Mishaps and Adventures

This week has been gray and rainy. One afternoon I realized that if I’d been at work, I’d be wishing that I were home reading a book. And I’m home! So I got out Anne of Green Gables, which of course I haven’t read in a long time. I have plenty of time to read while Phoebe’s nursing. I quickly finished that one and moved on to Anne of Avonlea. They’re just delightful books, and the writing more than holds up to adult scrutiny. In fact, they’re beautifully written and quite funny. I had forgotten most of the plot of the novels, remembering only that Anne has red hair, cracks a slate over Gilbert’s head, and **spoiler!** ends up marrying him. It turns out that the first book is full of Anne getting into various scrapes: getting Diana drunk, telling off Mrs. Rachel Lynde, falling off a roof. Apparently Anne has rubbed off on me, because this afternoon, I’ve gotten into a scrape of my own.

An hour or so ago, I was feeding Phoebe when there was a knock on the door. We got up and went to open it. A man from Bundle, our diaper service, was standing there. He asked if we had any dropoffs. I didn’t quite understand what he meant, as we had put our bag of dirty diapers out that morning and it looked like he had already put them into the truck. He was holding the bag of clean ones. I said we didn’t have anything to drop off and he got back into the truck. I shut the door, but it seemed strange that he had asked. I opened the door again and noticed a piece of paper on the stoop.

The paper turned out to be a thank you notice and tax receipt from the Lupus Foundation, to whom we often donate! I’m sure I agreed to donate today, but we didn’t get a reminder call yesterday and I had forgotten about it. Sure enough, Lupus must’ve taken the dirty diapers. I called their phone number and talked to a nice lady who put me in touch with the supervisor for the route we’re on. She said that they’ll be unloading the full truck this afternoon and will set aside the diapers when they find them to return to us. I called Bundle and let them know what happened, and promised to keep them up to date on the case of the missing dirty diapers. I hope everything will work out and we’ll get the diapers back, so I’m nervously awaiting the call from Lupus.

Phoebe has been in a pretty good mood today, although she had some gas this morning and was uncomfortable for a while. I bought some gas drops and they seem to work pretty well. She definitely likes the flavor, as she licks it off her lips and the inside of her mouth.

We had an exciting week. Phoebe gets the hiccups all the time, which was very sweet in utero, but she hates it on the outside. I discovered that while it doesn’t cure the hiccups, she feels better if we bounce on the yoga ball while they’re going on. She’s gotten much more awake during the days and her eyes are wide, taking in light spots and dark shapes everywhere. She spends more time every day playing, making me sorry that Grandpa isn’t here to enjoy it! However, she’s been plagued with stomachache and had two Bad Nights this week: one of them was Very Bad. Lots of screaming and reflexive eating, causing Mommy to cry after 2.5 hours of nonstop nursing in the middle of the night. But she’s had a couple of Good Nights, too, and she’s so sweet in the morning! I just love that feathery hair and those gray-blue eyes. She’s outgrowing her newborn outfits and enjoying standing up (for seconds at a time) on her legs.

Tummy time usually ends in tears…

On Monday, Dave fed Phoebe with a bottle of milk straight out of the fridge. She drank almost 1.5 ounces and didn’t care that I was wandering in and out of the room. She’s always been a good eater! (That’s how you know she’s a true Gribble…)

On Tuesday, I joined Maggie (sans Tilley, who started daycare) at a new mom’s group at the hospital. We learned all about the muscles in our abdomens that have been stretched out by pregnancy, and learned some exercises to help them return to their normal location. On Wednesday, Phoebe and I went over to Katie and Henry’s to help them and Emily and John count supplies. (Each year our church donates health kits for refugees to Lutheran World Relief.) We counted hand towels, combs, nail clippers, band aids, and boxes of soap; entertained the boys; soothed Phoebe; and ate pizza for lunch. On Thursday we got back together at Target to fill in a few supplies to make 70 kits. Then we had a play date (well, okay, the boys played and Phoebe enjoyed being held) at the Brinkmans’. (Hot dogs and french fries for lunch. I’m a sucker for hot dogs!) Phoebe had to have a bath after she peed all over her outfit and the changing pad—she was due for one anyway. Becki came over in the evening to meet Miss P, hear all about the birth, and admire my diaper-changing skills.

I’ve taken a few naps this week, which always makes me feel better the next day. Dave and I watched a bunch of TV in the evenings. Phoebe and I drove Daddy to and from work quite a bit. It seems like our morning ritual takes up half the day: get up at 6:30 a.m. Make Dave’s lunch and coffee. Get Phoebe fed and changed. Make the bed. Take a shower. Eat breakfast. Pump some milk to freeze for our stockpile. Do some laundry (every other day) and dishes. Try to work on e-mail, bills, the blog, the baby book, etc. Feed Phoebe. Change Phoebe. This motherhood stuff is hard! My routine at work is relaxing in comparison.

Phoebe makes cute noises and sweet baby faces.

Anyway, we’re looking forward to spending the weekend with Daddy. It should be a fun one, as we have the Horace Boyer Memorial Concert on Sunday, and Dave is playing gospel music at the concert and at church. We’ll keep you updated!

Video of playtime.

**diaper update: Vicky called from the thrift store; they found our diapers and they’ll be on their way back in about an hour! Hooray! It always feels so good when systems work and I manage to be a real grownup. Make a few calls to nice people and solve problems… I guess we owe Lupus a really good donation next time!