Exercise

Here is a picture of David in action in his baby "gym". He is starting to be more alert and is ready to look around at things like this. I am beginning to suspect that some of the time when he is crying now, he might just be bored and wanting a change of scenery. For the record, David now has logged more time in the gym in 2009 than his mom. Or for that matter, David has now logged more time in the gym in 2009 than his mom logged in the gym in 2008 and 2009 combined.

First Bath

I have some catching up to do on events around here. Don't worry--we didn't make David go an entire month without a bath, I just haven't had a chance to write about it yet. His belly button fell off somewhere around two weeks, which is the green light to a full tub bath, rather than a sponge bath. Our family friend, Ginny, or GiGi as AJ calls her, gave AJ his first bath back in the day and came over to do the honors with David's as well. David's first bath was not quite as smooth as AJ's--there was what Joe refers to as a "code brown" with a little number two involved--but GiGi was able to salvage things by finishing David's first bath off with a rinse in the kitchen sink.

GiGi also introduced David to the pacifier, and he is much more interested in this little gadget than AJ ever was. We hope that the pacifier will give David some relief from the acid reflux pain.

Adjustments

AJ is going through some adjustment pains as he gets used to being a big brother. In general, he is very sweet with David and gives him kisses, brings him his pacifier, etc., but there are moments when it is clear that AJ is having a hard time sharing attention with the new guy. He often says to me "baby seat!" or "baby down!", as in put the baby in his bouncy seat or put the baby down somewhere, anywhere and pick me up. He asks to be picked up much more often and has regressed to refusing to go up or down the stairs unless he is carried. Lately he has also started to be purposefully naughty as soon as I start to feed his brother because he knows that I will put the baby down to put him in time out. As the old saying goes, negative attention is still attention. I am telling myself that these are all just adjustment pains that are temporary and will go away, but as the person whose day-to-day life currently revolves around these two kids, it is sometimes hard to have perspective. Joe helps me by doing his dismissive hand wave and telling me that "the kid's fine." He doesn't agonize over things like adjustment issues, and sometimes that is helpful for me to see.

The Little Things

This post is to thank all of the family and friends who have been so helpful over the past 4 weeks. We could not have made it through without you! It is amazing how simple your needs become when you have a newborn--food, sleep and showering are pretty much all that I care about these days, usually in that order, although I also love company to have an adult conversation with. The little things like the potato soup that my mom made for me, the out-of-season cherries that my in-laws know I love and bought for me, and the flowers that Joe and my dad & Susan sent have all brightened my days considerably. (And as a side note, I wish I were a better photographer so that my pictures of cherries and flowers looked like those of one of my favorite blogs, Posie Gets Cozy.) My favorite picture from those above is of my friend, Christine, who came with her three-month old baby, L., and brought us lunch and milk and juice for the week, folded my laundry, made me laugh, and as you can see from the pic above, at one point was wearing my baby in a sling while carrying her own baby around. I aspire to be as energetic as her in just another 8 weeks.

Like Baby, Like Big Brother

As you can see from the pictures above, AJ has been interested in testing out David's things lately. Aj will try to stand on David's infant swing or sit in the bouncy seat. Luckily this has not yet occurred while David is using any of these items. In the pictures above, I heard AJ say "AJ chair! AJ chair!" and looked over to see him sitting in David's bassinet like it was a chair. This is particularly amusing to me because my mom has a picture of my brother and I testing our our sister's bassinet shortly after she was born. I will ask her to scan and send it to me so that I can add it to this post.

Update--my mom came through and sent the picture I was thinking of--see above!

Acid Reflux

So the little guy started to show signs of an acid reflux problem last Friday, just before Joe left for Italy for a week for work. Needless to say, this past week has been miserable for everyone involved. After every feeding David squalls and screams and makes the most horrible, pained noises that I have ever heard come from someone so small. It is heartbreaking. He needs to be upright for 30 minutes to an hour after a feeding just to feel comfortable. If you lay him down flat, you can see the pain on his face as the acid comes up into his throat. I made a trip to the pediatrician on Tuesday. She prescribed a drug in the same class as Zantac to reduce the acid in David's stomach and give him some relief. I delayed filling it for a day as I wrestled in my own mind with whether I should give someone so small a prescription drug that hasn't been approved for this off-label use with babies. After another 24 hours of misery, I decided that it was too cruel to watch him suffer. I noticed an immediate change after only three doses. I am hoping that we will all get more sleep by this weekend.

Mr. Fix-It

I have posted before about AJ's obsession with tools, but it is truly increasing as the days pass, if that is possible. He loves, loves, loves to help assemble anything around the house, change the batteries in a toy or just take things apart and see how they work. He received a tool box for Christmas and carries it around the house to "fix" things. On the rare occasions when he is quiet for a long enough period that it makes me worry something is wrong, I will look around and usually find him sitting next to the baby swing, the desk or his stroller with his "dewdiver" (screwdriver) in hand pretending to tighten and loosen screws. Last night when he was getting ready for his bath I made the mistake of trying to distract him from tearing off toilet paper and flushing it down the toilet by showing him how the toilet paper holder comes apart and has a spring inside. He was fascinated. We took the spring out of the t.p. holder a good 30 to 40 times and he enjoyed pushing in on the ends to see how the spring bounced back. We spent so long looking at the t.p. holder that the bath water got cold and we had to run a new tub.

AJ is also getting pretty adept at determining which household items contain batteries and will drag them over to me throughout the day asking to change the batteries. I bought a white noise sound machine at the Sharper Image in an ill-fated attempt to induce sleep back when AJ was a baby. The other day I caught AJ throwing it on the floor to get the battery compartment cover to pop off and the batteries to fall out so that he could then run to me and yell "baddries! new baddries!"

Here is a picture of AJ with his nanny, K., assembling a shelf.

I Had a Thought...

What was it again? That's right! I am going to sleep through the night for my mama tonight...

Snowed In

We had 12 inches of snow this weekend and are getting more tonight. This winter reminds me of the winter that Joe and I were both born (from the stories that our moms tell--I don't claim to have a memory back that far). The winter of 1976-77 was a particularly snowy and cold one. When I was born in January, my parents brought me home to a farmhouse that only had a woodburning stove. My mom said she quickly insisted to my dad that they should get central heat. Imagine stoking the fire with a newborn baby and an 18 month old. Not too far off from what pioneers did!

I am definitely not chopping wood and stoking the fire so I don't have much to complain about, but AJ was a June baby, and it is such a different experience to have a baby in the winter in terms of getting out and feeling "normal" again. With AJ, I was able to get out every day for a walk and some Vitamin D. It made me feel like I was a normal part of society again to walk into town for a cup of coffee or a trip to the library. Tomorrow we are supposed to have wind chills of 15 below. So far since we got home from the hospital with David, I have only been out of the house to go to three pediatrician appointments and one grocery store run. It is making me feel a little bit isolated and stir-crazy. My friend Christine is coming tomorrow for a visit with her three-month old, Liv, and I am greatly looking forward to that and to the eventual spring thaw. In the meantime, I am thinking about taking the kids to the Garfield Park Conservatory, which feels like the tropics even in a Chicago January.

All About Me

A few quick observations about David (quick and short--this is being typed with one hand.) He definitely has some red in his hair, and he has these delicate but distictly shaped little sideburns. He has dimples, and the one on the right side is much more pronounced, but the one on the left will come out when he really smiles (has gas). He has long legs and arms like his daddy, and despite being 25% smaller at birth than his big brother, his feet are nearly as long but not as wide as AJ's at birth. He went to the dr yesterday and already has gained back his birth weight plus 2 oz--almost 9 lbs now.

Night Owl

One thing that is clear after just a few days is that David has his days and nights reversed. According to the pediatrician, this is a common problem as babies in utero are lulled to sleep during the day by their mother's movements and then are awake all night, kicking and turning and waking their mothers up. The cure is to expose them to light during the day and to keep things dark at night until their internal clocks reset. In the meantime, what I thought was an awesome thing on the first day when David slept all day has turned into a bit of a curse as I am now up with an energetic 18 month old all day and then have a newborn who wakes up around the time the 18 month old goes to bed. If you don't hear much from me in the next few weeks, you know why. I will at least try to post pictures without commentary to keep you updated.

Here is a picture of David and his Dada up at 11:00 last night. David's eyes are closed most of the day, even when he is eating, and then he gets bright eyed and bushy tailed around 9 p.m.

Comparisons

So now that we have two little guys, it is inevitable that we are trying to remember how AJ was at the same age and how the two are the same or different. It is not a better than/worse than comparison, just a different than comparison.

In terms of size, it is hard to tell until next week how they will compare, as David's delivery was induced two weeks earlier than AJ's to make sure that he wouldn't be as large as AJ. They do seem to have different body types, though. AJ was generally broader and sturdier with the long waist of my side of the family. David seems to have a thinner body type and also appears to have Joe's long legs. We thought that David had much more hair than AJ at the same age, but now that I look back at AJ's baby pictures, I am not so sure. David's hair appears to have some reddish tint to it, but who knows if that will last as AJ was born with some dark hair that fell out and was eventually replaced by his current blond curls.

The pictures from top to bottom are of David followed by AJ in the same outfit during their first week of life (can't explain the arm gestures by David--perhaps a future air traffic controller or a cheerleader?) and then David followed by AJ in their bassinets at the hospital.

And Then There Were Two...

I will write more soon, but just a quick post to introduce David William, born 12/30 at 12:15 pm. David weighed in at 8 lbs, 12 oz and measured 21 inches in length. We are enjoying ringing in the new year with our new little guy.

Foosball

Joe's parents gave him a foosball table for his birthday, and Joe, Papa and AJ have been having a great time playing "fooz" in the basement. This brings back memories for Joe's parents of Joe standing on a chair at his dad's foosball table learning to play just like AJ does today. For his part, AJ is delighted to be in on the action and to send the little balls down the shoot.