Just a little video you get you jumpin' for Thanksgiving. Ivy brought home from day care the cutest little hand turkey - it of course went straight to the fridge. Her first artwork! Enjoy this video of Ivy kickin' it in her newest contraption:
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Personality Plus
Yo - Now that Ivy is 5 months old, her personality is coming out, and she certainly is one sass-ma-tass like her mama. Since we usually post pics which don't give you a sense of what she's like as a person, and videos which kinda do but don't really, here is a list of Ivy's Likes and Dislikes (hopefully not a precursor to a future Playboy spread):
LIKES: Putting things in her mouth. We're pretty sure she's teething because everything in the world seems to be a potential item which Ivy can put in her mouth. She gums on our arms, the side of her bath, her toys, the mirror, pretty much anything she can get her little paws around and drag into her mouth. Hence, everything in our apartment has the ucky feel of being recently slobbered upon.
DISLIKES: Story time. This upsets me personally because I want Ivy to be a big reader and love books. However, I think the problem here has less to do with our quality storytime together and more to do with the fact that, as mentioned previously, Ivy loves putting things in her mouth, and so whenever I put a book in front of her and start reading from it, her immediate reaction is to grab the book with both hands and start gnawing on the pages. Then I have to pull the book away gently so I can read again, which upsets her, so she starts crying and fidgeting, and that's the end of storytime. Hopefully by the time she hits high school, this will no longer be an issue.
LIKES: TV. We try to avoid having the TV on when she is in the room and awake, unless it's a crucial sporting event (which she needs to witness anyway). Many studies have shown that TV causes babies to have shorter attention spans, smaller brains, increased homocidal tendencies, etc., but by golly, if that TV is on and she can get a tiny glimpse of it, even if she has to spin her head around Exorcist-style to see the screen, she'll do it. Hopefully this will lead to her having a career as a high-powered TV exec and not a career as a couch potato.
LIKES: Trees. The good news is, she is equally fascinated by trees as she is by the TV. Trees are kind of like nature's TV - colors, sound, motion, etc. She loves lying on her tummy on a blanket under a tree and looking up at it. Sounds a little boring, but for a baby this is super good times.
INDIFFERENT: The cat. Slowly but surely, Poker the Cat has begun approaching Ivy, sniffing her, sitting on her clean folded clothes, etc. He has not licked or cuddled with her yet, but considering that for the first 4 months of her life Poker would hide in another room whenever she passed by, this is a major improvement. However, it has yet to be discerned as to whether Ivy has any interest in Poker, as she summarily ignores him whenever he comes around to give her a sniff. I'm sure that some day soon she'll suddenly realize "Oh man there's a cat living here!" and she'll start chasing him all over, but until that day comes, their relationship is icy at best.
DISLIKES: Strangers. It's amazing to see how her little baby brain works. She has figured out that her parents, her grandparents, the daycare people, the other daycare kids, and select other friends and relatives are "safe," and it's okay for them to hold her and be near her. But when she sees a new person arrive in a familiar area, she freaks. Apparently there was a locksmith at the daycare place fixing something, and the usually happy-go-lucky Ivy FREAKED when he was there, because she knew he was a stranger. This apparently also happened when the aunt of one of the daycare kids (as opposed to a parent) picked the kid up - Ivy knew this person was different and a potential threat. Good survival instincts on the kid, though it'll be interesting to see how she responds to Thanksgiving, where she'll be surrounded by new relatives who are very strange indeed.
INDIFFERENT: Other babies. We have lots of friends with little babies around her age, and we try to get them to hang out, but Ivy has no concept that they're around. We could put her down on a blanket next to another kid, and she'll be more interested in trying to put a corner of the blanket into her mouth than in communicating with her peer. Or maybe she just thinks all these other kids are jerks, and who knows, maybe they are. I don't speak baby.
DISLIKES: Daylight Savings Time. Oh, were mom and dad supposed to get a little extra sleep that one night? Yeah, that didn't happen...
LOVES: Music. Ivy LOVES rocking out to music, whether it's dad's rock and roll, mom's lullabies, or Baba's maddeningly annoying Baby Einstein CD that drives me bonkers. She dances by waving her little hands and shaking her little bon bons, which actually is exactly how I dance as well. Apple don't fall far from the tree...
- Mike
LIKES: Putting things in her mouth. We're pretty sure she's teething because everything in the world seems to be a potential item which Ivy can put in her mouth. She gums on our arms, the side of her bath, her toys, the mirror, pretty much anything she can get her little paws around and drag into her mouth. Hence, everything in our apartment has the ucky feel of being recently slobbered upon.
DISLIKES: Story time. This upsets me personally because I want Ivy to be a big reader and love books. However, I think the problem here has less to do with our quality storytime together and more to do with the fact that, as mentioned previously, Ivy loves putting things in her mouth, and so whenever I put a book in front of her and start reading from it, her immediate reaction is to grab the book with both hands and start gnawing on the pages. Then I have to pull the book away gently so I can read again, which upsets her, so she starts crying and fidgeting, and that's the end of storytime. Hopefully by the time she hits high school, this will no longer be an issue.
LIKES: TV. We try to avoid having the TV on when she is in the room and awake, unless it's a crucial sporting event (which she needs to witness anyway). Many studies have shown that TV causes babies to have shorter attention spans, smaller brains, increased homocidal tendencies, etc., but by golly, if that TV is on and she can get a tiny glimpse of it, even if she has to spin her head around Exorcist-style to see the screen, she'll do it. Hopefully this will lead to her having a career as a high-powered TV exec and not a career as a couch potato.
LIKES: Trees. The good news is, she is equally fascinated by trees as she is by the TV. Trees are kind of like nature's TV - colors, sound, motion, etc. She loves lying on her tummy on a blanket under a tree and looking up at it. Sounds a little boring, but for a baby this is super good times.
INDIFFERENT: The cat. Slowly but surely, Poker the Cat has begun approaching Ivy, sniffing her, sitting on her clean folded clothes, etc. He has not licked or cuddled with her yet, but considering that for the first 4 months of her life Poker would hide in another room whenever she passed by, this is a major improvement. However, it has yet to be discerned as to whether Ivy has any interest in Poker, as she summarily ignores him whenever he comes around to give her a sniff. I'm sure that some day soon she'll suddenly realize "Oh man there's a cat living here!" and she'll start chasing him all over, but until that day comes, their relationship is icy at best.
DISLIKES: Strangers. It's amazing to see how her little baby brain works. She has figured out that her parents, her grandparents, the daycare people, the other daycare kids, and select other friends and relatives are "safe," and it's okay for them to hold her and be near her. But when she sees a new person arrive in a familiar area, she freaks. Apparently there was a locksmith at the daycare place fixing something, and the usually happy-go-lucky Ivy FREAKED when he was there, because she knew he was a stranger. This apparently also happened when the aunt of one of the daycare kids (as opposed to a parent) picked the kid up - Ivy knew this person was different and a potential threat. Good survival instincts on the kid, though it'll be interesting to see how she responds to Thanksgiving, where she'll be surrounded by new relatives who are very strange indeed.
INDIFFERENT: Other babies. We have lots of friends with little babies around her age, and we try to get them to hang out, but Ivy has no concept that they're around. We could put her down on a blanket next to another kid, and she'll be more interested in trying to put a corner of the blanket into her mouth than in communicating with her peer. Or maybe she just thinks all these other kids are jerks, and who knows, maybe they are. I don't speak baby.
DISLIKES: Daylight Savings Time. Oh, were mom and dad supposed to get a little extra sleep that one night? Yeah, that didn't happen...
LOVES: Music. Ivy LOVES rocking out to music, whether it's dad's rock and roll, mom's lullabies, or Baba's maddeningly annoying Baby Einstein CD that drives me bonkers. She dances by waving her little hands and shaking her little bon bons, which actually is exactly how I dance as well. Apple don't fall far from the tree...
- Mike
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Yes we DID!
Yesterday morning, we got up early and I loaded Ivy - still in jammies - into the stroller to walk up to the Barrington Rec Center where I would be casting my vote. I have always dreamed, since before the pregnancy, that I would take my kids to the polls so they would always know first hand the importance of participating in our country's democracy. I vowed I would teach them how people fought, even died, to do what I had the privilege to do that morning.
So we waited in line - at 7am there were about 150 people there - and when I got up to voting booth I held Ivy in one arm and voted with the other. Punching Obama's name was a moment of profound joy and pride, and even a little disbelief, and I will always remind Ivy that she was there with me to witness history. It was a vote for her future, and mine. No on Prop 4 - a vote to ensure the safety of teen girls, which Ivy will become one day - and a big HELL NO on Prop 8 - a vote to ensure that, god willing someday, Ivy can marry whomever she chooses when she becomes an adult. So much at stake for my little one, and all people everywhere.
We celebrated that night with other friends and their babies, toasting to a better future for our children and watching with tears in our eyes the beginning of a new day, a new era unfolding before us. I truly believe on this day that the world looks a little brighter, and I'm proud to have shared every moment of this monumental change with Ivy.
Yes we DID!
So we waited in line - at 7am there were about 150 people there - and when I got up to voting booth I held Ivy in one arm and voted with the other. Punching Obama's name was a moment of profound joy and pride, and even a little disbelief, and I will always remind Ivy that she was there with me to witness history. It was a vote for her future, and mine. No on Prop 4 - a vote to ensure the safety of teen girls, which Ivy will become one day - and a big HELL NO on Prop 8 - a vote to ensure that, god willing someday, Ivy can marry whomever she chooses when she becomes an adult. So much at stake for my little one, and all people everywhere.
We celebrated that night with other friends and their babies, toasting to a better future for our children and watching with tears in our eyes the beginning of a new day, a new era unfolding before us. I truly believe on this day that the world looks a little brighter, and I'm proud to have shared every moment of this monumental change with Ivy.
Yes we DID!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Some of the many reasons Ivy Bess rules, caught on video!
I know, I know...we've been bad about blogging, but hey - life is all kinds of hectic over here. Ivy has been rocking out in her usual fashion. At the last pediatrician visit, she weighed in at 15lb, 13oz for her 4 month check up. She continues to rule the school at day care, she partied at Simhat Torah, dancing with the best of 'em, and she's sleeping rather well too. In fact, we have a video to share:
We've also captured some other sweet moments on video, mostly because when she starts smiling and laughing and rolling all over the place we just can't help ourselves!
We've also captured some other sweet moments on video, mostly because when she starts smiling and laughing and rolling all over the place we just can't help ourselves!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
4 months old!
Did you see that?
That was the last 4 months flying by at lightening speed!
So this means I've survived my first month back at work, more or less. It also means Ivy hit 15lbs a couple weeks ago, officially making her too big for the bassinet in the Pack N Play so we've moved her to the crib. She falls asleep in it fine, but when she wakes for an early morning snack, she will NOT go back to sleep in it...that's okay, because I get to snuggle with her in bed. A little extra time spent together.
Ivy enjoyed a wonderful visit from Boston Grandma and Grandpa, as well as Auntie Erica (pics are on Facebook). She experienced her first Rosh Hashanah and tashlich at the beach. And she's getting in to playoff baseball, rooting on the Sox (though she passed out last night in the 7th inning, before it got interesting). All is good in Ivy's world!
Here's a little something to keep you photo-hungry folks satiated (and more on Facebook) until I can get another video up.
We love the Bumbo!
Go Sox! (Bucket hat finally fits!)
That was the last 4 months flying by at lightening speed!
So this means I've survived my first month back at work, more or less. It also means Ivy hit 15lbs a couple weeks ago, officially making her too big for the bassinet in the Pack N Play so we've moved her to the crib. She falls asleep in it fine, but when she wakes for an early morning snack, she will NOT go back to sleep in it...that's okay, because I get to snuggle with her in bed. A little extra time spent together.
Ivy enjoyed a wonderful visit from Boston Grandma and Grandpa, as well as Auntie Erica (pics are on Facebook). She experienced her first Rosh Hashanah and tashlich at the beach. And she's getting in to playoff baseball, rooting on the Sox (though she passed out last night in the 7th inning, before it got interesting). All is good in Ivy's world!
Here's a little something to keep you photo-hungry folks satiated (and more on Facebook) until I can get another video up.
We love the Bumbo!
Go Sox! (Bucket hat finally fits!)
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Rollin'
We continue to have a blast with our little Ivy girl. I'm surviving being back at work, though I miss her terribly during the day. She does great there, drinking all her bottles and watching the other kids play. But picking her up is the highlight of every day.
When we first took her to day care, I told Pantea not to tell me if Ivy achieves a milestone while I'm gone, if I haven't told her that she's done something already. Well, last week I had a feeling she wasn't telling me something and I was guessing it was rolling over. So this weekend we took to the floor and...
When we first took her to day care, I told Pantea not to tell me if Ivy achieves a milestone while I'm gone, if I haven't told her that she's done something already. Well, last week I had a feeling she wasn't telling me something and I was guessing it was rolling over. So this weekend we took to the floor and...
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
My thoughts on the whole daycare thing
Yo. So now that Kim has chimed in with her latest rant (nice one, honey), I'm going to put in my two cents. Though I am also sad that we must drop Ivy off at someone else's house every day instead of leaving her at home with one of us (and as soon as Kim becomes the 8 Figure Social Worker, I am totally gonna be a stay at home dad), this change in childcare actually has given me more time with Ivy, because I am the one responsible for driving her to daycare every day. I am using my time to introduce her to classic rock and jam bands, so that she can be the hippest kid at daycare and eventually, in the universe. Plus I have no interest in listening to that Rafi crap on my way to work - I mean come on! So far the artist she has responded to best has been Creedence Clearwater Revival, especially the song "Down on the Corner." I realize that this is probably because this song (and many other CCR hits) sounds like it could be a Rafi song, but that is neither here nor there. The kid likes CCR; I can work with that.
Dropping her off is a little sad. Usually she's either passed out and looking cute, or smiling and looking cute, and those are two faces you don't want to leave sight of. Pantea (the daycare lady) is super awesome though, and the other kids (only 4, and no other babies) all really like her. The hope is that as she gets a little older, they can all be buddies and play together. Although realistically, do kids still keep in contact with their playgroup friends after kindergarten? I don't talk to anyone from the classic 2 Davids 2 Michaels 2 Richards playgroup, although 1 David and 1 Richard are my Facebook friends (which in the grand scheme of things, means nothing). And the only person I know from Kim's playgroup is Graff, and we've all seen how that worked out.
In the meantime, we've been giving Ivy extra hugs and kisses and snuggles, and watching as she figures out how to grasp things, how to take her pacifier out of her mouth with her hands (as opposed to spitting it out), and almost how to roll over (she can get a little beyond 90 degrees before she freaks and rolls back). I also tried to teach her the football referee hand signals before the Pats opener (which we watched with Ivy's friend Noa and her dad Dave), and for the record the cutest ones were Offsides, Holding, and Personal Foul: Facemask. And yes, I have realized that Ivy's first ever football game coincided with Touchdown Tommy's season-ending injury, and no I don't think it's appropriate to claim that Ivy is a jinx. If Cassel goes down vs. the Jets, that may be a different story...
Check Facebook for more pics. If you don't have Facebook yet, remember that 90-year-old GGH is on there, so you would be by no means the youngest or least fashionable person on Facebook if you were to join up. Hollah! - Mike
Dropping her off is a little sad. Usually she's either passed out and looking cute, or smiling and looking cute, and those are two faces you don't want to leave sight of. Pantea (the daycare lady) is super awesome though, and the other kids (only 4, and no other babies) all really like her. The hope is that as she gets a little older, they can all be buddies and play together. Although realistically, do kids still keep in contact with their playgroup friends after kindergarten? I don't talk to anyone from the classic 2 Davids 2 Michaels 2 Richards playgroup, although 1 David and 1 Richard are my Facebook friends (which in the grand scheme of things, means nothing). And the only person I know from Kim's playgroup is Graff, and we've all seen how that worked out.
In the meantime, we've been giving Ivy extra hugs and kisses and snuggles, and watching as she figures out how to grasp things, how to take her pacifier out of her mouth with her hands (as opposed to spitting it out), and almost how to roll over (she can get a little beyond 90 degrees before she freaks and rolls back). I also tried to teach her the football referee hand signals before the Pats opener (which we watched with Ivy's friend Noa and her dad Dave), and for the record the cutest ones were Offsides, Holding, and Personal Foul: Facemask. And yes, I have realized that Ivy's first ever football game coincided with Touchdown Tommy's season-ending injury, and no I don't think it's appropriate to claim that Ivy is a jinx. If Cassel goes down vs. the Jets, that may be a different story...
Check Facebook for more pics. If you don't have Facebook yet, remember that 90-year-old GGH is on there, so you would be by no means the youngest or least fashionable person on Facebook if you were to join up. Hollah! - Mike
Sunday, September 7, 2008
It's the end of our summer as we know it...
...and I don't exactly feel fine. I go back to work tomorrow, and I'm really going to miss my smiley little girl! As challenging as it was sometimes, being home alone with her all day, I think it will be harder to be apart. We did a trial week of day care this past week. Ivy did great; I only cried the first day and that was just leaving her for a couple hours! We'll survive though. Weekends are going to become all about snuggling in bed, like in this picture:
Update from last entry - I found my pants (they were in the laundry basket, probably covered in spit up and drool) and the binkies...but those didn't matter because we threw them all out today (they're only supposed to be used up to 3 months).
The biggest item on our to-do list was to make Ivy's room feel more like a baby's room, even though it also houses all our crap, and even though she's not sleeping there yet. Her furniture arrived and we cleaned up a bunch of stuff. I think it's pretty darn cute:
Items not accomplished on the summer to-do list - primarily anything to do with photo albums and scrapbooks and such. Oh well. By her first birthday, I promise to be caught up!
And since this blog entry wouldn't be complete without a much-anticipated rant, here's the latest:
Why is everyone so eager to see you fail as a parent? Okay, maybe fail is too harsh, but it seems there is no shortage of glee when you share your challenges of raising an infant. Like if I were to say, "Ivy woke up twice last night" it would not be uncommon to hear a response (from another parent, so clearly an expert in the matter) "HA HA, your kid sucks! She doesn't sleep! Now you know the pain that I went through when MY kid didn't sleep! Enjoy the suffering."
Now, let me be clear. I sympathize with any new parent who has a tough time, especially because Ivy is so darned awesome and I wish everyone's babies were like her - easy - as opposed to other parents wishing all babies were as difficult as theirs. But I have never rubbed it in anyone's face, primarily because I'm not entirely convinced Mike and I can take credit for all of her awesomeness. I said not long ago "Ivy is basically sleeping through the night" and the response I heard from more than one person? "Yeah, well don't get used to it because MY baby did that once and then she never slept at night again...in fact, she's now in 2nd grade and still doesn't sleep through the night. So there." Well, I'm sorry that my kid knows how to keep her trap shut and belly full for 7-9 hours and yours doesn't, but why wish your hell upon me? I am well aware of the 4 month wakeful period and the phenomenon known as teething. So excuse me for enjoying a night's sleep every once and a while (except on the occasion that I have to interrupt the bliss of such a stretch to pump because I am a walking dairy case that's overstocked).
Then we have the friends whose first kid got the whole sleeping thing down, but the second never quite figured it out (in general, she's pretty out to lunch, but that's another story). They shared their experience of not trying to be too self-congratulatory the first time around, lest subsequent offspring are not quite so obedient at bedtime. Now that's advice I can take...we're pretty darn proud of ourselves so far, but are very well aware of this fragile state of affairs.
And so my brief stint as a stay-at-home mom has come to end. Ivy girl, I love you so much and I'm really going to miss you all day. But I'll more than make up for it by showering you with love and kisses and snuggles.
Happy 3-month birthday, Ivy! And happy grandparents day to all four of the proud grandparents!
Update from last entry - I found my pants (they were in the laundry basket, probably covered in spit up and drool) and the binkies...but those didn't matter because we threw them all out today (they're only supposed to be used up to 3 months).
The biggest item on our to-do list was to make Ivy's room feel more like a baby's room, even though it also houses all our crap, and even though she's not sleeping there yet. Her furniture arrived and we cleaned up a bunch of stuff. I think it's pretty darn cute:
Items not accomplished on the summer to-do list - primarily anything to do with photo albums and scrapbooks and such. Oh well. By her first birthday, I promise to be caught up!
And since this blog entry wouldn't be complete without a much-anticipated rant, here's the latest:
Why is everyone so eager to see you fail as a parent? Okay, maybe fail is too harsh, but it seems there is no shortage of glee when you share your challenges of raising an infant. Like if I were to say, "Ivy woke up twice last night" it would not be uncommon to hear a response (from another parent, so clearly an expert in the matter) "HA HA, your kid sucks! She doesn't sleep! Now you know the pain that I went through when MY kid didn't sleep! Enjoy the suffering."
Now, let me be clear. I sympathize with any new parent who has a tough time, especially because Ivy is so darned awesome and I wish everyone's babies were like her - easy - as opposed to other parents wishing all babies were as difficult as theirs. But I have never rubbed it in anyone's face, primarily because I'm not entirely convinced Mike and I can take credit for all of her awesomeness. I said not long ago "Ivy is basically sleeping through the night" and the response I heard from more than one person? "Yeah, well don't get used to it because MY baby did that once and then she never slept at night again...in fact, she's now in 2nd grade and still doesn't sleep through the night. So there." Well, I'm sorry that my kid knows how to keep her trap shut and belly full for 7-9 hours and yours doesn't, but why wish your hell upon me? I am well aware of the 4 month wakeful period and the phenomenon known as teething. So excuse me for enjoying a night's sleep every once and a while (except on the occasion that I have to interrupt the bliss of such a stretch to pump because I am a walking dairy case that's overstocked).
Then we have the friends whose first kid got the whole sleeping thing down, but the second never quite figured it out (in general, she's pretty out to lunch, but that's another story). They shared their experience of not trying to be too self-congratulatory the first time around, lest subsequent offspring are not quite so obedient at bedtime. Now that's advice I can take...we're pretty darn proud of ourselves so far, but are very well aware of this fragile state of affairs.
And so my brief stint as a stay-at-home mom has come to end. Ivy girl, I love you so much and I'm really going to miss you all day. But I'll more than make up for it by showering you with love and kisses and snuggles.
Happy 3-month birthday, Ivy! And happy grandparents day to all four of the proud grandparents!
Monday, September 1, 2008
Countdown - 6 days
...Until I have to return to work. Siiiiiiigh.
Tomorrow starts "transition week" wherein I will start taking Ivy to day care to get us both used to saying goodbye everyday. My heart aches, but at least we are really happy with the babysitting arrangement. She's going to a lovely woman's home, where she'll be the only baby among 4 kids total. We could not have dreamed up a more ideal situation, so we are hoping that all goes well. I have a feeling she'll do better than I will.
In the meantime, enjoy this little movie from our long weekend in San Diego (excuse the zoom in on Mike's nipple):
Tomorrow starts "transition week" wherein I will start taking Ivy to day care to get us both used to saying goodbye everyday. My heart aches, but at least we are really happy with the babysitting arrangement. She's going to a lovely woman's home, where she'll be the only baby among 4 kids total. We could not have dreamed up a more ideal situation, so we are hoping that all goes well. I have a feeling she'll do better than I will.
In the meantime, enjoy this little movie from our long weekend in San Diego (excuse the zoom in on Mike's nipple):
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Where has summer gone?!
Hello friends. Long time no blog. I've been busy, herding Ivy from one baby gathering to another, and trying to unearth myself from the ever-growing collection of digital pictures on my computer that I can't seem to organize. Ugh. And we got a little video camera, so now I'm getting into making little movies, though clearly I did not need to add yet another memory-making project to the already full plate. For crying out loud, we still have a few thank you notes to go, and a small stack of birth announcements to still be sent. But I am making a little progress, and I've gotten crafty to boot. I even made wall letters for Ivy!
Well let's see...we've hit some great milestones in the last few weeks. Ivy is smiling up a storm, and laughing and cooing. She's has pretty much mastered all the vowels, which is awesome. Only 21 consonants to go.
Her motor skills are developing right on track. Her neck is getting super strong and is great at lifting her head. She has also recently discovered her hands, and that they have a purpose beyond idly and randomly batting objects within reach. The other evening, I had a blanket on her in the stroller and she pulled it up to her face and tried to chew on the edge! She does that more and more, grabbing and pulling them to her mouth. Yum.
Ivy has also figured out how to sleep through the night, more or less! What a godsend. About 3 weeks ago she had her longest stretch - 9 hours!!! - and since then had slipped back to about 6. But this last week she's improved back to 8-9 hours, so we are all feeling more rested around here. It's also nice to have some time in the evenings after she goes to bed to get stuff done around the apartment and chill out with a bad Netflix movie.
It seems that since Ivy was born, things have been periodically and randomly disappearing into the ether. I have no explanation for these disappearances, but it's quite troubling. Items lost to date into the Silverstein Vapor:
Here are the latest photos, for those STILL not on Facebook. Even 90 year old GGH has jumped on!
Well let's see...we've hit some great milestones in the last few weeks. Ivy is smiling up a storm, and laughing and cooing. She's has pretty much mastered all the vowels, which is awesome. Only 21 consonants to go.
Her motor skills are developing right on track. Her neck is getting super strong and is great at lifting her head. She has also recently discovered her hands, and that they have a purpose beyond idly and randomly batting objects within reach. The other evening, I had a blanket on her in the stroller and she pulled it up to her face and tried to chew on the edge! She does that more and more, grabbing and pulling them to her mouth. Yum.
Ivy has also figured out how to sleep through the night, more or less! What a godsend. About 3 weeks ago she had her longest stretch - 9 hours!!! - and since then had slipped back to about 6. But this last week she's improved back to 8-9 hours, so we are all feeling more rested around here. It's also nice to have some time in the evenings after she goes to bed to get stuff done around the apartment and chill out with a bad Netflix movie.
It seems that since Ivy was born, things have been periodically and randomly disappearing into the ether. I have no explanation for these disappearances, but it's quite troubling. Items lost to date into the Silverstein Vapor:
- A check for $20...sorry Jon.
- Multiple binkies...despite daily attempts at Binky Roundups
- Mike's bluetooth. Shoot, there's that CA hands-free cell while driving law.
- A pair...no make that two pairs...of my comfy pants (awesome for hanging out with Ivy without having to worry about the last 5 lbs of pudge)
- Is that it? Feels like more...Mike, feel free to chime in here.
Here are the latest photos, for those STILL not on Facebook. Even 90 year old GGH has jumped on!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
My daughter is a player
Literally, as she is certainly getting around to various play dates. I don't know when the last time you went to a park was, but I had totally forgotten how sweet parks are! I mean there are trees and grass...the simpler things in life. Well, life with Ivy has caused me to rediscover parks. We've now had a bunch of play dates, also bringing about a realization that at this age the play dates are really for the parents! Who knew! What a concept. It's been great for my social life, as it's easy to feel like a prisoner in your own home if you don't make an effort to get out.
Ivy and Abby Gabby whoop it up on the floor...Ivy takes no notice, and Abby on a number of occasions accidentally whaps Ivy in the face.
Ivy and Jonah - born 2 days before her - are also blissfully unaware of one another as they chill on a blanket in the park.
Ivy meets her newest friend (she's now no longer the youngest IKARite) and Brentwood neighbor, Noa...or NoJo as the kids call her. Noa here is 5 days old. That Lisa and Dave sure made a cutie!
Let's see, what else... Thanks to Grandpa Harvey, Ivy is the proud new owner of 3 pairs of Adidas sneakers, her first soccer uniform (it was only a matter of time), and not one but 4 Red Sox hats. Classic. She rocked out with her grandparents this weekend, while Mike and I had our first night out alone! Fortunately for all involved, Ivy was asleep the whole time as Grandma pushed her in the stroller around Brentwood and went to dinner. We had a lovely dinner together, and bought Ivy a new carseat toy. Who says we'd never get out??!!
In other news, Ivy continues to grow like a weed. She's already outgrown some of her clothes - a onesie was busting off her the other day - and we've moved up to size 2 Pampers. Size 1-2 goes up to 14lbs, but she was pooping through them too regularly and they were a bit tight. So we've moved on. This is my life.
Ivy and Abby Gabby whoop it up on the floor...Ivy takes no notice, and Abby on a number of occasions accidentally whaps Ivy in the face.
Ivy and Jonah - born 2 days before her - are also blissfully unaware of one another as they chill on a blanket in the park.
Ivy meets her newest friend (she's now no longer the youngest IKARite) and Brentwood neighbor, Noa...or NoJo as the kids call her. Noa here is 5 days old. That Lisa and Dave sure made a cutie!Let's see, what else... Thanks to Grandpa Harvey, Ivy is the proud new owner of 3 pairs of Adidas sneakers, her first soccer uniform (it was only a matter of time), and not one but 4 Red Sox hats. Classic. She rocked out with her grandparents this weekend, while Mike and I had our first night out alone! Fortunately for all involved, Ivy was asleep the whole time as Grandma pushed her in the stroller around Brentwood and went to dinner. We had a lovely dinner together, and bought Ivy a new carseat toy. Who says we'd never get out??!!
In other news, Ivy continues to grow like a weed. She's already outgrown some of her clothes - a onesie was busting off her the other day - and we've moved up to size 2 Pampers. Size 1-2 goes up to 14lbs, but she was pooping through them too regularly and they were a bit tight. So we've moved on. This is my life.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wash your damn hands
My latest rant involves hand-washing. Now some people raise their babies in a super-protective plastic bubble and refuse to let any potential germs or bacteria in, but that's just not us. I mean, pretty soon Ivy's gonna be having tea parties on the bathroom floor of the WJCC with Abby Gab and NoJo anyway, so a completely sterile environment is just not happening. That being said, we do ask people to wash their hands (or Purell, though soap and water is more effective) before holding the baby. I don't see why this should be a problem - people should want to eliminate germs from their lives anyway. Plus with all the funky soaps and lotions now available (my favorite flavor is "tester"), hand-washing time has become more fun than ever.
Younger people, I've noticed, have no problem with this. They wash, dry, hold Ivy. No biggie. It's the older (50+) generation that seems to have beef. "Can I hold the baby?" "Do you mind washing your hands first?" "Huh!" (like we've called their mothers prostitutes). No we don't think you're especially grubby; we ask EVERYONE to wash their hands before holding the baby. This is then usually tested by the person: "Wash my hands? Did you ask so-and-so to wash her hands before holding the baby?" YES lady, we tell EVERYONE to wash their hands. Sheesh.
Then when other people go to hold the baby, the first person makes a big deal out of it. "Did that person wash their hands? Cause I had to wash my hands, you know. You made me wash my hands." YES lady, they washed their hands too. You don't have to be so snide about it. It's just hand washing! It's not like we asked you to donate a kidney before holding the baby (though organ donation is a very commendable act).
The funniest example of this was at Gelles's wedding (mazal tov!). This crazy yenta lady came up to me and said "That is the cutest baby. Oh my Gd what a gorgeous baby. Let me hold the baby. I HAVE TO HOLD THE BABY!!!" I said, "Do you mind washing your hands first?" and she has a conniption fit. Finally after five minutes of arguing I say to her "Look, if you have such a problem with washing your hands, would you mind putting on some Purell?" She agrees to that. I hand her Ivy, who has been asleep or quietly happy the entire day (it is now about 11 pm), and within ONE SECOND of being held by this woman, Ivy starts screaming and the woman hands her back to me. So after all that agita, she held the baby for less than a minute. Maybe Ivy knew this woman was whack; she's very intuitive.
So wash your damn hands! Who knows where those hands have been? Grody. - Mike
Younger people, I've noticed, have no problem with this. They wash, dry, hold Ivy. No biggie. It's the older (50+) generation that seems to have beef. "Can I hold the baby?" "Do you mind washing your hands first?" "Huh!" (like we've called their mothers prostitutes). No we don't think you're especially grubby; we ask EVERYONE to wash their hands before holding the baby. This is then usually tested by the person: "Wash my hands? Did you ask so-and-so to wash her hands before holding the baby?" YES lady, we tell EVERYONE to wash their hands. Sheesh.
Then when other people go to hold the baby, the first person makes a big deal out of it. "Did that person wash their hands? Cause I had to wash my hands, you know. You made me wash my hands." YES lady, they washed their hands too. You don't have to be so snide about it. It's just hand washing! It's not like we asked you to donate a kidney before holding the baby (though organ donation is a very commendable act).
The funniest example of this was at Gelles's wedding (mazal tov!). This crazy yenta lady came up to me and said "That is the cutest baby. Oh my Gd what a gorgeous baby. Let me hold the baby. I HAVE TO HOLD THE BABY!!!" I said, "Do you mind washing your hands first?" and she has a conniption fit. Finally after five minutes of arguing I say to her "Look, if you have such a problem with washing your hands, would you mind putting on some Purell?" She agrees to that. I hand her Ivy, who has been asleep or quietly happy the entire day (it is now about 11 pm), and within ONE SECOND of being held by this woman, Ivy starts screaming and the woman hands her back to me. So after all that agita, she held the baby for less than a minute. Maybe Ivy knew this woman was whack; she's very intuitive.
So wash your damn hands! Who knows where those hands have been? Grody. - Mike
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Love that dirty water...
We just returned from a wonderful vacation in Boston. Our main reason for travel was to witness the nuptials of one Andrew Gelles and Jess DeNino, but we also got to spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa and some other east coast friends. I appreciated all the relatives clamoring for Ivy's attention, at last giving me more than an hour at a time of free hands. I frittered most of that time away, but that's what vacation is for.
Highlights of the trip include:
- A VERY easy plane ride, although American Airlines no longer allows "passengers traveling with small children" to preboard. WTF??!! It's not that costs them any money!
- An interesting moment in which GGH revealed a bit too much of himself while holding my precious daughter. I'm trying to block that image from my memory.
- The main event - the wedding. Especially the bad-ass candy bar. Oh yeah, and the love.
- A shopping spree at Carters at the Wrentham outlets, courtesy of Grandma. In fact, the whole trip was really an extended fashion show.
- Ivy hanging out with Audrey. Future Penn roommates, perhaps?
- Ivy sleeping for marathon stretches of time...awesome for her, not so much for the boobs.
Enjoy these two picture albums of our vacation adventures:
Monday, July 7, 2008
One month!
WOW! Well that flew by. I can't believe I've had my little girl for one month already. As Mike mentioned, time is at a premium these days, and while I know you are all anxious to see more pictures (at least I hope you are because she is one friggin' cute baby) I am going to post links to Facebook albums from here forward, unless there are stand-alone winners that I have time to post here as well, like this one:
PHOTO ALBUMS
Ivy's First Week and Simhat Bat
Sleepy Time and Baby Shower
Sleepy Time and Baby Shower
More to come, as quick as I can post them!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Buncha stuff since last post
Hey there bloggerinos - A lot has happened since we last posted. Apparently when you have a baby, your free time is at a premium and things like "writing a snarky blog post" take the backseat behind "eating" and "showering." Hence, lots of the following bullet points probably deserve their own fully fleshed out blog posts, and in the past would have gotten the proper treatment. But that ain't happening in the post-birth world. So without further ado, here is a numbered list of items to discuss:
1. "Are you sleeping?" is the new "Are you ready?" Everybody asks us if we're sleeping. It's getting ridiculous. The truth is, the sleep deprivation is not that bad at all. Ivy sleeps pretty well, only needing to get up once or twice per night, and if you anticipate getting up every 3 hours, then when it happens it's not the end of the world. (I've heard that babies often sleep well in the first 3 months and then become awful sleepers in the following 9 months, so hopefully I'm not jinxing anything here). But even when we tell people this, they don't really believe us. It's like they want us to be walking zombies. This then raises the question, "If we were really sleep deprived, would we want you to be constantly reminding us of that fact? Wouldn't the asker of said annoying question deserve a swift kick to the crotch?" A lot of the people who ask us this question (and have asked similar stupid questions while Kim was pregnant) are people who have children, which brought me to the realization that being a parent is kind of like being in a fraternity. You look at the pledges going through all this hell, and you laugh at them, even though you remember when you were doing it and how much it sucked. Well when I was in a fraternity, I was always nice to the pledges and never had them do anything crappy, because I remembered all too well that awful feeling of pledging. And that's the kind of parent I'm going to be, at least with other parents. Moral of the story: I rule.
2. We went to the movies. Did you feel that? That was your mind getting blown. One thing that EVERYBODY said to us while Kim was pregnant was "Go to the movies now, cause you won't go again for another 18 years! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Well this morning all three of us went to see WALL-E, and not only was the movie awesome, but Ivy slept through the whole thing and did not cause any trouble. So SUCK ON THAT, everyone else. Mean parent fraternity members.
3. I survived a baby shower. Three of Kim's mom's friends threw us a baby shower in the SD area last weekend, and I have to admit it was pretty fun, despite the fact that I was the only guy among 30 women. There was free food, and crafts, and a lot of booze. During the present-opening section of the shower, Kim had to go feed Ivy, and so I was given the task of opening gifts. I decided that instead of taking my time reading every card, then meticulously opening the present, taking out the gift so everyone could see, saying things like "Oh, it's so darling! How precious! Oh my Gd thank you so much, this is perfect!" etc., I just sped through the whole thing. Cards - who cares. Wrapping paper - meant to be ripped up. Present - yeah it's cute, they're all cute, making a onesie cute is like shooting fish in a barrel. Thanking people - eh, they'll get a card in 2-3 weeks. We all have lives, we gotta make this snappy. The ladies appreciated my attitude, and I think they were a little sad when Kim came back and took over.
4. Sun morning - a morning that will live in infamy. Last Sat night/Sun morning was a big one in the Silverstein household, because not only did Ivy have explosive diarrhea on me once and Kim TWICE (causing multiple outfits and towels of ours to be trashed), AND not only did she also barf all over Kim during one of those major poo sessions, BUT the cat also decided that he was fed up with being a second-class citizen in the apartment he used to rule with an iron fist, and so he retaliated against us and our reduction of playtime with him by barfing all over the place. We're talking multiple times in each room. And I didn't discover the puke until about 5:30 am when I went to the kitchen to get a new plastic bag to line our trash can with, so at 5:30 in the morning Kim was changing an insanely poo-ey diaper while I was on my hands and knees scrubbing cat barf out of the carpet. At this point I said to Kim "What is with these two stupid little things we have to keep alive?" And thus, the nickname "stupid little things" was born.
There may be more to report but I don't remember - we've got a lot going on here. Since Kim is more photo savvy than I am, she will soon post some pictures, including highlights from the shower and the now infamous Don Rickles Photo. (These are all on Facebook so if you're not on that, you're late to the party). Ta. - Mike
1. "Are you sleeping?" is the new "Are you ready?" Everybody asks us if we're sleeping. It's getting ridiculous. The truth is, the sleep deprivation is not that bad at all. Ivy sleeps pretty well, only needing to get up once or twice per night, and if you anticipate getting up every 3 hours, then when it happens it's not the end of the world. (I've heard that babies often sleep well in the first 3 months and then become awful sleepers in the following 9 months, so hopefully I'm not jinxing anything here). But even when we tell people this, they don't really believe us. It's like they want us to be walking zombies. This then raises the question, "If we were really sleep deprived, would we want you to be constantly reminding us of that fact? Wouldn't the asker of said annoying question deserve a swift kick to the crotch?" A lot of the people who ask us this question (and have asked similar stupid questions while Kim was pregnant) are people who have children, which brought me to the realization that being a parent is kind of like being in a fraternity. You look at the pledges going through all this hell, and you laugh at them, even though you remember when you were doing it and how much it sucked. Well when I was in a fraternity, I was always nice to the pledges and never had them do anything crappy, because I remembered all too well that awful feeling of pledging. And that's the kind of parent I'm going to be, at least with other parents. Moral of the story: I rule.
2. We went to the movies. Did you feel that? That was your mind getting blown. One thing that EVERYBODY said to us while Kim was pregnant was "Go to the movies now, cause you won't go again for another 18 years! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Well this morning all three of us went to see WALL-E, and not only was the movie awesome, but Ivy slept through the whole thing and did not cause any trouble. So SUCK ON THAT, everyone else. Mean parent fraternity members.
3. I survived a baby shower. Three of Kim's mom's friends threw us a baby shower in the SD area last weekend, and I have to admit it was pretty fun, despite the fact that I was the only guy among 30 women. There was free food, and crafts, and a lot of booze. During the present-opening section of the shower, Kim had to go feed Ivy, and so I was given the task of opening gifts. I decided that instead of taking my time reading every card, then meticulously opening the present, taking out the gift so everyone could see, saying things like "Oh, it's so darling! How precious! Oh my Gd thank you so much, this is perfect!" etc., I just sped through the whole thing. Cards - who cares. Wrapping paper - meant to be ripped up. Present - yeah it's cute, they're all cute, making a onesie cute is like shooting fish in a barrel. Thanking people - eh, they'll get a card in 2-3 weeks. We all have lives, we gotta make this snappy. The ladies appreciated my attitude, and I think they were a little sad when Kim came back and took over.
4. Sun morning - a morning that will live in infamy. Last Sat night/Sun morning was a big one in the Silverstein household, because not only did Ivy have explosive diarrhea on me once and Kim TWICE (causing multiple outfits and towels of ours to be trashed), AND not only did she also barf all over Kim during one of those major poo sessions, BUT the cat also decided that he was fed up with being a second-class citizen in the apartment he used to rule with an iron fist, and so he retaliated against us and our reduction of playtime with him by barfing all over the place. We're talking multiple times in each room. And I didn't discover the puke until about 5:30 am when I went to the kitchen to get a new plastic bag to line our trash can with, so at 5:30 in the morning Kim was changing an insanely poo-ey diaper while I was on my hands and knees scrubbing cat barf out of the carpet. At this point I said to Kim "What is with these two stupid little things we have to keep alive?" And thus, the nickname "stupid little things" was born.
There may be more to report but I don't remember - we've got a lot going on here. Since Kim is more photo savvy than I am, she will soon post some pictures, including highlights from the shower and the now infamous Don Rickles Photo. (These are all on Facebook so if you're not on that, you're late to the party). Ta. - Mike
Thursday, June 26, 2008
This is the first day of the rest of your maternity leave...
...is what I thought on Tuesday morning as Mike headed to his new job and Ivy and I were faced with the realization of what the next 10 weeks would be like.
Staying home with a person who is pre-verbal is hard. Not to mention the lack of the extra pair of hands (Mike's). I realized how many things you CAN'T do while holding a baby...everything from eating a bowl of cereal to washing your hands. Showering and doing laundry are out of the question. But at least I can one-hand type on my laptop with Ivy cradled in the other arm. Because gd forbid I didn't get a chance to update my Facebook status.
We survived day 1 okay, but day 2 (yesterday) was a whole other story. I had a major meltdown in the afternoon, and it would have been the second of the day if Stephanie hadn't shown up earlier, impeccably timed to prevent what would have been the first one. I spent about six hours of my day, the last two of which I was also juggling a fussy baby, on the phone trying to fix our downed internet. It was a classic situation of Verizon tells me it's not the DSL so I need to call Belkin (the wireless router people), and they of course tell me they can't fix it blah blah blah giving me wrong information and to call back Verizon. We play this game for hours, and I'm on the verge of tears. Then at one point I actually hang up on the guy and just start bawling. It was not pretty. At least Ivy was asleep for most of this show.
In the end, the internet was fixed, I took Ivy on a walk to Starbucks and when Mike came home I left her in his arms and made a mad dash for Target. We did need a couple things, but I really just needed to get out by myself and where better than to find soothing retail therapy than Target? A two-story one no less!
So yup, that's my life these days. This week is my getting adjusted grace period. Next week, I plan to be more productive and active...we shall see!
Staying home with a person who is pre-verbal is hard. Not to mention the lack of the extra pair of hands (Mike's). I realized how many things you CAN'T do while holding a baby...everything from eating a bowl of cereal to washing your hands. Showering and doing laundry are out of the question. But at least I can one-hand type on my laptop with Ivy cradled in the other arm. Because gd forbid I didn't get a chance to update my Facebook status.
We survived day 1 okay, but day 2 (yesterday) was a whole other story. I had a major meltdown in the afternoon, and it would have been the second of the day if Stephanie hadn't shown up earlier, impeccably timed to prevent what would have been the first one. I spent about six hours of my day, the last two of which I was also juggling a fussy baby, on the phone trying to fix our downed internet. It was a classic situation of Verizon tells me it's not the DSL so I need to call Belkin (the wireless router people), and they of course tell me they can't fix it blah blah blah giving me wrong information and to call back Verizon. We play this game for hours, and I'm on the verge of tears. Then at one point I actually hang up on the guy and just start bawling. It was not pretty. At least Ivy was asleep for most of this show.
In the end, the internet was fixed, I took Ivy on a walk to Starbucks and when Mike came home I left her in his arms and made a mad dash for Target. We did need a couple things, but I really just needed to get out by myself and where better than to find soothing retail therapy than Target? A two-story one no less!
So yup, that's my life these days. This week is my getting adjusted grace period. Next week, I plan to be more productive and active...we shall see!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Two Weeks Notice
Ivy is two weeks old today...I can't decide if it feels like 2 hours or 2 lifetimes. Being super-preggers seems like years ago, but I feel like we just came home from the hospital. It's amazing how time loses all definition when the days and nights blend together, and the daily/nightly rhythm is punctuated by feedings and diaper changes, not to mention the cabin fever of laying low at home. It's been great, but we're definitely getting more aggressive at getting out. Our sanity depends on it.
So let's see...Mike's description of labor and the birth was more or less accurate. If you want to talk about a mind-f**k when it comes to time, let's talk about 28 hours of labor, which really meant being awake for nearly 72 hours. I woke up normally on Thursday morning and didn't really go to bed until Saturday night, with a couple brief catnaps interspersed (post epidural and then when I was moved to my recovery room). Oh yeah, and somewhere in there I pushed out a 9 pound kid. No sweat. So now here we sit 2 weeks later, reflecting on our accomplishment of keeping Ivy alive for 14 days strong.
First week at home was relaxing...once all the family left, we were left to our own devices and had to figure out this new lifestyle of ours. I have to say, it's really not at all what I expected but in a good way. Ivy is a great sleeper (although I hear this is common for the first couple weeks, and every parent thinks their kid is going to be sleeping through the night any day now), and I've actually had to wake her to feed her. Hopefully once she's back to her extraordinary birth weight and we know she's gaining steadily, we can be back to feeding on her demand, not that of my breasts. That's the other thing - modesty has become a virtually nonexistent concept, as I imagine is the case for most women who give birth and breastfeed. It was not uncommon to hear me talking about my cervix with friends before she was born, or about latching and nipple leakage recently. My friend's 10 year old daughter was a little creeped out by this, but strangely fascinated at the same time. I feel the same way, frankly.
Anyway, back to the sleeping - I'm sure Ivy has a long road ahead of her before I can ever dream of an 8-hour night's sleep again, but it really isn't that bad. I feed her before we go to bed around midnight (though it is hard to stay up that late most nights), she eats again around 3:00 or 4:00, and then again around 6:00 or 7:00...after which we usually go back to sleep again. And since I'm responsible for input, Mike takes care of the output so the division of middle of the night labor is quite reasonable.
And as far as the days are concerned, it's been so wonderful being at home with her and Mike. After a couple days we ventured out for a walk in the neighborhood, which we now try to do every day or so. We've been playing a lot with photos of her, and trying to stay in touch with everyone. And we take naps, which are awesome, especially when Ivy is passed out on our chests. She's been such a great baby, and we love staring into her eyes and talking to her and being goofy with her. We call her our little Chicken Wing because of the way she keeps her legs tucked up sometimes, reminiscent of her time in the womb. And last night we ventured out to IKAR for the first time...she screamed the whole way there, though if she's already hot and bothered by LA traffic now, we better start saving for therapy so she can deal with her road rage 16 years down the road.
Here are a couple pictures to enjoy:
Poker loves the new chair...he keeps it warm when we're not using it.
First walk in Brentwood!
Hanging out with Grandpa Harvey
Chillin' with Dad
Ivy receives her name at her Simhat Bat
The Silversteins
The Rogoffs
Kim and Zuzana, with Ivy and Abby respectively...we're already gearing up for the first sleepover!
My personal fave...our little rock star!
Friday, June 13, 2008
First week - pictures!
Here she is, our precious daughter's first few days...there will be more when we have time to upload!
Hi Dad!
First bath!
Snuggle time!
Chillin' in the hospital...(notice Mommy got to take a shower)
So sleepy
Grandma Linda
Getting ready to leave!
I'm home!
Hanging out with Dad
Uncle Mark
More coming soon!
Fresh out of the oven! Come to Mommy...
Hi Dad!
First bath!
Snuggle time!
Chillin' in the hospital...(notice Mommy got to take a shower)
So sleepy
Grandma Linda
Getting ready to leave!
I'm home!
Hanging out with Dad
Uncle Mark
More coming soon!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The run-down
For those of you who haven't heard these stories yet, this is the run-down of how our beautiful daughter came into the world.
Thurs 6/5 9 pm - Kim and I sit down to watch a movie (MY KID COULD PAINT THAT). Neither of us slept well the night before so we figured we'd watch the movie and go to sleep early.
10 pm - We give up on the movie, not because it was bad, but because we were tired. We settle in to go to sleep.
10:30 pm - Apparently the old saying "man plans and Gd laughs" carries some weight, as our planned night of catch-up sleep turned into a labor night. Great.
Fri 6/6 3:15 am - After laboring for a while, the contractions were coming close enough together that we decided to go to the hospital. Since Kim was 41 weeks anyway, there was little doubt they would tell us to go home.
3:45 am - We're checked into the hospital in a Labor and Delivery room. Nice, but not the Julia Roberts suite with the gourmet meals etc. (Ironically, both Jessica Alba and Tori Spelling gave birth at Cedars this weekend, but we never saw them. We did see lots of paparazzi though. Our nurse Dionne later told us that the paparazzi were heckling her and trying to get her to tell them where the celebs were, and she responded by saying "I don't know where they are and if I did, I wouldn't tell you cause I'd lose my job." However, she actually did know where the celebs were; they had already gone home, and the paparazzi were wasting their time at the hospital! Moral of the story: LA is a funny place to live in). Kim continues to labor (3.5ish cm dilated); I try not to fall asleep.
8:15 am - The doctors break Kim's water in order to help the labor along, as she has been hovering around 4 cm for 4 hours. No gush though, as I was hoping.
10:30 am - The pain is too great and so Kim decides to get a drug called Fentenol (might be spelled differently) to help. Plus she is still at 4 cm and the drug might help things along. I continue to try to be supportive and not fall asleep, which is actually not difficult to do when your wife is screaming and you're in an uncomfortable chair.
11:45 am - The Fentenol basically does nothing so Kim gets an epidural. The epidural was probably the worst part of the whole labor experience because the anesthesiologist was a complete asshole. Now as the son of an anesthesiologist, I know a great many of their ilk, and think of anesthesiologists as affable fellows who enjoy ski trips, pool parties, the Super Bowl, joking about being "gas passers," and following the sex lives of their pets (though sometimes that can lead to great tragedy, like in the "Rape of Peaches" episode). This guy though, he walks into the room and immediately starts yelling at everyone including the nurses. Phones are ringing off the hook, he's yelling, food services are coming in every five seconds, meanwhile Kim is in intense intense labor, and they won't let me do anything (even turning off phones) because they need the room to be completely sterile (and I apparently am unclean). It was a very difficult 15 minutes, but once it was over Kim's pain was almost entirely eliminated, and we never saw the jerk again.
3:30 pm - More labor. 6.5 cm. Kim gets a fever, which is not uncommon in labor; I take a nap.
7ish pm - The labor has been going on for a long time now, and if it continues without much progress, we might need a C section. Kim desperately does not want a C section so this is a tough time. They give Kim a drug called Pitocin which is supposed to move the labor along. We hope that it does the trick so that we can avoid surgery.
10 pm - The Pitocin works! Kim is now at 9 cm, which is close enough to the magic number of 10 for them to rule out a C section. We're going vag, baby!
Sat 6/7 12 am - Kim starts to push. Now before this all started, I was planning on holding Kim's hand when she pushed out the baby but not look down there at all, as it's kinda nasty. But that all changed when I met Sameer, the UCLA med student who was helping out with the delivery. This dude (who was our age, if not younger) got me all fired up for the pushing. I grabbed one of Kim's legs, he grabbed the other, and we coached her through the contractions and pushes. It was kinda awesome; I felt like I was coaching an Olympic weightlifter, or at least a champion eater. After every good push I had the strong desire to chest-bump Sameer like we had just combined on a sack. It got to the point where I couldn't wait for the contraction to come because I wanted to get into it. To put it midly, I was fired up, and ready to go. (YES I CAN!).
1:30 am - Dr. Tsui shows up for the home stretch. The baby's little head starts peeking out and, seeing its curly black hair, I immediately deduce that a) it's my kid and b) it's a boy.
2:34 am - Kim has the baby, which of course is a girl (so much for my deductive reasoning). It was kinda gross as I expected, but also pretty cool; I mean, Kim had a human head sticking out of her hey-hole, and there was all this rad-colored fluid coming out as well. They clean the baby up and we get to hold her and see how perfect she is. And thus, the beginning of the rest of my life...
- Proud Papa
Thurs 6/5 9 pm - Kim and I sit down to watch a movie (MY KID COULD PAINT THAT). Neither of us slept well the night before so we figured we'd watch the movie and go to sleep early.
10 pm - We give up on the movie, not because it was bad, but because we were tired. We settle in to go to sleep.
10:30 pm - Apparently the old saying "man plans and Gd laughs" carries some weight, as our planned night of catch-up sleep turned into a labor night. Great.
Fri 6/6 3:15 am - After laboring for a while, the contractions were coming close enough together that we decided to go to the hospital. Since Kim was 41 weeks anyway, there was little doubt they would tell us to go home.
3:45 am - We're checked into the hospital in a Labor and Delivery room. Nice, but not the Julia Roberts suite with the gourmet meals etc. (Ironically, both Jessica Alba and Tori Spelling gave birth at Cedars this weekend, but we never saw them. We did see lots of paparazzi though. Our nurse Dionne later told us that the paparazzi were heckling her and trying to get her to tell them where the celebs were, and she responded by saying "I don't know where they are and if I did, I wouldn't tell you cause I'd lose my job." However, she actually did know where the celebs were; they had already gone home, and the paparazzi were wasting their time at the hospital! Moral of the story: LA is a funny place to live in). Kim continues to labor (3.5ish cm dilated); I try not to fall asleep.
8:15 am - The doctors break Kim's water in order to help the labor along, as she has been hovering around 4 cm for 4 hours. No gush though, as I was hoping.
10:30 am - The pain is too great and so Kim decides to get a drug called Fentenol (might be spelled differently) to help. Plus she is still at 4 cm and the drug might help things along. I continue to try to be supportive and not fall asleep, which is actually not difficult to do when your wife is screaming and you're in an uncomfortable chair.
11:45 am - The Fentenol basically does nothing so Kim gets an epidural. The epidural was probably the worst part of the whole labor experience because the anesthesiologist was a complete asshole. Now as the son of an anesthesiologist, I know a great many of their ilk, and think of anesthesiologists as affable fellows who enjoy ski trips, pool parties, the Super Bowl, joking about being "gas passers," and following the sex lives of their pets (though sometimes that can lead to great tragedy, like in the "Rape of Peaches" episode). This guy though, he walks into the room and immediately starts yelling at everyone including the nurses. Phones are ringing off the hook, he's yelling, food services are coming in every five seconds, meanwhile Kim is in intense intense labor, and they won't let me do anything (even turning off phones) because they need the room to be completely sterile (and I apparently am unclean). It was a very difficult 15 minutes, but once it was over Kim's pain was almost entirely eliminated, and we never saw the jerk again.
3:30 pm - More labor. 6.5 cm. Kim gets a fever, which is not uncommon in labor; I take a nap.
7ish pm - The labor has been going on for a long time now, and if it continues without much progress, we might need a C section. Kim desperately does not want a C section so this is a tough time. They give Kim a drug called Pitocin which is supposed to move the labor along. We hope that it does the trick so that we can avoid surgery.
10 pm - The Pitocin works! Kim is now at 9 cm, which is close enough to the magic number of 10 for them to rule out a C section. We're going vag, baby!
Sat 6/7 12 am - Kim starts to push. Now before this all started, I was planning on holding Kim's hand when she pushed out the baby but not look down there at all, as it's kinda nasty. But that all changed when I met Sameer, the UCLA med student who was helping out with the delivery. This dude (who was our age, if not younger) got me all fired up for the pushing. I grabbed one of Kim's legs, he grabbed the other, and we coached her through the contractions and pushes. It was kinda awesome; I felt like I was coaching an Olympic weightlifter, or at least a champion eater. After every good push I had the strong desire to chest-bump Sameer like we had just combined on a sack. It got to the point where I couldn't wait for the contraction to come because I wanted to get into it. To put it midly, I was fired up, and ready to go. (YES I CAN!).
1:30 am - Dr. Tsui shows up for the home stretch. The baby's little head starts peeking out and, seeing its curly black hair, I immediately deduce that a) it's my kid and b) it's a boy.
2:34 am - Kim has the baby, which of course is a girl (so much for my deductive reasoning). It was kinda gross as I expected, but also pretty cool; I mean, Kim had a human head sticking out of her hey-hole, and there was all this rad-colored fluid coming out as well. They clean the baby up and we get to hold her and see how perfect she is. And thus, the beginning of the rest of my life...
- Proud Papa
Saturday, June 7, 2008
She's here!
Super Baby blessed us with her presence this morning - June 7, 2008 - at 2:34am. More details to come!
Monday, June 2, 2008
The call
Have you gotten "the call" yet? No? That means we didn't have the baby. I'll be emailing or on the phone with good friends and relatives, and they'll say to me mid-conversation "So, no baby yet?" This flabbergasts me. Did they think that we would have the baby and not tell anyone? The baby isn't a secret; we are not having it in an underground bunker. Trust me, when the baby comes, you will get a call. If you know us well enough to know about this blog and be reading it, chances are you will either get a personal call or email, or someone else will call or email you the news before we can get a chance to personally call you. So don't call us to ask if the baby's come yet; we'll let you know when it comes.
I think personally it's an ego thing. Do you not think you're important enough to find out first or second-hand about the arrival of Baby Silv? Do you think we don't value your friendship highly enough to warrant a call or email with such important news? Maybe you should spend some time thinking not about what other people think of you, but about what you think of you. Do you believe you're not a good enough person to deserve to hear the news of our Superbaby, which no doubt will be awesome? What makes you think that? Were you not hugged enough as a child? Maybe you should have a little "you time," and try to figure out what makes you you, and why that's so special, before you start bothering us with your inane phone calls. Fucker.
The other thing I'm mad about this week (these blog posts are very cathartic) is people telling us to have sex. Yes, we all know that sex is a good way to induce labor. And trust me, we're trying all the different ways we know of to induce the labor. But having people tell us to have sex is a little... icky. Especially people I'm acquaintances with and don't really know that well. When a 50 year old yenta type says to me, "The two of you should really have some sex if you want to get the baby out. When I was 9 months pregnant with Jenna, Ron and I had sex all night every night in every position imaginable and some I didn't know about until I found this Taiwanese love manual in the local library, and the next day our little angel was born," and then winks at me, I throw up a little bit in my mouth. That's just gross, lady. So can it.
Other than that, everything's fantastic. We'll let you know when the baby comes, so no need to make a special call... - Big Papi
I think personally it's an ego thing. Do you not think you're important enough to find out first or second-hand about the arrival of Baby Silv? Do you think we don't value your friendship highly enough to warrant a call or email with such important news? Maybe you should spend some time thinking not about what other people think of you, but about what you think of you. Do you believe you're not a good enough person to deserve to hear the news of our Superbaby, which no doubt will be awesome? What makes you think that? Were you not hugged enough as a child? Maybe you should have a little "you time," and try to figure out what makes you you, and why that's so special, before you start bothering us with your inane phone calls. Fucker.
The other thing I'm mad about this week (these blog posts are very cathartic) is people telling us to have sex. Yes, we all know that sex is a good way to induce labor. And trust me, we're trying all the different ways we know of to induce the labor. But having people tell us to have sex is a little... icky. Especially people I'm acquaintances with and don't really know that well. When a 50 year old yenta type says to me, "The two of you should really have some sex if you want to get the baby out. When I was 9 months pregnant with Jenna, Ron and I had sex all night every night in every position imaginable and some I didn't know about until I found this Taiwanese love manual in the local library, and the next day our little angel was born," and then winks at me, I throw up a little bit in my mouth. That's just gross, lady. So can it.
Other than that, everything's fantastic. We'll let you know when the baby comes, so no need to make a special call... - Big Papi
Sunday, June 1, 2008
"There are 364 days until your child's birthday!"
Yeah, not so much. That's what the Nest Baby said to me when I signed on this morning. Apparently they didn't get the memo that my child was not in fact born yesterday.
So May 31, the big day emblazoned in our minds for the last nine months, came and went. We went to services, as usual. Came home for a little nap, as usual. Took a big walk, as usual. (Stopped at Starbucks to get some water where I completely dumbfounded the baristas when they asked me when I was due and I said "Today.") Bid farewell to Mike's parents. Went to dinner, then a friend's birthday party. Home and in bed at midnight. Just another Saturday. No baby.
What the heck??!! I had envisioned myself at Cedars, with the TV tuned to CNN watching the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC battle it out over Michigan and Florida...but the way it stands now, I'll actually get go to cast my June 3 ballot in person as opposed to the mail. (No on 98, Yes on 99 - save rent control!) I haven't had contractions in almost 2 weeks, so I'm no further progressed...we go back to the doctor on Thursday for another check and an ultrasound, and the dreaded discussion of induction. I'm really hoping we don't have to go to that appointment! (Also in the interest of an AJU rabbinic student, who shall remain unnamed, who needs to observe a life cycle event before June 11.)
We did our first load of baby laundry this morning so we have a few onesies and blankets ready. And Mike's mom crocheted us a BEAUTIFUL blanket that we can't wait to use, so slowly but surely baby things are creeping into the apartment. Shawn and Zuzana are coming over to check out our baby gear - make sure the Pack and Play is properly assembled (Abby seems to be holding up fine in hers, so we trust them!), and help us with the stupid car seat base considering we can't find a single public service department in the county willing to inspect it and ensure the safety of our new infant. Nothing like LA's finest police officers and firefighters passing the buck - "Oh yeah, you should go the fire department"...(go to the fire department)..."No, you need to go to the POLICE department"...(go to the police)..."No, you need to call the CHP"...(call CHP)..."Yeah, we're booked until July. Why don't you make an appointment then?"
Well, I guess that's it - no news is, well, no news. Here are some pictures to enjoy in the meantime:
The official "9 months picture" - could I get any bigger?! 4 year olds are asking me why the baby is still in there...that's a damn good question.
Poker has taken to guarding the Pack and Play - he likes to sleep next to it every night now.
Grandma Boston Linda with the quilt...10+ years in the making!
So May 31, the big day emblazoned in our minds for the last nine months, came and went. We went to services, as usual. Came home for a little nap, as usual. Took a big walk, as usual. (Stopped at Starbucks to get some water where I completely dumbfounded the baristas when they asked me when I was due and I said "Today.") Bid farewell to Mike's parents. Went to dinner, then a friend's birthday party. Home and in bed at midnight. Just another Saturday. No baby.
What the heck??!! I had envisioned myself at Cedars, with the TV tuned to CNN watching the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC battle it out over Michigan and Florida...but the way it stands now, I'll actually get go to cast my June 3 ballot in person as opposed to the mail. (No on 98, Yes on 99 - save rent control!) I haven't had contractions in almost 2 weeks, so I'm no further progressed...we go back to the doctor on Thursday for another check and an ultrasound, and the dreaded discussion of induction. I'm really hoping we don't have to go to that appointment! (Also in the interest of an AJU rabbinic student, who shall remain unnamed, who needs to observe a life cycle event before June 11.)
We did our first load of baby laundry this morning so we have a few onesies and blankets ready. And Mike's mom crocheted us a BEAUTIFUL blanket that we can't wait to use, so slowly but surely baby things are creeping into the apartment. Shawn and Zuzana are coming over to check out our baby gear - make sure the Pack and Play is properly assembled (Abby seems to be holding up fine in hers, so we trust them!), and help us with the stupid car seat base considering we can't find a single public service department in the county willing to inspect it and ensure the safety of our new infant. Nothing like LA's finest police officers and firefighters passing the buck - "Oh yeah, you should go the fire department"...(go to the fire department)..."No, you need to go to the POLICE department"...(go to the police)..."No, you need to call the CHP"...(call CHP)..."Yeah, we're booked until July. Why don't you make an appointment then?"
Well, I guess that's it - no news is, well, no news. Here are some pictures to enjoy in the meantime:
The official "9 months picture" - could I get any bigger?! 4 year olds are asking me why the baby is still in there...that's a damn good question.
Poker has taken to guarding the Pack and Play - he likes to sleep next to it every night now.
Grandma Boston Linda with the quilt...10+ years in the making!(Testing testing - Google alert!!! "Rabbi Sharon Brous" Just seeing if you're paying attention...)
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Don't call us, we'll call you
Allow me to point out the obvious (as if NO ONE has done this yet) - I am rapidly approaching my due date. If you look at my little ticker at the top of the blog, you'll notice that the little baby in the pea pod doesn't have much further to travel through the cabbage patch. And come Saturday, whether or not Super Baby has emerged, the bottom of the ticker will say "Congratulations!" No flexibility for the overdue...but I digress.
While I appreciate the love and support and concern, does anyone really think I'm going to go through this and NOT tell people?! Like I'm just going to let a couple weeks go by before casually sending out an email that says "Oh by the way I had my kid"? Who says shit like "Oh, you're still here?!" and "I guess you didn't have the baby yet!"...??? Really? Showing up at work every day is getting on my nerves, if for no other reason than having EVERYONE stop by my office to comment on my presence, of which I am obviously very aware. And they all make their comments as if they are SO original and the first to say something to me! But I know that if I just stopped showing up it would incite a frenzy and my phone would be ringing off the hook. Maybe I should just mess with people and see what happens...hmmm, not a bad idea.
And at this point I've tried it all (well, almost) to get this kid out. I have been drinking the raspberry leaf tea (which I was disappointed to realize tastes NOTHING like raspberry), I take long walks as often as possible, I've had The Salad (which at least was delicious) and other supposed labor-inducing foods. My favorite suggestion so far was moving furniture - maybe I'll just push the couch back and forth across the room a couple times. My least favorite is sex - because really, despite a couple valiant attempts, it's just not a happy place to be when you feel like a whale. And I don't think I'll ever get desperate enough to try castor oil.
So in short, we'll be in touch...when we have news we'll share it. I feel great (except for a little cold I seemed to have picked up and generally being more tired), and keep your fingers crossed for some progress when I go to the doctor on Friday. Sorry if this sounds bitchy, but you have no idea...unless you do, in which case you should sympathize. C'mon Super Baby - we're ready for you here on the outside!
While I appreciate the love and support and concern, does anyone really think I'm going to go through this and NOT tell people?! Like I'm just going to let a couple weeks go by before casually sending out an email that says "Oh by the way I had my kid"? Who says shit like "Oh, you're still here?!" and "I guess you didn't have the baby yet!"...??? Really? Showing up at work every day is getting on my nerves, if for no other reason than having EVERYONE stop by my office to comment on my presence, of which I am obviously very aware. And they all make their comments as if they are SO original and the first to say something to me! But I know that if I just stopped showing up it would incite a frenzy and my phone would be ringing off the hook. Maybe I should just mess with people and see what happens...hmmm, not a bad idea.
And at this point I've tried it all (well, almost) to get this kid out. I have been drinking the raspberry leaf tea (which I was disappointed to realize tastes NOTHING like raspberry), I take long walks as often as possible, I've had The Salad (which at least was delicious) and other supposed labor-inducing foods. My favorite suggestion so far was moving furniture - maybe I'll just push the couch back and forth across the room a couple times. My least favorite is sex - because really, despite a couple valiant attempts, it's just not a happy place to be when you feel like a whale. And I don't think I'll ever get desperate enough to try castor oil.
So in short, we'll be in touch...when we have news we'll share it. I feel great (except for a little cold I seemed to have picked up and generally being more tired), and keep your fingers crossed for some progress when I go to the doctor on Friday. Sorry if this sounds bitchy, but you have no idea...unless you do, in which case you should sympathize. C'mon Super Baby - we're ready for you here on the outside!
Friday, May 23, 2008
Salad dressing mania
We are ready for the kid to pop out already. Today would be the ideal day for it to come for many reasons, and when we went to the doctor today, he said that in his expert opinion, it would not come until next week at the earliest. Great. Kim's getting pissy, which makes me pissy (Poker remains nonplussed about the whole thing). And once again, the advice pours in.
It seems like everyone we know has some sort of magic formula for making the baby come when we want it to. And I'm not talking about driving on bumpy roads or sex; I'm talking salad dressing. Apparently the right salad dressing (or, in the case of #19 Rated Rabbi in America Sharon Brous, pie) can convince the baby to pop out when you want it to. People left and right are volunteering to concoct their magic salad dressing for us so that the baby can shoot on out at a convenient time. There is even a restaurant in the Valley that is famous for its salad (known simply as "The Salad") which they guarantee will make your baby come out after eating.
Now I've never been one to fall for pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo, and this sounds like hogwash to me. The fact is, anyone who's eating this salad dressing (or pie) is already pretty pregnant. Can we truly say that the salad dressing was the cause of the birth, as opposed to the fact that the woman eating the salad was at 39 weeks? And how long do you have to wait for this salad dressing to kick in? A day? Three days? If you eat the salad on Monday, and have the baby Friday, do you claim that the salad worked or didn't? What if you're 6 months pregnant and you eat this salad. Will you have the baby then? If I eat the salad, will I give birth, despite being, for all intents and purposes, a dude? Did Professor Snape create this elixir in his classroom at Hogwarts Academy?
So I'm not down with the salad dressing. The pie is another story though, cause it's pie! Who can say no to pie? I know I can't. Mmmmmm... pie. - Mike
It seems like everyone we know has some sort of magic formula for making the baby come when we want it to. And I'm not talking about driving on bumpy roads or sex; I'm talking salad dressing. Apparently the right salad dressing (or, in the case of #19 Rated Rabbi in America Sharon Brous, pie) can convince the baby to pop out when you want it to. People left and right are volunteering to concoct their magic salad dressing for us so that the baby can shoot on out at a convenient time. There is even a restaurant in the Valley that is famous for its salad (known simply as "The Salad") which they guarantee will make your baby come out after eating.
Now I've never been one to fall for pseudo-science mumbo-jumbo, and this sounds like hogwash to me. The fact is, anyone who's eating this salad dressing (or pie) is already pretty pregnant. Can we truly say that the salad dressing was the cause of the birth, as opposed to the fact that the woman eating the salad was at 39 weeks? And how long do you have to wait for this salad dressing to kick in? A day? Three days? If you eat the salad on Monday, and have the baby Friday, do you claim that the salad worked or didn't? What if you're 6 months pregnant and you eat this salad. Will you have the baby then? If I eat the salad, will I give birth, despite being, for all intents and purposes, a dude? Did Professor Snape create this elixir in his classroom at Hogwarts Academy?
So I'm not down with the salad dressing. The pie is another story though, cause it's pie! Who can say no to pie? I know I can't. Mmmmmm... pie. - Mike
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Days...
As in "it could be within days" that I go into labor. Well I sort of already knew that, and I've been trying to mentally prepare myself for it, but to hear my doctor's office SAY that to me was a whole different story. I had contractions last night - real, honest to gd contractions - and they woke me up. I lay there thinking, is my baby going to be born TODAY? There are still so many loose ends I need to tie up, and I was looking forward to one more weekend to get stuff done, including getting my hair cut and having the apartment deep cleaned. But alas, they eventually stopped, after a couple hours, and I slept more or less comfortably for the rest of the night.
Sleeping really is getting to be a problem again. We were at the IKAR Shabbaton this past weekend, where we got put in a room with two twin beds. So we pushed them together but one was slightly higher than the other, which didn't bode well for snuggling. And since they were camp conference center beds they weren't very comfortable to begin with. My theory was, if I'm going to be uncomfortable, why spend too much in there? So I stayed up late Friday and Saturday, schmoozing with my friends in the most carefree of fashions, relishing every moment. I paid the price on Sunday when I felt like crap, but it was worth it.
A few updates - the couch is out of the apartment (residing at Mark's place) but it still needs to be sold; we have an extra almost-queen mattress from the new sofa bed kicking around (don't ask, unless you want to buy it); so we're almost ready to go...more or less.
But now I'm at the point where I wonder if everything I do is going to be the last of that particular activity. Like today - I left work as if it were my last day, which I think I'll be doing every day from now on. The bad part about that is that from now forward I basically have nothing to do at work, because my boss isn't going to throw any major time-sensitive projects my way. So we'll see how well I hold my focus. My poor officemate is afraid I am going to go into labor at work and somehow she'll be responsible for delivering the baby. Everyone else wants to start a pool predicting the date and time of birth. More power to 'em.
Okay, enough random rambling...I am nervous to go to bed, not knowing what the mysterious night will bring. Oh, and for you Barry, since you asked, another picture of Mike with no shirt:
Sleeping really is getting to be a problem again. We were at the IKAR Shabbaton this past weekend, where we got put in a room with two twin beds. So we pushed them together but one was slightly higher than the other, which didn't bode well for snuggling. And since they were camp conference center beds they weren't very comfortable to begin with. My theory was, if I'm going to be uncomfortable, why spend too much in there? So I stayed up late Friday and Saturday, schmoozing with my friends in the most carefree of fashions, relishing every moment. I paid the price on Sunday when I felt like crap, but it was worth it.
A few updates - the couch is out of the apartment (residing at Mark's place) but it still needs to be sold; we have an extra almost-queen mattress from the new sofa bed kicking around (don't ask, unless you want to buy it); so we're almost ready to go...more or less.
But now I'm at the point where I wonder if everything I do is going to be the last of that particular activity. Like today - I left work as if it were my last day, which I think I'll be doing every day from now on. The bad part about that is that from now forward I basically have nothing to do at work, because my boss isn't going to throw any major time-sensitive projects my way. So we'll see how well I hold my focus. My poor officemate is afraid I am going to go into labor at work and somehow she'll be responsible for delivering the baby. Everyone else wants to start a pool predicting the date and time of birth. More power to 'em.
Okay, enough random rambling...I am nervous to go to bed, not knowing what the mysterious night will bring. Oh, and for you Barry, since you asked, another picture of Mike with no shirt:
Mike and Poker on the new love seat - hot.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Mixed bag of things as we enter the home stretch
May 1 came and went, officially sending us into the home stretch. I woke up that morning thinking, "Oh my gd, the baby is due THIS MONTH." Whoa. We have decided that we would begin to be prepared on this day, even though there are still many loose ends to tie up.
Had our first of the now weekly doctor appointments - my weight gain wasn't quite as astronomical as I feared it would be. Super Baby is measuring quite big - 6lbs, 10oz. Granted it could be off by as much as a half pound in either direction, but at the rate of gaining a half pound every week til delivery, we're looking at an 8lb+ kid. Not that that should be shocking, given our heights, but still... Oy. Please don't be huge - you have to sleep in the Pack N Play until we order a crib, and it will only hold you up to 15lbs!
Meanwhile, last night I had my first real "oh shit, I need a forklift to roll over" moment in bed. I was propped up with the Snoogle while I was reading, and when I was done I tried to slither down into a horizontal position and COULD NOT do it. For starters, I think I pulled something back when I went bowling over a month ago because every time I try this move it hurts...but last night was worse. Mike came in to give me a hand and I could barely roll over either. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
With that in mind, I've decided to reassign my due date, and I'm hoping that Super Baby gets the memo. Here's how it goes baby: don't come before the 21st (my last big event for work) but feel free to appear on the 22nd, 23rd, or 24th. That way you'll be fresh in time for Grandma and Grandpa Silverstein's arrival and they'll have a whole week with you and we won't have to make them sit around the hospital waiting room while on vacation, or go back to MA only to have to turn around and come right back. Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah, I thought so. So thanks in advance for your cooperation.
Check-off list of things to do, in no particular order:
- Birth class - done!
- Fried chicken craving - satisfied!
- Last trip to San Diego - done!
- Stroller - assembled!
- Car seat - not installed yet, and the damn CHP is booked all month for inspections! WTF???
- Shabbaton - this weekend, our last real plans that we don't want to be busted
- Furniture - dammit, someone PLEASE buy our couch! The new one is here and looks fabulous, but the old one is propped up vertically against the balcony door. We need to get it out ASAP, if nothing else so we can get our carpets cleaned and get some cash to put towards our dream glider.
- Random projects - still outstanding, too many to count
- Pack N Play - assembled, more or less. The instructions ran a close second to IKEA's stick figure/no words in any language instructions, but I think we managed. Poker has discovered this new piece of furniture (not the only one in the house, and boy is he pissed at the new arrangement), and you can see below how he enjoys it. Thanks to Tony and Kim for their suggestion of tin foil, which apparently cats hate, to put in it to keep him out. Worked last night...we'll have to see about it's long-term viability before the baby arrives.
Seriously, I'm over it. Bring it on Super Baby!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Baby Mama drama
We saw a free sneak preview of BABY MAMA on Weds night. Since it was a sneak preview, it was first come first serve, and so since we were a little late we ended up sitting in the very first row (I didn't think we were gonna get in at all). Since nobody likes sitting in the front row at the movies, and since I've always been one for complaining about things I've received for free, I went up to the usher and said "Hey, my wife's 8 months pregnant, can we sit in those 2 empty handicapped seats?" And she gave me a hard time! Now I'm sure she is underpaid and angry, and probably has a protocol to follow of who you can allow to sit in the handicapped seats and who you can't, and how long you have to wait before you give up those seats, etc., but come on! We're at a movie about pregnant people, and you can't throw the real pregnant people a bone! So I played the mommy-daddy game (hopefully my kid will never find out about this strategy) and found another usher, asked her the same question, and she gave us the handicapped seats, which had ample legroom and a better view of the screen. Silversteins 1, Landmark Theaters 0.BABY MAMA was all right, certainly not up there with other recent pregnancy comedies like JUNO and WAITRESS. Now that we've been through most of this process (except of course for the Big Hoo-rah), we've found that there is a lot of humor to be mined from the pregnancy experience, and BABY MAMA missed a lot of good opportunities. For example, they did have a few scenes set at a birthing class, and though a lot of jokes were on the money, they could have gone further with them. They also had the birthing instructor speak in a "mawwage is what bwings us togevewr today" accent, which was kinda dumb. Overall, eh.
The main reason why I'm blogging though is to further comment on Kim's last post, about twins. It is SO RIDICULOUS that people would ask us if we're having twins, considering:
a) it's common knowledge that women in general don't like to be referred to as fat; and
b) you'd think we'd know pretty early on if it was twins or not.
So you can imagine what it's like when some schmuck comes up to you and says "Wow you're really big in the belly! Are you sure it's not twins?" I'm not sure what the proper response to this is, but I'm guessing it's something along the lines of "Thanks. You're really big in the ass! And you're not even carrying a child inside of you! That's wonderful! You know now that you mention it, it might be twins. I mean, I've been going to the doctor about once every 2 weeks for the past 7 months now, and I've seen multiple ultrasounds, and all signs are pointing to one kid. However, I'm sure your expert opinion supersedes all that. Maybe my doctor and all the nurses and technicians I've worked with for over half a year have been really, really high when they were doing my checkups."
In non-baby news, does anyone want to buy our red couch? It's a really nice couch and we need to get rid of it before the baby comes. $325 and that's a bargain...
- Big Papi
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
How many?
It's not twins, okay? Just one baby in there. And no, not a couple more weeks. More like 6.
Who asks that? I'm not THAT huge!
Who asks that? I'm not THAT huge!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Tummy Time
Pound for pound...I'm catching up to you Mike!We took tummy pictures this past weekend...yes, WE. Mike posed for some too. And on the topic, our 4 year old friend Eva had a profound observation about my belly. She was blown away by my now flat belly button, and explained that the baby had kicked me so hard that my innie was now an outie! And believe me, the baby will keep kicking until the belly button flies off my stomach all together. That seems to be it's goal these days.
Other than that, all is good...nothing much new to report. Hospital tour - done (seems like a sweet set up). My weight gain is much better these past two weeks (as opposed to the alleged binge from the previous month), and in two weeks we get to see the little goober again at the last ultrasound. This weekend is the big furniture swap, where we move the bed out of the spare room and send it to Mark's new apartment while we replace a few other things (bookshelves, desk, etc) and start figure out where the kid is actually going to live. Which reminds me...does anyone reading this need a sofa? We're also swapping that out, and you can get a jump on it before it hits Craig's List. Let me know.
Other than that, all is good...nothing much new to report. Hospital tour - done (seems like a sweet set up). My weight gain is much better these past two weeks (as opposed to the alleged binge from the previous month), and in two weeks we get to see the little goober again at the last ultrasound. This weekend is the big furniture swap, where we move the bed out of the spare room and send it to Mark's new apartment while we replace a few other things (bookshelves, desk, etc) and start figure out where the kid is actually going to live. Which reminds me...does anyone reading this need a sofa? We're also swapping that out, and you can get a jump on it before it hits Craig's List. Let me know.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
My take on the birthing class
Since I was so summarily insulted in Kim's last post, I will now give my thoughts on the birthing class (we have attended 3 of them now). The woman who runs it, Connie, is very hippy-dippy touchy-feely about the whole birth thing, and very pro-doulah, anti-drug. We have been told many times about how wonderful a doulah is and how a focus on breathing can get one through any amount of pain, but we really haven't been given the answers to questions like "what happens when my wife gets an epidural?" or "how will the birth be different with an epidural?" Cause I gotta believe that Kim is getting an epidural, especially after the "play through the pain" exercise we did last class which involved holding ice for 60 seconds. Kim was NOT happy about that, and something tells me that childbirth will be worse than holding ice for a minute. Connie tried to help Kim with the exercise by rubbing her shoulders, and Kim responded by yelling "Bitch get yo funky hands offa me!" Well at least that's what the look that Kim gave her said.
We do a lot of breathing exercises in the class, which I excel at (too bad I won't be having the baby). Some of them are kind of silly though, especially the one where you breathe by saying "hee, pa" repeatedly. Just try it. "Hee, pa, hee, pa, hee, pa..." I don't know what that's supposed to do except make us laugh, which we often do during the class. In fact I spend more time trying not to lose it during the class than I do focusing on my breathing, or helping Kim focusing on her breathing, which basically involves me standing there looking supportive. The worst example of this was when Kim had to go to the bathroom, and while she was gone we did an exercise involving the partner leaning against the wall and the woman leaning back into him, while the two gently rock back and forth. Since Kim wasn't there, I practiced with the pillow. I held it firmly but softly, and whispered to it, "Shh honey, you're doing great... Breathe, that's it, good pillow..." Wouldn't you know it, a little throw pillow popped out! We call it Fluffy.
I try to stay mature and professional during the class, but Connie gives us so many openings for ribald humor that it's very difficult to remain serious. Whenever she expounds on the advantages of the perineal massage (go look it up), Kim and I exchange looks. We also practiced one birthing position in which the woman goes on all fours and the man goes behind her and grips her butt. "That's how we got into this mess in the first place!" I muttered.
In the end it'll all be worth it for next week's class, which is the tour of the delivery rooms and maternity wing of the hospital. That I think will be very helpful. Not that the class has been a complete waste - I certainly have learned a lot and gained some new vocabulary, like perineal massage. It's the massage that keeps on giving!
- Mike
We do a lot of breathing exercises in the class, which I excel at (too bad I won't be having the baby). Some of them are kind of silly though, especially the one where you breathe by saying "hee, pa" repeatedly. Just try it. "Hee, pa, hee, pa, hee, pa..." I don't know what that's supposed to do except make us laugh, which we often do during the class. In fact I spend more time trying not to lose it during the class than I do focusing on my breathing, or helping Kim focusing on her breathing, which basically involves me standing there looking supportive. The worst example of this was when Kim had to go to the bathroom, and while she was gone we did an exercise involving the partner leaning against the wall and the woman leaning back into him, while the two gently rock back and forth. Since Kim wasn't there, I practiced with the pillow. I held it firmly but softly, and whispered to it, "Shh honey, you're doing great... Breathe, that's it, good pillow..." Wouldn't you know it, a little throw pillow popped out! We call it Fluffy.
I try to stay mature and professional during the class, but Connie gives us so many openings for ribald humor that it's very difficult to remain serious. Whenever she expounds on the advantages of the perineal massage (go look it up), Kim and I exchange looks. We also practiced one birthing position in which the woman goes on all fours and the man goes behind her and grips her butt. "That's how we got into this mess in the first place!" I muttered.
In the end it'll all be worth it for next week's class, which is the tour of the delivery rooms and maternity wing of the hospital. That I think will be very helpful. Not that the class has been a complete waste - I certainly have learned a lot and gained some new vocabulary, like perineal massage. It's the massage that keeps on giving!
- Mike
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