Five Months Later...

Who knew life with a newborn could be so, um, busy?

Okay, apparently everybody but me knew that it could be that busy.

So here's what we've been up to:

We came home from the hospital. For what it's worth, breastfeeding did not go well. Due to physical shortcomings on my part, exclusive pumping was necessary. The resulted in severe frustration on both sides of the, um, "food truck" and an exacerbation of my depression symptoms. So I gave it up after a few weeks and got myself medicated once again.

Things are happy now.

My Mommy came to live with us for the first three weeks and was a TREMENDOUS help. I honestly don't think we could have done it without her. Thank you Mommy!


*BLATANT SARCASM ALERT*
Baby boy has had two sets of shots (the 2 month and 4 month) and is just SOOO good about having needles.


Here's how a typical appointment goes:

1. Get to doctor's office and check in.

2. Wait altogether too long to see doctor because he is terribly overbooked.

3. Baby boy gets restless.

4. See doctor. Doctor roughly pokes Baby boy in unmentionable places and looks in his eyes and ears (to date, light has NOT shone through one ear and out the other, this is a good thing I understand).

5. We take Baby Boy back out to waiting room to await nurse.

6. We wait altogether too long because nurse is horribly overbooked.

7. Baby boy SCREAMS

8. We get called back and Baby Boy gets stabbed - more, unbelievably louder screaming ensues.

9. We stuff Baby boy back in his clothes and run like stink to get out of there.

And a fun time is had by all.

And we get to do it again next month. Actually, at the time of this writing we get to do it in 2 weeks.

Yeah, that's right. It's been almost 6 months since my last post. I've been busy!

So, what else...

Baby boy grows steadily with every passing day. He's currently just shy of 20lbs and is somewhere around 24" long.

He eats like a horse.

He's still eating formula. We've started cereal but the progression is slow. Seems Baby Boy prefers the taste of the awful smelling formula to the sweet tasting cereal.

Oh well, we'll keep at it. There are lots of things I'm not, but stubborn isn't one of them.

His favourite toys at the moment are his bear puppet, exersaucer, jollyjumper, squeaky sensory elephant thing, and Baby Einstein "stereo" (handheld plastic device, plays seven songs and has flashing lights). - Not in any particular order.

His favourite games include staring at people, laughing at people, playing with his feet (which sometimes make it into his mouth), chewing on or licking anything he can get his hands on, and cracking Mommy up when it's time to go to bed so he can stay up longer. Little poop.

His teeth have been moving around for a month or so now, but none are poking through. Consequently he drools like a fiend and occasionally gets nice rosy cheeks and drives everyone around him crazy with crying. Teething rings and Tylenol are wonderful things. He likes the grape flavour, Life Brand.

He's had his first cold. He got over it much better and faster than Mommy and Dad did.

The poor cat has learned that the baby is not going anywhere. The two of them are learning to share toys as well as Mommy and Dad time.

At the moment, Baby Boy is trying very hard to learn to crawl. He can roll from his back to his stomach. He used to be able to roll back to his back, but has recently decided this is a useless skill. While on his stomach he pushes up on his arms, looks around, then cries because he can't figure out how to work his lower half. Poor wee bear. We try to show him the ropes, but he just doesn't get it yet.

Language acquisition appears to be right on schedule. Syllable repetition is beginning and the d- sound is emerging. B- sounds occurred with a lovely farting noise (so classy, I'm so proud), followed by something that resembled an m- sound but didn't last long. The gutturals came next. "Goo" exists, but he prefers grunts (charming sounds, really - sounds like he's trying to make us change a diaper but he's not).

Ah, my little Language Acquisition Device is growing so nicely.

We've had two major holidays: Thanksgiving and Christmas (Hallowe'en doesn't count when your kid sleeps through everything).

Actually, he slept through Thanksgiving too... And he didn't even get Turkey Coma. He just slept.

He slept through a lot of Christmas as well. He had been sleeping through the night, but that got severely messed up with the holiday hours and he hasn't gone back to it. Ah well, it was nice well it lasted.

He has received Valentine's Day greetings, not that we really celebrate the day. Sometimes we accidentally go to a movie or out for dinner, but it's not on purpose. I've got a bit of a chip on my shoulder about that particular holiday, but I promise to be good about it when my kid is big enough to celebrate it actively.

Anyhoo, that's about it for now. There's really nothing of any real importance to report at the moment. With any luck I'll get around to posting more often - don't wait forever though, desk chairs aren't as comfortable as companies like to make you think.

Ciao fer now!

-HLC