July 27 - July 29

We took William to North Alabama to see Mayme & Gramps and to meet his aunts, uncles, cousins and great-grandparents. On Saturday afternoon, Sandra hosted a meet-and-greet for William at their house. Present were: Mayme & Gramps, Aunt Susan & Uncle Tommy, Drew, Chris, Uncle Allen, Emma, Anna Grace, Ethan, Great-Aunt Rhonda & Great-Uncle James, Matt & Julie, Lucy, Silas (we hadn’t seen Matt & Julie for several years, not since Lucy was about 6 months old or so!), Mike & Carey, Matthew (who had grown so much over the last 2 months since we’d last seen him; what a happy baby, and such chubby little arms and legs!), Brad, Fred & Elaine, Mickey & Sally.

William was being, in general, a bit fussy and wanted mostly to sleep or eat. So not many people held him. I don’t know if they wanted to; not many people asked. But it was really nice to see everyone again, and for Darryl’s relatives to finally meet our cute little son. We were given some nice gifts for William: a monogrammed blanket and burp cloths from Brad; two books from Tommy & Susan, two large-sized Osh-Kosh outfits from Fred & Elaine; a Target gift card from Mickey & Sally (Sally had also brought a cake); a portable high chair/booster seat and a baptismal-type gown from Mike & Carey; frog toys and bath accessories from Matt & Julie; two long-sleeved, larger size outfits from Sandra & Jerry;….? Thanks to everyone for the gifts and moreso for the company!

Later that evening, we ordered pizza and had a low-key, belated birthday ‘celebration’ for Sandra. The kids watched a movie, Emma held William for a bit, several of the kids enjoyed stroking William’s head or touching his feet and hands, and William seemed especially taken with Anna Grace. Unfortunately, all the excitement seemed to have overstimulated William and Darryl had to take him into the bedroom, swaddle him up and rock him in the dimmed room.

On Sunday, we visited Mawmaw & Pawpaw Hadder with the added bonus that Uncle Dale was there. And then we visited Miss Della, who held William for a while. Darryl noticed that William’s tongue is more white than usual (it had been white towards the back for a while; I thought it was formula and that he had a ‘fuzzy’ tongue like I do), and white even towards the front. He asked Sandra about it and she thought it might be thrush, which made perfect sense to me once I heard that. I don’t know why I didn’t consider it and I felt badly for not having thought about it before. It also makes sense because near the end of our stay in Canada, I had these sort of raised lighter-coloured areas on my lips, more on the inside of my mouth. And I had some white spots on the inside of my mouth, and my right tonsil got swollen. So I think that either I gave the thrush to William or vice versa (Darryl & I often do a quick ‘clean’ of William’s pacifier by sticking it in our mouths). Fortunately we take William to the pediatrician on Thursday; thrush shouldn’t pose any problems for William, but I will do a search online later to see what I can find out.

Some things about William:

It seems like he might be getting more influence now from my toes… his second toe is starting to curve outwards and his fourth toe is starting to curve quite a bit inwards (like me!). Hopefully, though, the genetic influence of Darryl’s long, lovely toes will mitigate this and William’s toes will at least be nicer-looking than mine.

William’s eyelashes are getting long. When he was born, you couldn’t really see any eyelashes on his eyes, and he had his eyes tightly shut. Since then, his upper eyelashes have been growing out and are now getting quite long, and over the past 3 weeks or so I’ve noticed that he ‘sprouted’ lower eyelashes, which are now growing out as well. His eyebrows are also now more noticeable, and the hair on the top and sides of his head is getting longer and is very soft. The longer ‘baby hair’ on the back of his head still hasn’t really fallen out. Sometimes I think William’s hair and eyebrows look reddish, but it’s hard to know if that’s just a trick of the light.

When William gives us a really big smile, that’s the best thing in the world!!!!

Last week sometime, when I was changing William on the Pack & Play changing pad, he was looking at the mobile and it looked like he was trying to reach out for it with his right hand. He really likes that Winnie the Pooh mobile a lot. He hasn’t seemed to notice the farm mobile in his crib yet. Maybe the plastic animals are too small?

I think William is starting to learn that he can punch things with his hands. I had the twirly-whirly toy that Kate gave us on the Pack & Play, with the stuffed animals dangling from the changing pad, and he seemed to enjoy hitting them with his fists. He also enjoyed putting the cow stuffed animal in his mouth! William does well now spending “alert & awake” times in his Pack & Play, just looking at everything (mobile, blinds, twirly-whirly toy). I think the crib and all its toys and paraphernalia is maybe just a bit overstimulative at this point: he gets fussy if I have him in there for more than about 10 min.

Sometime just before going to Canada, we learned that William will have a spot at St. Bede’s Child Development Center daycare in Montgomery. This is the daycare we’d hoped to get William into because it is church-run, it’s in Montgomery (vs. Auburn, so more convenient when I get a different job and if we both work in Montgomery it’ll give us more leeway for choosing where to live if we wish to move), and it seems to be of a good quality. They also have webcams which will allow us (and curious grandparents!) to check in on William during the day. I was very excited to find out William will be going to St. Bede’s!

A cute thing about William closing his fingers into a fist: nowadays, when he does that, he doesn’t keep his thumb under his fingers; rather, his thumb is tucked only under his index finger and so rests above his middle finger. This is interesting because often when I close my own fingers into a fist, I have my thumb tucked under my index and middle fingers.

William has recently become a lot more expressive with his hands. He has not really seemed to just look at his hands, the way many babies do, but it seems he knows that he can control them, or at least he uses them to express himself. He will bring his hands (whether in fists or not) up to his mouth and face when he is hungry (often he’ll sort of jab his face or eyes in the process). He definitely tries to “hold” his bottle more now, or “hold up” your fingers while you’re holding his bottle. He will use his hands to try and get a pacifier or bottle away from his mouth. He’s starting to seem like he’s trying to reach for things, but it’s hard to know whether that is an accurate observation at this point. And when he’s resting, William will move his hands and flex his fingers, make little gestures with his hands and just shape his fingers into different configurations (e.g. “hang ten”). I noticed that when he is unsure of his surroundings, like when we were at Mayme & Gramps’ and there were tons of people around and tons of noises, he will keep his hands in fists (even while sleeping) instead of having his hands open.

William weighs: 11 lbs, 1 oz.!

July 18 - July 24

We spent a really nice week in Canada! William is now officially an international traveler! In brief, here’s an account of our visit:

Thursday morning, Debra & Trevor came over and met our little man. Katherine came over in the evening, and Uncle Dave held William for all of about 5 minutes after work!

Friday, Mom drove us to Pap’s work so that the proud Grampa could show off his grandson to his work colleagues. All the women were definitely fawning over William and everyone thought he was a very good-looking baby.

In the evening, my friends came over to meet my son! Yemisi had driven from Ottawa, and Evelyn picked up Rie after work. Yemisi and Rie gave us some bath products (how nice to get shower gifts for the parents too!), and Evelyn gave us a cute Winnie the Pooh outfit set for about 6 months of age, as well as a gorgeous scrapbook she’s made for William, to which we need only add photos. It was obvious that she put a lot of time and thought into it and, like everything Evelyn does, it is so neat and looks absolutely great! Thanks to all of you! It was really nice to see everyone again, though we didn’t have nearly enough time to visit.

Saturday, we drove to London to attend Steve & Marie’s wedding. We got to see not only Steve & Marie, but most of the other relatives too: Uncle Owen, Tante Helga, Jon & Renee (whom I had never met before), Karl, Katie, Peter, Uncle Peter, Tante Hilde, Eric (best man), Sara (bridesmaid), Uncle Nick, Tante Dorothy, Scott & Jen (Jen makes pregnancy look good J), and Reimers. It was a nice wedding, and William was a bit hit! In fact, Darryl & I didn’t really get him for much of the evening as he was being held much by his proud grandparents and other relatives. It was maybe a bit overstimulative for William, though….

Sunday, we drove home from London (Mom had taken care of William during the night while Darryl & I each slept on a separate queen-sized bed….luxurious!) and spent a bit of time with Dave & Katherine.

Monday, Kate came over and got to meet our little guy!

Tuesday, we went over to Tante Helga’s for lunch and Jon and Katie joined us. It was nice to get to spend some time there. Afterwards, we visited Oma & Opa, where Tante Marichen stopped in for a while too. I’m really glad Oma & Opa got to meet William, and Oma held William for a time. That visit, too, was far too short, because it was time to head off to the airport and go home.

I wondered how William would do on the plane. Both times he slept for much of the time, feeding sometimes. I think he probably did so well in part because he was held in our arms. I thought the air pressure difference, ascending or descending, would bother him and so I tried to make sure to have a pacifier or bottle in his mouth at those times. But William didn’t seem to be phased; at least, he didn’t give us any indication that he was bothered at all.

So: it was a great trip though the time passed by too quickly! We hope to go up again at Christmas. That’ll be the next time Pap sees William and by then he’ll be about 6 months old and who knows what all he’ll be doing or how big he’ll be!

William’s weight: 10 lbs, 8 oz! What a chubster! He is definitely filling out and he has a moon-face and quite thick little thighs. He definitely has little rolls of fat and folds of skin that we have to be sure to clean.

This afternoon, we drove to Atlanta and took a 2-hour flight to Buffalo, after which Mom picked us up and drove us to Mississauga! William did very well on the plane: he mostly slept (in our arms) and didn’t fuss or cry. I thought the air pressure would bother him and I tried to make sure he had a pacifier or bottle on the ascent and descent; it didn’t seem to phase him at all.

After a really hard and awful decision, I decided to put Calico & Tiger to sleep today. Calico had lost so much weight over the last few weeks (though I had been so busy with William, I hardly paid her much attention at all) and was having liquid diarrhea all over the house. I thought it was just her, but it turned out Tiger was having liquid diarrhea too, and it was clearly painful for him to have a movement. Both of the cats had trouble lying down (it took them a while and it looked painful/uncomfortable), and neither was eating very well, especially Calico. It was so sad. I gave them deli meats and treats and tried to talk to them, to apologize for having ignored them over the past number of months and to tell them that I love them. I took Tiger outside, to give him a chance to have a nice experience, and he walked around the front yard from one side to the other, and chased a mormon cricket. Seeing him outside like that, and seeing that his weight was pretty good and his coat was shiny and soft, it made it even sadder to say goodbye because he seemed so okay and normal. I decided not to take Calico outside because she was so fragile, really, I didn’t think she would particularly want to go. I put them in the carrier and Darryl went with them to the vet. Afterwards, we buried their little bodies with the red blankets that were their cat beds and some toys by the side of our house. I can’t believe how much I miss them, and I feel awful because I had been neglecting them pretty much ever since I’d gotten pregnant, and especially in the last few months.

Well, the new formula seems to be making his poops more dryish and green. I guess this is a product of the Bifidus cultures it contains. His poops are also stinky now!

Today William came with me to my 6-week obstetrician appointment. Everything checked out okay and I saw that Dr. Alverson had received William’s birth announcement. Everyone thought William was very cute. He did get fussy towards the end, though, since he was very hungry. I fed him in the car (an hour-long process!!) and changed him, and got to Auburn just in time to get some insurance paperwork filled out before they closed for lunch. Essentially, I would like to get my AU insurance terminated so I can add myself onto Darryl’s insurance. William has already been added, and it would cost us no more to have me added as well.

After getting back home, we were going to attempt a walk in the new Infantino baby carrier, but after getting the little man in there, he started showing how hungry he was and so that was the end of that!

William is interested in his pack & play mobile. He has been for about a week and a half. He also seems to be interested in seeing himself in the mirror. And today he was looking at the F-P Rainforest Soother crib attachment with music and lights. I like to give him some playtime every day, during his awake & alert periods. This might be to put him in the vibrating seat and/or take him for a walk and/or put him in his crib with his toys. He really enjoys playtime, but it only lasts for about 10 min. or so before William gets overstimulated (presumably) and fussy (often hungry).

William went with me to Baby Depot and we picked up some nursing pads, a baby carrier, and a little wall hanging/mobile that you put up on the wall above the changing table and it has a mirror that baby can stare up into.

Then we went to Darryl’s work, and we showed him off to everyone there. Everyone thought William was very cute (how couldn’t they? :-). He did have to be fed, though, and he had a very messy diaper that we changed right there in Darryl’s office. He was also straining with gas, which did detract somewhat from his cuteness. Then the three of us went to Wendy’s for lunch.

Afterwards, I dragged the little guy with me to Wal-Mart, to get a new kind of formula: Nestle Good Start with Cultures. Some people on pregnancy.org found it to relieve their babies of gas/fussiness, so we’re hoping this will give William less gas or at least alleviate his likelihood of being constipated.

William’s weight: We were very surprised to find out that William weighs 9 lbs, 8 oz!

Poor William: yesterday the little guy was constipated. I wanted to try using formula all day one day to see if he would have less gas (in case the breastmilk was giving him gas). I don’t think his gas situation was improved, but definitely he had a hard time with his bowel movements. The poor guy was struggling (painfully, it seemed—or at least very vocally) to push out his pooh. He pushed out a couple of tiny, hard nuggets. That, and the heavy straining, clued me in that he was probably constipated. So I went really gung-ho with the breastmilk, thawing out several bags that I’d had in the freezer. He pooped out a really hard, largish log-like turd that had some faint hints of blood in it, and then it was explosions of very soft, liquidy pooh. I felt so awful that I put William through this. So I am continuing to pump breastmilk for him twice a day. I guess the change was just too drastic for his system.

In other news, Grandma and Grampa left today at about 4 a.m. It was really nice having them here! I know they were absolutely thrilled to meet their first grandchild, and they really love William a lot. Thanks to Mom for taking care of William during the nights and for cleaning and working in the garden! We look forward to seeing you again soon in Canada!!

Over the past little while, William has started to grip things, not just fingers placed in his. For example, when you burp him, he’ll grip onto your clothing or hair or necklace! Sometimes it’s hard to make him let go! Or he’ll grab his hair or his ear, so I think he’s trying to learn what his hands do. Also, sometimes when I’m feeding him, if he’s really excited and hungry, he’ll put his little hands (in fists) up to the bottle as if holding it in place, to make sure you don’t let it go or take it away. It’s extremely cute!

He still likes to be held a lot and it seems to comfort him and help him deal with his gas. He still needs to burp a lot. He gets mad when you burp him during the early part of his feeding, because it takes him away from his food! Sometimes he will be very mad indeed, which is no fun at all at 3 a.m., to have a mad baby screaming in your ear when all you want to do is sleep. But as soon as you position him horizontally again, he calms right down, knowing that he will soon be fed again!! Sometimes when he’s draped over your shoulder, he’ll get impatient at not being fed and he’ll start sucking on his wrist/arm or on your clothing or skin. Right now he is eating anywhere from about 3-5 oz. per feeding, and feedings occur every 2 to 4 hours or so. We’re hoping he’ll start to sleep through the night better, so we can get more sleep. He does okay after the first feeding, but seems to get gas after the second feeding, and gets fidgety when in his pack & play, so we’ll have to hold him, sometimes for a long while.

I really love the little guy!

I didn’t really experience a lot of post-partum depression or baby blues. I was a little bit nervous about taking care of him, though that was mostly because when we took him from the hospital he had lost weight and wasn’t eating very well. So I was scared that he wouldn’t eat well or gain weight. Other than that and other little daily worries, I felt surprisingly confident about bringing this new little life home and being able to care for him and meet all his needs. I really surprised myself in that respect.

I only felt somewhat sad for the first couple of weeks about no longer being pregnant. I guess I’d been pregnant for so long that I’d gotten used to it, discomfort and all. What was it about being pregnant that I missed? When pregnant, I always had this little life with me, carrying him around, so it was like being in constant contact with someone; it was very intimate and only I was privy to his movements, etc. It was like having a wonderful little secret between me and my baby—a bond between us. He was just part of me. The other thing I missed was that, when pregnant, I got a lot of attention and smiles and felt very special. And now I was just “me” again.

Another thing that made me feel sad was that I just love William so much and (morbid me!) I know he will have to die some day and it almost breaks my heart that he has to be mortal or ever experience pain of any kind, etc. I would love to be able to keep him from having any bad thing every happen to him, but I know that he will have to fall down sometimes, so that he can learn how to get up and fend for himself and get stronger. It will just pain me when those learning experiences happen.

Darryl & I really love our little boy a lot! He’s changed so much since we brought him home: his head has gotten bigger, he’s opening his eyes really wide and looking at things (the ceiling fan spinning around, the blinds, his mobile), he’s doing a lot more stuff with his hands not in fists and although he doesn’t know how to use his fingers he seems a lot more dexterous now, his eyes will follow your fingers if you move them across his field of view, and he always looks at you when he’s being fed. I call him my munch-monster.
Sometimes William snores, which is very cute.

When William’s in our room and he’s being fed, or being burped, he likes to stare at this black & white poster of Greta Garbo that is hanging over my side of the bed, so I like to say that Greta Garbo is his girlfriend.