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!

Photo Ops

I find that when I'm taking pictures of Kirk, I tend to focus on what he's wearing. I realized we didn't have any pictures of him in his robot and space ship jammies so that was my only reason for that one. Sure, sometimes there is just something that's really cute that I'll have to capture. But more often than not, it's just his outfit. 'Sides, by the time I get the camera out, the cuteness is usually over. Or else I'll be so wrapped up in actively cultivating the cute that I won't even think about snapping a pic. It'll be interesting to see if I find it easier to pass along clothes since I'll have a record of pretty much all of them.

Hipsters and Strippers

Watching the movie DiG! and reading the book Candy Girl both produced extreme feelings of familiarity. The specifics of each were different, of course, as were the causes. But I found it interesting to have intimate knowledge of the subject matter for entirely disparate reasons.

The music documentary DiG! parallels the fortunes of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols during the mid-nineties. Though the movie was released in 2004, I only saw it for the first time a few months ago. It was hard to watch because I knew, felt really, that plot. I have not officially met any of the members of either band, though my husband has opened for them or other permutations involving former members. (And apparently we startled some BRMC guys in the basement of the Entry one night. Long story.) So, while both bands enjoyed more fame and success than local peers, the basic elements of the 90s music scene were the same. And, having lived that scene here in Minneapolis, seeing it before me was startling. I knew the Twin Cities versions of all those character archetypes. I’d counseled friends through Midwest versions of the same interpersonal dramas. I’d witnessed the infighting and backstabbing and adoration and jealousy and assistance and luck that had swirled around all the bands of my friends and acquaintances. Consequently, viewing the movie was just a bit…too close to home.

On the other hand, I do personally know the narrator of Candy Girl, and her husband and step-daughter. But the familiarity I felt in this situation was not due to the subject matter, though I did read the Pussy Ranch when it was still up. Rather, I knew what was happening at the edge of the action described in the pages of her memoir. The apartment building Diablo and Jonny lived in? We lived one floor below. The road trip they took Out West? We cat sat George (R.I.P.) and Larry. The Vegas wedding? We attended. The house they bought? I gave them the name of a loan officer. All the mundane details of everyday life when you live and work near your friends. As well as the feelings of concern I had for Jonny while reading the Ranch during The Year. I didn’t know Diablo well yet, though it was obvious she was a vast improvement on the previous wife. I did know very well what Jonny had gone through getting out of that last marriage—hell, he lived with us for a while afterwards!—and I didn’t want him getting hurt. Now I can see my worries were unfounded, but then I had no idea if she was going to start “making movies” or just how far it would all go. It was very interesting being reminded of those overprotective feelings towards Jonny’s well-being.

I am curious to know how I will react to someday seeing the possible film version of Candy Girl onscreen. Will it be the same ephemeral familiarity, of seeing myself just around the corner, at the edge of my peripheral vision, that I had while reading the book? Or will it be the visceral, gut level, absolute, life style, personal familiarity I had while watching DiG!? I sure hope I get to find out.

Auntie Daycare

I have another real, solid item, besides pain-in-the-ass to get to, in the “con” column for Auntie Daycare. My sister is sick. She has strep. She called last night when she got back from Urgent Care to let me know. With regular daycare, if a staff member is sick, they stay home for the day. With Auntie Daycare, I have to keep Kirk at home. And like last week when A1 had strep, with regular daycare, she just would have been kept at home. But with Auntie Daycare, she was at home. So I had to keep Kirk.

I really didn’t want to have to just stay home from work today. Besides simply not wanting to use up ¼ of my vacation time before the end of January, I’m busy! So I called my mom to see if she’d be willing and able to come down. Thankfully, she was. So Mom arrived about 9:30 and stayed with Kirk until Mr. b was able to get home. If she hadn’t been able to, Plan B was to call Diablo and see if she’d be willing!

Food & Toys

We learned an important lesson this weekend: do not take valuable keepsake toys into Target. One of Mr. b's employees brought back a cute little stuffed Snowy with her from France. Kirk likes to chew on it. So we went to Target and brought it along for Kirk to play with in the car. Didn't think about it. We got to Target and brought Snowy along for Kirk to play with him in the store. Didn't think about it. Got back to the car, where's Snowy? Mr. b went running back inside and, with the help of a redshirt, managed to actually recover the missing Snowy. And he's never leaving the house again!

Kirk's food is very bland. His favorites seem to be the more exciting of the options. He loves sweet potatoes (Maybe that's the reason for my current obsession with them?) and prunes most. I just made him some broccoli and he was reasonably fine with it. I've only been making baby foods that aren't available pre-packaged. I figure that's a good way to give him more variety. So far he's not too sure about peas, which I suspect may be a texture issue, but he loved them when mixed with vanilla yogurt. In fact, just about anything mixed with vanilla yogurt is a hit. Again, I think it's because it's tangy and so is more interesting than boring ol' formula and cereal. I wonder if there are any rules against feeding a baby bell peppers? Because I could roast some and that would give him a new flavor for sure! Here's the weird thing though, Kirk doesn't like bananas. I've tried Gerber's bananas. I've tried smashing up a fresh banana. I've tried the rice cereal that's got dried banana flakes in it. He just doesn't like bananas at all. In fact, the only way I've been able to use up that cereal is by mixing it with apple sauce. But seriously, who doesn't like bananas?!

Which is worse?

When your baby wakes up an hour before you would normally have to get up for work so you are not mentally prepared for that wake up time?

Or when your baby wakes up in the middle of the night but then you get a chance to go back to sleep before the alarm goes off?

I can't decide.

Working Mom

I attempted working from home yesterday. Since Kirk couldn't be around his cousin until she had been on drugs for 24 hours, I was going to be home with him anyway. I can't actually telecommute because of bogus access rules, but I brought 2 boxes of files home to go through. I didn't even get through one whole box. Granted Kirk was having a cranky day, but still, I don't know if I would have been more productive if he'd been in a better mood. He just requires so much hands on attention still. And besides keeping him entertained, there's pants changes and eating times and shorter naps than when he was an infant. So until he's older and I can put him in front of Hard Day's Night or something for a while, I don't think working from home one day a week will be a good option for me.

I'm going to test out non-standard hours next. I'm thinking four 10-hour days, taking Fridays off. But this might suck because I would have so much less time with Kirk during each day. I don't know if the 3 day weekends with him will be worth it. So another option might be four 9-hour days and a half-day on Friday. When I worked in the field, we did 10 days on, 4 days off. It was great but I think that would be too radical for an office job. Besides, the first and last of those 10 days was always a travel day to get to the dig site. I would probably go batty spending 10 days in a row in a cube farm.

Sick Days

It’s weird to consider that the majority of my vacation days from now on will be for sick baby, baby doctor’s appointments, day care conflicts, etc. I’ve always been a fan of taking a Mental Health Day here or there; I wonder if I’ll feel free to do that anymore? Or if I’ll be too paranoid that I’ll run out of vacation time? Having no vacation time left when I came back from maternity leave really sucked ass.

My sister apparently called last night. I heard the phone ring while I was on the bike but Mr. b didn’t say anything so I figured it was just his work. But when I got to my sister’s place to drop off Kirk this morning, she asked if I got her message. The oldest, A1, isn’t feeling well. She was going to still go to school, but Sis wanted me warned, in case A1 was sent home. Then I get a call from Sis saying that A1 was complaining about a sore throat, so she didn’t go to school after all. So now Kirk is definitely exposed to whatever his cousin has that may or may not be strep. (They’re still waiting to hear back from the doctor. Both A1 and A2 were there for unrelated issues yesterday and he did take a look at her throat. Thankfully, A2’s ear infection isn’t contagious.)

I’m kind of torn about picking him up. I mean, if it turns out to be strep, I’m going. But if it’s just a cold, well, he’s already exposed to it. Going to get him early isn’t really going to lessen his chances of sharing germs. And chances are, I’ll be staying home with him one day later this week. So I should just wait, let him finish off his day, and refrain from using my paid time off. On the other hand, it’s snowing again, so traffic is going to suck going home tonight. Leaving early would avoid that. And who doesn’t like having random afternoons off?! I know Mr. b wants me to pick up Kirk. But that’s just standard Mr. b over-protectiveness. Hmmmm. What to do. What to do. I’ll probably just split the difference and leave early.

Clothes Pony

While at Target this weekend I discovered that everything is on sale right now. So besides picking up a couple of shirts for myself, I picked out tons of new clothes for Kirk. Three pairs of pants, two shirts, a pack of socks, and a pack of jammies. I’ve been pulling all of his 3-6 month clothes out of rotation. I can’t believe I’ve already filled an entire plastic tub of used clothes! And that’s not including the preemie sized stuff I passed on to cousin Lukas.

Baby clothes are sized kinda weird. It took me a while to figure out that size “6 mo” means 3-6 and not 6-9. So all the new clothes I bought are 12 mo, which seems like it would be jumping the gun. But I want him to have stuff last for a while! I realize now I didn’t get a single 9 mo item. Hopefully that won’t matter. Besides, I’m going to have to get summer stuff in a few more months anyway.

So far I’ve only encountered one instance of blatant mislabeling of sizes. Kirk has a cute Cure onesie that Mr. b got as a shower gift and that claims to be size 18-24 months. Thankfully Mr. b didn’t believe that and pulled it out of the bin of yet-to-be-worn clothes in time. Now I’m mildly paranoid and keep checking the other items to make sure there are no other majorly mislabeled surprises in there.

As soon as Kirk starts fitting into the T sizes, I’ll have to figure out a whole new sizing scheme.

Clothes Horse

I did a major closet purge this weekend. I pulled everything that was way too small or just too “young” looking. Maybe I’ve been watching too much What Not to Wear, but I do not want to end up the 40-year-old who shops in the Juniors section and dresses like a teenager. That is tacky and wrong. Hell, I don’t even want to dress like a college student! My personal sense of style has mutated radically over my life, from very Deee-Lite in high school to total 90s hippie in college. But through it all, I’ve always wished for that sense of Banana Republic sophistication. I remember trying to wear pieces from The Limited when I was in junior high, and it totally not working out because they were just too old for me.

The point of it all is, I need to get rid of most of my pre-pregnancy clothes and see what I’m left with. What can I work with? I still have a bit of Xmas money left. What kind of new basics do I need? I’m not going to start wearing Mom Jeans or anything! But I do need to focus on clothes that are more age appropriate as well as careerist. I can still get pieces that are funky and hipster and fine. I want a suit! But it’s also time to stop with the constant baby Ts. I haven’t got a remotely flat stomach anymore. I can’t pull off short shirts with ultra low rise pants. That’s a fact.

I did set aside 4 shirts and 5 pairs of pants into a maybe-I-can-wear-them-again-someday box. We’ll see. I’ve started riding my stationary bike every night after Kirk goes to bed. And I’m trying to keep my eating a bit lighter than it has been. Mainly portion control and no more constant going out to eat. It’s time for me to start actively trying to get back down to pre-baby size/weight.

Solids are fer suckers!

Kirk just went through a very strange food phase this week. He was refusing to eat cereal, fruits, or vegetables. He wouldn't eat any for Auntie, for me, or for Daddy. He would take a bite and then make a horrible face like he was gagging or it was poison or something. It was really awful to see. He was still drinking bottles--formula, juice, and water. But he wouldn't eat solid food. Which he has been doing with astounding proficiency and delight for 2 months now.

I tried doing some internet research on this weirdness and didn't really find anything relevant. I mean, there was stuff about nursing strikes, but he's been fully off the boob for quite some time. And there was tons of stuff about toddlers being fussy eaters, refusing certain things, and the like.

There were some medical explanations, mostly talking about it being painful to swallow. Like the little guys already have acid reflux or something. Scary! Or that teething pain could cause spoon feeding to hurt. Yet Kirk seems to like pressure on his gums when his mouth is hurting. Of course I recently read the Newsweek cover story about anorexia striking ever younger kids, down to age 9, and boys more often than ever. I don't want my poor little peepers pie to have an eating disorder!

There were some psychological explanations, mostly about asserting individuality. Kids don't have a lot of power over decisions in their lives but they can decide to eat or not. (And, just to make it worse, that was one of the main arguments in the anorexia article. Gah!) They all said to not show signs of worry or that would make it worse. So Mr. b and I just kept offering solids to Kirk and then would keep a smile on our faces when he wouldn't do it.

Thankfully yesterday it seemed to be over. Kirk was back to sitting in his high chair with his mouth open wide, like a little birdie waiting for a worm. My sister said he ate for her yesterday, too. But he's continuing to wake up multiple times in the night. Drinking 2 bottles in the night is making him overflow his diapers with pee. (Of course it doesn't help that he's sort of in between diaper sizes. Twos are a bit short but we've still got some to use up. And threes are still a bit bulky.) I guess we need to force him to wait for his bottle and change his pants first. Just like back when he was a newborn and we were used to getting up multiple times in the middle of the night. We're so out of that habit. It's amazing how far we've come. Even getting up once is unusual now.

The owners manual I've been using says that developmental leaps are usually preceeded by a reversion. So maybe the eating thing and getting up at night is signalling an imminent, great, big leap. I moved the crib last night just in case it happens to be getting to sitting up position on his own. We still have blinds on his windows and I don't want him reaching the pull cords. Add "make window treatments" to my list of childproofing I've procrastinated on but must be done NOW.

Check-up Recap

Kirk had his 6 month Well Baby appointment on Friday. He weighs 18 pounds, 4 ounces and is 26 inches. Doc asked if he had any new tricks and we told her about his fairly decent sitting up. She was duly impressed upon viewing him balance before toppling over. She said that big babies have a harder time sitting because they have so much mass to balance. Of course my dad thinks Kirk is just the strongest baby ever and this was simply more proof!

Kirk did exceptionally well with his shots. He stopped crying in between each of the 3 of them. And after the last one, he calmed down right away. He even smiled at the nurse that stuck him! He was slightly less crabby during the weekend recovery as well. But he still doesn't just sleep a ton like apparently I and my siblings and my nieces all did.

Now we move from every 2 months to every 3 months. And there are no innoculations at the 9 month visit so Kirk gets a nice 6 month break before his next immunizations! That's his whole life so far!

I just need to decide if I should switch doctors. Doc is moving to the newly built clinic. The clinic we currently visit is less than a mile from our house. Her new office will be more like 10 miles away. Which really isn't that much but is hugely less convenient than the current one. But I don't really want to try a new doctor. I've been with Doc since I got knocked up. She's been Kirk's only doctor since he got out of the hospital. I guess Mr. b and I will have to weigh the pros and cons.

Doc does want us to get Kirk on a 3-meals-a-day plan by 7 months. And he'll be able to start meats then, too. His daddy is exceptionally excited by that prospect. He's a bit dismayed that his son is a vegetarian. I've just been trying to figure out if meal times will have to change to accomodate the new schedule. Of course, Kirk will still get snacks. But maybe I'll have to designate certain foods, like apple sauce, as snack items only. Yep, lots of minutiae to think about.