Flying Babies

Kirk did pretty good on most of the flight yesterday. The woman sitting behind us on the plane called him "a very good traveler" but she was sleeping the whole time so what does she know! There were 2 other zero year olds onboard and so the three of them took turns being the Loud Baby. Since it was an evening flight, I think most of Kirk's issues were simply due to the interruption of his normal nigh-nigh routine and extreme tiredness. We tried to keep to the regular schedule as much as possible. Mr. b even fed Kirk a jar of food and I was the high chair. But ultimately, the last third of the flight, Kirk was just overtired and letting everyone know about it. I really don't think he even noticed the turbulence. He did fall asleep in his daddy's arms for 20 minutes or so of the descent, so it could have been worse.

Then shockingly, he didn't fall asleep in the car ride from the airport to Grandma and Grandpa's place! So it was way past his bedtime. He got to bed maybe 10pm or so, finally staying asleep closer to 11pm. My MIL had smartly set up his port-a-crib so the blocked side was facing out, to try to keep him from being distracted by the world outside his bed. But my Mother-to-Baby Psychic Connection told me that part of his difficulty in falling asleep was not being able to see outside his bed in a clearly unfamiliar location. And as soon as I turned the crib around, no worries.

Until, of course, Drunk Daddy stumbled into bed at ridiculous o'clock. No surprise, Mr. b had stayed up half the night, drinking with his mom. Some things never change! But as a mother of a son, I can hardly fault them for wanting that night of drunken conversation. People are correct when they say that being a parent makes you more aware of what your own parents have gone through. But it also gives you a connection to your in-laws that is less acknowledged. I can only hope that Kirk and I have some lovely late night carousing in our distant future!

belsum's Miscellany

Having a baby has made us take care of some much overdue vehicle maintenance. We got the 80,000 mile tune-up done last week. (Yeah, it cost 80,000 dollars. Sigh.) Fixed the apparently leaking transmition. Tires rotated. The whole shebang. We both felt like we were bad parents, endangering our son by not driving a car in tip top shape. This being responsible thing is expensive!

It takes a lot longer to get ready in the morning when it's just me and the boy. I know this should be a no-brainer, but it just hit me. When Mr. b and I are carpooling, we can take turns getting Kirk ready. I get him up and give him a bottle while Mr. b is getting dressed. Then he can change Kirk and feed him cereal while I get dressed and prep the diaper bag. On my own, I keep forgetting and so hit the snooze button too many times and then end up rushing and having to skip cereal, like this morning.

We're heading to Texas again on Saturday for a week. I'm looking forward to seeing my in-laws. But I'm worrying about Kirk on the plane. He was so much littler last time we flew with him. He just slept the whole time. We could shut him up with a bottle. But he's totally his own man now. And he's loud. I'm just afraid we're going to be those parents and I don't want to be. Oh well, it'll give me something to fret about other than flying. I hate flying.

Babies!

Man. I know I'm in the life phase where everyone reproduces, but they're seriously doing it all at once! I have 2 friends due later this year and at least 4 friends in various states of actively trying to get knocked up. Then the other week my best work friend and I busted another co-worker at being pregnant (with her third! and she's 6 years younger than me!). We had been suspicious for a while due to her increasing mental flightiness and extreme exhaustion. But the capper was when we were all out to lunch and she mentioned how her favorite foods just don't taste very good to her any more. Yeah. But we're the only ones here that know. It's so much fun. I love preggo secrets. Now I know why a different co-worker was so giddy when I let her in on my own preggo secret before telling the rest of the office. It's just a great little club to be a part of. Who knew? I don't get off on other traditionally girly stuff. But I have found that I love reproduction stories.

My friend had her future little drummer boy last week. And all I wanted to do was find out about the labor and delivery! I mean, yeah, the little man is adorable and I can't wait to meet him and hug his mommy and daddy. But I was just bursting with curiousity about the birth. On the surface it was pretty much the same as mine: they got to the hospital about the same time, delivered at about the same time. But afterwards, oh that's where it differed. Because she not only hemorrhaged, she also had extreme pre-eclampsia and a fever spike of 102. She was the wow-this-never-happens example for the staff. You don't want that. The dad and baby were ushered out of the room for a couple of hours. How scary is that shit?! But everyone is doing fine now, home safely and everything is normal.

Another exception to the standard preggo rule is Tom's wife. I'm sure he'll blog about it fully but the short version is, his wife is having the baby tomorrow. She's been in the hospital for over a week because she started leaking amniotic fluid at 32 weeks! That's no good. But she's fine, the boy is fine, Tom is fine. They just had to wait while the boy did some double fast final lung development before they induce and he is allowed to come out. So Kirk's preemie clothes are going to get another use! I had thought it was very odd when my SIL returned them all to me after cousin Lukas grew out of them. Who returns borrowed baby clothes? But I guess it was meant to be! I plan to offer them our first carseat, too. Knowing the hassle we went through to find one that passed the tests and was small enough for Kirk, I'm betting the one they have already will be too big.

Side Effects

On Friday at Auntie's, Kirk had his very first blow-out. When we picked him up, he was wearing his cousin A1's shorts, hiked up to his arm pits old man style, and his clothes were in a plastic bag. When we first started leaving Kirk with my sister we would always make sure there was a spare set of clothes, or at least another onesie, in the diaper bag. But we got lazy. He never had a blow-out. When he was first born friends would say ominously, "Wait until you have to cut his clothes off him!" Ew. But, nothing. So it was a shock to learn that he had literally pooped his pants. Especially considering the more solid nature of his poos now that he eats food. My sister swears that it's all due to the antibiotics. She says that whenever her girls were on them they ended up with messy, messy poo.

I think that the drugs have also increased the smelliness of his pee. Since he's been on it, I can smell when he pees. And I mean, it's strong. It smells like he's got hours and hours of pee in there. It smells like he's marking his territory strong. But when I go to change his diaper, there's hardly any wetness.

He's got boogs.

I took Kirk to the doctor yesterday. It was a very weird day in general. We're a one-car family, (a fact that's fun to dangle over the heads of our vocally Green/liberal friends that have two vehicles, hee!) and Mr. b worked an unusual shift at the cafe. So the plan that worked best was me taking the bus to work super early--there are actually quite a lot of people on the 5:49am--and then leaving work at Noon to pick up both the boy and the car from the cafe.

The drive to Doc's new clinic was unexpectedly super long and slow. My parents used to live just a bit farther north than that clinic so I didn't figure I'd mind the distance. But it was snowing that fluffy snow that becomes really slippery as it gets packed down by cars. We were only 10 minutes late. But they got us in immediately. Kirk weighs 19 pounds 3 ounces! He's huge!

Doc took one look at the boy, and despite his lack of a fever, declared that she could "just tell" that he had an ear infection. Actually looking in his ears was a formality. She checked the first one. Clear. Perplexed, she said it must be the other one. Clear. She was stunned. My baby has great Eustachian tubes! So she figured, based on his nasty, crusty, bloody-boogery, chapped little nose, that he must have Purulent Rhinitis. Basically, a sinus infection that's really a nose infection since babies don't have much in the way of sinuses yet. She had a throat culture done just in case, but confirmed that babies very rarely get Strep.

So Kirk's had two doses of Amoxicillin and already seems to be doing better. He woke up at about 11 last night but slept through the rest of it. Yay baby!

Child Safety

So using the Boppy is out. Last night I got up with Kirk at 3:45am and walked in to his room prepared to give him a bottle and get out of there. His pillow was on top of him. Not on his face! But it was on his torso and on his legs and he was playing with the edge that came up to his chin. How the fuck did he end up like that? I mean, when Mr. b was up with him earlier that night, say 11-ish, did he just not put him far enough up on the pillow? I doubt it. Frankly, I don't want to think about what kind of factors were involved. I mean, I switched Kirk over to the sleep sack exclusively several months ago because he started pulling his blankets up over his head. And Mommy just doesn't need those kinds of mini-heart attacks in the middle of the night when she's already groggy and annoyed about being up in the first place. So tonight I'm going to order the under-the-sheets wedge thingie.

And also this:

Britney. What the fuck? I mean, I know you're the queen of the trailer court and all, but it's not the 1970s. You can't do that. And as much as Mr. b might reminisce about standing up in the back seat of the car with his brother, playing with toys on the rear dash, even he was aghast upon seeing you driving with your baby on your lap. Stop endangering your son dammit! He already has no chance of a normal life what with you being his cracker-ass mother! Gah!

A star is born?

People keep saying that Kirk looks like Baby Bob. Now, considering that I'm terrified of that talking abomination, clearly this concerns me. Mainly, it's aunts and uncles that don't see him regularly. But it's both sides of the family so it's not like they're talking amongst themselves and passing on the suggestion! Mr. b's theory is that since Kirk is just such a Classic Baby, he then would get the comparison. Big round head, big eyes (I can only see the almond shape that he gets from me, personally) and whatnot. Since Bob is getting a bit old, apparently Kirk needs to get the job. I'm too lazy to sign him up at a casting agency!

Sharing

Kirk has had a cold since late last week. He passed it on. He didn't just pass it on to me. He passed it on to his daddy and his auntie and his cousin as well. We were all just a miserable pile of snot factories dropping off the baby this morning. I imagine this is only the first of many colds instigated by the boy.

I think Kirk was over the worst of it yesterday afternoon. It was heartbreaking though. Mr. b was away at band practice and so I had no relief. Kirk was beyond crabby. It was the kind of red-faced wailing that cannot be soothed. He was inconsolable. Classic little kid snot lines covering the short distance below the nose to the mouth. Sometimes when he cries it's hilarious. This was just sad. And since there was nothing I could do, I had to just keep spooning lunch into his mouth. He'd pause to swallow and then start back up with the hating of life, the universe, and everything.

We don't have one of those handy crib wedges to slip under the sheet and elevate the baby's head. And obviously Kirk couldn't sleep flat on his back with the kind of congestion this cold has caused. So I've been propping him up on the big Boppy I bought for preggo sleeping. It had also been a wonderful nursing pillow for me and late night bottling pillow for Mr. b so I guess this is its third life. So far it seems to be helping. Kirk took a nice, solid, long nap yesterday afternoon and only woke up once last night. Of course there's still a part of me that's terrified I'm going to make him get smothered. But for as wiggly and spastic as he is while awake, he really doesn't roll around while asleep. Thrash his legs? Yes. But he doesn't turn his torso. I should really get a proper wedge anyway.

Groundhog Day

Today is Kirk's 7 month birthday! It's just astounding how time is flying. I'm going to have to switch to the next chapter (8-12 months) in his owner's manual. Doc had wanted us to be at 3 meals a day, plus whatever snacks are needed, by 7 months. And it's happened! Well, not everyday. But more often than not Kirk will have cereal or yogurt & applesauce before he goes to Auntie's house. Doc also said that we could start him on meats at 7 months. Mr. b only managed to wait until 6 3/4 months. He's so excited that his son isn't a vegetarian any longer! Kirk so far has had Beef Dinner (tastes like watered down Campbell's vegetable beef soup) and Chicken with Noodles Dinner (tastes like watered down chicken noodle soup) and seems to like them both. There are so many interesting flavor combinations with the stage 2 foods. It's hard to remember not to introduce too many new things at once. We still need to monitor for any potential reactions and so will need to be able to isolate what the new element was. Though there aren't any food allergies on either sides of our families so I'm not worried. Still gonna follow the rules though! Kirk's new favorite dessert is pears with wild blueberries. It's like candy!

It's amazing to think back to what he was like 5 or 6 months ago. Take diapers for instance. We changed his pants every 3 hours, pretty much like clock work. Because we were shoving a bottle or a boob in his mouth every 3 hours anyways. Now I'll go to check his pants when I'm putting him in his jammies and his diaper will be completely dry! Sure, it may have only been an hour or 2. But it's still good to know that Kirk's not just literally peeing at every moment of his life! Of course Mr. b and I jinxed ourselves when we commented that he hasn't peed on us during a diaper change in quite a while. There's actually a product for that. Check this shit out!