Pandemic sewing

As a kind of pandemic therapy, I've been sewing.

I used to sew every once in a while. Then the pandemic happened, and there was a call for cloth face masks. My sewing services (and all those great fabric scraps!) were called to action.

Here is a stack of face masks I sewed. Many of them went to the folks in my lab, as face coverings are required at all times in the building where we work.



The first time I wore a mask in public it seemed really weird. I am still getting used to it. My big problem is that I never quite have them on right in the first place, and adjusting is difficult without touching your face. Since I sewed them in the first place I am going to have to figure out how to make them fit better. Here is a picture of me on the first day I wore a mask out in public.



My new thing is to sew masks that match my skirt that I also sewed. Here is my first one, which matches a skirt I sewed in a set with one for my mom for a trip we took to Myrtle Beach a couple of years ago (trip for work, I took my mom for fun).



My son is in the picture too. You can see he is needing a haircut! We haven't gotten him to wear a mask yet but he told us this morning he would wear one if he could get a haircut. He loves haircuts for some reason.

Pandemic summer

In March 2020, COVID-19 came to Kansas and everything shut down in the blink of an eye. For us, it was the week of spring break. Our kids were at a spring break art camp (big L) and with a neighbor at her at-home daycare (little L). I was spending the week in a fog and panic. I knew it was getting really bad because my friends in Seattle had been watching it spread. I knew it was coming to Kansas. I knew it was probably here. I was writing letters to our school principle, the state department of health, and the governor pleading with them to shut down sooner rather than later. The longer we waited, the more trouble we would be in.

Wednesday March 11 was big L's birthday. The Sunday before, we had a few friends over and talked nervously about how things could change. We had dinner together, and the kids played with each other. That was the last time we had friends over or a play date for the kids. On March 11 (big L's birthday), The WHO announced a worldwide pandemic and about 200 higher ed schools moved classes online. I was horrendously late picking big L up from camp that day because I was on the phone with a colleague about the letters I was writing to the governor. I got really mixed reactions about the letters and my colleague was worried I was going too far.

The next day, I went to the dentist. They asked me how I was doing, and I told them I was a little shaken by the pandemic. They were shocked to learn KU had just joined all the other schools in moving classes online. They told me not to worry about it because it was just like the flu. I told them NO, and explained why it wasn't.

The next day, the state of Kansas shut down all businesses, including dentist offices, indefinitely. It would be two months before anything, including my dentist office, could open again. They also shut down public schools. We sat around the dinner table and were all in shock. The kids were worried about their new schedule so we sketched one out for them. I would take the morning shift watching kids and my husband would take the afternoon shift. We would do academic work in the morning and play outside in the afternoon. We would turn on the TV at 3 pm and let kids watch for 2 hrs while we both worked. Then we would put kids to bed and work all evening. Weekends would be split catching up on work and housework. We had no idea how long it would last. We had no idea about a lot of things. I was really worried about getting my quarterly botox shots for my cervical dystonia, which was coming up in two weeks at the KU medical center (I went and it was fine). We were worried about our family, who were constantly asking me questions about what they were seeing in the news. We were worried about the Study Hubby's job, which was a contract position at a movie theater company (his contract was abruptly ended the next week, but he picked up a new contract several weeks later). We spent all our spare time looking at the news. Everything was shutting down. Big L's sewing class cancelled, her theater performance and chess tournament and school music performance all got cancelled. The library closed and there was nowhere to return all the books we just checked out. There was a run on the grocery store and we had to buy whatever we could find instead of what we normally wanted for about the next month. We were terrified they would run out of almond milk, which was the only thing little L likes to drink and he needs it as part of his night routine (he is lactose intolerant). There really was no toilet paper.

In my career many of my colleagues are doctors who eventually become my close friends. Some of them were getting called into the ICU to treat COVID patients. With shortages of everything, they had no idea if they would have appropriate protective equipment to keep themselves safe or enough beds and ventilators to keep their patients alive. I cried when I found out one of my closest friends and colleagues in Seattle had started his shift in the COVID ward in Seattle. Another close friend in Montreal did the same. My neighbor who is a doctor at the local hospital and my sister in law and cousin in Iowa were all in the same situation. We were terrified for all of them.

Now, we've been sheltered in for two months and summer is coming and cases are going down. We are starting to emerge though very carefully. No one is sure what the summer or fall will look like. We all need haircuts and staples like flour and toilet paper. We want to go to the library and get ice cream but aren't doing anything without careful thought. We are still splitting shifts with the kids and it has been brutal (more on that later).

The first three weeks of quarantine we were in shock and survival mode. Now, we are getting used to our new routine and the scarcity of flour and toilet paper and we are finding ways to cope. To try to document some of what we've been through and learned about ourselves and each other and our community, I thought I'd resurrect the blog. In the next posts I will try to focus on some different topics and some snapshots of what our every day lives are about.

Catching up

It's been a while!

Our second baby is now 3.5 yrs old.

Our first baby is now 10!!

We are still in Kansas.

I got tenure! I run a team of 5-10 people doing research on social interactions in bacteria, including bacterial pathogens and soil bacteria. We learn cool science, publish papers, get funding to do new research, and teach people about the cool stuff we learn.

The Study Hubby is still a software developer.

I haven't read anybody's blog in about 3 years. Wow! I have some catching up to do.

Babies

Wow, it is so fun to have a baby again.

Babies are so cute!!



And so entertaining!!!



They turn a regular ole' gal like me into a MOM with a FAMILY



And you can cuddle them even years later!! (although sometimes they fight a little)



BABIES!!!

Baby things you actually need

For baby #1, we had a big baby shower and got loads of stuff that I had carefully researched beforehand. And we bought even more stuff and got it all set up months in advance.

For baby #2, we bought a bunch of used stuff at a rummage sale about a month before our due date.

And as I was wondering out loud whether we had forgotten anything to a mom-friend with 3 kids she responded with "You don't really NEED anything, do you?"

And I realized, she's right! (sort of)

All you need for the baby is:

1. A carseat (if you have a car)
and
2. Diapers (although this, you don't even really need right away - the hospital gives you some!)

But seriously, there have definitely been some things we needed more than others.

Things we're glad we got:
1. Baby carrier (our favorites were the Moby and the Ergo)
2. Crib (and the book, "Happy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" which helps you get the baby to sleep in said crib)
3. Stroller (we got the kind you can pop the carseat into, and another one just for jogging - both were invaluable)
4. Video monitor (especially if you have a kid that has the uncanny ability to hurt themselves in any situation)
5. Pacifier (our babies would have been the end of us without this)
6. Swaddle (we liked the Miracle Swaddle for our bear-fighting baby #1 and the Kiddapodamus for our more mellow #2)
7. Breastpump - in Kansas, insurance now covers this! Yay!
8. Tylenol

Things we got but didn't need:
1. Coat - these shouldn't go on a baby that's strapped in to their car seat, and if you mostly drive everywhere then you'll never use it. INSTEAD you can get a carseat cover, or a carseat/stroller sleeping bag. Or if you're not feeling very fancy just use blankets.
2. Wipe warmer. A friend loaned us theirs to try. Not only did our baby not notice or care, but it had a little light on it that we eventually realized was waking our baby up at night! No thank you wipe warmer!!
3. Uncomfortable/cumbersome/ill-fitting/off-season clothes. And later, clothes that seemed perfect when purchased, that my kid just didn't like for some unknown reason. Unless you know you'll love it, buy used! SO much cheaper.
4. Shopping cart cover - we ended up with this somehow and never, ever used it. I could barely remember to bring the stuff I actually needed when I went out, much less this. And as a microbiologist I must say I don't think there are any more germs on a shopping cart than on all the other things my baby touches - which is pretty much everything.
5. Baby shoes - they just fall off! instead, get the little socks that look like shoes. So cute!!!

Things we got and didn't need but totally loved anyway:
1. Baby legs - those baby legwarmer thingies. Totally unnecessary but cute!
2. Bumbo chair/baby swing/rock-n-play - you can just set the baby on the couch or floor, but these things are quite handy.
3. Baby towel - obviously, you can use any old towel but the little monkey and duck towels are SO CUTE!!
4. A million extra bottles for the breast pump. Somehow I never had enough!
5. Changing table - you can talk yourself out of spending the $$ on it but then you get one and are so glad you did. And this is another one you can often buy used.
6. Bottle warmer - you think you can live without it and you can, but it really is nice.
7. Boppy pillow - I love mine so much I use it even when I don't have a baby around (like right now, to prop up my laptop). And I have taken it with me on many trips. But you can clearly just use a pillow.

I've mentioned this several times but can't say it enough: buying used is often way better - especially when you're not sure what you really need!

Happy babying!

Landon's birth story

As you may already know, Landon was born on Halloween. This was actually sort of planned. I was due November 2 (moved up from November 7), and given my age (38), history (baby #1 was induced at almost two weeks late), and how uncomfortable I was getting, we decided to induce on the first available day our doctor had the week I was due - which happened to be Halloween. We thought Halloween would be a fun birthday since it's one of our favorite holidays.

Me at almost 40 weeks pregnant. I'm smiling but I was more than ready to be done!!!

That morning, I ate a good breakfast and then the Studly Hubby and I headed to the hospital (Lawrence Memorial) for a 7:30 am induction. I guess they typically have 2-3 babies per day there, so it was all pretty routine for them even though it certainly wasn't for us. They started the pitocin drip on me at about 8:30. My contractions progressively got worse and worse. When they became truly uncomfortable, at around 1 pm, I had an epidural. Very quickly after that, the contractions got much worse and I was ready to push by about 3 pm (sometimes the epidural can speed things along, which seems to be what happened to me). 

Before I started pushing, we noticed that the baby's heart rate was dropping sometimes during the contractions. It kept coming back up afterwards, but the doctor warned me that if it doesn't come back up we might need to get him out quickly. I started pushing at about 4:00 pm. My doctor had to leave by around 5:00 to take her kids out trick or treating, so we were all hoping I would be done by then. I gave it three good hard pushes and we could see enough of the baby's head to tell he had a LOT of dark dark hair (just like his big sister!!) but he wasn't coming all the way out. On the second and third push his heart rate dropped and didn't immediately come back. We knew we had to get him out quickly, so the doctor decided to pull him out with a vacuum. She suctioned it to the baby's head on the fourth push and hauled him right out. He came out pretty easily and it didn't hurt thanks to the epidural but it was quite traumatic for me and I needed a lot of stitches afterwards. It didn't help that he was HUGE - 9 lb 7 oz. They had no idea he was going to be that big - we had even done an ultrasound the week before we he born to check this as his uncle Alex was 10 lb 12 oz at birth and I was worried he might be big too.

He had a healthy cry right away and was put on my chest so we could see each other. He was sooo cute! And completely looked like his big sister.

He was a bit angry at first but then settled down and seemed pretty happy to meet the nurses and get a little sponge bath. He was a good eater and a good sleeper from the very first night - he slept hard for about 3 hrs at a time at night and let us parents get a good night's rest. He passed his hearing test with flying colors and got a little pumpkin hat, and  got to meet his big sister the next day.

Landon and Layla met for the very first time the day after he was born. 

We were so excited for our two kids to meet each other! She was ECSTATIC but also a little bit nervous about coming to the hospital and seeing how we were doing. She waited until after school was out and her Grandma brought her over. She was practically bouncing off the walls when we let her in the room. She had loved him with all her heart from the minute she knew he was in my belly. 

Baby #1 meets baby #2

The Studly Hubby's Studly mommy also got to meet him and she absolutely adored him.

Nobody could believe how big he was, or how dark his hair was. I couldn't believe how much my butt hurt, and how much the Studly Hubby remembered about babies. We stayed in the hospital for two days, and had an easy transition home largely because Grandma stayed on for about a week to help with all the little things that needed help. We both took about two weeks off of work, and spent a lot of time hanging out with our new addition and totally falling in love with him. 

Blog revival and baby announcement

I can't believe it has been two years since I posted on this blog.

I used to post almost every week!!

I'm not sure what happened, or if I'll be able to start posting regularly again. But something Big happened, and it brought me back here because I wanted to share about it.

We had another baby!!

After a lot of debating we finally decided to procreate again. We are getting old and it was now or never. Also baby #1 is growing up (she's in first grade now) and I wasn't ready to move past all the cute babyness she brought into our lives.

But boy was it a tough decision. Our jobs are more demanding than ever. Our first kid keeps our schedule full and continually challenges our parenting skills in new ways. And I still have dystonia - even though it is well controlled with botox, there was no telling how my symptoms would be during my pregnancy or after, and it was a big decision whether i wanted to continue my regular treatments despite the unknown risk (i did, but this is for another post).

This new baby's name is Landon. He is two months old tomorrow. He is very cute and very sweet. He is identical in looks to his sister, opposite in personality, and just as happy and healthy. We consider ourselves very lucky.

 

As with Layla, I'd like to use this blog to commemorate some of his milestones as a sort of journal for myself, to use for a baby book I'd like to make for him - but I'm already falling behind. Well, better something than nothing!! Here goes...