Pacifier magic.
Luke is by and large pretty relaxed, but occasionally he can get pretty fussy. Mid-afternoon is often a rough time. He doesn’t want to sleep and holding him doesn’t really calm the storm. Yesterday he was raising Cain and Liz was trying to sleep. I was getting pretty frustrated with his noise making so out of desperation I grabbed a pacifier. And what do you know…it pacified him. He was out cold within a couple of minutes, and I put him in the bassinet where he slept for the next hour and a half.
Baby mama turns 40.
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It is a good thing that Liz does’t know about this blog because she probably wouldn’t be a fan of this post. Anyways, she hit the big four-oh yesterday. The celebration included nursing, bottle feeding, changing diapers, and a bath. I actually went out to get her a hamburger for dinner, but the place closed at eight. So I asked for requests from Publix and she wanted kambucha and key lime pie. I also got her some potato chips because I am an amazing husband. One of her presents was the photograph below, framed and matted. It shows her holding Luke when he is approximately 22 minutes old. I think I cropped out most of her nipple.
I most likely avoided some trouble by not going to Hobby Lobby until today. Had I gone previously I would have stumbled upon the awesome signage pictured below and probably bought a couple and probably upset somebody.
Tummy time, creepy cat, and more.
Apparently babies need to spend time on their stomachs. This helps strengthen their muscles and improve coordination. Naturally Lily had to keep an eye on things. Also below: a couple other shots from the past couple of days.
First stroll, second bath, and Grandpa time.
Today we took advantage of the lovely weather and a visit from our friend Emilie by going for a little walk around the complex. It was Luke’s first real foray into the great outdoors and he handled it very well. It was nice for Liz to get out too, as it seemed to boost her spirits considerably. Unfortunately rain is supposed to arrive tomorrow and possibly last for several days. But we will venture back outside as soon as it is nice again.
Luke received an overdue second bath last night. He started off calm but that didn’t last too long. At least we covered up his hose this time and didn’t get sprayed.
On Thursday my dad brought by some food that my mother prepared. Fortunately his visit coincided with Luke being awake, so they got to spend some quality time together.
Blocked up, pipe relief, and beautiful weather.
Two truck loads of block got delivered yesterday, along with sand and mortar. They were able to position all of the block on the inside of the footings. Unfortunately the surveyor didn’t come as scheduled yesterday to mark the corners, so the masons couldn’t start today. Hopefully tomorrow. We are using split face block for the exposed areas and regular block for the parts that cover. That saves a little money, although we still used a lot of block – over 2000.
Yesterday as I was trying to figure out how to get water for the masons I discovered the main water line coming in from the street. I had been planning on replacing it since I assumed it was in rough shape, but it is actually one inch PVC pipe of a recent vintage. I found where it branched off to the house and outdoor spigot, and cut the line there. I installed a valve for a garden hose. It was a very easy and cost effective solution to a problem I was quite concerned about. I couldn’t have just used the existing spigot because there were too many leaks on the line that fed it. So now the masons will have water, a key ingredient for mortar. I am rather pleased with myself, but think that I will rework everything by putting a 90 degree elbow onto the line, then coming up a couple of feet off the ground and then attaching the spigot. Otherwise it would be a mess after it rains and the hole that the spigot is now in fills up with water.
This weather has been amazing, but will cool down again this evening for a couple of days. It was warm but quite breezy today. I hope the wind lasts through the summer. Things are getting nice and green. Unfortunately that means the grass needs cutting. I don’t yet have an implement for my tractor. I actually need to repair the three point attachment before I am ready for a cutter. Lots to do around the farm.
The neglected older child.
I never imagined the day where I would feel even the slightest bit of sympathy for Lily, but she has cut a pretty morose figure around the condo for the past couple of weeks. Yes, it’s the classic case of the firstborn getting knocked off the pedestal by something newer, cuter, and less of a butt hole. Fortunately she hasn’t attacked Luke yet.
Two weeks!
Well pop open a refrigerated bottle of breast milk, because Liz and I have managed to keep Luke alive and kicking for two weeks now. There is a little bit of leftover Easter candy in the Fusion that I might celebrate with. Other than that it’ll be a pretty low key evening.
Three boxes showed up from Amazon today. They contained a bunch of plain white onesies (with hand covers, so he doesn’t scratch his face), extra pumping supplies and nipple shields, and a handy little drying tower. I am disappointed in myself for being so excited about all of this stuff.
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Japanese tourists, tongue tie, and first bath.
My parents and came over this afternoon and were able to hold Luke for the first time. Tons of cell phone photographs were taken. Luke was pretty relaxed about it. Lauren came over a little later but he was already feeding by then so she couldn’t hold him. Hopefully next time. She did stay and chat with Liz for a while though.
This morning we took Luke to the dentist. I can’t believe how fast his teeth came in! Just kidding, he actually went because he had a little tongue tie. It was a very quick laser procedure and Liz actually cried more than he did. This will help a lot with breast feeding and with his speech later. Hopefully it will keep him from getting any sort of Michigan accent! The biggest issue is going to be doing his mouth stretches every three hours for the next 21 days. Those get him pretty agitated and it is difficult to see him suffer. But short term pain equals long term gain.
We were actually on time, despite some traffic issues. All the folks at the office were super friendly and helpful.We return in two weeks for a follow up. The lactation consultant is coming Thursday and next Monday to check up on everything. I’m optimistic that this procedure will really help improve the quality of his feedings.
Since the last piece of his umbilical cord and the circumcised end of his penis both fell off a couple of days ago, we decided that last night was a good time for his first bath. We stripped him naked and learned a valuable lesson…keep the fire hose covered at all times! No pictures of the spray down or his sponge bath, as the former shocked me so much that I forgot to document the latter. But he soaked half the kitchen and it took me a long time to wash and sterilize everything afterwards. At least it was really funny to watch.
He started crying about 1:30 this morning and didn’t stop until we were getting ready to leave for the dentist’s at around 7:15. I took over from Liz at about 4:30 and held him and walked with him and did everything I could think of to get him to sleep, to no avail. The closest he came was a fifteen minute stretch of silence after I gave him a pacifier for pretty much the first time ever. He spit it out though, and went back to fussing. I took a little nap after we returned to the condo, but am still pretty tired.
Not much is planned for the rest of the week other than the lactation consultant. The weather is supposed to be spring like again starting tomorrow and I will start spending lot of time working on the farm. Block is supposed to be delivered tomorrow and the masons start work on Wednesday. Soon it will start looking like a house.