Bathtime Fun

Paige had her first bath the other day. It had been about 3 weeks since her last bath (she's 3 weeks old), so we figured it was about time. Plus we had just gotten a new baby tub and loads of baby bath accessories, so this bath was more for us than for Paige.

All said and done it was fairly uneventful. There was some crying and protesting at first, but I quickly calmed down after Molly told me Paige was the one getting the bath. She actually did pretty well, although I suppose it's just a bath and the bar is set pretty low. Still, we were proud of our little girl and consider this small success a big accomplishment. Paige is clean, we got to use our new bath toys, and we're one experience closer to becoming pros at this whole parenting thing. Plus, we were able to take lots of naked baby pictures to use as blackmail for those teenage years.

During her bath I noticed something odd about the way I was acting. Apparently when I talk to a baby (which is odd enough in itself) I feel the need to ask really obvious questions and repeat myself. A lot. I will also answer for her any question I ask. Then I will repeat that. So I'll sound something like this:

"Are you taking a bath? Huh? Are you taking a bath? Yeah, you're taking a bath, aren't you?"

With each repeating quesion I raise the pitch of my voice. I do not know why.

If Paige can understand what I'm saying, she must think she has a lunatic for a father. While this may in fact be true, I'd like my lunacy to be based on something a little more interesting than a tendency to repeat stupid questions and answer them. Something like buying a new power mower to cut less than 0.04 acres of grass for example.

Pictures have been updated...

http://picasaweb.google.com/mollyuva/May2009

Paige Pokes Herself in the Eye

Maybe switching to formula wasn't the best idea.

Advice

Ok, so we have officially survived two weeks with Paige (and somehow she has survived two weeks with us). While I would love to report that we have been "naturals" at this whole parenting thing, that is just not entirely the case. Luckily we haven't had any life threatening issues, just a few smaller glitches. Paige, however, doesn't seem to notice our inexperience and continues to be a happy little baby.

While we received a lot of advice during my pregnancy, here are a few things that we wish someone had told us before Paige was born:

1. Know how to fold up the stroller before you are in a crowded parking lot and someone is waiting for your parking spot with their blinker on. The pressure may cause you to shove the open stroller in the back of the car.

2. Sterilize the pacifiers before you NEED them. Screaming babies actually make water boil slower.

3. When installing the car seat and using the indicator on the side of the seat to determine if the seat is at the proper angle, make sure your parking spot is not on an incline.

4. If you leave the house with the baby, even if it is just to run to the bank really quickly, take the diaper bag. Babies know when you are unprepared and they will poop the second you do not have a diaper at the ready.

5. Speaking of diapers: always, always have a clean one on the ready when changing a baby. Air apparently causes babies to relieve themselves. Dirty diaper out, clean diaper in...one movement.

And for those of you that just come here to see pictures, here are some new ones: http://picasaweb.google.com/mollyuva/May2009

Preparedness

Before becoming parents, Dave and I both considered ourselves to be relatively smart people. Both of us hold Masters degrees, we have respectable jobs, we are homeowners and somehow got through the days successfully without requiring too much outside help. For the past week, however, our intelligence has been both tested and questioned.

To prepare for our endeavor into parent-dom we took all the necessary steps. This all started several years ago when we each independently decided to take on responsibility for another being, in this case, cats. When Dave lived in Cambridge, he got his orange tabby, Dignan, with his roommates. While I was living by myself in Boston, I adopted Burrito. Our cats were well taken care of and did not change our daily routines too much. Now, we all know that cats are pretty simple critters and do not require too much intervention, so Dave and I decided after our wedding to up the ante. We got Izzy back in 2006 and embraced all the challenges that a new puppy brought to our home. She was very stubborn and not easy to house train, but she eventually caught on (I attribute this to our excellent training skills). We even managed to teach her a few tricks (sit, stay, high-five, etc) and we felt like we were quite the parents. Izzy made it so that we couldn't be away from our house for longer than 8 hours at a time, a huge challenge for us at the time because we liked going out for the evenings and perhaps staying overnight at friend's houses. After adjusting our routine to dog ownership, we thought to ourselves, "how much more difficult can it be to have a baby??"

The answer to that question is, a lot.

I don't remember ever worrying about Burrito and Izzy's eating habits (something they both managed to master early on), neither had any major complaints throughout the day, other than maybe wanting to play when we had to do other things, and they certainly could be left alone for at least a few hours at a time. Babies, on the other hand, can't do much of anything for themselves. Paige has figured out how to eat, but only sometimes will go back to sleep after her meals (a challenge at 3 am). She will sometimes cry, and we (remember, two people with Masters degrees) can't figure out what she wants. Her diaper is clean, she's just been fed, she doesn't seem too hot or too cold...she's just crying. Now don't get me wrong, we still think her cry is cute, but I can see that not lasting too much longer.

I am fairly confident that we will figure this whole "parenting" thing out soon and will someday be able to get some sleep again. Dave returns to work tomorrow, so Paige and I will have to get into some sort of routine that allows for me to complete regular daily activities (laundry, cleaning, etc) as well as the new baby activities (feeding, bouncing, rocking, etc). I'm sure that a few frantic phone calls to grandad will be made in the first few days, but then we'll work it out...

Homecoming Weekend

This past Saturday we brought our new daughter Paige home. While she had grown attached to Molly's recovery room and her friends in the nursery, she agreed that it was time to see where she'd be spending the next few years of her life (at least until the housing market improves).

If sleeping is a sign of happiness, Paige was definitely thrilled to be in her new home. She was greeted by Grandad Heironimus and later met her Granny Lynch. Both seemed to like their new granddaughter, and promised to buy her anything she ever wants whenever she wants it.

On Sunday Paige met her 5 Heironimus cousins out at Grandad's place in Leesburg. At first they seemed wary of the newcomer, but eventually warmed up to Paige after she charmed them with her quick wit and candid demeanor. Here is a video of all the grandkids with their grandad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11oPCbW7dx4

Lately Paige has been trying to master the art of eating and sleeping. She seems to grasp the two concepts individually, but has yet to understand when to do which one. Also, she cries. A lot. In the middle of the night. Granted this did not come to a surprise to us, but it's still tough to anticipate and prepare for. Needless to say, we find ourselves napping whenever and wherever we get a chance. Which can be dangerous in heavy traffic, but I've been pretty good at restricting my naps to red lights and the occassional stop sign.

We've posted some more pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mollyuva/PaigeTaylorArrives

Our Odd Baby

So Dave and I decided that we would have a kid on 05/07/09 because it is a cool date. See, consecutive odd number dates only come up 6 times a century, so we wanted our baby to have one of those dates as a birthday. For this reason, I went into labor on this day...

Introducing Paige Taylor Lynch! Born at 7:59 pm. 7 pounds 14.6 ounces. 21 inches long.

http://picasaweb.google.com/mollyuva/PaigeTaylorArrives