Jennerosity

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.

1. I tried to help him grab a toy the other day but he wouldn’t take it at all with my help. He’s also started to fuss when I help him roll. [↩]

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:

• Costco
• The library
• Michael’s
• The mall
• Westminster Quay
• Granville Island
• The pool

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:

• Changing him in a public location
• Breastfeeding in a public location
• Taking him solo on a major shopping outing (groceries that require a buggy or any shopping location that isn’t within walking distance)
• Generally being alone out in public with him
• Having his grandparents over at my house
• Travelling by public transit
• Travelling by airplane
• Letting him be diaper free
• Leaving him with anyone
• Bringing him to the garage/gym with me while I workout

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.

1. And are reserving the name he suggested for potential future kids [↩]

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!

1. I’ll probably be doing a series of more detailed posts about things like the birth story, the screen name, etc [↩]
2. I won’t be posting pictures on the blog, so if you’d like to see some you need to email or leave a comment & I’ll send you a guest pass for his Flickr album. [↩]

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 . . .

• The only person I want present during labour and delivery (excluding the trained medical staff) is Benevolance.
• If you want to be on the phone-list to be notified when things start happening, let us know so we can get your info to the important people. Keep in mind that I tend to be the phone list keeper of our household and will be unable to be making all those phone calls. However, my sister will have the phone update duties, so if you want to be notified, you’ll need to let me know so I can get your information to her.  You might also want to let us know what milestones you want to be notified about (ie. when we go to the hospital, when the baby is actually born, etc.) and if you only want to be notified during certain hours of the day.
• The only people we want visiting at the hospital are the baby-geekling’s grandparents.
• And, we don’t really want a lot of visitors during the first week or so either.² If you want to visit and meet baby ASAP, let one of us know and we’ll get in touch with you just as soon as we feel ready to handle company. Also, before you come over you MUST READ THIS ARTICLE!

1. Ok, and I did have a rough draft messily written out on paper stuffed in my purse over the weekend. You know, just in case things started happening while we were in Seattle at PAX. [↩]
2. Again, except for the grandparents. And yes, we do realize this might not be a very popular choice, but that’s ok. [↩]
3. In fact, we started a contest to see who could come up with the best screen name at my baby shower. We probably won’t pick the winner until baby is born, so if you want in on the potential of winning the $25 BC Liquor store gift card, get in touch. [↩]
4. We’ll definitely be sending out photos to people who want to see, but will be doing it in a secure & private manner. [↩]

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 . . .

Here’s a link to the entire set of photos on Flickr.

General update to let those who are interested know what’s been going on . . .

• I continue to be amazed at how much research I’m apparently doing. I’m the only one in my childbirth class who’s read a book on parenting or anything yet.
• Unexpected bonus of pregnancy . . . my psoriasis is doing pretty well lately.
• Another small bonus is that my dentist will now stop asking me when I’m having babies . . . I guess that’s what happens when your dentist has known you since you were born.
• I think the baby has days & nights a bit backward. I’m not looking forward to having to correct this.
• Lots of activity but baby isn’t big enough or strong enough to make it terribly uncomfortable yet.
• I’ve also started getting emotional over stupid things . . . like my inability to find a nice dress to wear to the wedding at the end of June or trying to decide what kind of car seat we want.
• Have I mentioned baby brain yet? It sucks!
• Lots of my customers are now noticing and giving congratulations. This is usually a good thing. I’m still glad my desk is so big that it puts my belly out of easy arm distance though.
• The nursery is still a work in progress . . . haven’t yet put together our idea board and still need to remove a lot of stuff (hockey playoffs kind of interfere with this).

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 . . .

• I’ve already read a lot of the info
• I’m the only one due in September, everyone else is July/August
• I’m glad we signed up early so we have more time to practice & prepare
• Surprisingly few mommies had heard of kegels before¹
• No corny visualizations in class – thank goodness!
• The teacher is very understanding of our need to know the Canucks score during class
• Hasn’t changed my mind about any of the birth decisions I’ve made so far
• Benevolance made the other daddies look bad when he started automatically massaging me last class during comfort measure demonstrations²
• It’s important to actually try the different comfort positions in the book because they can surprise you with how good they feel!
• We’re supposed to be reading to the baby already . . . hope it likes romance novels!
• I change my sitting position more than the other mommies do in class . . . maybe they just aren’t stuck sitting at a desk all day?
• I’m definitely going to start using an exercise ball as an office chair at work!!!

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!

1. and Benevolance was the only guy to know about them! [↩]
2. yeah, I’m totally spoiled that way [↩]