This is the personal diary of Cat Jasmine
The little interloper is now seven weeks old and he is starting to act less like a new kitten and more like a human. He smells like a human, but I don't really get close enough to really breathe him in all that often.
He has a jumpy seat vibrating chair that he really seems to love. He kicks the seat part and lights go off and music plays. Sometimes he stares long and hard at the hanging toys, then swings his arm stiffly from his side to try to hit one of the toys. I think I could do a better and more precise job of mutilating the dangly toys, but I just haven't been able to get close enough yet. The boy also really likes to lay on his back and watch the jungle animals float by on their mobile. He likes it so much, they went out and found him a second mobile to hang over the crib.
The biggest change is that the little boy is now holding his head up with much more confidence. He still sways side to side like stevie wonder, but at least he isn't doing that wierd droopy thing all the time. That was unnerving. kittens never do that, just proving the superiority of cats yet again.
Mahko is now more than a month old. One month, two days. He smiles and sometimes makes this little cooing sound, he looks at his toys with intense interest, and he tracks with his eyes. He's a little butterball too, with fat rolls turning up in all the predictable places. He hasn't started tormenting my cat life, but I hear that he will probably do that in the months and years to come. (note to self: stake out safe-spot under bed. make nest there.)
Today is Father's Day, and somehow Mahko and Ems were able to get a card together for Zan. They spent the day relaxing and visiting with uncle Ben and aunt Jennifer. Cats don't celebrate Father's Day, so I didn't mind so much when they left in the middle of the day for lunch. I could use a little peace and quiet. After Ben and Jennifer left we could all have a family nap, with Mahko sleeping quite soundly on Em's chest and me at her feet. It was a very good day.
We're adjusting to having Mahko here. He doesn't sleep much during the night, so I am being reminded of my nocturnal feline roots. They try to go to bed much earlier now, which means I get fed at 7:00 at night instead of 11:00. this is good. I did have to remind Mahko who is boss the other day by leaving "my mark" on his magic fingers chair. I think he got the message.
2004-06-12 & 11:09 p.m.
We have all made it through two weeks with Mahko and everyone seems to be doing pretty well. Mahko is sleeping a little better lately and the parents are acting a little more normal - less shell-shocked. They went out to see a parade today and yesterday they went shopping. They even went to the forest earlier this week leaving me to suffer in the heat and humidity all by myself. (there are phots from some of these trip on the photos link to the left)
They took Mahko in to the doctors for his two week check up - he is growing fast already more than 8 lbs. If he gets much bigger they will probably have to put him on the aweful diet food they gave me when I was fat. Mahko's sleeping pattern is still very erratic. He keeps waking me up in the middle of the night. Otherwise things are getting a little bit closer to normal around here.
I've sort of gotten used to little Mahko except he is still keeping us up all night. Mahko is fine - what really burns me is the baboons next door. Yesterday they spend the day jackhammering concrete so when the little guy wasn't crying it sounded like a construction in here. I have no idea what they are doing today but it sounds like a giant dentist drill in mud punctuated by rock chucking. aargh.
Mahko has his own website so I don't have to do all the work around here.
Congratulations Mahko Porter Haozous was born at 8:30 on Saturday, May 29th 2004. Emily and Mahko are happy and healthy. Mahko was 7lbs 10oz and 20 3/4 inches at birth. He is named after Emily's great-grandfather's great-grandfather and Zander's step Dad.
Emily, Zander, Debbie our doula, and the star: Mahko
Things seem to happening. Em's water has broken. She is having contractions about every 4 minutes, but it is too early to go to the hospital.
Today was a relatively calm day. I got to catch up on my napping. No sign of the little intruder (except Em's belly of course)
No news on the interloper. They are taking each day as it comes. There better not be an interloper visit today- Zan is off to the forest and without opposable thumbs I'm not very good at baby delivery. Especially since Zan trimmed my claws earlier this week. But he has the cell phone so if something should come up I think I can figure out how to use speed dial to reach him.
Em's Birthday
It looks as though the only birthday today will be Em's. There is no signs of the baby today so Zan and I are devoting our attention to cebrating Em's 31st. This morning I snuggled extra close to Ems and joined her on the sofa when she was too uncomfortable to sleep in bed any more.
Well, no baby yet. Em and Z just got back from the doctors and appearently Em is still 50-80% effaced and 1cm dilated. I thought that all that excitment last night would have made more of a change. The humans seem glum about this return to waiting mode - and to be honest I am beginning to wish the little guy would get it over with and arrive too. I know he will reduce my attention, but at least we will be done with this continuing uncertainty. I don't know whether to plan a nap or run up and down the hallway - what if he arrives while I'm napping ?
There was tremendous excitment last night - but still no baby. I thought the interloper was here for sure as Ems had about 12 hours of contracts, which we frequent and strong for the last 5 hours. About 10 o'oclock she lay down for awhile in bed and the contraction seemed to slow and stopped enough for her to sleep. I slept too on my spot at the edge of the bed.
They went out for lobster last night and I wasn't even invited. I don't really like to leave the apartment, but I do like to be invited. Em's family is in town and they all went to Lenny's Restaurant well know for some of the best local seafood.
Appearently lobster is suppose to encourage the arrival of the little one, but this morning he still hadn't arrived. Em has started having a few contractions but according to my catculations they aren't very regular yet.
I just got word that my humans have spent the afternoon cavorting with a small interloper named Finn. My friend Lucy the Cat spotted them at her home. The photos she provided show the dangerous infatuation my humans have for these strange little intruders. Lucy warned me that her attention quota has been severely curtailed since Finn's arrival. If I wasn't scared before about the impending arrival at our home I am now.
There is still no baby, so I have to do my best to entertain them. I ran up and down the hall, chased the red light, and even chased my tail a little. Although my efforts were not unappreciated, they still seem obsessed with the little intruder's arrival.
As a cat, I understand these things, but apparently the human impatience is starting to drive ems and zan a little crazy. Cats just don't care about calendars and due dates and think we're better for it. Ems has to tell about five people each day that the baby hasn't come yet, and I think she's getting a little tired of it.
So, no baby. Lots of cramping, a few contractions, no sleep, very grumpy, but no baby. I will try to accomidate the humans by updating more, but for now there is no baby unless you count the little corns that were on the salad tonight. And the little carrots in the little baggie. those are babies, and they are here.
All of a sudden both ems and zan seem a lot more relaxed. And happy. Yesterday mornining ems was very excited because she seems to have lost some sort of plug, made out of mucus. She'd heard that the baby usually comes about 48 hours after that, so she was just about as excited as a leprechaun, clicking her heels to and fro. Well, she wasn't clicking her heels and I have no idea what a leprechaun is, but she did give me extra treats for breakfast. Then she went and took her exams yesterday and today and now she's done.
Meanwhile, zan finished up a map he needed to finish and he's done. They went out to celebrate by having lunch at the korean grocery downstairs and now they are back. Ems is supposed to take a nap because she didn't sleep at all last night (cramping) but I suspect she's going to find a way to watch a few quality hours of television instead.
As for me? I had a great night. Zan rubbed my belly twice by mistake when they got back from lunch, and now I am sitting in my box by the window waiting for them to open the window so I can get some fresh air. Ah, that's better.
So I expect a flurry of activity tonight as Ems tries to make up for not studying earlier. Times like this make me glad I'm a cat.
Meanwhile, Zan has a new toy to play with. They bought a stopwatch and he spends a lot of time timing things. This morning it took him six seconds to make Ems smile.
Ems was having trouble studying for her big exams and finally caved in to the need to relax a little. Ever since then she's been having more braxton hicks contractions and she seems pretty excited about this. She is debating between not taking the test and taking it as scheduled, so we'll see what happens.
They are both very happy because a new store opened up almost next door. Now they are buying all their meals there and have been visiting with the nice korean family who run the shop. They just came back from a picnic lunch at the store even. I don't particularly care for the shop myself because they don't seem to carry cat food. This may change though- they did start selling milk just the other day, so there is hope.
Ems has been a lot more active in the past few days. Today she re-folded all her clothes in the clothes holder thing. And she cleaned the bathroom for the first time in months. Finally Zan gets a break! She packed the bag for the hospital this morning, and now the bag is hidden in the forbidden room so I can't pee on it. drat! (Zan thinks it is important to mention that he cleaned the rest of the apartment this morning, including mopping.)
While waiting for the baby to come, Ems thinks it is important to remember that HER birthday is a mere 9 days away. May 26th. The baby is due May 25th. We shall see how this all shapes up.
Ems just returned from her weekly visit to the midwife. If you ask her it went really well. The baby's head is engaged, and she's approximately 80% effaced. The midwife couldn't tell how dilated she was (although not for lack of trying!) so we're assuming she's still pretty solidly closed up. But the effacement and the engagement are all good signs that things are progressing and the baby is on his way. Zan seems to have other ideas about the visit. He wasn't sure the midwife said 80% effaced, and he is being cautiously optimistic that the baby will come exactly on June 2nd and no sooner. There was some discussion and a little referencing after the exam to confirm that Ems was right.
Ems slept on the couch last night and had a very restfull night for once. It seems Grandfather's Favorite Couch is turning out to be a very good investment. I had a hard time sleeping too, because it's so hot around here lately. First I slept in dead cat pose on the floor because the bed was too hot, but then Ems opened up the forbidden room and I slept with her on the couch for awhile. This morning I gave up on sleeping and watched birds and squirrels from the window in the forbidden room. I've had better nights. Ems was complaining that she couldn't breathe, but I think she was just being dramatic. I was breathing just fine.
Ems is now concerned that something will happen that will require her to rush to the hospital and the bag isn't packed, so she is busy packing the suitcase. Next thing you know she'll be rearranging the cans in the cupboard or something equally silly.
I will hold my ground. mark my words!
Last night I gave them a break and I slept in my own bed. If she didn't moan and groan and get up every hour to wobble to the bathroom, I might be able to get a little sleep. Maybe the separate beds thing really is a good idea.
Yesterday there was more of the cramping and the braxton hicks contractions got more frequent and more intense. They went for a walk last evening and Ems had several contractions during the walk, making it a record breaker for the mr Braxton Hicks. They came home and ems attacked the couch (right where I was about to take a nap, no less) and started talking about timing. She timed a few contractions at three to five minutes apart for about half an hour, but then Zan brought in dinner and she was distracted and I guess the contractions stopped.
Today there has been absolutely NO action on the labor front. none at all. Ems thinks it's just a day of rest. On their walk yesterday, Zan made the wager that the baby will come in June, but Ems is pretty positive it will come in May. Sooner, rather than later, in fact. It wasn't clear what they were wagering, but that will surely be determined on future walks.
Meanwhile the baby is still sitting pretty high and is causing his usual hip and belly pain. Ems has been chained to her desk all day trying to focus on a paper, but I think I can entice her to come snuggle on the couch for a few hours until it is time to go out. Today is a beautiful day and I've spent most of my afternoon sitting in my tower breathing in the fresh breeze.
They brought home a new device last night. It has lights and plays a funny little song, the kind of song that makes a cat like me absolutely nutso. They set it up and made it play that horrible music (?) and then... and then (I can hardly write about it, I was so disgraced) they tried to get me to sit in it so they could take a photograph. Luckily, she was slow to hit the photo button and I was able to escape. I may not be so lucky next time.
She was hard at work adding little ribbons to this thing that ties around the wooden caged-in bed. I have to admit, i wish they wouldn't put the foil in the cushioned part of the bed. I already tried to make that thing my home once, but they caught on and it's been off limits ever since.
must be more clever.
It is now time to retire to the box in the sunbeam. I'll write more later.
I am playing with formatting. bet you didn't know cats could do that!
I just added a few links to the buddy list for the baby registry. Instead of getting getting silly items for the little sprout from the babiesRus registry, may I suggest a few more useful gifts from the following websites:
good gift ideas here
and
Links
My favorite comic:
get fuzzy
My gift suggestions:
One
Two
Their suggestions
