Chuck

The Boy visited Chuck E Cheese's for the first time tonight. We attended a birthday party there. It was actually fun, and despite not napping enough this afternoon, he enjoyed himself. He rode a couple little rides, a bulldozer and a Clifford dog, and I got some good pics & video. And, The Mommy took one for the team by putting aside her fear of mascots and actually took The Boy to see Chuck E up close and personal.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

2 Hands. 2 Binkys. 1 Mouth. No Problem.

The other morning, The Boy had 2 binkys in his mouth at the same time. It was quite amusing and made for some great pictures.

He can crawl up stairs now. Closely monitored, of course.

He likes to chase and be chased, and he just laughs & laughs when he pops his head around the corner and finds me.

Work and life have been busy, so I haven't posted much recently.

I got a new phone (with Sprint) and I love it.

There are at least a dozen other things I've wanted to post about recently, but I can't think of them now.

EDIT: He's learning new sounds. He's got the "D" down and he's getting "M", too. It's fun to pretend like he's saying da-da and ma-ma.

FILE UNDER: PARENTS, GEEK

And The Nominees Are

Well, It's been a busy weekend and a busy few days since my last post. But I just now discovered my blog was nominated for a Mix Pix Father's Day Blogger contest. Here is the review. Thanks, Margie! I'm honored.

The Boy got to go on his first boat ride this weekend. Which was quite a treat for me since I'm such a lake rat. Just like his dad as a baby, the boat lulled him to sleep and he napped up in the cabin while we enjoyed the boat ride. Babies always look so uncomfortable in those life jackets, and he was no exception. However, he didn't protest too much. We also swam in the lake which was a blast.

I got a great photo album/scrap book for father's day. It's really cool and I proudly display it at work. I've had several people look at it and it gets a lot of compliments. I also sort of got a grill. Our old grill shot craps a few weeks back and since I grill so much, we bought a new one and called it a father's day / birthday gift.

Oh, those teeth are really busting through! He has two little incisors on the bottom. They're cute, but sharp! I have a feeling the first time he accidentally uses those on the boob, his breastfeeding days will be over! The Wife told me that she gave him a little piece of frozen bagel the other day and that there were little teeth marks in it.

Separation/stranger anxiety seems to be kicking in. I hear this is just a phase, but I'm wondering how to best deal with it to make sure it's a short term thing.

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Dinner Conversation

I really love that The Boy enjoys exploring his voice. His ba-ba-ba's, la-la's, raspberries, etc. are all very fun. But I really could do without the screaming in-between bites at dinner time. Especially in a restaurant. But, I won't complain too much, it could be something worse.

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Tooth Fairy

Apparently, The Boy has sprouted the tiniest little bit of tooth on the bottom left. The Wife discovered this tonight during bathtime (we "brush" his teeth every night). I was not present for the discovery, so I'll have to check it out in the morning.

Good job, Buddy!

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Stubborn Bastage

I'm sitting next to my dad at Missouri Baptist. We'll be headed back to Barnes West soon (Hospitals).

He's had recurring pancreatitis (sp?) for a long time now. His doctor recently noticed something and had him go in for a CAT scan. They noticed some issues and sent him in to have some endoscopic procedures done. There are more details, but that's not the point of this post.

He drinks 8-10 drinks per week, that's a conservative guess. It's actually probably quite a bit more than that. He smokes 2 packs per day. He says he wants to quit, but it's not really true. If he really wanted to, he'd at least try. I know these are both addictions/diseases (depending on your point of view) and are very difficult to quit. My mom died from drinking at 52, and went through several "clinics". So I've seen these things destroy people. But he doesn't even try, so he doesn't really want to quit.

Case in point. He's got a couple stints in his heart because of the blockages due to smoking. His pancreatitis is from all the drinking and the pancreatitis caused diabetes. So now he's in the hospital to figure out the latest deal with his pancreas. The first chance he got to get up and walk around - yup, he went out to smoke. Had 3 or 4 yesterday. And I guaran-damn-tee he's going to have a drink or two first chance he gets.

FILE UNDER: THINKING

Rotten

It seems like there's a pretty strong potential for The Boy to be a bit spoiled and/or shy with The Wife being a SAHM. Anyone got any advice and/or read any good books on this?

On a different note, I've seen hockey series turn around in the flash of an eye. But if the Oilers don't get their shit together, they are done. In their favor, they do go back home for the next two games. Of course, if Cam Ward keeps playing so strong in goal, I don't know how anyone will get a puck past him.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD, SPORTS

You Over-Estimate My Sneakiness

The Boy let out a little fuss around 5:50 am this morning. Earlier than I'd like, but it could have been worse. I let him fuss until about 6:10 or 6:15 when it was clear he was not going back to bed. I got up, turned off the monitor so The Wife could sleep in a little longer, went to the bathroom and then went downstairs. When I got to his door, it was quiet, so I stood there for a few seconds. I knew if I went back up to bed and laid down, he would immediately start fussing. So I decided to crawl into his room and lay on the floor until he started fussing again. I got to the spot where I planned to lay down and I heard him babble. I glanced over and he was on his stomach, with the crib pad pulled down so he could see over it, and he was looking at me as if to say, "Hi Dad! Whatchya doin' down there on the floor?". I just laughed out loud. Outwitted by a 7 month old!

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An Open Apology To The Boy

After posting about how cranky The Boy has been, I come home to a gleaming, gold star report card about how good he was today. To top that off, it was The Mom's night off so it was just me and The Boy tonight and he was such a good boy. Sure he fussed a little, but he was really a very good boy. Thank you, Boy. And I apologize for the previous post.

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Calgon, Take Us Away

It seems (at least to me) like The Boy has been more cranky than happy for around 3-4 weeks now. We keep blaming it on teeth, and they do seem to be right there at the surface, but it's starting to feel like that's just a scapegoat. He's going to bed fairly well. And he's sleeping through the night, he's just been waking up early. Of course, a couple times it's been because of a diaper leak. I don't think he's nursing all that well (The Wife would have to comment on this). I mean, I think he's getting enough, he just doesn't always go for very long and still seems to have frequent fits when nursing. He still eats from a spoon well, it's just that he screams between bites. Sometimes he seems cranky, other times it just seems like he's exploring his voice. He's started to hate (scream when) having his clothes and diapers changed. Is it teeth? Is it something else? Is he just a cranky baby? Is he a good baby and I'm just a wussy? Is it going to get better? If so, will it get worse first?

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Blog Name

I was trying to help The Wife come up with a name for her blog and I had two great ones, but she didn't agree.

giggleswhensquished

pterodactylhiccoughs

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Janice

Sometimes, when The Boy laughs, it sounds just like Janice from Friends. We're really, really, really, really hoping that's not his permanent laugh.

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I Think I Can, I Think I Can

It seems like The Boy is just seconds from crawling. If you put him down on his hands and knees, he can sustain that position for some time, he just can't get moving. He can hold himself up with his hands. He can army crawl (drag himself). He spins and rolls. Today he had his butt up and his legs going in the right motions, he just couldn't get his front up off the ground.

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Buzzword

I've got to do something with my computer cables. At least I think that's the problem. I have this erratic, obnoxious, all be it barely audible, buzz in my speakers. It's associated with mouse movement, CD activity, etc. It's annoying as heck.

FILE UNDER: GEEK

Baa-Baa Black Sheep

The Boy has started opening and closing his mouth when he babbles and also repeating noises. Like ba-ba-ba-ba and such. At first, it seemed like his jaw had a "catch" or a "pop" to it every time he opened and closed it, but that doesn't seem to be happening as much now. It was kind of odd. He also seems to have abundant energy. We were all hanging out last night and he was just rolling and rolling and spinning and pulling and trying to crawl and babbling his brains out the whole time.

Now that the pursuit for Lord Stanley's Cup has been narrowed to 4 teams, our INHD channel is carrying more games. I'm finally getting my hockey fix.

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Subject Not Related To Post Topic

Went to a BBQ last weekend in St. Louis. It was fun. Good to see KD & Not A Slacker, which doesn't happen often enough. The hotel stay was a bit rough. We got a suite, but it was one bedroom and one living room. The bedroom was furthest from the door, which is a great design to keep out the hallway & lobby noise. But we were too paranoid to let the boy sleep in the living room since it was closer to the door than the bedroom. So he slept in the crib in the bedroom with us. So we didn't sleep much because we could hear every little noise.

Apparently, The Boy rolled and wiggled his way about 10 feet across the living room today. No crawling, but it's still kind of neat.

He has started having fits when we wipe off his hands & face after mealtime. That's quite annoying. Sponge baths have become quite a chore, too, as he wiggles, rolls, & screams during them. I think we need to move to regular baths since he seems to enjoy them more.

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And Knowing Is Half The Battle

We had boys night in tonight while The Mom took a little break. I set him down on the mat and there was something a few feet in front of him that he apparently wanted. He leaned forward and up on his knees, quickly collapsing and launching himself forward at the same time. Then he proceeded to do a little G.I. Joe Army crawl, pulling himself forward primarily with his arms while his legs flailed around trying to help.

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Gimme' Five

The Boy likes to flail his arms up and down as he is figuring out that he owns them and has some degree of control over them. Sometimes, he'll hold his hand flat when he's doing it and if you hold your hand out flat, palm up, it's like he's "giving you five".

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Buttnanas

All the baby fruits and veggies we've been feeding the boy have tasted (for the most part) like mashed up fruits and veggies with water added. Which makes sense considering that's the ingredients. But curious minds need to know so we've tried pretty much all of them. Then there's the bananas. Wow. They have some extra ingredients, presumably to keep them from turning brown, but I don't know for sure. Well, they taste and smell like butt. So I'm officially renaming them to buttnanas. So far, The Boy doesn't care for them much. We'll have him try them a few more times, but I can't blame him if he rejects the buttnanas.

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What's That Ringing?

We had our first weekend away from The Boy last weekend. It was our 5 year anniversary and we went to Hermann, MO. It rained all weekend and there wasn't a lot to do, but we had a nice time. All the green grass & trees were nice, as was getting away from the city hub-bub. We visited some wineries and learned interesting things about their history. As much as we enjoyed the weekend and each other, we couldn't wait to get back to him.

The Wife came up with this great analogy. Imagine there's this thing on your desk at work that just rings and rings and rings VERY loudly and VERY frequently and you don't know how to make it stop. A lot of other people have this thing on their desk, but they have other problems with it, like it just flashes all the time. And there is no expert with the answers on how to fix it. People can say, "oh, I've got one of those, and it does this. but I don't know how to fix that ringing problem". So that doesn't help much.

The Boy is having fits during mealtimes and diaper changes. We don't know if it's gas, teeth, cold, allergies, etc. We just know it's painful, stressful, and 3 solid days of it is really starting to take it's toll.

But he sure is cute when he smiles & laughs & spins himself around to get to things & coos & lays his head on you when he gets worn out & stuff like that!

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Take Me Out To The Ball Game

We took The Boy to his first baseball game. And the Royals actually won a game! We had a blast and he was pretty good. He fell asleep in the 7th & slept through the fireworks at the end of the game.

The other morning when I was changing him, he wasn't done pooping and with his diaper off, he actually made two turd shaped turds. (As opposed to the wedges of poop that get formed because of the diaper.)

He's starting to move around in the crib while he's sleeping. It's our fault. We were with friends who have a son 5 weeks younger than The Boy. They were telling us how he moves around all the time in his crib. We said how The Boy never moves an inch - wakes up exactly how you left him. Two or three days after that comment he wakes up once on his stomach with his head at the foot of the crib and once sideways.

There's been a couple times in the past few days where I've been able to sooth The Boy when The Mom could not. It's kind of nice to be able to sooth him, but I do feel bad because I know how terrible it feels to not be able to sooth him.

He likes to roll from back to front, front to back, back to front, etc. etc. etc. But so far he just does it back and forth and stays in one spot. As soon as he realizes he can keep rolling in the same direction - look out!

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On The Charts

6 month check -
Damn near 21 lbs., which puts him at 93rd percentile (as opposed to >95%, which id what they've written every other time)

About 29 inches long, >95%

His head is about 17 inches, moving him up to 65th percentile

So we still have a giant baby, but he is averaging out some.

He had a different nurse that was slow with the shots. Not at all like the regular nurse that does all of them so fast that it's over before you know it.

We're embarassed to say his circimcision was stuck in one small spot. The doc fixed it with a little tug, but now it's irritated. Baths & diaper changes will be painful for all of us for a bit.

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Scrub Scrub Scrub

Bath time is getting harder. The Boy gets a bath pretty much every night before bed. Usually it's a sponge bath. He only gets a full tub bath once or twice a week. He just loves to roll over and wiggle and move and try to go, so the sponge baths are quite a challenge.

At tummy time, he really pushes himself off the ground with his arms. Sometimes it makes him go backwards. And he loves to spin spin spin in a circle. He even lifts his butt up sometimes and gets his knees part of the way under him. But when that happens he usually topples over onto his face. I'm sure it's still quite a ways off, but there is definite progress towards crawling.

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6 Months

The Boy is 6 months old today. Sometimes it seems like it's flown by. Other times it seems like he's always been here.

He's getting quite a bit of hair, relatively speaking. It's still very short and thin, but it's definitely filling in. But he really does still have that bald baby look going.

He loves to eat from a spoon. He seemed to be getting used to the green beans. He definitely loves the carrots & sweet potatoes & such. He likes the oatmeal cereal, too. He loves to scream at the top of his lungs inbetween bites.

He started shaking his head back and forth a little bit. I read that is normal, but it kind of bugs me for some reason.

Last night, we realized we've had The Dogs for 4 years.

Time's fun when you're having flies.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD, DOGS

Toast and Jam

While giving The Boy a bath tonight, he managed to get his foot in his mouth before I washed it off. Then I noticed he had quite a bit of toe jam. Yummy! Then I think he must have kicked himself in the mouth or something, because he got red in the face and started crying.

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Ravenous Savage

Like most babies, The Boy loves to put things in his mouth. But he does it with such excitement that it's a riot. He'll get done nursing and be sitting up with The Mom to burp and he'll reach out, grab whatever he can (usually a cheek and hair) and just shove her cheek/chin/nose/face/whatever in his mouth. And then he shakes his head from side to side like a wild animal feasting on prey.

The Boy tried green beans tonight. So far, not a big fan. But he wasn't real excited about the oatmeal at first, and now he loves it. So we'll try it a few more times and see what happens.

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It's Not Easy Being Yellow

I parted ways with The Family for the weekend, but apparently he went to sleep very easily and slept through the night. Sunday & Monday he also did well and tonight he went to sleep pretty easily. It seems like we've made significant progress and things seem to be going well. I hope it continues that way. I know teeth are coming soon and that will interrupt things a bit. Hopefully it will be limited impact.

He tried sweet potatoes over the weekend and he loves them. He's also pooping more often, so thanks for the advice to ditch the rice cereal. That may have played a part. The Parents As Teachers lady says she can tell when babies primarily eat "yellow" foods because the tips of their noses get a yellow tint to them. So I guess we'll try a green vegetable next, just in case she's not insane.

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Baby Steps

Well, let's see. He woke up at 5:30 and fussed and kicked for a while, but didn't actually need any attention. He fell back asleep about 6:30 and slept until about 7:20, at which time I left for work so I don't know what time The Wife actually went in and got him.

Seems like we're making positive progress. Slowly

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More About Sleep

He woke up at 4:45 am and put himself back to sleep fairly quickly. He woke up again about 5:45 am and only made it until about 6:15 or maybe 6:30 before he needed attention. But once The Wife fed him, he crashed back out for a while.

Tonight The Wife went to play volleyball. I was hoping he'd stay up till 7:30 pm, but he could only make it until about 7:20. He cried really hard for about 20 or 25 minutes and then went to sleep. It was harder for me to not pick him up with The Wife being gone and knowing I was the only one around.

I feel like we're making positive progress. I hope that trend continues.

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What's Your Sleep Number?

Well, he slept till 4 am last night. He fussed for a bit and then The Wife went and helped sooth him (just for a minute) and he slept again until 6. At that point, he was just giving a little fuss now and then, kicking his legs now and then and falling back asleep for a bit. He finally got up about 6:45. Overall, I'd say it went fairly well.

Tonight has been similar to last night so far, except he cried for a shorter period of time tonight. He seems to be asleep now, so I guess we'll see what happens tonight.

Oh, I've been meaning to share this. He has a little booster/high chair that straps to a regular chair. We usually pull him up to the table and he eats about the same time we do. The other night I pulled him up near the corner and when he kicked his leg he actually moved the kitchen table about 6 inches! Nearly spilled my glass of milk. It was pretty amusing.

I wish I got more than 2 - 3 hours a day with him during the week. It's just kind of a bummer to think about all that time I miss.

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Tough Love

The Boy had a massive diaper blowout yesterday. It was the first major blowout I've encountered since we started the rice cereal. We're really getting into some new textures & smells. And from what I understand, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm embarrassed to admit I couldn't get through it without gagging (maybe dry-heaving would be more accurate) several times. Maybe I'll eventually get used to it. I think I'd be okay if it was diaper contained. But this one was well over halfway up his back. I actually didn't know what to do at first. I was just coming up with a plan on how to deal with it when, thankfully, The Wife swooped in to help. The hard part was figuring out how to get his shirt off without spreading poop everywhere.

Then there's the sleeping. He hasn't ever consistently slept through the night. He's done it a few times, just not consistently. I'm no comfort to him at bedtime and in fact he usually gets more upset if I try to calm him than if I just leave him by himself. So they wife pretty much always puts him to bed. We've tried "Good Night, Sleep Tight" and "Sleeping Through The Night" and both have had limited success. He's seemed more cranky than normal lately (teething, perhaps?) and The Wife was at her wit's end last night so we got to a point where we decided we needed to let him cry it out. So he cried for a few minutes and then slept all night. We knew that was too easy. He was a bit off schedule today, and ended up falling asleep while nursing. So he woke up a little later and we thought he might need a burp. We got a couple small burps out and put him back down. He cried for a few minutes and quit. He woke up a few minutes later, cried hard for about 10 minutes and quit. He woke up a few minutes later and cried really really hard for about 15 - 20 minutes and quit. I'm sitting here now and he seems to be asleep, but he's rustling now and then. So I don't know what the night holds for us. It doesn't seem right to just let him cry, but we did check on him once or twice just to make sure he wasn't stuck or something. It's hard to do, and in fact, The Wife gets to a point where she can't listen. We know he's capable of doing it and it's just a matter of helping him learn how. None of the other options have worked, so I guess we'll try this. Sorry, buddy. We love you. We just don't know what else to try.

Luckily, I don't have enough readers to worry about too much hate mail.

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Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming

Yesterday, The Boy attended his buddy's One Year birthday party. There were a ton of people there. I think there were more kids than adults. It was fun. No, he didn't get cake or ice cream.

Today we went swimming at the YMCA for the 2nd time since he's been out of the womb. (He went several times with mommy in utero.) I think the best way to describe it is to say that he doesn't dislike it. He kicks his legs some and splashes a little, but not near as much as in the bath tub. I think he's kind of overwhelmed because it's loud and it echoes and there are a lot of people. I think it will just be a few more times before he really starts to have fun. He wears those "Little Swimmers" diapers with Nemo on the butt and he's got these little lifeguard shorts with a matching hat. And his life jacket just kind of swallows him up and if you couldn't see below the surface, all you'd see is his cute little face floating in the life jacket.

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MIRACLE!

We were hanging out with The Boy when he rolled over from his back to his stomach, got up on his knees like he was going to crawl, and then just stood up and took a couple steps towards me! It was amazing.

P.S. Check the date of the post

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Ask And Ye Shall Receive

I apologize for the lack of posts. I got a promotion and also was out of town for 3 days, so I've been busy.

I felt really bad about leaving The Boy & The Wife, but they did fine without me. Although they were quite happy to have me back.

It seems like The Boy does new things every day. He rolls over from his back to front all the time. He clearly wants to move when he sees something he wants to get. Sometimes it makes him pretty frustrated, but most of the time he spins in a circle, or scoots an inch or two. I've got to start baby-proofing soon. He was on the floor in the bathroom with us the other day and he spun himself around so he could reach the drawers and started trying to open them.

Oh, and he's sitting up like a champ. 30 seconds or longer at a time! The Wife is brilliant, she brought up one of our thick exercise mats and he practices sitting up on it. Most of the time we catch him, but when he does crash all the way over, those mats make for a cushy landing.

He eats at least 8 tablespoons of cereal (from a spoon) for dinner every night. We've got some fruits & veggies we're thinking of trying before too long.

A couple nights ago, we were giving him a sponge bath and he had all this goop in the folds of his neck. And he did NOT like having it cleaned. He just cried & cried. We felt bad, but it was so disgusting, it had to be done.

He's really slowed down on the weight gain. He's been hovering at 20 for almost a month. Yesterday he was 20.5. I think it's because he's so active now. Rolling over & wiggling & such. Still, he's a big boy for his age. I haven't measured his length, but darn if he doesn't even fit in the rocking chair. His head hangs over one arm with the feet hanging over the other.

He took a full bath last night. He kicked & splashed & had a blast.

We think he's teething some more. He has a bit more diaper rash than normal (although it's not too bad). He's drooling like crazy. And he chomped down on The Wife's finger and immediately started crying like it hurt.

He's only been pooping every 3-4 days. It has us a little worried, but we think maybe it's just because he's eating more cereal.

The Family joined the YMCA. The Wife has been going pretty regularly. They have baby sitting services for The Boy. The first time, the wife only got about 20 minutes into her workout before she got paged. On her way to the room, while she was still quite a way from the door, someone opened the door to leave and she heard him screaming. She was like, "That one's mine.". I guess he just screamed the whole time. But he's been doing great ever since. We got a family pass so we can use the pool.

We got new ear molds for his hearing aids. The old ones were so small they were just falling out. The problem is, I guess it's a common practice to "double-dip" ear molds for kids so they're a touch big and will last longer. But they're too big and don't fit well. I can tell this ear mold thing is going to be a pain.

I'll try to post more often, thanks for the comment.

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Roll Over, Beethoven

I really, really, really, really, really hate to post this because it seems like Murphy watches my blog. But heregoes anyway.

The boy has rolled over from back to stomach 3 or 4 times now. It's taken some bribery with a toy or a slipper or whathaveyou, but still, it's very cool.

Also, he is beginning to awkwardly sit up by himself for very brief periods. This is neat stuff but also very amusing when he goes careening over onto his side or completely clam shells like a little contortionist.

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Doggone

The Boy has discovered the dogs and is quite interested in them. The looks on his face are like, "Hey, those things move around and make noise, but they're not like mommy or daddy."

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Funny Bone

He's gone from slight giggles to full-on laughter when we wash his neck. What a great sound.

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Shit Happens, Finally

The Boy hadn't pooped since Monday, so we were a little worried.

[12:39] TheWife: Houston - we have poop!
[12:39] *** Auto-response sent to TheWife: I am currently idle.
[12:40] TheWife: well you can be idle
[12:40] TheWife: I'm still going to send you a message
[12:40] TheWife: cuz I know you're thrilled to read about poop
[12:40] TheWife: :)
[13:00] Me: this is Houston
[13:00] Me: Was the poop contained withing the designated containment unit?
[13:15] TheWife: yes
[13:15] Me: That's good news
[13:16] Me: good, I'm glad he pooped. i dind't want to go into the weekend without poop
[13:16] Me: ummmm
[13:16] Me: did I just type that?
[13:16] TheWife: yah. welcome to parenthood

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Poo Pants

Be careful what you wished for never rang so true. The Wife did not realize The Boy had pooped on Sunday, so Monday morning when there was still not poop, she explained to him that he needed to poop so we knew everything was working okay.

Fast-forward to lunch. The Wife is making a sandwich. The Boy is in the swing (which, BTW, barely has enough power to move him in all his monstrosity). She thinks she hears something, looks over, and the boy has spitup. She hears something again, but isn't quite sure what. She finishes making her sandwich and sits down to eat when she notices the smell associated with the sound. So she scarfs down lunch and takes him in to change him. She just whips off his pants like normal, only to discover there's more poop in the pants than anywhere else. Oh, and now it's everywhere else, too. While keeping The Boy's legs under control, he figures he can help by grabbing a handful and making handprints on the wall. So, half a stack of wipes later, everything is under control.

Oh, and not swaddling him at night is going just swimmingly. He only woke up about 5 times Sunday night and about 4 times last night. I hope we all survive this transition.

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Pancakes

Well, the fenugreek seems to be improving the supply of boob juice. Of course, now both The Wife and The Boy smell like a stack of pancakes soaked in maple syrup. It's the weirdest damn thing. Yes, I'm exaggerating some, but there truly is a distinct maple syrup smell.

We tried that baby cereal/rice stuff with a spoon again tonight. He did surprisingly well.

We're also going to try not swaddling him tonight. Being unwrapped and not having binky seem to be the primary problems when he can't put himself back to sleep. So we'll see how this goes.

The Boy has taken to burping loudly in public. Geez, kids these days have no manners.

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iiiiiiNSTUnttt 444444 meeessSSSSUgginnnnG

The Boy is quite helpful with IM, as you can see:

[14:54] TheWife: you
[14:54] TheWife: gO to happy h
[14:54] TheWife: our tonight?
[14:54] Me: well, I do kind of want to make a brief appearnace
[14:54] TheWife: r1
[14:54] Me: but if not, that's fine too
[14:55] *** You have been disconnected. Fri Mar 10 14:55:00 2006.
[14:55] *** "TheWife" signed on at Fri Mar 10 14:55:08 2006.
[14:55] Me: I was wondering how your day had been going. If he's been a pill and you need a break, I'll just come home
[14:55] TheWife: CRAZY KID

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Hair

The Boy is actually starting to get some hair. Well, he's still bald as a cue ball, but his peach fuzz is getting a little thicker and a little darker. There may even be a few hairs that are an inch long. And it's almost light blond instead of light clear.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Hi

The Boy rolls from his back to his side, just can't quite get all the way over.

He reaches for everything you hold out in front of him. More often than not, he grabs it. But sometimes you can tell he hasn't quite mastered that hand-eye coordination thing and he completely misses. But when he does grab it, this is for sure, it's going straight to his mouth. Unless of course, he misses and rams it into his forehead. Which is usually followed by a look that can only be, "HEY, Who the HELL hit me?".

Speaking of coordination, he's getting better and better at getting that binky in his mouth. Yah, I know, some of you think binkies are bad. Well, fuck off.

He doesn't usually find much comfort in me, especially in the evenings. I'm learning to deal with it, but it kind of sucks. I know it will pass, but that doesn't make it suck any less. I just want to be a comfort to him and I want to give The Wife the breaks she needs and deserves.

We fed him some cereal from a spoon. It wasn't a tremendous success, nor was it a complete failure. It made for some great pictures.

We're trying to figure out how to get The Wife to produce more milk and/or get The Boy to drink some straight formula. We have trouble leaving him with anyone because we don't have a way to leave him with much food.

At times I don't think the hearing aids are doing a damn bit of good, but we have him wear them. He doesn't mind them. The fact that the loss is only mild and not any worse is great, but that's what makes it difficult to know if it's helping. We won't really know until he can tell us. So we'll keep wearing them as much as possible.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Binky Master

The Boy took the binky out of his mouth, pulled it away several inches, and then slowly navigated it back into his mouth. I can't say it was entirely on purpose, but it wasn't accidental either. He's definitely gaining control of his hands and arms as well as eye-hand coordination.

Oh, and beware of flying binkies! As I was tucking him in tonight, he sneezed while binky was in his mouth. Man! It shot across the crib like a rocket and hit me in the arm. I feel lucky that my arm isn't broken. That thing was really moving!

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Magic Ears

A shot of The Boy's hearing aids.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Mooey Dearest

In an impressive stretch of one's imagination, The Wife has claimed the boy said mommy. In reality, it was more like "Mooey", but hey, you take what you can get.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

16 Weeks (Does Not Equal 4 Months)

Tomorrow will be 16 weeks. The Boy is asleep in his car seat next to me as The Wife drives us to see some friends. Snow Patrol, Dido, and Phil Collins are in the shuffle. He's pretty dang cute. He's 19 pounds and 27 inches. Most people assume he's at least 6 months old.

It's possible that the teething process has begun. There's a lot of drool and he's seemed cranky.

He had fun today watching daddy dance and listening to me sing Led Zepplin.

We're not sure if the magic ears (hearing aids) are helping, but we've only been using them for a week or so.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Abs Of Steel

The Boy is working his abs like crazy. He can't sit up by himself or keep himself balanced for very long. But he is definitely trying. In the swing. In the carseat. In the bouncy chair. He's always leaning up / forward.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Baby Got Back

We went to look at convertible car seats yesterday. At just over 3 months, The Boy is about 18 pounds and 26 inches. He only has about 4 pounds or 3 inches before he outgrows the infant seat specs. Geez, what a tank. We have a hard time getting any kind of jeans or pants over his thighs. They fit fine once we do, but getting them there is a chore.

Unless I slept through something, which is unlikely, he slept from 9 or 9:30pm to 4am without needing any attention at all! We put him down about 7 or 7:30, and he woke up an hour or so later. So The Wife fed him and he was only partially awake. He went back to sleep pretty quickly and was out for the night. Maybe we can get him to start repeating this. Or maybe I just jynxed us.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Now That's Funny, I Don't Care Who You Are

The Wife started a new game with The Boy that involves "beeping" his nose and chin and "ringing" his cheeks. It evokes the closest thing to a laugh that we've heard. I can't quite call it a laugh, but it's damn close.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

The Art Of Sh-Sh-ing

His body facing in to mine, which helps hold the binky in. His head in the crook of my left arm, my left had keeping his left arm from flailing. His butt in the crook of my right arm, which also supports his torso and keeps his right arm from flailing.

Then the rock&bounce back and forth, left and right. Like so:

Sh-sh Sh-sh Sh-sh Sh (no sh on 8, I have to inhale at some point)
1----2 3----4 5----6 7----8
Le--ft Ri-ght Le--ft Ri-ght

(repeat chorus)

Most attempts to NOT stand will only work for a few seconds or minutes if I'm lucky. And although this has worked several times, there are times when this just seems to make him angrier.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

12 Weeks

Oops. 12 weeks was Monday.

The Boy is over 16.5 lbs & over 25" long (it's been a week & a half since we checked). He's off the charts.

He is smiling a lot and babbling. This week, he hasn't wanted to go to sleep. Not even mommy has had much luck comforting him. He basically screams until he passes out from exhaustion. We're hoping it's a short phase. The good news is, he's still going for some long stretches before he needs to be re-binkied, re-wrapped, or fed.

He's been fitted for the hearing aids. We'll do the trial and see how it goes. They are over the ear models. We got blue hearing aids and clear ear molds. We thought a color would be a little more fun than the standard beige. If he still needs them when he's older, he can pick his own colors.

I feel like I should have a lot more to say, but I can't think of anything right now.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

ILLIN'

The Boy has a slight fever and is fussy. The Wife may be developing a cough. I've had a sore throat for a day or two.

Not good. Someone call quarantine.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

New Year's Prediction

The Blues' win on Monday was the turning point in their season. Now they're really gonna start winning some games!

(What? It's supposed to be a Resolution, not a Prediction??? Eh, close enough. You know what they say, POE-TAY-TOE, TOE-MAH-TOE.)

FILE UNDER: SPORTS

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

I like changing The Boy's diaper. For one because I'm pretty good at changing his diaper, and also because he's usually in a very good mood and very talkative.

I'm also good at swaddling him.

We have good times in the mornings when he wakes and during the daytime.

He's been a bit picky about taking bottles. He's taken a few here and there, but more recently we haven't had much luck. We think it's a matter of catching him before he's too hungry and making sure the milk is fresh enough. He took a bottle this morning. That was nice. He even let me feed him, that was cool. It was freshly squeezed boob juice, never even been in the fridge!

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Bubble Boy

The Boy sure makes a lot of spit bubbles with his mouth. Sometimes his chin is just covered with them like a soap suds beard.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Sleep

Well, I can't officially call it sleeping through the night, because I did have to get up at 1:30 and re-swaddle and re-binky him (I worry that maybe we're forming a habit???). But he did make it from about 7pm until almost 6am until he needed to eat again. So we got some pretty good sleep for a change. He was very hungry and mom's boobs were very full, but that didn't stop him from eating.

Christmas was loud. It was good. There were 8 kids ranging from 9 years to 9 months. The Boy got a little over-stimulated a couple times, but for the most part it was all good.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

9 1/2 Weeks

I really just wanted to have a post with that title. I'll even go so far as to cheat and post-date this for tomorrow morning at 1:32 am.

Yesterday at the Doctor's office, he weighed 16 lbs. 4 oz. They were kind enough to just write >95% for his weight percentile. At this rate, he'll be out of his infant carrier by 4 months! Our friends who have the exact same carrier used theirs until 9 months!

He also got 4 shots. He wailed at the time, but he calmed down in just a few minutes and then just slept a lot the rest of the day. He was quite the trooper! Thanks to those that recommended we give him Tylenol before the appointment, that may have helped.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

It's Not Whether You Win Or Lose.

The Blues won a game!!! Oh, wait, it was against one of the other worst teams in the NHL. Nevermind.

FILE UNDER: SPORTS

I Want A Jet Ski

I actually had to stop watching this for a minute because I was laughing so hard. I love Whose Line Is It, Anyway. This is definitely one of their funniest moments.

http://www.squizzle.com/movieview.asp?id=2191

FILE UNDER: HUMOR

8 Weeks

The Boy is 8 weeks old today.

I'm embarrassed to say we've lost something of his. We lost his neck. However, we did find one extra chin. And before it's all over, there may be more than one extra chin. I think we're about to lose his knees, also. But he's got enough thighs for 2 or 3 babies. He weighs 15 pounds and is 25 inches long.

(Speaking of long, when do you officially switch from "long" to "tall"?)

He rolls over from his tummy to his back, to his right all the time. He's done it to the left once. When he doesn't immediately roll over when we give him tummy time, he looks straight out, sometimes even up. He seems pretty fond of a particular stuffed dog. It rattles and squeaks and barks and crinkles and all that good stuff.

He definitely prefers mommy at this point, but we still have good times together. We read and play and get tummy time and watch some sports on TV (but not too much TV). I'm still managing to stay calm when he's having a fit. But it's much much harder when I myself am over tired. So I'm focusing on not getting so tired.

Since he never passed the hearing screening in the hospital, we had several follow up tests, OAEs and ABRs and what-have-you. The audiologist has diagnosed him with mild hearing loss at low frequencies. So when speaking at a normal conversation volume, he probably hears vowels and "m" & "n" & such more like a whisper. Whereas, "shh" & "s" & "t" & such are probably more normal. It doesn't appear to be just fluid or wax buildup. She is recommending hearing aids. We've spoken t an ENT once, and will speak with him again. We're also going to get another opinion. Of course, we'd break the bank for anything he needs, we just want to make sure he really needs it and that it will be beneficial. I learned that hearing aids are not covered by our insurance.

The Boy and The Wife (a.k.a. The Mom) left today to visit grandma for a couple days. I was really sad to see them go. Luckily, I got to come home at lunch and play with him and we even took a little nap together.

There are so many little things I want to post about on a daily basis so I don't forget them, but I just never get around to it. Plus, some things are just better live than Memorex.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Baby Blog

Yesterday, I got to sleep in a little with mommy & daddy. After breakfast, we played in my room for a while. I had some good tummy time. I finally decided to go ahead and show mommy that I can roll over. I did it 5 times before I got really tired. I thought maybe I was being a little too mean by only rolling over when daddy was around. I took a long nap and then had second breakfast. I sat in bouncy chair while mommy and daddy hung giant socks and put up this big green triangle thingy. It has neat lights and shiny round things on it. It all seems a little weird to me, but whatever. Then they put me in that stupid torture chair and then put me in that big box on wheels. That's the last thing I remember for an hour or so. I know we went somewhere else and I missed out on a lot of fun, but I just couldn't stay awake. Mommy bought me this bitchin' Tigger coat/onsie thing. All the other kids will be so jealous. Lunch was good. Mommy makes really good meals. At one point, we sat in front of this big box with lots of colors and movement. It seemed like there were people running back and forth with some kind of ball. It was neat. The people in red seemed the happiest. That's cool because the people in blue and orange seemed kind of dorky. I had second lunch and thirdsies and took another short nap or two. Daddy laid on the floor next to me and read me three books. I hit him in the face several times to thank him.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Break On Through To The Other Side

I had a total breakdown last night. He was screaming and I couldn't stay calm, which just made him worse. So I handed the little bagpipe to Mom and went on to have a screaming, crying fit of my own. Then I did some reading on anger management as it relates to being a parent, etc. I wrote down all my feelings and my plan. I have a zero-tolerance policy for my angry fits. They won't happen again.

I had a total breakthrough this morning. He was crying and screaming and arching his back. I stayed calm by speaking calmly to him. Telling him I really wanted him to stop. And that it makes me sad and mad when he does this. And that Daddy has him and was trying to fix whatever was wrong. Of course, he understands none of this. But saying it out loud is the release I needed instead of letting it build up and get me angry. And saying it calmly helped soothe him. I knew he had recently been changed, so didn't think that was the issue. He didn't seem cold or hot. I wasn't quite sure about gas. But he did seem to be hungry. So I told him we'd go see if the Booby factory was open or if I needed to heat a bottle. We found out the Booby factory would open in a few minutes, so we binkied and pinkied and managed to stay fairly calm until then.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Roll Over, Beethoven

Before this morning, The Boy had rolled over on 3 separate occasions. All 3 being more accident than anything. This morning, he was having tummy time and after about 5 minutes, he rolled over. I put him back on his tummy and he immediately rolled over again. So I put him back on his tummy. He rolled over AGAIN. So I put him back on his tummy. This time, he was tired, so it took him a little longer, but he did it AGAIN. HOLY and SHIT! 4 times. Four. 1, 2, 3, 4, FOUR.

Next week we're going to the DMV to get his learner's permit.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

4 Weeks

Yesterday, The Boy was 4 weeks old. Sometimes it seems like it's only been 4 days, other times it feels like it's been 4 months. Overall, it's gone by quickly.

He accidentally flipped himself over from tummy to back the other day. He was pushing up with his left arm and gave this kick that just flopped him over. I know it was an accident, but it was cool.

He's peed on himself, the walls, mom's hair, etc. He spits up a lot. We think it's normal, but it seems like a lot. The Wife's going to mention it to the lactation folks. He seems to like motion. Walking, riding in the car, etc. I really like the Snugli frontpack/backpack we got. He seems to like it too.

He seems to be doing well. I weighed him yesterday, I know the bathroom scale isn't the most accurate, but he was 12 lbs.

It's possible that he has some mild to moderate hearing loss in at least 1 ear. We don't know much more at this point. We'll follow up in 3-4 weeks to learn more.

Sometimes he's just cranky, and that's very hard for me to deal with. I'm trying to learn how to stay calm when he's screaming at the top of his lungs, but it's very hard.

We didn't do a very good job of giving him his first real bath. The little tub started overflowing, then he was just sitting in poopy water. We'll have to plan better for the next one.

We're starting to function more, get things done, get out and about. That's nice.

The Wife is doing better. She still has some ailments, but she is slowly improving. She is very good with The Boy. She doesn't realize how good she is. I knew she would be a great mom, but it just really impresses me. She has made an amazing transition into The Mom.

This is the hardest thing we've ever done. It's crazy hard. But it's so very cool.

Sorry for the terrible flow of this post.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

This Just In

Just heard over the baby monitor (sung to the tune of...unknown):

Wake up, wake up. It's time to eat.
Wake up, wake up. Your fast asleep.
Wake up, wake up. There's a whole other Boob to eat.
[end of song]


Sometimes he's a little lazy about the eating. I think mom is just too comforting. Heck, I can't count the number of times I've fallen asleep with her boob in my mouth.

Editor's Note: The Wife just informed me that it's sung to a tune from the movie "Groundhog Day".

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

The Crying Game

Any advice for coping with the crying fits?

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

Amazing

We checked in to the hospital at 8pm on Sunday, 10/16/05. The plan was for The Wife to receive a cervadil equivalent at 10pm & 2am and then get pitocin at 6am. We started watching Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban at about 9pm. Apparently she was quite ready and just needed a little nudge. The 10pm cervadil equivalent started contractions about 10:30pm. She didn't get the 2nd. She got one dose of stadol (sp?) around 2am and that helped her sleep until about 4am. The second dose didn't help all that much, but she did get some rest. But it also made her groggy. She didn't get the 2nd dose of cervadil. She didn't get the pitocin. She stayed dilated to a 1 all night, but was making great progress in the effacing (thinning) department. At the nurse's shift change at 7am, all of a sudden she was dilated to a 5-6 and we had to decide about an epidural fast. So the nurse explained it to her. Then The Wife asked for the anesthesiologist to come explain it. He did and she decided to get one. It went well. One complaint I have is when he said she would feel a "zing", I didn't realize she would jump. So when she jumped, it kind of freaked me out. But everything turned out fine. By 8:15am, after she got the epidural, she was dilated to a 7. By 9:15, she was a 9. At 11:15, she started pushing. She ended up getting some pitocin at some point to strengthen the contractions. She pushed for 2 hours and 15 minutes, and The Boy was born at 1:32pm.

I wasn't going to watch. I wasn't going to cut. The nurse needed help holding The Wife's legs. So I helped. But I looked the other way. Except then I stole a peek. And then another. Then I was staring. Finally, I was ready to push the doc out of the way and pull him out myself. Okay, maybe not that much. But I did watch. I still can't believe how hard she pulled on him to get him out. It's a good thing his head is well attached. I'm still in shock at how big he is. The doc was surprised, too. She's pulling him out and there's just more and more coming. I couldn't believe how long he was. Then I cut the cord. I had no idea how much I would participate.

Then everyone started asking his name, but we weren't sure. One of the three could be eliminated right away, it didn't seem right. The other two were okay, but didn't quite ring true. So we held off. He is so strong, right away he was holding his head up for several seconds at a time, looking around. So I looked up names with "strong" or "strength" in the meaning. And when we got to it, it just sounded right. The funny thing is, it wasn't on our original list. Not even close. So we shocked everyone with our final decision.

Things went well and we came home Wednesday. One exception. He had some jaundice and the pediatrician said she'd send us home with a billi-blanket, a.k.a. wallaby. Only she didn't explain it at all. So when they brought it to us, it wasn't at all what we expected. But they explained how to use it. Told us to check his temperature when we changed his diaper. Said it might make him warm, but nothing about a fever. So we kept it on him constantly all night, like they said. The next morning, his armpit temp was 100.4. So I called the pediatrician and they directed me to take it anally. It was 101.1. They said come in. We freaked. At the office, it was 101.2. They also said he seemed a bit dehydrated. They checked us into Children's Mercy as a precaution. We totally freaked. His fever was gone by later that day and never came back. But they ran all kinds of cultures on him to be save. Blood, urine, spinal, etc. He had an IV. What a nightmare. All of the test results were good. So it was one of two things. A quick virus that came and went. Or the wallaby overheated him, the jaundice made him not eat as well, and the combo dehydrated him. We're super pissed that the pediatrician sent us home with that wallaby instead of treating it in the hospital since we were there. But on the other hand, it seems like it was all a blessing in disguise. We learned so much while we were in Children's Mercy that nobody else told us. Nobody told us we might need to supplement depending on how nursing was going. None of our classes, nobody in the delivery hospital, not the pediatrician, nobody. So when the fever fiasco hit and people started asking us what we were using to supplement (not IF we were supplementing, but what were we using), we were like WTF? Nobody fucking told us anything about this shit. So, we are so thankful to everyone at Children's Mercy. They were so helpful and so nice.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD, PARENTHOOD

Tired

This is really hard.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

The Boy

I have so much to type. I don't know where to start. I'll stick with the basics at first. If I have time, I'll go into the details later.

The Boy arrived at 9 pounds, 3 ounces, 21 inches long. Pretty damn big considering me and The Wife. We're now at home and getting settled in.

I've got so much more to say. But there's a lot of other things to do, like hold The Boy, and stare at him for no apparent reason. I wish I didn't have to go back to work.

This is amazing stuff.

FILE UNDER: PARENTHOOD

The Last Supper

Fuck. I just typed in a bunch of shit and accidentally deleted it.

Anyway. We had a date on Monday. Dinner at our favorite restaurant and then went to see The Corpse Bride. We had fun. We went out to dinner with friends tonight. (The one's that are 6 weeks behind us.)

We bought a few last things we wanted. A snugli backpack/frontpack. A Pack-n-Play. A Dr. Brown's bottle. I installed a dimmer light switch in The Baby's room. I tightened up the rocker we bought at the garage sale.

The Wife's sister had a baby boy on Friday. She told us by announcing she has a box of girl clothes for us (this is their 5th child). Since it seem unlikely that any of her sisters will have more kids, The Wife is happy about having the last baby.

21 hours. 13 minutes.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Police Brutality

The police made The Wife cry. Those bastards. We had an appointment to make sure the car seat is properly installed, but nobody was there that could do it. While we completely understand that people get called out on emergencies, you would think they'd have someone there dedicated for that if they actually make an appointment.

4 Days. 7 hours. 23 minutes. (until hospital check-in)

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Hockey, It's Good To Have You Back

Woo. And. Hoo. Hockey is back. All 30 teams played on opening night Wednesday night. And thanks to a free preview of NHL Center Ice, I got to watch a crap load of hockey. It would have been a shit ton, but we had a breastfeeding class from 7 - 9. (No, that's not a complaint. More on that later.) It was so freakin' cool. There was so much hockey on TV that I didn't know which game to watch. I was like a baby in a topless bar. I'm not even that upset that the Blues lost. Well, okay, yes I am. But the sheer volume of hockey I got to watch is easing the pain. The Wife was thrilled, too. If your definition of thrilled is "completely indifferent" or "couldn't care less". And I have to say, I was quite pleased with the way the refs were calling the games, based on the new rules.

The breastfeeding class was interesting. We learned quite a bit. I guess I don't have anything more to say about it. I'm glad we went.

FILE UNDER: SPORTS, PRE-PARENTHOOD

I is what I is

Stolen from KD

• Micah is a great looking guy who likes to play music, and we all like him
• Micah is being taken down by the man
• Micah is a George Bush
• Micah is a shortened form of Micaiah which means "Who is like unto the Lord?
• Micah is the 6th of the 12 books of Minor Prophets in the Old Testament
• Micah is a Word Divinely inspired from God
• MICAH is committed to strive for quality public education in the city of Milwaukee
• Micah is an independent producer, writer, critic, and radio host from Portland,Maine
• Micah is a 9 year old boy with mixed spastic dystonic quadriplegia cerebral palsy.
• Micah is the "man"
• Micah is free

I did 11 instead of 10, but what the hell. That was amusing.

Thirteen days left. Holy. Shit. Balls. I suppose we're as ready as we can be. Bags are packed. Car seat installed (inspection to follow soon). Birthing class complete. Newborn class complete. Breastfeeding class this Wednesday. List of names not finalized but narrowed. Every second consumed with thoughts of baby-ness. Here we go.

The Wife's rib-spreading pain is back today. Don't really know if that's what it is, but it's the best guess. Other than that, she's doing well. She's ready to be done.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

Fortuitous Doggie Walk

Well, the hockey game last night was great. It was so good to see live, professional hockey again. What a great game. The new dimensions, the new trapezoid, the 2-line pass, the tag-up offsides, all of that seems fine. Really didn't seem to change the game that much. They've succeeded in reducing the number of icing calls by saying the team doing the icing can't do a line change. So that helped keep the game moving. However, and this is what I feared the most, they completely countered that by calling more penalties. If the NHL wants to keep the game at a fast pace and keep scoring high, that's great. But don't then turn around and start calling more penalties. Anyway. Regardless, it's hockey and I love it. DAMN I hope they bring me a NHL team to the new arena.

I took the doggies for a walk yesterday and found a glider rocker at a garage sale for $40. I'm practically dragging the dogs I'm going so fast to get back to the house and get The Wife. I call once, no answer. I call twice and get a confused, "Hello?". I guess she was napping.

"Put your shoes on, there's a glider rocker for sale."

"Huh? Uh, well, where? What?"

"Just put your shoes on, I'll be there in a second."

"Uh, Okay."

So we ran, errrr, waddled very quickly, down to the garage sale. It's not the best, but it's comfy and it works. So I offered the gal $35 and she took it. Fortuitous doggie walk, indeed.

Oh, and The Baby ate the part of The Wife's brain that stores her ATM PIN. Luckily I was with her and had my card and The Baby is not eating my brain, yet.

FILE UNDER: SPORTS, PRE-PARENTHOOD

Swimfan

The Wife really enjoyed swimming this weekend at the lake. She's going to check out the YMCA tomorrow. I scheduled her for a spa day next week. A massage and some other stuff.

We had the second birthing class. I didn't watch the graphic parts. Maybe I'll change my mind when we're there and it's my wife, but at this point, I still don't want to see. We're learning to breathe and about the different stages. We've got a newborn class this Thursday.

We meet with another pediatrician next week. Seems like it might be tough to pick one.

We had our hospital pre-registration and a tour. It all seemed good. The rooms are huge.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD

7 Things

At KD's request (I normally can't do your lists, but I think I can do this one):

7 things I plan to do before I die:

1. Travel to Europe
2. Raise the best child(ren?) I can with The Wife
3. Worry less
4. Own NHL season tickets
5. Learn to play the harmonica
6. Own a house = no mortgage
7. Learn to be a better dancer

7 things I can do:

1. Play soccer
2. Fix computers
3. Play foosball
4. Water ski
5. Snowboard
6. Make the vein in my hand wiggle like a worm by moving my finger
7. Gleek

7 things I cannot do:

1. Whistle (well)
2. Sing (well)
3. Dance (well)
4. Differential Equations (Calc I - III was fine, but DiffEQ kicked my butt)
5. Lie to The Wife (my cheeks puff up like a squirrel hoarding nuts)
6. Barefoot water ski (never tried)
7. Levitate

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1. Sense of humor
2. Common sense
3. Easy going
4. Red hair
5. Boobs
6. Nice Butt
7. Nice Legs

7 things that I say most often:

1. What the fuck?
2. Dude (in all it's various forms)
3. I'll ..... (repeating the last phrase said with a sexual overtone regardless of context. Ex. "I'll fluff your pillow.")
4. I'm like ...
5. Well, clearly (or, Obviously)
6. Riiiiiiiiiighhht
7. That's jacked up.

7 celebrity crushes:

1. Audrey Hepburn
2. Gillian Anderson
3. Nicole Kidman
4. Alyson Hannigan
5. Angie Everhart
6. Demi Moore
7. Mia Hamm

7 people I want to do this:

I don't have 7 blogs I read.

Baby Doctor / Baby Date

I had some mild panic attacks today thinking there's not much time left. Perhaps brought on by class last night. Pack. Schedule induction. Pick names. Pick a doctor. Circumcision. Only 5 weeks. Deep breaths. Calm. Woooo-saaaa.

Baby Doctor. No, not like Doogie Howser. As in "baby daddy", "baby momma", etc. You know, "baby doctor". As in, we're trying to pick one. I called one office today to set up a new mom visit. The scheduler was kind of cranky, which turned me off. But we'll meet with them and see how it goes. I stopped by another office and got some information about them as well. They have a "sick waiting" and "well waiting" side to their waiting room. Cool idea.

Baby Date. Well, unless this dude(ette?) decides to come sooner, we check into the hospital on 10/16/05 @ 20:00 Central. Induction will begin the next morning. I guess if between now and then something happens that determines it should be sooner or later, we'll adjust accordingly.

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Baby Learnin'

Well, we got quite a bit of loot from her baby shower. More than what I expected. I guess we're just about as ready as we can be, as far as stuff goes. Now we're gonna go get our learn on tonight. We've got our first of 4 birthing classes tonight. And then next week we've got a newborn care class. Why do I feel like I'm back in college, cramming for a final exam?

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5 weeks, 2 days -ish

The Wife has a Baby Shower today. After that, we'll be able to make our list of stuff we still need and go shopping.

Swelling of the hands and feet is now a regular problem. It's not as bad as her sister had it, but it's still annoying and painful. She's also got a pain in her foot, possibly related to the swelling or maybe just because The Baby happens to be pressing on a nerve that affects her foot. She told work that she's done either this coming week or next, but I'm not certain she'll be able to go that long if her foot doesn't get better.

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How About Wednesday, at 9:53am?

The last Doctor visit went well, everything seems to be normal. She said that the circumcision decision (if it's a boy) shouldn't really be based on any medical reason and is primarily a personal decision. So I guess we've got to think about that.

One thing she did seemed kind of weird, let me know what you think. She gave us some dates to pick from for a scheduled induction. One was the given due date, one was 3 days after, and the others were 7 days before and 4 days before. She said she doesn't like to go too long because of potential complications. I didn't know we'd actually be trying to schedule this, I thought it would just happen.

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Experiment

So I've frequently been waking up around 4am and can't go back to sleep until 5:29a, just in time for my 5:30a alarm. Which makes me feel like I didn't sleep at all. So today I'm just getting up and seeing what happens.

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Dinner Conversation

Me: "Does it hurt your feelings or make you mad or anything if I decide I don't want to watch The Baby being born, or catch, or cut the cord, or anything? I mean, I might change my mind when we get in there, but at this point, I'm thinking no."

The Wife: "No, I just don't want it to be something you regret missing out on. You know, I don't really *want* to *have* it, but I don't have much of a choice in the matter."

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Man-Slave, Peel Me Some Grapes!

We're now to a point where The Wife gladly accepts help tying her shoes and has mentioned that shaving her legs might be in my near future. I've also made the suggestion that she sit down while drying her lower half after a shower. I thought that would be safest for all involved after watching her precariously balancing on one foot (after she was out of the shower, at least) and then strain to get her other foot up on the counter.

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Letters To The Editor

The Wife has requested a clarification. "Quite a snore" does not mean an obnoxiously loud, keep-me-up-all-night, shake-the-walls snore. She's gone from almost never snoring, to snoring most every night. But it's not very loud, just something new.

She worked 4 days this week instead of 3 and that caused a little too much swelling in her legs, so she told them to cut her back to 3. The response she got was, "Oh, I didn't realize I started scheduling you for 4 days.". Right. Sure. 'Cause there are so many with the same name (only 1), and so many people to schedule, and you do it so far in advance (less than 1 week). Anyway, they cut her back to 3, so that's good.

Baby still moves like crazy. Still no name decisions. Not much else to report.

Something I have been thinking about. We love our dogs. They are our "kids". Neither were supposed to get so big according to the shelters, but we now have 55lb. & 75lb. dogs. Inside dogs. And they're clean. Well, as far as dogs go, anyway. But they get so much hair everywhere. And we brush them pretty frequently. I don't think I could ever bring myself to make them permanent outside dogs. But I sure wish our house was laid out where we had like a basement entrance, like a mud room type of thing that could be the dog room so the rest of the house wouldn't get so hairy. There are certain rooms they can't go in. Anyway, I'm just rambling.

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Sawing Logs

Testing the Blogger pic upload thing I just noticed.

Also, The Wife has developed quite a snore. Sometimes she wakes herself up.

Oh, and with my last post, I started receiving spam comments, so I had to add an extra step for those who want to leave a comment. Hopefully that will help. Sorry for the inconvenience for those of you with legit comments.

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Baby Room Photos

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Originally uploaded by polesposition.

Here are the baby room photos. I don't use flickr much, so I'm not sure how this post will turn out.

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Burn Baby Burn

That was the subject of an email I got from The Wife last week when she was having really bad heartburn. Tums and Tylenol weren't helping, but the Pepcid Complete seemed to help. I don't think she's had as much trouble with it since then. Knock on wood.

Her sister and mom came up this weekend and helped her paint the baby room. It's pretty cool. I'll try to get around to posting some pics. So now we just have to put a baby in there.

We looked at glider rockers yesterday. Damn those things are expensive. We're thinking of alternatives at this point.

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Snubbed

Changing Table, Check. $100 @ Baby Depot / Burlington Coat Factory.
Matching Dresser, Check. $150 @ local furniture store.
Mostly matching crib, Check. Free from sister-in-law.

Yaaayyy!

Also, we went to a different grocery store this weekend, hoping for a better selection of lunch meat. And we got it. Since it was a store we weren't familiar with and since we didn't have a list, we were going up every isle to see what we needed. But when we got to the isle of frozen deserts, I looked up the isle, decided we didn't need anything, and moved on. I heard The Wife announce, "We snub you, isle of frozen delights.". Maybe you had to be there, but it was quite amusing.

FILE UNDER: PRE-PARENTHOOD, THINKING

Single Digits

The Baby had The Wife's stomach all out proportion last night. Normally, it's just a perfectly round belly. But The Baby decided to camp out on her lower left side for a while and it looked crazy because her stomach was now oblong and catty-wompass instead of round.

I chose Jimmy Buffett's Defying Gravity as the song to sing to The Baby. I'm not sure if The Baby hates it or loves it, but it sure moves like crazy when I sing it. I wish I had a cool-guy Radio Blog like KD so I could upload it and you could hear it, but I don't. Now I want to learn to play the Harmonica part of the song. I haven't been able to find the sheet music for it yet, maybe I can figure it out by ear. Any suggestions?

If we're going with the due-date of 10/16/05, then today marks the official day that we have entered the single-digit weekly countdown. We're getting closer to ready, but still have a fair amount to do. We managed to choose an infant seat / stroller travel system to register for. I guess we'll also register for a convertible seat since that's what they recommended. The Britax one's seem really nice, but based on Consumer Reports, there are others that are just as safe that are half or less than half the price.

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Overload

We tried to go register for baby stuff but we didn't have a plan and we hadn't done much research before hand. What a nightmare. So much shit. And so many different kinds of the same shit. Convertible car seat / infant car seat / travel system / umbrella stroller. Straight bottles / angled bottles / baggie bottles. Hundreds of different nipples and binkies. We actually left one store without even scanning one thing.

So, we sat down and talked about how we planned doing things to maybe help narrow it down. That seemed to help and I guess we'll have to go back soon and sift through all that junk to figure out what we want / need.

There's just so much crap to do and think about. I guess we'll figure it out. It's been done a bajillion times before.

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Turtle Surprise

The Wife called herself a beached whale the other day when she couldn't get off her back. I said that was really more like a turtle. She agreed, sort-of.

Her 30th birthday is 8/16/05. We had a surprise party for her yesterday. It was great. The rouse was a family baby shower at her sister's house about 45 minutes away. And then they would come back this direction to go furniture shopping and I'd have them swing by to get me. Except she didn't know about that second part of the plan until yesterday. The Wife said she was a little suspicious, because she thought, yah, I'll be gone all day and then have a party tonight. But her family played it cool and didn't act like there was any set time to leave. And when she called me to find out what I wanted to do and when, I was very nonchalant. "Yah, I'd like to go, just come by and get me whenever."

So she gets here, leaves her mom and niece in the running car, comes in and says, "You ready? Let's go."

"Yahhhh, come see what your dogs did in the back yard today."

"Okay, but mom and Kendall are in the car!"

"I know, it will just take a second."

I didn't realize she was carrying cake from the baby shower, and as she's walking through the kitchen, she starts to put it in the fridge, with all the party food (all the guests are out back).

"HERE. I'll get that!" As I accidentally stab her hand with my thumbnail. I've lost all my play-it-cool at this point.

She steps outside to a ton of people and, "SURPRISE!".

"Oh. Wow." Then she turns to me, "But mom and Kendall are in the car."

"No they're not, they're coming in."

"But everyone's going furniture shopping."

"No they're not, they're coming here."

"Oh."

Heh-heh. Even though she was suspicious earlier, she had completely dismissed the possibility, never suspecting her family was in on it.

It was good fun. I even made homemade ice cream like she requested.

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Good Times

The Wife says, "Having kids must be great, 'cause I can't imagine anyone doing this more than once."

Editorial Note: This post is as much for my amusement as it is for The Wife to go back and read some day when she brings up having another kid.

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The Waiting Game

The Baby Dr. appointment yesterday went well. She ask if we had a pediatrician and if The Wife wanted an epidural. We didn't know the answer to either. She recommended someone, and told us we could talk to the anesthesiologist about the epidural.

The Wife is low on Iron, so we got some OTC Iron for her to take in addition to the pre-natal. She just loves taking pills (not), so she's excited about that.

Everything seems normal, we're seeing the doctor every two weeks now. Which is kind of painful because they always seem to be behind schedule. They always seem to have some lame excuse like, "She had to deliver a baby earlier, so she's behind schedule.". ;-)

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Baby Says, "I'm King Of The World"

The Baby is getting bigger and it likes to ride way out front. From the back, you'd be hard-pressed to tell if The Wife is pregnant. And from the front, it might just look like she's a little pregnant. But from the side, there's no denying it.

It's fun to feel The Baby move and talk to it. It's really neat when it moves after I say something. I'm having a hard time picking the song I want to sing to it. It will definitely be a Jimmy Buffett tune, but the 2 or 3 I really like really center around being a boy or a girl. So I'm trying to pick a gender-neutral song. Yah, I know. Silly. But, whatever. I'll figure it out here soon.

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hiccough

The Baby got the hiccoughs today. I didn't get to see it, but The Wife said it was funny.

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Tice

The Baby is eating The Wife's brain. Today she made a comment about the four vowels in the alphabet. It didn't take her long to realize it, but it was too late. It had been said and I couldn't let it go.

And then there was Saturday. We went to a kiddie water park in Columbia named Pirate's Cove at Twin Lakes. We met her fam there for a kiddie B-Day party. It was fun. Anyway. As we're walking to the entrance, I hear her say, "No Tice? What's that? No Tice? What's a Tice?". So I start looking around trying to figure out what she's talking about. I say, "You mean that sign right there in front of us? The one that says 'NOTICE'?". She tried to come up with some explanation, but I couldn't hear her over my own laughter.

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Leg Cramps, Butt Aches, and Heartburn, Oh My!

Although The Wife is feeling pretty good during the day, there have been a few nights when she wakes up with leg cramps. Which sucks because she can't reach her feet with her legs straight. I try to help if I wake up, otherwise she's left to try some crazy Cirque du Soleil move to get rid of it.

Although she'd probably tell you I'm the primary pain in her ass, it wasn't me this weekend. We stayed at my dad's and I guess the bed just wasn't right because she had butt pain. Like top of the butt/hip, like a knotted muscle kind of thing. I know it's juvenile, but it's really funny to hear someone say, "Will you rub my butt?".

We were back in our own bed last night. That eliminated the butt ache. But it was replaced by heartburn. Ugh.

On a happy note. We had a blast at the lake. I got to ski several times, and now my body is punishing me. But it was worth it. I realize in the grand scheme, 31 isn't old, but it sure feels like it sometimes. Damn I love to ski. That will be one of the things I miss the most when I get too old to do it. There's just nothing like laying over as far as you can, cutting back and forth, watching the sun light up the spray. And The Baby got to ride in the boat, so that was good. I kind of wish The Baby was going to be born in-season so it could go on a boat ride right away. I was on a boat at only a couple weeks old. Oh well, we'll just have to do it first thing next season.

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A Fool And His Data

We got some good loot from some friends who had a baby a couple months ago. He's already outgrowing some of his stuff. Some of it is not gender specific, and some is, but still, it's FREE!

We now have most of a plan for the baby room and the new spare bedroom. Now we just need to start working on it.

Our big dog (75 lbs.) hates fireworks. They make her a nervous wreck to the point she won't even go to the bathroom. She just wants to be inside and far away from them. The little one (55 lbs.) doesn't like them either, but she mostly ignores them except for the really loud and bright ones.

Our computer is back up and running, complete with a 300GB external drive for backups. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

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Movement (delayed post)

At about 21-22 weeks, The Wife was having trouble telling the difference between bubbles in her stomach and The Baby moving. At this point, about 25 weeks) there's no doubt it's The Baby moving. I can hear it and feel it when I put my head on her stomach. I can even feel it with my hands sometimes. It's amazing. I also think that sometimes, when The Baby is in the right spot and I'm listening to The Wife's belly, I can hear The Baby's heartbeat, ever so faintly. The Wife and The Doctor think I'm crazy, but what the hell do they know?

We had our second sonogram. This time it's not just a dot. It's a real baby!!! That was cool. It was moving & waving & moving it's mouth. All sorts of stuff. We did not find out the gender, so we'll just have to wait and see what comes out. Literally. Well, not me. No. Someone else will be watching it come out. I'll just get to see the end result. Later. After it's come out.

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