Sleep At Last... Sleep At Last

Whew! First night of trying out a bedtime routine went fairly well. Colin had a bath, a little dinner, a bedtime story and then wailed for about 20 min. in his bassinet. After a bit of comforting he fell asleep at 8:30PM and didn't wake up again until 2:30AM! Then he easily fell back to sleep and was up at 6AM. Not bad. Everyone had a chance to catch up on some zzz's.

This morning we have a very happy baby as you can see by the playful photo of Colin, Clifford and Squish the flat frog. We are heading out for a walk to enjoy this gorgeous day.

O-H-I-O

Last weekend we attended our first official tailgate party. Colin passed out half way through the event and didn't even make it to the Spring Game! How many of us have done that in our youth? Or yesterday?

Anyway, he donned the appropriate school colors and received many compliments on his cuteness. It was a bit chilly so the jacket covered his Buckeye onesie with "future tailgater" on the bum.

Hello Ma-ma...

Shannon took this excellent photo so I just wanted to give an update today so we can get the picture out here.

Colin has had quite a week this week. We certainly hope he is growing because he is still eating pretty well but seems to be sleeping less. He wants to stay-up now even when he is all crabby and sad. We think we are beginning to figure it out though, and now about 9:00 we know to expect the fussiness to start (and it does, like clock work!) so there is usually a pretty good rush around here each night to ensure Shannon and I are both prepped and set for the "evening" to begin.

Some evenings have been better than others, but, as we get more experience under our collective belt we seem to be gaining on it.

All About Town

Once the weather warmed up Colin and Mommy, I mean "I", (always talking in the 3rd person with a baby), have been out to lunch on several occasions. He's always a great lunch date, falls asleep in his cozy car seat and doesn't wake up even when being held. We even made it to an after work happy hour! Hmmm..Cinco de Mayo is coming up and we need to be thinking about if we want Super Aunt Kathy to babysit or bring Colin along. But I digress.

On Friday, we visited Bill at his office to introduce Colin to Bill's co-workers. Colin did very well, again sleeping through everything. He received many compliments on his cuteness. Bill was a very proud papa. We will be making an appearance at Mommy's office next week.

Colin is starting to smile and coo. He enjoys the mobile in his crib and kicks his legs at the dangling figurines. He smiles a lot at his funny daddy who makes really goofy faces to encourage Colin's response. We are trying Tummy Time, however, Colin is not interested in that yet.

We seem to be adding to the amount of sleep we get at night. Colin has been pulling a few four hour naps between midnight and 4AM. This is encouraging. I hope it increases by another hour or so before I head back to work in 3 weeks. I've been surveying my other mommy friends to get their advice on morning routines for remembering Colin's things for daycare, getting to work on time, and looking somewhat presentable. I'm sure it will take a few days to figure out what's going to work for us.

Colin Hits it Hard and Does Six Shots!

OK, it might be what you are thinking (that is if you were thinking this eight week old just started drinking). I accompanied Shannon and Colin to Colin's two month Dr's appointment and boy was it interesting.

But first the stats, because everyone wants to know... at eight weeks he weighs in at a whopping 11lbs 3oz., and is 23 inches long. They did his head measurement too but who really uses head measurements anyway... :-)

And so.... it was the beginning of a multi-year immunization schedule for the little guy . Five needle shots and an oral in less than 30 seconds. The nurse started with the oral (seeing the hand-full of needles she was wielding, I asked if the oral was Jack (Daniels) or Jim (Beam) ? She thought that was cute but probably gets that kind of 'humor' all the time from smart-a$$ new dads like me ;-). After the oral is down, three shots in one thigh and two into the other and we are off and running, well, running isn't the best word to use in this case.

I'll tell you what, the two-second delay between that first needle entering his chubby little thigh and the start of the screams of "WHAT THE #@!* WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!?!" Seemed like an eternity. It's a good thing little brains don't remember too much because I think we would have surely regressed back to 'the cut' if they did. Ouch!

I was with Colin because Shannon didn't really want to be right up there in front when it happened. I looked back to her about half way through and she was doing pretty well but I think she literally got each of the last two shots with him, her thoughts were plainly on her face.

Colin then received his first, of probably many, Looney Tunes Band-Aids.

If you haven't heard or have seen a baby cry like this consider yourself fortunate. We got him settled again after a few minutes and listened intently as the nurse told us what to look for over the next couple of days to ensure everything with the immunizations goes as it should.

We had planned ahead so we had given Colin Children's Tylenol before we left for the appointment. I think that helped a lot because later that afternoon we were a little late on administering the next dose and YIKES, he wasn't too happy about that.

Rough rest of the day for all of us. He wanted to eat but had trouble because anytime anything barley touched his legs he went right back to reliving the whole traumatic ordeal, screaming like a you-know-what! He almost fell asleep about 10 different times but just as he would hit the final stage he would move his legs and then WHAM, right back into full blown wailing.

The Tylenol clearly helped and eventually late in the evening, and absolutely exhausted, Colin got to sleep. I have no idea how Shannon was still functioning after all of that but there she was, laying him down into his bassinet simultaneously searching for her resting spot for the evening.

Most of the week we had been planning on doing a work visit with Ms.Claire and her parents but we were playing-it-by-ear at this point, if tomorrow was going to be anything like this day, a reschedule is in order.

Working on Mastering Fussy Evenings

We are working on establishing a bedtime routine (though what we have so far is a "bad-time routine") in hopes to teach the youngster's clock the concept of sleepy time when darkie-pooh.

Colin has been on a 'bender' this week. He seems to do pretty well during the day but then like clock work he gets real crabby-like about 9:00 or so. We go through the 'normal' checklist; Diaper? Check! Pinky in the mouth? Check! Working on some gas? Check! Sleepy? Can't ever really tell yet but that's what we are betting on... DING, DING, DING, we have a winner (we think). So what to do about it?

Mom carries him around for a while... still crying. Tag-teams to Dad carrying around for a while... still crying. Chuck him, err, PLACE HIM GENTLY into his swing (this ALWAYS works - right!?) he swings for about five minutes, whaling the whole time... opposite parent picks him up out of the swing, momentary silence... ahhhh........

Doh! Crying continues.

EVENTUALLY one or the other of us is able to calm him enough to breath somewhat regularly again and he begins to settle down. Getting him into the bassinet successfully is another story all together but one that doesn't dare start until he is at least mostly asleep (eyes rolling into the back of his little head, heavy eyelids, etc, you get it).

I also continue to encourage Shannon to provide some updates about all of their fabulous lunches and trips out and about town. She'll update when she can, it may take the two of us going through one together to demonstrate how easy it is.

That's all for now, be good. : )

Colin is 8 weeks old, it is time to update!

Tomorrow this little guy turns 8 weeks old. Shannon can't believe it has been two months already, though based on the amount of sleep she has had lately, don't test her on it ;-)

We are scheduled for his two month Dr.'s appointment Thursday afternoon. He is geting between two and four shots. In preparation, I took the afternoon off to be around the house and to help as needed - if the shots end up being overly traumatic (for either of them).

We had a family play date Friday night over at Ms. Claire's house. Claire is the daughter of a gal I work with (also named Shannon). Claire is five days older than Colin but, as you'll see in the pictures, a little bigger. It's funny that Colin's head is bigger though, Claire is just looonger than our little guy.

Everyone had a great time. Shannon and GW (Claire's dad) made a delicious roast dinner with veggies, potatoes and awesome homemade creme-puffs for dessert. We brought appetizers and some limited adult beverages for the dads to share (since both mom's are nursing).

Today, Sunday, was beautiful, the outdoor sensor from Nana Sheila's weather station read 71 degrees. We had the windows open, the cat was out all day and Shannon and Colin got a good stroller walk in (I was at Home Depot, hey I have projects to do).

Finally, regarding the blog, more to come. Check in from time-to-time to catch up with our goings-on or to drop us a line with what you are up to, weiher always thrilled to hear from family and friends.

In the meantime, have a blast with whatever you are doing, this thing ain't no dress rehearsal.