THREE WEEKS OLD!

And life for Ed Jr. is pretty sweet. He goes for walks, sleeps and eats. His grandma Shelia and his parents hold him just about 24 hours a day.

He is "supposed" to go 4 hours between feedings in the middle of the night - but he doesn't know the difference between day and night.

He is also growing as fast as the dandelions in my flower bed. Today to celebrate his 3 week birthday, I put him in the outfit he wore home from the hospital.

It is a little short in the legs. So the kid has some flood pants on today, doesn't make us bad parents, does it?

Happy Mothers Day - Belated

Sorry this is one day late, but a day late is better than nothing - or better than the invisible flowers and invisible card I got for my mom and better than the invisible chocolates I got my step mom. Ed got his mom the same. Oopsie.

What did I get for my first mother's day? The best present I could think of. One day free of diaper duty. Ha ha - I said duty. Ed and Grandma changed diapers all day - it was magical.

Oh and a bonus for those of you that claim that Ed Jr. looks a little like me. Behold. Ed Sr.



Ed Jr.



I guess we named him appropriately.

Head

Ed Jr has a big old noggin. This should come as no surprise to any of you who are acquainted with his parents. His mom has a large head and his dad. . . well, when he was a child, was nicknamed Head by his brothers because of he was a skinny little guy with a big head. Well, that name stuck and his brothers still call him Head or "H" for short.

Today the Dr. told us that he is in the 90th percentile for length, 95th percentile for head circumference and somewhere in the 70th percentile for weight. In other words, he is a tall skinny kid with a big head.

Head Jr.?

Anyway, I shot this video last night when trying to get Ed Jr. to hit the hay. Sorry about the poor image quality, but I didn't want to turn on the overhead lights, so we were working with lamp light. Turn up the sound so you can hear his hiccups.



How hilarious is that hat? Elf or Russian Prince?

Happy Camper

Ed Jr. is almost two weeks old. Two amazing weeks if you ask me.

It hasn't been all fun and games though, yesterday he got circumcised. He was pretty pissed about the whole thing and to make up for it, nursed for almost straight hour in Dr.'s office and in the truck in the parking lot of the Dr.'s office. They said that we could stay in the exam room and nurse him as long as we needed, but it was about 5:00 PM and I am sure they wanted to go home, so we hauled a screaming kid through the halls and finished up in the truck. He then slept through Bed Bath and Beyond and Costco.

Today was much much much better. Ed Jr. is very busy perfecting the art of sleepnursing. He would like to think that he invented it. It works like this. Start nursing, fall asleep, nurse while sleeping, wake up slightly, nurse, fall back asleep, get angry when removed from the breast, return to nursing, sleep, nurse, sleep, nurse. Nanna calls it camping out. If he is camping out, he is one happy camper. And other than taking up his mom's ENTIRE day with this sleepnursing, it seems to be working, he gained almost a whole pound (15 oz to be exact) in one week.

The other thing that Ed Jr. is very good at is tearing ass. Twice he has pooped with such force, poop has cleared the edge of his changing table and made it at least 3 feet vertical distance. The last such time, he pooped on his mom's leg as she was standing in the doorway to his nursery. Not just a little bit either.

I thought you all would enjoy a little Ed Jr. live. Warning - gratuitous spit up scene in the end. Out of the three takes, he spit up each time. I am going to try not to take it as "get the camera out of my face mom!".



You were warned.

I also thought that you would enjoy the many faces of Ed Jr. While he is awake, he is pretty happy until he wants to return to sleepnursing, then he gets pretty salty.

One Week

Ed Jr. is a little over one week old. He is completely amazing. He had a couple of bad nights, but also a couple of great nights. His Nanna was here all week, which pleased him greatly, and allowed his daddy to obsess about the yard. She left today, which made Ed Jr. and his mom quite sad, but no worries, his Grandma Shelia is on her way and his Strega Nona is only a few blocks away.



I have updated the Flicker photos and placed a permanant link on the right.

I would write more if I wasn't super tired. When he sleeps, I am supposed to sleep. Right.

He's Home

Ed Jr. was born April 23, 2008. He weighed in at 8 lbs 4.75 oz and was 22 inches long. His birth was pretty amazing. More on that later.

The sad part was that he wasn't breathing very well after he was born. He was also born with a fever and had to spend 3 days in NCIU. It was the longest three days of our lives. He had to hang out under an oxygen hood, be hooked up to machines and IVs.

The GOOD NEWS is that he made it out of NICU on Saturday afternoon and is now at home doing very very very well. He is lovely and enchanting.

Here are some photos. Keep checking back, we will keep adding them as they come along.

sNOw baby

April 20, 2008
Friday night I had eggplant parmesan. It was amazingly delicious. No baby.

The full moon is here - or it was at 4:25 AM. No baby.

The snow came. No baby.


His grandmother - er - I mean his Nanna came. No baby.

Jenkin's shower was yesterday. No baby.

I am not going to lie and say that this isn't a little frustrating. It is wearing on me and finally is getting to his father. Tomorrow we go in to see the midwife and get the non stress test and the biophysical profile to see if he can hang in there for one more week.

Upcoming events. Earth Day - April 22nd. Uncle Ian's birthday - April 25th.

Earth Baby

We all know Ed Jr. is late. Yesterday Karen suggested that he might be born on Earth Day, April 22nd, which would be so very cool.

Ed Jr. will be raised with a respect for the environment because his parents are tree hugging hippies who very much believe that global warming is real, and do their best to turn off the lights when they are not in the room in an effort not to make Al Gore cry. We recycle and walk as much as possible - oh and try to reuse. We could get better about this, although, I am still anti cutting up Ed's old t-shirts to use as cloth napkins. Lord only knows what those sorry things have been through. I prefer to cut them up to use to clean the dogs and floors.

Bridget

April 16, 2008. Went to see our favorite acupuncturist Bridget. She can use acupuncture to induce labor. It was a lovely session, but still no baby. I guess Ed Jr.'s will is stronger than her needles. Actually for several hours after the session, I experienced "practice" contractions and was super wiped out - with a touch of uncontrollable emotions. I sat around waiting for them to get stronger and regular, but needed to get a movin'. So after dinner we went for a walk, and the practice contractions were gone. I had a hard time falling asleep, but was able to sleep through the night - for the most part.

Normally I would have waited to go see her until closer to the big date, but she is leaving for four months to be an acupuncturist on a Royal Caribbean Cruise ship in the Mediterranean. Can't fault her for that! She told me of all of the places she was going to be, they sound amazing!

Bridget has cured Ed's and my aches and pains over the last few years and we have grown to be quite fond of her. I told her that when she gets back, I would bring Ed Jr. in to meet her.

One of the most valuable things that she gave me during my session yesterday was to remind me that birth is totally natural and that I am strong and healthy and will have no problem pushing this kid out. These are things I know, but hearing them again doesn't hurt. Besides, she said it to me while she was rubbing my oh so swollen legs. I think she could have told me that pigs were flying about in a purple sky and as long as she was rubbing my legs - I would have believed her.

There are so many interesting ways to induce labor out there, I won't get in to it here, but if you are interested, Click Here for one of MILLIONS of articles. There is every suggestion in the universe out there. I obviously have the suggestions I prefer. Although our midwife told us to stay away from Black and Blue Cohosh. She also wants us to wait for Monday to try the Castor Oil. With all of this helpful internet advice - I think the best thing to do is to TRY to be patient and wait this little dude out. I mean, he can't stay in there forever - right?

Also, we shouldn't be shocked that he is overdue. I was born late - very late. My bro was on time - and apparently shot out like a greased pig, but not so much with me.

Oh and if I don't answer my phone as of late it is because it is ringing off the hook and frankly I am tired of talking about it. Sorry. You will just have to wait until he is on his way out, we will send you a message letting you know. All of you are very important to us, but seriously, last night alone I had 7 messages wondering "how I am feeling". I was tired and didn't want to chat on the phone. And no, no baby yet.

Rock Him Out

This has come up a couple of times. I think the theory comes from hostage situations, the cops are poised outside of the bank, they blast terrible music at the criminal trying to break them down. Ed Jr. set us free!

The first time his auntie Jess suggested that I blast the doobie bros at my uterus to get him to freak out and come out. I told her that I was too terrified of accidentally raising a doobie fan that I couldn't dream of doing that.

The second one was a nosey co-worker, suggested that I blast rap to scare him out. I told him that I found country music much more assaulting to the senses, and thanked him for the advice.

The best one came from Fash who suggested that I blast the Grateful Dead at him and if he is anything like his father, he will elbow dance his way out. Fash also suggested jumping jacks. So there is some perspective on that.

I am currently playing him some Modest Mouse (one of his momma's favorites) to sweetly lure him out. Ed Jr.: "What are those rockin tunes? I must find out. Let me out here so I can live in a world with such awesome sounds!"