(no subject)

[rivka]

Colin update: We had him weighed yesterday, because our pediatrician likes to check breastfed babies' weights at one month. (Colin is five weeks old, but I figured the neurosurgery appointment was all the medical care we could stand for last week.)

If he had continued to gain about an ounce a day, he would've tipped the scales at 9 pounds, 8 ounces yesterday. Instead? TEN POUNDS. Over the last month, the boy has increased his weight by 25%.

I declare an official and permanent end to me being neurotic about whether nursing is working.

Also? Social smiles have appeared, and man are they awesome. All three of us have gotten big happy smiles from him in the last couple of days.

Alex update: Her behavior is pretty typical for a displaced formerly only child, which is to say that she's acting up a lot. Last night's festivities included the wholesale removal of books from her bedroom after she decided to throw them all to make a point about not wanting to go to bed. (How did "you can have a few paperbacks in bed to look at by nightlight" lead to the pile of twenty-three books she had next to her pillow and ready to throw? Because she's our child, that's how. Oh well, twenty-two of them are gone now. Pandora is just lucky that there was one under the blanket that she didn't notice when she was throwing them.)

On the other hand, she really floored me yesterday with a surprising bit of thoughtfulness. She's been invited to a birthday party on Sunday, and when we opened the invitation she told me "You can just drop me off." This is starting to be the age of drop-off playdates, and the party invitation specified that drop-offs were okay, so I figured maybe the birthday girl had mentioned this special big-kid possibility to Alex.

Then, in the car on our way home from buying a present, she told me: "Clara has a cat, Mom. That's why I planned for you to drop me off."

Aww. "Thank you, sweetie, but I'd be okay at the party as long as I don't touch the cat. So if you want me to stay, I can."

"You're allergic to cats, Mom," she said with finality. "That's why I planned for you to drop me off."

I am just amazed that she put that together. I've known plenty of adults who aren't that capable of forseeing problems that might exist for other people.

Rivka update: I pretty much rest and feed the baby, and watch TV. I am not very interesting right now. But! I am excited that the SUUSI catalog is out. It lets me dream of having a more interesting life months down the road.

And I'm looking forward to our trip to Montreal next month, which is really going to happen now because we have plane tickets and a hotel reservation and all of us now have passports in the works. (Mine had expired. Michael's was going to expire while we were in Montreal. The kids didn't have them. Getting our passports was an exciting and colorful experience which I hope never to repeat, although now I know an awesome way of getting passport photos for a newborn.)

Comments

[eeyorerin]

My first passport picture (when I was about Alex's age) has me clutching my doll because I absolutely refused to let go of her.

[kate_nepveu]

now I know an awesome way of getting passport photos for a newborn

Well?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

We brought a white blanket with us to the passport facility. The clerk had us drape the blanket over the carseat and put Colin in the seat. Then we put the seat on the counter and I crouched behind it and held the corners of the blanket up to make the white background extend far enough above his head.

The seat kept him facing forward and helped encourage him to keep his arms down, which were the two problems we kept having when we tried to take his picture lying on the white blanket on the floor.

[geminigirl]

That's about how they did Naomi's-she was around the same age when we did hers. Sears actually was the only place that would take a newborn picture, too, so Naomi and I had our first trip to the mall to get her pictures.

[kate_nepveu]

Cool, thanks.

(Hmmm, I wonder if we should get SteelyKid a passport? We are planning to have her stay with a loving grandparent or grandparents for Worldcon, but in case something comes up and we have to take her with . . . )

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

Pandora... *Giggle*

I read somewhere that tantrums are supposed to taper off a bit around age four. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *catches breath* HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry she’s going through that, but it makes me feel a bit better that Henry’s not the only almost four year old going through the battle of wills.

Go Colin! My sister nursed my niece to 20 lbs by the time she was three months old. Hooray for happy fat babies!

[kate_nepveu]

Twenty pounds by three months?! My goodness. SteelyKid is eighteen pounds at seven months and a nice sturdy strong baby.

And I thought _she_ outgrew all her gift newborn clothes fast . . .

[chargirlgenius.livejournal.com]

She was an… exceptional baby. Also walked at 8 months. Insane. I wouldn’t wish that on anybody! Now, at four, she’s a normally sized kid.

[ailbhe]

Hah, a Linneaesque one. Fun, but one per family is enough.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

My brother-in-law was talking in complex sentences before the age of 2.

More to the point, he was arguing his dad ruthlessly into corners at 5AM before the age of 2 ... there's a reason my father-in-law switched exclusively to espresso as his morning caffeine-hit at about that same time. :->

[papersky.livejournal.com]

So looking forward to seeing all of you in Montreal!

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

So glad the nursing is going well! SO glad. :-)

Sounds like Alex is doing just fine. :-)

What was your trick? When I had #1's passport photo taken, the photographer put his white background board on the ground, and I just laid the baby down on it. Easy peasy!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

We tried to take Colin's picture lying on a white blanket on the floor, but he's still young enough that his hands to go right up to his head at every possible opportunity. Also, he kept turning his head to the side.

I described what worked in another comment - basically, we draped the white blanket over his carseat and held one end up behind him.

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

I got Elena to stand on a stool in front of the white background, but she was clutching at me, and I was ducking to get out of the way. The resulting picture looks like a traumatized refugee child.

[ailbhe]

We draped the blanket over adult knees, kneeling on the floor, and held the babies through the blanket. Linnea's baby passport becomes invalid this year :( I think I will keep it forever.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

I'm trying hard not to obsess over weight. We'll find out at the two-months appointment (when she'll be turned into a pincushion with vaccinations), and I need that to just be ok. :->

She's at about 4.5 weeks now, and still no social smiles -- she's not copying yet, either, though I don't know which of those is meant to come first. Can you recommend any good books or sites about What Goes On in this early period? Most of what I'm finding spends about two paragraphs on months 0-6, then gets detailed after that.