Out for a Stroll

We took Liam on his first stroller ride today for a couple of miles on our path system. Although it drizzled a little at times, it was a really pleasant walk and Liam slept most of the way. We kept him warm and toasty with a couple layers of clothes and a really nice stroller blanket from my cousin Mary. He was also introduced to a few of our friendly neighbors who have been really supportive. The stroller was given to us by my grandmother and is really neat. Its light-weight and folds and expands without having to go through the process required by most other strollers to do so (push this button with your right hand while pulling this lever with your left and stepping on this level with one foot... now bend to the ground and tie it off with your teeth). Instead, you simply pull on a handle in the seat to fold it up, and lift it off the ground to allow it to expand.

Makoto was well behaved on the walk - although he still doesn't like people with basketballs. I think he's in for a rude awakening when Liam starts bouncing balls around the house! Overall, Makoto is still very curious about Liam and Yuki is still very cautious. We'd like to keep it that way for a while longer until Liam is able to push the cat off if he decides to sleep too close. For now, we just keep the two separate.

Methinks this couch is a wee bit too big for Liam. However, he is getting bigger and bigger. He's almost too big for his newborn "union suits" (one-piece outfits that have feet).

Relativity

How long does 25 minutes seem? Really short if its your lunch break. Really long if you're trying to continually make shushing noise while hunched over a crib. Its all relative.

Speaking of relative, we had a few over today for a visit. My parents and grandmom (now a great-grandmom) and Annika's dad and aunt come over today to see Liam. Liam was on his best behavior throughout the visit and was either quietly sleeping, or happily nursing almost the entire time. And, characteristically, he started crying sometime between when they left the house and all got into their car to pull out of our driveway :) He's been generally very good today though so I don't complain, its just funny how impeccable his timing is.

Although I intended to take pictures of the visitors with us, I have none. Annika's family just popped in for a very quick visit but my family brought lunch and stayed for a while. Our lunch was facilitated by the great swing our neighbor gave to us. That swing has enabled a few meals now and we appreciate having it - thanks Jen!

Sometimes I'm more tired than I realize. Yesterday, we went to Great Beginnings to pick up a couple things and Annika came and stayed with Liam in the car. She was hankering to get out of the house for a bit and this worked out well. When I came back out of the store, I told her that I ran into a couple people in the store. She asked who I had seen in there that I knew and I said "No, I literally ran into two people by accident."

Bedtime for Baby

A couple nights ago, we started a bedtime ritual for Liam. To get a sense of how its going, the first night, the sequence started at 8pm and he finally went to sleep at 5am. The time in between was spent in shifts failing to console Liam between sporadic naps. Liam put us through our paces by only sleeping while we rocked/swung/patted him. The moby was one of the few techniques that worked to temporarily calm him (thanks again Nate and Kris). If I weren't busy during those times, I'd video tape them to scare soon-to-be parents and make the experienced parents happy those nights are over. I should at least get an audio recording of it and then use that to wake Liam up for school in a few years :)

Last night and tonight have gone much better. As I write this at 11:30, Liam hasn't really cried for about three and a half hours :) Of course, there was a little crying during his outfit change, but hey, its as good as it gets! Of course, the night is still young and we'll see how it goes in the wee hours of the morning (that phrase now has more than one meaning for me).

Liam is quickly growing physically and mentally. He's 22 inches already (grew one inch in one week) and is really starting to look around and react more to his environment - especially to faces that are close enough for him to focus on. Even though he's only three weeks old, he's changed a lot since those first few days... at least in our (biased) eyes.

We struggled to watch Atonement tonight. Note to soon-to-be parents: watch any complicated movies you want NOW because you won't be able to follow the plot once you have a baby. The multiple interruptions and intermittent baby cries left us wondering what that movie was about.

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.