Funny Happenings

   Last week was slightly hellish, this week seemed filled with funny little happenings. I don't have any pictures to document these things, and considering what they are it is probably a good thing. I will be quick with the details:

   On Tuesday Oliver jumped out of his crib. He had just woken up, we heard just a few shouts over the monitor and then a CRASH. I ran into his room and he was face down on the floor. I have no idea how he got over the side of the crib, and also no idea how he avoided smashing himself on the corner of the dresser. He seems to be uninjured though, so that is all that matters. Unfortunately about ten minutes later, he fell off my bed as well. Who says lightening won't ever strike the same place twice?

  On Thursday three things happened:
  He got bit by another kid at daycare. The teachers claim to not know exactly who did it because they didn't see it happen. But I can say from the bite mark that whoever did it has a serious set of chompers. Not all kids his age have all their teeth, but this one did. Oliver had a nasty dark red bite mark on his arm. I know kids sometimes bite, but if I find out who this tiny Hannibal Lecter is, I just might bite him back.

   The second noteworthy happening occurred that same night. He was taking his bath and took a dump in the tub. I don't need to describe it, but it was gross.

   After that unpleasantness, as I was putting his pajamas on I noticed that he has the first sprout of his first molar! Poor guy, that must have been what ruined him last week. I wish I could tell him that the worst is behind him, but I think it is only beginning. Do they make IV drips of Infant Ibuprofen?

It's just a phase, I call it "Being an Asshole."

When taking a walk,
never forget your bucket.

    This past week, Oliver has been a total asshole. I hate saying that about my sweet little dude. I'm not sure using those kinds of words to describe my child is a good parenting choice. But just between you and me, he's been a total dick this week. I am going to put my conscience at ease by prefacing this post with the statement that I never call him that to his face and I try to not use those words in his presence. TRY is all I can commit to right now. 

   I don't know what is going on with him that is causing this phase of discontent, but the dude is not pleased. I'm sure there is some reason: he just sprouted a new tooth, and there are probably more on the way. He is going through a growth spurt. He had a touch of a cold. Blah, blah, blah, isn't that how it ALWAYS is with kids? He is 16 months old, there is never a time when he hasn't had one of those things going on. If he isn't sick, he's teething, he just got shots, he crapped his pants, SOMETHING is always messing with him. Being a baby is hard. But usually he tolerates it pretty well. For example, last month he had some kind of virus and ran a fever for ten days straight and was not even half the jerk he's been this week. Usually, the kid is pretty happy.

   Not this week. From the moment he wakes up he's pissed. And I should mention, he has been waking up super early. Today I heard him awake at 4:50 AM. Usually he might wake up that early, but within a few minutes he will go right back to sleep. Not today. He yelled and screamed in his crib until I finally dragged myself from my bed to go to him at 5:30. It is serious torture to have to miss the last half hour of sleep. That last half hour is so precious, and I think the bed gets more comfortable the closer you get to your alarm going off. No use in whining about it though because Oliver is already whining and he is much better at it then me. His whining is much louder and sounds like an injured dinosaur.

ON the table is the only acceptable place
to eat one's crackers.

    The dinosaur screech has become his main mode of communication this week. Normally Oliver is quite competent verbally. He knows lots and lots of words and mimics constantly. He is good about pointing at what he wants and saying please and thank you. His thank you sounds like "hank hew," it is absolutely adorable. But not this week. Words have escaped him. All he is able to do is shriek and yell NO. He only wants things he isn't allowed to play with. He ABSOLUTELY has to play in the kitchen knife drawer or in the cabinet of heinous chemicals. And when those things aren't made available to him immediately, he screams and cries and acts like you are abusing him. When he does point at something that is safe and acceptable to play with, as soon as you hand it to him he shoves it away and shrieks NO! Then cries like you are abusing him. It is a no-win situation. I totally understand why parents give their kids horrible sweet treats or let them play with the I-pad just to get them to shut their yell-holes.

    At daycare his teachers say he is just fine. Great actually. No problems. He eats well, he sleeps well, he's a joy to have around. I know this happens a lot, its quite common actually. The kid saves his breakdowns for home and is awesome around strangers. How is this fair? I'm the one who birthed him and nurtured him with my body. I'm the one who rocks him to sleep and soothes every tear. My every waking hour revolves around him, and that is how he rewards me? I know this behavior is very natural, but that doesn't mean that its cool. I'm told that I should take it as a compliment because he feels comfortable enough with me to express his true feelings and frustrations. Talk about a shitty way to compliment someone. Imagine if adults functioned like that: "Hey best friend! I smashed your glasses and took a dump on your pillow. 'Cause I LOVE YOU!!!"

Be my chair mama.

    Lets hope this jerk phase ends quickly and my sweet funny guy comes back to me. Maybe this weekend is going to be great, or maybe I will pick him up from daycare and he will give me one of his awesome slobber-kisses and we will go home and play like we used to do. I know this is only temporary and with it comes growth and possibly new teeth. In the meantime I hope my patience holds out and make frequent stops for wine on the way home from work.

    

Drunken Midget

   We are right in the midst of the drunken midget stage. Oliver is walking, but still a bit unsteady. He can make it all the way across a room, if nothing gets in his way. Unfortunately life is a cruel mistress and often tests him with all sorts of things: carpet, toys, the dog, the cat, and the worst beast of them all, gravity. Sometimes I wonder if Oliver's large head causes some of this gravity issues, that giant dome must be heavy. Slowly and surely he makes progress. Crawling is still faster, but walking allows freedom of the hands to carry important stuff, like a wooden spoon and the remote control. All this walking does set my mind at ease however, I was getting a bit stressed about him being able to walk by the end of August. That was the deadline for him to be able to enter his new daycare. But I think he's got it in the bag now.

With Daddy on Father's Day.

   There are lots of new words too. I will try to list all of them. He knows the dog's name and one of the cat's names. He can say kitty and meow. "Bubble" is a favorite word, not only because he LOVES bubbles, but I think he has attached that word to anything he wants to play with. I think he does a similar thing with the word Daddy. He calls Easan daddy, but I also have witnessed him calling other men daddy. I do think he knows the difference between Easan and the random glumpy dude walking his dog past our house, but he hasn't learned how to say "mope" or "that guy's got nothin' goin' for him." (That was a shout out to my dad and his famous sayings.) He can also say water and banana, but those sound more like "wawa" and "nana." Easan cautions me about repeating his incorrect pronunciations back to him, something about how kids don't end up learning the correct words for a long time when their parents do that, and it apparently tears gaping ignorant holes in the fabric of our language. Linguistics nerds, what can I say?

Got to see his favorite animal at the zoo.

   Oliver also knows an impressive library of animal sounds. His favorite is the elephant which involves a spitting noise and waving your arm like a trunk. Tigers, lions, bears, sharks and most other predators make a whispered roaring noise. Cats say "mao mao,"  dogs say "arf arf," ducks say "ah ah ah." Wolves howl, birds tweet, mice squeak, lobsters and crabs make pinchy motions with their hands, roosters and other birds squawk and sheep say BAA. We go through the animal book every damn day. The kid has it down. 

   The kid is doing so much cute stuff I could go on all day. He blows kisses, gives high fives, and dances. Oh man, the baby dancing is just rad. Sometimes when he's feeling funky he will stomp his foot, sometimes he waves his arms, and sometimes he will do an awesome pelvic thrust combined with an arm in the air. That one is my favorite.

   

Talking, Walking and Teeth

   

Ahh the freedom of a bike! Oliver loves
the feeling of the wind in his hair.

   The last few weeks have been all about talking, walking and teething. Doing all three at the same time makes for some exciting and exhausting days. I don't know how the teachers at daycare do it. Oliver isn't quite able to walk yet, but he has started to cruise and works at it every single minute of the day. He pulls up on everything and has mastered the smooth transition from standing to sitting back down, well most of the time. He is starting to move along furniture and is growing his confidence. Yesterday I watched him go from the ottoman to the coffee table, a move that involved an unassisted rotation. I also saw him attempt to stand up from a sitting position without holding on to anything. He made it up wobbled then plopped on his butt. I am so proud of his progress. I anticipate independent steps soon!

   Talking is taking off all of a sudden too. Just in the past few weeks Oliver has discovered a whole world of new sounds. He rattles them off in entire sentences of gibberish. You can tell he is experimenting with his new words. He is curious about everything too, he points at everything and says "dat? dat?" Sometimes your answer will amuse him inexplicably. Last night while we were getting him ready for bed we were putting on his Elmos pajamas. He really like his elmo jams and mostly just wants to hold them and point at them, rather than wearing them. This time however, he was saying "Meh-mo! Meh-mo!" So it is official, at 13 months, Oliver can say Elmo.

    If those two things aren't big enough, to go along with it Oliver is working on some new teeth. I'm still not sure which ones are coming in, but I am suspecting it's either the canines or maybe one of the early molars. These suckers have been brutal. Poor little guy is IN PAIN. He is having trouble eating, and often furiously spits out whatever he is eating and CRIES. As a result he hasn't been eating much, and is even fussy when nursing. Last week he got an ear infection which sometimes comes with new teeth, and this week his diaper rash has inexplicable gotten really bad. Poor thing, not only does his mouth hurt but his butt is super red and itchy. I've been told the canines are hard core when they come in and they take a while too, so I am thinking that may be what is going on. Either way, I hope it eases up soon and gives him a little break. The kid has so much going on already!

Oliver's First Birthday Bash!

The cupcake toppers!

    My sweet little man turned one on May 6th. We threw him a birthday party on Saturday, May 4th at the Vineyard. We invited family and a few friends who had kids Oliver's age. I printed some cute party decor with a woodland animal theme. Instead of little hats we had little cut out ears. Oliver wore his 3-piece seer-sucker suit with bow tie. He got tons of presents, but was mostly impressed with the wrapping paper. We let him try a cupcake but I think he was a little overwhelmed by the singing and sugar. See for yourself!

Ladies, I'm serious AND available.

You've never seen a bunny in a suit?

All the other guests were girls, Oliver has a promising future.

"Hey! Check out these Duplo!"

"They are the perfect size for my mouth."

I'm a bear.

I like this girl's yellow pants.

Cutie pie Teagan!

Easan's mom knitted him a beautiful blanket.

It's my party and I'm gonna cry.

"Does this hat match my suit?"

"This will work perfectly when I go raiding this winter."

"Thanks Grandpa Bill!"

Friend Penny showing Oliver how to walk.

Not sure about this cupcake, but the hat brings confidence.

Good party mama, time for my blanket and a bink.

Oliver the Night Owl

   Ever since Oliver has become mobile there have been some funny night time happenings. Before when he would wake up in the middle of the night he would just lay there and cry until attended to. Now he actually gets up and plays around in his crib. Often he doesn't make much noise so sometimes I wonder how long he was awake before I noticed. I guess if he is happy then it isn't really a problem. He hasn't quite figured out that he can just lay back down and go to sleep without my help yet, hopefully that happens soon.
    The other night after we put Oliver down for his regular bed time at 7pm, I went to visit my friend. While I was gone and Easan was watching him, Oliver stayed awake for another hour and a half playing in his crib. Crawling around the crib, clapping his hands, laughing at stuff, shaking the bars of the crib, snuggling his blanket. We can see all of this on the video monitor. The camera for the monitor is attached to the top rail of the crib with zip ties. Then something adorable happened. Easan got it all on tape:

Oliver Update

    Since I am a terrible blogger who can't manage to write anything down more than once every few months, I have decided that instead of trying to be witty and creative and thinking up specific topics for blog posts I am just going to use it as a way to chronicle Oliver's childhood. That is what I intended this blog to be in the beginning and I think I got a bit ahead of myself trying to be all writerly about it. Yes I did just make up a word.

     Lots has happened that I feel the need to document so i don't forget it later. I am just going to list them to avoid the previous writer problem.

• Teeth - Oliver now has six teeth. Four on top and two on bottom. He got the bottom two first and at the exact same time when he was 8 months old. I remember right before we went on the cruise in January he sprouted the little suckers. Then he got three at the same time on top. The left middle one, the left incisor and the right incisor. For some reason the right middle one (also called an incisor, I just looked it up) got skipped at first. Not long after those three erupted the right middle came along too. Those top three happened when he was ten months old. Also, they are crooked. 
• Crawling - Oliver has started crawling at 11 months old. The first day he crawled on his own was April 13th 2013. He was home with daddy while I was at Aunt Priya's wedding shower. After that he can't be stopped. He doesn't crawl in the traditional way but sticks his leg out like a kick stand.

Eating a Bean

• Food - Oliver is eating all sorts of things now. He still eats some of the pureed stuff but mostly as a way to get veggies in him without him choking. He loves starches and is all about pasta, rice, breads, tortillas, and any kind of baked goods. He loves beans especially black beans and kidney beans. For a while he was eating so many kidney beans that we started calling them Bugga Beans. He has backed off those a bit however. He hates yogurt, which is strange because he loved it for a week and then changed his mind. Any kind of food he doesn't like he gets angry at and tries to hit off of his tray. It is quite amusing. He loves fruit, Easan calls him his little fruit bat cause he downs bananas and grapes so enthusiastically. I make fruit purees for him to mix with cereal of just eat plain. Also, peas for some reason peas are a winner. When he won't eat any other veggie you can always fall back on peas. I have started mixing spinach in with the pea puree to get some more nutrients and he digs that too.
• Hair - still not much hair, but the stuff he does have is getting longer. He gets awesome little curly wings on the sides and sometimes the top curls up too. 
• Talking - He is doing lots of talking. Not much of it is very understandable but I feel like he converses a lot in his own way. We are pretty sure his first word was Duck, he started saying that about 8 months. He also says "vroom" when playing with cars, he knows that dogs say "oof oof oof" and cats make a high pitch squealing noise. When he drops something he says "UH OH!" and he also likes to point at things and say "whats that?" Except it sounds more like "uts dat?" The question is more rhetorical than actual I think. He of course can say Dada and Mama. Other than those words there is lots of chatter that is not distinguishable yet. He will respond when you ask him stuff and he is loving to exercise his vocal cords with a lot of screeching. One of the games he thinks is absolutely hilarious is the back and forth mimic game. He will make a little high pitched squeak then you copy it, he laughs then does it again. This can go on for a good long time and sometimes devolves into tickling and raspberry blowing on the belly.

Those are some of the major updates that I have happened in the last few months. I feel less anxious now that they are recorded. My head is a bad place for these precious memories...

Oliver's First Christmas

Oliver is in the Christmas spirit.

   Christmas this year has taken on new meaning for us. Oliver is seven months old and although I know he won't remember it, it has special meaning for me and Easan. Christmas has always been a time to hang out with family, exchange gifts, drink too much wine and play silly games that end up in vulgar hilarity. The holiday traditions for me start with my mom's Christmas tree. She always puts up the most amazing tree. It is huge, sparkling with lights and dripping with ornaments. My mom was super thoughtful and collected ornaments for me since I was little, so I have a great selection for decorating my own tree. This year I wasn't really in the mood for a tree. Our living room is overflowing with baby stuff and I didn't want to add another thing I would have to clean up after. When I told Easan I didn't want a tree he indignantly exclaimed "But we HAVE to! For OLIVER!" I didn't realize he felt so strongly about it. I relented and we got a tree the next weekend. 

Mom would only let me chew
the soft ornaments

   Decorating the tree with Easan and Oliver was a great afternoon. Easan is usually a huge scrooge about Christmas stuff. He had me cracking up after one vehement rant about christmas scents: "What is the deal with all the damn Christmas smells? NO ONE LIKES CINAMMON, OR GINGERBREAD, OR PUMPKIN SPICE!!!" Well I guess the christmas industry had it wrong all these years. After I accused him of being a scrooge about Christmas, he bought his nieces advent calendars and exclaimed "SEE! I'm  FUN! I bought advent calendars!" Let the good times roll. 
    Anyway, in a completely uncharacteristically festive mood, Easan put on some christmas music and was helping me decorate the tree. "Whats with the music? I thought you hated Christmas music." I asked him. He declared that since it was Oliver's first christmas, it was a different and that he could tolerate some christmas songs. He did have to sing along, changing all the lyrics to be inappropriate and usually about farts. Christmas fart songs always get you in the holiday spirit.  

Every little kid needs an Elmo

We spent Christmas Day at Grandma and Grandpa Selvan's house with the entire Selvan clan. It was fairly chaotic with twelve people and a mountain of presents. Poor Little Oliver was fighting an ear infection so he had a bit of a rough day. After it all I was thinking about Christmas with a baby and how it all seems more important now. Being with family sometimes feels like an obligation as an adult. But now that I am responsible for the healthy development of a tiny yet awesome human I realize that it is about building a foundation. These people are part of his foundation and spending the holidays together creates some of his earliest and strongest memories. I know in years to come there will be lots more kids (not all mine) and that means a whole chorus of fart songs. Strong foundations, that's what it is all about. 

Wrapping paper tubes make great swords

The Travel Challenge Part One: Driving to Denver

   Our first vacation with Oliver was a week long trip to Denver. We not only drove to Denver but we also stayed in a hotel for a week. I was a little nervous about the car ride because it was eight hours totally dependent on the whims of an infant. Oliver is an extremely laid back kid and tends to handle new things well so I put my faith in his ability to keep his cool. My confidence in him was rewarded. He did great and seemed to enjoy all the new experiences.

   The car trip started off well, we left in the morning and Oliver immediately fell asleep. He slept for two hours. Easan and I were able to sit up front together and talk and tick away those miles. He woke up when we stopped and I changed him and tried to nurse him. He wasn't too into nursing in the car, so I plugged in my pump (love having a car with a regular plug in the back seat) and pumped a bottle for him. He drank the whole bottle no problem. After that, I didn't even try to nurse him in the car, just pumped a bottle and fed him in his seat. That way Easan could drive and we wouldn't lose any time. We took turns sitting in the back with him, playing with toys, watching Sesame Street on the tablet and playing peek-a-boo with the blanket. Easan is particularly masterful at peek-a-boo. He started getting a little cranky as we arrived at the city limits of Denver. It had been eight hours of driving and the kid doesn't get cranky until the very end? Not too bad.

Ready to hit the town in Denver.

 We stayed in a Hotel downtown for the entire week. Funny the things you get nervous about and the things that don't even phase you. I was all worried about the drive, but the thought of sharing a hotel room with an infant for a week didn't even occur to me as a bad idea. A friend said something about it right before we left, but it was too late to change our plans. Luckily, Oliver did great once again. He slept in the pack-and-play just fine even when the light was still on and Easan and I were still awake watching TV.  And he didn't really cry at night, much to the relief of our neighbors. The cutest thing about staying in a hotel with a baby is how he became a little celebrity. As one valet eloquently put it "Damn! That's a cute-ass baby!" Everyone loved to see him and he drew lots of attention every time we brought him with us to the hotel bar's happy hour. Yes we brought our baby to the bar for a drink. We couldn't leave him in the room!

Oliver met a shark!

Denver was a blast, Oliver and I went to the Aquarium, the zoo, the Museum of Science and Nature and the Denver Art Museum. I think he most enjoyed the aquarium and the art museum. The aquarium was full of exhibits that surrounded you on all sides which he seemed intrigued by. Unfortunately, it was also full of really loud little kids who at one point made him cry. the jerks! The zoo may have been a little advanced for him, he didn't seem to register many of the animals, except for the Monkey Island exhibit. There were all kinds of monkeys running all over the place and they kinda looked like kitties. Oliver was intrigued. 

One happy guy even after eight hours of driving.

   The drive home was even better than the drive there. Oliver was cheerful the entire way back. But the best part of the trip home was when we actually arrived back at our house. Oliver was so excited to be home. When we took him out of the seat, he was looking all around and squealing and kicking his legs. We put him in his jumper and he bounced ecstatically while making happy shrieks. I guess the kid missed his house.
  


 Things I learned about long drives with the kid: distraction and naps all the way.

Daycare Days

   Since mid September Oliver has been going to daycare full time. On a recommendation from a friend, we found a lovely little home daycare run by a fantastic lady named Margaret. She only has three other kids there, one girl and two other boys. All are older than Oliver and as a result he quickly became their baby and gets a lot of attention. Margaret takes great care of him, and is very accommodating to our needs. Primarily, she lets us use cloth diapers and doesn't mind me coming over the lunch hour to nurse. 
   I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about daycare. I was very lucky to be able to keep Oliver with me for the first four months. Most moms are not so lucky. I was a little worried about his transition with things like napping and eating. He really didn't take a bottle well and was exclusively breast fed, so I was worried he wouldn't eat for her. Also, his napping schedule was really random, but that wasn't really a problem when he was with me, but how would it work in a daycare full of noisy toddlers? But in addition to those questions, I worried how I would handle the transition. Oliver is the most important person in my life and I spend most of my time thinking about him or at least in the back of my mind. I chafed at the idea that someone else gets to spend all of his waking hours with him, and all I got were the few hours after work when he was usually at his crankiest. It didn't seem fair. It seemed even less fair when I discovered that the majority of first world countries gave many more months of maternity leave than the US does, and it is paid or at least partially subsidized. I worried that he would like Margaret more than me, and she would be the one to see all his first moments. 

Anders and Oliver

   Luckily, Margaret was well versed in dealing with parents. I am sure the parent's issues are often worse than the kids. She was very calm and reassuring, but at the same time not coddling. She assured me she would call if Oliver were inconsolable at all. Of course she never had to call. Oliver did great. In fact, I can securely say he LOVES daycare. He has so much fun and has taken to the other kids. Now when he is at home with me on weekends, sometimes I feel like he is bored. Daycare has better toys and more friends. He has become besties with one of the little boys named Anders. Anders called Oliver MY baby, with emphasis on the MY. He always runs to see him when I show up in the morning, and climbs up on a stool to peer in at him in the car seat. He brings him toys during the day, and is very gentle when replacing his bink if it falls out or is snatched out by another kid. Why are other kids fascinated with babies' pacifiers? This seems to be true at least with all the kids Oliver and I have encountered. 
   Flash forward: it has been almost three months of daycare and I realize that I have very different feelings about it now. I love that Oliver gets to be with other kids and do neat things every day. I probably wouldn't be nearly as stimulating and entertaining for him if I were a stay at home mom. At least I would really have to step up my game and figure out activities and play dates every day and I am WAY too lazy for that. I also no longer worry that he will forget me, or like Margaret more. I understand that I am not the ONLY person in his life, and he can like others and still love me. And there is one thing that I have that no one else has, the almighty boob. I am still breastfeeding Oliver on a regular basis and that role can't be supplanted. 
   The other neat result of daycare is my fondness for Margaret. Since I go there at lunch to nurse Oliver, I see her a lot and we chat about things. She is very knowledgeable about children, was trained as a midwife and is generally a very down to earth hippy-type like me. She is kind and thoughtful and I know she genuinely cares about Oliver and is happy to see him every day. I look forward to seeing her too and feel very lucky to have such a person filling that role in Oliver's life. 

How long has it been?

   I am officially the worst blogger ever. I kept meaning to write a new post, and here it is like four months later? Time sure flies when you have an infant. So here is a whirlwind catch up post on Oliver. He is now almost SEVEN months old! At his last weigh in he was 19 pounds. Still bald. Eating solids. Sitting up on his own. Still not sleeping through the night. But most importantly, he is a really happy dude. Just look at him in this bin! How is it possible to be that happy in a bin? It is my firm goal to write a couple posts about some of the things we have done in the past few months. Specifically: eating new foods, traveling, and daycare. 
Life with Oliver is super fun!

Swimming!!! Well, kinda...

Ready to swim!

Oliver's first trip to the pool! Well, to be specific, we were at the children's wading pool that is a maximum of 12 inches deep. We were invited to a birthday party for a 2 year old and we thought it would be a great opportunity to see how the little man would react to cool water on a hot day. The answer? Not so well. We got one foot in and he cried. Probably shouldn't have bothered to apply all that sun screen before we took our "dip." But the morning wasn't a total lost cause, we got to put him in his adorable baby swim trunks!

This is about as far as we got

Easan was chosen to hold the "babies"
for the birthday girl. What a handsome daddy!

That ankle dip was tiring!

2 Months Old!

Feeling patriotic on the 4th. America!

   Oliver is two months old! I can't believe it. My tiny baby is becoming a bigger baby! I can't believe how the time flies. He has chubby cheeks, and a tiny little double chin. His thighs are getting rolls, his elbows gaining dimples and even his wrists are getting the little fold of fat. He is showing his personality by smiling and laughing. 
   He is becoming more mobile, he can turn himself in a circle by kicking his legs in the air and inching around on his back. But I think his favorite activity by far is changing table kicks. It is the most adorable site. You take off his diaper and he's off! He kicks furiously and almost always pees on something. The peeing is probably his favorite because it always makes him laugh. That is probably going to be a problem later. 

Laying on his tummy helps with gas.

   Everyone asks how he is sleeping. I feel like it could be a lot worse. He is sleeping for longer stretches at night, but not completely through the night yet. The most he has slept at once is about five hours but the usual night time routine is sleep about four to five hours, wake up for a feeding then sleep three to fours more hours. I am still pretty tired, but Easan helps me out a lot by letting me sleep in on weekends and covering me for naps. 
   I went back to work this week, but I have the little man with me. I either work from home or bring him to the office. It was an interesting transition and I definitely don't have all the kinks worked out yet. I have a little bouncy seat and an activity gym for him in my office, and he seems content falling asleep there. I guess I just need to own it and not feel like I am constantly going to disturb everyone if he makes the slightest peep. Luckily he isn't too loud and I try to keep him home if he is having a fussy day and take advantage of the good days. We will get it figured out and it is slow during the summer at work anyway.

DIAPERS!!!

We've been using cloth diapers and although they are saving us money, they are requiring a lot of loads of laundry. The lazy side of me wonders how long I will continue to use them when disposables are so easy. But while I am still at home on maternity leave doing my daily load of diapers and hanging them to dry in the sun has me feeling seriously pastoral. Who would have thought the daily load of diapers would be so much fun? 

New Mom Neurosis

    During my trek through pregnancy and the first month of being a mom (yes, little man is four weeks old!) I have received volumes of advice and anecdotes from my many friends and family members. I have listened patiently to everyone's input and tried to give each opinion some consideration or at least an attempt to understand where they come from. Being new at this, I am cautious to form any strong opinions knowing that they could immediately go wrong. In the many months of preparation and pregnancy I can officially say that my favorite piece of advice and the one that has rang true for me is from my good friend Liz. Liz and her husband Brad were friends of ours before they had kids, then when their first daughter Scarlet came along they became those friends who have the kid you want to have. Scarlet was (and still is) such a doll, so cute and fun and good. Easan and I marveled at how awesome she was and at one point I asked Liz how she did it. Liz said "It's not that complicated, you get what you put in, you put in calm, you get calm. You put in crazy, you get crazy." I have remembered that advice ever since and in the last four weeks of being a new mom I have made it my mantra. 
    There is something about being a new mom that makes you a little bit crazy. I am sure the hormones have something to do with it. I am a pretty calm and rational person, but I have been feeling some of the crazy creeping up on me so I decided to write this blog post about the neurosis that have accompanied my first month as a mom. Maybe venting my anxiety will make it a little less frightening inside my own head. 
   I am furiously in love with my baby. Oliver has become my everything, and I cannot imagine a more amazing little being. But with this insane love comes an insane fear, that some how he is going to be taken away from me. I feel as if I am too lucky to have him, and that he cannot last long. He is just too good to be true. My rational mind tells me this is crazy and that I have no reason to fear this. But the stronger crazy new mom side of my brain is doing a constant running tally of all the things I have read or been told to watch out for. Offender number one is the giant looming specter of SIDS. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. This terrifying anagram can actually encompass any unexplained death of an infant under the age of one. Sometimes they get smothered in their sleep by getting caught in their bedding or sometimes their heart stops for no reason while sleeping. It is always without warning. Although SIDS happens enough to be a recognized threat, it is still very rare. So rare that I shouldn't even allow it to scare me. But it does. Every single day. I find myself thinking about how horrible it would be to find his lifeless body in his crib one morning, or how to call my parents to tell them that Oliver is no longer with us. Sounds crazy right? I know it does, yet still I do it, all the time. I won't go into all the crazy scenarios that run through my brain, because there are a lot of them, and they are all completely unlikely and completely pointless for me to worry about. 

The most precious...

   So what do I do? Is this "normal" for me to feel this way? Some people would say that I am jinxing myself to talk about it, but I don't agree. I feel like the more that I examine it, the less power it has over me. The less possibility it has statistically to occur. I don't know what statistics have to do with this, but I feel like vocalizing my irrational fears will lower the probability of any of them happening. As if they are some kind of monster that lives and grows inside my head and by speaking about them they deflate and look stupid. I write this in the hope that it is enough. That I can use my mantra from my friend Liz to keep the crazy down to a manageable level. Deflate the giant specter of the unknown to a shriveled and basically impossible statistic that has absolutely no ability to touch my sweet little man. Remove all trace of irrational loony tune fears so that all I put into my child is calm and mellow good vibrations. Stop feeling guilty for feeling so much love, because being filled with love for your child is not a punishable offense. That is my hope. I guess now all I can do is wait and see if it works. 

Major Milestones

Oliver at two days old, barely awake.

   Oliver is almost two weeks old and I find myself brimming with pride over some funny little things. First is his prowess at breast feeding. This may not be impressive to anyone else, many of you might think, "he's a baby, that's what he's supposed to do..." But breast feeding isn't necessarily something that comes easily to all babies and all moms. Some babies get it right off the bat, and some have troubles. Oliver had some trouble at first for a few reasons. First of all, he had a more than normal amount of jaundice after he was born. All babies are born with a small amount of jaundice, in the womb the placenta does the job of removing old red blood cells for the baby, and after they are born their liver must take over, and it takes a few days to get the levels under control. Perfectly normal and not at all harmful. However for some babies their levels are higher than normal and in the worst case scenario they go under special blue lights to break down the blood cells through photo therapy. Oliver had a bruise on the top of his head from the delivery (sorry for 

Oliver at almost two weeks old,
looking suave

that little man!) As a result he had more red blood cells to break down making him more jaundiced than normal. He wasn't so bad that he had to go under the lights, but he did struggle with extreme sleepiness as a result (also a totally normal side effect.) This creates a major problem when trying to feed him because we couldn't wake him up to eat. Breastfeeding was basically not possible at that point because he wouldn't wake up to do the work to get the food, so I ended up using a breast pump to get him the necessary food and we also supplemented with a little formula. I wasn't really happy about having to give him formula, but the nurses explained to me that the best way to get him over the jaundice is to help him pee and poo as much as possible. The broken down blood cells would come out in his waste and help to lower his bilirubin levels. So of course, you do what your baby needs. Luckily we only had to supplement him for a few days until my milk came in. The jaundice started to lighten up after about four or five days and Oliver started to be more awake. Once he was more awake, he took to eating like a little shark, his appetite has been really healthy ever since and he is already two ounces over his birth weight! I may be over analyzing him, but I am pretty sure I can see his cheeks already getting chubbier and a little double chin starting to develop! I am so excited because I absolutely LOVE chubby babies. 
  

This face says it all!

   The other major milestones that we have hit may only be funny to me, and I am not sure why I am proud of them. My family has always been amused by poop and fart jokes and having a baby acquaints you with poop, pee, puke and farts on a daily basis. There are many things I have heard about having a baby boy, and I think all of them have come true in the first two weeks. I couldn't be more pleased to be pooped on. People have all told me to expect golden showers. Not that I didn't believe them, I guess I just didn't realize how often it could happen. Everyone told me to watch the cold air hitting his little weiner when I took off his diaper, that it would make him pee right away. Totally true, and it happens almost every time I change his diaper. He peed on me four times in two days! Then this morning, he peed up in the air all over his own face! The look of confusion he got was priceless. I know this is a strange thing to be proud about, but for some reason the fact that my little boy is living up to some of the earliest expectations of his gender fills me with motherly joy.