life at home

lb's milk came in the night before last, and if bebe was a mellow baby to begin with, she's on a whole 'nother level now. on the colostrum, she would eat and then proceed to fuss a little and eventually chill out, but only with some coercing. post-milk, we can't keep her awake long enough to burp her. she eats, falls off the boob, and sleeps for about three hours. she'd sleep longer than that but she's not supposed to go longer than three hours between feedings so we often have to wake her up. just so she can eat and go back to sleep. it's a cruel world she was born into.

these first couple of days have not been nearly as bad as i expected. i imagined us as zombies, stumbling around at the baby's beck and call, sleeping sporadically- twenty minutes here, thirty minutes there- but that hasn't been the case. the first full night we were home was a little dicey. i remember being up from about two-thirty to five, when lb asked me to take her for a while. we watched a movie, some sportscenter, saw the sky begin to lighten... and then mommy was back for another feeding. i hadn't fallen asleep until after midnight, and was awake every time she cried, so that was a tough night. but by the second night, i got a solid six hours of sleep and felt pretty good the next morning. this is important because if i was sleeping at night, it meant that lb was not. and since i couldn't do what she was doing(but dammit, couldn't i try? would my breasts always be but barren, empty taps, producing nothing but small tufts of hair which bebe would gum and attempt to tear out? alas, so it seems), which meant that all of the chores fell on me, and i gladly did them and considered them my contribution to this whole 'baby' thing.

i wasn't only relegated to meals and taking out the trash though. i've had some experience with changings, and as my mom said at the hospital "joshua always could change a mean diaper." it would seem i have not lost my touch. i'm also an excellent burp-inducer, though lb is catching up fast in that dept.

i think that the reason things aren't as hard as i expected them to be is because of the way my wife and i handle them. there are no expectations, no agendas, no hurt feelings... we move as one parental unit with bebe's best interests in mind. and we also communicate. regularly, even. it sounds like a given, but when you can outline what your idea of the next half-hour looks like, and then proceed to negotiate, things run so much more smoothly. and if the person you're working with is a fair and decent person(which she is), then everybody gets a turn on the pony, bebe included.

will it get harder, of course. but it will also get easier. in the immortal words of Twin Peak's Special Agent Dale Cooper- "Everyday, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it out, just let it happen..."

and if that present just happens to be your four-day-old daughter making gurgling noises at you while trying to pull your nose off?

talk about the gift the keeps on giving...

a few things to know about bebe marie

she likes eskimo kisses from her daddy
she throws down gang signs- we haven't figured out if she's a 'blood' or a 'crip,' but she's pretty pink so we're leaning towards 'blood.'
daddy's already nicknamed her 'beebs.'
she likes to pee or poop in a diaper, and then once you've gotten the new diaper under her, pee again. she thinks this is really funny.

playin' around

you can't tell from this picture, but all of her toes are the same length. you could interchange one for another and her feet would look exactly the same.

she's kind of a snob sometimes...

the hair fairy giveth, and the hair fairy taketh away

ahhh...

it's go time!

almost done. time to shave...

and we're good.

the first days

mems says hi

mams says hi

mams wonders how she will sneak you out with no one noticing

aunt marge gets a grab

auntie jamie says hi

auntie jamie looks for a good place to bite(there are lots)

teed says hey

contemplates stealing you, but then decides he will make you poop a BIG poop instead

great job teed(and bebe)!

bebe marie's first official sunset, from our room at the brigham

day two

starting off the day with a little love from daddy

and a little love from mommy

aunt marge comes back, and brings along uncle ben

mems gets one more in, for a study in contrasts

the show down

getting settled

Been home for a full day, starting to get settled in to a routine that mostly goes like this:

Bebe eats, fusses, sleeps for an hour or two, we sleep for an hour or two, repeat.

I’ll be posting a write-up of the birth itself soon, but wanted to get a flood of pics up for people who haven’t been able to bask in the raw, untamed beauty that is my offspring. Behold…

the baby burrito

having an asian baby pop out sure raised some eyebrows in the delivery room

getting ready for her first bath

the pinkest, meanest, most bath hating one-eyed pirate gangster in all the solar system

still pretty pissed about the bath

coming up next, some pics of her first meet and greet...

beatrix marie

born july 14, 2008

8.12 lbs

21 inches long

the hair fairy(and still no baby...)

we started calling the cat a hair fairy, because once the weather got warm, he started shedding, leaving magical piles of hair on everything. oops, looks like the hair fairy has been in your favorite chair! oh ho, the hair fairy paid a visit to your pillow! i eventually assumed the moniker, and here's why:

i've been growing my beard since we first told our families about being pregnant. somehow it was decided that it would be 'fun.' it was actually because i hate to shave, and when the little one finally gets here i'll be shaving probably everyday to keep myself smooth and less irritating(as far as my skin goes). so i wouldn't shave till he/she got here, and wouldn't that be great? at first i was allowed to trim it so that i wouldn't look like a mountain man- no offense, sasquatch. but as of july i'm not allowed to trim it, and since i would look even sillier with a shaved head and a big ol' beard, i'm letting it all hang out. here are a few pictures tracking the growth from jan to present day. i have to say, i'm quite disgusted(and at this point, disgusting also).

week 1, jan

feb


march


april, after a trim or two...


early may?


mid-late june


late last week


um, yeah.


whoa boy.


um... baby? hello? help me.


and here are some pictures of my beard and me on vacation:



on the moon...


at six flags...


at sea world...


and in the upper atmosphere.