Thursday, December 27, 2007

OMG!

I do not like to take the Lord's name in vain but is it in vain when you say, "Oh my God! Please stop crying."? I'm imploring of my maker to make his other tiny creation with not so tiny lungs to cease the constant wailing.

Gavin has been bestowed with incredible cuteness and incredible lungs. Or mediocre lungs and amazing vocal cords and a great diaphragm. He is quite the eardrum buster.

Tonight is my bible study night but we are not meeting because everyone is still scattered from the holidays but it is still my night off. I drove around Seattle for an hour and a half, visiting the places I used to visit when I first moved to the Emerald City. It was a nice trip down memory lane to see the coffee shops I haunted and the streets I strolled back when I still gasped in awe when I saw the city skyline and wondered if it would ever lose it's magical pull on me. (It has. I do not deny it is gorgeous but I don't pinch myself and think, "I live here!" anymore).

Ryan is upstairs with Gavin as I sit here and check my e-mail and make this post. I just polished off my first Hefeweizen since I became pregnant. If Gavin gets hungry before 10 pm he'll get another bottle of previously frozen mom juice. Yea for pumps!

I should head upstairs and take advantage of my last few minutes of time off and take a bath while I can.

Who knew bathing would be such a treat?

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Christmas Came Early (to me)

It is too early to breath a sigh of relief or to make any excited proclamations but I can make excited proclamations about what I have already received. Two nights in a row.

Any guesses as to what I am so thrilled about?

Sleep!

Gavin gave his beloved Mommy 6 hours of sleep two nights in a row!

Woo-hoo!

I am praying it isn't a fluke. There is one wrinkle in his gift of sleep to me, however. It may come at a certain cost. Previous to all of the sleep being had by one uber-cute baby there was much crying, fussing and screaming being belted out for the duration of the evening.

Last night Ryan and Gavin's Nana Monten tested ways to soothe the little Grumpers. Nana walked with him in laps around her house facing outward. Grumpers turned into a docile lamb with eyes wide open staring at all of the lights. Ryan then took the G and made sure it wasn't just the Nana factor.

To further test their hypothesis that walking was the cure to the fussies Ryan would stop and sit on the couch. It only took a moment for Gavin to start wailing. Ryan let him get worked up enough to make sure the walking was the answer.

As soon as they stood up and started walking Gavin baa'd like the good little lamb that he is.

It was then my turn to change a variable in the testing. After walking with him facing outward (to make sure it wasn't the Nana/Daddy factor) and calming him down I sat down and let Gavin work himself up to a good cry before standing up and walking with him facing inward. That worked as well so long as he was able to see the lights.

My thoughts on the light fascination with babies is that lights to babies are like over the top Christmas light displays to adults (or children). It is just so nice to look at all of the twinkly lights against the backdrop of the dark sky.

I used to love staring at the Christmas tree when I was little and let my eyes go out of focus and all of the lights grew fuzzy with halos. Now all I have to do is take off my glasses and I see the pretty fuzzy Christmas tree lights of my youth.

Losing the fuzzy Christmas lights is the only wrinkle in my plan to get laser eye surgery (one of these years). Sorry, Swell & Sheepie. As grateful as I am to have glasses that enable me to see clearly I still HATE them. The lenses fog up in the winter when you walk in doors, they get wet in the rain, a gross film on them at the beach and they are so easy to lose. How do you find your glasses when you need your glasses to see? And don't say to only put them in one spot - if I was that conscientious in the first place I would never lose them and wouldn't ask the question.

Gavin is starting to stir so I should wrap this up before he realizes he is hungry.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Normal

Gavin just had his 2 month check up. His growth and strength are all normal, in the 50th & 60th percentiles. His sleep is not normal but not abnormal either. If he's still not sleeping well at 4 months then the Dr. said we should start giving him cereal at night to keep his tiny tummy full longer which will help him sleep.

I pray to the good Lord above that we don't have to resort to that because that means I will be seriously sleep deprived for 2 more months.

There is a church nearby my office (where I am right now) playing a Angels We Have Heard On High with bells. Those are some big bells because the church is almost 2 streets away and I can hear it through a brick wall. I wonder how many bells are in the bell tower.

It's hard to believe Christmas is just a few days away. This week used to be the longest week when I was a kid. Almost every night I would have a dream that it was Christmas and I would wake up in the morning all excited just to be disappointed that it was still 5 days away only to get excited again because we were one day closer to Christmas.

Christmas dinner with my extended family was so much fun. We would open presents at home in the morning with mom then go to Grandma & Grandpa's in the afternoon for a huge feast with all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone who didn't have a place to go. My favorite foods to eat were black olives (somethings haven't changed) and fruit salad (made with whipped cream). When it was dark out the grandkids opened presents from all of the aunts and uncles and at some point in the evening we would go sit on the side walk and watch the boats with Christmas lights sail through the channel in the bay.

Now Christmases are a little more stressful. Alternating families and traveling across the great State of Washington to make sure we see everyone. This year we will go to Belfair on Saturday and drive back to Seattle on Sunday, host on Christmas Eve and go to the 'Couv on Christmas Day and back home the same day.

At least we will get to see everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Snub

I just realized I didn't put mauigirl's blog back on my site after I updated my blogger account. Sorry. It wasn't a purposeful move - I only had enough brain power to add the two then I petered out. I'll add it back soon. Promise.

I have nothing else to post about. Sure I could post about the cutest baby EVER. But that's got to get old. Although he has started to coo a bit. Now if he could just try to sleep a bit at night that would be fan-freakin'-tastic.

Ryan had baby duty on Saturday night. I had pumped so Ryan could feed Mr. Fussers when he woke up frequently demanding food. It was the first time since I got pregnant that I slept 8 hours. Glorious sleep! I could have slept another 8 hours but we ran out of pumped milk and I was going to explode - and I'm not talkin' about my bladder. Ouch. Gavin was needed for some decompression.

Because Ryan had the G-man on Saturday I was able to go to church on Sunday. It was Gavin's first day at church. Ryan slept. I spent most of the service out of the service feeding Gavin but it was still good to get my foot back in the door of the church.

Now I'm going home (I'm at my office in West Seattle as I was running errands). Maybe I'll get a few minutes of sleep. Maybe I will fold one of the 4 or 5 baskets of clean laundry in the dining room. Maybe I'll sweep up the bushels of cat and dog fur billowing around the house. Maybe I'll make dinner.

Most likely I will feed Gavin and change his diaper 3 or 4 times before Ryan gets home and watch a lot of Law and Order while Sweet Pea is happily nursing with his eyes closed.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

C.P.

Poor Gavin. He is not going to know what his name is since Ryan and I call him just about every name under the sun but his given name.

I definetly take the cake as far as variety of names are concerned. Gavin is Sweet Pea, Cutie Pie, Honey and Little Mister when he is cute and alert. Today I came up with C.P. - short for Cute & Precious.

Ryan calls him Buddy, Little Guy, Big Guy, Big Eyes, G., Gavey.

When my Sweet Pea Cutie Pie Honey Little Mister C.P. is less than adorable he becomes, Fussers, Grumpers, Dude, Little Dude and C'mon (as in C'mon already, stop crying and go to sleep please).

This morning after Ryan went to work at about 9:30 or 10 Fussers woke up. I fed him and changed him and C.P. fell asleep on my lap. Making sure he was in a deep sleep I sat on the couch with him gazing at my Sweet Pea before transitioning him into his co-sleeper so I could sleep in my bed (I would have slept on the couch but the dog yacked on the floor next to the couch and I got my sleeping bag in it - gross). I layed Little Mister down and Grumpers woke up.

To get the Dude back to sleep it took a hair dryer, space heater and mini fan with the noise and heat they create to lull him off to sleep. Each time he drifted off to dream of milk filled boobs he would wake up after 15 minutes which is just enough time for me nod off. After 3 of these attempts at sleep he finally stayed in slumber land for about 2 hours.

You think I'm kidding about the milk filled boob dreams. He nurses in his sleep. It is freakin' cute! He did it the entire time I was in the bath tub yesterday (he was in his bouncy chair next to the tub) and when I climbed out of the tub and grabbed the camera he quit. Lame. It's as elusive to the camera as is his smile.

Gavin's 2 month check up is next week. I wonder what percentile he is in as far as his growth is considered and what the doctor will have to say about his sleeping patterns.

I should probably head upstairs soon. Tonight is my night off. I've been meeting with my bible study every Thursday since I moved to Seattle 6 years ago. Now it is a place of refuge. Ryan made a comment tonight before I left that my girlfriends haven't seen Gavin in a while. Nice try! If my girlfriends want to see Gavin they can come over on a night that is not a Thursday. I don't get a day off or even a half of a day. I get 2-3 hours. That's it. It is long enough to make me miss the little guy, though.

Yep. It's time for me to return upstairs and give my C.P. a kiss since I ran down to the basement as soon as I got home effectively telling Ryan I wasn't ready to go back on duty.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Hanging in there


Just checking in here to let everyone know all is well since I haven't been Ms. Social as of late. I don't pick up the phone when it rings because I usually have Gavin physically attached to me and I can't reach the phone. I don't e-mail because as I sit on the couch I have to angle the laptop and type with one hand because I'm feeding Gavin. One handed typing at an angle on a couch while the laptop is perched precariously on the dog kennel gives me back spasms.
I have been told that soon Gavin will sleep through the night. Of course I was also told that when the baby reaches 10 pounds he will sleep better. Gavin is weighing in at over 12 pounds now. I suppose he does sleep better, closer to 3 hours than 2 hours but it is still a struggle to keep him asleep when you go for the super slow motion transfer from your lap or shoulder to the swing/cradle/co-sleeper/bouncy chair/car seat (what ever you think and pray to God he will sleep in).
As I write this it took 4 attempts to get him to go to sleep and stay asleep. I started after he was given a clean diaper and fed. He fell asleep after eating his fill of mom's super food but woke up as soon as I put him in his swing and was none to happy about not being in my arms. I held him again and lulled him off to sleep and tried the car seat. Failed. I lulled him off again and put him back in the swing. Nope. This process took 2 hours. Next thing you know he's hungry again. This time I fed him and put him in his cradle and after mild fussing he fell asleep and is still sleeping. I put the monitor on him and made my way to the basement so I could check e-mail and write this on the desktop since the laptop is having issues staying connected to the Internet.
The little guy is smiling now. OK, he's not smiling right this very second but you know what I mean. His toothless, open mouth smile is so CUTE. It's also very elusive when the camera comes out to capture it. One of these days we will have proof of the adorableness that is my son's smile.
We can't wait for him to laugh. A baby's giggle is just about the most precious thing there is. God knew what he was doing when he made them so darn cute. Even as Gavin cries we laugh at how cute he is with his bottom lip jutting out and at how perfectly he forms the 'W' when he wails. My mother-in-law was saying she has never heard a baby actually make a 'waa' sound when they cry like Gavin does.
Alright. He is starting to stir a bit. That means the clock has started. He should be awake within the hour. I have a few minutes to go eat something since I chose to sleep instead of eat dinner tonight while Ryan was able to watch him before he went to bed.
Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season.