Tonight we went out for the first time since Baby! I suppose that's some sort of red-letter day: we went out while Karston stayed home with my mother. In fact, he wore himself out early today, and slept the whole time we were gone. I didn't miss bouncing him in a restaurant to keep him quiet instead of eating my food, but I did miss our typical cuddles. Daddy said he wasn't very cuddly today, though, so I probably didn't miss much.
We went to Barry's retirement dinner. Barry's worked with the Networking group since it started. I even stood up during the speeches to chime in with my thanks. If he, and the people who work for him, didn't do such a consistently good job, I wouldn't love my job nearly as much because I would be plagued with installation problems, like bad cables. Starting off with excellence means that many networking problems can be avoided. If you want pesky problems, buy no-name NICs and cables from Fred's NIC Knack Shop. However, when I've gone to conferences, I've learned that I'm lucky to work with Barry because most people who do what I do (network management) aren't nearly as fortunate.
PS: if you run across a bad cable, do not put it back to annoy the next person! Test the cable in an otherwise known good configuration, and destroy it if it's still bad. (If it's an Ethernet cable, make sure it's a standard cable and not crossover, or vice versa.) Some people stand on one connector and yank to get out their frustration, although I usually just take the scissors to it. If I don't have time to test a cable, I tape a note to it that it may be bad. Don't share the headache of a bad cable!
Friday, January 27, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Yes We Have No Bananas
Well, I thought we'd try bananas as the next food, especially since that's an easy baby food to make myself, but every banana deposit today came back. So maybe we'll skip bananas for a while, maybe for a long while. I made tasty banana muffins instead.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
More. Food.
What a difference a week makes! We've been saying that "he's a new baby to learn every week" for a long time now, but secretly I thought the pace was slowing down. Wrong! The day before yesterday, we had to make an emergency run to the store for more baby rice cereal. I just wasn't prepared for the small box that we bought six weeks ago, back in the ancient history of four months old, to be empty. Karston was so slow to start eating (anything other than my milk or formula) that the rice cereal seemed endless. Then suddenly, BAM!, the end of the first box of rice cereal! Here we are, two days into the new box of cereal, and Karston's already eaten half of it. If you blinked, you missed his transition to food.
Yesterday he went on a nursing strike. He's only refused breast twice before. (He loves spending time with Daddy, and Daddy brought bottles. I didn't feel rejected because I think it's adorable that Karston loves his Daddy and wants to spend time with him.) We had a loud hungry morning yesterday before I decided that trying everything meant I should try a spoon as well. And Karston let me feed him with a spoon! I was so surprised, I barely knew what to do! I should have remembered that "he's a new baby to learn every week," but I thought I knew the feeding routine. Feeding him with a spoon takes longer, but he watched me raptly! I felt special to be allowed to feed him ... I'm sure this fairy dust will wear off with a few more goobers of rice and milk, but we enjoyed Spoon Time.
So today (keep up with us here folks, he's changing rapidly) we tried his second food, sweet potatoes! Daddy and I don't like sweet potatoes, but I selected that vegetable for a different reason. I went through all of the stage 1 foods at the store three days ago, a store that didn't have rice cereal when we knew we were LOW, precipitating our emergency run to re-stock the next day. I wanted a fruit (prunes), a vegetable (sweet potatoes), and a meat (turkey). After applesauce, my favorite, I picked out the other baby foods based on which ones had the most calories because Karston's in the 5th percentile for weight. And despite the recent crack I heard in response to that ("well, so are his parents" -- although we're normal-sized), I'll just feel better if I know he's not skinny because I'm starving him. Daddy has said before that he wished water had calories so he didn't have to eat food, so I think getting a high calorie density into my two boys (without ballooning up myself, and without cooking different meals for each of us) is important. As a side note on that, I got excited the first time I saw AquaCal bottled water. It's calcium-fortified water, but my first thought was that it was water with calories! Finally someone made water with calories for Kurtis! Alas, just calcium. Which is probably a good idea, and I'm probably the only person who (a) thought AquaCal meant water with calories, or at least (b) thought that was a good idea somehow. Karston says sweet potatoes are not rice cereal, and he makes funny faces about it.
I feel like he's all grown up now. He no longer nurses himself to sleep. In fact, he no longer nurses during the day when he can get fed food (not my milk or formula). He already gave up his bottle, and he thinks cups are fascinating. He's not co-ordinated enough for a sippy cup yet, but I know that transition will rush up on me, so I have two in stock, and one is currently a "toy" for him. And he gave up his pacifier. And he did all of that on his own! My mind boggles. I'm just here to hold him up so he can do his stompy dance, to feed him from a spoon, and to change those diapers.
Yesterday he went on a nursing strike. He's only refused breast twice before. (He loves spending time with Daddy, and Daddy brought bottles. I didn't feel rejected because I think it's adorable that Karston loves his Daddy and wants to spend time with him.) We had a loud hungry morning yesterday before I decided that trying everything meant I should try a spoon as well. And Karston let me feed him with a spoon! I was so surprised, I barely knew what to do! I should have remembered that "he's a new baby to learn every week," but I thought I knew the feeding routine. Feeding him with a spoon takes longer, but he watched me raptly! I felt special to be allowed to feed him ... I'm sure this fairy dust will wear off with a few more goobers of rice and milk, but we enjoyed Spoon Time.
So today (keep up with us here folks, he's changing rapidly) we tried his second food, sweet potatoes! Daddy and I don't like sweet potatoes, but I selected that vegetable for a different reason. I went through all of the stage 1 foods at the store three days ago, a store that didn't have rice cereal when we knew we were LOW, precipitating our emergency run to re-stock the next day. I wanted a fruit (prunes), a vegetable (sweet potatoes), and a meat (turkey). After applesauce, my favorite, I picked out the other baby foods based on which ones had the most calories because Karston's in the 5th percentile for weight. And despite the recent crack I heard in response to that ("well, so are his parents" -- although we're normal-sized), I'll just feel better if I know he's not skinny because I'm starving him. Daddy has said before that he wished water had calories so he didn't have to eat food, so I think getting a high calorie density into my two boys (without ballooning up myself, and without cooking different meals for each of us) is important. As a side note on that, I got excited the first time I saw AquaCal bottled water. It's calcium-fortified water, but my first thought was that it was water with calories! Finally someone made water with calories for Kurtis! Alas, just calcium. Which is probably a good idea, and I'm probably the only person who (a) thought AquaCal meant water with calories, or at least (b) thought that was a good idea somehow. Karston says sweet potatoes are not rice cereal, and he makes funny faces about it.
I feel like he's all grown up now. He no longer nurses himself to sleep. In fact, he no longer nurses during the day when he can get fed food (not my milk or formula). He already gave up his bottle, and he thinks cups are fascinating. He's not co-ordinated enough for a sippy cup yet, but I know that transition will rush up on me, so I have two in stock, and one is currently a "toy" for him. And he gave up his pacifier. And he did all of that on his own! My mind boggles. I'm just here to hold him up so he can do his stompy dance, to feed him from a spoon, and to change those diapers.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Sleep Skills and First Food
We didn't make it a full week, but we had five days out of six of good sleep, starting on Karston's 6-month birthday. He was sleeping about five hours before nursing once in the middle of the night, and nursing again to wake up at 7 or 7:30 AM. After the first good night, we went to the pediatrician who said I shouldn't nurse Karston to sleep. I wasn't sure I wanted to mess with a routine that was finally working, but the following night, Karston wouldn't nurse before bed. So I set him down awake, and he's been going to bed without complaint and without nursing to sleep ever since! I guess he listened to his doctor!
I was really surprised he hasn't nursed at all just before bed because he's been voracious recently. He'll eat some rice cereal now, and we've had to supplement him with infant formula because I just can't keep up! He nurses when he can, and he has rice cereal mixed with formula when he's still hungry. In fact, he's finally doing well enough with the rice cereal, and with the spoon, that we gave him some applesauce today! So Karston's first food is applesauce because that was my favorite as a baby. He literally recoiled at the taste of it, but he loves the attention from Daddy, so he ate it anyway. (He won't take a spoon from me, and he stares pointedly at my chest while keeping his mouth shut. I have to put his formula and rice in a bottle.) In fact, he did so well on formula that I had to make an emergency run to the store today to get more! And so the food saga begins!
I was really surprised he hasn't nursed at all just before bed because he's been voracious recently. He'll eat some rice cereal now, and we've had to supplement him with infant formula because I just can't keep up! He nurses when he can, and he has rice cereal mixed with formula when he's still hungry. In fact, he's finally doing well enough with the rice cereal, and with the spoon, that we gave him some applesauce today! So Karston's first food is applesauce because that was my favorite as a baby. He literally recoiled at the taste of it, but he loves the attention from Daddy, so he ate it anyway. (He won't take a spoon from me, and he stares pointedly at my chest while keeping his mouth shut. I have to put his formula and rice in a bottle.) In fact, he did so well on formula that I had to make an emergency run to the store today to get more! And so the food saga begins!
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Pediatrician: Six Months
We went to the pediatrician again this morning. Karston officially weighs 14 pounds 7.4 ounces for 25 1/4 inches long, which is about the 5th percentile for both. Other than his chubby baby thighs, he does look skinny as babies go! When you combine those two, he's around the 25th percentile for his weight-to-length ratio. Since he wants to be held so often, I really don't mind having a lightweight baby! His head circumference is up to 16 3/4 inches, near the 25th percentile just like all of his doctor visits after the first month. Anyway, he's healthy and vaccinated. The pediatrician also said we need to get serious about making the house as baby-safe as possible because mobility is just around the corner. We're allowed to introduce single fruits and vegetables now, even though rice cereal isn't going down in large quantities. He often won't take a spoon from me (and his eyes make it obvious what he would rather that I feed him), but Daddy says you know he's done eating when he gets some distance sending the food back at you or when he won't open his mouth. So I'm sure it gets a lot messier from here ...
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Six Months
Karston is six months old today! (And he was 26 weeks old Sunday.) It feels as though six months ought to be a landmark. Actually, my mother says that means his spleen is working now, and that means his immune system is running. It sound like good news to me, so we opened a bottle of champagne and hopped in the hot tub (we missed sunset, which was the original plan). Karston thinks the hot tub is OK, but that could be because he gets so much adult attention and constant holding. We're watching out for his safety, and he loves the limelight. We all went in the hot tub for the first time on the first, and it was a very relaxing start to the new year.
He's got so much personality now! Mostly we see happy, thrilled, hungry, tired, or fussing either for holding or for a diaper change. That sounds easier than it is, because he also needs to fill his brain which means we have to give him that safely supervised opportunity. We put batteries in his Intelli-tainer this weekend because he seemed ready to do more than stand in it. Yesterday he just scratched the buttons because he was there, this morning he was pushing the closest buttons on purpose, and this evening he was reaching everywhere to see what else, like a button, would make something happen. He even found one button that I hadn't! Mostly we're happy and learning, parents and child!
He's got so much personality now! Mostly we see happy, thrilled, hungry, tired, or fussing either for holding or for a diaper change. That sounds easier than it is, because he also needs to fill his brain which means we have to give him that safely supervised opportunity. We put batteries in his Intelli-tainer this weekend because he seemed ready to do more than stand in it. Yesterday he just scratched the buttons because he was there, this morning he was pushing the closest buttons on purpose, and this evening he was reaching everywhere to see what else, like a button, would make something happen. He even found one button that I hadn't! Mostly we're happy and learning, parents and child!
Monday, January 02, 2006
... and a Sleepy New Year!
I guess Karston wanted to keep his Christmas present to us special by keeping us awake. He was awake to see 2006, even though we were perfectly happy to let the new year roll in while we spent quality time with head on pillow. In fact, he stayed up until 1 AM, a whole hour after the new year ... and then he repeated that performance the next night. This is not how I planned to spend my vacation, staying up late and getting up several times during the night. As long as Daddy, Mommy, and Baby are all happy and healthy, I don't want to complain, so I'll just say I'm really looking forward to Karston sleeping through the night eventually! I do enjoy spending time with him as he is now ... but I also plan to enjoy later stages, with more sleep!
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