Reports of well-restedness were too premature

Well from the gaps in posting, you might have gathered that we've been otherwise occupied... and do I mean OCCUPIED! The first week or so, we actually got plenty of sleep, but in the past few days, boy has that changed. It's not that she's doesn't sleep--it's just she doesn't FALL asleep. After working for hours to get her to fall asleep, we're not too eager to risk waking her up by laying her down in her crib. The other night, I put her in a zip-up snowsuit so I could lay her down and not disturb her when I laid her down. That worked for her but not for me. Since the suit had a hood and since I'm a paranoid new-parent, I just KNEW the hood was going to smother her. I was constantly getting up to make sure she was still breathing and when I was able to fall asleep, I had dreams where I couldn't breathe, which woke me up to rush in and check on Lucy. Jeesh, now I know why people hire night nannies!

New milestone

Well, our last doctor's visit marked a new milestone in my life. Lucy was getting her 1-week checkup, which included getting weighed (and by the way, she gained almost ONE POUND... yes a 14% gain in only 7 days! Although I'm thinking I could probably accomplish that feat if I lived off cream, too.) Anyway, when babies get weighed, they have to be stripped naked (which the fortunately don't require for adults... that would ruin my "I'm weighing my lead-lined pants" excuse). Well Lucy HATED this and right after the weighing, I, being the inexperienced father that I am, picked her up to console her, only to be repaid for my empathy with a dousing of urine all down my shirt!

Fortunately urine is sterile, or my germaphobia would have required that I drive home from the doctor's office shirtless. As it was, I totally forgot about the incident until I was taking off my shirt that night for a shower and realized that it was the urine-coated one. Despite knowing that the urine was quite benign, it still made me cringe.

WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME!?!

Training wheels

Oy! Last night was our first night flying solo with the new baby. Prior to that, Margaret's mom was visiting, and (being a grandmother who couldn't get enough holding time with the baby anyway) slept in the same room as the baby. Our nights consisted of going to bed around 10 or so, getting up around 2 and 6 for feedings, and passing the baby back to grandma before going back to bed. People were surprised to see how well-rested we looked, but it was all a passing treat.

That WASN'T the routine last night. After staying up with the baby for several hours, with her drifting off only to be startled awake by the sound of dust falling on the carpet or something even LESS noisy, she'd by screaming again. I finally got her to sleep and then didn't dare move for fear that the slight vibration of me moving my hand from her back would start the fussing all over again. Needless to say, Margaret regretted that Diet Pepsi she drank late yesterday afternoon! Now we know that caffeine is a very fickle goddess.

Wonders of modern medicine

Well, after nine months of waiting, our little girl was born on Wednesday... right on her due date! (Which is a good thing, given how impatient both Margaret and I are. We even asked about induction two weeks before the due date... we were THAT ready!) It was quite amazing and lots of aspects of the delivery made me thankful for the marvels of modern medicine. Epidurals, induction accelerators, on-demand Diet Coke for the now mothers, and iced diapers for soreness. Yes, you heard me right... iced diapers. The nurses take the tiny newborn diapers, pour them full of clean water, then freeze them. Trust me in that all the women that had access to them right after delivery ABSOLUTELY LOVED THEM... probably more than their husbands at that instant. We were talking about how useful they would be to just keep on hand for all sorts of bumps and bruises, as they have the benefit of staying dry after they've melted. When I was telling this to my grandmother, she remarked, "And they would be great for new brides, too!" Well, yes they would. (And in this day and age, lots of teenagers, too!)

Anyway, we're home now, completely addicted to just staring at our little bee. She's AMAZING! She's very advanced for her age, too. She got yellow poo when she was two days old, when most babies don't get it until they are 3 to 5. Yes, high hopes for this little one.

Sacrifices

Yesterday, I passed a new milestone in my life. Margaret wasn't feeling up to venturing out of the house. Being THREE DAYS FROM HER DUE DATE really takes it out of her. But that didn't stop her nesting instinct, as she's been busy sewing liners, curtains, blankets, and reproduction 15th-century hoop-skirted party dresses. We'd bought some baskets at Ikea and she decided to dress them up with a custom designed flannel liner. Well, after making the liner, she decided that it needed something to finish off the piece and found some ribbon to go around the edge. The only problem was she didn't have enough ribbon for all the baskets and since she didn't feel like going out, that left me as the only option to getting some more... at the fabric store... BY MYSELF! Yes, I had to brave Jo-Ann Fabrics alone. I felt like the guy in Into the Wild. In fact at one point I was so overwhelmed in the yarn section that I almost gnawed my own arm off in panic. And to make matters worse, I wasn't given a specific item to buy; I had to use my own judgement and pick a color of ribbon myself. And just my luck, the store's valium bar for men was already closed for the evening. In the end, I just grabbed an entire rainbow of colors to bring back for Margaret to pick herself. Now we'll have so much left-over ribbon that we'll use it to tie our recyclables and floss our teeth.

And for the record, I never want to go to a fabric store unaccompanied ever again.

Obviously a product of the American education system

Check out this sign at the San Francisco protests against the Olympic torch.



Hmmm. Let's ask Jesse Owens.

Zoltar KNOWS!

We rent our videos at the Hollywood Video down the street from us. It's a pretty eclectic collection they have there, too. They get all the counterculture documentaries and angsty gay films, which is what you'd expect on Hawthorne Avenue. What's more puzzling, though, is they carry all the latest Mormon comedies? What's up with that? And lots of times, those films are never in... not that we've tried to rent Mormons and Mobsters over five times but it's NEVER in. (Maybe it's how people are getting their Sopranos fix now that the series is ended.)

Anyway, Hollywood Video now offers a service called "Zoltar," which is a database that takes your previous rental history and offers suggestions of what you would like. We tried at and I was impressed, then mortified by some of the suggestions. Check these out:

Television
Arrested Development-good suggestion, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I've never seen this show but I think Zoltar got it right that I'd like it.
Big Love-All those Mormon comedies we rent must have tipped Zoltar off that we knew a thing or two about Utah.

Okay, now here's where it gets embarrassing. Check out these suggestions:

Comedy
The Prince & Me 2: The Royal Wedding-?!?!?! Wha? We didn't even rent The Prince & Me 1: The Formulaic Romance!
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen-Huh? I can't even imagine what would have prompted THAT suggestion!
Ella Enchanted-Okay, seriously! I think Zoltar thinks we're a fourteen-year-old girl. Rent High School Musical ONE TIME and look what it gets you!

On a brighter note, we can rent one of Zoltar's suggestions for free! I think we'll get Win a Date with Tad Hamilton Resident Evil.

Manna from heaven

Can you imagine anything more glorious than being caught in a Diet Coke rainstorm? Check out this picture from the biggest Mentos-dropped-in-Coke explosion EVER! Although if it were me, I wouldn't have worn the raincoat and just looked up with an open mouth and a funnel in the hopes of drinking the sweetest rain in the history of rain! As it was, all those hooded raincoats makes the scene look more like some druidic sacrifice to Seltzer, the god of carbonation.

You can read about the event (including more pictures) here. And it happened in a town in Belgium where a good friend of our lives, so Pam, when you read this, let me know in a comment if you got in on the action or saw the Coke River flowing through Leuven.

In case you weren't feeling inadequate enough

I ran across this quote today that made me feel like I really don't have an excuse to get things done:

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein. — H. Jackson Brown

No pressure! So maybe I should commit to work on a couple of masterpieces, inventing nuclear bombs, feeding starving children... and sleeping with a slave.

Prepare to cringe

Okay, not to be completely fixated on baby stuff, but yesterday I stumbled upon this video when I was getting the diaper change video and just had to share it. WARNING! This video may cause former or currently nursing women to cross their arms over their breasts, fall to the floor curled up in a ball, and mumble "they're mine... they're Mine... they're MINE" over and over--just a forewarning).

Speaking of which, that reminds me of a time in Norway when we were visiting a church member that was living with a guy. After talking about the law of chastity one time, the next visit she excitedly told us that for the past week whenever her boyfriend started getting amorous in bed, she crossed her arms over her chest and said no. I'm sure her boyfriend LOVED when we visited after that. This was the same member whose three-year-old wanted to nurse one time while we were visiting and so walked over to her mother and pulled open her snap button shirt for access. Oops!

By the way, I think a good rule of thumb is that if your child asks you to sit sideways so she can watch CSI while she nurses, it's time to wean her.