Thom took this picture of Aaron sleeping two weeks ago when I was at work and e-mailed it to me. Aaron had been sleeping for well over 3 hours and Thom wondered if he should wake him up. Although Aaron had been waking up more frequently at night, he wasn't staying awake after I fed him, so I didn't feel like he needed to be awake more during the day. The only time I wake Aaron up is when I'm ready to go to bed and it has been more than 2 hours since he last ate or during the day if we are going out.
You can see the Miracle Blanket in this photo that we swaddle Aaron in. It truly was a miracle for the first 2 months or so, and still continues to be a big help. But more and more he works his arms out of it and wakes up sooner because he is not swaddled. I think they need to make this product in bigger sizes. But it still works to help get him to sleep. I've tried a few times to put him down unswaddled, but he either can't get to sleep or he wakes up within an hour.
I recently bought a SwaddleMe wrap which uses Velcro to secure the baby. It comes in 3 sizes and I bought the large one. He still manages to get his arms out, but not as easily and not as often. I know that one day soon we are going to have to deal with getting him to sleep without being swaddled. If anyone has had to deal with this and has some pointers, let me know!
Earlier today, we had been playing with Aaron on the back patio on a blanket. He must have gotten overly tired or over stimulated, because he went from completely mellow and staring at the pattern on his blanket to all out screaming like he'd been burned with a hot poker. No fussing or anything else to warn us that he was getting tired. So we took him in to get ready for a nap.
Since swaddling him sometimes makes him cry harder when he is tired, I just took him into his room and held him while sitting on the guest bed. He was crying and screaming and arching his back. I tried to soothe him and get him to take his pacifier, but he wasn't calming down. Finally, I put him in his SwaddleMe blanket and picked him up again and he quieted down within a few seconds. It is really amazing what swaddling can do.
Yea! Our friends Jenny and Chris and Mark and Jill had new babies in the last two weeks. The gender of both babies was kept a surprise and they both ended up with baby boys. (Of our Order Fusion friends who have babies born within the last 18 months, only Sandy and Shannon have a girl, the others all have boys. We expect little Audrey will be in charge when we have get-togethers.)
Jenny and Chris had Oliver on July 11th. Once they knew they were going to to be late (due date was 7/4) I think they were hoping Vladamir (Oliver's per-birth code name) would arrive on 7/7/07 (they were married on 2/2/02). But 7/11/07 is a pretty good birth date, too. Maybe they can try for a little sibling to arrive on 8/8/08 or 9/9/09..
Oliver was born a healthy 7 lbs 9.5 oz and 21" long. We got to see little Ollie on Sunday, but didn't take our own pictures, so I am reprinting (without permission - hope you guys don't mind!) this one from Chris's e-mail. Mom and dad are doing great and seem to be adjusting well to their new life. Jen's mom is still in town helping out, so I'm sure that makes a big difference, too. She seemed to have a magic touch with baby Oliver.
Mark and Jill had baby Grant (code-named Peanut) two days after Oliver was born on Friday the 13th. He was a whopping 9 lbs 10 oz and 23" long. We got to see and hold Grant on Sunday, too. He slept during our entire visit, although they tell us that that isn't all he does.
Despite their lack of sleep, they also seem to be handling parenthood well. We didn't take any photos at their place, either, so I "borrowed" this photo from Mark's online photo album.
Although Aaron is only 3 months old, it seemed like it had been ages since I had held a newborn. I thought I would feel experienced at it, but when I held little Grant, he seemed so tiny and fragile, I realized that I had very quickly acclimated to Aaron's growing size. It almost seemed hard to believe that Aaron was ever that tiny (and since Grant had a pound on Aaron at birth, I know Aaron was even smaller at one point).
We are so excited about these new additions to the Order Fusion family! We are going to have some fun gatherings ahead of us.
All these new babies inspired me to put Aaron's birth pictures online. I didn't want to put them all on his blog and I didn't have a Picasa account at the time to post them to. The pictures from the c-section were taken by my anesthesiologist. If you are really squeamish, you might want to skip these, but I don't think they are too bad. The set also includes a few photos from the recovery room. If you are interested, here they are.
Friday was my last day at work. My boss and friend Raoul organized a BBQ lunch and invited Thom and Aaron to join us (you can see Aaron on my lap in the back of the picture). My friend Linda organized a "farewell card" from everyone at the office that was a series of cards enclosed in one of our 3-ring product manual binders. Each page has a picture of a co-worker and a personal note from them. She also put together a shadow box of pictures and mementos from my nearly 9 years with the company.
I was sad to leave, but I know I'll get back to visit everyone. It's funny though. I knew I'd miss everyone at the office, but over the weekend, I realized I will also miss the source code I worked on. It just dawned on me that I'd never work in that code again.
Aaron turned 3 months last Tuesday. He is outgrowing his bouncy seat so we recently started propping him up in a Boppy on the floor. Right before I took this picture, he had been smiling and playing with Thom. But we can't seem to get him to smile for the camera. As soon as the camera comes out, he turns serious. The same thing happened when we tried to take pictures of him smiling on his changing table. That is where we get the most smiles from Aaron. In this picture, Thom was gathering up his feet and hands like a pig over a spit. Aaron thinks this is a fun game and gives Thom big toothless grins when he does it (except when the camera is aimed at him).
Another favorite game on the changing table is the gear shift game. Aaron will stick his right fist up in the air when he is lying on the changing station and likes it when I grab his hand like a gear shift and make car sounds. First gear gets a little smile, second gear the smile gets bigger. By fourth gear he is all smiles and after fourth gear, I shake his arm back and forth and make silly sounds. He finds that downright hilarious. Afterwards, he squirms around, kicks his feet, and then slowly puts his fist back up in the air to play again. For awhile, I figured he just put his arm up in the air because that is what he does while lying on his back, but this week, I was sure he was doing it intentionally to get me to play the game again. Sometimes, he puts both fists in the air and I shift gears double-handed.
At 3 months, Aaron is much more interactive and alert when he is awake. He still sleeps about 16 hours a day, but when he is awake, he is more playful and has started doing new things. Like grabbing things. At least fabric. He grabs his own onesie, he grabs his dad's shirt or belt loop on his jeans when he is on the changing table, he grabs the cloth diaper we use to cover him during diaper changes to keep from getting sprayed. Pretty much any fabric he touches, he grabs. He also coos and jabbers more and cranes his neck to watch TV when it is on (not something we encourage, but maybe watching CNBC will make him a successful investor when he is older).
Last Sunday, we had lunch at the house of our friends Travis and Tara. They also invited our friends Mont and Jessica and their son Gabe. That is Travis and Tara's son Alex in his toy wagon. He and Gabe played with his toys before lunch while Aaron slept.
Lunch was delicious! Tara was trying out some new recipes from a cooking magazine she likes (Cuisine at Home) and everything came out very good. There were some spicy jalapeño poppers for an appetizer with a crunchy topping of tortilla chip crumbs on top of a cheesy filling. For the main course, there was grilled beef, grilled bacon-wrapped pork, a cold chicken salad with, I think, a cilantro pesto sauce, a bean dish, and some kind of sweet vegetable dish involving yams. And for dessert, there were homemade cream horns and brownies! We were spoiled with all the good food.
Cream horns are a favorite of Thom's from Ohio and he hasn't been able to find good cream horns out here in CA. Tara's recipe involved wrapping puff pastry around molds made from sugar cones wrapped in aluminum foil. She filled some with vanilla cream and some with chocolate cream. As much work as they were, they sounded simpler to make than I would have thought, so we are going to try to make some of our own. (And just in time for our experiment, Trader Joe's has a new puff pastry product in their freezer section.)
After lunch, the older boys played some more. Gabe is recovering from some ongoing digestive problems and is doing so much better. He even let me hold him and play with him for awhile while his mom Jessica was in another room with Tara. Before, he wouldn't have let his mom out of his site and certainly wouldn't have tolerated me holding him. Aaron woke up to eat and then was up for awhile. He seemed to enjoy watching Alex and Gabe while their dads held them upside down. In this picture of him on his blanket, he was staring over at Alex and Gabe in the air.
Thom and I didn't make any plans for the 4th. We just wanted to hang around the house and relax. But at 3:30, I was feeling sociable, so we called up our neighbors and invited them to come over at 4:30 for wine, cheese and fruit from the orchard. Our neighbors Brad and Vicki were up for it and brought some snacks to share, and the neighbors on the other side of them, Hans and Renate were also available, after returning that morning from a 5 week vacation in Europe. We sat on the back patio where it gradually cooled down from somewhere in the 90s. We had moved the table to try to get as much of it in the shade as possible, but even in the shade it was quite warm. By the time the gathering broke up at 7pm, it was starting to be rather pleasant out.
Aaron had just eaten before everyone arrived and was pretty tired. He sat out with us for awhile - mostly in Vicki's lap, until he got too tired and fussy and we tried to put him down for a nap. Since he's a little heater and is hot to hold in warm weather, we figured he was too hot and would be more comfortable inside with the A/C on, but he didn't like missing the party and kept crying in his crib, so we brought him outside again. He did a little better the second time and didn't end up going to sleep until after everyone left (and after another feeding).
Vicki brought Aaron Sandra Boynton's Barnyard Dance, which is a favorite of her granddaughter's - who is going to be moving into our neighborhood. Brad and Vicki's daughter and son-in-law just bought a house up the street. We are excited to have more young kids in the area. They have two girls, one 2 years old and one 10 months.
Last week, I gave notice at work. I have decided to move on from the company I've been with for nearly 9 years. It was a tough decision, especially since I work with a great group of people. But since our small company was sold to a much larger company a year and a half ago, it hasn't been the same. I've lost a lot of my motivation and I'm not happy there any more. I debating just staying home for awhile with Aaron, but after being home with him for a few weeks, I realized I need to work to stay sane. Even if it is just working on my childengineering.com website and trying to generate some income through that and other online projects I had in mind.
However, an opportunity has come up to start my own business, and with Thom's support, I have decided to give it a shot. It's not a sure deal just yet since I need to investigate it further after I'm no longer employed with my current company, but I'm excited about the possibilities. If it works out, I'll hire someone to help out with Aaron and work out of the house. I was hoping to find something like this that would allow me to be home with Aaron, but still do software development. My last day is July 20th, so I hope to know within a few weeks if I can make it work. Wish me luck!
Thom started his family leave two weeks ago and the time has just flown by. His first week home, I worked from home a few hours a day, catching up on e-mails and doing some customer support. Thom was in charge of Aaron but I was around (most of the time), if needed.
The first Monday, while Aaron was still napping, I went out to the grocery store. I was only gone about an hour, but long enough for Aaron to wake up and decide he was hungry. I had left a bottle of milk with Thom that I had just pumped, so it was out at room temperature and ready to go. Apparently Aaron was pretty fussy and didn't want to take the bottle, but by the time I got home, grocery bags in hand, Thom was on the couch feeding Aaron quietly. It was a good test, and they passed with flying colors. We already knew that Thom could meet all of Aaron's other needs - it was just food that was the issue since they hadn't had a lot of practice.
By that Thursday, Thom could heat up a bag of milk and put together a bottle before Aaron was crazy hungry, so by this past Monday, I was ready to start going into the office. Of course, since I hadn't stocked the freezer with milk, the weekend before I returned to the office was when I had the first dip in my milk supply. Fortunately, over several days, I pumped just enough milk for two feedings on Monday, so Aaron wouldn't starve while I was gone, and I was able to pump enough at work for Tuesday. Fortunately, by the end of the week the milk shortage was over. Needless to say, I am starting to stock the freezer.
Thom is having a great time at home with Aaron. They are really bonding. Aaron is smiling so much these days and Thom is learning how to maximize the smile output. They have games they play on the changing table, which is oddly one of Aaron's favorite places to be.
The first Monday Thom was home, I only left the house to shop for groceries, but since Thom was taking care of Aaron most of the time, I didn't spend a lot of time with him. That evening, when Aaron was in bed, I was sitting on the couch watching TV with Thom and I realized that I missed Aaron. It was the first time in 9 weeks that I had ever missed him. I had left the house for 1-2 hours at a time without Aaron before, but had never spent enough time without him to have a chance to miss him. It was a good feeling. I needed that break.
This past week, except for Wednesday the 4th, I was out of the house most of the day. I didn't miss Aaron while I was gone, but I looked forward to seeing him at the end of the day. I'm glad Thom is able to have this time with Aaron. It gives him a chance to get to know Aaron better. It gives me a chance to go to work without worrying about Aaron. And it gives Aaron a chance to bond with his father.
Thom took this picture of Aaron sleeping two weeks ago when I was at work and e-mailed it to me. Aaron had been sleeping for well over 3 hours and Thom wondered if he should wake him up. Although Aaron had been waking up more frequently at night, he wasn't staying awake after I fed him, so I didn't feel like he needed to be awake more during the day. The only time I wake Aaron up is when I'm ready to go to bed and it has been more than 2 hours since he last ate or during the day if we are going out.
