It's Important to Take Time Out to Have Fun With Your Friends, Particularly if They Spend Considerable Time Doing Your Bidding

You may wonder what I've been up to for the past 9 weeks that has kept me from blogging ... or maybe not.  It should come as no surprise that we've been busy adjusting to parenthood.  And I do mean adjusting.  Our living room is no longer the cool adult hangout it once was - a swing, a bouncer, and an activity mat have taken up permanent residence in here.  There's a Boppy nursing pillow hooked over the back of one of my grandfather's vintage chairs.  There's a large, floppy, teddy bear cushion draped over the back of the couch.  All of the throw pillows have been banished to the guest room to make room for the Boppys (nursing and lounging ... that's right, we have two), the bear cushion, and various quilts for Jones to lay on.  The jogging stroller is residing in the dining room.  The kitchen counter has two different drying racks for bottles and bottle accessories.  Our cool, grown-up bedroom has another swing in it, the car seat resting by my beloved vintage slipper chair that I found for $12 at a flea market, and a pack and play has taken the place of the bench my husband built in college.  And you know what?  It doesn't bother me at all.  Because the trade off of losing some of the cool factor is that Alan and I get to have this little fella:

Precious, no?  I know when he's in a deep sleep because he puts his arms above his head.  Observe:

This picture was taken shortly after he started screaming, I think because he was overstimulated from playing in his activity gym:





We are starting to get the hang of parenting.  I'm learning all of Jones' cues.  For example, right before he really starts wailing (like, really, really wailing, so you know he's serious) he makes this funny little noise.  I can't describe it accurately in words, but I'll try:  it's like if you put your tongue up against your teeth, only open your mouth a little bit, and then pant a little:  hee hee hee, but with some wetness behind it?  I don't know.  And I don't like for my baby to be screaming or upset, but I will admit that that little sound cracks me up.  Alan and I can both imitate it really well by now, so if you want a demonstration, just ask one of us the next time you see us out and about. 

I've also learned about some must-haves (at least, in my brief experience and opinion) for taking care of a new baby:



1.  Bedtime Bath Lotion - laugh all you want, but this stuff works.  Calms him down, conks him out.  If you want extra ammo, bathe him first with the Bedtime Bath Wash and then lotion him up.  Out like a light, and it really smells good.

2.  Arm & Hammer Diaper Pail - I love this so much, that the last two baby showers I have attended, this is the gift I have given those expectant parents, and it's the gift I intend to give at every baby shower I attend from here on out.  Keeps everything smell-free and contained, no assembly required, easy to use.

3.  Gas Relief Drops - the first time I got Jones to sleep for more than 3 hours at a clip, I gave him a dose of these.  I woke up four and a half hours later in confusion (why do I feel rested?).  I credit these drops.  If Jones is unhappy and nothing seems to be helping, these will generally solve the problem.  I try not to use them all of the time, but they really do work, and I figure:  why let the little fella suffer (and Alan and I along with him) (also, did you notice that I now think that four and a half hours of sleep qualifies as "rested"? ... parenthood:  it changes your perspective on just about everything)?

4.  Bouncer - as much as I would like to hold Jones all of the time, that's not practical (a gal's got to shower, eat, clean the house, make bottles, go to the bathroom, etc.).  This bouncer has been the answer.  I usually rock him to sleep in his room and then (very carefully) deposit him in the bouncer and move it around with me while I get stuff done.  This bouncer allowed me to take my first relaxing bath since we came home from the hospital.  I tucked him into it, set it by the tub, and proceeded to take a relaxing hot bath and catch up on my Vogue and Shape subscriptions.  So, you know, I'm a devotee of this thing.  And Jones loves it (what's not to love, as my dad pointed out:  cushy, vibrating chair that plays soothing music?  Sign me up).

5.  Moby Wrap - I really mean any sort of sling or baby carrier besides a car seat.  I can't handle the car seat on my own, really.  That is to say, I can't carry it around for very long.  Call me weak, but once you put a 9 pound baby (that's right, Big Haas is up to 9 pounds!  We're so proud ... he managed to more than double his birth weight in less than 2 months, and he's not showing any signs of slowing down, which is awesome!) in a contraption that weighs 10 - 15 pounds on it's own, add to the fact that you have to carry it sort of away from the body (requiring some awesome arm muscles which, sadly, I do not have), it's next to impossible for me.  So, the Moby Wrap is great.  Jones loves it too.  He snuggles right in and goes to sleep.  The only down side I can find is that he gets hot in there.  I may buy another sling for the summer, something a little lighter, more breathable.  But the Moby is very secure - I'm not worried he's going to slide out or anything, and I might worry about that with a different one ... we'll see.

6.  Glider - this is really the only sure-fire way to calm Jones down if he is really wound up.  We go in his rom and rock, rock, rock.  It's so peaceful (I love his room, but it's still a work in progress.  Still working on the art work.  I'll post pics as soon as it's done, I promise) in his room, it's quickly become my favorite place in the house (it gets the best light, we've discovered).  We just rock and rock.  Sometimes I sing (no lullabies, mostly because I don't know any ... Jones seems to like the Rolling Stones ("Wild Horses" and "You Can't Always Get What You Want") and Jimmy Buffett ("Banana Republic", "A Pirate Looks at 40", and "The Jolly Mon" are favorites ... I tend to sing the more obscure ballads that you would only know if you were a serious Buffett fan), and Joe Cocker's version of "Bye Bye Blackbird" and the acoustic guitar version of "Hey Ya") and sometimes I read to him - we've read The Little Engine That Could, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Runaway Bunny, Soonie and the Dragon, The Cat in the Hat, and Are You My Mother? and we are currently working our way through the Harry Potter series.  I'm a big reader, and I hope Jones will be too.  I'm already looking forward to reading all of the Roald Dahl books I loved when I was little (Matilda, The BFG, The Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and all of the Beverly Cleary books (Henry Huggins, Beezus and Ramona).

7.  Grandparents - both my parents and Alan's parents have been so helpful.  My mom has kept Jones for me a couple of times so I could do some work (aaaahhhh, the life of the self-employed attorney ... no maternity leave in the traditional sense, plus with the crazy way Jones came into the world, with all of my hospital stays and his prematurity and everything, I wasn't able to get a lot of work things taken care of that I had planned on not having to worry about, so I'm having to worry with them now, while I'm home with the baby), both my mom and Alan's mom came and stayed with us during the first weeks of Jones being home and that was a huge help.  I enjoyed the company, and it was nice to be able to recover and get some rest right at the beginning.  All of the grandparents are great sources of information, too.  You can always count on good, experienced advice on everything from whether or not the baby has a fever to how to get him to burp, to how to get him to go to sleep, or, in the absence of advice, a nice shoulder to cry on.  

8.  The afore-mentioned floppy bear cushion thing (don't you love my descriptors?) - he loves it, probably because it's very soft and plush.  He lays on this when he isn't feeling the bouncer or the swing (sometimes a fella just wants to lay).  It's also good for tummy time or play time when he's not happy with the activity gym, and this is also where he was when he first rolled over (I hope this video works ... it's the first time I've tried to post a video to the blog, so we'll see):

The rolling over may have been a fluke.  He's only 9 weeks old, and he hasn't done it again since this video was taken on Sunday night.  He tries all of the time though, when we have tummy time on the mat or the bear, so I'm sure he'll do it again, I just don't know that we can claim victory as far as Jones being able to roll over at will.  But he did do it - I didn't help him, he did it himself, so we were proud, of course.  Plus, I'm glad he had on this cute little outfit with the frog on the butt (thanks Aunt Kim, Uncle Ricky and Cousin Jonah!) - it adds to the cuteness, right?!

9.  The Swing - I would post a video of him swinging in it, struggling to keep his little eyes open, but I haven't gotten to taking that yet, so that'll have to wait for another day.  Jones' swing is the Fisher Price My Little Snugabunny Cradle-n-Swing:

I like that the bouncer and swing "match" (hello OCD!), but this is great because it goes side to side and front to back (two different ways) has a tone of music, the mobile moves (Jones loves mobiles - we have one over his pack and play and he loves to watch it), and, best of all, it comes with an AC adapter so you don't have to constantly replenish the batteries in it.  This is a good thing to have because, like I said before, as much as I would like to hold and/or rock Jones all of the time, it's not always practical, and when he's craving movement or being rocked and I can't (for whatever reason), this usually does the trick.
It would probably be best if I had 10 things, right?  Lists are usually better if they're in tens, but this is all I've got right now.  Anywho, that's what we've been up to the last nine weeks, and I'm sure it's what we'll be up to for many weeks to follow.  I hope y'all don't get bored with pics of Jones ... I'm still working on good pics with the spoiled labradors, but it's a slow process.  It will probably require more skill than just myself alone to get a good pic of all three of them (you have no idea how long it took me to get the pic of the dogs in front of the gardenia bush ... suffice to say:  a lllllloooonnnngggggg time, but I think it was worth it).  So, I'll leave you with one more pic of the little guy:

This is my favorite thing:  having him snuggled up against me, head on my chest.  Love it.