Christmas part 2

Here's the rest of the afternoon, Max opening presents!!

Christmas morning

And here's Christmas morning so far. We were up with Max early but he had to take a nap, so we haven't opened too many yet. We will post more later today.

Christmas eve

Pics from the 22nd through Christmas Eve.

santa

Here's pics from Max's first Santa visit, last week.

Strange rose

In April or May, Chris bought me two cut roses from Central Market. They were beautiful & I put them in a glass of water on the table in the kitchen dining area. One of the faded as you would expect. The other never did! The bloom stayed nice for so long that I never threw it away - it eventually dried up, but never fell off the stem. Then, I noticed some "action" going on at the end of the stem - it looked like the stem was beginning to root. Since that time, I have kept it in water & watched with amazement as new growth and then a root system appeared. This week, a bud opened & a 1/2 size replica of the original rose bloomed in our kitchen. It smells so sweet & is just as pretty, if not smaller, than the first rose.

Thanksgiving slideshow

Hey everyone, here's some pics from the last few weeks, including the Thansgiving pics.

A Lot to be Thankful for

As we sat down for dinner Thursday, Chris said that we have a lot to be thankful for. Indeed we did. We had more food than we could possibly eat in one sitting, we had Sue and later Jessica to share the welcome warmth of the house, and we had our first Thanksgiving with Max.

Today I had a moment to sit down and read a couple sections of the paper. The Austin American Statesman presented their annual "Season of Giving" recipient stories. Most times, I do not read the stories because they pain me so - families and individuals down on their luck who need assistance to get their lives back on track, much less to have a decent holiday. This year, however, I read them. Lately, I have felt like I need some time off - a break from doing stuff for anyone else other than myself. I know, when you have a kid, you pretty much sign off on never getting to think only of yourself again, but that doesn't mean you can't have a break once in a while. Today's stories though, made me realize how good I have it. Reminded me how glad I was to be able to put Max down in a nice bed with a roof over his head. Reminded me how lucky we are that when our heads finally hit the pillows, we can sleep knowing our next meal is merely in the fridge or freezer. Reminded me that though I may feel harried, and tired, and at times overwhelmed, I have a loving partner who I am so happy to share my life with (as well as the child-rearing), we have our health, and our "needs" are really only "wants" that are just icing on our proverbial cake.

So yes, we do have a lot to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving ya'all.

Halloween and beyond

Here's some pics from Max's first Halloween and other recent weeks. He had a great first Halloween. I brought him up to the office for our luncheon where he was a big hit with everyone. We sat outside at the house most of the night and had kids from all over the neighborhood come by to trick or treat. Max sat and took it all in, he never got fussy or scared of the costumes.

Max has also started eating some solids, with a minimal amount of carnage. He loves rice cereal and has had some sweet potatoes too. He's growing so fast, can't believe he's already 4 months.

sick, sick , sick

Hey everyone, in case you hadn't heard we've all been sick at one point or another over the last 3-4 weeks. Thankfully that was not the case this weekend so we finally got some pictures posted. Sorry for the delays. These are from mid-October through the end of the month.

Big Boy

A warning to those of you who are new to our blog. At our old site, I would write about whatever was on my mind & for the most part, did not take into consideration who might read it. I figured if you were reading it, you wanted to know what I was thinking about, so I wasn't going to hold back. I'm ready to start writing again, so beware........

Max had his 4 month well-check today. He is now 14.6 lbs and 25 1/2" long. He has also started to laugh, which is just music to my ears.

I sometimes wonder what he will remember as he gets older. I try to think back to the things I remember from being a young kid and don't really have that many memories that I truly know happened (as opposed to stories I've heard told that I have associated with & maintained as my memories). I remember Dr. Block digging wax out of my ears and either telling me, or me thinking it was bugs he was pulling out of my ears. I remember sneaking out of my bedroom at night in KY and sitting behind the love-seat so I could watch a little more t.v. Then there are the permanent memories - like Mom's smell - a mixture of yelllow Dial soap, Oil of Olay and Shalamar. What will I smell like to Max? What will he remember? It's like the memories are in the walls and corners of this house, just waiting for the instance to happen to make them come alive.

We've had a rough couple of weeks - granted, it's nothing compared with the hell that many new parents are faced with, but it's been difficult for us. Just as we started to get a little used to a new balance in our lives, we all caught a stomach bug (in some form or another) and that served to really throw us off kilter. After a weekend of having to do everything for Max AND keep him occupied, I really had a new appreciation for single parents. In everything we do, I ask myself if I could do it alone if I had to. Not that I would want to, but could I if I absolutely had to. This weekend, I told myself "yes", but I also found myself getting burned out. By Monday I was glad to go to work. I was tired of being sick, tired of being tired, ready to take a vacation from myself and everyone else. It's hard to admit when you feel like that because there is this sense that you have to be superwoman. And admitting that you just don't want to do it for a little while makes you feel guilty because you are admitting that you don't want to put anyone else first other than yourself - and what kind of mother feels that way? A human one for sure.

What's up?

We'll post some pictures later, but wanted to give you a glimpse at what's going in our house right now.
First, of course, it's all about Max. I think we've finally figured out a routine for the evenings & mornings which makes things go a bit smoother. Max generally wakes up between 5:45 and 6:30. Once I'm out of the shower we head downstairs and he plays on his mat until Chris comes down to feed him. We're all out the door around 7:30 - Chris takes Max to "school" and we head to our workplaces.
After work, Chris gets Max and when we all get home it's time for Max to have a small nap. After nap time it's dinner, bath @ 8:30 and then bedtime by 9 or 9:30.

Max is rolling over. We know it's only a matter of time before he really figures out he has caused himself to roll over - right now he always seems a bit surprised that he is in a different position. He is also figuring out the connection between things in his hands, and his mouth. He works very hard to try to get his pax (that's our word for pacifier) into his mouth and hasn't had much success because it keeps flipping on him, but other toys seem to cooperate a bit better. His favorite thing to chew on is still his own hand - he will make a great party trick one day when he puts his whole fist in his mouth. When he's not chewing on his fist, he likes to suck his first two fingers (just like I did as a kid).

Weeks 14-15

Here are the latest pics. Max turned 3 months old on the 5th, already a quarter year. It's gone by so fast, guess that's what happens when you live in the parent vortex. We are amazed at how much he has changed. Max is holding his head up more now, and is quite the conversationalist. He is also smiling a lot, especially when he first sees or hears one of us. He has also started day care and is doing great. He seems to adjusted to it quickly and easily.


Enjoy the pics.

KY Trip

Last week was Max's first interstate trip. He went to KY to visit Grandma and Chief and to meet his Uncle Dude and Aunt Mel and the full Deutsch family. We'll post more about the trip but here are the pictures.

Weeks 10-12

Here's some from the past few weeks.

Week 9 pics

Max celebrated his 2 month birthday this past Thursday 9/5. He also went to his 2 month well visit, current stats: 23.5 inches and 12.5 pounds and developing well. He's becoming more alert and smiling voluntarily more, which hopefully you can tell from this weeks pics. He's also discovered his reflection and will sit and talk to it for a few minutes. Aside from talking to his reflection he loves to taking to the animals on his mat. Most importantly though he talks to us and although we speak nonsense to each other we can talk with each other. Basically we make a sound, then he makes a sound and we try to mimic it so we make the same noise. He'll also mimic our sounds, or try to as much as a baby can anyway. There is a coo he does that is his way of saying hi. It almost sounds like the word hi, he makes a hard H sound and moves his tongue just enough to push the beginnings of an I sound, sort like a "haaaaaa".

Max also has a new nickname, a smoosh of the first 2 letters of his first and last names = MaFo. We had been calling him Maxo, Lomax or Mr Max, but we like MaFo too, wonder if it'll stick?

Week 8

8 weeks tommorrow.....sigh.

Trip to Port Arthur

Max took his first road trip this past weekend. We went to Port Arthur to visit "Nani" and let all our friends there come meet Max. It went very well, Max was great and didn't seem to mind the swarm of activity surrounding him.

Slide show weeks 5 and 6

Hi Everyone,

I'm sure y'all have noticed a slow down in the posts, sorry. What can I say, we are new parents, and between me going back to work and Jen being exhausted we've slacked off. Here's some pics from the past few weeks, more posting shortly.

Max's horoscope today says:

So what if you're a little fussy? It's to be expected as you cultivate a personal style, a work in progress that's soon to be spectacular.

A little fussy indeed. For the last three days, if he is not asleep, he is fussing, eating or pooping - sometimes all at once. I thought by nearly 2 months, he would be settling into a groove - or at least allowing us to settle into a groove. I suppose technically he is into a groove, it's just turned out to be more of a rut. I think this is just all a product of a 6.5 week growth spurt that will soon leave me wondering who replaced my cuddle bug of an infant with a child well on his way to toddler.

I don't think I'd be cut out to be a stay at home mom. Don't get me wrong, it's really nice to be needed, and to be "The Mom" who will always be the one to "make it all better", but woo, what responsibility. I feel torn between wanting Max to wake up so we can interact (and so he'll hopefully sleep well tonight), and wanting him to fall asleep so I can get a break and take a shower or a nap, or just tick something off of the to-do list I've got working. Unfortunately when I do get that small break, I feel too lazy to do anything worthwhile.

update

Well, looks like we haven't been here in a while. I guess we've just been trying to settle in - amazing how long that takes. Just when you think you have things figured out, Max goes through a growth spurt, or does something new and you have to start all over again. Here's what the little guy has been up to:

• He's becoming quite an early bird. This morning he was WIDE AWAKE and flailing his arms and legs around in his crib (after having managed to kick off his blanket) somewhere in the early 6:00 hour. I, mind you, was not so wide awake, hence my inability to tell you precisely when he awoke. After feeding him and changing him it was evident he was not going to go back to sleep, so here I am. He is now laying on his play mat listening to Mozart and batting at the toys hanging down.
• His eye lashes and eyebrows are starting to get a little darker. His eyelashes are really long!
• He has started to get this little breathy laugh, a really cute smile, and an "ooo" sound. Most often they are the pre-curser to his spitting up, but it's fun while it lasts.
• He and I ventured out on our own yesterday. I had a hair appointment and wanted to show him off to Rick. It actually worked out really well - he slept the whole time Rick was doing my hair & only started to get fussy about 3 miles away from home.
• He has started to interact with the toys on his play mat a bit more. When we turn the music on he really gets active bats things around and "talks" to them. He's only good on there for about 20 minutes though before he's ready for something else.

Happy Birthday Max

Today is Max's one month birthday. Hard to believe a month has already gone by! We had a good day. We packed up the dogs and the stroller and went for a walk in the near-by park. Max also got a bath today (which was recorded using our new video recorder), and he and I took a nap - not a bad way to spend the day!
Other notables:

• Max has slept in his crib in his room for 4 nights in a row and last night, he only woke up twice instead of 3 times.
• We think he has hit a bit of a growth spurt. We noticed today that the Gerber 0-3 month onesies are starting to get a bit short on him. His torso is so long - justs like Daddy.
• He's about 10lbs and 22" long.

28 Days Later

Max past the 28 day mark yesterday. Here he poses to show us that he's already a cool kid.

Milestone

Max slept in his crib last night - in his room all by himself. It was probably harder on me than it was on him, but we both managed to get sleep so i can't complain. Now if he would just take a nap so I can take a shower.......

Max-isms

Max makes funny sounds. Here is a list of the most heard sounds in our house now (this is kind of an expansion on one of Chris's earlier posts):

• Grunts - specifically, grunting while he is feeding as though he is enjoying the most delicious smorgasboard ever known to man.
• Squeaks - if you move him and he doesn't really want to move, but doesn't feel like protesting too much, he will make a grunty-squeaking sound.
• Farts - really loud farts - most often louder than those emitted by the other human or canine inhabitants of the household. Today, he let one loud enough for Scully to look up and over at him (and she's usually the main offender).
• Crying - of course, he's a baby, he's going to cry. Most times they are benign protests indicating that he is hungry, or needs to have his diaper changed, or that he doesn't want to be burped or needs to be burped. Sometimes he can really get worked up and wail an ear piercing cry that could wake the dead. When he emits tears along with the crying, it's particularly heart breaking.

Other Max-isms that aren't really sounds but that are particularly amusing:

• Arm waving - I swear if he had feathers and could get his other arm to work in conjunction, he would take flight.
• Head weaving - when he thinks he's hungry, but really just wants to play around, he will weave his head from side to side with his mouth wide open and kind of make an "ah ah" sound. This is particularly most amusing at 4am.
• Kicking - This boy could give Beckam a run for his money - he's got a power forward kind of kick that feels particularly good on the gut.
• Combo - this is a combination of all three. Again, particularly amusing at 4am.

Max Week 3

Here's the slideshow of Week 3 pics.

Inventions

So, in trying to manage life with an infant, I've come up with some inventions that would be pretty handy. These are just a couple - I've got more but have to try to remember them! If anyone decides to capitalize on any of these, please make sure I get a cut.

Roomba Rumbler - This is an infant safety seat attached to a roomba vacuum cleaner. Particularly helpful for colicky babies, you can strap them into the seat and the vibration and sound of the Roomba will help to calm them.

Burp cloth holder - attach one side of velcro to your shirt (or nursing bra strap, or belt/apron) and the other side of velcro to a burp cloth. That way you can just attach the cloth to your clothes rather than set it down each time you go to change diapers. Keeps you from having to get up and search for it when you need it most. Also keeps the burp cloth from falling onto baby when you lay him down.

Mommy apron - similar to a tool belt - keeps all your necessities handy. Will hold the tv remote, cell phone, cordless phone, burp cloth (see idea above) so you don't have to try to reach for any of them while you are nursing. Also keeps them handy so you don't set them down and have to search for them later.

faves of week 3

Some of our faves from week 3, slideshow will be posted over the weekend.

plus 21

It's hard to believe Max is already 3 weeks. He has changed so much in that time and continues to change daily. He is becoming more alert, when we put him on his play pad he has started reaching for items himself. He is also holding his head up more and more on his own and for longer periods of time. He'll be holding it up on his own before long.

He is also becoming more expressive. One of them is the furrowed brow. It's similar to the look I have when I'm pondering something. Max already does this and I hope it is only because of gas.

There are many things to learn as a new parent. Though they lack language, babies are adept at letting you know their thoughts and needs. Within a few days you learn the cues. Of course the big cues are the cries and there is a discernible difference between say the I'm hungry NOW cry and the I'm taking a dump that could choke a grown man cry variety. Max's hunger cry consists of a loud wale where he opens his mouth wide and immediately closes into the tight frown of an old man who is bitter with the world. The working one out cries are really just like the ones grown ups have, we've only learned how to mask all sorts of discomfort better.

Max is also noisy. He grunts, groans, moans and coos. He hacks like Bill the Cat. You learn what these mean quickly. He moans when he's feeding to let us know he's happy and like the milk. He grunts when he's trying to do something, like hold his head up of reach for something. He hacks and grunts all the time. Seems like he will be an expressive child. The other night he was screeching like Axl Rose in the " you're gonna dddddddddiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!" breakdown of Welcome to the Jungle. Good thing rock singer/musician is on the list of approved future endeavors.

Max's Second Week

We survived week 2. Max is wonderful. These are mostly shots from around the house.

Max's First Week

Here's a slide show of Max's first week on the planet.

Max thowring a tantrum. Can't you almost hear him?

Thoughts on the week

Hard to believe Max is already 16 days old. We managed to survive our first week without extra helpers around, got sleep a couple of nights at least, I got the breast pump to work correctly, and Max gained some weight (he's now 9lb 7oz). All in all, I'd say it was a successful week (*knock on wood).

I've always been able to envision bad things that could potentially happen. For example, when I'm using a box cutter to open a package, even though I'm being careful, I can still envision the cutter or my hand slipping and me slicing my finger open. Thank goodness it hasn't happened, but I still see it in my mind. I'm now like that with almost everything I do with Max and I can't tell if I'm bordering on neurotic, or just being cautious to make sure my "vision" doesn't really happen. Placing him in his baby bjorn carrier and bending over to get the laundry out of the dryer, I envision a strap breaking and him crashing into the dryer - so I keep an extra hand on it just in case. Walking down the stairs with him I'm terrified I'm going to miss a step or slip and go tumbling down and won't be able to keep from squashing him. I'm going to be a wreck when he gets older and starts climbing things like Chris did as a kid.

Max has changed so much in the last week or so, it's amazing how fast it all happens. He has started trying to hold his head up, on his play mat he actually hit a couple of the toys with his fist this morning, and his umbilical chord stump fell off in the wee hours of the morning. I find myself torn -wanting this period to last forever - while he lets me know when he is frustrated or unhappy, he can't talk back, he can't run away, and he's completely dependent upon us - which is a nice feeling. On the other hand, I can't wait until he starts to interact with us a little more!

Life before Max

For anyone interested, you can visit our old blog site at http://jcfoery.spaces.live.com/

That gives you a little info about our lives before Max and the months leading up to his arrival.

Thoughts on pregnancy, labor, birth

So, as I was preparing for childbirth, I learned a lot about stuff that happens during the whole process - stuff they never tell you about in sex ed, or in conversations with other moms. I'll save you the gory details, but suffice it to say that there are just a lot of uncomfortable things that go on that really seem like they will be a lot worse than they are, but that if you knew them upfront you may well never want to have a child.

One thing I always did hear was that all modesty goes out the window when you get pregnant and have a child. Boy, does it ever. Never in your life has your gynecological status been such a topic of conversation. When in the hospital and in labor, you are exposed for anyone in the room to see. Granted, the doctors and nurses have to see what's happening down there, and you can't see what's going on so it ends up being "out of sight, out of mind", but you are still keenly aware that you are naked and vulnerable and positioned in a very un-ladylike manner.

After the birth, you are placed in a teeny tiny room that barely has room for your bed, much less a couple of chairs and visitors. There are nurses and doctors coming in every few hours to take your vitals and check your uterus and ask you if you are passing gas (at least that's what they ask you after a c-section). Then, once you begin to adjust to all that activity, they send in the lactation consultant.

Ah, the lactation consultant. First, it's just kind of a creepy profession. Think about it, someone who goes around from room to room in the mother/infant area and shows a new mother how to nurse her child. That's a lot of breasts.

So, our lactation consultant arrived on day 4. I was trying to nurse Max and he was latching on, but I didn't have much nurishment to give him and was feeling like an overwhelmed and empty fire hydrant. My mother, Chris's mother and Chris were in the room and this somewhat creepy fairy-godmother ish, rotund woman comes in to observe how my son was nursing. She tries giving helpful little hints and tips and then shows me how to express milk. First, she brings out this little stress ball that was covered in a two-tone crocheted cover meant to resemble a breast and nipple. She uses the model to show me where to pinch and massage then asks, "may I?". She then proceeds to do the same thing to my breast. I look at Chris and he is mortified.

She leaves the room to retrieve the breast pump - aka modern day torture device. Keep in mind the moms are still in the room. She brings in this machine, shows me how to position the suckers on my breasts, turns it on and tells me she can't stay for the whole session. She leaves me there - both hands holding the sucking devices, completely exposed from the waist up and somewhat freaked out. To add insult to injury, because my hands were full I could not reach the button to turn the pump off after the requisite 15 minutes, so Chris's mom had to come over to turn it off for me.

At the end of the day, Chris remarked that that day would have been a good one to stay home if you had a penis.

home with max

We have been home for a week now. Max is settling into his schedule and routine. We are fitting in with his as well. Here are a few pictures from the last few days.