down - most nights she wakes up within 5-10 minutes of us laying her down no matter where it is - and because i don’t think she’s old enough to cry-it-out yet, we usually start her off in the swing and she falls asleep and stays there until she’s ready to eat - then i put her in bed with me, nurse her sidelying and we both sleep until morning - yes, i’m ruining my child and she’ll probably sleep with us until she’s 10 (NOT!!!) - whatever, i’m over it and it’s not the point of the story

so sometimes Sydney naps in the swing and Thursday was one of those days - she had fallen asleep in my arms 3 different times and every time i put her down, she woke up - so i decided it was swing time - now in the midst of all of this, the painter is here finishing up the outside of the house, it’s becoming increasingly hot (because i’m STILL getting hot flashes) and i just remembered that i have to call DirecTv because the living room tv isn’t working - so i put Sydney in the swing and because i know she’ll be asleep soon, i call DirecTv and head to the living room - after a few minutes i come back to check on her and the swing is barely moving - so i turn it off and back on again, give it a little push and head back into the living room - by this time i’ve finally gotten a real person on the phone - so i’m dealing with the tv and the painter is yelling random info to me - while i’m waiting for the tv receiver to power back up (and meanwhile i’m about to spontaneously combust) i come back to check on Sydney - the swing is still barely moving so i take a closer look - i can hear the motor spinning at it’s regular speed but it’s like something inside isn’t catching - i know it’s not the batteries because i had just replaced them a few days earlier - so me being the genius that i am, decide that maybe i can fix it - so i go get the bouncy chair and bring it in to the bedroom so Sydney can sit in it while i “fix” the swing - i grab the screwdriver and open the motor case and realize i have no idea what the hell i’m doing - no big deal, i’ll just close it back up, right? right … um, yeah - that’s exactly how it went - maybe i’ve mentioned this before, but Sydney hates the bouncy chair - and the entire time i’ve been messing with the swing, she’s been becoming more and more agitated - of course, i’m trying to soothe her with my standard “it’s okay Sydney - mommy just needs a few more minutes” - i swear those will be her first words - i’ll look up one day and she’ll bust out with “just a few more minutes” - anyway, i’m trying to get the swing back together, Sydney is getting fussier and the DirecTv rep wants to be all chatty Cathy telling me that he and his wife have a dog because they’re not ready for kids - thanks for the info dude!!

so i finally get the tv working and i’m still messing with the swing - but by this time, Sydney is D-O-N-E DONE with the bouncy chair - i’m now pleading with her to give mom a few minutes so that i can get the swing back together - but in true i’m-my-mother’s-daughter fashion, she’s not having it - she’s now screaming bloody murder and i still can’t get the swing together - so i rig it together temporarily and turn to get Sydney out of the bouncy chair - the minute i get ger unstrapped and pick her up, the swing comes crashing to the ground - i look over and see this …

yeah - good times!!  so now i have a screaming baby, a broken swing and all i can think is “how am i going to get her to go to sleep tonight?  and oh yeah - have  i mentioned that the swing doesn’t belong to us?  that’s right - the wonderful Mike and ReJana Krause LOANED us the swing - so now i have a broken swing that i HAVE to replace - so i plop Sydney in my lap and start calling every Babies R Us in the vicinity and no one has it - but one store tells me that Toys R Us carries that particular pattern - woo hoo!!  except i call Toys R Us and they don’t have it in stock - so i go to the Graco website - but even they don’t have it in stock - WHY GOD WHY?!?!  i get it, being a mom is hard - i don’t need proof - i believe you!!!  so finally i figure out that i can order a replacement part - and after spending 10 minutes trying to find the serial number on the broken swing, i finally get the part ordered - only to find out that “due to system upgrades”, the part won’t ship for 5 days - ugh.  it’s going to be a long weekend

UPDATE:  ok, so i’ve been a little busy - i actually started writing this blog almost 2 weeks ago - fortunately, the part shipped a few days early and the swing part arrived on a Tuesday - just in time for me to leave Sydney with Daddy while mom went out on an appointment - end result - the swing is a LIFESAVER!!!!

i think i’m over it - i was able to watch the entire episode uninterrupted (Kelley was in class and Sydney was asleep) and i was bored to tears - no one was stellar last night and most of the routines were boring - i felt bad for Marissa - last week they told her to reign in the energy a bit - this week she did and they told her she needed to turn it up - poor thing - i wanted to cry for her - Jason Taylor - still HOT - his dance was a little dull but who cares because he he is freaking HOT!!!  did you see his butt in those dance pants - very nice!  everyone else - don’t really care - if it’s not better next week - i think i’ll be jumping off the bandwagon - but i will be checking in to see Jason !!!

for 24 whole hours!!! a few weeks after Sydney was born, Kelley informed me that i needed to get a babysitter for an overnight trip on the 29th of March because we were going to Houston to see Chris Rock - after checking the calendar, i realized that my baby girl would only be 7 weeks old - are you serious? i’m supposed to leave my baby at 7 weeks?? now here’s the back story - before Kelley and i got married, we had several discussions about the importance of maintaining our marriage post children - and i have this fear of waking up 10 years from now and realizing that i no longer know my husband because i’ve been so wrapped up in our kids - so we made a deal that we would always make an effort to spend time together without children - i just didn’t realize it would be so soon! but i also know that Kelley plans the most awesome surprises ever - and i didn’t want to be Debbie Downer and say “no honey - i can’t leave Sydney” - so i had my anxiety attack silently and said ok - i called my mom and asked her to keep Sydney (because at this point, she’s still the only one i’ll leave Sydney with) and of course she was thrilled to have 24 uninterrupted hours with her granddaughter!! so it was a date

as it got closer, i started to freak out a little more - but i was looking forward to getting a full night’s sleep - it doesn’t matter how much sleep i get with Sydney, i’m still in a constant state of exhaustion - especially since she’s still sleeping with us (which i’ll get back to later) - but when i told Kelley that i was looking forward to the sleep, he said he had the whole evening planned and that maybe i should take Sydney to mom’s on Friday if i was expecting some good sleep - well that was out of the question - i was already leaving her for 24 hours - here was no way i was giving up another 12-15 hours with my baby girl - even for some good sleep!

so Saturday morning, i got up at the crack of dawn so i could get dressed before Sydney got up - it takes forever to get out of the house with a newborn - i tried to get as much done the night before as possible but there was still a ton left to do - i have been pumping a ton of milk so that she would have plenty to eat while she was with mom - but it’s hard to gauge how much she eats since i primarily nurse her rather than pumping and feeding from a bottle - i had almost 60 oz frozen - do you think that was overkill? anyway, i got up and got dressed - i fed her and then pumped so she’d have a bottle ready to go - decided that Sydney could go to Grandma’s in her pajamas (can you believe i was actually thinking about getting her dressed? duh!) and we were on her way - as Kelley loaded up the car (with enough supplies to keep Sydney set for the next week!), i teared up a little thinking how much i was going to miss her - i sat in the back with her so i could get in every last minute with her before handing her off to Grandma - but i did it!

so off to Houston - we stayed downtown at The Magnolia - loved it!! we got in around noon and Kelley had some things to “take care of” - so while he was gone, i called to check on my baby - mom said she was fine (of course) so i took a nap - we had dinner reservations before the Chris Rock show and Kelley surprised me at dinner by inviting his sister and her boyfriend and MY sister and her boyfriend - YAY!!! they both live in Houston (our sisters) but i didn’t think we’d have a chance to see them since we were flying in and out - so how excited was i to see them at dinner - after dinner we all headed over to see Chris Rock (who was HI-larious - completely offensive - but truthful - and HI-larious!!) - and then after Chris Rock, Kelley made reservations for us at a jazz club - it was such a great night - while we were hanging out, Kelley asked how long it had been since Stacie and I had hung out - um, years?? i’m not sure why but we just never hang out when she’s in town - the last time we went out was my bachelorette party - so it was cool to kick it with my sister - and i haven’t hung out in Houston in FOREVER - downtown Houston is cool!! anyway, we headed back to the hotel about 2am and i slept all the way til 7:30am with no interruptions - it was only 5 hours, but it was the best 5 hours of sleep i’ve had in almost a year!! we headed back home Sunday morning and my baby girl was back in my arms at noon - WOO HOO!!! it was a great trip and it was nice to get away and just be “dianthe and Kelley” for a while - but it was also nice to get back and be “mommy and daddy” again too!

in the meantime - being a mommy is hard - i mean i knew it would be - but it’s a different kind of hard - and no matter how much you know, it’s still never enough - finally, after 7 weeks - i can finally distinguish Sydney’s cries - i tried to listen like that Baby Whisperer chick on Oprah - but i could never figure out what she was talking about - none of Sydney’s cries ever sounded like what she said - but now i can tell exactly what she needs when she cries - i’m just thankful we haven’t had colic!! now don’t get me wrong - i’m super proud that i figured out the crying thing - but the sleeping thing - it’s a battle i don’t ever think i’ll win - her days and nights have finally evened out a little more - instead of going to bed at 4am, she’s going to bed around 11pm or 12am - and while it’s still not the ideal time, it’s at least more in line with my sleep patterns, so that’s a bonus - still no luck in getting her out of out bed though - so she does the first night time stint in the swing and then when she wakes up for her first feeding, i nurse her side lying in bed with me and that’s where she stays until it’s time to get up for the day - in my head, i keep thinking that i’ll nurse her and then put her in the bed or back in the swing - but by that point, i’m so tired - we both just fall asleep! and why is it that everyone else can put my baby to sleep but me? don’t get me wrong - she’ll fall asleep in my arms - and i love it - but when i lay her down, she wakes up immediately - when my mom or Kelley or anyone else lays her down, she usually stays asleep - i know that she knows me - she recognizes my voice and knows my scent - she may even know my face - but if she’s asleep, how can she know that I’M the one that’s putting her down - man this kid is spoiled rotten - and i have NO idea where she gets it from!! i hope i don’t sound like i’m complaining - i wouldn’t trade being a mom for the world - but that “get ready to never sleep again” thing is like the understatement of the century!!

so now that she’s getting older - she’s getting to be a lot of fun - the first few weeks, all they do is eat and sleep - but now she’s starting to be less dependent on me - sometimes when she wakes up, instead of crying she’ll just sit there and look around - until she gets bored and then she’ll cry!! and sometimes she’ll babble a little bit and then fall back asleep - how exciting is that? she’s also smiling a lot now - i never knew that i could spend hours trying to get my baby to smile - or that Kelley would take picture after picture trying to catch the smile! it’s the greatest thing though - she’ll look up at me and smile - it completely melts my heart - or when i kiss her and tell her how much i lover her or that she is the sweetest baby ever (in my AWESOME baby talk voice) and her face lights up and she gurgles and smiles - it is SO freaking cool!

so we got the official word today - my brother is having a girl!!! my sister-in-law is due in 3 weeks and all this time, they haven’t been able to confirm that it was a girl - they thought so but no confirmation - until today - i am so excited!!! it’s going to be all girls, all the time - they’re practically the same age - they’ll be able to share clothes and dress alike - how fun!! now they just have to find a girl name that begins with J - too bad Jane is already taken - ha ha!!!

Sydney’s First Smile - well at least the first one on film!!!

Sydney’s Easter Outfit - pretty fancy for her first Mass!!

Sydney and her Goddie - that’s the name Stacie aka The Godmother has given herself!! as hardcore as my sister is, i should spell it Gotti!