lulla bye-bye, hello rock n' roll

After a few weeks of trying to soothe Liam with the lullaby music that is emitted from his swing, pack n' play and papasan chair, I have come to the conclusion that he doesn't much care for it. I thought about it for a while and it makes sense. When he was in the womb, he was exposed to my spin classes 4-6 times a week; he was bombarded with Kelly Clarkson, REM, Justin Timberlake and Jamiroquai. (I have only made 20 spin cds and I confess to using a few more than than the others). So, now, instead of playing lullaby music to help him fall asleep, I hold him close to me, either in my arms or in the moby, and I dance with him while playing one of my spin cds (The picture was taken by me after a dance session). He seems to enjoy the movement and the music much more than a swing or a vibrating chair. Unfortunately, he doesn't fall asleep instantly and we generally have to go through a whole 45 minute routine before he will close his eyes. Whether he sleeps or not, it does tend to stop the crying, which has grown in the past few days. Can we say colic??

Where's Waldo?

Can you find Liam in this picture? This reminded me of the Where's Waldo books so I had to take a picture. It also kind of looks like he's doing a blue-screen scene for a movie where he falls off of something.

I can't tell if Liam is particularly cranky at bed time, or whether we just have less patience then because we want to sleep. I think its a little of both actually. Somehow, bed time has become a multi-hour ordeal involving every soothing tactic we know about and lots of good old-fashioned trickery (don't worry Liam, we won't put you in the bassinet, you can just sleep here in that awkward position in my arms... and then the slow sneaking over to the bassinet while trying not to wake him up).

We watched an episode of Supper Nanny tonight. As difficult as this has been sometimes with Liam, at least we don't also have to deal with a house full of kids who are out of control. Its the kind of show that tends to make you feel better about your own situation.

Getting A Head

At Liam's 2 week visit to the doctor, I pointed out that while he does sleep on his back (a SID prevention must), he always turns his head to the left. The doctor suggested that we put a wedge under the left side of his head so that he doesn't get a mis-shaped head. Not wanting to be a mother that admitted to not knowing what a "wedge" was, I nodded my head in agreement and smiled.

I told this wedge story to Steve's mom, who promptly found a hat with a pillow on the side for Liam at a nearby baby store. The hat is pictured and can be placed anywhere on Liam's head to prevent him from moving one direction or another. Betty and I both agreed that this might solve the misshapened head problem, but might somehow be a danger for him in the crib. So far, his head (while a little large for his body) looks just fine to us, and we will worry about the lopsided look problem later.

First Family Photo

We finally got around a taking a photo with all three of us in it. This was facilitated by a visit from my mom combined with a sleeping Liam in his fancy vibrating chair. Everyone tells us to get photos with us in them, and not just the baby, or we'll regret it. Given our often sleepy / groggy appearance recently, its rare for us to both be willing to be in a picture at the same time :)

I've been back in the office this week and one side-effect has been a lack of blogging over the past two days. Being away from home during the day tends to compress our time in the evening for things like uploading photos and blogging. My coworkers got Liam some very nice new books, slippers and a boo-boo bunny (a re-usable ice cube in a soft bunny outfit).

Meanwhile, Annika and I are continuing to dine off the kindness of others in the form of quiche, stuffed fish, chicken and potatoes. By the way, a left-over baked potato makes a great 1 am snack.

Monitors

My parents came over tonight and made us a delicious dinner and brought us a slew of baby monitors to test out. We ended up keeping a cool wireless video monitor with a hand-held monitor that we can carry around and infrared night-vision for dark rooms. The video monitor also has an audio component so it can be used for both duties. We also kept an audio intercom system that my parents used when I was a baby - they still work better than the brand-new intercom they got from Radio Shack (which is where they got the originals 30 years ago)! So now we will feel a bit better when I return to work and Annika is left here alone with Liam. Now we can also use the intercom to talk to each other between basement and top floor without yelling which is convenient in general. Can you tell I like gadgets?

Dressing Liam

When I was pregnant and shopping for baby items, one of the things that always caught my eye were all the adorable baby clothes. I couldn't wait to meet my little guy and dress him up. I figured I would change his outfit a few times a day just because it would be fun. Turns out, that we do change him a few times a day, but it is out of necessity and not out of desire. A note to all mothers to be: babies are not barbie dolls. They have big heads that don't like to fit through neck holes. They have arms that you can't just bend in any direction. They squirm and thrash all around while you are changing them. And probably most important to note: they scream if you take too long (bet your barbie never did that).
As a result, Steve and I have taken to outfits that zip or snap up--no over-the-head move required. Luckily, his Grandma Betty has given us many of these "easy" outfits. One day, I did decide to try to dress him up and take a picture. This picture shows that even when you put him in something cute, he still might not end up with that barbie doll perfection.
Even though he is not without his faults, having him is way better and more fun than having a doll. I am really looking forward to watching him grow.

Everyday Magic

Liam got a bunch of new clothes and toys from Annika's friend Mariel today. In the photo, he's sitting in a new chair that vibrates, plays music and has a mirror and toy above for Liam to look at. We put him in the chair tonight for some of his "activity" time - which basically consists of sitting and looking around at the lights in the room. Everything is new to him so he must be trying to figure it all out. Its interesting that, at this age and for a while yet, kids aren't impressed by "magic" tricks because they don't know how things are supposed to be, so they aren't surprised when they don't behave that way (OK, there's a coin behind my ear, so what? Maybe that's just where coins come from).

The fact that it is a weekend has seemed strangely irrelevant to us. Today was exactly like every other day these past couple weeks. Night certainly feels different from day still, but time of day has become largely irrelevant too. It'll be very strange to go back to work on Monday and not be home with this routine, and yet know that its still churning along here without me. The converse is true also, it seems odd that, for most people, these last two weeks have been like most others and nothing special happened for them. It definitely gives me a different perspective on life.