Blog-jacking

Hi all,

This is Evan, and I'm hijacking the blog for a few minutes to announce some great news.  Our daughter, Iris, whom you come to this blog to learn about, is now saying "Dadadada" with verve and gusto.  We're no Dadaists in this family, and therefore the process of elimination leaves us with only a single plausible conclusion: she's referring to me. I'm sure some dad hundreds of thousands of years ago decided to name himself this first alveolar utterance his child made, before the too-busy mother was able to do the same.  But now we get to lean on tradition, and I can gain some ground in the quest to become the favored parent.

Iris is so excited to celebrate her Daddy, that she's been making this utterance all day, even in my absence.  And we have multiple instances of video proof.

That last video came after a dinner during which she gritted her tooth and pounded her plastic giraffe into her booster seat tray like a young Dave Grohl. Grandad Nels egged her on with complicated syncopations, and Iris usually waited for her turn in the exchange, but always she returned to her frantic beat.  When I sat her in front of a piano earlier today, she did the same thing.

We are vacationing in Los Alamos now, and it snowed last night.  None of us came prepared with snow gear, so we won't be spending a lot of time outside the next few days...except that I'm going on a hike with Sarah's brother tomorrow afternoon.  He's quite the adventurer, so I'm expecting it will be great.

Other than that, my goals for the trip are to read a few quarters of Lapham's Quarterly, play with Iris until she gets tired of me, catch up on lost sleep, and do no job-work.

Happy holidays, everyone.

she can take care of herself

We took off south for New Mexico this morning at 4:40am. Our car was packed to the gills and our sleeping baby seemed eager for the adventure. Evan had gotten all of two or three hours of sleep, as is his pre-travel custom. I hadn't done much better since Iris was up a bit for feeding.

By about 7:45 am Iris -- who still does not know how to take a bottle -- was awake and obviously ready to eat again. We stopped somewhere along the way so I could attempt to feed her in the back seat. She had been sucking her thumb and nuzzling up to her blanket. And she hadn't eaten in over three hours, so I was anxious to feed her. We stopped so I could try to nurse in the back seat and we had a terrible time getting situated so she just couldn't get comfortable. Then she decided she wanted to pull the shiny door handle and the shiny metal post holding up the head rest. Ugh. So we continued on our way.

A little while later she was sucking her thumb again and very nearly asleep. This is typically when I have the best luck at feeding her -- when she is nearly asleep. So we pulled over again and went through the whole thing again...can't get comfortable, ooh, there's some shiny things...etc.

Back on the road again I gave her some oatmeal to tide her over.

It's possible we pulled over two or three more times. I don't remember. I got very upset that she wouldn't nurse. It used to be very easy to nurse her in the back seat of the car but she has gotten so much bigger that it was just tight and uncomfortable for both of us.

I started crying and felt sure she would starve before we made it to Los Alamos. I worry so much -- and obviously too much -- about whether she is getting enough to eat (she remains steady on her growth curve). Iris has not seen me cry very often so she was a bit mystified at what was going on and Evan kept driving while reaching around behind the driver's seat to put his hand on my leg. "It's okay, Sarah, she'll be fine," he said. "She can take care of herself."

I was thinking, "Evan she's not even 9 months old, she can't take care of herself." But, realistically, she was not going to starve and was not even close to it. She was hungry and she needed her mom to be a little more creative with figuring out how to feed her and keep all the interesting shiny things out of sight.

Finally around 9:30 we pulled over again and I got into the front seat with her. She nursed for a very short time, but long enough to keep us moving. After that Evan sat in back with her and fed her sweet potatoes. Then both of them fell asleep in the backseat and we finally made it to Dad's house eight hours later.

 This was Iris's first big road trip. She did very well and her mom cried more than she did. It was definitely a tiring day and we were happy to get a nap when we arrived. And I did learn a thing or two from the experience: Iris will eat when she is hungry, Iris doesn't fit in the back seat for nursing anymore, and it's probably best to plan to take a good, long break (and maybe several) when traveling with children.

vacation

I spent most of Friday getting ready for our trip to New Mexico. I know that all babies require a lot of gear but this baby's extra gear is a real pain to procure. I had an intention to be very calm and mellow for the whole day but the time spent frantically trying to get Iris her Digoxin refill after the pharmacy botched the refill order shot me right out of any serenity. I spent a good hour or so grumbling to myself about the whole thing. It's amazing to me how many times things would have gone wrong had Evan or I not spoken up.

The good news, however, is that I got the medicine, we have extra pulse ox probes to measure her oxygen levels, we're taking the oxygen concentrator with us, and she got her Synagis shot in the afternoon (a few days early). So she's ready to go...medically speaking. She may not be ready for the six-hour drive, but we're leaving super early so as to maximize sleeping time.

I'm always very happy to go home to Los Alamos, especially for Christmas. Evan is also looking forward to the break. Here is a photo of him packing. And he just said, "I'm really excited to go to New Mexico."

fun with grandma

Iris is discovering new capabilities every day. She is just about to crawl but mostly loves to practice walking. She and my mom spend a lot of time together every day. You'd think I would be done with my dissertation proposal by now. Not so. I'm not sure how we'll manage once my mom goes home to North Dakota. I have a feeling I will spend a lot of time trying to savor the last few weeks before she starts day care.

Iris and tub on head

Iris on some boxes

Iris and her books

eight months old

Our little lady is eight months old, as of this past Wednesday. She is becoming even more energetic -- if that is even possible -- and she is nearly always in a good mood. I have not done many more trials off oxygen recently since it seems her saturation levels are not quite as good as they were before. I think she might have a little cold. 

We visited the pediatrician earlier in the week (or was it last week?) to talk about weight gain -- my perpetual worry. Basically, Iris is doing fine. I've said that before. But I have been worried about whether she's getting enough. She has such a hard time settling down and I find it extremely frustrating when I know it's been a while since she's nursed last and that she needs to just chill out for a bit. She does seem to be getting a bit heavier in the thigh section, and I've been trying to offer her food in her high chair several times a day. 

Mom and I visited a daycare today on the University of Denver campus. They do admission by lottery and only once a year. Even though we're starting her at a different daycare in March, I think I'd like for her to go to this one. Evan got a promotion at work -- he's proving very valuable to the company since he has some technical and quantitative skills. 

first tooth

While I was feeding Iris yesterday morning, I kept thinking I heard and felt some hard object in her mouth. She wouldn't let me look in her mouth so I spent the rest of the day not thinking about it. Then when Evan got home he said, "Does she have a tooth?" I forget what they were doing, but evidently it was something that involved her putting stuff in her mouth. So I felt around on her gums and -- eureka! -- found a tiny little tooth breaking through her gums.

With my mom in town I have been able to get some work done on my dissertation. I'm mostly working from home but am getting ready to venture out of the house. It took Iris a little while to warm up to Grandma, but they are good friends now. Iris is keeping Grandma very busy. They have been singing a lot and practicing walking and learning how to make new mouth sounds. Iris has been clicking her tongue a lot today.  She is also finally figuring out how to put both hands together, which is very cute.

I am starting to understand what it is to miss one's child. I am almost never without her and when I do leave her, it is usually just for a short time. It is very weird to suddenly have someone else around who can watch Iris while I do other stuff. This means that I have been doing minimal child rearing the last few days. Surely, this strange feeling will only become stronger once we start daycare...and every other growing up phase after that. Mainly I finally have enough time now to realize how quickly Iris is going up and have been able to start to savor these fleeting days. It is very difficult to gain perspective when you're right in the middle of it.

By the time Grandma goes back to North Dakota Iris will be an entirely different little girl. She might have multiple teeth and might be crawling. I can't imagine what else she will figure out how to do in the next few weeks.

winter

Iris has had some extended time off of oxygen recently. Over the weekend Susan and her family invited us to Downtown Littleton to see the tree lighting and Santa's arrival. This was Iris's first outing without an oxygen tank. It was pretty exciting. And cold. We have some very cold weather on the way.

Iris in her baby girl monkey hat.

Family photo (note the permanent glowing eyes on Iris).

My mom arrived on Friday night, shortly after we got home from the tree-lighting. She has spent the last couple days getting to know the 7-month-old Iris, who is very different from the younger Iris she used to know. Grandma came equipped with a big stuffed dog and a blue ball to entertain Iris.

Grandma and a blue ball

I took Iris to the pediatrician this morning to talk about her weight gain. Basically, she is doing fine and Dr. Sagel thinks she looks great for a cardiac baby. Iris weighs 15 lbs 5.5oz. She gave me some ideas for Iris's feeding routine and her transition to solids. One problem is that Iris still won't take a bottle. She'll bite on it to get liquid to come out, but there's no sucking happening. She also doesn't quite understand the whole cup concept yet -- mostly she just wants to bite whatever comes close to her mouth.