Cross Your Fingers

You know, it's occurred to me that I'm frequently apologizing for the lack of recent postings in this space. Hmm. Maybe I should get my act together.

Want to hear some lame excuses though? Okay! (1) An infant lives in our house. (2) I have a ton of school work to do. (3) I am a lazy slacker. Good enough?

So cross your fingers that we'll actually be able to upload some pictures today. Let's give it a shot before we go any further, shall we?

AHA!! SUCCESS!! I like this one--what a couple of cool cats. With that, let's continue.

Here's the update on things at home. Mark April 24th on your calendars because I'm going to petition for a national holiday on that day known as "End of Colic Day." It will be celebrated by tired parents everywhere. Yes, we feel confident in our assessment that the colic is officially over, and for that we are hugely grateful. Of course, you've heard me speak of this before, but the reality of it is still sinking in, so forgive me for repeating myself.

Theo is turning into quite the little man. The exciting part for Steph and I is that we're starting to understand him a little bit better as a result. For example, you know how people say that babies have different cries? One for hunger, one for boredom, one for pain, etc? Well, when you're dealing with a colicky infant, those distinctions just don't exist. You start to wonder if you're just missing the signs, but they really just aren't there. This, I think, is another reason why colic sucks so much. Not only does it make you completely exhausted to the point of insanity, but it also makes you doubt your own abilities as a parent. Okay, I'll admit that we're not grizzled veterans at this, but come on, we're pretty smart people who should be able to at least figure something out. But colic doesn't permit that. We just had to come to terms with the fact that not only was there nothing we could do about it, more importantly it wasn't our fault. Still and all, it's one thing to say that to yourself and another thing competely to believe it and feel confident.

Anyway, now that he has other faces besides screamy-face, he's starting to make those distinctions in his cries. Before, we'd just have to guess what was going on, but now we feel pretty confident in making an assessment about what's happening. And herein I've found yet another inherent joy of parenting. It's a little bit like being married. Permit me a brief analogy, if you will. When you're married to someone, there's just that something special about knowing more about them than anyone else does. You know what makes your spouse tick (and what ticks them off). You know their likes and dislikes, you understand their moods, and you feel like you're really inside their head for better or worse. Heck, you might even know them better than they know themselves. I know personally that there's nothing better in my marriage than being able to talk to Steph about something and know that she understands me completely, even if nobody else does. In some ways, it's just a function of how much time you spend with someone--Steph and I are around each other more often than not, and so we've developed that bond.

So it goes with being a parent, I'm finding. The most enjoyable part of raising this boy has been getting to know him better. As his personality develops, I know I'll grow to understand him more and more, and that's just so exciting. Yeah, sure, sometimes we have no clue what he wants, but our accuracy rate is climbing steadily. And I think that he recognizes the fact that we're there to help him, and he's become more compliant as a result. All in all, things are going well.

Here are the details, for those of you who are anxious to know. Our day normally starts at around 5:30, with Theo waking up in his crib and letting mommy and daddy know that he's hungry. The 5:30 feeding has become my feeding, so I get up and go see him. Here's the part that makes my heart melt: I go get him out of his crib and put him down on the change table, the recognition flashes across his face, and I get a huge smile to start my day. Although it's really early, that one smile makes it all better. After he eats, Theo usually sleeps for about 30 minutes and then is up in earnest to start the day. He usually eats roughly every three hours, a schedule that we're trying to adhere to. You know, some babies like to be "on-demand" as a rule and other like to be scheduled. Having tried both ways, we definitely feel like Theo is a schedule baby. When we leave him to his own devices, he gets insecure and worried; on a schedule, he's calm and relaxed. Nice. Anyway, since he's awake more and getting more recognition of objects, he's started to want to play regularly as well. He's got this cute little mobile in his crib that just keeps him so entertained, and he also likes to interact with us, which is the coolest thing ever. He's starting to learn how to laugh and squeal as well, which was surprising when it first started, but now is so cute. In the words of McDonald's, I'm loving it.

Yes, he still wakes up in the middle of the night. But really, that's not a bad thing. Come on, kid's only three months old for Pete's sake. But it's funny--we know several parents of babies at our church, and in talking to them we've found that every baby is truly different. One baby who's a month younger than Theo wakes up four times during the night on a regular basis, while another has slept through the night since nine weeks. It's all about your baby's personality. We're in no rush to force him out of the middle of the night feedings. If it's still going on at say, six months, then yeah, we've got a problem. But for now, let's let him do it his way.

The other factor in this equation is Theo being a preemie, and yes, being a preemie has more to it than weight. We're finding that he's just a little bit delayed in some things, like it's taking his system time to adapt. In some aspects, like motor skills, he's way ahead of the curve. In others, like vocalizations, he's more like a two-month-old than a three-month-old. But that's the nature of the preemie game. Everyone we've talked to says that up to about six months, all preemies are about a month behind. But the great thing is that they all catch up in the end. Given this, we're definitely in no rush to force him to "grow up" by sleeping through the night and what not. Give him time and when he's ready, he'll let us know.

Okay, that's about all the stories I have for today. How about a few photos?

"Oh teddy, how I love you..."

I like this one a lot. "Hey mommy, what's that silver thing you keep putting in my face?"

"Get it away from me, mommy!"

"Never mind, I'm fine now."

"Hi there. Come here often?" What a smoothie.

Okay, Aunt Bern, this one's for you...

Ah, nothing like playing with daddy on a sunny spring day in the backyard. Hey, our yard may be small, but it works when he's this age.

What, am I boring you? Great, he's only three months old, and he already finds me boring.

But eventually he realized that this was actually fun.

But all that playing sure is tiring. Whew.

Finally, my personal favourites that I have, of course, saved until last. No explanation needed here; the photos speak for themselves.

So that's it for this week. Hopefully the magnitude of this post has made up for my slacking over the past two weeks. As usual, your comments are welcome on the blog, and emails are appreciated too. Talk to you all soon.