I temporarily lost the digital camera (horrors! but it is back now) and we went out of town. Going out of town for 5 days is a task of larger proportions than average when you have 8 chickens, 1 dog, and a 3 1/2 month old baby. Thus, I have been busy.
The chickens needed water, which a parade of friends (THANK YOU FRIENDS) made sure was in ample supply. Their feeder holds over a week of food at a time, so that part was simple.
The dog needs love, attention, walks and kibbles. And pee breaks. He was cared for by two friends (thank you weekday friend, and weekend friend) and got to go on a backpacking trip, too. I think the dog had the best weekend of all of us. We packed him up like for summer camp... backpack, sleeping bag, extra leash, food, water bottle. You think I'm kidding on the sleeping bag part, but I'm not. He loves it.
That leaves us with the baby. We set out at 4:15am for the "8 hour" (pre-baby duration) drive, on the premise that the little guy would sleep pretty well for at least the first 3 or 4 hours, thus saving up his crying only for the latter half of the drive. This was an EXCELLENT plan and I highly recommend it to anyone that has a baby and is doing a long car ride. Someone asked, "Why not leave at 10pm and drive all night?" The answer to that is- truly driving all night sucks, and is dangerous. Sleeping from 10pm to 4am is 6 hours of rest before you hit the road, so less sucky, and less dangerous.
Matt and I laughed at all the things we brought to keep the little guy happy, but it was pretty minimal considering we are new at this. The portable crib worked out great, the stroller base was awesome, and the billion spit rags and cloth diapers proved crucial. I even brought the pump (to "pump and dump" for comfort) and that was very, very helpful.
Cooper was kinda frustrated with the ride to Seattle, but then again he was brewing 6 days worth of pent-up digestive matter. He had a few screaming incidents, although none were unbearable and quick walks through various parking areas of Central Washington state calmed him down. Within 30 minutes of arriving at our destination, he pooped (quite loudly and dramatically) and lost an estimated two pounds of body weight. It was horrendous. And stinky. And he was MUCH happier after he was done. Needless to say, it was nice that he did that two days before the wedding, and not during it. Timing is everything.
The wedding was a pleasure and Cooper was on his very best behavior. He didn't spit up onto anyone's suits or dresses, he gave fair warning before getting upset and therefore was whisked out of the church just in time without anyone noticing, he ate fairly quickly and thus allowed me to be in all the formal photos I was supposed to be in, and he clearly enjoyed smiling and giggling at all his admirers. Perhaps best of all, he remained in good spirits for the whole day- no meltdowns, no terrible fussiness, no getting overwhelmed. I am so thankful that he was as good as he was!
The drive home was totally awesome. Exhausted after a long weekend of being held by friendly strangers, Cooper spent the drive alternatively sleeping, chewing on his hands, and making cute baby noises. We only had to stop once (not counting the gas stops that are also feed and change stops) to walk and calm him down, and therefore the drive took less than nine hours. Outstanding! It helped that he had a pretty empty colon, of course. Much nicer for him.
Now we are home, working and renovating, and getting ready for Summer '08 wedding #2. We have about 7 or 8 weddings this summer, which is nuts, and I think we are going to almost all of them. There is one that I might just let Matt go to by himself so that I don't lose my mind. Wedding #2 is in Kansas, and I'm looking forward to being there, but I'm not looking forward to baby's first plane ride. We'll see how that goes, but my guess is that it will be stressful pretty much no matter how well Cooper behaves.
My latest plan is to send most of our formal stuff to Kansas ahead of time in the mail. I think this is brilliant- no checked luggage! Yeah! So Matt and I are going to pack our formal clothes and a few other things that are not easily stuck in carry-on bags and ship them so that they get there the day before we do. How smart is THAT! YEAH! Its not that I don't think we'll be able to fit everything; it is that I don't want to have to try.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
why yes, I AM living under a rock
I just found out some man, who used to be a woman, is having a baby in Oregon. I am still reeling from this, which I think was an eventuality but of course is surprising none the less.
Matt informs me that yes, I am actually the last person on earth to find this out, and yes, I must be living under a rock to not already know about this. Even my husband knew about it. He just didn't blurt out, "Dear LORD!" when he saw the photos.
Anyway, my basic reaction is, "Good for him!" Do what you want to do, dude. If you have the equipment, it is your right to use it.
Matt informs me that yes, I am actually the last person on earth to find this out, and yes, I must be living under a rock to not already know about this. Even my husband knew about it. He just didn't blurt out, "Dear LORD!" when he saw the photos.
Anyway, my basic reaction is, "Good for him!" Do what you want to do, dude. If you have the equipment, it is your right to use it.
3 vs 4 months
I have an acquaintance that I've lost touch with over the last 6 months or so. Just this last week, I found out from a friend that this acquaintance is pregnant- quite pregnant in fact; about 6 months along. We'll call the friend "Fran" and the acquaintance "Ally" for simplicity here. Fran and Ally know each other well.
Fran was saying how exciting it was that Ally was pregnant, but that Fran could not believe how on earth Ally kept her pregnancy a secret for well over four months. Four months! Fran said that by the time Ally finally told everyone, she was really starting to show, and Fran was relieved- she was worried Ally was sick or depressed or something because of the changes in her body and mood. Turns out she just had morning sickness and 1st trimester exhaustion- very normal.
The whole time we talked about this, I had to fight the urge to explain what I am 99% sure was going on. Ally had a very unusual complication with a pregnancy a few years ago. She ended up needing to terminate the pregnancy at around 3 months (the baby had already passed away at that point) and she and her husband were understandably very upset. Not many people know about this, because she chose not to tell anyone about this first pregnancy until the three month mark and then decided she didn't really want to go through explaining their loss after it had happened. She told me about this one day in a casual conversation while we were talking about something related, and she was very matter-of-fact about it.
I can see why she would have waited an extra month beyond what is considered "normal" waiting time to tell people you are pregnant. After the first loss, it is easy to imagine she'd be even more gun-shy with the second pregnancy. I just found it really hard to listen to Fran talking about how crazy it was that Ally waited so long, etc, without blurting out that I was pretty sure I knew why. But I held my tongue.
Fran was saying how exciting it was that Ally was pregnant, but that Fran could not believe how on earth Ally kept her pregnancy a secret for well over four months. Four months! Fran said that by the time Ally finally told everyone, she was really starting to show, and Fran was relieved- she was worried Ally was sick or depressed or something because of the changes in her body and mood. Turns out she just had morning sickness and 1st trimester exhaustion- very normal.
The whole time we talked about this, I had to fight the urge to explain what I am 99% sure was going on. Ally had a very unusual complication with a pregnancy a few years ago. She ended up needing to terminate the pregnancy at around 3 months (the baby had already passed away at that point) and she and her husband were understandably very upset. Not many people know about this, because she chose not to tell anyone about this first pregnancy until the three month mark and then decided she didn't really want to go through explaining their loss after it had happened. She told me about this one day in a casual conversation while we were talking about something related, and she was very matter-of-fact about it.
I can see why she would have waited an extra month beyond what is considered "normal" waiting time to tell people you are pregnant. After the first loss, it is easy to imagine she'd be even more gun-shy with the second pregnancy. I just found it really hard to listen to Fran talking about how crazy it was that Ally waited so long, etc, without blurting out that I was pretty sure I knew why. But I held my tongue.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Our son, the jock
Our little guy is advancing in his small and large motor skills so fast it is frightening. He can roll over both directions- which is pretty cool except that once you can roll over both ways, you can essentially tumble off anything. Like Mom and Dad's bed, or the changing table. He hasn't done that yet, but we are wary of the possibility.
Likewise, he has started to do a fairly impressive pre-crawl. This scares me, frankly. I am not in the least bit ready for crawling, and thus, pre-crawling is a bit nerve wracking. This takes the form of stretching his arms forward, scootching butt into the air, pulling knees under butt, and then plowing his forehead downward and forward. This is in pursuit of a toy, of course, and in short order he can move about three feet forward before erupting in frustrated screeches as a result of jamming the crown of his head into the crib's walls. He usually misses the toy entirely, plowing right on by and getting even more frustrated. His speed of movement is pretty impressive, considering the friction he has to overcome from his face and chest still being mostly flat on the mattress. Watching him do it, you can see that all he needs to do is figure out that his push-ups (which he is very good at) need to work with his knee tucking and then he'll be fully crawling. Oh dear.
He's also getting really good at his practice sitting and practice standing. He can practice sitting for a few minutes, as long as my fingers are in his hands (which means my fingers are in his mouth, and he's balancing himself using just his gums). His practice standing is unbelievable- he can stand with just minimal balance control from his hands- about the same skill level as his sitting. He can't get into either a sitting or standing position by himself, but once there, he's quite good at practicing the activity with my or Matt's help.
Cooper also has recently learned that his hands will do his bidding. This is almost always grabbing something and bringing it into his mouth. Exciting objects include his own shirt (a favorite, as it cannot be dropped or lost), his various spit rags, house keys (oooo! jingly!), his elephant toy, his crinkle-bee toy, his pineapple rattle, our fingers (salty!) and Matt's jackets. Matt likes to place his jacket on Cooper's "lap" when he's in the car seat as he takes Cooper to the car. Matt always says, "Cooper, can you hold this for me?" and then says, "Thanks!" as Cooper smiles up at him and joyfully stuffs large fistfuls of the jacket into his mouth. Cooper doesn't "hold" the jacket for Dad once he's in the car (suffocation/choking hazard for sure) so he has to revert back to sucking on his fists or a nice safe toy at that point.
Most of these skills are far ahead of the average baby motor skills chart. What is amusing is that his social abilities (smiling, laughing, cooing, eye contact) are very average and normal.
So basically, he's a jock-baby.
Lastly, I learned a few weeks ago that all the Rad-siblings learned to walk at 9 months old, including the middle child who had to have corrective surgery on his legs (not from the early walking- from a preexisting issue). I'm seeing this coming, I think. That will be just in time for Christmas!
Likewise, he has started to do a fairly impressive pre-crawl. This scares me, frankly. I am not in the least bit ready for crawling, and thus, pre-crawling is a bit nerve wracking. This takes the form of stretching his arms forward, scootching butt into the air, pulling knees under butt, and then plowing his forehead downward and forward. This is in pursuit of a toy, of course, and in short order he can move about three feet forward before erupting in frustrated screeches as a result of jamming the crown of his head into the crib's walls. He usually misses the toy entirely, plowing right on by and getting even more frustrated. His speed of movement is pretty impressive, considering the friction he has to overcome from his face and chest still being mostly flat on the mattress. Watching him do it, you can see that all he needs to do is figure out that his push-ups (which he is very good at) need to work with his knee tucking and then he'll be fully crawling. Oh dear.
He's also getting really good at his practice sitting and practice standing. He can practice sitting for a few minutes, as long as my fingers are in his hands (which means my fingers are in his mouth, and he's balancing himself using just his gums). His practice standing is unbelievable- he can stand with just minimal balance control from his hands- about the same skill level as his sitting. He can't get into either a sitting or standing position by himself, but once there, he's quite good at practicing the activity with my or Matt's help.
Cooper also has recently learned that his hands will do his bidding. This is almost always grabbing something and bringing it into his mouth. Exciting objects include his own shirt (a favorite, as it cannot be dropped or lost), his various spit rags, house keys (oooo! jingly!), his elephant toy, his crinkle-bee toy, his pineapple rattle, our fingers (salty!) and Matt's jackets. Matt likes to place his jacket on Cooper's "lap" when he's in the car seat as he takes Cooper to the car. Matt always says, "Cooper, can you hold this for me?" and then says, "Thanks!" as Cooper smiles up at him and joyfully stuffs large fistfuls of the jacket into his mouth. Cooper doesn't "hold" the jacket for Dad once he's in the car (suffocation/choking hazard for sure) so he has to revert back to sucking on his fists or a nice safe toy at that point.
Most of these skills are far ahead of the average baby motor skills chart. What is amusing is that his social abilities (smiling, laughing, cooing, eye contact) are very average and normal.
So basically, he's a jock-baby.
Lastly, I learned a few weeks ago that all the Rad-siblings learned to walk at 9 months old, including the middle child who had to have corrective surgery on his legs (not from the early walking- from a preexisting issue). I'm seeing this coming, I think. That will be just in time for Christmas!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Major disappointment
I'm really bummed about something here. A few days ago I ate a whole bunch of roasted beets. They were delicious with butter and dill- mmmmmmm...
Beets turn just about everything fuschia; first your hands, the cutting board, and your teeth turn pink. Then, you can count on light pink pee about 8 hours later, and pink poop the next day.
I am really disappointed to report that breastmilk does not turn pink when you eat beets. I know it was a stretch to think the beet pigments could get into the milk, but I also know that some artificial colors get into breastmilk (I read that some gatorade flavors will make your milk look light greenish-gray) so it didn't seem thaaaat unreasonable. So yeah, I'm disappointed. I was really excited at the prospect of pink milk.
Beets turn just about everything fuschia; first your hands, the cutting board, and your teeth turn pink. Then, you can count on light pink pee about 8 hours later, and pink poop the next day.
I am really disappointed to report that breastmilk does not turn pink when you eat beets. I know it was a stretch to think the beet pigments could get into the milk, but I also know that some artificial colors get into breastmilk (I read that some gatorade flavors will make your milk look light greenish-gray) so it didn't seem thaaaat unreasonable. So yeah, I'm disappointed. I was really excited at the prospect of pink milk.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
A little person
Some might argue that Cooper has been a little person for a long time, like since birth, or even before that. I know that I'm not supposed to say it as he is my kid and all, but really, to me he wasn't much of a little person until he was about six weeks old. Before that he was really just a newborn. As a newborn he didn't have a lot of amusement value or socializing abilities. Mostly he concerned himself with spastic movements, bodily functions, and extremely loud crying. Oh, and being loved unconditionally, of course.
Since about the six week mark, he's gotten far more "little person." Smiles, good steady eye contact, clearly showing that he recognizes us, being soothe-able the majority of the time... these are the marks of a reasonably human-type infant (in my book).
Now that he is three months old, I feel as though he's really blossomed into his personhood. He smiles, laughs, and giggles. He loves to be tickled, and clearly appreciates it when we make funny, unexpected sounds (by opening his eyes really wide and waving his arms excitedly). He talks to us in his soft, throaty baby voice, and makes cooing sounds when he wants our attention. He grins broadly at strangers who then almost always smile back, which makes him get excited and squirm in glee.
Cooper's coordination and movement skills are improving daily. He now bats at his toys on purpose and occasionally grabs onto things, which inevitably then leads to sticking them in his mouth. He can roll over both ways and has become a very opinionated side sleeper- I can gently roll him onto his back 5 times in one nap without dissuading him from rolling onto his side when I'm not looking. He skootches around on his back in the crib and has made it from one side to the other in his sleep. In fact, he does this so much that he's developed a bald spot on his head that was never there before. I'm pretty sure it is from the skootching about, or possibly his daily lengthy conversations with his mobile.
If I put him in a sitting position and coax him into holding onto my thumbs like the handlebars of a bicycle, he can stay sitting with just those fingers to help as he watches the world go by, sucks on his knuckles, and smiles at me. He's also gotten quite good at his "practice standing" and now can stand totally alone for a fraction of a second without any support, before he topples over into our hands. Of course he can't get into a standing position without us putting him there, but once there he can stay up for a pretty decent amount of time as long as we prevent him from toppling with gentle rib-cage support.
I can't believe that at three months our kid can do so many real baby things. It shocks me daily how fast he's changing- one day he can only stare at a toy, the next day he can grab it and stick it in his mouth.
The one thing he has yet to do, or want to do, is drink from a bottle. Sure, he's taken down 1/2 and ounce, and even almost 1 ounce a few times. But lately all we get is intense screaming fits... oh well. I guess I can applaud his dedication to the anti-bottle cause.
I read a few days ago that some babies can learn to drink from a sippy cup at only 5 months. We are SO THERE.
Since about the six week mark, he's gotten far more "little person." Smiles, good steady eye contact, clearly showing that he recognizes us, being soothe-able the majority of the time... these are the marks of a reasonably human-type infant (in my book).
Now that he is three months old, I feel as though he's really blossomed into his personhood. He smiles, laughs, and giggles. He loves to be tickled, and clearly appreciates it when we make funny, unexpected sounds (by opening his eyes really wide and waving his arms excitedly). He talks to us in his soft, throaty baby voice, and makes cooing sounds when he wants our attention. He grins broadly at strangers who then almost always smile back, which makes him get excited and squirm in glee.
Cooper's coordination and movement skills are improving daily. He now bats at his toys on purpose and occasionally grabs onto things, which inevitably then leads to sticking them in his mouth. He can roll over both ways and has become a very opinionated side sleeper- I can gently roll him onto his back 5 times in one nap without dissuading him from rolling onto his side when I'm not looking. He skootches around on his back in the crib and has made it from one side to the other in his sleep. In fact, he does this so much that he's developed a bald spot on his head that was never there before. I'm pretty sure it is from the skootching about, or possibly his daily lengthy conversations with his mobile.
If I put him in a sitting position and coax him into holding onto my thumbs like the handlebars of a bicycle, he can stay sitting with just those fingers to help as he watches the world go by, sucks on his knuckles, and smiles at me. He's also gotten quite good at his "practice standing" and now can stand totally alone for a fraction of a second without any support, before he topples over into our hands. Of course he can't get into a standing position without us putting him there, but once there he can stay up for a pretty decent amount of time as long as we prevent him from toppling with gentle rib-cage support.
I can't believe that at three months our kid can do so many real baby things. It shocks me daily how fast he's changing- one day he can only stare at a toy, the next day he can grab it and stick it in his mouth.
The one thing he has yet to do, or want to do, is drink from a bottle. Sure, he's taken down 1/2 and ounce, and even almost 1 ounce a few times. But lately all we get is intense screaming fits... oh well. I guess I can applaud his dedication to the anti-bottle cause.
I read a few days ago that some babies can learn to drink from a sippy cup at only 5 months. We are SO THERE.
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