Changing Sofian

One of the questions we were asked most in the run-up to Sofian's arrival was how we were going to be dealing with diapers. And when we told folks that we were going the cloth route, the prevailing opinion was good luck... you'll change your mind in a month or two. When we further added we weren't going with a diaper service but were planning on buying the diapers and washing them ourselves, most people thought we were crazy.

Well, not everyone. Our friends Ward and Sue out in NYC went the cloth route with their daughter Netty, and Sue was very excited to have someone so excited in following their footsteps. We used the strategy that she outlined as our basis, but changed up a little. For one thing, there have been some advances in the cloth diaper scene since Sue and Ward made their investment. Rather than go with the two-step diaper system (large cloth diaper wrapped with a waterproof cover), we went with what's referred to as a pocket diaper. It features an soft lining attached to a goretex-like cover, but it has a hollow pocket that can be stuffed with an a absorbent cloth. There are loads of these on the market right now -- from Happy Heinys to Fuzzy Bunz to Swaddlebees. But the problem we found with these is that we'd have to make an investment of about 18 diapers in a small size, and then have to make another investment down the road once Sofian had grown out of those.

The BumGenius line offers a one-size-fits-all model (where you can adjust the size via a series of snaps), and after trying an initial shipment of those out on Sofian, we've decided that's the way we'll be going. I'll be ordering some more to round out our set, and once we have those we'll be full-on with the cloth diapers (with washings about every other day). When out and about, however, we're still tending toward the disposables (unless we know it's a quick trip -- still haven't gotten down a system for storing soiled BumGeniuses out on the road).

So here's a view into a constant activity in our lives these days -- changing nappies. For the fainthearted, there are some quick scenes of poop and a bit of nudity (though I try to cover it up with my finger).

Changing Sofian
Uploaded by bornflippy

PS: I'm using a new video upload site, DailyMotion, for this video as it was just a few megabytes larger than YouTube would allow. This shouldn't affect loading of the video, but I might switch over to using it full time after some more testing -- and that would be the repository of uploaded videos going forward.

Papa and Sofian's First Big Game

Yesterday, we headed out to Alki Beach for a lunch of fish & chips at the Celtic Swell, our local Irish pub. It also so happened that my favorite football (aka, soccer) team was playing -- Chelsea v Liverpool in a Champions League Game. Unfortunately, Sofian is still too small for the Chelsea replica strip that I bought him last summer (before I even knew he was a he -- it would have fit a daughter just as well). So I loaded him up in his pram with another Chelsea memento I bought -- a little gray teddy bear with a blue Chelsea jumper. We caught a good amount of the second half, and Sofian was pleased as punch with the 1-nil Chelsea win over Liverpool. Next Tuesday, on their second leg game, we might stay for longer (and give Mama a break to do something else).

Here we are headed to the game:



And at the pub:



And after an exhausting match day, back home for a nap:

First Bottle

Sofian successfully took to the bottle today for the first time. Well, mostly. He was in pretty bad gastric distress this afternoon, which may have clouded the results of the test a bit. Still, he did take 2 ounces from the 4-ounce bottle. We'll be experimenting more in the coming days.

This Is What It's Come To

Sleep deprivation makes you do funny things. Here I am getting the last bits of caffeinated nectar from the French press pot.





After a pretty benign day yesterday, we had a not so terrific night last night. Sofian had a projectile spit-up directed right at Mom while she was burping him after a feeding around 2am, and he was pretty alert after that happened. So I did some bouncing with him and caught up on my episodes of 30 Rock (which has turned into a damn funny show). I got to sleep in a bit this morning, but both Parie and I were feeling a little punch drunk through the day. And Sofian has continued to have gastric distress that erupts in occasional screaming fits (though right now he's on my chest as I type this out). We're looking forward to the end of the fourth trimester. Until then, we'll just remind ourselves that he's pretty cute.

01/20/2009

We've started to add some bling to Sofian's hooptie with pins we've been collecting. On the right is the Death Cake Royale pin from Cupcake Royale, and in the center is a pin from our friend Keri reminding us of the day we'll all be celebrating with fervor -- the day of the innauguration of our next President and the end of the BushCo era.

Outing to Lincoln Park

It was a beautiful day here in Seattle, so we headed out to our favorite walking spot -- Lincoln Park.



And here we are sitting at our favorite bench -- the Bang Bench!

Once More Into The StimGym Breach

Don't worry -- we're gonna keep flogging this.







And here he is having some tummy time, checking himself out in a mirror.

Another Trip to the StimGym

Here's Sofian wearing his Holland training colors while working on his goalkeeper skills in the StimGym.

A Big Thanks to Steve-O and Milkbomb

We got a package this last weekend from Steve O'Neil, proprietor of Milkbomb kidswear, and Meg (his partner) and Sam (his son, who's featured as a model on the Milkbomb site -- here's a pic of Meg and Sam and one of Dad teaching Sam how to be a swinger). Sofian got a Live Free or Cry onesie (which is very apropos at this point in time), and I was inducted into the Buttwiper club.





And here's Sofian, crying for freedom:

10 pounds, 12 ounces

Parie and Sofian went to see Dr. Guerra yesterday, and Doc G prescribed some baby Zantac for the acid reflux that we've seen going on. Hopefully that will help with his discomfort (which morphs into screaming).

But even bigger news is how big our son is getting -- he weighed 10 pounds, 12 ounces. That's almost 3.5 pounds larger than he was when he was delivered just over 4 weeks ago. He's earned his nickname of Superchunk.

Positive Progression in Minneapolis

We got to the hospital a little while ago and found Harry to be much more alert than yesterday as well as much more vocal. Jeff and Judy went in to check on him first, and then I visited him for about 10 minutes. I showed him a few pictures of Sofian, which he was able to hold in his hand and hold up to his eyes on his own. And we even had a short, occasionally halting discussion about family dynasty (he was happy and amazed to be a part of it) and how he'd always tried to uphold high standards of honesty and integrity. I told him I would try to emulate his example to my own son as best I could, as well as thanked him for helping to change the course of my own life.

I'll be heading home at the end of the afternoon and will be rejoining Parie and Sofian around 9pm Seattle time. I've gotten two full nights of sleep while I've been here, so I'll be in good shape to give Parie a bit of a break (as much as we can, since Sofian is breastfeeding -- and I'm not going to be much help in that).

Unexpected Travel

Earlier in the week, my grandfather (Harry J. Schmitz) fell and broke his ankle as well as hit his head pretty hard. We all thought the worst of it was going to be the ankle and the weeks of recovery for that away from home. But it seems he hit his noggin harder than we thought, and maybe something else. He was readmitted to the intensive care unit today after a dive in his blood pressure during dialysis treatment. He's been given some fluids to help him get in better shape for this needed dialysis, and we need his blood pressure not to dive when they perform it. Fingers are crossed.

I'm on the red-eye to Minneapolis tonight and will be getting in at 6am. It was very hard to leave Parie and Sofian, but I was comforted by the support that Parie gave me in helping me to make the decision to make this last-minute trip. Sofian seems to be doing better -- the gassy pains seem to be shorter in length and he seems to be settling into a more even temperment (i.e., less screaming).

[UPDATE] Things have improved greatly since I got here yesterday morning. The first positive news I received was that Harry had made it through my night of travel and had been able to receive dialysis treatment. He was pretty out of it yesterday, with a tube run through his nose draining blood from his stomach. They took that out last night, and when we came in this morning he was far more alert and was actually able to talk to us a little bit. My Uncle Jeff, Aunt Judy and I will be hanging out here at the hospital ICU waiting room through the day and rotating into his room from time to time. Luckily the hospital has a Wi-Fi connection for guests, so I'll be able to check in from time to time.

On the home front, just checked with Parie and it sounds like Sofian had a pretty good night of sleep... after a day full of screaming. Parie took him for a long drive last night to quiet him down, and it sounds like the gas bubble that had been bothering him yesterday has been dealt with this morning.

Mouse Update: Success!!!!!

Parie went out to the kitchen this morning and the cats seemed very excited/agitated. After feeding them (one handed, with a baby in one arm), she noticed them circling something in the living room. It turned out it was one of the sticky box traps we set around the dishwasher, with one live and very scared and very stuck mouse inside of it. We bid him adieu and now can move on with our lives (and return all the cookbooks to the bookcase).

[UPDATE] Here are a couple of pics of the blockade we created around the dishwasher. If only we'd fashioned the surround around the dishwasher after we had it installed last December, this wouldn't have happened. Oh well. I'm sure we'll get to that project soon.

Anyhoo, the mouse eventually was funneled through that brown box, which had an extremely sticky bottom that trapped him. (Don't worry -- the one in the photo is not the one with the squealing mouse.)

Spinning Down Darkly

The last couple of days definitely were taking their toll on Parie and me. It started a couple of nights ago with Sofian waking up about every hour during the night, and then subsequently screaming through most of the day. And I gotta tell you, the mouse adventure didn't help (still looking for it, but I think we've got a good trap strategy set). This morning, I started to lose it. It was a combination of me feeling exasperated because I couldn't seem to help my son get through his discomfort, of me feeling angry about it not stopping, and of me feeling sorry for myself.

But just at that darkest moment, we got a phone call from Anne Gienapp, who immediately came over. She and Parie took off to do errands and have a bite to eat with the little guy, and I stayed home to chill out. I ended up doing some work that I agreed to do a few days ago before the bottom dropped out, and it was actually a relief to do something within my normal routine. I felt refreshed and so did Parie, who reported that Sofian seemed to enjoy the changes in scenery (i.e., he slept through a lot of it).

It's good to remember that we need to shake things up a little from time to time to make sure that we don't feel stuck and to remind ourselves that we're adults who love one another. Tonight, we shared an adult meal of salmon, polenta, and spinach with a little wine while watching some episodes of The Wire -- and Sofian was feeling more at ease (i.e., not screaming). And it felt really good to be one as a family again and not frayed at the edges.

Here's a photo that Parie caught this evening.

Mouse House

It's springtime in Seattle, and with the beauty of blooming flowers and trees comes a feeling of dread here at the LemonDrop. You see, our two cats start to find the burgeoning population of birds and rodents and begin to invite friends into the home. And it wouldn't be too much of a problem if they knew how to finish the job, but they're actually pretty clueless hunters. Rather, they're more like collectors who like to play with their finds before getting bored and move onto a nap.

Earlier this week, I noticed that Nip was focused very intently on the washer/dryer in our mud room, which made me very suspicious. I tried rooting out anything with a stick, but nothing came of it. Then yesterday, Parie informed me that she saw something dark move across the kitchen floor -- "it's either a mouse or a big insect." I was hoping it wasn't an insect. I've had experiences dealing with rodents; I didn't want to have to fight off a giant spider.

It turned out it was a mouse (not a rat) and it went underneath the refrigerator. So in addition to dealing with a very collicky baby who didn't give us much sleep (I took one for the team and was up with him from 5am), I now had to root around the kitchen in a haze of sleep deprivation trying to hunt a mouse. What follows is a video diary of my attempts to get it out from under the fridge and out the back door.







I thought I'd trapped it under the fridge, but last night as I was getting some Tum-Ease for Sofian, I saw the little f***er running across the kitchen counter and hiding underneath some drying pots and pans. In the moment that I turned my head to grab a broom, he vanished -- most likely into an opening next to the dishwasher (which I've now barricaded). I'm pretty sure he's still there, but Parie points out that this is one smart mouse. So we're back to a standoff. Not sure how we're going to get him out -- that's the puzzle for today.

Baby Day for Glenn and Lynn

Our pals Glenn Fleishman and Lynn Warner will be greeting their second child today via a planned delivery, and Sofian is very excited to meet the new new kid on the block. Here's a pic of Lynn and their son Ben, who's no longer an only child.



[UPDATE] And here he is, though he hasn't been officially named yet:

Still, He's Pretty Cute To Wake Up To

Even after a long night...

Baby Bongos

It's Always Sunny at the LemonDrop

Here's Parie and Sofian from last Easter Sunday, which was a gorgeous day.

First Time in the StimGym

Sofian doesn't yet have complete control over his arms and legs, but it's fun to imagine that he does. So today we introduced him to the concept of the StimGym, one of those baby-sized ThunderDome contraptions with various and sundry toys (with different textures and shapes) hanging about. He seemed to take to it pretty well, though he did get a bit overstimulated after awhile. But it's a start.

He's not sure what to make of all this.



Perhaps a little fearful.



Ahhh... that's the ticket!



As you can see, he was overcome with excitement:

Long Night

Here's a rundown on how last night went. It wasn't the worst we've face, but it's indicative of what's been happening 'round here (and why I've been a bit too tired to do postings the last couple of days).

10pm Parie and Sofian start drifting off to sleep while Papa continues reading Macworld magazine on his laptop -- he's not tired yet because of a nice long nap in the afternoon.

12:40am Sofian wakes up, gets his diaper changed, and does a feeding. We've been trying some methods described by The Towle Method of Colic Management -- such as more frequent burpings during the feedings. This seems to be counterproductive for Sofian, as he seems to think he won't get fed again, and he becomes a desperate feeder when he returns to feeding -- thus bringing in more air.

1:10am Sofian's drowsy, so we put him down -- only to hear a projectile spit-up a few minutes later. We change his swaddling blanket, clothes, and bedding, then return him to bed after rocking him for a bit. Only to hear... another projectile spit-up a few minutes later. Luckily, he cleared his swaddling blanket, so we only had to change the sheet. However, it also hit our duvet, so we'll be washing that today.

Unfortunately, he's now completely awake. So Papa takes Sofian out of the bedroom so Mama can get some shuteye. We try bouncing on the yoga ball for a spell, but that doesn't seem to edge him completely into dreamland. So, we head into the Blue Room Media Center and watch another episode of House of Cards (I'm hoping the exposure to Britishness will make him as much of an Anglophile as his father is).

2:20am Return to the bedroom to sack out.

4am Sofian's up again, and while Mama's changing him, he explodes with another volley of projectile poop, some of which got to the bed -- another good reason for washing the bedding today. I think he gets a feeding and is put to bed, but I can't remember who does the latter (pretty sure who did the former) as I'm pretty darn tired at this point.

5:30am Some restlessness from Sofian. He can't be hungry yet, so Papa tries to comfort him with some burping and implementation of the following procedure from The Towle Method:

Bend your knees so the baby is cradled facing toward you between your legs with it's head up toward your knees and its bottom resting on your lap. Let the feet bend off to one side or wherever they want. Now, use both hands and hold the knees up toward the chest and to the side. Just imagine you are constipated and on the toilet. You place your feet firmly on the floor, bend over and push. By holding the knees up, you give the baby better leverage to emit the gas or poop.

Not a whole lot of success, but enough to get him back to sleep.

6:50am Sofian awakens and is hungry (and is very vocal about it). Papa can't keep his eyes open, so Mama handles all the details, from changing to feeding to burping to out-gassing.

7:10am Phone rings -- first reaction is to answer, but I can't and so let it go to voicemail while Parie is busy with the little guy. We subsequently sleep until about 9am.

I wish I'd answered the phone. My Aunt Judy called with a bit of bad news -- my grandfather, Harry, had a spill yesterday and broke his ankle as well as hit his head. Haven't heard any more details yet, but will give an update later. I'll also post a couple of photos later today.

Twin Sons of Different Mothers (and Dimensions)

LD Pal Kat offers up another compare and contrast in response to the original one with Sofian and Glenn. This time, it's Sofian and Jeffy, the 2D red-headed tyke from Family Circus.

     

By the way, in that previous post I mentioned the Rain CD that Glenn and Lynn gave us -- man, that's been a constant soundtrack to our nights. It's a constant sheet of white noise via a rain shower (which we don't get much here in Seattle, so we can't just open the window as Keri suggested in the comments).

Another American for Peace

Finally got a quiet few minutes to do some work in the office (where I have Sofian in the bouncy chair, the bounce of which is controlled by my foot whilst I do some work on the computer).



In the midst of doing some scanning got around to scanning the postcard that Mari gave to us back on Sofian's 2nd day.



Today, Sofian is 21 days old, about 1/4th of the way through the so-called 4th Trimester. Here's hoping for more peace in the near term and going forward throughout his life.

Missile Defense Program

On Thursday, we had a little bit of a scare when Sofian projectile vomited twice -- booth times with excellent Olympic-qualifying distance. On consulting Caring for Your Baby and Young Child (which was given to us by Parie's college chum Martha, who's a pediatrician -- it's been a fantastic reference), we found out that we should visit our pediatrician as soon as possible if this was occurring. Unfortunately, this was timed just as our doctors' office was closed for lunch, so we had an hour to ruminate and research on the Web. We got in to see Dr. Guerra a little later in the afternoon and things were much better by that point -- Sofian had taken a feeding without throwing it up and he was starting to poop again. (FYI, there's going to be a lot of talk about poop on this blog in general and specifically in this post, so prepare yourself.) He ruled out some of the more serious possibilities, but told us to be on the lookout for signs of acid reflux. Since then, we've been implementing some strategies to help minimize any reflux, such as elevating the angle of his bed a bit as well as elevating his head while feeding.

Also, the Tum-Ease (as previously noted) seems to be helping quite a bit. How much so, we learned last night the hard way. Sofian seemed to be doing very well yesterday, and thusly we didn't keep up the regularity of doseages. After going down very easily around 10pm last night, we were awakened just two hours later by a screaming baby, who was obviously in gastric distress. And he continued to awaken us between 1.5 and 2 hours the rest of the night. We finally remembered to give him some Tum-Ease at some point in the middle of the night, which started to put things right, but he still wasn't producing much in the way of poop, which was starting to worry us a bit.

I've always been dead-set against the missile defense programs put forth by our Republican leaders of the years, but now I'm starting to wonder if we need one for ourselves. On changing Sofian this morning before we roused ourselves out of bed around 9, I was happy to see that he had made a smallish deposit. I was in the midst of congratualting him when his little tushie went ballistic and sent poop flying about 3 feet (just missing Mama's slippers). He looked satisfied. As well he should have been.

So, the moral of the story is to be consistent with the Tum-Ease and raise the diaper shield during changing to prevent misfirings.

A Gift from Aunt Judy

My Aunt Judy (who many remember from singing "Top of the World" by The Carpenters at our wedding) sent a gift in conjunction with my Grandfather that got to us last weekend -- a number of St. Olaf items (winter hat, hoodie, and socks) as well as a prayer shawl that she knit herself from yarn that my Grandmother had. It was very touching, as Grandma passed away just this last December. It's quite lovely and soft, and it's got a bit of a French theme to it, which I dig a lot.

Here we are chilling after a busy afternoon for the two of us -- me mowing the lawn and Sofian growing, eating, and sleeping.







Thanks a lot Aunt Judy!

Agen's Cell Phone

My Treo has been pretty much horked ever since the night that Parie's water broke, and I sent it into Palm to get it repaired this week. So, if you've been calling my cell, that's the reason for the radio silence. If you want/need to call us, please do so on our home number. We're not straying too far away from it these days.

The Scream

The last couple of days have certainly been challenging. Yesterday, Sofian was full-on collicky during much of the day (though he was pretty sweet and mellow during a visit from former Seattleites/current Long Islanders Adam and Jessica). No matter what we did, the little guy just couldn't stop crying at the top of his lungs for very long stretches. He was also feeding with gusto (damn, you bet!) throughout the day, much more than usual, which was probably adding to his gastric distress. And it didn't help that the previous night's sleep was not a very good one for either of us three.

It seems that bouncing on our yoga ball is about the best way to calm this kid (when applied to a few of the other 5 S's from Harvey Karp's Happiest Baby on the Block arsenal -- see video intro below), and Sofian and I continued bouncing for awhile last night while Parie headed to bed about 8:30. My legs couldn't keep up for too long, and we eventually headed into the Blue Room Media Center (also known as my office and our guestroom -- we have a multi-tasking house) and watched a little telly (House of Cards via Netflix) to give Mama some time to catch up on her sleep.

Today, Sofian seems much more quiet, as he's probably exhausted from his vocalizations from yesterday. And we slept decently last night, though I might try for a nap later today.

An Outing to Bakery Nouveau

The family went on an errand outing this afternoon, allowing us to finally drive the newborn car seat cart (which we were graciously given by our friends Eric and Scott, after their son Isaac outgrew it quickly -- could be happening to us as well). After successful completion of errand foraging, we stopped for a quick treat at Bakery Nouveau, a new French pastry and bread bakery that opened up in the center of West Seattle (called the Junction) just last November. It's already gotten great raves, with their chocolate praline torte featured on the most recent Seattle Magazine cover. Mama and Papa noshed on some brioche while Sofian napped, and we took home a baguette that is easily the closest thing to a Parisian baguette I've had here in Seattle. We often fantasize about moving to France, but it seems a taste of France is now just a 5-minute drive away.

9 Pounds, 2 Ounces

Sofian is getting big. If we had any worries that he wasn't feeding as well as he could, those were dispelled today at our 2-week check-in with Dr. Weiss. I guessed a conservative 8 pounds, 2 ounces, which would have been 1 pound more than his weight on his first doctor's check-up. But he went beyond that to add 2 full pounds. Dr. Weiss noted the weight at the 2-week check-up typically just gets the baby back to the weight he/she was at birth. Beyond the weight, both Mama and son are quite healthy.

We're still dealing with some gassy issues bubbling up in the little guy, and last night's sleeping wasn't very sound. The Tum-Ease seems to be helping, though, and we're gonna try a couple of different methods of burping. But, with the amount of nutrition this guy is taking in, no wonder he's a little gassy. Here are a few pics from our doc visit:

All's Quiet... Finally

As I type this, I have a cute little guy on my chest whilst I lay on the sofa. He's cute now, but he's been having some serious gas issues the last couple of days (and nights) that has made him uncomfortable and rather vociferous. So things have been a little slow on the updating of the blog and such, and I apologize for that. Just picked up some Tum-Ease (which is an herbal remedy for gassy babies) and gave him his first dose -- and it seems to have done the trick. (While I was out doing errands and picking up said Tum-Ease, he was in full colicky screaming mode with Mama.)

We have Sofian's 2-week check-up with his doctor tomorrow, and we think things are going along very well. He seems to be bulking up just fine and doesn't have any problems aside from the gas and a bit of a snuffly nose last night (which seems to have sorted itself out).

Here are a couple of photos of me and Sofian on our yoga ball from yesterday (gentle bouncing is a big help with his gas problem):

Hand Dancing