The Baby Update, or: Two Weeks on Four Hours a Night

Little Elijah has made himself right at home in our living room. The Pack'n'Play that we didn't think we would need and that we got second hand through my mother has seen constant use.

His cradle, lovingly crafted by Eli's Grampa Jasperse out of beautiful cherry wood, has seen less-than-desired usage, probably by the simple fact that Eli seems to favor sleeping all day, not leaving Mommy the option of leaving the living room-kitchen-dining room area of the house for any substantial length of time to sleep in her own bed, therefore negating the use of the cradle, which is in our bedroom. And yes, that was a confusing and record-long sentence.

He does use both, however, and we are grateful for both the family heirloom and the "working" toy garage sale hand-me-down.

The tide is beginning to turn to the cradle's favor though, as Eli is getting less and less nocturnal. Not that Shan and I are hanging "Mission Accomplished" banners on our vehicles, but the other night he did actually sleep through the night, with just an hour and a half of fussiness. Poor, exhausted Mommy slept right through it, leaving Daddy with a crying baby and a snoring wife. Daddy has been abundantly blessed with the Virtue of Patience. And a finished basement with a computer and internet access. However, Mommy did wake up in a panic that morning, sure that little Eli would be shriveled up because we did not keep him on his three hour schedule!

Elijah visited the his doctor today for the two week weigh-in and checkup, and it seems that Mommy and Daddy have a healthy growing typical baby boy on their hands. As a matter of fact, the goal for newborn babies growth is an ounce per day. At his first checkup, Elijah weighed in four ounces past his birth weight, at 7lbs, 8oz. At this check up, he weighed 8lbs, 4oz. So, from birth, he has gained exactly one pound in two weeks.

A bit of quick math, 16 ounces over 14 days, means that our son is the over achiever we always knew him to be. Take that, all you average babies! Our baby is bringing your numbers up! Get used to it, lots of teachers grade on a curve. Did I mention he nearly aced his APGAR test? I am certain he'll be crawling within the month, and walking by spring. He also continues to exceed his daily quota of wet and dirty diapers by at least two. By kindergarten, he'll be fluent in English, Hebrew, and ancient Greek, and have a working knowledge of Biblical archaeology.

Today Daddy was also formally baptized into fatherhood, the culmination of nearly a year's worth of study and practice. Today, Daddy had to change clothes along with Elijah after a burp session. Mommy laughed, having been baptized on the first day, and numerous times since then. She even had the audacity to comment on the size of my baptizm, saying it "wasn't bad" and, "he did that to me twice yesterday while you were at work". Sticks and Stones, though. My son and I shared a bonding moment when he baptized me, and nothing anyone can say will take that away from me.

His eyes are continuing to darken, turning from that weird newborn greyish blue to brown, and he is focusing more now. We can tell that Mommy's voice is recognized. We knew it was before, but now we can tell it on his face. If he's a bit fussy, and Mommy says his name, we can watch him calm down! Unfortunately, this is not a superpower that Daddy posesses.

Daddy does posess the diaper changing power. The reason this is a superpower is the fact that Daddy cannot handle the smell of puke, the smell of poopie, and spiders. Daddy has not had to run from the nursery with his hand in front of his mouth holding back barf, and just this simple fact is enough to claim diaper changing as a superpower. That and Daddy didn't flinch during his son's circumcision, so Daddy must also have the superpower of Stay Strong.

Eli, too, must have superpowers. I dare anyone to challenge his kung-fu grip. He is very alert and aware of his surroundings as well, having the other day discovered his cheek and face, and pain all at the same time. We think he tried to pull his eyeball out, but we're not sure. He gave Mommy a mean roundhouse kick to the kidneys the other day, I think because the "restaurant" didn't open soon enough.

He also is practicing to become a male model. He gave us his first "look" this weekend, pouting his lips just like his hero Derek Zoolander. I tried giving him a faux-hawk yesterday, and it looked sweet. It was short, so really I just combed all the hair to the top of his head, but it was cool nonetheless.

If I could sum up this entire post in one sentence, it would be this: My son Elijah is the cutest, smartest, strongest, healthiest baby around.


wingnut

Name Change!

Not that very many people will notice, but I changed the name of my blog.

My previous title, "The Hangar", was meant to convey the largeness of my blog. I did not want people (or myself) to feel restrained in what they posted or commented, and I did not want to confine myself to certain topics only. I know a few people who have different blogs. I have three, technically, but I post the same things on each. These people have different blogs for their different posts. I never really saw the point in that. Just say what you're going to say!

The name also had an aviation smell about it, and that's always a winner in my book.

But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that the name of the blog does not determine the content of the blog. I could title my blog anything I wanted, and people would still read for the posts. Well, three or four of you would, anyway!

So I changed the name.

I have that every once in a while, where a great idea will just slam itself into my eyeballs, and I almost have to stop everything I'm doing to deal with it. Most of the time, I get slammed in the eyeballs by not-so-great ideas.

I wasn't even thinking about my blog, and suddenly that popped into my mind, along with the Buechner quote. Which I paraphrased.

I was also considering a layout change, but I will hold off on that until I find something readable and aesthetically pleasing. My only gripe is all that empty space over to the left, and I'm afraid my HTML-fu isn't quite up to changing it on my own.

So anyway, now that I've spent entirely too much time explaining something of very minor importance, I hope you enjoy the new, more accurate, more expressive name for my blog.


wingnut

Holy Freakin Poop!!

I felt the need to blog today, I don't know why. I considered putting up an old journal entry, maybe cleaning it up a bit and showing it off to all you fine readers.

But then I decided not to. I then though that maybe I could put up one of the entries I have drafted (I have four) that y'all haven't read yet. In the end, I decided against that idea as well.

Then I thought I should post something thoughtful and sweet and heartwarming and intelligent about being a new daddy, but to be completely honest with you, I still don't quite know what to say about it, other than, "AWESOME!!!"

Then I found this

It turns out some Lego nerd (like me) who also likes Star Wars (like me) set aside nine months of his life to build a spectacular Lego model of General Grievous' starship from Revenge of the Sith.

And I do like Legos, and Star Wars. Alot. I've said it before, I don't know how well I'm going to behave when Eli is big enough to play with my Legos, and swallow pieces, and break pieces, and lose pieces.

But I think I can safely say that this man has me beat. By a long shot. I'm not even sure if we ran the same race, but whatever competition we were in, clearly he won!


wingnut

A picture is worth a thousand words!

It has been one long, tiring week!

On Monday, Shan's OB decided that we have been pregnant for long enough, and scheduled her to be induced. We went in Monday night, around 8pm, and got all settled in. The nurse on duty started the treatment around 9pm, and got the process rolling.

Throughout the night, Shan began having contractions that grew stronger and stronger, until by 5:30 am Tuesday, she was ready for an epidural. That allowed us to sleep a little bit.

Later that morning, as our nurse was getting ready to go to lunch, she came in to check up on us, and told us that Shan was dilated to a 6. She guessed that usually people dilate at about one centimeter an hour, so that would be about four more hours until we start pushing.

But as she left for lunch, Shan's contractions began to come through the epidural. We called the nurse that was covering for the lunch break, and she came and checked on Shan again. Much to her (and our) surprise, Shan had gone from a 6 to nearly a 10 in a little under an hour.

She called everyone back from lunch, called the doctor in the room, and we started to push! Shan started pushing through the contractions around noon, and Elijah Jason Jasperse came into the room at 201pm, weighing 7lbs, 4oz, and measuring 19 inches long!

There was some concern about his heart rate during the contractions, so the doctor used a vacuum to help ease him out. It looked kinda like a plunger, and they just stuck it on Eli's head, and when Shan was pushing, the doctor was pulling.

Aside from that slight concern, everything went smoothly, indeed smoother than either mommy or daddy expected it to go!

Praise the Lord that after our story, everything was just as normal as a pregnancy could get!

And now on to the pictures!!!

He's just a few minutes old, getting his first clean up by the nurse



Already asleep!?!



The happy brand-new family



Tummy Time!!




I am so adorable!!!


I'm sure y'all will see more!! Actually, if you want to click over to myspace, I have some up here



wingnut

The countdown is short!!

Well, here we go!!!

This is it!

This is the week it all will happen.

So, the updates are more of the same, stoopid hospital visits for weird things, and a healthy baby boy preparing to make his debut in the world.

And a picture of mommy, beautifully pregnant!


















I'll be back next week with pictures of Elijah!!


wingnut