The Post-Christmas Post

James and Great Grandpa

James with Auntie Kristin and Auntie Erin

I don't really know what was happening here, but I thought it was pretty funny.

James's baptism photo with the whole family, plus Pastor Sea

James's first hotel room (where we did not let him touch the bedspread, just in case)

     We apologize for not updating the blog sooner, but it's been a very busy time.  James had a lot of new experiences this past week, and he handled them all quite well: his first interstate trip, his first night in a hotel, his first church service, his first Christmas, and his first crack pipe smoker, just to name a few.  Overall, it was a wildly successful trip.  

     In the car, James was nothing short of wonderful.  He slept much of the time on the way to Virginia, waking only to eat.  He would then stay awake for a while afterwards, but would play quietly with me in the back seat while Patrick drove.  Of course, finding somewhere to feed him occasionally proved difficult (that's where the crack pipe smoker comes in), but we were usually able to find the back of a parking lot somewhere to satisfy his hunger.  Changing him in the car was more difficult due to the lack of flat surface area.  He kept rolling towards the back of the seat.  However, aside from a few crooked diapers, we all faired quite well in our travels.  

     The visit itself couldn't have been better.  James saw his Aunties Erin and Kristin again, and met, for the first time, his great grandfather, his great uncles Dan and Tom, his great aunt Cindy, and his second cousin Jason.  James was beautifully behaved for the entire trip, and we all enjoyed visiting with the family.  The first big highlight was James's baptism, which went great.  He didn't even cry when the pastor poured the water on; he just looked at him skeptically.  My grandfather arranged for a nice reception after the baptism, where Grandpa wielded the cake knife like a samurai sword, and all the Lutherans were enamored with our beautiful boy.  

     The Christmas festivities were spectacular.  James was awake at all the right times, asleep at almost all the others, and everyone had a great time.  We couldn't have asked for more.  

     The trip back went almost without a hitch.  About at the Virginia-North Carolina state border, we realized that I had given my house key to the cat sitter, Patrick never had one, and, though we had my mother's keys, her house key was not on that ring.  Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), all the doors to my parents' house were locked, and, in an effort to be helpful, the cat sitter had locked the key I gave her in the house so we would have it as soon as we got back.  My parents' neighbors who used to have a key moved last month, and the only key we could come up with was the one my mom had back in northern Virginia.  Since we had just spend about four hours trying to get out of Virginia, we weren't wild about the idea of traversing back through that whole state to retrieve the key.  Therefore, my poor mom had to rush over to the FedEx drop off and overnight the key to her friends down in Alpharetta so that someone would be able to sign for it, and then we went to their house to pick it up.  On the up side, the night we stayed in North Carolina, Patrick finagled a low rate at a swanky hotel, so that was really nice.  :)  

     All in all, the trip was spectacular.  I think James had a lot of fun, and Patrick and I did too.  Our next excursion will be to Augusta to visit with Patrick's side of the family again on Friday. 

     We hope you guys all had a great holiday, and Happy New Year!

And They're Off

We're getting ready to head out on our big, two-day road trip to VA.  Packing for this thing has been interesting.  We pretty much have to take all of James's possessions with us.  After all, he'd be sad if we didn't take his seat with the animals.  He'll most certainly need a bath.  There's no telling what kind of weather we'll have up there, and James has days where he goes through five outfits, what with the spit up and leaking of other fluids and whatnot, so we need to bring all his clothes.  We'll need his pack and play, but we should bring his travel bassinet too, because that's really more comfortable to sleep in.  Turns out that everything doesn't fit in our car, so we have to take my mom's.  It will be a long trip.  Wish us luck, and, if I don' post again soon, Merry Christmas.

We are officially homeless!

Auntie Kristin tickles James

James is happy with Auntie Erin

     Yay!  We successfully finished our closing today, and we are now proud homeless people.  :)  Now, we just wait to see if the house we really want is going to be available.  We should find out within the week.  If it turns out that we can't get it, we'll go back to hunting.  James needs a room and a yard.  

Only One More Day . . .

until we close on our house!  I'm soooo hoping that it goes smoothly.  We'll see.  Wish us luck.  

James continues to do well.  He had a bit of the sniffles this morning, but he doesn't seem much worse for the wear.  He was still full of smiles this morning, which is my absolute favorite time with him.  Right now we're both morning people, and Patrick thinks we're both crazy.

In other news, I've just discovered the wonders of facebook and have reconnected with friends from seventh grade.  It's amazing.  I'm sure the whole thing is really just an ingenious plan by the government to track all Americans under the age of thirty-five, but I'm ignoring the Big Brother factor and just enjoying it.  :)

The pictures, by the way, are of Patrick entertaining James with a puppet he made out of a bag from Jason's Deli named Mr. Crinkles.  

Busy Days

Sorry it's been so long since an update.  Things got quite intense with the moving thing there for a while.  Patrick had been packing up things at a somewhat leisurely rate starting late last week.  However, on Tuesday, our real estate agent called and said, "You're not out yet?  Why aren't you out yet?  Those cats aren't still there, are they?  My cleaning people are coming.  You need to get out."  So, we ran over, grabbed a UHaul, and went crazy trying to get everything into storage by Wednesday, when we HAD to be out, according to good old Bob (the real estate agent).  

Patrick did all the packing and moving himself since I was mostly caring for James.  The poor guy had to carry an entire bedroom set, a queen mattress and boxspring, all my boxes of books, two tall bookshelves, and a desk down the stairs by himself.  It's a wonder he can still move.  It's also a wonder that there aren't any holes in the walls.  Unfortunately, he doesn't believe in labeling the boxes, so it could be months before I see my socks again.  Alas.  

On the up side, we should close on our house on Monday at four, so we'll be free to buy a new house.  Also on Monday we should find out if the house we really want is free to be bid on.  Wish us luck.

On the James front (a much cuter front, I must say), things seem to be going well.  James seems to be over his little virus thing.  His cute tummy is no longer all bloated, and he doesn't do that groaning thing very much at all.  Also, he's growing so much.  When he had his weight check on Monday, he was nine and a half pounds.  This morning, the bathroom scale said he was ten, but the precision on that one leaves something to be desired as it seems to think that I can lose as much as two pounds just by brushing my teeth.  To be fair, they did need brushing, but they didn't need brushing that badly.  :)  

Our First Road Trip

Patrick's dad (Papa), James, and Patrick's grandma (GG)

James and Papa

James, Patrick's mom (Meme), and cousin Hannalee

James and Meme

     Well, we survived our first road trip with James.  He and Patrick and I went to see Patrick's family in Augusta on Saturday.  All in all, it went quite well.  James slept for pretty much the entire time in the car, both there and back.  The worst thing we had to contend with during the drive was a bad Tori Amos rendition of Little Drummer Boy.

     We started out going to Patrick's mom's house.  Though Patrick's brother Allen, his sister Amy, and her daughter Hannalee came to see James on the day he was born, Patrick's mother wasn't able to make the trip.  Therefore, this was the first time she had a chance to meet James.  We had a very nice visit with them.  Of course, they completely showered him with gifts.  He now has tons of Christmas clothes including but not limited to a Christmas bag to wear while sleeping, an outfit that looks like a little bear, a John Deer onesie and a motorcycle hat (not Christmas related, but absolutely adorable), and an outfit that makes the wearer look like a Christmas tree.  We will have lots of cute pictures to post here shortly.

     After we visited with that crew (minus Allen) for a while, we headed over to Patrick's grandmother's house to visit with her, Patrick's dad, and Patrick's Aunt Vicky.  Patrick's grandmother is the nicest lady, and she made some very tasty lasagna for us.  James was so good the whole time the adults were eating.  He just sat in his little car seat and watched us, occasionally making little noises, while eating his fist.  

     All in all, it was a great trip.  We made it back at a reasonable hour, and, on top of that, we finally found the Sirius Christmas station and were no longer plagued by Tori Amos every tenth song (we only brought the one CD, so it just looped).  

     Tomorrow we go to the doctor for a weight check for James.  Last time we went he was nine pounds, five ounces.  Hopefully tomorrow he'll be up to at least nine and a half pounds.  His appetite has been pretty good today, so perhaps he's finally getting over his little virus thing.  More later.  :)

They Shot My Baby!

Beautiful James

Far and away our funniest Thanksgiving picture

Chich pretending to be taller than Kristin

Chich and Kristin in actual size

     I couldn't resist sharing some of our more humorous Thanksgiving pictures.  On to the post.

     Well, James had his well child visit at the doctor today.  He's now in the tenth percentile for length (21.75"), the sixth percentile for weight (9 lb. 5 oz.), and sixty-fifth percentile for head size (15.94").  No doubt he'll be a genius.  :)  

     Though James is not yet recovered from his virus, the doctor assured us that James was not likely to get any of the thing against which they were inoculating him.  Therefore, they went ahead with his vaccines.  One of them was just this thing they gave him to drink through a dropper.  He didn't mind that one at all.  Sadly, the same cannot be said of the shots.  They gave him one in one thigh and two in the other.  Poor kid screamed bloody murder and turned a frightening shade of purple.  It was somewhat traumatic for all of us, but he seems fine now though.  Not much worse for the wear.  He does have some swollen thighs, but other than that he's fine.  Apparently he may be fussy and get a fever, but we're supposed to give him some Tylenol.  Patrick bought that and an ear thermometer as neither one of us was terribly keen on checking his temperature the other way.  :)  More later.  

Stomach Bug

Mommy and James in our jammies

Grandma and Danny (in a characteristic pose)

Auntie Erin and Min (with Adam in the background)

James

Auntie Kristin playing with James

     I couldn't resist sharing a few more Thanksgiving photos.  Chich took such great ones.  I'll likely put up more tomorrow.  Ok.  Now back to our regularly scheduled post. 

     Sadly, James, according to the doctor (something of a schmuck in whom I have somewhat minimal faith as he said James was fine two days before the poor kid ended up in the hospital for four days and only speaks to Patrick--truly, will not look at me--when we both bring James in), James has developed a stomach bug.  He's been doing this awful thing where he's straining for a significant portion of the day.  He flings out his little limbs and tightens all his muscles to the point that his little belly button (an innie) protrudes from his person.  He turns an interesting shade of purple.  It's torture to watch, though it rarely leads to James crying.  We saw the doctor yesterday, and he thinks James has some sort of stomach bug and will be following up tomorrow when we take James for his well child two month visit.  I'm not sure what they do on that visit if James is not technically a well child.  Perhaps he'll get over this thing before tomorrow and it will be a moot point.  We'll see how it goes.

*A special message for Nims:  We missed you at Thanksgiving.  Maybe next year.  :)

A New Post at Last

James learns about Tofurkey

L-R: Adam, Danny, Auntie Erin, Min, James, Patrick, Me, Auntie Kristin, Mr. Zinn, Mrs. Zinn (not pictured: Chich [the photographer and family friend], Grandma, and Grandpa)

James hangs with Auntie Kristin

James gets a cuddle from Auntie Erin

James's special Thanksgiving outfit

     As I have received some criticism for being so long in posting again, I figured I'd best get down to it.  James is sitting in his bouncy seat enthralled by his animals (particularly the zebra), so I have a few seconds to update everyone on James's exciting life.  

     And exciting it has been.  Thanksgiving was wonderful.  James finally got to meet his aunties, among other important people.  We had great fun.  I'm sad it's over, and I think James is too.  He's wanted to be held all day today.  I think he got used to Erin and Kristin holding him all the time.  Oh well.  Only twenty days until we start our Christmas celebration.  :)  A new countdown begins.  

Countdown

Only eleven or so more hours until James gets to meet his Auntie Erin and Auntie Kristin!  We should have lots of great pictures to post tomorrow.  Woo hoo!

Busier and Busier (But in a Good Way)

     Well, aren't I awful for going this long without posting?  We've been ridiculously busy with the house.  Of course, that's a good thing because it means that so far, things are still rolling along.  We've gotten everything from our office packed up.  The carpet cleaners and the heater guy came today (the buyer requested that as part of the contract), so we're doing well.  

     We also found a house that's pretty perfect.  It's in a great location, needs some work, but almost everything it needs is something we can do ourselves over time, and it's just inside our price range.  We'll see how things go.  Cross your fingers for us.  

An Offer We Couldn't Refuse

James naps wearing his "Grandma Loves Me" shirt.

Grandma and James chat about all sorts of exciting things.

     Good news!  Our real estate agent called last night to report that the offer did in fact come in on our house.  It's actually not that bad an offer, all things considered.  We're quite hopeful that this thing all works out.  With that hope in mind, Patrick spent the day packing stuff at our house, and I worked to set up appointments to have the carpet cleaned, the heater serviced, and other things the buyer requested.  We'll see how it goes.

     Patrick also made time to swing by the Trader Joe's and pick up a couple of Tofurkeys before they were all gone.  Now I'm set for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Thank heavens.  I was concerned as they're not that easy to come by, and, according to Walter at the Trader Joe's, there's been a run on Tofurkeys in the past two days.  He's not sure their new order will be enough to feed the growing number of Tofurkey eaters.  So it's a good thing I have mine now.  No worries.

     On a different note, James and I spent some time working on his baby book today.  It's so weird.  Looking back, it's hard to conceive of a life before James was here.  It's only been a month and a half, but it seems like it's a completely different world than it was before he arrived.  I have to say, I prefer this world.  :)

Growing Up

James looks particularly dapper in his sweat suit.

Daddy reads to James from Popular Mechanics.

     Well, James is definitely growing.  He's officially eight pounds as of his last doctor's visit, and he's outgrown several outfits now.  I looked at him this morning after I had dressed him in an outfit that started out too big for him only to see that his ankles and wrists were beyond hanging out.  Looking back at pictures of him from when he first came home just made it all the more real.  He's getting bigger and cuter by the day.

     Dare I say he's also turning into a better sleeper?  Patrick and I got him a humidifier that looks like an elephant and spews the mist out of its trunk and a sound machine that has a heartbeat sound.  We thought that perhaps using these things at night might help him sleep better.  So far, it seems to be going ok.  He stayed in bed all night the first night we had them, and last night he stayed in bed for a while too.  That's not to say that he was asleep the whole time, but small steps, right?  Of course, I might be premature in getting excited about that, but, as Patrick and I discussed just minutes ago, I do tend to be cautiously optimistic.  

     We did hear from our real estate agent earlier today with word that there is a person who is planning on putting in an offer on our house.  While I'm sure it won't be any kind of spectacular offer, we would pretty much take any offer at this point.  The only question is whether or not it will actually come in.  Again, I'm cautiously optimistic.  It would be really great to take James home to a house with a yard he can play in as he grows.  It would also be really great to not have to commute for forty-five minutes each way for work, as I know already how eager I'll be to get back home to my baby.  We'll see how it goes, and we'll keep you posted.   

Fancy Photos and Funny Fountains

     Well, things do seem to be going well on the James front.  It's been several days now since we got back from the hospital, and James seems to be back to his normal self.  He's still waking himself up when he needs to eat and spending several consecutive hours of the day awake and alert.  Thank heavens.  

     One other indication of James's normalcy is that he's back to astonishing us with his productions.  I don't know if you guys have seen that commercial where the man takes the baby into a bedroom and lays him on the bed to change his diaper.  Once he removes the old diaper, the baby proceeds to squirt with the force of a garden hose, spraying all over the bedroom.  The man quickly replaces the diaper and looks at the baby in astonishment.  Then, he waits until he's sure the baby is done, removes the diaper again, and the process repeats.  If you haven't seen it, you could come visit our house and view it in person.  I swear, that exact same thing happened with James today.  I really didn't think someone could fit that much fluid inside himself.  We now owe Kristin a new carpet as well as new walls.  

     On a different (and cleaner) note, we currently have all of James's professional photos available online, should anyone be interested in viewing them.  Go to the following link, and, when it asks for a password, put in "poomachine" (I promise, the photographer came up with that one all on her own).  

http://www.stylizedportraiture.com/clients/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=1183

     Oh!  I forgot the most exciting thing.  James has started smiling.  It's wonderful.  We'll try to capture it on film, but I imagine this is going to be one of those things to which no picture will do justice.  He's amazing.  

     

Back to (ab)normal

James was strangely lethargic last week, and after he would not wake up to eat, we finally took him to the closest hospital.  They did not have any definitive diagnosis, but lethargy in infants is apparently a symptom of meningitis, botulism, and numerous other malevolent things.  So they pumped him full of antibiotics, antivirals, antitoxins, et cetera, and passed him off to the experts at the Scottish Rite hospital.  They ran every imaginable test on him (including a spinal tap!), but did not find any obvious reason for his lack of alertness.  No meningitis, no botulism, no brain damage, no obvious bacterial or viral presence.  He stayed there a couple of days, and eventually got better.  The doctors still don't know exactly how, but somewhere amidst the intravenous medications, medical examinations, and large numbers of people praying for him, he fought it off and regained his energy.  Now, to make up for lost time, he wants to eat every hour and a half.  But that's better than being sick.   And now we have a giant list of things that aren't wrong with him, so that's reassuring.  

Thanks to all of you out there who were praying for him through this, and thanks as well to the doctors and nurses and staff at Scottish Rite, who routinely save the lives of kids like James. Even though they didn't figure out what was wrong with him, they watched over him and took care of him like they were his parents.  Whatever they're paying them, it's not enough. 

Weaker and Weaker

     Well, James seems to still be doing well.  Last night Patrick observed that either James was getting heavier by the day, or he was getting weaker and weaker.  I noted that my biceps were increasingly sore as well.  Therefore, we concluded that James seems to be thriving, though we did observe that sleep deprivation was probably not good for building or maintaining muscle mass.  So it could be some combination of the two.

     I had to go to work briefly yesterday to talk with my new sub, so I got a mere taste of how much it will suck when I have to go back full time.  Don't get me wrong; it was good to see some of my students and coworkers and to think about teaching for a while.  But I was away from James for four and a half hours, and that was torture.  No sense in worrying about it now though.  It's still two months away, and I'm holding him now, so that's what matters.  More later.

James is a month old!

Congratulations to James, who is one month old today! He shares a birthday with Charlton Heston (take your stinking paws off me!, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-6L_hT3QtQ), Rutherford B. Hayes (19th president of our fair nation, http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/rh19.html), and King Charles IX of Sweden. Sorry, I have no quote for King Charles IX of Sweden.

A Good Day

James naps on Daddy over the weekend.
James looks cute in a sweat shirt.
James correctly signals a touchdown while watching a football game on Sunday.
James wears the Bald is Beautiful shirt he got from cousin Hannalee.

     Well, today was indeed a good day for multiple reasons.  Reason one: James slept for three and a half consecutive hours last night.  Patrick and I were euphoric.  Now, I imagine it's too much to hope for a repeat of that particular performance tonight, but it was really nice to at least have a couple hours of sleep in a row for once. 

     Reason two: James is getting better at his feeding.  He's now successful without the aid of assorted gadgets about a third of the time he eats.  This pleases me tremendously as the whole stress of feeding him is occasionally more than I can handle when it doesn't go right.  If there are at least a few bright spots, then I have an opportunity to regain my optimism.  

     Reason three: James had his pictures professionally taken on Friday, and we can now look at the previews of said pictures on the photographer's blog (http://www.stylizedportraiture.com/blog).  You have to scroll down a bit to find them.  He's on there as Baby J.  They're awfully cute, even though my father thinks they're pornographic.  I'm quite pleased with them.  I can't wait to see all the pictures she took in about a week or so.  They'll be on a different web site, so I'll tell you where that is if you are interested in seeing them.  

     So, as far as James was concerned, the day was a wild success.  Less so for me personally as my long-term sub had to quit, so I had a good bit of work to do today to prepare a new sub.  But that's a different story, and this isn't really the forum for telling it.  So, James had a good day.  I'll be content with that, and I hope you are too.  

Halloween Outfit and Photos

     Well, yesterday was an exciting, albeit long, day.  James, Grandma and I traveled to Athens to have James's picture taken by the photographer who did Patrick's and my wedding pictures.  James was mostly cooperative, but, due to his age (a whopping four weeks!), he no longer likes to pose all bent up, which is what the photographer was going for.  I'm sure the pictures will be great though.  She spent a good solid three hours working on getting him posed and getting good shots.  She clearly has tremendous patience, as she apparently does newborn photos on a regular basis.  There should be some previews available early next week.  I'm very much looking forward to that.  That did make for a very long day for us all, but the pictures will be worth it, and James was great in the car (he slept the whole way there and back).  I slept some of the way back myself as I had only had about an hour and a half sleep the night before.  

      Of course, the other big excitement of yesterday was Halloween.  James did not trick-or-treat, though Grandpa suggested that he do so and bring back some candy for people with teeth to enjoy.  We declined to do that, but we did celebrate.  James wore his fancy outfit sent to him by his cousin, Hannalee, and he had a cute, vibrating ghost to play with sent to him by his aunties.  He also went to meet all of the trick-or-treaters.  One little girl, when Grandma commented, "I like your costume," replied with, "I like your baby."  And how could you not when he's so cute? 

Breaking a Promise

     Well, I know I promised to keep news of James's productions to myself for a week, but this was just too weird not to share.  Read on; you'll see what I mean.

     Last night Grandma and I were preparing to give James a bath.  He doesn't need but two or so a week, but last night's was especially important as James is going to have his picture professionally taken while he is in the buff today, so he needed to be extra clean.  He did not like his bath as much this time and kept wiggling himself all around so that he was virtually submerged in the water.  Perhaps he was cold.  But I digress.  The interesting part came before the bath.

    As we got him all undressed for the bath, we could not help but notice that James had produced a large pile of bright green poo.  And I do mean bright green.  Oh dear, I thought.  James has radioactive intestines.  This means an immediate call to the doctor.  Of course, we had his bath and things all ready then, so we had to do the bath before I could call the doctor.  Then, after the bath was over, I did a quick internet search to see if there was some sort of likely culprit for such an event.  Turns out, according to multiple internet sites and my What to Expect the First Year book, that bright green is a normal color of poo for a baby.  So, for future reference, it is normal for it to look as though Slimer has visited your child's diaper.  This assertion does fly in the face of conventional wisdom, but I'm learning that I know less and less every day.  I suppose parenthood will do that to you.  That, and sleep deprivation.  Nap time.  

All is Well

     James had his weight checked at the doctors' office today, and he's up to seven pounds, two ounces!  I normally abhor the use of exclamation points but feel that several might be warranted after James's wild success in weight gaining.  Breast feeding can work!  Yay!   

     I was particularly relieved as this was the first weight check when we hadn't been keeping careful track of exactly how many ounces James was eating.  Those of you who know me will be shocked by this, but I was worried.  ;)  He is a thin baby, and after what happened during his first few days, I was so scared that he might be losing weight again.  But perhaps he just has his father's metabolism.  Either way, this is cause for celebration in our house.  Patrick is out getting KitKats so that we can celebrate properly.  I hope all of you guys have a good day too.  :)  

Admission

     Well, as much as I hate to admit it, I was apparently wrong, and James's grandpa was right.  No, Obama has not been proclaimed the antichrist.  It was the other major issue the two of us have been, um, discussing, for the past several weeks: thumb sucking.  

     At pretty much every opportunity, my father has been trying to teach James how to suck his thumb.  I kept telling him to stop as he was going to cost me a fortune in orthodontia ten years down the road.  He insisted that I would get more sleep if James learned how to suck his thumb and could comfort himself in that fashion during the night rather than crying for me or Patrick to come hold him.   

     As I sat up holding him last night at about one in the morning, I perused my trusty parenting books and websites scouring articles on pacifiers.  Were they detrimental to breast feeding?  Is it okay for kids to go to sleep with pacifiers in their mouths?  I have to admit that I was surprised to see that most articles advocated thumb sucking over pacifiers.  The babies control the thumbs themselves, these articles told me.  That way, the babies can suck them when they really need comforting, and parents can't use them as a crutch.  They are less likely to interfere with breast feeding because the thumb is in no way similar to something from which the kid might eat.  On top of that, they said that pacifiers could be even more harmful to teeth than thumbs.  The only plus to a pacifier was that, since parents control it, parents can ween kids off that easier than they could thumb sucking.  

     So, Dad was right and I was wrong.  Darn it.  I hate when that happens.

     On a completely unrelated note, I loved this picture and couldn't help but share it.  Don't Patrick and James both look so good?  

Up to Something

     Well, James sure did have some adventures this past weekend.  James did wear his UGA outfit on Saturday to cheer on the team, and actually stayed awake for most of the game, so that was exciting.  The same cannot be said of me, as I fell asleep at about half time and did not wake up again until it was over.  But I'm told UGA played brilliantly.  

     Our first excitement of the weekend, however, I was awake for.  James, Grandma and I began our Saturday by taking what was by far James's biggest stroll yet.  Up to this point, Patrick and I have pretty well kept James within the confines of Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood in our strolls; we wanted to be close in case James got upset.  However, Grandma is brave.  We went over a mile from the house and back.  This will shock you: James slept through the whole thing.  

     Our other excitement is rated ***PG-13*** for some mature (or possibly immature, depending on how you look at it) content.  So proceed with caution.

     After everyone but James and I had gone to bed Saturday night, I needed to change James's diaper.  His official changing station is upstairs where James, Patrick and I are staying, so, to avoid waking Patrick up, we just set up a portable station in Grandma's family room.  We have a portable changing pad in our diaper bag (thanks to Auntie Erin), so I got that and the necessary diapers and wipes out and ready.

     Things seemed to be going well at first.  James wasn't crying, and I felt that success was eminent.  However, I soon realized that I had forgotten that tissues we use to keep him from shooting the walls as we change him.  No matter, I thought.  I'll just use the soiled diaper as a shield.  I am wildly clever, I thought.  It did seem like that plan would work at first.  But, when I lifted his little legs to clean off his bottom, he transformed himself into ThunderPants and proceeded to shoot poo straight out of himself and all over everything in the general vicinity.  Thanks to my lifting of his legs, the trajectory was really quite impressive.  Having held him prior to this incident while he, um, produced, I had felt that, even through his diaper and outfit, he had some impressive force behind his output.  I had no idea.

     So, shocked as I was by that, I was laughing as I tried to clean him up, because what else can you do?  Sadly, the laughter and focus on one mess caused me to let up on my vigilance on the other offending orifice.  Sure enough, James then let loose with some pee.  Fortunately, genius that I am, I still had his old diaper balanced atop him.  Unfortunately, the diaper had slipped a bit as I cleaned and laughed, and, instead of being in a position to absorb anything, merely pointed his member downwards.  The end result was the most repulsive, soupy mess of excrement that I have ever seen.  The poor kid was swimming in it.  It was disgusting.  I used up all the wipes, and his UGA outfit might need to be burned.  

     Sorry about grossing you out there.  I just had to share that particular bit of adventure in parenting.  They didn't cover that in any of the books or magazines I've read on the subject.  Grandma says that all I write about on the blog is James's output, so I promise to avoid that topic entirely for at least the remainder of the week and focus only on James's more positive and non-biohazardy attributes.  Of course, even covered in bacteria, he's the cutest baby in the world.

Tired Today

     Well, James and I got a much needed nap this morning, as I think we both only slept for about two hours last night.  After we woke up, James ate, spit up, and went back to sleep.  I, on the other hand, am trying to get some work done.  Well, to be fair, I'm procrastinating on my work by posting to the blog.  

     Last night, Grandma and I gave James a bath, and he really enjoyed it for the first time.  Previously he's been rather upset by the whole bath ordeal, but last night he calmed down enough to realize that it's really quite pleasant sitting in a pool of warm water (he even added some of his own water to the tub).  Of course, I forgot to bring his rubber ducky into the tub again.  I'm sure he'll enjoy the whole experience even more if I can ever remember that.  Nonetheless, James was not at all eager to get out.  Of course, once he did get out, he REALLY wanted to get back in as he got all cold and was generally unhappy.  He and I snuggled by the fire for a while, and he calmed back down.  Of course, as it was nighttime, that particular condition (calm) didn't last long, but it was nice while it did.  

     James has also built up his wiggling skills.  We have this special sleep positioner thing that's supposed to help keep James on his back while he sleeps.  It is basically a piece of slightly inclined foam cushion that has two removable wedges on the side to keep him centered and his head slightly elevated.  James now has the ability to wiggle himself all the way down his positioner to the bottom of his bassinet.  In the process, he also wiggles himself out of his swaddle.  Since he's inevitably already kicked off his socks, his feet tend to get cold, which makes him wake up, which makes me wake up, which makes us all very tired.  Perhaps tonight we'll try to put him to sleep in his special sleeping bag outfit.  That might help.  

     Well, I should get back to work (or, more likely, find a different way to procrastinate).  More updates later.  

Healthy Little Boy

Well, we went to the doctor yesterday for James's two week visit, and the official verdict is that he's a healthy boy.  He weighed six pounds, twelve ounces, and despite the measurement that indicates he shrunk a half an inch (Auntie Erin assures me it's very difficult to measure babies accurately), everything seems to be in perfect working order.  After our visit with the pediatrician, we visited with the lactation nurse to work on feeding better.  Finally, I had a nurse visit to check my blood pressure, which seems to be holding steady.  The only thing that was a bit off about the visit (other than the whole thing taking upwards of three hours) was that the doctor prescribed Zantac for James for his reflux.  Patrick and I are going to try to get a second opinion as to whether or not that's really necessary as the information online indicates gross over-prescription of the drug for infants.  Also, it's been approved for infants as young as one month, and James is only nineteen days old.  Plus, Patrick found on its website that it has a side effect of headaches, and we don't want to just replace one pain with another.  The doctor did say that there were no side effects, which also makes us question his expertise.  So we'll see how that goes.  Well, the little guy is back to sleep, so I'm going to go try to be the same.  

Flying Solo

After a blissful two weeks with Patrick at home with us, James and I went it alone today.  Poor Patrick had to return to work on about two hours sleep, and he didn't even get to spend his tired day with someone adorable.  Well, to be fair, I haven't seen his coworkers, but I can't imagine any of them could be anywhere near as cute as James.

Today was about as hard as I expected it would be.  The biggest excitement of the day was James nearly choking to death on his bottle this morning.  He tends to get so excited about his meal that he forgets to breathe, and then remembers that oxygen is essential to continued life mid gulp.  But we got that taken care of, and we'll be visiting a feeding specialist tomorrow after we see the doctor.  I am optimistic that things will get better and better on that front.  

Tomorrow Patrick has the day off so he can go to the doctor with us, so that will be good.  Then Thursday will be hard again, I imagine, but probably just a little easier than today.  We'll get the hang of this flying solo thing yet.