Blessing and BBQ

On Sunday, I attended the Blessingway of Annie, one of the birth center nurses who is due to have her baby girl in a couple of weeks. It was, like the Blessingway the nurses held for me in December, a great time to get together and celebrate her imminent motherhood.

Unfortunately (and perhaps quite selfishly), I didn't get many photos of Annie and the ceremony, including us sharing our fears, reading some poems or blessings for her, presenting beads, and making affirmation flags, but I did get some good ones of my son!

Annie got some practice holding Iver, who, having, shockingly, taken a nice morning nap, was in a great mood for most of the party!

Avery, the daughter of Erin (the hostess), and big-sister-to-be had a great time playing with the "baby" ...

...which included putting on some 3-D glasses.

Tracy even got Iver to sit still for some reading time! Jamie holds little Alex, Lisa's 4-month-old.

Later in the day, we headed to Marguerite's for a barbeque. The food, as always, was excellent. Bill grilled ribs, tritip, salmon, and veggies, and there were dips and side dishes galore!  We had to take off early due to Iver's bedtime, but had a great time hanging out.

Marguerite holds Iver for the first time!

Pepper, always welcome at Marguerite's dinner parties, tried to hoard this large bone, which promptly got stolen by a larger dog.

Trying to grab the wine!

Daddy and son

Cider House Rules and Farewell Fiesta

We are grandma-less this weekend. On Thursday, Kelvin drove his mom down to San Jose, and on Friday picked up Danny so he had company on his long drives, and we have company now!

On Saturday, we missed the Kinetic Sculpture parade on the Plaza by about half and hour due to Iver's nap, but browsed the Farmers' Market and then headed out to Eureka to try the brews of Humboldt Cider Company, which opened in January. While I have somehow developed a taste for (light) beer in the last few months (was never a beer fan before, but it apparently anecdotally can increase milk production), Kelvin doesn't "do" beer but does like alcoholic cider.

They had a nice outdoor seating area and we shared a 10-cider "flight" at $1.50 per 4-oz taster. I was naturally a fan of the sweeter kinds including a honey brew, cherry one, and a very sweet "designated driver" (basically apple juice at 1.5% alcohol).  While I paid dearly later for the outdoor time with my horrendous allergies, I think we will definitely be back there.
 

Later in the afternoon, we headed to the house of Ramona (K's medical assistant) in Eureka for a farewell party for Jose (who also worked at NCC) and his sister Stephanie (a student), who are headed back to So Cal. It was a party in true Fiesta-style, with delicious tacos and fixings, Mexican corn, homemade Horchata (MMM), and flan (for those who like flan-- I've never been a fan).

Ramona, grill-maestra and hostess extraordinaire

Danny enjoyed socializing with the guys!

Iver and Papa

Ramona made these awesome fruit skewers including pineapple flowers!

Stephanie with her corn

We hung out with Sheri, Jessica, Donald, baby Emery (10 months, who I delivered!) and the guest of honor, Jose

NCC crew

Here is Ana with Amelia, who thought the cotton candy ice cream was pretty darn tasty

While Iver took a couple of carseat catnaps, it was a relatively poor nap day, and by the ride home, he was pretty exhausted, falling asleep while sucking his thumb!

One more day without bà nội, who comes back tomorrow!

5-month update

 

Our little guy is FIVE months old today!

At 5 months, Iver

- weighs about 14.5-14.75 lbs

- still has grayish eyes but they appear to be turning a bit more brown

- is still exclusively breast fed. He is a great eater, downing at least one 5-6 oz bottle of pumped milk for each 4-hour period I'm gone at work. We haven't started solids yet but are thinking about introducing a sippy cup

- still spits up quite often, and often in delayed fashion. We are used to smelling like milk around here 

- is in cloth diapers during the day and size two Huggies at night (usually with one change, and one early morning close-to-blowout-poop)

- wears mostly 3-6 month clothing

- is an extremely active roller! He was more of a back-to-front than front-to-back roller at 3.5 months but now rolls both ways equally well, and often rolls wildly around his crib when he is fighting sleep!

- can sit supported in a bumbo (for a few seconds until he gets bored), in a high chair, or in a tripod position, but does not sit independently yet

- is very squirmy. He is not a big lap-sitter but likes to be walked around and see new sights. He managed to squirm his way out of his overnight diaper this weekend (kicking it off, resulting in waking up in a puddle of pee).

- sleeps in his crib at night but has been regressing in the nighttime sleep department. He still usually goes to bed pretty easily around 8 p.m. but has been waking around 10 p.m., 1 a.m., 4 a.m., and then around 6:30 a.m.  He doesn't seem to need to eat at the 10 p.m. wake time, as Kelvin often comforts him and he'll go back to sleep easily; however, I'm not sure how to get rid of the extra wakings, as some are met with wide-awake time and difficulty settling back down unless nursed.  We are trying out the the "dream" feed (attempting which scared me since often we have such a hard time getting him back to sleep after a wake) and doing some modified cry-it-out sleep training, as this mama is getting incredibly exhausted and not functioning super well during the day, but it's really hard to stick to this plan at 1 or 4 a.m., especially with another person (Kelvin's mom) in the house trying to sleep, too...

- naps marginally well in the crib or pack-n-play (he still likes the hammock downstairs or the carseat better). He usually naps for about an hour around 8:30 or 9:00, for about 1.5 hours midday, and perhaps 1 hour in the mid afternoon. He has mostly been sleeping on his stomach.

- still loves his hands and sucks or chews on them constantly. He's very drooly but I haven't seen or felt any teeth buds yet

- has extremely sharp and fast-growing nails, and continues to have a bad habit of flailing his hands by his scalp while nursing (or when he is mad and thrashing around his crib when crying and fussing before sleep). He draws blood on himself, which is NOT good! I hope he grows some more hair to cover up the scratches on his scalp and hope that his facial scratches heal well.

- still loves getting his diaper changed (especially when well-fed), although he is extremely squirmy during this activity, often rolling/flipping over and kicking his feet around and it's gotten more difficult

- seems to like bathtime, except for the split second when we take him, wet, out of the tub onto the hooded towel. He has some continued eczematous patches in his antecubital and popliteal fossae and we're trying not to overbathe him, so he gets a bath about once per week on Sundays

- likes to hold onto and play with toys like Sophie the giraffe, Nuby keys, and is a very active chewer, but his favorite toy is a brightly covered paper gift bag covered in flowers! 

- will hang out in the Jumperoo for about 10 minutes before he gets bored and wants to move on to something else

- loves walks in the stroller in the neighborhood, and did great on a jog in the BOB last week facing forward without the carseat/adaptor

- smiles, laughs, and coos and talks constantly and is pretty well-tempered, except when it comes to sleep

- is an incredibly cute little dude who is growing quickly before our eyes!

our little adventurer

practicing tooth (gum)-brushing :)

Monkey time!

spitting up, in action!

from the mouth of dogs

**Warning: graphic photos ahead **

If you read my previous post, you will know that we were awakened on Sunday morning by Pepper puking, which is in fact not that uncommon an occurrence. She has only on about one occasion ever acted "sick" in terms of lethargy, decreased appetite, or diarrhea, but does have fairly frequent isolated puking incidents from time to time and then goes about her day.

On Sunday morning, we found a long stringy item in her vomitus, and our conversation went something like this:
Kelvin: What the heck is that?
Me: Oh, great. That looks like the orange plaid mitten we've been looking for. (We've been using mittens regularly again as Iver has the bad head-scratching habit but seem to have lost a couple of them.)

Kelvin mentioned this to his mom, who then mentioned that when Pepper vomited last Thursday, she had a strange-looking "green thing" in the vomit. Kelvin dug through the trash and we identified this as a formerly light blue mitten which she must have also ingested earlier in the week!!! Miraculously, this little 13-lb dog didn't get any kind of bowel obstruction from ingesting these cotton accessories and was eating and pooping like normal!

Pepper is not a "chewer" usually (in fact, she has only chewed one shoe strap, and a few pens ever) and I don't think she's swallowed anything suspect in the past other than a wood chip from the mulched playground (which she pooped out without a problem) and certainly no other household items [that we know of] (thought of you and your sock-eating Scrubs, Wendi!). However, I guess we will have to watch this little doggie and our small baby items (like socks) a bit more closely (and be suspicious when small items go "missing," and not always blame the dryer on producing sock- and mitten-orphans)!

First Mother's Day

I wasn't sure I was ever going to be a mom. I wasn't sure I ever really wanted to be a mom. But now I am a mom and there's certainly no going back! I now will always have something in common with many more people than I had previously, and I know what it means to be a parent as is written well by this piece "The Most Powerful Thing You Can Say to Another Mom."

Here are some flashback photos of the magical day when Iver came into our lives.

The past 4.5 months have been incredibly humbling for me. As someone who wants to read about it, "fix it," and be "good at it," motherhood has certainly been the hardest job anyone has ever asked of me. To nutritionally sustain this little life, to calm Iver when he wakes, to be patient at all times, and to teach my son new things and how to experience the world has been extremely challenging but is a privilege. I often feel like I am failing, but I know I'm not the only one. It has made my "day [and sometimes night] job" seem pretty insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and has really taught me about balance. Here's a cute blog post from a baby to a first-time-momma.

I am thankful to all of the "moms" in my life for being my role models as I navigate a job and role for which I often feel unsuited and unprepared. Thank you to my own wonderful mom, my godmother, my grandmother, my mother-in-law who has blessed us with her unbelievable skill in baby-rearing and baby-whispering (and who is making sure meals get on the table, which is not one of my strengths!), and to all of my other mommy friends for your advice and support.  Thank you to Katherine for the wonderful book of Mom Letters and sweet card :). Thank you to Kelvin, who has given me the breaks I have needed to have some "me" time and recharge so that I don't feel like quitting this "mom thing". It certainly takes a village to raise a child, and I couldn't be half the mom I am without all of you! I am also thinking of all those women out there who are hoping and dreaming of being moms someday.

Our Mother's Day started at 6:15 a.m. with my first child, Pepper, puking up what turned out to be one of Iver's mittens (more on that later), and our son woke up about five minutes later. There is obviously no sleeping in for mommies, but I'm an early bird anyway :). We don't have any plans for today and will probably celebrate next weekend, as I am on call to potentially help others become moms on this very day :).

Enjoy these photos and videos of our little peanut, who is more fun each day he is alive :).

pious Iver

 

Here are some videos of our squirmy chatterbox!

 

I'm so lucky to be your mom, Iver!