We took Sophia to Strong Memorial Hospital this week, because we’re sick, twisted parents who are willing to enroll her in studies and let them perform various tests on her for $60/visit. Who says she can’t pay her own way till she gets her working papers?
Actually, the study’s entirely harmless and involved collecting her pee and watching her play. But the point is this: we got her weighed again, and she’s reached an amazing 10lbs, 6oz. Grow, baby, grow!
The nice thing about babies is that they tell you exactly how they feel. We adults are quite a bit more reserved. For example, this photo of Sophia is a pretty accurate representation of how I feel about missing the Bob Dylan concert at Frontier Field tonight.
Of course, it’s actually her fault I can’t go…The $50 ticket price will be going to buy diapers instead.
Ah, the joys of parenting. Stay tuned for more pictures that I’ll try to upload tonight or tomorrow.
It’s happened, folks! After four weeks and 5 days of Nubby the Stubby, that little brown-black piece of umbilical cord, hanging on for dear life, it has fallen off. We finally saw Sophia’s belly button yesterday.
Pictures of both the belly button and Nubby to come.
I’ve got a pile of new pictures to load. Tonight, Brad, Elizabeth, and Carter are coming over for dinner, so expect pictures of the cousins together this weekend. I’ll even try to fire up the camcorder, since the new AC power cord has arrived.
Stay tuned!
Three Sophia Updates:
Bodhi’s Plan
Just this week we got a digital camcorder. We were excited to be able to film our little girl and send DVDs to far away family. So I pulled everything out, charged up the battery, and started reading the instruction manual to find out how to work the thing.
Now, it’s no secret that Bodhi has had a rough transition, though overall it’s been better than I had imagined. Nevertheless, the extra hours he’s spent in his crate gave him time to hatch a plan. Early yesterday morning, I sat in bed writing, Tricia and Sophia asleep, Bodhi on the floor chewing a rawhide.
Or so I thought. I stood up, and something poked my foot. Much to my chagrin, it was a piece of the AC power adapter to the camcorder. Power supply shot. Camcorder useless. At least until the replacement part shows up in a day or two. So if you’re waiting for DVDs, there will be a slight delay.
This is not the first time Bodhi has done this, by the way. When we got our digital camera with the fancy schmancy (really helpful) Kodak Easy Share dock for automatic uploads to the computer, I was in a similar situation – sitting at the computer, pictures uploading, Bodhi on the floor…when suddenly the upload failed. I looked down, there sat Bodhi with the cord in his mouth, tearing it to shreds. He seems to have thing for multimedia.
Crying All Around
Sophia has certainly learned how to cry for extended periods of time. A few long sessions have driven Daddy a little nuts. And being sleep deprived does not help things, especially when you have two sleep deprived parents, and a sleep deprived little baby who is upset because she’s tired but will not go to sleep. I try to explain to her that the solution to her problem is in her own hands, but I don’t think she understands English yet.
In any case, we had a couple of rough moments…the worst of which was the day or so in a row that Sophia would calm down for Mommy, but scream her guts out when passed to Daddy.
Daddy had a breakdown.
But Daddy’s alright now, and it appears Sophia does indeed love her Daddy.
Back to Basics
All of our speculations about her regulating her schedule were kind of silly. She still does what she wants, and there really is no rhyme or reason. But we were surprised yesterday when we found that a basic comfort measure started working wonders once again – swaddling! Ever since we got home from the hospital, Sophia hated to be swaddled. She’d kick the blanket off, and she was able to break out of even the tightest wrap. After a very, very long stretch of being wide awake and cranky, Tricia suggested swaddling. I told her it wouldn’t work.
I was wrong, she was right. In fact, Sophia is in Mommy’s arms right now, peaceful as a Hindu cow.
We’ll be pulling out those receiving blankets on a much more regular basis now.
By the way…Nubby the Stubby is still hanging in there. The temptation to yank it off is growing stronger.
Must…not…pull…Nubby…
Of course, everyone uses all sorts of nicknames and terms of endearment for their little babies. No difference with us and Sophia. But I’m beginning to notice that some terms we use are not so “endearing,” depending on how she’s been lately.
For example, last night, she screamed at Daddy for 45 minutes straight – from 4am to 4:45am. Today, she’s been “Little Creep.”
But most of the time, she’s “Little Peach,” because she’s adorable, and we love her. Other terms have been “Princess Peach,” “Princess Peanut,” “Little Pookie,” and “Sophie Bean.” We’ve avoided “Princess Sophie,” so as to be certain there is absolutely no connection between our Sophia and that character in the awful, awful novel and film, The Da Vinci Code.
She’s puking now. Not just that little spitup while she’s eating, mind you. I’m talking about the milk that’s had time to curdle before it’s regurgitated. Smells great. Somehow it got into her ear.
We’re trying to take at least one walk a day now, and that’s been nice. She slept all the way through tonight’s walk, and promptly started screaming when we got home. Cute.
She’s starting to regulate her sleep a little bit more, which is nice. She’s still eating every 2 hours, 3 at most, but the nights haven’t been as bad. She’s definitely gaining weight, and she’s still the most beautiful girl ever.
I’ve added the website Brad and Elizabeth run for Carter (our nephew), the other cutest little kid in the world (see above). We’ll be taking pictures of Sophia and Carter together soon (and we can’t wait for the birth of Eric and Sarah’s baby in November!).
New pictures are up as well. Check them out on the sidebar. We’re putting her in the bouncer now, which is great.
Sophia is two weeks old, and things are going fairly well. Except for the not sleeping thing. That’s no fun. She did two nights in a row of only sleeping about an hour and a half during our sleeping hours. Since I’m back to work, and since boys don’t produce milk for babies, Tricia’s taking the brunt of this.
The morning of the first rough night (Thursday), I woke up, peeked into the nursery, and found Tricia nursing Sophia – but both were fast asleep in the glider. How cute.
The second morning (Friday), I woke to Tricia crashing on the bed in uncontrollable tears, having only slept an hour and a half for the second night in a row. Not so cute. Now this was serious, and something had to be done. With the help of Nana, Courtney, and Jordan, Sophia was kept on a reasonable nap schedule, and Tricia was able to get in a good nap during the day. Sophia kept a much better sleep schedule last night.
Poor Bodhi is struggling with this transition…today he actually fell down the stairs. 10 stairs, all the way down. He tried to right himself about halfway down, but failed, and just continued bouncing his way down. It was kinda scary to watch. He actually went to his crate voluntarily after that little episode, and stayed in there for a while, even though I left the door open.
Overall, he’s still a happy pup, though.
We had our first walk tonight – me, Tricia, Sophia, and Bodhi (pictures to come). Short, but pleasant. There are a dozen or so new pictures up, and I’ll put more up tomorrow.
Brad, Elizabeth, Carter – thanks for dinner tonight. And thanks to everyone who’s been helping, checking in on us, and praying for us. We love you all.
It’s been one week since we brought little Sophia home, and everything is going quite well. She’s gaining weight (she eats a lot!), and there’s stinky in her poopy now. She’s crying slightly less, and her sleeping hours are starting to regulate a little. She’s just beginning to tell the real difference between night and day, anyway. We’ve had three successful baths.
Today, she shot at me with a poo. We had just changed the sheets. My wife and I had said, just a few days ago, “We better stop changing her on the bed, especially when it starts to stink.” That thought passed through my mind as I began to undo her diaper on the fresh, clean sheets. Just after I cleaned her off with the baby wipe, it happened – with her little legs up in the air, she starting pooping. I moved the diaper appropriately to catch it, but 4 or 5 wet little ones shot clear over the diaper and onto the bed.
My first exciting diaper change.
Tomorrow is a really difficult day for me – back to work. After a week at home with Tricia and Sophia, it’s the last place I want to be (sorry, Cath Lab folks – I love you guys, but this is great!). I’ve been able to spend all the time in the world that I want with my wife and daughter, and have plenty of leftover time to write – my favorite thing to do, but I rarely have the time with my work schedule. Alas, the chaos begins again.
There are new pictures up – some fun ones. Our camera records Quick time videos at 30fps, and it always pulls out 9 snapshots of each video. I haven’t been able to upload the videos for some reason, but you can view the snapshots now. Lots of great facial expressions. Enjoy!
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