TMI Tuesday: Feed Me!

Every once in a while our son can be rather fussy. During those moments he can cry for a myriad of reasons but usually it revolves around food. Sometimes he is hungry while other times he is just tired. He is an odd little monkey.

Watching my wife feed our child is something beautiful to see. Those of you who have children know what I am talking about. However, there are some moments of humor during those moments that don’t take away from the experience they just add some color to the process. This is even more pronounced when someone other than his mom tries to feed him.

Regardless of who is feeding him the expressions on his face are an interesting study. I’m sure he would fit right in at the Actor’s Studio. Sometimes it can be a subtle smirk while other times it is a slight crinkle as he shifts and stretches. And, of course, there are the red faced moments when you know that an eruption is about to happen.

That is the other part… the sound effects. There is a certain amount of squeaking, grunting, and occasional burping that takes place (usually while his arms and/or legs are going) which is to be expected. There are also the time when he decides to try and communicate by stringing together those grunts and squeaks while gesturing. And, let’s not forget the aforementioned explosions that add a certain punctuation to the process. Let’s just say that our child is rather advanced in this area.

When someone else besides his mom tries to feed him there are a few other things that happen. First, he will give you the look of “what the heck are you doing?” This is followed by a quick look around for his mommy and sometimes a squint and split second cry just before the bottle is put in his mouth. Sometimes he fights the feeding while other times his hunger just takes over. But once he starts, it is pretty much the same regardless of who is feeding him at this point. However, he does seem to enjoy seeing the reaction on faces when he blasts one… mommy has gotten pretty used to it after all.

So the feeding time with baby can be interesting but mostly it is entertaining. This is especially true when he give you a surprised look of “that came out of me?” after he lets go of a good burp or fart. That is probably a look that I will always remember. Funny how the more “interesting” moments and expressions stick with you.

TMI Tuesday: Tinkle Tinkle Little Star

Well that's no fun!

That’s right, when a new baby enters your life you are sometimes guilty of too much information when talking about some of the daily (and not so daily) occurrences of living with a newborn. Well, even though I am risking the ire of my son when he gets a little older, this is the time when I will share some of those interesting moments. It may not be every week but it will certainly be on a regular basis and I am sure that there will be plenty of information, too much in fact, to share. Welcome to TMI Tuesday…

My wife and I have spent the last couple of days trying to get our heads around what has happened and all the changes in our lives. There have been times when our room seemed to have a revolving door and others when we were able to take a few breaths between the family and medical professionals walking in and out of the room. Of course there have also been a few entertaining moments in between as well.

One of the things that I am having to learn is how to change a diaper. My wife, with her previous work experience, is much more familiar with the process and a heck of a lot more efficient too. However, my skills at this point are virtually nonexistent. With that said, there have already been times when we both had to stand back and laugh at what had transpired.

A perfect example of this was earlier today when baby released a rather robust colonic announcement leaving us no alternative than to take him to his crib and see if I was improving at all in my changing abilities. While things seemed to be going much faster and I was upsetting him just a little less, it didn’t take long before baby let us know that we can’t expect each changing to go smoothly.

Shortly after we finished wiping everything off, with his rear high in the air, a steady rain began falling around our son. Yeah, we missed that part of the changing process. With a fresh sprinkle of tinkle across his chest and on his face, we grabbed a handful of wipes and cleaned him off again while trying our best to control the nearly crippling laughter that had resulted from the stream. Thankfully baby didn’t really think twice about it and we were soon getting some new clean clothes on him. We are sure that this is only the first of any and that it will probably stop being funny in the future but this time we really needed the laugh.

3-D Baby

Thursday was a hectic day which will soon be evident over the next couple of posts. But they were hectic in a good way as the early morning was a filled with coffee and anticipation at seeing our son again. It was almost as if he knew he was going to have his picture taken that morning. He was squirming from the moment we got out of bed and was pushing closer to the surface trying to get just a little bit closer.

He was calm for a time and very active at other points in the morning. Once the ultrasound began, he seemed to both want his picture taken and wanted nothing to do with the process at the same time. Of course, like the rest of the men in my family, he had his hands up and ready to block his face.

Even with all of the moving around, kicking, and punching, the nurse was able to take all the measurements that she needed… more than enough to tell us that our son is developing normally and maybe a little bit ahead of schedule. She was also able to catch him in the middle of one of his shifts with his face uncovered taking a nice 3-D image of our baby. A second later and he put his hands back up and didn’t move them away for the rest of the morning.

And now we have a face without a name. The latter will come in time but, for now, we know he takes after my side of the family both in his mannerisms and some of his facial features. And, yes, he still listens to daddy when I ask him to move, kick, etc. I am going to enjoy his cooperation while it lasts!

Kick!

 The doctor soon followed and double checked everything that had just been done and all the measurements that had been taken. Thankfully, everything was confirmed and our son is expected to be approximately 8 ½ pounds by the time his birthday comes around. While a big baby, we were expecting this as I was about the same size when I was born.

While everything has gone as smoothly as possible thus far we still have a lot of things that we need to take care of not the least of which is figuring out a few more options for his name. Other things that we are working on are pulling together his room, setting a delivery date, and bracing ourselves for the changes that are ahead. We will get them done I just don’t know when and in what order!