Lilly Forgives

After 6 weeks, Lilly seems to finally be forgiving me for bringing home Davis. Yesterday we had a monumental cuddle and John documented it. In order to understand the significance of this cuddle you have to understand the modes of Lilly's affections.

Lilly's affection in ascending order:

1. I don't know you, and so you won't be seeing me while you are here.
2. You may look at me as I walk past.
3. I will stay in the same room with you.
4. You may pet me as I walk by or sit in one place.
   
5. I will ask for a cuddle by laying on my back and rolling.
6. Our cuddle will consist of me standing on you while you pet me and I rub my nose against something.
7. #6 + I will kneed and lick your arm.
8. #7 plus I will turn upside down (as seen in photo).
9. I will sleep on or with you.

Lilly and I were at #9 (and she was only at #8 with John ever) until the baby came home and then she bumped me down to a #5 (grandma's and close friends are at #5). So you can see how excited I am to be back to a #8 and maybe #9 will come again.

New Pictures

I've been getting harassed about pictures, so here we go










More here

Yoga Tuesdays and Back in the Saddle

Yesterday was Davis' and my first day at home alone! So far we have had the support of Grandparents or Dad. I have to say, I thought we did pretty well. We get up so early now that John watched him while I grabbed a shower. Then he ate and had his morning nap while I got some work done. We made it to yoga again and managed to do just a bit more of actual yoga this time. He was having a tough time at first until he saw the baby girl next to us and then he was FASCINATED. He watched her until I accidentally let her get out of site and then yoga was done. I have to say it's hard not to get too puffed up about how amazing your child is when you have people (the yoga instructor) saying "I've never seen a 5 week old baby smile like that!". (Davis had all sorts of smiles during yoga). Luckily, Jane and her mom are regulars at yoga, so I'll just need to make sure to sit next to them every time. We enjoyed lunch out with a few moms. It was interesting, two of the moms had babies born at the same time, but one was two weeks late and they said the baby who was late also hit milestones earlier (like holding up her head and smiling).

The most amazing thing about yesterday was I went on my first bike ride since November! It was fabulous! As soon as Dad got home he picked up Davis and I left him with bottles of milk and took off for a short ride. It was only an hour, but felt terrific. It also was really hard. I have a long way to go to get back into shape. I'm a little worried I only have 9 weeks until the Danskin Triathlon. Eeeep.

Davis Landmarks:

• He weighs 10lbs as of Tuesday
• Yesterday he started to grab his feet with his hands. He was also really gnawing on his hands consistently. I think his sense of self is definitely expanding!
• We got the new baby carrier yesterday, it's by Baby Hawk and is a mei tei style carrier. Unfortunately, although he could see out of the carrier, Davis HATED it. He screamed and screamed. Dad was convinced he would quiet down after about 10minutes, but we turned around and both of us (Davis and I) were in tears by the time we got home. Today we're heading to the Boston Baby Wearer's monthly meeting. They have a 'library' of carriers we could borrow to see if one will work for him. I now think Davis hates being faced inward and having his legs scrunched to his chest. So hopefully the Baby Hawk will work when he can have his legs out and face outwards. I guess some babies just don't like carriers. Thank goodness he likes his car seat!
• Domino licked the top of Davis' head yesterday while nursing! Davis was surprised for just a little bit and then he went back to eating.
  

Daycare Decided

Today, we settled on a daycare. We choose a home daycare about 4 blocks from our house. We visited late last week during daycare hours and really liked the people and what we saw in the kids interactions. This weekend and today, I followed up with references and really liked what we heard. The parents were all very happy and enthusiastic with the daycare. One of the questions I asked each parent was: "What values do you think your child has learned from the daycare?". All three parents I talked to said things like: Sharing, Playing nice with others and taking turns. Also, every parent used the words loving to describe the daycare and were all very happy with the whole team of providers.

Kristen is going to call or email them tomorrow to confirm our spot for the fall. Hopefully everything goes well and there is indeed a spot for us. Tomorrow is Kristen's first day at home by herself. I've tried to make tomorrow as easy as possible for her - I'll make her a nice breakfast in the crock pot and there are leftovers for lunch, so at least meals are taken care of.

Last day of treatment

Today was my last day of 16 radiation treatments over the last 3 weeks. The treatment itself was pretty much like all the others -- short and sweet. However, this time I got a certificate of completion / achievement. I'm happy to be done with treatment. But since you can't prove that the treatment worked, or was even necessary, I'm a little anxious/nervous for the next year of follow up appointments. I'll meet with my radiation oncologist and have a chest x-ray in three months.

To celebrate finishing treatment, Kristen, Davis and I went out to breakfast at Ball Square Cafe for our first breakfast out since he was born. Davis took about 5 minutes of rocking, then slept through our whole meal.

After breakfast, we came home for a quick meal, then headed to the Burlington Mall to shop. I was looking for some replacement polos and pants and Kristen was looking for some more comfortable nursing clothes. After shopping, we had our second meal out with Davis, then headed to Trader Jo's for groceries before coming home. All together, it was a good outing and a relaxing way to spend the day.

Davis is 5 weeks old!

This week Davis and I started a “Great Beginnings” class at the local Isis Maternity store. The class meets Thursdays for six weeks and is intended for babies who are 2-6weeks old at the beginning of the class. It’s run by an instructor who covers topics such as safety, baby behavior, soothing techniques, and baby massage. My class has something like 10 moms and their babies. Typically, after each class the “homework assignment” is to go out to lunch together. I really enjoyed meeting other moms, it was very different from the yoga class where everyone was a lot older than Davis and I could get advice on what was to come. Instead, all our babies are roughly the same age and so it was more a group about sharing in the miracle that is going on in the present (and sometimes commiserating). I look forward to learning baby massage because Davis loves naked time (don’t worry, he always has a diaper on at least) and he loves to be touched. We learned just a little bit of tummy massage this week and Dad and I have been having fun doing that with Davis. I should also mention the instructor for my class is the same person who taught one of our birth preparation classes (the more traditional one at MIT) and agreed to be our doula-in-a-pinch if John’s recovery from surgery overlapped with our delivery. Luckily it didn’t, but it was so great to have the peace of mind so I really appreciate Wendy.

We had a busy week with John taking the week off. Most days involved a walk and a visit with friends. This week we had dinner with AJ and Susan on Wednesday and Sonya and Bill on Friday. Once again, Davis proved to be on his absolute cutest behavior around Bill and Sonya (either wide awake and interactive or sleeping). We also got to see Eric and Ilana who stopped by on Thursday night.


What’s new with Davis at 5 weeks:

• He weighs 9lbs 10oz (2lbs more than birth) and is 22.5” long (1.5” longer than at birth).
• He can tell the difference between mommy, daddy, and other people.
• He can see farther than before. One night he was only happy if he could see one of us (even if one of us was holding him, the other one needed to be in the room for him to look at).
• He is definitely smiling at us! And now he also coos too.
• He no longer cries at bath time. I wouldn’t say he likes bath time yet, but at least there’s no more crying!
  

Davis’ favorite things in the world:

• Car trips and walks – motion of any kind soothes him to sleep
• Eating – the little guy can eat!
• The mobile – except the donkey, we’re pretty sure the donkey scares him everytime it comes around.
• Naked time.
  

Davis’ least favorite things:

• Tummy time. 10 seconds of tummy time is sure to result in a screaming baby.
• The moby wrap (the carrier we’ve been using until now). We have a new carrier on the way.
• Wet diapers. Davis hates being wet and he lets us know it.
• Having his clothes changed.

What's new with John and Kristen:

• John's last radiation treatment is today. Davis, John and I are going out to breakfast to celebrate afterwards.
• I've actually gotten some work done this last week. During Davis' morning nap in the swing, I like to watch him and do some coding. I've been working on stuff that really needs to get done, but has been way down on the list of things to do at work. It's been very satisfying.
  
• I'm also really close to exercising again and this week is my 6-week postpartum appointment. I think a run or a bike ride is in my near future!
• We essentially have a day care picked out. John called parents who currently have their kids enrolled at this home day care and they all love it. However, two of the numbers for the references were wrong, so those might be worth following up with. The day care is just 4 blocks from where we live and it's licensed for 10 kids. When they have all ten kids there are four adult providers. We visited this place during daycare hours and were really pleased with how they dealt with the kids. Some of the values parents said their kids have learned there are sharing, being nice to others, and patience. This is in stark contrast to the chaos we saw at another daycare we had visited the day before. We would start Davis at this daycare in September. Although we were talking about using daycare only four days a week, we decided we would rather have the flexibility to work 5 days and take a day off to spend with Davis when it works well in our schedules. Specifically, John never asked if he could take a couple of days off during the month and with all his time off for cancer treatment lately, it seemed like an awkward time to ask. Although my adviser would be fine with me taking all of those days, I have a feeling I would end up working on the weekend and missing precious family time to make up for it (self-imposed). Also, no day care would let us change the day at will (understandably), so this means the days or half-days we take off can change around depending on the activity we want to go and do.
  
• John has finally agreed to go shopping today to get some new shirts! Due to our lazy laundry methods, most of John's shirts have eventually shrunk too much to be usable. I also will be shopping for some new shirts as I have found that all my pre-maternity clothes don't fit my new maternal curves and they are way too awkward to wear for breast feeding and all my maternity clothes are for cold weather.
  

Long Baby

Kristen forgot to mention today that we have a very long baby. When she was at yoga, she compared Davis to a 3 month old -- he was longer and had bigger feet. Yowza, he is going to be tall!