Paternity Leave

Mr. Bean's last day of paternity leave. He's been asleep for hours. String Bean has been asleep for hours. Jelly Bean has been asleep beside me on the couch for about an hour.

We are all still in our PJs and sleeping through the lunch hour.

Why can't paternity leave last forever?

Sideshow Attraction

It was 1 am the morning of May 5, 2010. Mr. Bean was sleeping on the couch/bed in the room and I was breastfeeding Jelly Bean by the glow of the television with the reading lights on overhead. I glanced down at my child who was a mere 42 hours old when I noticed a weird shadow across her face. I moved her position but the shadow line did not move. I started to laugh because the line down her entire face was so odd that it struck me as funny. (Side note: It is interesting how as a second-time mom things don't freak you out like they would have if the same thing happened to your first baby.)

I kept staring at the line down Jelly Bean's face and finally decided I was either going crazy or something weird was happening with her body and either way I needed a second opinion. Mr. Bean hadn't moved despite my audible laughter, so I paged a nurse. She came in and said, "Oh my! That is weird. I have never seen a baby do that before." After some discussion and convincing her that I was not freaking out over the odd coloring, the nurse took a walk down to the nursery to talk to the newborn nurses to ask them if they needed to see Jelly Bean.

A couple of minutes later, the same nurse burst into the room and hurriedly took Jelly Bean to the nursery while yelling over her shoulder for us to join her as soon as we were able. Mr. Bean was stumbling to wake up from deep sleep, and I was just fresh from a Cesarean Section.

Upon arrival at the nursery, I was asked all sorts of questions about the weird coloration on Jelly Bean. By the time she had arrived in the nursery, her coloring was normal. They had her under the warming lights and stripped down to just her diaper. Another nurse was on the phone with the on-call doctor who insisted she be monitored for the duration of the night.

I returned to my room and consulted with Dr. Google. His diagnosis was that Jelly Bean had a rare condition called harlequin effect. It is a benign condition where the immature vessels over dilate when a baby is placed on her side. It can take several minutes or just a few seconds. Whichever side the baby is lying on turns red and the top side goes pale. A sharp line forms between the two from the forehead down the entire length of the body.

Several times throughout the night I was able to get Jelly Bean to change colors when I nursed her. The nurses insisted I let them know when she did it so they could chart the symptoms. Based on their reactions when I alerted them to the harlequin effect, I think they really wanted to know so they could call every nurse within yelling distance to check out the sideshow act going on in the nursery. Of the approximately 30 nurses on staff in the Maternity ward of the hospital, only one had ever seen this before.

For your viewing pleasure, we took a photo for you to see and enjoy this sideshow attraction for yourselves. Please excuse Jelly Bean's jaundice which seems severe next to my pale skin which apparently has not seen the sun in several years.

Photo taken May 5, 2010 in the wee hours of the morning in the nursery of the hospital where Jelly Bean was delivered. Jelly Bean is a few hours shy of two days old.
Photo by Mr. Bean

I am told it takes up to 3 weeks for the harlequin effect to disappear when the newborn's system matures. Jelly Bean is 2 weeks old today and we have not seen her "go harlequin" on us in a few days, so she has apparently grown out of it!

Earthquake!

At 4 am, Mr. Bean and I both woke up. I only knew he was awake because I heard him gasp in response to the low rumble and shaking of our home. It was a surreal moment where I was processing what exactly was happening as I fell asleep. "Earthquake!" went through my mind, but by the time I woke up, I had dismissed the notion thinking it was all a dream. Sure enough, I heard on the news that an earthquake had indeed hit the Chicago-land area.

Mr. Bean grew up in Japan which means he has lived through his fare share of earthquakes. This also explains his gasp in the midnight hours. What we experienced was mild, but certainly brought up the appropriate fear of an impending natural disaster in his mind. He told me he considered that perhaps a snow plow had hit the building, but dismissed that after the shaking went on long enough. (I should mention we were in the middle of a large snow storm during the earthquake!)

While the earthquake we experienced in the Chicago-land area was no where near the severity of the earthquake that hit Haiti in January, it was a surprise and shock for all of us here. We just don't expect this kind of event in Chicago!

My sister lives in northern California and has been regularly experiencing earthquakes the last few months. I just had to update my facebook status to let her know she was not the only earthquake survivor in the family. My grandmother's response was, "What is it with you sisters that causes earthquakes????"

For those who are wondering, String Bean slept through the entire episode.

Too Much TV

In an effort to enjoy our time off from work, we often put in a video for String Bean when she wakes up before 7 am. Often-times, lately it is A Charlie Brown Christmas.

We knew she was watching too much of it when she started quoting lines from the movie before they were said. She's only 25 months old! Usually it is quoting Charlie Brown and saying, "No, no, no!"

Today we were watching it as a family and as the parts for the Christmas play are being handed out, Linus asks, "What do you need her for?" and String Bean yelled out, "Wife!" before the reply of "She's your wife" was uttered.

*Smacks self in forehead*

At least there is a redeeming message in this movie. If only we could start getting her to quote the scripture passages instead of the silly lines.

Sleeping Fails

String Bean never ceases to amaze us with her talents.

Fail #1: At 4 am, she woke up screaming at the top of her lungs because she'd taken off her clothes and diaper (despite the tape I'd put on it) and peed on herself and her crib. I suppose with a fan blowing on you when you're wet, it feels pretty awful. Since there was a pooping incident earlier in the week, we are on our last set of un-soiled sheets. Here's hoping we make it to laundry day.

Fail #2: I failed to mention to the babysitter that String Bean was due for a nap. After playing hide-and-seek for a little while, the babysitter started leafing through the GRE Study book she had while String Bean was playing. Noticing how quiet it got, she checked and String Bean had zonked out on the floor. That's a first.

Clean Up

Don't you love it when you clean up the living room and your kid wakes up, comes in, and completely trashes it?

We are teaching String Bean to clean up after herself, but tonight just was not the night to make it happen. I'm afraid I missed the window for putting her down, which translated in her not going to bed until 10 pm. Rather than force her to clean up her mess, I just put her down.

At what age did you start teaching your child to clean up after themselves? (I was going to add "At what age did they catch on and do it on their own?" and then I realized that was a silly question!)

We are THAT Fun!

String Bean fell asleep at around 8 pm. Usually she wakes up around 10 or 11 and has a quick drink or nursing session and goes right back to bed. After waking up around 9:30, a bit on the early side, she's decided that she'd rather stay up than go back to sleep. It is 11:30 and she is showing no signs of giving it up.

I take it as a compliment personally. Mr. Bean and I are so fun, she'd rather stay up and play with us than sleep.

We are that fun.

We've got personality. We've got style. Who wouldn't want to hang with us into the wee hours of the night?