March 26, 2007

What's a plastic nipple got that I don't?

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Wow! Sienna is 2 weeks old! We were released from the hospital on the 14th. Before we left, we took a postpartum class where we learned how to change the baby's diaper, burp her and swaddle her. It was very helpful but I wish we learned it sooner. The woman teaching the class is also a lactation specialist so she helped me get Sienna to my breast, which I was having trouble with. She told me to keep practicing with her. Well, she made it seem so easy at the hospital and it looked like Sienna was taking to my breast. She said it didn't matter if she just got my nipple (which is the total opposite of all the books!) as long as she was latching on. I was quite relieved but it was a different story when I got home. She kept struggling to keep my nipple in her mouth. I don't know what changed! Because she's a preemie (even tho they said her birth weight is a good weight) the pediatrician at the hospital wanted me to supplement with formula to make sure she gets enough to eat. And that's what is most important, that she gets enough to eat! But boy, did I feel like a failure! I took for granted how hard this breastfeeding was going to be and the books don't really help make you feel better. They are so pro breastfeeding and speak so highly of the benefits but don't tell you how difficult it could be that it makes you feel guilty that you can't provide this simple little thing for your baby. I since learned that the majority of mothers I know had trouble with it!! I'm trying to pump as much as I can so at least I can fool my body into making more milk and also give the baby my milk via bottle so we don't always have to rely on formula. For now, I barely get an ounce of milk a day. It was hard to find time to pump during the first week and a half. It was stupid of me to try to be super mom during that time and I hope I didn't miss the window of opportunity to produce more milk. It's crazy the things I worry about now!

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It really is truly amazing how the birth of a child can really change you. I don't think fathers can feel it as strongly as mothers can, I mean, shoot, I was the one that carried her for 8 months and pushed the little bugger out 2 weeks ago (and without DRUGS! Need I remind you?!) I'm sure as I get more and more used to the idea that, SHIT, I'm somebody's mother! I'll get back to my more normal self but right now I can't even think about all the other things I was interested in. Art? not right now. Concerts? not right now. Stare at the baby all day? Hell yeah! Be amazed that me and Yves produced this little wonder? Hell yeah! We haven't even really gone camera crazy with her just yet either! I guess we are still in a state of shock and as the weeks go by, we'll come back down to earth a little more.

Posted by luluvision at 03:50 PM | Comments (3)

February 12, 2007

Big belly

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photo by Shuggy

Yves took this picture of us about a week and a half ago at 31 weeks. I wish we could go back to that time because that was before I was sick! My little cough turned into a full fledged cold and I'm miserable! I can't breath and with every cough and sneeze I have, I'm trying to convince myself that it's not going to hurt the baby. I'm sure in all the history of pregnant women, the baby doesn't get hurt just cuz the mother is sick with a cold. But the coughing worries me cuz it raises my blood pressure and it's high enough already. And I can't take the cold medicine I would usually take in this situation. I'm just being a whiny baby cuz we missed the 2nd childbirthing class tonight because I'm feeling miserable and I'm going to have to miss my cdmixer tomorrow night. At least we can make up the 2nd class in March. I also couldn't sleep at all last night and tried to nap this afternoon but don't think I did so well. Being sick sucks! Being sick and pregnant sucks even more!! WAAAAHHH!!!!

Posted by luluvision at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2007

Happy Groundhog's Day!

I haven't done much posting lately because my external hard drive is giving me a hard time. Whenever I try to access something on it, I have to wait a long time, which is unusual. I'm trying to back up all the photos (of which all my photos are on!) and it was driving me nuts. I was a little successful when I connected it to the laptop with a different firewire cable. It still wasn't smooth sailing but at least I managed to back up a lot of things.

Anyway, I wanted to post something so here is a necklace I made for a swap I joined over on Swap-bot. The swap was to handwrite a letter to your partner and send it along with a little handmade item. Since I always like to personalize, I went on my partner's blog and took a picture of her 2 year old son and made a necklace out of it with a glass marble. She lives in Missouri and I mailed it last Thursday so I hope she got it already.

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I kept the necklace really simple because I didn't want to take away from the pendant. I hope she likes it. In today's mail, I received my swap from my partner all the way in Belgium. She made me this adorable stuffed cat mermaid. I'll post about it soon!

And it looks we Spring will come early this season since Phil did not see his shadow!

Posted by luluvision at 03:55 PM | Comments (2)

November 26, 2006

Half way there!

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So this is my sonogram from last week, at 20 weeks. I don't really know what I'm looking at but the technician told me where the face was. If you look, you should be able to see it. Looks like Alfred Hitchcock to me! After dealing with several technicians since being pregnant, I have to say I'm not big fans of them. It must be a general thing because it wasn't just at this hospital but at another hospital I had to go to. I'm not saying they are bad people but they tend to act cold and aren't very friendly. They aren't very forthcoming when it comes to what's going on. I suppose it's not their job to tell you anything or converse with you or try to make you feel comfortable or anything like that. Maybe I just had bad luck with technicians and that there are some nice ones out there. I wish I knew where they were!

Posted by luluvision at 04:40 PM | Comments (2)

January 12, 2006

A New York institution is gone!

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Yves and delicious Lentos pizza.

I was VERY, VERY, VERY upset to learn about the closing of my favorite pizza place, Lentos. See the story here. I guess some people were upset over the closing of the 2nd Avenue Deli but I think this closing is way more sad. I mean, I had no clue they were going to close! If I had, we would have made a final hurrah there to last a week! Last time I was there, I was talking with a customer who knew the owners and he mentioned something about family troubles but did he mention closing? I DON'T THINK SO! Sniff, sniff. Where are we going to get delicious thin crust pizza now?

Posted by luluvision at 04:38 PM | Comments (1)

January 06, 2006

Krappy Kamera Krap!

This is the second year I entered Soho Gallery's Krappy Kamera competition and the second year I did not get chosen. I'm going to try not to get discouraged as I am positive there were tons of wonderful entries that did not get picked. I really thought I had a chance this year since I did not have to send in slides but actual prints instead. I was a little surprised that I got my entry back so fast, a week later! I wondered if they gave it a real good look or if they already picked the winners since I put my entry in on the very last day. I hope that was not the case cuz that would suck! Anyhow, here are the photos I entered. Do you think they suck?

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These are panoramas made by my holga.

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Holga with a filter.

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Lubitel 2

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Ansco Panoramic

I can't wait to see the show and see what has gotten chosen. Last year there really were some wonderful shots but there were also some shots that made me wonder what the judges were thinking!

Posted by luluvision at 03:21 PM | Comments (3)

December 13, 2005

Satchet, Sashay!

I'm pretty confident that the people who I made these satchets for don't read my blog so I could post this.
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It's made from an old t-shirt, one of the infamous head shots printed onto iron on paper and sewn. I also put some lavendar in them along with the fill. My glue gun crapped out after making 1 so I had to use tacky glue for all the others. A little messy but I think they came out ok. The fuzzy ribbon worked better than the silver one. Since these turned out so well, I'm going to make some for Christmas as gift tags but they won't be as big.

In other news, I think this new apartment has bad internet vibes. Friday the cable modem was soooo slow. The funny thing was that it was still online but loading pages was slower than dial up! It was still messed up on Saturday so I called Cablevision and they sent someone over on Sunday. Of course Sunday it seemed to be running ok. Now it's being slow again! WTF?! Someone was supposed to come today between 11 and 2 and it's now 1:20 and they just called saying someone WON'T be able to make it out today after all. WHAT THE FUCK?! That is just so annoying. Does that mean that a lot of people are having trouble with their cable modem because I'm pretty sure not a lot of people have the actual cable since there are so many satellite dishes around here. So I'll have to wait for Thursday.

Posted by luluvision at 01:03 PM | Comments (1)

December 03, 2005

Suck on this Verizon DSL!

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Ok, I don't really mean to be that harsh with Verizon DSL but really, they suck! After a ton of calls, being put on hold, being told different things by all the different people I spoke with, I finally put in the towel and decided to cancel. Optimum Online was coming on the 1st to put in cable modem and I told myself if Verizon DSL doesn't figure out what the hell the problem was, Sayonara baby! So I called on the 31st to cancel and miraculously someone decided to tell me the truth (or so I think!) Apparently, Verizon DSL was having this $14.99 DSL promotion (even tho we opted for the more expensive, faster speed DSL) and they've been overloaded. My "slot" was for mid December, meaning by mid December I should be up and running. HA! What the fuck is that bullshit? So do you mean to tell me everytime I've called and had to be put on hold and run through diagnostics, it was all for nothing? They gave me a 60 day credit so I won't have to pay for anything and if I decide I don't like cable modem (so far it's great!) I can still have the same slot and won't have to start from the beginning again if I canceled. I took this credit because I figured it didn't hurt and that was before Optimum came and installed the cable. They came on the 1st, earlier than the appointment even! After a minor snafu on their end and then our end, we're up and running and I couldn't be happier!

Posted by luluvision at 10:48 AM | Comments (2)

November 28, 2005

Dial up sucks

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I thought it was pretty funny that this motorcycle in the Lower East Side had a sanitation sticker on it.

I'm still stuck in dial up land and it really sucks. Verizon DSL really sucks because they can't figure out why it's not working and everytime I call and get a different person, I get a different answer. I'm really giving them the benefit of the doubt but really, my patience is wearing thin. Optimum cable is scheduled to come on Thursday so if Verizon can't get their act together, they are losing us as customers. I've never really had problems with their phone and wireless service but apparently their DSL is not up to par. Sigh...the drama continues.

Posted by luluvision at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2005

MTA

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Sometimes I really hate the MTA. Sure it can take you anywhere in the 4 boroughs for $2 but when you have to ride it on a daily basis, you develop this love/hate relationship. Sometimes I think, "wow, I live in one of the best cities in the world and I could get anywhere I want to go at any time of the day." That's on good days when your subway ride is smooth and groovin'. Of course I was not as fortunate as Tammy to have witnessed a domestic dispute and an act of fellatio all in the time frame of 24 hours. I don't get that much excitement aside from the occasion smelly ass bum begging for money.

I don't understand the MTA. Last week, before leaving for work, Good Day New York said that the N line was running on the D line because of some problem or another. I was really lucky to have known that because do you think the MTA told the riders on the subway? Nope! I got to 59th St and there were a ton of people on the platform waiting for the N train. I didn't get off because I knew. I happened to catch the D when I got to 36th Street and wouldn't you know, when I'm on the bridge, I see the N train on the other track practically empty! It probably came right after the D I got on. Then today, I'm on the N and we're pulling into 36st. The conductor says that due to a train stuck at Pacific street, they will be delayed and if we could, to use the R train coming in on the local track. So, me and a bunch of people go over to the R. Wouldn't you know it but as soon as we got on the R, the freakin' N train doors start closing!! WTF?

sigh...ya gotta love this city tho!

Posted by luluvision at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)