9 weeks

Did I say last time that it felt like we were making progress?  It reminds me of the oh-so-many times that I've been out on my bike, thinking "Wow, I'm getting in good shape.  This feels great,"  only to find out I had a tail wind.  At which time I think, "Wow, I fell for it again," as I head back into the head wind.  We are still able to get him to sleep, but it's typically restless, and with periodic "resets."  Walks and car rides still do the trick most of the time.  Prime suspects are acid reflux and/or an allergy.  Laurie's now down to eating chicken, turkey, corn, peas, potatoes, and squash--largely constrained by her own dietary habits, in add'n to the key allergy suspects.  If it works she can try adding items one-by-one.  They can't do allergy scratch tests until 4-5 months.

In the meantime, Jake continues to develop and grow.  He's got an award winning smile (fatherly conjecture - we haven't entered him into any contests by which to take the awards yet), his eyes track like a hawk, and he's getting slowly more vocal.  He's putting on inches and pounds, and his current favorite awake thing is to stand and jump - with a little balancing assistance.  He's also quite the flyer now that he holds his head up well.

Uncanny . . .

Okay - here's the update.  More pics and a video (sorry - it's not of Jake this time).  First - after a couple months of waiting, we now have evidence that he looks more like me!  The next shows that Jake is a big fan of hooters (not the restaurant, which is, however, under fire for marketing to children/families).

See the resemblance?

Okay, so he's only 1/4 Irish. 

Bundled for Blustery Boston

He doesn't last long in laps, but we're finding
other ways to get some reading in.

Compare to the earlier lobster shot.
(This is clearly a Maine lobster)

Top 3 cutest?  Or . . . . #1!  Yeah, baby!

And now, dah-da-da-daaahhh:  the video.  With all the noise in the house, Laurie and Monster have had to find a way to work out some stress and anxiety.  Fortunately, they've been able to find a mutually beneficial way to do that!

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming . . .

This week, let's just start with the pictures.  Mmm-kay?

My Mom's a good Mom.

Happy Days Are Here Again

This can lead nowhere good . . .

He loves baths!

Jake is still very vocal, and can wear on nerves (few things give me headaches, but he's given me a couple now), but with help from Nana Mimi (Laurie's Mom) and additional reading, the last few days have felt a little like progress.  Most "solutions" only last a couple days, and I'm not sure we're past that, but we think part of the problem is that he's underslept.  Solving that isn't necessarily strait forward.  Let him sleep, right?  Uh, yeah, but we're getting better at it.

Really, we've had pretty good success the last few days with getting him to sleep, with a greatly expanded repertoire of techniques.  Among them:  more ways to hold him, and many variations on those;  talking, singing, music, sh-shhing (though he's not particularly fond of that), and/or white noise; walking, rocking, telemarking (he loves that);  patting, rubbing, gently joggling; pacifiers, warm and cold.  And we're getting better attuned to his signals, to include how his eyes, arms, and head are moving.  That helps us get our timing right.

So, as it turns out, he may not have an attitude problem.  He may just need better parents, which we're working hard on.  And in case Mom was worried, here's this weeks' video (using Corel VideoStudio - 1/2 off on Friday!):

Is there a light at the end?

Actually, there's a light each day.  Little smiles, eyes following you (or the jingly piggy) around, and the occasional coo or gaa.  But we're still trying all sorts of things to get/keep him calm, or occasionally asleep.  More schedule.  More feeding.  More effective feeding.  Better burping.  Cold pacifiers.  Gas medicine.  Acid reflux medicine.  Ritalin.  Talking super nice (in lieu of the usual shhhh'shing).  Just kidding about Ritalin. 

Laurie is tireless.  Necessary since the kid is tireless, but she never loses her patience or cool.  In fact, she's getting more patient and loving.  Mom instincts are pretty amazing.

So, nothing new, except he's a little fatter (and I forgot to post this blog on the 20th).

1 month

Today, Jake is 4 weeks. 9 lbs, 10 oz. Cuter, still (smiling sometimes - not just gas). And healthy. But crying most of the time when he's awake. And some days he's awake a lot. I don't think he actually qualifies as collicky, but he sure does have a loud streak. This morning, the neighbor asked me if the screaming hurt him. A great amount of our time is spent trying to keep him calm (primary reason for the late blog entry). But he's doing great, still loves walks, loves visitors, and tolerates photo ops.

His Grandpa and Grandma Tibboel made it out to meet him, and to help us out as I went back to work. I think they enjoyed the QT - you can judge from the photos. Papa Lyle and Nana Mimi also made it out to see him again, though on one of his fussy days. Still, he had some good moments, and Nana Mimi is a good calmer. As is Jen (Laurie's older sister), who with Hubby Scott gave a valued helping hand this weekend. Local visitors generally put him in good spirits, too, at least for awhile.

Grandma

Papa Lyle

Being very safety concious, we invested
in the heavy duty stroller. The GRACO
car seat snaps right in. Super easy.

Our Mastif Pumpkin got carried away - forgot he was supposed to be protecting the family.  And we were worried about the cat.  Sheesh.

For those that haven't heard, we'll be moving to Montgomery, AL next summer - the AF is sending me to school - it's an AF-run school for Majors. Sad to be leaving Boston, but 10 months later we'll be off again; don't know where, yet. In the meantime, he'll be spending the start of his formative language period in the south. We'll see how that works out (I adore his Great Aunt Beth's accent, but I imagine him with something more like Larry the Cable Guy).

Jen and Scott

Final note to enhance your blog experience: Greg taught me the way of RSS. Instead of having to check the site for updates and being disappointed, you can set up an RSS feed that will let you know when I've made an update. For cool-kid Mozilla users, you should have an RSS symbol (orange with "radio waves") on the right side of the address bar. For Internet Explorer, the icon should be next to the "home" icon. I'll give part B of the tutorial once I have a clue.


 Oh, and a little video for Mom:

 

Serenity now. Serenity now. Serenity now . . .

1 week

Jake gets cuter each day, really. Eyes open more, and I think he's filling out a bit more (after losing that first half pound). He also screams like a banshee - mostly at night it seems like. He loves walks in the stroller - quiets him up in an instant. He hates the nurse who takes the bilirubin blood samples, but I hope we're done with that. He's provided practical experience in several surprise ways that a baby can release bodily fluids during a diaper change: the leak; the flow; the fountain. Laurie and I have laughed so hard that the only thing keeping us off the floor was knowing we couldn't leave him naked on the table. But at the moment he's sleeping snugly on the floor next to me, swaddled so that he looks like a little bean (a much bigger version of that first ultrasound, with hair and jungle animal prints).

We can't say as he looks like either of us. In generic respects he looks like both of us, but otherwise he just looks like a cute baby. But I can proudly lay claim to his attention span and sleeping habits. Gobble, gobble, sleep. Gobble, gobble, sleep. Sleep, gobble, sleep. His tendency to leave things laying around (socks, hats, spittles) comes from Laurie, I think. She leaves different things laying around, of course. I think he's learning to make cute noises from the cat, but can't purr yet - actually, I'm not sure the cat has purred since he came home.



I could blather on about him, but what I've mostly learned is that folks really check the blog for the photos. So I've included a few more, and a special feature! The writing is, I suppose, just to entertain myself. I hope you don't mind.













special feature:

Nurses are nothing short of genius saints

I'll start this post by announcing his new name: Jacob "Jake" Dean Tibboel. Yay!
___________________________________________
Those who say the day their baby is born is the best day of their life, are of suspect credibility to me. It is no doubt a very happy day, and a very crazy day. But there is so much uncertainty. And pain and blood. Thank goodness for the great kindness, patience, understanding, skill, and experience of the nurses.

The first full day after was wonderful, again thanks to excellent nurses (residents, assistants, even students). They've been teaching us as much as we're ready learn, but also have a way with babies (at least, with our baby). When we've exhausted our ideas for calming him down, a nurse will step in and invariably, within 30 seconds he's quietly sleeping or bobbing away. They calm him, and calm us, and ease our anxieties, and provide good news about his health (he can hear!), and make Laurie comfortable, and remind us how beautiful he is. In case we forgot (we didn't).

Tonight we all go home. The first crying spell without a nurse nearby is going to be a little bit tough. We'll get through it, and all the ones after, but we'll miss those wonderful nurses!

He's here!

A star is born! At 6:28 on Sunday, 17 Oct, Name TBD "Buttsy" Tibboel was born at St. Elizabeth's hospital in Brighton MA. At 21 1/4 inches, and 8 lbs 2.4 oz, he wasn't as big as his Mom feared (or thought during the delivery), but he's a healthy size. He came out "like a rubber chicken," (I won't attribute this accurate quote) but quickly took shape and color to look like the healthy baby boy that he is. And Laurie has been recovering remarkably well, too.



Just sitting around the hospital has been remarkably busy, but I'm finally managing to provide some photos. Enjoy! And if you want to see him live, feel free to Skype us (find "trail_junkie").

Waiting . . .

17 Oct 2010. What would have been Grampy Lyle "Buttsy" Butts' 98th birthday. Grampy "slipped the surly bonds" earlier this year, just before we announced Laurie's pregnancy. So he never knew about this, his 4th, great grandchild (there would likely have been some confusion on the matter, in any case), but we still find ourselves very lucky that this will - Inshallah - be our son's birthday. Far luckier than if he'd been born on the more sought after, but ultimately more arbitrary, 10/10/10. Though perhaps not as lucky as Dawn and Dean's 8/9/10 11:12 coup!

Really, we've been lucky all around. Laurie's been healthy and, aside from cancelling her 2d trimester trips, had a good pregnancy. I got home in time to spend QT with her and witness the amazing bouncing belly. And even though she's now 9 days past the due date, she's been feeling well and even sleeping decent. Her new job has on-site day care. And lots of good people have been very kind (minus a few jockamo's on her bus route to work).

Now, we're on the final stretch of Mom-appreciation day (oh, what our mother's went through back in the day). Hopefully in the next 3-6 hours we'll be holding a healthy baby boy. In the next hour, if you ask Laurie - the Pitocin is tough stuff, and the epidural only goes so far. Name TBD. Size large. Lineage Euro-mongrel. Temperament calm (don't we wish).