Happy New Year!

I hope everyone out there has a great one. Apparently Ethan's resolution is to sleep a little more, and he's getting a good start on it now - he's actually asleep! Will miracles never cease?! I'm not really sure what to do with myself!

I should watch myself; I got a wonderful Christmas letter from a good friend who said that between this blog and talking to her sister-in-law who is also a new parent, she is never having kids. (Sorry, Jordan!) Really and truly, every single little bit of trouble is so absolutely worth it, and I'm not just saying that. I went for a jog today, and thought, "Wow, I have a little son, who I get to go back home to..." Amazing.

It is good that he's cute, though! Isn't that how all newly born creatures survive - those big eyes and cute features?

Holiday Updates!

What a great holiday season! Brian and I drove to Cincinnati on Christmas Day to spend a few days with his family, and it was as laidback and fun as it always is. Ethan-boy was greeted by many volunteers who were happy to hold and rock him!

I appreciate the folks who have responded to my "Colic" post with such sympathy and welcome suggestions! As it turns out, though, I doubt that's what it is after all....I'm reading a book on babies' sleep cycles, and I am positive that the boy is just way overtired. It's uncanny how every hour and a half, he gets really fussy and hyper - those were his "sleepy signs" that I was just overlooking! He's still a little hard to soothe, but we're learning. :)

And there really isn't anything as sweet as a sleeping baby. Just to prove that it does happen, I'm posting one of my favorite sleepy boy pictures:

We don't need no stinking schedules....

As I read a friend's blog recently, I found that someone had posted a comment to hers saying, "The babies don't read the books." Oh, isn't that so true! If Sir Ethan had read half of the websites and books that I've tried to skim through, he would know that he should be beginning to settle into some kind of pattern. He would know that he only has 3 and a half more weeks to thrill us with the hours of colic that we dance, swing, and shush him through. But I don't think he's picked up any of this literature lately, so he's doing his own thing. I did get hopeful this past week when we had three days in a row of normal baby crying and fussiness as opposed to what we had been seeing since Thanksgiving. However, he threw us for a loop, and the discomfort was back in full force this weekend - I'm sure he's just making sure that Mom and Dad don't take anything for granted!

But I can't say in any way that things are all bad. A few nights a week, he will sleep for a 4-5 hour stretch, during which I wake up just to make sure he's ok, fully expecting the "I'm hungry!" cry every 2 1/2-3 hours. During his quiet, alert, and engaging times of the day, he is amazing and learning rapidly! He's batting things around and gets really excited to be on his playmat when just a few weeks ago he got way too overwhelmed when I would put him on his back there. He's got quite the turtle neck, and we have great fun during some "tummy time" when he inches his way up my chest to look at me.

Gramma Judy has also requested other Christmas pictures for their holiday letter - the ones below were apparently not showing his true cuteness, so she came over the other day and we got even more!

What a ham...

Happy Holidays!

Ho ho ho, everyone. The holiday season has rushed up on me, and I am more grateful than anyone knows that both sides of our family are doing a simplified Christmas - time together being the most important thing. Whew. I love the season, the snow, etc., but I have to admit that this year I am happy to let it pass without a great deal of trouble!

Brian and I may or may not get Christmas cards out this year, but I took pictures anyway in case we get our act together. Ethan was happy to pose...but only for a second. :) Luckily he is photogenic enough that I could get one good shot before meltdown.



I hope everyone enjoys the season!

Ah, Colic!

What has five letters, peaks in babies 6-8 weeks old, affects one out of every four babies, and has no proven remedy? That's right, folks, it's colic! :) I'll admit that for the last week or two, pretty much since Thanksgiving, I've been wondering if our son hates us! His fussy times, normally in the evening like many babies, have started earlier and lasted longer, been considerably more intense (we saw our first real tears!) and he has just not slept. When I read that newborns sleep 15-20 hours a day, I wonder whose newborns they're talking about! For a few days there we were lucky to get 2-3 hours during the day and 4-5 at night - absolutely not enough for a little guy like Ethan.

So people out there reading this may wonder, "Alexis, you dummy, how could you let your poor, defenseless child get so sleep deprived? Why didn't you put him in a car and drive him around?" Luckily, my husband has a clearer head than I, and did just that after one of our mornings of lots of crying. And I kept thinking, "It's time for him to eat now - he'll fall asleep in his crib and get a good nap." A few hours later, after putting him in his crib, he rests for 5 minutes, spits up, cries, I pick him up, soothe him again, (repeat several times) - I'd think the same thing, and voila, we have hours passing by with no nap! And then an extra unhappy tired boy...

Now that we've taken him to the doctor, just in case there was a more serious digestive issue affecting his sleep, I feel completely entitled to get this kid sleep any which way I can - car seat, swing, repeated insertions of the pacifier, etc. as opposed to my previous purist view of "he'll get better sleep in his crib than he will in the car seat."

The Squirminator

Well, we've begun to make the crib/nursery transition. It has been easier for Brian and me than I had imagined - his crib is actually right behind the wall of our bedroom, so we don't even need a baby monitor to hear every sound the boy makes. Very comforting! However, his squirminess gave me a fright the first night he was in there. We've been using these great fleece wearable blankets - just wrap the sides around his arms, attach the velcro strips, and he's swaddled. But the active boy has been restless enough to pull his arms out during every nap, so we decided to leave one arm out and see how that worked. When I went in to check on him, he had pulled the top velcro bunch up so it was right around his neck, and the blanket part above that was over his face. GREAT! So no more of the swaddling above his arms.

When rereading my post about wonderful Brian the other day, I realized that my comments about having a hard time leaving Ethan seemed a little dramatic! But my colleague Cynthia loaned me this wonderful book entitled, "Wiped! Life with a Pint-Size Dictator" which is amazing and perfectly describes my feelings - when I've been walking, rocking, and swaying with him for hours, I can't wait for him to go to sleep. But then when he's asleep, I want to touch him and wake him up again! Very perverse...

Look at how strong my neck has gotten!

6 weeks!

I can't believe it's been 6 weeks already. Brian and I are still considerably sleep deprived, but loving our time with the little guy. He's begun to do all of the social smiling, cooing, etc. that comes with the second month, and that makes it so much fun to watch him - I'm looking forward to him being even more interactive!

I hope that my parents read this blog once in awhile, because they are owed a huge thank you from the three of us. Calling themselves "G & G Catering," (Grandma and Grandpa) they have delivered food to our door multiple times per week - pork chops, soup, salad, the list goes on and on. I'm so glad that they were rewarded with a smile yesterday when they came over to watch Ethan for an hour!

And he is a big boy now. He's outgrowing his bassinet already, so Brian and I are getting ready to make the change from being with us in the bedroom to having him in the nursery in his crib. (I don't think we can fit the crib out the door to put it in our room!) That's going to be a tough one, as I do look in the bassinet quite a bit when I hear this noise or that coming from the boy...but the nursery is just in the next room, so we may be OK.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'd have added a picture of Ethan in this cap, but unfortunately, he's too big for it already! Too big for that cap as well as a good portion of his newborn clothes - about half of the little sleep and play outfits he has are too small for him - his feet barely make it to the end, and his shoulders were all squished! So he's wearing the three month outfits at 5 1/2 weeks. That's my boy. :)

Thanksgiving was great. Both sides of the family made huge effort to make things easy on us - my parents hosted the evening, and Brian's sister, mother, and two of his nephews drove all the way from Cincinnati to join us all. Great fun, especially since Brian's mom hadn't been able to meet the Ethan boy yet. They bonded very quickly!

Ethan also flirted shamelessly with his Aunt Kim - I'm positive that the boy was smiling, cooing, and giggling at her.

The only downside was that with all of the excitement, Ethan was a seriously overtired boy by the end of the festivities. (So were his parents!) I have been reading What to Expect the First Year whenever I have questions about anything - that book is great - and there's a section entitled, "Do you have a challenging baby?" (Aren't all babies a challenge???) I think we officially have an "active baby" - kicks off blankets, restless when being fed, sleeps less than most, frustrated to not be independently mobile (he is ready to use those legs, I swear), alert, interested and interesting...those all describe this guy. As I type this, he's even being active in his sleep! We have a sleep wedge in the portable crib, and his bassinet propped up just a little bit to help with the reflux, and he ends up at the bottom of both by the end of every nap! And his mom needs to learn how not to overstimulate him. Every time I have him awake and alert, rather than awake and unhappy, I'm talking, singing, reading, doing everything I can to play with him. He has these expressions that are just so fun to watch and imitate! Poor kid...

Ethan loves his dad!

It's pretty bad that I've put more pictures up of the cats than of Brian...so I'll try to remedy that appropriately. While Brian and I heard horror stories about what having children would do to our relationship - "You'll never have a conversation again!" or "Going to a bookstore? That's all over with now...", we've done OK so far. Better than OK, I'd say, and I give most of the credit to Brian for that. I've had a very hard time leaving Ethan for any period of time. Even sometimes to go to the other room and take a nap, which is pretty sad given the need for sleep at this point in our lives. But Brian has repeatedly encouraged me to take as much time as possible during the day or even in the middle of the night and depend on him to take care of things, and he's still working! (And working hard, with the end of the semester approaching.) I never expected him to be the father who spoke of "babysitting" his son (if it's your kid, it's not babysitting!), but I'm really touched and impressed by how much he's been able to help me handle lately.


(And I'm not sure how much he checks this blog - we'll see when he gets embarrassed! :) )

Common Sense

As you read this, you'll have to imagine the sheepish look on my face as I think about our one month Well Baby check up today. First of all, the doctor is amazing - I am already thinking about him as "our" doctor rather than Ethan's pediatrician! Very down-to-earth, and the phrase that comes to mind as I think about his thoughts and advice is, "common sense." For example, Ethan has some problems with reflux. It doesn't affect him in a serious way; the kid is 11 pounds 7 ounces at 4 weeks old. (His newborn clothes are already starting to look a little snug...) 95th percentile, I think...jeez. I've heard and read about suggestions for this problem such as holding him upright 45 minutes after eating (which I've been doing for 2 weeks now), putting up the head of the bassinet, getting a sleep wedge so that he's on an incline....all of which Brian and I have done diligently in our efforts to keep the boy from spitting up, especially after we put him to sleep. (The spitting up isn't the problem - the problem is the choking noises that I think I keep hearing him make when he's on his back!) What I've apparently ignored is that he spits up a ton anyway - even when he's sitting up straight! So why am I holding him upright for an hour in the middle of the night??? There must be experienced parents out there reading this who are laughing up a storm...I will feel much better if any of you would respond to this post by sharing similar silly-new-parent stories with me by clicking on the "comments" link below this post!

Anyway, by all reports we have a very healthy boy, and we're so grateful. I hear from people all over that, "This stage won't last!" and "It gets easier," and I'm also grateful for that! His digestive system will catch up to his appetite, he won't always be fussy for hours at a time anywhere between 6 pm and 3 am...but the problem with that is that he also won't always be trying out these adorable facial expressions, or making the best bird/dinosaur/cat noises when he's happy or waking up...

Four Weeks Old

Brian and I are the parents of a four week old baby. Hard to believe - it seems like we just left the hospital yesterday, though I'm sure we'll be saying that when he turns one, goes to Kindergarten, gets a driver's license, etc. And as I look at pictures of him, I realize that he really has changed in a month! Besides the fact that he's put on weight (lots and lots of weight, apparently - we have a good eater), his face is really changing! I get to see him try out lots of facial expressions, which are especially dramatic before and after his nap and being fed. Some examples:

Wow, dinner was good - look at my double chin and six pack abs!

You didn't say "diaper change", did you???

Wow, these fingers are pretty cool!

Mom, why do you have to wake me up just as I'm getting comfortable?!

My favorite - what a sweet sleeping boy!

The other babies

Ethan has been home for two weeks, and it's about time to report on how he is being perceived by the other creatures we live with. That would be our four cats. (Or maybe I should say MY four cats...Brian married me anyway.)

(There is no baby, there is no baby, there is no baby...)

One of our cats is incredibly personable and friendly - we figured that he would be very interested in the Ethan boy when he arrived. He actually took very good care of the two kittens when I brought them home a few years ago, and greets everyone who walks in our door with great affection! Another, our older cat, is particularly antisocial, and we predicted that she would be hiding under the bed until Ethan went to college. The other two we weren't sure about, but lined the bassinet with tin foil for months before the boy was born to avoid having them jump into it and take it as their own!

Joey, believing that the changing pad was his new bed for the first five minutes we had it in the house. He didn't think that for long!

However, all of our predictions were wrong! All of the animals in the house are completely intimidated by the baby, which is actually kind of a relief. When he's asleep, they're happy. When he cries, they're annoyed and leave the room. When I'm feeding him, they will occasionally jump on my lap and take a sniff or two, but otherwise they totally avoid him and just look at the two of us like we have rocked their worlds by bringing this little guy home. Brian and I are both looking forward to Ethan becoming mobile enough to move around the house and chase them - then they'll really thank us!

Happy Birthday!

Ethan Robert Jewett is one week old today! There really should have been two posts before this - one entitled, "Going into labor!" and another when he was actually born...those happened to be about 4 days apart, and I have to say that blogging wasn't really on my "To Do" list that week! So I'll try to catch up.

Here is the gorgeous boy:Such a modest mom, I know. I am positive that when people say, "How cute!" I'm supposed to say demurely, "Oh, thank you..." However, I just want to agree with them! I think he's amazing. And while Brian and I think that he looks like....well... a baby, we have heard from several family members that he looks like Brian. I hope so.

And I'm staring at him all day every day right now, being on maternity leave from work. But whenever Grandma Judy stops by, which is almost every day, she insists that he is changing all the time. So here he is with Auntie Andrea just two nights ago:
We are of course doing the New Parent Dance and worrying about everything - he didn't burp, will he spit up and choke? Did I get the right kind of wipes? He's breathing too fast - are his lungs ok? And is he eating too much, too little, too fast, too slow.... Jeez. Luckily for me Brian is a patient man and wonders about the same things. And I so appreciate the congratulatory emails we've gotten from friends and family that remind us how new parents always worry over every little thing - we'll get better at this!

I've already learned that as a new parent something everyone warned us about is so true - no one is ever ready for this! I believed that I had thought so many things through carefully, but found myself changing my plans pretty quickly. Here's my Top 5 list of "Week One Preconceptions":

Preconception Number 5: My house can be messy - who cares?
Yes, I assured everyone that since I'm far from a neat freak anyway, that letting the house go would not be a problem. However, we keep getting more STUFF for this kid, and it has to go somewhere! And I have to say that being home all the time in a messy house makes me feel as though I'm sick, not on leave with this wonderful kid, so I do have to straighten up sometimes.

Preconception Number 4: I can handle a baby crying - it's absolutely normal.
True. Babies cry, I get that. But you wouldn't believe how nervous I am to hear him get started, and how desperately we want to soothe him when he gets going!  Diaper changes are just the best, really. :P  (And I used to think that the wipe warmer was a non-essential, but Ethan begs to differ - he appreciates it especially after I wake him up to get fed and changed!)   Bathtime, also, which we are still doing out of the submerged water - just the washcloth at this point. "But it's cold!" he keeps trying to tell us.  

Preconception Number 3:  I'll sleep when the baby sleeps.

I sooooo want to do this one - I've heard this piece of advice for ages, and want to follow it!  However, if I really did this, when would I eat?  When would I talk to Brian?  And more importantly, when would I post pictures to the blog???  There's laundry (he's so small, I'm so surprised that he can make so much of it!), people to call, email to check, books to read on whatever I'm worried about on this particular day, preparation for the next time he's awake....the list is long.  I'm sleeping in bits and pieces when he's asleep, but not nearly as much as people suggest should be done.

Preconception Number 2: I've had disrupted sleep for many years. This won't be that much different.
I'm sure that my history of getting up multiple times during the night is helping me make this transition without losing my mind. However, when I would get up in the middle of the night over the last 7-8 years, I would have a snack and fall asleep in front of the television. Not quite the same thing when I'm waking up to undress a little sleepy boy, change his diaper, attempt to feed him, burp him, and then keep him awake just a tiny bit longer - just the right amount of time, of course - long enough so that he doesn't spit up immediately, but not too long that he wants to eat again. (This kid has a serious appetite.)

Preconception Number 1: I think I can handle natural childbirth.
Ha! This is my favorite one. I really was keeping my options open about drugs. After all, our mothers and grandmothers didn't use them, did they? However, plans changed and I have absolutely no regrets about having had every little bit of medication they shot into me when we finally got to the hospital! I went into "prodromal labor" (A Google search also turns up the names "false labor", "pre labor" and my personal favorite, "dysfunctional labor".) on Saturday at midnight, and for about four days had contractions that ranged from 7 minutes apart to 1.5 hours apart. As you can imagine, I was totally rested that week...and really nervous about how to get through the real thing! By Wednesday morning, when the pain between contractions wouldn't go away, I had had it. Wednesday evening we were in the hospital and I got a nice shot of drugs to help me sleep, which ironically helped labor progress! With the help of an epidural I had Ethan the next day. And he was perfect! Big, too! 9 pounds, 8 ounces. Totally healthy little boy from all accounts.

More gratuitous pictures of Ethan (and more to come!):

Getting ready for "the change"

No, not that change. And I'm not even referring to Obama's slogan!

I'm talking about how much things are going to change pretty soon - which is really a great thing. And even though I'm not sure that I adjust to change right away, who does??? The big question that I get from everyone these days is, "So, are you ready?" I'm never sure how to answer that! The bassinet and nursery are all ready, we have the car seat installed and an appointment to have it checked out, clothes are washed and put away, and I've even started stocking the freezer. But are we really ready? It's nice to hear from people who have done this before, "Oh, no one is ever really ready to be a new parent." Whew.

Everything looks great at this point. I had my last ultrasound today, and saw this kid actually stick out his tongue, which was really very exciting. (Brian says he's preparing for temper tantrums, when he'll be sticking his tongue out at us a lot.) I'm very spoiled at having had lots of opportunities to see pictures of him as he's grown!

BIG Baby

Well, not that big yet, but the potential is there...According to the most recent sonogram, right now I have a baby of average full-term weight - 7 pounds, 7 ounces, and I still have three weeks to go! If he keeps going at the rate he is, we're looking at 9-10 pounds.

I get absolutely no sympathy from my mother who 1) had an almost-10 pound baby - that would be me, 2) didn't have any drugs, 3) didn't even yell, and was in fact annoyed by the other women delivering near her who were screaming their lungs out! Sorry, Mom, but that will probably be me, and I don't think that the rooms at Carle are soundproofed. A friend suggested that we buy Brian some earplugs. Good thought.

The good news is that the sonographer did say that he "looks happy in there." ??? I have no idea what she means by that, but apparently he's doing his practice breathing thing, he's certainly developing well, etc. I'd post a sonogram picture, but he's so scrunched up in there it's hard to tell what's what! And my doctor is pretty happy, too. She wants me to keep drinking lots of water to keep my fluid levels up, but otherwise things are going well.

Time for the showers

Brian and I are truly surrounded by loving, generous people. Before that sounds a little too mushy, I have to describe the two baby showers that we've had recently. (Not that Brian attended either one - he and my dad narrowly escaped the one held at my mother's house...I'm not sure exactly what they think happens at baby showers, but it must be awful!)

My mother and sister held a shower for me on September 21. They planned for weeks, and it all went off without a hitch! The theme was children's books, so now we have an incredibly well-stocked library for this kid! Brian's mother and sister both came all the way from Ohio to join us, my college roommate Amy came from Chicago, and I even had a former student there!

Then, my coworkers held a shower for me on the 29th. Again, I was knocked over by their generosity and good wishes! I'm embarrassed to say that we have so far not bought any baby clothes for this kid - between two showers and some fantastic hand-me-downs, we have a seriously well-dressed baby already. And the games were lots of fun - my fellow grant coordinator Cynthia just had a beautiful baby girl three months ago, and she set up this fantastic game where celebrities' faces were Photoshopped onto babies' pictures - we had to guess which celebrity face went with which picture. Hard! I only got about half right...but it was absolutely worth it to see some really creepy pictures of non-babies.


Speaking of creepy, you have to check out this blog:
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/06/naked-mohawk-baby-carrot-jockeys.html

Thank goodness my friends and family have no impulses like this!

Less than 6 weeks left!

Not that I'm nervous or anything, but we're getting close! And as this happens, I want to make sure that I'm set up to let all of my family and friends keep track of how we (Brian, me, and the soon-to-be-named youngster) are all doing. My two work friends Cynthia and Jen started great blogs to keep all of us informed about a new baby and a new internship, so I'm shamelessly copying their idea.