Sickness, colon open brackets

It was bound to happen at some point. Lack of sleep. Seasons changing. You know the drill - time to break out the Kleenex. Well, two Wednesdays ago, we both got a little sick. Well, I got a little sick while Holly's little sickness morphed into yet another bout of croup by early Thursday. After consultations with Telehealth, the local 24-hour drugstore and the nurse at the hospital (quote:"honey, it's not croup" - man someone needs to familiarize those nurses with Holly's chart!), we finally gave ourselves the OK to use a Ventolin inhaler. Good thing, as it seemed to do the trick. Holly was a real trooper, continuing with all of the feedings etc. while seeing her croup gradually transform into a head cold and then disappear after about a week. My "uh-oh, any day now this is going to get bad" sickness finally got bad yesterday and now here I sit at a 2:30 feeding with some coughs and a bit of sniffles. The only cool thing about this feeding is that the wind is somehow blowing at 54 km/h gusting to 69 km/h. Where are we, Florida? No, too cold.

Anyway, Max has been almost completely unaffected by all of this. About three days ago, he got a little congested. It doesn't seem to have affected him much except to make his breathing noisier. He's been introduced to our friend, Mr. Nasal Bulb (kind of like a mini turkey baster for slurping goodies out of his nose), but he hasn't met Mrs. Saline Spray yet. It's amazing to me that when a breastfeeding mother is sick, she passes all of her antibodies through to the baby, making it less likely that the baby gets sick from whatever she has. No guarantees on protection from what Dad gets, but I don't think I can wash my hands more often (I swear they're pruny even while dry!) and, although it's killing me, I'm trying to be face-to-face a little less often with the little angel.

Eventually, this will all pass and we'll all be 100% again. Well, at least for a day or two:)

Random Daddy Thoughts, part 1

Ok, random thought number 1 is: given how randomly I've been thinking lately, I wonder how many parts this will eventually get to. Today I'm just going to jot down a little list of the things I'm going to miss about Max as he develops.

*I'll lament his slimness getting lost in folds and rolls. Already, it's disappearing; his feeding prowess have granted him chubbier cheeks and thicker thighs (but still hasn't totally disposed of his rower legs). I'll throw little feet and litle hands on the list too.

*The day he no longer does his little Moro reflex, I'll be pretty sad. When he first threw his arms in the air in surprise on day 1, I thought my little boy was already a krumping mastermind (google it/Youtube it if you don't know...), but he doesn't seem to have expanded his repertoire and Lil' C isn't calling me up.

*Despite the fact that they always come attached to his crying jags, his open-eyed, jut-out-my-recessed-chin pouty faces are second-to-none.

*In complete denial, I don't believe his hiccuping will ever change.

*I'll really miss my evening routine of taking him for a good walk just before his sleep time. I'll always be able to take him for a walk, but his size will change how I have to wear him and the weather will make going out more of a production. The hour-long walks after coming home from work have been quality bonding time (or at least I think so).

*I don't know for sure yet, but I have a feeling that I'll miss his not being able to scoot around at all.

*Finally, I do know that I'll miss bathtimes in the sink - the way he screams when he gets naked, screams louder when his toe touches the water, and then completely calms down as he starts to soak. Man, he loves that warm water. A little curious about shampoo, but the cup-of-warm-water head rinse? Like Yello once said: Oooooooh yeeeeeeaaaaah.

Despite the fact that I'll miss all of these things, I look forward to all of Max's little (and big) developments over the next while. Just recently, he started smiling a bit. Swoon. This little guy's just going to have my heart in his hands the whole way, isn't he?

Are you smarter than a 6-week-old?

So one thing that all this breastfeeding creates is a lot of time sitting down with nothing particular happening except the feeding itself. Some of our mother friends had told us that TV on DVD will be our friend - that if we're TV watchers in the first place, breastfeeding ends up being a bit of an enabler. Well, until we get creative enough to do other things with our feeding time, we have, sadly, gotten addicted to some pretty trashy TV. This Digital Video Recorder thing doesn't really help matters - now we can give piles of shows test runs without juggling VHS tapes.

The shows that Holly first latched on to were reruns of Without a Trace on Bravo and What Not to Wear on TLC. If you thought this was the trash to which I referred, oh just you wait. With the new TV season upon us, we've stuck by ER and Prison Break, Survivor and Friday Night Lights. Holly continues to watch Brothers and Sisters, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty on her own and has picked up Big Shots and Dirty Sexy Money. But the real guilty pleasure of all has been Beauty and the Geek (reruns daily on BBCK). Despite the fact that all seasons (including the UK offshoot) heavily recycle challenges and trivia questions, there are some awesome moments. The best of which may have been in a season 1 rerun when one of the Beauties was asked which star was closest to the Earth. In any other episode, such a question would have been aired only because the Beauty would blow it and make herself look stupid. Well, in this case, she said "the sun" and was right. It was the beauty next to me on the couch who said "The sun's a star?".

Oh man. It's almost as bad as an English grad not knowing their parts of speech. Max, you will learn a LOT from your mother. Just remember, when it comes to the science questions, come and ask me, OK?

"Of cabbages and kings"

I’ve had a dozen or so posts half-written in my head the last few weeks (it is amazing how much time you can actually spend breastfeeding and rocking a baby to sleep) but just no time to actually type them and get them posted. So I thought I would do a quick bulleted post of random thoughts. Big points to anyone who gets the reference I’m making in the title.

- “Nestboro”. John has taken to calling our ‘hood “Nestboro” due to the crazy baby boom – both actual babies and baby-related businesses. We like to think that we’re not all that Westboro-ey or at least the more snooty aspects that we sometimes associate with this neighbourhood but I have to admit that on Sunday, we really looked the part. Picture this: John with Max in the cuddly wrap (sensitive father: check). Both of us with extra large Bridgehead cups (organic and fair trade beverage: check). New MEC purchases in tow. The only thing missing was the Lululemon pants. Seriously though, we joke a lot about our neighbourhood but it is pretty amazing to have so much cool stuff within walking distance. We love this place.

- Max’s first trip to “Stars and Strollers”. Max and I went to the movies this afternoon – Michael Clayton for anyone that wants to know. Max was the most perfect baby and stayed asleep the entire movie! I really enjoyed getting out and seeing a movie too. It was a bit weird to go to a movie with dozens of babies making little noises but I’ll take it! The thing that struck me most (other than yummy George Clooney in a suit for two hours) about the whole experience was that I’m officially part of this totally awesome informal mommy club. The theatre was full of moms and babies and it felt so great to be there. There was one point when the baby beside me spat out his soother and his mum couldn’t find it so she asked me to hold her baby while she found it. She just handed me her baby and trusted me to hold him! We had an instant bond just being in the theatre together. It was so cool. I also scored some cool mommy points with the mini flashlight I brought to the theatre with me. I helped locate an errant soother and a missing sock in the aisle! Thanks to Auntie Med for the use of the Max mobile the last few days. It really made the whole movie trip possible.

- Generosity. John and I have been completely overwhelmed by the avalanche of good wishes, wonderful gifts, food, calls, support, etc. that we have received in the last five weeks. It sounds cheesy but sometimes it takes a life-changing event to make you realize how lucky you are to be surrounded by such a loving community of people. So many people have reached out to us from both here and away. Max is one loved little dude. Everyone will be getting “official” thank-yous soon but I wanted everyone to know how thankful we are for everything.

- Telemarketers suck. You would be absolutely SHOCKED by how many calls we get during the day. I am sure we have always gotten this many calls but I was never around to hear them. I’ve pretty much given up on answering any long distance rings during the day.

- I think the slow cooker may be my new best friend. One recipe in that thing feeds us for days.

- Update on the cats: Bella appears to be coming around. Yay!!!

That's all for now. I'm even going to surprise John and post this puppy all by myself - my first wholly solo post. Ha! I have been paying attention.

Growth spurts: pure evil

Well, OK. I suppose they're good for something (e.g., the development of little Max). However, in terms of entertainment value for the parents, they are probably on par with an all-night cram session for a test. Except no junk food. And in Holly's case, no 6-pack of Red Bull.
Babies apparently go through growth spurts at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months. The growth spurt itself is fine; it's the preparation for it that's really something else. In preparation for the spurt, babies overfeed like mad for a couple of days to get mom to up her milk supply so that the following feeds will be of particularly high volume.
Max's first prep session happened when he was about 17 days old. We weren't entirely sure if it was a sign of a growth spurt or not, as we had just altered his feeding routine in order to get past some weight gain difficulties. All we knew is that the books all said that the average for a baby his age was to feed between 8 and 12 times a day and all of a sudden, he was clocking in at 16 or so. It seems that emotions run a bit higher when people are deprived of quality sleep...someone should do a study on that.
Fortunately, like pretty much every other blip on the baby radar, it passed after 2-3 days. I say "2-3" because it was all a blur and I can't quite remember when it started, all I know is that it ended. One day we put him to bed in the early am and he stayed asleep for longer than an hour. I swear a chorus of angels could be heard.
I'm writing this post because Max is 5 weeks and 2 days old today and all signs point to a second spurt on the horizon. Over the last week, he has been sleeping through the night in nice blocks of 3 hours or so. Tonight, we seem to have regressed to hourly naps. However, now that we already have one of these sessions under our belt, we know that all we have to do is ride it out for a couple of days and we'll have a bigger, healthier boy to show for it. I'm thinking that's a good tradeoff:)

Thanksgiving with the family

Apologies for the delay in logging a new post - it turns out that with one parent at home and the other at work, there's less room for fun things like blogs :( But that's for another post...this one is about last weekend, when Max got to meet his only uncle (and wife) and yet another grandparent.

On Saturday of the long weekend, my mother, brother and sister-in-law made the pilgrimage (how appropriate) from Winnipeg to get some face time with the new leaf on the family tree. We grabbed lunch at the same dim-sum place that I had taken my dad for his birthday when he visited three weeks earlier...the only difference being that this time, no abandoned house across the street went up in flames. After a quick bite and a tour around the places Holly grew up, we went hom to digest before Thanksgiving dinner. We all went over to Holly's mom and aunt's for a big dinner for 12 featuring a massive spread (turkey, potatoes, gravy, beans, roasted root veggies, salads, etc.) and we all got pretty stuffed. Thanks to Heather, Karen, Krysta, Laramie and Melody for the grub! Everyone got to play Pass-the-Crying-Boy while I got to sip a few glasses of vino too (yay).

Sunday was possibly the last gorgeous day of fall, with clear skies, warmish
weather and most leaves still on the trees. The plan was to hit the Newport for lunch (where I was the recipient of some playful attitude from a server) and then trot off to Gatineau Park to check out the Mackenzie King Estate. Lunch went according to plan, but it was upon arrival at the park that we realized that everyone else in the National Capital Region had the same afternoon plan:( Traffic was pretty backed up and signs were telling us that essentially every parking lot in the entire park was full, but the leaves were pretty and we thought we'd enjoy the drive anyway. By the time we got to the Estate, the parking lot just up the road had one spot left for us so we grabbed it! We bundled up Max in his cuddly wrap and set off for a walk. After a quick snack and a stop to pick up some leaves, we did the hike to the end of the
Waterfall path (which doesn't have a waterfall at the end of it anymore...a little anticlamactic). We turned around and were on our way back to the lake when Max had a little incident that required an emergency change. Like a paid pit crew, out came the changing stuff and down he went on a bed of pine needles. Unfortunately, we couldn't save all his socks so we had to hustle back to the van.

One thing that my sister-in-law pointed out while walking was that there was a good mix of oohs and aahs from passers-by, some of which were cooing over the smallness of Max and how adorable it was that I had him strapped up for a walk, while some others seemed to be tsktsking the fact that I had a baby tied to me in something that looked so precarious. Dear all doubters - the Cuddly Wrap is not precarious. It's like a baby spider web, except that nobody gets eaten.

After getting home, we ordered some Indian grub from a place on the east end of Hintonburg. Great samosas and pakoras, OK curries, subpar butter chicken (I counted 4-5 "knuckles" in it - aren't you supposed to actually be able to eat the meat provided in butter chicken? I mean, it's the California Roll of curries - you don't want to make it difficult for folks!). While the curry tasted good going down, Holly was aware to try to avoid anything that was too spicy, for Max's sake. However, it seemed that any care taken wasn't enough as I woke up to his tummy gurgling louder than mine had in a while, followed by some gasplosions. No more Indian for Holly.

Finally, on Sunday, we got together with Holly's sister and our mutual friend J for Murray's birthday lunch at The Works. For the third straight day, Max got to show everybody how babies are supposed to behave in restaurants...he was wonderful! The burgs were exquisite, especially the Beckta burger that my bro
and sister-in-law shared. The burger was made with organic beef and foie gras, topped with double-smoked bacon, truffled baby swiss chard, a tomato and a locally grown and made peach-corn chutney. All this with a side of foie gras poutine. We'd previously eaten at Beckta for Holly's 30th, so we knew that they had a thing for foie gras, but never new that they'd do this kind of initiative with a burger joint (some proceeds from each burger went to the Ottawa Food Bank). Apparently it was awesome. Afterwards, everyone just kind of lounged at home until I drove them to the airport.

And then the fun began. For those of you in Ottawa, you may have seen a story on the second page of the City section in Tuesday"s Citizen about a plane hitting some geese shortly after takeoff and having to conduct an emergency landing. Well, that would be the plane my family was on. Scary!! Apparently, the geese ran through the engines, creating goose fireballs (happy Thanksgiving?) out the back of the jet engines. A couple of geese hit the front of the cockpit too, apparently sounding like shotgun blasts. Goosplosion. Anyway, everyone got back down on the ground, likely more than a little shaken, and my folks got to extend their stay here by one night. Initially, they were unable to find any flights leaving back for Winnipeg until Wednesday, but somehow managed to sweet-talk their way onto an early-morning executive class flight the next day to avoid mising too much time at work. What a crazy way to end the weekend.

In any case, it's been wonderful to have all of my immediate family come to see Max in his first month. I've heard many times over that these are special days, that he will never be this small again, that he will always be more developed than he is now. I suppose the next big step is to take him for visits outside of Ottawa. Going from dim-sum to a plane is a pretty big step though :)

Max's Big Adventure

This past Saturday was a big day of firsts for baby Max - first meeting with one of his great-grandparents, first road trip, first time at Auntie Karen's cottage, first time in Quebec, first Oktoberfest, first attempt at euchre and first wedding reception. I'm getting tired just writing about it!

His big day started when my mum brought my Grampa Don over to the house to meet Max for the first time. Who knew that G-Don would be so into babies? Mum and Grampa were heading up to Auntie Karen's cottage in Otter Lake, Quebec (1.5 hours from Ottawa) for the day to see the leaves and stay for dinner. Max and I decided to go along for the ride while John decided to stay home to attend a friend's wedding (more on that later). While the leaves on the way up to the cottage had not quite completely changed, we still saw some nice colours along the way. Auntie Karen and Auntie Melody were quite thrilled to have two suprise guests. Although they were probably MUCH more excited about baby Max than their niece, they were nice enough to not say anything to my face.

Once we arrived at the cottage, we decided to head to Ladysmith for their annual Oktoberfest (quite the event for the region). In case you are wondering why a little cottage town in Quebec has a big Oktoberfest, wonder no more! The story is that Ladysmith was the site of a POW camp during World War II and the German people held there were treated so well that they returned after the war and settled in the community. At least that is the story that we heard. We checked out some crafts, the tractor pull and some music and dancing. We also had some German sausages and beer (none for Max and I yet!). My mum even tried to explain the differences between left and right bowers to the little guy. Max was quite the star - he stayed asleep in the car seat the whole time! I hear there comes a time when Max might excel at something other than sleeping, but for now, that's his thing.

We had a nice dinner then headed back to Ottawa. When we arrived home, John was just thinking about heading out to a wedding reception. Max was still cashed out in the car seat from the long drive and the reception was only a few blocks away so we all decided to go. I threw on some more appropriate clothes and we headed out. Max was quite the hit with John's work friends. Again, he was quite the star as he stayed asleep the whole time with really loud music playing for over an hour. He only woke up when we were putting him back in the car to head home. I enjoyed some wedding cake and cutting a rug on the dance floor for a few songs. Eventually, we got home just after 11 pm.

All in all, it was a pretty crazy day full of new adventures and time with family and friends. We look forward to many more!