Caution: New Parents

Picture Dump!

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:53:17 GMT

Hemplebox Creeations

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:26:20 GMT

I have a friend who has a hobby of doing Hemp Jewelry. She does various macrame bracelets, necklaces, anklets, etc. She was thinking it would be nice to sell some online and so she came to me for advice on where she could do so. We could not find a good site online that didn't charge too much to get started up on. I volunteered to help her out and was able to offer her some space on my guild's website, since we're not using everything we're paying for.

So, over the last month or so, I've been working hard to get an online store up and running. I found the very excellent and widely used osCommerce software. It has a large number of users (about 14k worldwide) and a large developer base. I've mostly been working with her to make the site look unique and professional.

I encourage you all to check out the resulting site and her products. She is really a very talented artist. She also does custom work as well, if there is something you're looking for.

Her site:
Hemplebox Creations - Unique Hemp Jewelry

Pack Lightly

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:48:38 GMT

When going on a trip, be sure to pack all the important items.

Shut De Do

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:42:23 GMT

Nature may abhor a vacuum, but our daughter can't stand for the door to be open. Its been really nice out until just recently, but Celerity doesn't want us to keep the front door open to let the nice air in.

Enjoy:

Bottle Holder

Sun, 31 May 2009 21:12:51 GMT

Our daughter had learned how to hold a bottle all on her own. Caution: So cute it may make your teeth hurt.

Time to Lower the Crib

Sun, 31 May 2009 19:24:10 GMT

We came in Celerity's room this morning to discover that it was probably time to lower the crib. She had managed to climb out onto her dresser and was happily sitting there.

Easter

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 21:50:37 GMT

On Easter we got to dress Celerity up in a pretty pretty dress.

She also discovered my parent's fountain:

My Very Talented Daughter

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 19:53:01 GMT

So, I'm sitting on the couch, watching TV, when I hear this sound . . .ZzZZzzzzt . . .Prrrrrrrrr. I look over, and there is Celerity, pulling the string on her "purring blocks". Not with her hand, though:

So very very talented, my daughter is.

Also, Happy Spring everyone!

Walking

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 01:33:14 GMT

Celerity has been taking one and two steps here and there for a while now. She'll step from the chair to the couch, or the couch to the coffee table. Today, however, she's really started walking for real. Our daycare gal told us she had taken quite a few steps across the room. When we got her home, we tried to get her on video.

I'd say this is walking:

Advanced Eating

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:00:53 GMT

Be sure to see our Christmas Update below.

Here is Celerity eating now, in 4 parts.

Here is what feeding her is really like:

2008 - What a long strange trip it's been . . .

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:11:25 GMT

This year brought us through many many changes. It's pretty amazing to me, when I look back -
At the beginning of the year Dodi was still pregnant (and pretty big, too). She had a Cesarean (which neither of us were expecting), giving birth to an awesome daughter. Since the pregnancy Dodi ended up going "out of town" three times, leaving me to single parent for a few weeks each time. Now, as we approach Christmas, I've got a healthy 8 month old daughter and a healthy wife.

OMG, Busy
I don't really understand it. We never seem to do anything anymore, but we always seem to be busy. It must be some sort of optical illusion due to the baby. We spend so much time caring for her that everything else just fades into the background. Even a trip to the store is like planning for a moon shot or an arctic expedition. If only we had mission control or maybe some sherpas. Babies do make the best excuse, though. Reason we didn't do a Christmas card? Baby. Reason we didn't attend that wedding? Baby. Reason we forgot to shower . . Baby. Everyone understands.

Best. Baby. Ever.
Ok, I know, I know - everyone thinks their kid is the best. But, seriously, mine totally is. She is the mellowest child that I have ever seen. She is not a crier (Hear ye, hear ye!). While she sometimes wants mommy or daddy around, she mostly amuses herself in her playpen (our living room). She may make some noise when she's hungry, but will always quiet down once she's fed. Nothing seem to really upset her. She is usually pretty good about going down for bed, too. We put her down, turn off the lights and, after a squall or two, she's out. Of course, I'm sure I'll go home tonight and she won't stop crying . . .

Right now she's fascinated by everything (except us). We had a hard time taking Christmas pictures because the cat kept walking by and distracting her. Whenever we pick her up, she's constantly looking around - she wants to know what is going on. Mommy and daddy aren't interesting, though, except as a jungle gym. Many nights Dodi or I will lay in Celerity's playpen and be mount-parent. Kiddo can just about make it over daddy's stomach, but not quite.

Babies cost money
Fortunately, we have a bunch of friends who had had children before we did and we've been getting tons of hand-me-downs and toys. We've really hardly had to buy anything, except to fill in when we don't have the right size/weather combination. Unfortunately, we have other expenses that we never planned for. Due do Dodi's condition we've pretty much had to have Celerity in Daycare since she was 2 months old. For a while we had her home one day a week, but that didn't work out. For the foreseeable future we will probably have her in daycare.

For the first time in our lives we're actually running on a budget so we don't run out of dough by the end of the month. Between our budget and the daycare we're just barely in the black each month. It's actually been a good exercise for us, getting a grip on our spending and really focusing on paying down our debt. We hope that by the end of next year we will be out of debt and starting to save.

We also started up a College fund for Celerity. It's a "529" account which will allow us to write off our contributions and she won't have to pay taxes on the money so long as it's used for education. Considering how things are now, I think it will be really hard to find a job in the future without a college education. We hope that having this money will enable her to follow her muse, rather than having to worry about working her way through, or being saddled with debt once she graduates.

More to Follow
I hope to be posting more, including Pictures and Videos over the next few days, so be sure to check back!

Her First Tooth

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:28:17 GMT

Now that we've starting feeding her rice cereal, we've been paying a bit more attention to her mouth. Dodi just noticed that she had her first tooth! She hasn't even been especially fussy or anything, either!

Also, let me tell you, it was hard to get this picture. She kept sticking out her tongue, the little stinker!

Celerity's First Solid Food

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:07:43 GMT

Celerity Crawls

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:30:41 GMT

One day before she turned 6 months old Celerity Wowed us with her amazing crawling ability. This is just minutes after we witnessed her first crawl.

Can't Resist the meme

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 22:46:51 GMT

I do as I am told.

I'm not listening to the headphones . . I'm just prepared to listen to them.

Schrödinger's Baby or "A Watched Baby Never Rolls"

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 06:15:42 GMT

As I had previously reported, my daughter can roll herself over from her back to her front. She now does this on a regular basis and has stopped complaining about being on her stomach. Or at least, she waits a bit longer to complain about it.

Now, I'm pretty certain that she can actually roll from her front onto her back on her own, but I have yet to actually see her do it. She just never seems to roll over when I am in the room and looking. It can't take her very long, because I step out of the room for less than a minute and, when I come back, she's moved two feet across the floor and is now on her back again. So, either she's rolling over on her own or crawling, which I seriously doubt. She is doing it well enough that she's getting into trouble, rolling up against the coffee table (and then screaming). I will be purchasing baby fencing shortly.

It's like some sort of uncertainty principle - I can always tell her position, but never her momentum, from one moment to the next. My theory is that when I am not observing her, she actually takes all possible positions in the room at once and only when I check on her does she settle into a discrete position.

Last Couple Months (Part 1)

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:14:13 GMT

Oh, yeah, I have a blog. Here is a quick summary of what's been going on with Dodi and I over the last couple months.

Back to Work for Daddy
I went back to work the second week in May, when Celerity was 3 weeks old. We set up a cot in Celerity's room so Dodi could take care of late night feedings with CJ without waking me up. We worked out a plan where Dodi would head to bed somewhat earlier than normal, I would take the evening shift, and Dodi would take the the late night feeding. This ultimately didn't work out that well, since Dodi tended to not be able to get back to sleep after Celerity's feeding. It didn't help that Celerity was still in her "Late night party" stage. We were so busy that the image to the right is the last one was have in May.

A lack of sleep and the overall stress of going from part time care of CJ to all day care of CJ was turning out to be too much for Dodi. She managed well for a couple weeks, but eventually started to break down. I started to work from home to help take some of the pressure off her. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late. At the end of May Dodi had to go out of town*.

Effectively a Single Parent
I was largely unprepared for single parenting. We had not considered what might happen if Dodi had to go out of town. We did not have a Daycare provider, had not even considered looking for a Daycare provider. I was kinda in a daze. I knew Dodi was going to be ok, but I had to work, if only to retain my sanity. I started calling friends and family and managed to get a patchwork fo folks to watch kiddo for the next week. Our friend Julie gave a recommendation for a local gal who does Daycare. She turned out to be just a couple blocks away, very affordable, and had a slot open for an infant. I was super lucky to get Celerity in and thus was set for daycare.

The next couple weeks were largely uneventful. Celerity began to sleep through the night . . or at least most of it. There were off and on 3am feedings, but by and large I was putting her down at Midnight and she was waking me up at 6 or 7 the next morning. This meant that I was largely conscious while at work. We settled into a (somewhat bleary eyed) regular schedule. I fed and entertained Celerity at night while watching TV or trying to type (babies don't go well with typing). Every morning I'd drop her off with Daycare, then pick her up after work. Rinse. Repeat.

* If you don't know what I mean, feel free to contact me privately.

The Perils of Learning

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 03:12:25 GMT

This weekend I went over to visit my friends who have a 6 month old boy, Jak. He, of course, is quite cute, but a good deal more mobile than Celerity. I mentioned to his mother that Celerity could almost, but not quite, turn herself over. She proceeded to grab her son by the feet and ROLL him back and forth across the floor (giggling the whole way). She says she did that and within the day he was rolling over on his own within the day.

Armed with this new technique, I set up a blanket on the floor, grabbed Celerity by the feet, and proceeded to roll her back and forth across the floor. She doesn't go quite as smoothly and, frankly, looks a little bit confused by the whole ordeal. I try and get her to roll over on her own, but no dice. Later that day I go out of the room for a snack and when I get back, lo and behold, she has rolled herself over! I rejoice in my manly parenting skills and call my friend to thank her.

My celebration is short lived as I quickly realize a few things:
1) My Daughter can roll herself over from her back to her stomach, but not the other way around
2) My daughter loves to roll herself over
3) My daughter HATES being on her stomach

Before, I had a child who I could put down on her back and expect to keep herself amused for an hour or two. Now have a daughter who, as soon as I put her down on her back, rolls over to her stomach, gets angry, and starts to cry.

I am sure that this is just the begining of things I will teach her that I'll regret.

Edit: Changed both instances of 'feed" to "feet" - I'm not sure what would happen if I grabbed Celerity by her "feed".

Just Another Casualty in the Breastfeeding Battles

Fri, 02 May 2008 20:58:07 GMT

Nights are still hard, not that that is a huge surprise. Even early mornings can be rough, as you can see to the right. Kid had stopped feeding but was still fussing, so Dodi ended up "relaxing" on the couch with her. Amazingly, though, Celerity actually slept through most of the night last night. She had a marathon feed from midnight until 2 a.m., but didn't wake up until we got her up at about 8 a.m. We're not holding our breath or anything, though.

On Wednesday we went to the Pediatrician and weighed Celerity again. She was at around 9 lbs, 13oz, just under her birth weight, so we're still doing the "every 2-3 hours" feeding, which is a drag. We'll have to bring her back next week as well to make sure she is over her birth weight. The good news is, she is gaining weight well - she was up 6oz over last week, which is right in line for a breastfeeding baby. They're expected to gain 5-7oz a week.

Lactation Consultant
Because of the trouble we'd been having getting Celerity to feed off Dodi's left breast, we decided to call in a lactation consultant. We had been considering it for a week, but the fact that Celerity was till a tad underweight did it for us.

The LC's name is Jaye Simpson and she is totally awesome. She showed Dodi how to hold Celerity properly (sort of a modified Vulcan Nerve Pinch), and we finally straightened out (literally) some ergonomics issues we'd been having. This morning, using what we'd learned from Jaye, Celerity popped right on the left breast with no fuss.

You can see her to the left evaluating Celerity's suck. As we suspected, our daughter is full of suck. We had always noticed a little wheezing noise when she fed, and Jaye told us that Celerity is sometimes sucking wrong. Rather than "Suck, Swallow, Breath", she's sometimes doing "Suck, Breath, Swallow". Luckily, aspirating a bit of breast milk is unlikey to hurt her. It may also explain the little piglet noises that Celerity sometimes makes.

A More Active Child
Celerity is growing a lot more active. Well, relatively speaking, anyway. Now when she finishes feeding she doesn't always crash out right away. We are getting a chance to hold her and play with her a bit more. Sometimes she just wants to be held. I've been learning how to read my book with her propped up on my arm. Of course, sometimes it's in the middle of the night, and that can be a drag.

The Birth of Our Child, Part 4

Thu, 01 May 2008 06:56:04 GMT

Prior Parts (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)

Recovering from Recovery - April 18th, 10AM to 3PM
After Tara left, we crashed out hard. An indeterminate time later, though, we were awoken by some visitors. My Aunt Barb, Uncle Char, and cousin Stacey had heard (or read) that the child was born and came by to visit. My recollection of their visit is hazy at best. I think Celerity was out of the room at the nursery. We said hi, everything is fine, can we please sleep now? It was nice to see family, and they brought an excellent crocheted baby blanket and some hand made burp cloths.

At some point Celerity was wheeled back in and, around 2pm we decided to give feeding her another shot. It took some coaxing, but we were finally able to get Celerity to open her mouth wide enough to accept a breast. We had no issues getting her to feed off the left breast, but the right breast continues to give us some trouble to this day.

Finally get some sleep for crying out loud - April 18th, Evening
I toddled off to get something to eat at the cafeteria, but Dodi was still stuck on a liquid diet. She had to drink her meals until she was able to . . . uh . . break wind. When you have a baby, your entire digestive track pretty much shuts down, so you have to wait for it to get fired back up before you can take solid foods. One of the indicators that it is functioning again is the production of waste gases. It wasn't until the following evening, Saturday, that she . . . produced waste gases. Never have has a woman been so happy to toot. Broth is just not that filling.

That night I slept on the dreaded pull out couch of doom. Imagine, if you will, a booth bench for a restaurant with a decent amount of padding. Imagine it being about five feet, ten inches long. That was pretty much it. It pulled out a bit, so it was fairly wide, but it was between two walls, limiting its length to about 2 inches too short for me to stretch out. Three nights on this little torture bed gave me cyatica so bad that on the night I got back from the hospital, I couldn't get out of bed.

The rest of the time - April 19th to April 21st
On Saturday morning, Dodi was able to get up for the first time. With the assistance of the nurse she was able to stand and shuffle around with some pain. By the end of the day she was fairly mobile and, by the end of our stay, was fully, if slowly, mobile.

On both Saturday and Sunday I made trips home to upload pictures and post updates, as well as grab needed items. We had not planned on a C-section, only having packed enough stuff for two days. I picked up some extra clothes for myself and some stuff Dodi wanted.

There is not much else to tell. Or, if there was, I've forgotten it. In general we had a very restful few days in the hospital. We had no complications, no real problems - we just chilled out while Dodi was recovering. I read a sizable Sci-fi Novel over the entire weekend that I finished Sunday.

On Monday we were ready to be discharged. Dodi got the staples taken out from around her stitches, we filled out some paper work, and they wheeled us to the door.

Here is us unloading Celerity from the car:

More Videos
I took a couple of more videos that I have finally gotten around to uploading to YouTube.

Cutting the Cord

Weigh In

The Mystery of the Mewing Sock Bin

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 19:32:07 GMT

Another late night last night with Celerity. I ended up going to bed in my lounge around the house clothes, in anticipation of having to get up and feed/comfort her again. This morning I was getting ready to take a shower, pulled off my socks, and threw them into my sock bin.

My sock bin mewed. I didn't think this was normal behavior for sock bins, so I took a look and saw this:

Mystery Solved.

On the Night Shift

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:54:25 GMT

The exhaustion is starting to set in. Being on the night shift is a drag. Even with our feeding plans working, we're still not getting the sleep we need. Last night Dodi was doing the midnight feeding before heading off to bed. I was sitting up reading, waiting for her to come in off the couch. I look up at the clock and see that it's almost 1:30 and I think that there is no way that she's still feeding. It turns out I was right:

I'm starting to feel the same way.

Last night was rough for me too. Two AM (half an hour after I get us all off to bed), Celerity is fussing. I get up and give her 3 oz of breast milk that Dodi has pumped for this purpose. Celerity seems happy, but wide awake, which I had planned for. I plop down in front of the computer with her in my arms and wait for her to quiet down so I can put her to bed. No such luck. One hour and a dirty diaper later, I'm back in the kitchen making her up some Formula. She sucks that down real fast and once again I'm waiting for her to quiet. Another hour, another diaper, and she's still rooting and fussing. Back to the kitchen for another bottle. She doesn't finish this one off, but was still bright eyed and bushy-tailed. I figure she's never going to go to sleep the way things are going, so I drop her in her bassinet and put her pacifier back in every time she fusses. Finally at five AM I turn out the light and she stays down. Eight AM - alarm goes off for mommy to feed her . . . and the cycles begins again.

Everyone told me about the lat nights, but there is simply no way to prepare yourself for the lack of sleep. *sigh* Yet, everyone I show the kid to says, "Treasure this time, it will pass too quickly". I'm at a loss to see how that would be a bad thing at this point, but I'm sure I'll understand when she's 16 and wants to borrow the car.

Good fences . . .
A few months ago we had a big windstorm which took down a lot of fences in the neighborhood, including two sides of my buddy Roger's fence. At the time I helped him to put up the replacement on his yard. All those years of helping my father with building projects finally paid off as I was able to use my mad building skillz to speed up the construction. Roger's neighbor's fence had also been blown down and so they paid him to put theirs up. Last Saturday I went over to help out.

While I was there, he had to watch his four year old son, Evan, who we co-opted to "help" by holding nails for Roger. I would hold position and hold the fence slats, then Roger would call "Nail" and his son would hand him a nail. Well, hand him a nail or run away or drop the nails and pick them up. He also became the level holder, which was quite helpful, believe it or not.

For some reason when we were standing around, I started doing my robot shtick - moving my arms jerky, making the servo noise, and sounding like Robby from Lost in Space. Evan gets this real incredulous look on his face and say "Whatever". Roger and I just about die laughing. Roger swears he doesn't know where Evan got it from. I don't get no respect.

Celery, Celerity, and Hamster - A Comparison

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:19:08 GMT

My daughter, while being incredibly cute, is a fairly simple creature right now. She is certainly more interesting than, say, a stalk of celery, but somewhat less interesting than a hamster. Here is a convenient comparison chart

Celery	Celerity	Hamster
Not Cute Sits Still Eats Dirt Can Photosynthesize Doesn't play "Good for you" Rustles in the breeze	Very Cute Doesn't Sit Still Would like to eat dirt Cannot Photosynthesize Plays with our hearts Delicious Noisy	Cute and Fuzzy Moves Constantly Eats food pellets Likes a warm patch of sunlight Plays in wheels and tubes Stringy Skitters

Visitors from Afar

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:16:45 GMT

My sister Danielle (Dee) came up to visit us, along with her daughter Maddi. Dee, who I should take this opportunity to mention is very slim now, brought up the fixings for some Shepherds Pie and made us dinner. The meal was splendid, and having a home cooked meal was awesome, after the scrape together stuff we've been subsisting on. The leftovers will be lunch for the next few days. After dinner we had a pleasant walk to the park. Beautiful weather today.

I am in awe of my sister's baby handling abilities. Celerity has begun to fuss more after she finishes eating and wants to be held. Dee scooped her up and had her asleep in ten minutes, which lasted all through our walk and until it was time to feed her again later in the evening. I have the feeling that last few days with Celerity have been the honeymoon, the calm before the storm.

Maddi wanted to hold the baby, so we had her wash her hands. She is very excited that she is now (and forevermore) the "oldest cousin".

It doesn't get much cuter than that.

Late Night Feeding
Last night was fun for me. I've been taking the "middle of the night" feeding with either formula or pumped breast milk, so Dodi can get a full(ish) night sleep. About a half hour before I was due to wake her, Celerity woke me. I fed her 3oz of Formula and she stopped eating. I bundled her up and put her in the bassinet. 10 minutes later, I'm back up, since she doesn't want her pacifier and she doesn't want to sleep. I mix up another 2oz of formula and she drinks most of it (and burps up the rest, all over her shirt). She doesn't want anymore, so it's back to the bassinet. Ten minutes later, more fussing - she doesn't want food, she wants attention. I pull her up to my chest and lie down on the couch. Four hours later, Dodi finds me there, asleep, with Celerity cuddled up on my shoulder.

I'm hoping tonight goes better. I'm considering adding a splash of brandy to her milk ;) (This is a joke, never let your baby drink brandy, only fine wines and vodka)

How We're Doing - Week 1

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:18:36 GMT

It's been a week today since Celerity was born. Oh, what a crazy week it's been. C-sections, late nights, early mornings, trying to nail down a feeding schedule, first bath, and more.

Dodi - Rockin' and Rollin'
Over the last week Dodi has gone through many changes. She has been completely exhausted by the labor and surgery, overwhelmed by having a new child, worn out as she recovered, alternately trepidatious and frustrated by the mysteries of breastfeeding, thrilled by the little joys of parenting, and confident that she can be a good mother.

A big challenge for Dodi was learning to deal with Celerity crying. At first she found it very upsetting and, the more Celerity cried, the more anxious Dodi would get. I had to explain to her that crying was just Celerity's way to communicating to us. It didn't necessarily mean she was in pain or hurting, just that she wanted something. It is important that we remain calm so we can attend to her needs. Once she accepted this, she was able to interact with a crying Celerity much more confidently.

Actually, dealing with Celerity with confidence has been a challenge for both of us. As new parents, we're pretty clueless about exactly what we're expected to do, so we have to fall back on what the Doctors and Nurses have told us we need to do. Beyond that, there are plenty of more hours in the day where we have a BABY and we're not always certain what to do with it.

We had been concerned that, with Dodi's illness, she would have a much higher predisposition to Postpartum depression, or even (as we only just learned about) Postpartum Psychosis (eek!). So far she is doing fine. She has regular appointments with her Psychologist, and I will be watching her closely over the coming months.

There is a steep learning curve on motherhood, but with each little learning and each little victory, Dodi grows more confident and self assured. She rocks!

Breastfeeding
Once Dodi recovered from the lack of sleep and was on the road to recovery from her surgery, our biggest challenge has been breastfeeding. Babies can lose up to 10% of their birth weight in the first week after they are born. Until she regains her birth weight, we have to feed her 8-12 times a day, which is every 2-3 hours, even if she is sleeping. Feeding Baby has become the center around which our days revolve.

Before we could deal with the schedule, though, we had a number of challenges with feeding itself. At first, the milk didn't come in for one of Dodi's breasts. She had to use a breast pump to stimulate that breast for a couple of days before the colostrum would come in. After that, we've had attach issues. Right after she was born, Celerity would not open her mouth far enough to get a good attach. Combined with the size of Dodi's breasts, this was a real problem until she learned to open her mouth farther. Dodi had to just shove Celerity's face in boob to get a good attach. The ergonomics of breastfeeding are also difficult. Because of the size of Dodi's breasts, just about the only position that works for her is the "Football" hold, although once we purchased a Boppy we've had a bit more luck with the belly to belly hold. Only in the last couple days has Dodi been able to consistently get a good attach. Sometimes we simply can't get a good attach and I have to feed her with some pumped breast milk or with some of the formula we got from the hospital.

We have been having a lot of trouble maintaining that feeding schedule. Initially it was hard at the hospital because we were so tired. All we three wanted to do was sleep. Once we were better rested, though, we still have to wake Celerity every 2-3 hours to get her to feed. Putting aside how guilty we feel about waking this poor child, sometimes she just doesn't want to stay awake. We've starting changing/checking her diaper before each feed which gets her roused most times. Other times we have had to strip her naked and tickle her to wake her up enough to feed.

The natural result of all this waking up is that we're plum tuckered out. I've been trying to spell Dodi at night with either a pre-pumped bottle, or formula, but that hasn't always worked out. Two night ago we had it all planned out so Dodi would feed her at 2am and 8am and I would fill in at 5am with a bottle. It would would have worked great, except Celerity REALLY wanted to eat at 2am and had such a hard time attaching, Dodi was still awake at 5am! My alarm went off and, darn it, there was Dodi with babe to teat. Finally, last night, Dodi did a feed at midnight, I picked her up at 4am with a bottle of formula, and Dodi was able to sleep from about 1am to 8am straight.

Baby's First Bath
I would consider Celerity's first bath to be a peak experience for me. On Wednesday we gave her a sponge bath. We're not able to do a proper bath yet because she still has her umbilical stump in place. Celerity absolutely loved the bath. We had her on a sponge bath pad covered by a towel and used wash cloths to wet, soap, and rinse each body part.

It's very much a two person job, though. One of us was always holding her while the other was rinsing and washing.

She was very quiet and really seemed to enjoy the experience. I loved it. She's so soft and pudgy. Of course, we took a bunch of pictures of her, which will be useful as blackmail when she gets a boyfriend.

And so it goes
Our chief priority is getting Dodi ready to take care of Celerity once I return to work in about two weeks. I think we're coming up with a solid plan for getting her ready. The key thing is to increase her baby knowledge and confidence. I am considering working part-time from home once I return, if only to be available to Dodi. I'm not sure if I'll do this, since it may not be practical, and is probably not fair to my work.

Happy Baby, Mellow Baby

I know it's still early, but so far Celerity seems to be a pretty happy and mellow baby. I know these thing change over time, but right now I couldn't be happier.

That is, except when she is surly baby: