Arianne will be so proud!

Monday night Ben and I were looking at a board book and instead of doing it myself, I decided to hold out the page to see if Ben would turn it. Up until now he's just banged books around and chewed on them, like everything else. But Monday night he wrapped his chubby fingers around the page, turned it and then let go. At first I thought it was a fluke, but he's been doing it for two days!

This makes me infinitely happy, not only because it means he's an absolute GENIUS, but also because I'm so looking forward to sharing my favorite books with him. I have big plans for his bedtime stories, once he's old enough. First Harry Potter, then Tiffany Aching and then The Hobbit. Later I can introduce him to Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and Margaret Atwood. Turning pages in board books is his first step on a hopefully lifelong love affair with reading.

Conversations with a baby - Part 3

Scene: I'm preparing Ben a breakfast of oatmeal and applesauce, while he sits in his highchair.

Ben: (whine, whine, whine)

Me: Ben, today for Second Breakfast we have a lovely selection. It features single grain rolled oats mixed with a smooth apple puree. I think you'll find it delightful.

Ben: (whine, whine, whine)

Nicknames

Nicknames Heath Calls Ben (a very incomplete list):

-Bennington
-Bennnigan's
-Benny Largeman
-Man Cub
-Fats
-Googly chooberton (I have no idea what that one's about)

Holy %&#@

Thursday Ben leaned in to give me a sloppy kiss. As I've mentioned before, he always grabs something for leverage, usually my hair. This particular kiss was no exception, but he was unusually forceful. He pulled out one of my hairs, root and all.

It's a good thing he can't understand me yet, because he would've picked up a few new colorful words after that.

As in, the one who gave you life

Ben has been babbling up a storm lately. All I hear all day is "da da da da." When I politely mentioned that he may want to start practicing the 'm' sound (as in "ma ma ma ma"), lest his formula supply dry up, he just grinned, as if to say, "Like I'd give you the satisfaction."

Cat scratch fever

A rare picture with both cats. Crooks is white. Minnie is dark.

We have two cats who pre-date Ben, Minerva (Minnie) and Crookshanks (Crooks). When we first got them almost three years ago, Crooks was the outgoing one. She would cuddle up to anyone and she was always around. She was more like a dog than a traditional cat. Minnie was the princess. You had to pick her up and pet her on her terms, lest you receive an arm full of scratches as she scampered away. So, as you can imagine, I was more worried about Minnie's reaction to the baby.

However, a very curious thing happened when we brought Ben home: Minnie and Crooks switched personalities. Now Minnie is the friendly, social one. She still wants things her way, but she's willing to let it slide a bit if you'll pet her. During the day, though, Crooks is nowhere to be found. She only emerges for mealtimes and after Ben's gone to bed. People make her skittish.

The most surprising thing is that Minnie actually interacts with Ben. I was not expecting that at all. The first time Pat and Beth brought Colin to our house, when he was no more than three or four months old, Minnie totally freaked out. She hissed at him and then spent the rest of the day hiding under our bed. Now she willingly rubs up against Ben and even tolerates it when he grabs her fur and ears. I guess any attention is better than none when you're desperate. But she's in for a surprise once he can walk.

Memories... light the corners of my mind

I have very little recollection of our first few weeks at home with Ben. There were a lot of visitors, a lot of food and a lot of crying (by both Ben and me), but mostly what I remember is being in massive amounts of pain.

The strange thing is that I remember the hospital stay very clearly. Here are some of those memories (in mostly chronological order):


While I was in labor we had the TV on some news station for background noise (which we needed since, as Heath says, I would've passed the Scientology "silent birth" test). That was only days after John McCain announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, so that was all they were talking about. She will forever be associated with my first labor. And even though I had no intention of voting for them, I certainly wouldn't have after that!

At one point during labor I got really hot. Heath and Bekah alternated wetting wash cloths and putting them on my forehead, neck and chest. Heath was a very good coach and Bekah was a very good nurse.

Transition labor nearly killed me. I didn't realize that's what it was, I just thought the contractions were becoming brutal. It was at that point I asked for an epidural. However, by the time the anesthesiologist got there I was already pushing. She called into the room and my doctor yelled, "We're having a baby!"

I don't really remember seeing Ben for the first time. I was so relieved that it was over and so in awe that I'd done it. Unfortunately after giving birth I needed some serious stitches and I do remember that when I was holding Ben I didn't feel anything and when they took him away to weigh and measure him it was very uncomfortable.

When they took me to my postpartum room they took Ben to the nursery to clean him up and take some vitals. I remember feeling guilty because I didn't miss him. All I wanted to do was eat and watch TV and relax.

I remember that first night feeding him. He started crying afterward and I started to freak out because I had no idea what to do. Then I remembered that babies needed to be burped after they ate. I laid him against my shoulder, patted his back and he burped. Then he stopped crying and I felt the largest sense of accomplishment I think I've ever felt in my life. My baby was crying, I assessed the situation and I did the right thing! I am SUPERWOMAN!

I didn't sleep very much those two days and instead opened my eyes approximately every four seconds to check if Ben was still breathing.

It was so quiet on the postpartum floor, aside from the occasional baby crying.

The first night we spent in the hospital went like this: Ben would cry, Heath would bring him to me to feed him and then Heath would go back to sleep. However, I couldn't even get out of bed on my own, let alone holding a newborn, so I'd yell at Heath to wake up and put the baby back in the bassinet. But Heath is a very deep sleeper, so my yelling didn't wake him. I had to throw leftover Ranch packets at him to wake him up. The second night he put his cell phone on the bedside table and I actually had to CALL HIM from 4 feet away to wake him up.

My first shower after giving birth was the most satisfying shower of my life, even though it took twice the normal time.

Heath changed most of the diapers in the hospital. At one point he was out of the room and I was terrified to change one myself.

I remember feeling so inadequate when it came time to dress Ben in his going home outfit. I had never dressed an infant before and I was afraid of hurting him.

Ben cried at first when we put him in the car seat. As we drove home in the rain he fell asleep, but he woke up and cried every time we stopped for a stoplight.


That's where my memories end. I honestly have no recollection of what happened when we got home. It was so overwhelming and chaotic and I was so exhausted. Perhaps it's for the best that I don't remember.

Sleepy McSleeperson

Ben slept from 9pm-7:30am with only two short wake ups at 11pm and 6am. I got 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep! That's about as rare as a unicorn with a dwarf tattoo.

Just wanted to share my joy.

The power of three

Well, Ben has his third cold in a month and a half. We somehow made it through the entire winter without an illness and now all of a sudden spring hits and he's getting sick all the time. I don't think it's allergies because it's not constant and there's a definite beginning and end to the colds. I feel so bad for him, but as usual he's a trooper. He had some trouble staying asleep last night. He woke up multiple times between 7:30pm and 12:30am, but eventually he slept from about 1:30am until 6:00am. That felt like a miracle, because I was fully expecting him to be up about every hour.

We're combating the cold with everything we have. We pulled out the humidifier, we have his mattress tilted up a bit for better drainage and we're making liberal use of the aspirator. You may remember the aspirator debacle from his first cold. We've gotten more adept at using it and Heath even devised a little system. He covers Ben's eyes before bringing out the aspirator. It does work the first couple times, but after a while Ben catches on to it. Oh, well, at least it's a little less snot to end up on my shirt.

He'll have great posture!