Thursday, June 25, 2009

Jabba Jabba Jabba Do Do Do!

I LOVE MY BABY!!!!

Friday, June 19, 2009

7 Quick Takes

Another blog that I just started reading does this 7 quick takes Friday thing, so I will do it too. Enjoy.

Since there are quite a few new readers this week, I wanted to take a moment to invite you all to join us in 7 Quick Takes Friday tomorrow. It's the simplest blog carnival on the web: just list seven thoughts that are too short for a blog post but too long for Twitter.




1. (You may want to read yesterday's post before this one) The alarm wasn't finished going off.
Although it was outside, ripped out of the wall and all attaching wires, and smashed with a hammer, the little box was waiting for me. It must have a motion sensor on it or something because I stepped outside and it started squealing again! I finally called the company and begged for their help. I picked up the chirping alarm and the man on the phone told me to put a screwdriver into the faceplate and remove it. When I did this, the alarm went off again, this time louder than before (honestly, how many different noises can this thing make?) The man on the phone says, "oh, I didn't know it was armed." I told him, "yeah, thats why we need it to stop working, it keeps going off" So he told me how to open it and cut the battery wires. This time he promised me it would not be bothering us anymore.

2. I really enjoy breastfeeding. I love holding Clark and looking at his face partially mashed into my boob. He suckles, he smiles, he grunts, he falls asleep, he smiles some more. I can view his pretty eyelashes and his hair swirls. He grabs his ear, my bra strap or flings his arm across his eyes or my chest. I know some women have problems in the beginning, some babies have problems latching, some women have problems whipping their ladies out in public. but not me, I feel like I could breastfeed him forever.

3. the show Wife Swap is very interesting. It really shows the watcher how every mom thinks what they do is the best. It is funny to me that the moms who over schedule their children (even though they are well intentioned) always come back to their homes with revolt against the schedule. AND the moms who live in crazy houses: swamp house, halloween house, motorcycle house, tend to come home and find that their husbands now help clean up more, but their kids hated the other mom and love their crazy house mom the best.

4. Do other parents have a sensor that lets them know when a baby is crying? Mine goes off all of the time. It is going off right now, but I have the monitor on and MY baby is not making any noise. It must be the neighbors.

5. Do parents who co-sleep get any REM sleep? Do they dream? The few times I do it, I always sleep like crap because I am afraid of hurting my boy. Last night I did it because I was sick and I'm tired of getting up to nurse him all of the time. I forgot he was there and I wacked him in the head. He slept through it, and I slept like crap.

6. I enjoy blogging but I wonder if anyone ever reads it, and I wonder who those people are. I mainly write this blog for my mother and post things that would be interesting to her. Everyone else that reads it is Lagniappe.

7. Hey! I hear my baby making noise now, maybe the radar came on early so I would be ready! haha! Also, does anyone else name all of their future babies in their head? Ever since we had Clark I've been naming all of my other, future childen. It is annoying and I wish I could do something else with my time up in there!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

What I have learned so far as a parent, is that once you get used to something, it changes.




Num Yummy!


So much has been going on around here that all of our posts have been lazy posts, mostly photos, not many words. While Clark is asleep, I will attempt to make an un-lazy post for you all.
BUT FIRST A FUNNY STORY:
Last night the power went out in the house due to thunderstorms in the area. Something started beeping so I got out of bed (it was ~5am and I had already gotten up to feed Clark once) to investigate. The noise was coming from downstairs, so I went down. It was coming from our burgler alarm - ahem- the alarm that was installed when we bought the house and have never used and have been unsuccessful in disarming properly. I mashed the buttons on it, "alarm disarmed" came the robot reply.
I went back to bed, told Tom what happened, and tried to sleep. It started beeping again. Now it was Tom's turn to investigate. He mashes the buttons. He apparently mashes the wrong ones, and a real alarm starts going off.
It is really loud. I fumble downstairs to help. I mash the buttons, but it doesn't work. Tom tries to find an off switch or something. He suggests calling the number on the machine. It is 5am, I'm sick, the baby is asleep.... so I take action. I hold the machine and rip it off of the wall. It comes off, but its still attached by wires I am now pulling out of the wall, but the alarm is still going off. "Cut them!!" I shout! Tom grabs some scissors and cuts the wires. The alarm is STILL going off. I bring the machine outside and put it on our porch face down to muffle the noise. The baby is crying. I think that the alarm problem is solved. Tom insists that the noise will wake our neighbors, so he takes a hammer and smashes the box until the alarm goes off.
The baby is crying, I go upstairs and nurse him back to sleep. Tom and I go back to bed. I'm sick, so I stay in bed until the afternoon. Tom calls around 1pm. We talk for a while, he mentions the story I have told you above. I had totally forgotten about it! Tom says that he told the story to his co-workers who tell him that he destroyed a $500 piece of equipment. They were asking why we didn't try to get it really disarmed when we bought the place.. who knows? I was pregnant, we were busy, but I do know that it won't give us anymore trouble! HaHa!

STATS:
Clark is now 3 months old, almost 15 weeks. I think he is just over 25 inches and maybe weights about 18 lbs. He is a big guy, but not too fat. We are noticing that his legs are getting fatter, but his face seems to be slimming down into a little boy face. Andrea (tom's sis) told me once that a baby's face changes about 8 times in their first year. I was looking at pictures of him from his birth and really can't remember him looking like that. We still think he is pretty cute.

Night SLEEPING:
Clark has gone through phases of sleeping. He used to amaze all parents everywhere by occasionally sleeping 8 hours through the night. Now it seems he is waking more and more often. He used to go to sleep around 9 or 10, now our range is 8 to 10. If he goes down at 8, then he is likely to wake up by 10 to eat again, then awake sometime between 2:30 and 5am, then again between 6 and 8am depending on when he got up in the middle of the night. I'm not sure why he is waking more.
Here are some possible suspects: Is he sleeping too much in the daytime? Is he hungry and ready to start solids? We are trying to switch to cloth diapers at night and his diaper is wet? He has kicked himself out of his swaddle? He has scootched himself into the crib bars and is banging his head? He has kicked himself out of his swaddle and got his leg stuck in the crib bars?
All of these things are possible, it may be a combination of things.

Day Sleeping:
Right now, Clark is a good day sleeper. He typically sleeps for an hour on, and an hour off, but it looks like that is changing. He seems to be staying up for about 1.5-2.5 hours in some parts of the day and then taking a longer nap later to make up for it. When I put him down after he has been up for more than an hour, it takes more work on my part to get him to sleep. It is funny, however, how he will be crazy and thrashing, and then unconsious minutes later.

This is a development chart from babycenter.com


Child's Age

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
1 month Lifts head when lying on tummy
Responds to sound
Stares at faces
• Follows objects briefly with eyes
• Vocalizes: oohs and aahs
• Can see black-and-white patterns
Smiles, laughs
• Holds head at 45-degree angle
2 months • Vocalizes: gurgles and coos
• Follows objects across field of vision
• Notices his hands
Holds head up for short periods
Smiles, laughs
• Holds head at 45-degree angle
• Makes smoother movements
Holds head steady
• Can bear weight on legs
• Lifts head and shoulders when lying on tummy (mini-pushup)
3 months Recognizes your face and scent
Holds head steady
• Visually tracks moving objects
• Squeals, gurgles, coos
• Blows bubbles
• Recognizes your voice
• Does mini-pushup
Rolls over, from tummy to back
• Turns toward loud sounds
• Can bring hands together, bats at toys

He can do the 3 month mastered skills, he is working on the mini-pushups and just did one yesterday. He doesn't really like tummy time, but I am trying to help him by putting him on a mirror so he doesnt get bored, encouraging him, and doing more in smaller doses. He doesn't really use his hand when pushing up. He cannot roll over, but he does turn towards loud sounds and will look at things when we point at them (sometimes) like in a book. He doesn't really bring his hands together yet, but he does bat at toys.
I taught him to grab things, so he is better at grabbing now, and tries to grab almost everything but not always successfull.
He also has a new awareness of his feet, and is using them to grab things as well. Maybe because they don't have as much range of motion as his arms do, he has more control of them. Here is a video of him using his feet to grab some musical instruments on his bouncy chair, and his wild arms!


He has also started slobbering more and sucking on his hands. Here is a video of him doing those things. You can see his strong back and head control in the video.





This past week his grandpa Greenwell came to visit. Here is a cute pic of them. They had a great time singing and talking to each other. Clark really loves it when people sing to him.


While grampa was here, Uncle Jake, Aunt Andrea and Cousin Sophia came over for lunch. Here is a pic of Jake and Clark.

And a cute one of Sophia and Clark from last week.


Sophia is such a big girl and can say all sorts of things now. Here is a cute interaction between her and the totally rad pink flamingo in our back yard.




All in all, we are totally in love with our little guy and can't imagine life any other way. We are really happy with the way things are going. I recently wrote up my birth story and have shared it with the birth groups I am a member of. I am thinking of teaching Bradley Childbirth Classes, and will talk to our instructor next week about the pros and cons of doing it.

Love from the Greenwells of Rockville Maryland.
Align Center

Friday, June 12, 2009

Busy, busy, busy

So we had some visitors this past weel. here are josh, ashley and little john paul at ben's chili bowl.

here's us at ben's chili bowl.
grandpa vincent got delayed in dc because of weather so he stayed with us. It was a chance for Clark to see his great grandpa.
and here is cousin sophia with clark.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Doorway Jumper





Even though Clark can't sit up and can't completely hold his head up, he is already trying to stand on his legs. He really likes standing and if you lay him down, he kicks and kicks like he would rather be standing. In light of this, and his recent scooting, I think he is strong enough for the doorway jumper. Because he can't sit upright, I propped his torso with blankets. He can put weight on his legs and kick around. He really likes it. Here are some pics and a cute video.