Celebrating my geekness
When I was pregnant I had such grand plans for doing monthly check-ins about the baby. But here we are at almost 5 months and I’ve barely blogged a thing. I’m just happy that I’m only 2 months behind processing and uploading photos! Here are the basics on his progress:
Eating
He is happily doing very well on breast milk still. Thankfully his tendency to cluster feed has slowed down a bit so my evening is a little more than just switching him from side to side while he chows down. As a result he’s also grown like a weed and now weighs over 15lbs (though I’m convinced that at least six ounces of that is drool at any given time). At around 6 months we’ll start introducing solid foods and I’m sure that will be a whole new ball game!
Sleeping
We are quite happy with how he has been sleeping. Since he catnaps during most feeding sessions, he can stay awake for quite a few hours in between naps. He’s a bit of a night owl though and won’t go to bed before 10pm most nights. Depending on what’s happening, he goes to sleep for a couple hours or will sleep for 6 or 7 before waking up again. But it usually isn’t difficult to get him to sleep again.
Other stuff
He’s already started teething and the front bottom teeth are now peeking out from his gums. Lots of other little bumps in his mouth though so the rest might be in hot pursuit.
He doesn’t yet sit up on his own but he keeps lunging forward with his head and neck and bouncing his legs to build up those core muscles. He’s also started trying to pull himself up using his crib rails (up until now he’d only try with mummy or papa’s hands).
I can sense that his first roll is imminent. He keeps trying it out a little but then chickening out at the last minute. He’s enjoying tummy time a lot more now though and can wiggle around like the hands on a clock on his front or his back. I don’t anticipate much time to blog once he gets mobile.
It’s interesting what personality traits are coming up too! Loves music, especially jazz songs sung by Benevolance. Not too fond of books yet though. And he’s already showing a streak of stubborn independence just like me.1 He loves to explore new things and is constantly discovering them all around him. His current fascination is with sinks.
He still has blue eyes and blonde hair. We’re starting to see some hair shedding now, but he still has lots left. At least if he goes bald, it’ll be for the start of spring instead of winter!
It’s clear that he’s started having dreams when he sleeps. Sometimes he’ll chuckle a bit as he lies there. Other times he’ll start to cry in his sleep.
One of the ways to overcome some of my fears of motherhood is to scope out the places I’m afraid of going to. Basically to go there with the intention of seeing how child friendly they are and then going home. Then when you do take the next step, you know what to expect.
So I’m making a list of places that I should check out. This was difficult because I enjoy doing a lot of things at home and don’t go out much to begin with. But here’s the list I stretched out as much as possible:
As a first time mama, things can be exhilarating but also terrifying. Inspired by the Fearless Friday post on Rookie Moms, I’ve decided to share a post on some of my fears of motherhood. Hopefully I’ll also be sharing as I conquer each fear too. For now just the process of writing out the list is therapeutic.
(Please note that comments are disabled on this post simply so I don’t get a lot of ‘don’t feel bad . . . ,’ ‘I can totally relate . . . ,’ or ‘you should try . . .’ type of comments. If you really have something to say that falls outside of these comment categories then you can email me directly.)
These are the things I’m scared to do:
Happy to announce that we are finally ready to begin paying out the baby betting pool winners. We wanted to wait a couple months before paying out just in case Locutus turned out to be Japanese after all. But if he hasn’t changed yet then I guess we’re stuck with him as is.
We had a winner for length, but none for weight nor due date (no one picked 9/11, go figure).
Every generation faces new parenting issues. For our generation, social media has blurred the lines between “real life” & “online life.” As new parents, sharing our children online seems only natural. But there are also issues of privacy to consider. More importantly, I want to allow my children to develop their own identity and sense of self, both on and offline. To help give them that chance online we decided not to publish photos or use their real name online.
Thus, the screen name the baby contest was born. We got a lot of really good entries from our friends and then decided to wait until he was born before finally deciding.
Even before he was born, we were already leaning toward one name as a favourite. We seemed pretty certain after he was born that one particular name was the best fit.
Then one evening as Benevolance and I discussed the options I made a flippant comment on how surprised I was that no one had suggested Locutus as his screen name. We shared a look and kind of laughed about it. But in the backs of our minds we knew that Locutus was the right name for him, even though the other name was very close to being just right.
I do feel a little guilty that I won my own contest. However, we’re still giving out the prize to our friend Calvynne who suggested the nearly perfect screen name for him1.
So, from here on in, you’ll get to hear me talk about our son Locutus.
You must have known that I had a good reason to stop blogging for the last couple of months, right? Hopefully I’ll be able to resume again now that life with our new baby is starting to settle down a bit.
First things first though, you’re probably looking for some of the details & vital statistics:1
We welcomed a beautiful baby boy to our family on Sunday, September 11th at 9:36 pm. He weighed 8lbs 5oz and was 53cm long. He’s got lots of blonde hair and big blue eyes (at least for the time being).2
Things have been a little crazy since he arrived, hence the online silence. If you’ve got specific questions, or baby Geekness things you want me to blog about, let me know in the comments!
Recently I tackled something that’s been surprisingly difficult for me to do. I made up ‘the plan’ as in the birth plan.1 Or, as the teacher for our birth classes liked to call them, my birth wishes. Now don’t get me wrong, I have very clear ideas about what I want. You see, the big important things I can be decisive about. It’s just what to eat for dinner that seems to stump me daily.
Most of what went on the wish list doesn’t need to be shared here and I’ve no intention on sharing it with anyone unless they really want to know. However, there are some things about our plan & wish list for baby-geekling that will extend beyond the labour and delivery process and will somewhat affect our friends and family. And I figured that this is a good venue to share what some of those wishes are.
In the very beginning . . .
Ok, so here’s a quick post to show you what we decided to do with the nursery. Originally, this was a book/music room that ended up being a dumping spot for a lot of our miscellaneous stuff. We did several purges before this, but you can still see a lot of stuff sitting around that we ended up cleaning out.





We were even storing the vacuum in this room, as evidenced by the vacuum hose hanger still attached to that wall. We also had/have a full-size bookcase full of books. Some of them are children’s books, but there were a lot of other books there that will need to find other homes sooner or later. Sadly, in the process of moving boxes of books out of the room, I ended up over-doing it a bit and have had a strained back for the past week.
My very talented mother wanted to do the nursery painting, and we mostly just stood back and let her do her thing after telling her the theme we wanted. Anyway, here’s how the nursery looks now (no furniture yet) . . .




We decided to go with a Ghibli theme using some of the characters from a few of the most ‘kid-friendly’ films. We figured it worked perfectly for us since it’s a kid-friendly version of our overall household theme incorporating Asian and Steampunk elements. Here are some more detailed closeup shots . . .






General update to let those who are interested know what’s been going on . . .
Benevolance and I have started taking child birth classes in anticipation of Baby Geek’s arrival this fall. We’ve only had a couple so far, but they are going pretty well. Just a few random thoughts and observances so far . . .
Four more classes to go and then we’ll be done. Plus a possible reunion class after babies are born??? Not sure if we’ll attend since I haven’t had any major bonding moments with any of the other mommies there so far. I think it helps that I’ve already got a fabulous network of friends and family around me!
You've landed on the blog and online home of Jennerosity. I am a writer/teacher/gamer/story enthusiast who will be geeking out a bit here. Feel free to join me in the comments or by sending me an email (there will be a form when I get around to it). Other things that I enjoy which will likely come up here from time to time are travel, history, anime, Star Trek, steampunk, and girly geeky things.