My head is going to explode!
See, it turns out that the frequency a baby emits when she does that insane infant scream is exactly the frequency that causes your brain to heat up to boiling point, fry inside your head and then blow up like in the wierd alien movie where something just busts out of there and everyone looks around like "Whoa man, that dude is toast".

Yeah, that's going to happen to me any night now. Because Alex is on a rampage. She is the alien. She times it perfectly to coincide with our bedtime. Until then, she is just hybernating and gathering her strength. Once she senses that the bed has been occupied, she slowly opens her eyes to take it all in, and then lets loose with the most screechy, catfighty, brain-scrambling cry you have ever heard. And nothing will stop her. Sure, there are small silences for about 2 minutes. That would be when we feel the tension start to come down in our heads and wonder whether god has finally had pity on us. We feel an endorphine rush as we think "Oh yes, this is what silence is like. It feels...so good!" But Hurricane Alex has just been gathering her strength and she lets loose with the next round. Last night, Alex felt it was important to restrict us to a maximum sleep interval of 40 minutes dropped between long rounds of screaming. Just long enough to let us sweetly enter REM. In fact, I was so tired, I dozed off while nursing her and had just got to the good part of my dream when the other person in the dream inexplicably bit me on my breast. So I swatted them away, only to awaken to the fact that I had swatted my daughter right off as she was trying to relatch on to me after a little snooze of her own.

Alex's other favorite sport is to see how long Mommy or Daddy's arm can stay in the exact position acceptable to put a pinky finger into her mouth to suck. Because she doesn't like pacifiers of any kind. None. "Get it away...or I'll start screaming louder." But a pinky, now that';s marginally acceptable , but only if it is held at a precise angle that is excruciatingly uncomfortable and impossible to hold without part of the arm losing all feeling. And just as baby is sucking and dozing off and the arm starts to relax, it drops into the wrong position and wakes her up.

Who is this big boy?

In the past few weeks since Baby Alexandra's arrival, I've been amazed watching Jack. He's just so (pause for moment as tear slowing squeezes out of my eye) big!

I know this change is not a sudden one and certainly I have noticed little things over the past few months, but now with the contrast of a little baby , it is just so apparent how much he has grown up. Things that blow my mind

• he has conversations, not just copycat dialogue
• he can kiss you good night AND tell you he loves you without any prompting
• he likes to climb up in bed to sit next to "baby sister" in the morning and tell her "It's OK, Alex"
• he can climb his climbing wall all by himself
• when leaving school, he calls out "Goodbye everybody, see you tomorrow morning"

Last night, Jack climbed into my lap and we watched videos of him when he was in his first year. Jack loved watching the videos, but I have to admit, it made my heart ache just a little.

Jackelope cookies

Jack helped his dad make some cookies during the recent icestorm. He was a great helper and held in there until about halfway through when he couldn't resist tasting. So we gave him some cheerios to eat instead while they finished up the batch.

New Baby: The First Week- Bring on the rash

Alexandra is doing great. She has been such a calm baby and really not doing more than sleeping and eating. She has already exceeded her birthweight.

The real problems have come for Mom, not for baby. Before I left the hospital, we noticed red welts all around where the bandage had been applied over the c-section incision. Doc said I was having an allergic reaction to the adhesive and to apply cortisone cream. First night home, itching was unbearable, so we removed the surgical tape strips over the incision. Allergic reaction there as well. Called the on-call physician who put me on Benadryl. Hello drowsiness. Nothing like trying to wake up and feed an infant every 2 hours while you are are in a Benadryl haze.

Monday went and saw Doc. She was surprised at the redness, much more than I think she expected. Put me on Zyrtec (which by the way says in large letters "DO NOT TAKE WHILE BREASTFEEDING"). Rash is spreading further by now and Doc assures me it is fine for breastfeeding so we start on Zyrtec. Next day, I notice a new rash, like hives, creeping up my stomach. By noon it is all over my torso. After another call to the doc, we are switched off Zyrtec (allergic reaction happening) to Clarinex (which of course states in large letters "DO NOT TAKE WHILE BREASTFEEDING")

So here I sit, my torso covered in a rash, itching like crazy, trying every topical cream under the sun to stop the itching, waiting for the antihistimine to stop the reaction. John just informed me that the rash has spread to my neck. I have to admit that my crazy family has sent every old folklore remedy under the sun to me in order to cure me. And I will admit, I have put banana peels across my breasts in order to stop the rash itching (didn't work, Uncle Litt) and I have placed an onion on my tummy to get some relief (didn't work, Mom) and I have slathered Pepto Bismol across my hips to make it all go away (OK, that one was actually given to me by a doctor, but it didn't work either, just painted me bright pink). Baby doesn't care and still wants to be fed every 2 hours.
Joy...

Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner, weighing in at 7 lbs, 12 ounces and 19 inches long, Alexandra McKenna Martin!