Another week

Another week is in the bag, and well, I'm pretty bagged. Getting to the end of the week seems like such an accomplishment now. I'm still trying to put my finger on why it feels so much different than before. Perhaps it's because I've been 'just-one-more-day'-ing it for about 3.5 days already this week. Perhaps it's because I'm necessarily so much more in the moment now that the distance from Friday afternoon to Monday morning seems so much longer. Perhaps it's the opportunity to see my son at a point during his day when he's doing something other than wail. Perhaps it's the opportunity to get slightly more sleep and maybe get a couple precious hours to myself.

I had a scotch to celebrate achieving the week's end. It pretty much knocked me on my ass. I'm some lightweight now :)

A hockey night

After much debate, I decided to play hockey last night. I was one of two spares who had enough regular season games in to be eligible for the playoffs, but Bec typically gets most of her sleep in the evenings when I can take Quinn. Plus I was pretty tired myself. She generously urged me to go. In the end I had fun and was reasonably effective by keeping my game simple. We won 4-2 with an empty-netter. Bec fared not too bad with Quinn - while he (and she) didn't sleep a ton, at least he didn't caterwaul the whole evening like he usually does with me.

Quinn's getting more interactive. He responds to kisses with smiles sometimes, and he seems to communicate needs ever so slightly more effectively. He's usually full of smiles when I'm leaving for work, which makes it difficult to leave, but he also usually has a couple smiles when I get home from work, which makes it fun to come home. There have been several times now where he has looked tired and I have been able to rock him to sleep through a bit of wailing. He seems to sleep slightly more during the night than during the day now. He has a rash on his face that we're a little concerned about so Bec's going to a Well-Baby clinic run by the city tomorrow to get an opinion on it. There is one last midwife appointment next week where we can get an opinion on it too. Hopefully it's nothing - we're guessing maybe an allergy to dairy in Bec's diet but we're not sure yet.

I'm pretty exhausted. I've been reasonably productive at work but my focus wavered some late yesterday and late today. Almost done another week though - one day at a time.

More sleep for Bec?

This afternoon Bec picked up the TV remote and the cordless phone and sat down on the couch with Quinn. She proceeded to call me at work and then put the phone down as if it were the remote, primed for channel changing. She was very confused when the remote starting saying "Hello.....hello...hello?". We had a good laugh when we figured it all out.

Perhaps we need to get Bec some more sleep.

Smiles

They say infants imitate people. I think at one month is too early but I figured I might as well start trying during his alert times. It has made me realize I don't smile very much in the regular run of a day. I'm always preoccupied with something - something I did, something I said, something I need to do, something I need to say - and seldom in the moment. Perhaps another reason for having kids is for the mirror on one's self it provides. Having Quinn has made me examine myself, has made me slow down, and has made me want to be a better person for his sake. When walking with Quinn, squalling or otherwise, he often doesn't appreciate it when I try to do something else simultaneously, so I find myself noticing things, indoors or out, that I'd gone by a thousand times before and never noticed. I find myself smiling more, and I find people smiling back more. Even the cats appear to appreciate my toned-down tenor.

As Quinn gets older the treadmill of life will inevitably speed up as we have events all over heck and creation. I hope we can somehow convey the importance of smiles at the same time. It often seems a lesson lost amid the hubbub.

A great skate

After some debate, we decided to go for a skate on the canal today. I had been feeling flu-like and wasn't feeling great when I got up. We didn't know whether Bec was healed up enough for skating or not. I felt a little better as the morning progressed. We decided to go and take it slow and not too far and see how it went.

It was (is) a gloriously sunny day, around freezing. The canal was in great shape. We got there around 1045am before the huge main throngs of midday. We went across Dow's Lake from the pavilion and the Beaver Tails line was wayyy long and we were still feeling good so we pressed on to 5th Avenue to try the Beaver Tails hut there. The line was better there, so Bec stood in line while I loitered aimlessly with Quinn to keep him asleep. He eventually awoke and fussed. Bec took him into a change-hut to feed him while I took her place in line. He fed really well in the hut and got a suitable amount of Random Grandmother attention at the same time. I eventually procured a Beaver Tail and we ate it in the hut. He decided he wanted to feed some more so I decided to go for a skate by myself (well, with the other 10000 people on the canal by that time). I made it all the way to the NAC for a total skate of about 13km. Bec did about 7km I think. She was a little sore on the way back but all in all felt really good.

Quinn was in the car seat attached to the Muttsy stroller via a special adapter that meant we could just take him out of the car and snap him into the stroller. It worked like a charm. Easy transitions to and from the car, and the stroller was fantastic on the canal with the large inflated wheels providing almost no resistance. After looking at people with kids in sleds, sleighs, and umbrella strollers and seeing how much work that looked like, I was glad we forked out the $$$ for the Muttsy. It's awfully large but very good.

Quinn slept on the way out and was awake the whole way back but was a good as gold the whole time. He made up for it with a yangy afternoon.

The advice phenomenon

It is an amazing phenomenon. Absolutely everyone who found out we were pregnant or had a newborn *immediately* came out with a piece of parenting advice, completely unprompted and unsolicited. Everyone, no matter what their experience, offers up some 'helpful' tidbit. People who have never seen a baby in their life know somebody who knows somebody who had an aunt who hid in the basement for 17 hours while their kid was crying and the kid never did it again so it must be the right way to do it. It's really quite remarkable.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm new at this and I love to learn and learning from others' experiences is often a valuable way to do so. But one of the things I quickly found out with all the completely divergent parenting advice is that you have to forge your own path. Fortunately I have 38 years of experience in taking strident advice in as much stride as possible (which is not to say it has always been 'in stride') and forging my own path - love you ma & pa! :). Actually they have been great through all of this, offering less advice than most complete strangers I tell we have a newborn.

If I were to offer a bit of advice to new parents it would be to do what works for you so long as it's not illegal, immoral or unsafe, and don't let any other person, book or "expert' make you feel badly about it.

See, I do it too.

.

The right amount of not caring

I had a long week. It was busy at work and time-wise the balance worked OK, but energy-wise the week was a challenge. Quinn seems to be in a cycle where he's good as gold for a day, followed by two days of crankiness. Thursday and Friday were cranky days for Quinn. Thursday night was especially bad, and Bec got very little sleep. Bec & I talked at length about how to approach the crankiness in Quinn and we came up with several ideas to try from books we've been reading. We can't seem to get past the thought that we think he's trying to tell us something and we just can't figure out what it is.

Last night I was utterly exhausted, Bec was utterly exhausted, and Quinn's eyes popped open after an early evening feed. I volunteered to take him for a couple of hours and Bec went to bed. He started to get cranky again - not full time full on wailing, but wouldn't settle, and varying levels of crying. I checked everything I could think of. I put him in the snuggly and he got really mad. I tried a few things. Nothing seemed to work. Finally I decided, well if nobody's happy I might as well make one person happy - so I strapped him into the snuggly and played video games while wearing him. If he screams, he screams. He's fed, changed, the right temperature, doesn't appear to have gas, doesn't appear to be in physical pain and is attached to a primary caregiver. If he needs something else I just don't know what it is.

He was as good as gold from that point on. He fussed a few times, but I ignored it except for a bit of stroking and soft words. He slept for 3 hours like that, giving Bec a total of four much-needed hours of sleep. He slept for another three-hour stretch through the night so we're all much more rested today. Was it just a regular part of his fussiness cycle? Or was 'ignoring' the fussiness (while still wearing him and looking after his needs) the right amount of not caring for that moment? I choose to believe it was my own deft handling :) but who knows what the truth really is. The important part is we all had a good sleep.

Good eats

We've certainly eaten well over the last month. Ma Simpson has provided a steady parade of homemade healthy hits (we had a soup tonight that was awesome!) and Arnie and Caitlin have been picking up takeout and groceries. I think the good nutrition is making it sooo much easier to handle the sleep deprivation, and helping us all to grow/recover. It's important in staving off post-partum blues for Bec too.

Last night Quinn showed a definite preference for mommy. When she went to bed he immediately started crying. When he started to ramp it up I took him in to mommy and he immediately settled down. He didn't seem to want to feed, but slept for 4 hours with Bec. I tried not to take in personally. On the bright side, I got a little time to myself, and not at the expense of Bec's sleep.

Stage of the moment

I'm going to try hard to appreciate him the most that I can at every stage. It strikes me that parent/kid friction often occurs when there is a disconnect between perceived and actual stage. Parents can push kids too fast. Parents can persist in seeing their kids as they were in some favourite but bygone stage. Kids can see themselves as more advanced than they really are. Kids can distance themselves from parents. Parents can sometimes not really be aware of stage their kid is at for one reason or another. There are so many ways the wheels can fall off. I'm guessing this is one of the hardest parts of parenting over the long haul. But I get ahead of myself. He can't roll over yet. Stay in the moment. Right.

Quinn appears to want things to look at now. He looks at toys on the side of the crib. He gets so completely galvanized by some rotating doodads on a kid swing we have that Rebecca feels guilty about using it. He listens intently when I sing to him, at least briefly. The last two days he has produced what looked tantalizingly like a smile when I got home from work. Yes, I think this stage is going pretty well.

The sleep arms race

We all had a good sleep Sunday night. Bec & Quinn had a utopian day on Monday - a walk in the stroller to the neighbourhood market on a sunny day, followed by a nap on the return home. A bad sleep all around Monday night was followed by a Tuesday where Bec was ready to mark him up and sell him off. Go figure - There seems to be a direct correlation between good sleeps and good next days.

It's like a sort of sleep arms race - as we develop countermeasures to try to get some sleep, he changes his behaviour. After a few days where Bec was able to get some prolonged sleep in the early evening, now he wails through much of that time, which has been quite wearing on dad. After sleeping happily in the bassinet for several nights, now he won't seem to stay settled there. In the early going he would only sleep on Bec or I but now sometimes he seems to rather being put down. It's a constant head-scratcher. I guess in another month we can start some sleep behaviour conditioning but much of what we read states that before two months old is too early for that sort of stuff.

It's hard to believe that tomorrow he's one month old. The time has flown by. In a way, Bec wants him to stay this size forever. There are upsides and downsides to each stage I suppose. I must say I'm enjoying this early stage much more than I thought, although more sleep predictability would be nice. I've managed to be mostly functional through three days of work this week but it's a bit of a struggle. We've managed to get Bec a little more sleep but that's still a struggle too. We're going to try a different scheme tonight to try to counter the evening wailing of the past few nights.

I wonder if the wailing is just from growing. He seems longer - we measured him at 22" tonight, which is up 1.5" from birth; and also heavier - he checked in at 10lbs 13oz at this morning's midwife appointment. It's gotta hurt a body to grow that much.

What the heck does that mean?

What The Heck Does That Mean, volume 2 of 22547: Some inexplicable wailing last night. He seems to be in some kind of pain - not excruciating, but it definitely looks like physical discomfort. We're wondering whether he's allergic/sensitive to something Bec's eating. Or maybe it's from being in the sling, perhaps putting pressure on different areas of his body. Maybe he was overtired. Or maybe he's becoming colicky [ominous sound]. Who knows - we'll just have to continue to blunder through it. It doesn't seem like anything too serious.

In case you're wondering, Volume 1 was anything he did the first night.

It's been a pretty low-key weekend so far. I think a full workweek is going to beat the crap out of me next week...

Day 2 - Much better

I took Quinn in the baby-sling last night. After an hour of chores while wearing him, he fell asleep. Then I went for a walk, starting short, but going for more loops close to home when he seemed to do alright. I walked for an hour. Then I got home and rocked in the rocking chair with him for another hour. Then I talked to mom & dad on the phone for an hour while rocking him. Then I put him in the bouncy chair and he slept for another hour - 5 hours of peace for Rebecca! It made a huge difference. He was in better sorts through the night and today, and Rebecca was in commensurately better spirits.

The Public Health Nurse was in this morning and weighed him - 10lbs, 9oz at 3 wks + one day! Another pound in a week! He's all health and the nurse thought we were all doing really well. Bec had a great visit from Steph, Sophie and Shirley today too, and then a visit to the community centre for more breastfeeding advice, this time on breastfeeding while lying down. Quinn was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when I got home which was quite heartening. Even after working only two days I am worn out and ready for bed. A five-day workweek next week is going to be a challenge. But life has necessarily become more in-the-moment, which is a great thing about having a kid. Today was a great day with Quinn and pretty good day all around. Tomorrow is a day off to look forward to. Right now I am tired and can go to bed. Presuming Quinn agrees, that is, but so far it looks promising.

Rough first day

Quick post - Bec's chasing me to bed. Day 1 at work was a disaster with IT problems preventing me from doing any work and empty promises of help from IT support. It was an entirely wasted day except for a department meeting where I learned of the prospect of layoffs by year's end. Bec's day was similarly disastrous, with Quinn's frequent feedings followed by equally frequent pukings and Quinn was yangy, grating on her sleep-deprived nerves. I think she has been mounting heroics to buy me sleep for my return to work but we need to come up with a more sustainable approach.

It was great fun while it lasted

With heavy heart, I prepare for my return to work tomorrow. It's been a fantastic three weeks. We've all come a long way I think. The first week was learning some basic babycare skills and survival. The second week was trying to read Quinn a little better and improve our babycare skills to a point where we could recover a tiny smidgen of our own selves. The third week was about going out into the world with a baby and all the requisite paraphernalia, getting Rebecca comfortable with carting Quinn around by herself and learning what resources are available out there. It's gone quite well and felt like a natural progression. I think back to that first night of Quinn's wailing and the helpless feeling I felt with him so dependent on us and me feeling so utterly inept. But Rebecca has been a star through it all and we've all gotten through it. I love our little family. Quinn is a great kid and growing like a weed.

Now I join the legions of people who see their kids for an hour or two each weeknight. It makes me sad, but it has to be. Bec & Quinn are going to meet me for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully that will take some of the sting out of the first day back. There are always weekends I guess, plus the 4 weeks I plan to take in June. It could be worse I suppose - I could live in the U.S. and get what, 3 days?

Dawn of a new era

I am no longer Eater Of The Last Chocolate Chip Cookie. I have bequeathed this to my wife. This is the highest form of love one human can convey onto another. In due time I'm sure this mantle will pass onto Quinn. I will be content with looking longingly at the cookie can while at the same time knowing I am doing the utmost for my family.

In other era-dawning news, the end may be nigh for the '96 Mustang. Another $1k for a new exhaust system. Plus I need new rear brake calipers in the spring that won't be cheap. It's starting to become too expensive to maintain. Sigh....I may be forced to buy a *responsible* car. Just not the minivan, pleeeeease not the minivan, anything but that aaaaaaaagggggghhhh....

A fledging of sorts

Today we got Quinn all bundled up against cold blustery day, I cleared the car off, and Bec & Quinn went off to a Mom & Baby playgroup. I stood in the window and watched them go and I couldn't help but think that another of many tiny milestones has been hit. I do everything I can for Bec but there's a certain level of commiseration that only other new mothers can offer. I hope she is able to find that there.

Quinn was awake from about 8pm to 2am last night and we thought he was going to be up all night. Then he slept til 915am with only one feeding! It would be nice if that continued - but I'm not yet counting any chickens that we'll always count that many sheep.

Utterances and other accomplishments

Quinn is beginning to utter some syllables. 'Ga' seems quite prominent. Also 'ah'. He can raise his head up and look around some when you're holding him on your chest, and he makes these little "I'm working really hard" grunts while doing so. He occasionally makes these snorts that make both Bec & I laugh.

He makes hand motions in his wiggly spells that we refer to as "He shoots, he scores", "All my people", and "Cleared for takeoff". He smiles occasionally and it doesn't always appear to be directly tied to expulsion-related activities. He occasionally will flex his legs in a standing sort of standing motion and push himself upwards, but it's looking obviously accidental. He wiggles to a degree where you need to be sure you've got a good hold of him when you pick him up.

It's so amazing to watch him in his quiet alert times. He appears to be able to focus on objects about 6 or 8 feet away which is farther than I would have guessed. He follows a finger moving in front of him a little, but when you're swaying him back and forth while he's focused on a distant object you can see his eyes tracking back and forth in time with the swaying. He has a particular penchant for a Sens playoffs red pompom in the front hall.

He's on track to burp the alphabet before he starts school. He's an excellent eater and pooper. Also doing well with the peeing. A little too well actually, getting his clothes, the furniture, the walls, as well as innocent bystanders with alarming regularity. He has so far managed to stay one step ahead of his parents' defensive tactics, causing some frantic machinations that wouldn't look out of place on a Mr. Bean episode. All in all he doesn't cry that much. We're working at the sleeping thing, which seems to be the biggest impediment to real life, to no one's surprise.

All in all, we count ourselves very Lucky. It's a new battle every day though, and being the witching hour, it's time to prepare for tomorrow, or tonight, as the case may be.

Our photogenic son

We ventured out to Grandma and Grandpa's yesterday - our most adventurous car trip to date with it being about an hour each way. Quinn was a star, only uttering a sound for red lights. A future Ottawa impatient driver is born. He also produced a Fierce Glare for the bumps on the 417 around Kanata.

Grandpa is a great photographer and we asked him to takes some pics of the three of us together. For the very first shot, Quinn produced a fabulous smile that produced a perfect photo. Fortunately grandpa is so good at his craft that he also got it right first shot - if it were me I'd still be lamenting having missed it. He didn't produce another smile the rest of the shoot - I guess he figured if you get it right first shot you don't need to take any more. Fortunately he looks cute even when not smiling so we got some other good ones as well.





Photos courtesy of WA Simpson.

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38 years old, kissed a girl

There are upsides and downsides to having a first child at age 38. A downside is the generational age difference, both now and when my kid(s) is/are grown. An upside is that I appreciate the magnitude of the current situation much more than I would have when I was younger. I got a call from work asking me to come in at Day 6 and I didn't go in. I might not have reacted the same way 10 years ago. I am completely immersed in new fatherhood and I am enjoying every second of it.

Being almost completely uninitiated in kids up til Quinn was born, I must say it's coming a lot more naturally to me than I ever expected. I'm making lots of mistakes, to be sure, but I'm still in there pitching as much and as best as I can, and feeling pretty good about it - more potential differences from 10 years ago.

(The title is a reference to a Tragically Hip song title)

OK, he's *definitely* smiling

Quinn was just perched on his mom tonight during a quiet alert time. He was lifting his head up off mom's chest, a bit bobble headed but pretty strong, and looking her right in the face and smiling! No poops, farts, or burps about it - a full-on smile with a definite glimmer in his eye! He did it a half dozen times and was obviously quite pleased with himself. It made us forget any sleepless nights of the last two weeks.

Speaking of sleep, it's been a good couple of days in that regard. He fell asleep in the car seat yesterday while we were out and we left him in it when we got home, figuring we'd feed him when he woke up. We kept waiting, and waiting...and waiting...and four hours later he woke up. We were kicking ourselves for missing a perfect sleep opportunity. Today he did the same thing, except this time he fell asleep on my chest for 3 hours while Bec slept. It was a much-needed break for her - breastfeeding has many benefits but it's hard on the supplier.

The lactation consultant pointed out he should be coming up on his 3-week growth spurt. Sheesh he's up to 9lbs 11oz already - what's he going to do now, gain entire pounds at a time? Apparently this growth spurt incurs hourly feedings for a 24 to 36 hour stretch and it will unfortunately coincide with me returning to work. Hmmm...

The reason?

Now that we've figured out a few things about baby-ownership we're trying to expand our comfort zone, especially with regard to things Bec will do with Quinn once I'm back to work. Bec loves movies, so today's excursion was to a mom & baby-friendly matinée movie. The sound is lower, they don't dim the lights completely, they have change tables in the hall and a place to put strollers, and nobody is allowed to complain about wailing babies. Today we saw 'Bucket List'. It's a real tear jerker but the alternative was the chick flick '27 Dresses' and there's no need of me seeing that. It all went swimmingly. Quinn fed twice, slept, and uttered barely a peep through it all. He's proving to be an able adventurer.

Years ago cousin Wendy and I had a conversation about why we have kids - are they the meaning of life, or are they just a huge amazing distraction? If there was a conclusion it was lost amid the beers, and the whole idea was pretty abstract to me then. But the movie today made me revisit that question in the context of my last two weeks. A theme of Bucket List is the two terminally ill main characters discussing the ancient Egyptian theory that upon death you were asked two questions before being admitted to heaven: the first is "Have you experienced joy?"; and the second is "Have you helped others to experience joy?". While certainly not the only way to be able to answer "yes" to both questions, from my vantage point parenthood looks like a strong potential candidate for such. I know I've already experienced joy in only the first twelve days, and with every fibre of my being I want to bring joy to my son. Perhaps that's all the reason we ever need.

A smile maybe?

I was singing to Quinn during his quiet alert time tonight and he was looking intently at me through it. At the end of it I was smiling at him, and it looked all the world like he smiled back at me with a glimmer in his eye. All the literature says that doesn't happen til 4 to 6 weeks old, and try as I might to combat the "my kid is so advanced" instinct that all parents seem to have, the absence of any apparent burping or farting around the purported smile made me wonder...

At the very least perhaps he's learned to make his mouth go a different way that we can condition into a socially triggered smile in a few weeks. I was feeling overwhelmed and inadequate today, so whether or not I was reading too much into it, it was a heartening event.

Where did my mind go?

I mistook frozen turnip for macaroni and cheese tonight - so much for getting comfort food for Bec on a blue day. Yesterday it was the diaper with no liner and feeling stupid while ham-handing Quinn undressing him at the doctor. Honest mistakes I suppose but I'm concerned the sleep deprivation is affecting me. How am I going to function at work like this when I return in just a week and a half?

Oh well - at least the turnip was awesome. It reminded me of one of my mom's Christmas dinner dishes - I can't remember whether it's turnip or squash, but I'll just blame it on no sleep.

What do 11-day olds dream of?

Quinn was asleep on my chest this evening and several times he would give these occasional starts with quick breathing and short cries that sounded scared. I held him and reassured him and he settled down each time. I wondered though, whether something was going through that little brain of his while he slept, and wondered what an 11-day old would dream of. Was it the the trauma of birth? The first days of trying to communicate needs to new parents? Was he missing a favourite Hindu cow from a previous life? Then he burped. Maybe that's all it was, but I still wonder what goes through the mind of an 11-day old.

We learned a lesson in scheduling with a newborn today. We were going to all go for a walk, and we tried to make it coincide with an appointment I had in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately he decided he was hungry just prior to that time, and then he filled his pants with a massive poop. As Bec was changing him he peed on her followed by puking on her. Everyone had to change. I met them *after* my appointment. On the upside, the sun came out during the delay and we walked all the way down to Bridgehead on a beautiful day. Roll with the punches I guess.

We had another visit to the midwife today. Quinn checked out great - after being born 9lbs and going down to 8lbs 3oz, he's back up to 9lbs 8oz. Not bad for 11 days old. A quick spreadsheet projects he'll be 114lbs by the time he's two. I better get my licks in now :) He also passed a hearing test and Bec is healing well, so all is well on the health front.

More firsts

Quinn had his first stroller trip today. It was to the 7-11, which is a momentous occasion in anyone's life :) It was for Superbowl snacks though, which is a suitably noble first mission. He seemed to be ok with the stroller - which was a relief given that kid-rejection of such an expensive item would have been stressful. There were a few squawks but it might have been hunger (he fed liberally upon returning home) or the ill-fitting snowsuit getting into his face (finding clothes that fit when you're a different size every week is tough). The large-wheeled stroller did pretty well in the poorly plowed sidewalks, which is what we wanted it for. And it's light enough that Bec can get it up and down the stairs.

Hopefully a little fresh air and sunshine will mean sleeps as good as the last two nights. Being a parent is a little like a martial arts fight - constantly getting reset to face the next attack - and rest is a big part of that.

Quinn The Intrepid

We had a busy day yesterday - first car trip, to the doctor (routine visit) and for groceries, and then another car trip to the community centre for some breastfeeding advice, all in a major snowstorm. The community centre was busy and only one lactation consultant made it in so it ended up being an almost 4 hour excursion. He was encased in his snowsuit, strapped into his carseat, poked and prodded by the doctor, and breastfed in a grocery store and in a room of other wailing infants. I thought all the ingredients were present to overstimulate Quinn into a meltdown. But he was good as gold. In fact, I'd say he didn't cry more than 10 minutes the entire day, which is by far our best day yet in that regard. Maybe he likes the adventure. Son of his mother.

Bec's been serving yeoman service, but at the expense of her own sleep. We decided to focus our efforts on getting her some sleep. She got an hour early, and then after a feed Quinn slept on my chest for 4 solid hours while his mom got some much needed sleep! Four solid hours! OK, *I* was hungry and almost peed my pants - I don't know how he went that long. And Bec got another 1 + 3 further hours of sleep, for a grand total of 9 hours! Luxury! She's in much better spirits today. Quinn appears to be a big sleeper. Son of his father. Yet again I love our complementary natures.

First Bath

Quinn had his first bath tonight. No pictures - this is a family blog. We took a video that we'll be sure to show his first girlfriend in years to come though. There was some squalling but that beats squalor. All in all he was pretty good about it.

Today was the first day I felt we were getting enough of a handle on this baby thang such that I could begin to reintegrate with the world again. He, and Bec, can each be left on their own for stretches now. And Quinn puts up with my clumsy handling with a minimum of Fierce Glares such that I can spell Bec off periodically.

Fierce Glares - yes I think we have a Spirited Child. Any Unauthorized Touches result in a Fierce Glare and perhaps an Emphatic Grunt. I think Quinn has the combined impatience of both his parents, which is to say a considerable amount of it. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree...