Travels with Baby

Well, it's officially no more fun to travel. We went on a Philadelphia/NYC excursion this past weekend--to Philly for the wedding of a dear friend, to NYC to stay along the way to break up the drive. I think it may have been tolerable to travel with a two-month old had we not had to unpack and then re-pack the car a total of three times in three days. S. and I had one suitcase for all of our stuff, plus another bag to carry into our friend's apt. in NY so we wouldn't have to haul said suitcase all the way up the stairs. Theo had his mitts into every single piece of luggage we packed, plus a bag that was all his very own, plus the co-sleeper. Oh yeah, and the breast pump. And the diaper bag. Needless to say, we used disposable diapers this weekend!

All in all, though, Theo was on his best behavior. He was mostly very good during the wedding, though he did have to be carried off by Stacey during the actual ceremony because he was screaming (S. had to do a reading and I was a bridesmaid). Other than that he was good. He slept great in his co-sleeper in the hotel and in the apartment, so that is nice to know about him. The maid-of-honor actually set up her pack-and-play in the hotel bathroom to make sure her 10-month old stayed asleep--craziness!

Here are some shots of our BIG two-month old boy. The one down below is with our other friend S.'s boy L. who just turned one in August! Check out that awesome hair (L's, not Theo's!)!!

These are the handknit/sewn/crocheted gifts we've received for Theo. It seems they deserved a special place in the blog. As knitters, we know just how much works goes into a blanket or sweater. 

The grey and tan blankets were crocheted by mom, the pinkish one by my good MHC friend, Liz. The tan sweater was crocheted by my mom (because who doesn't need a sweater to match your blanket). The off-white one by my cousin, new to knitting.  And the grey one was knit by Stacey (our doula) to match her boyfriends sweater. I can't wait to see them together this fall. The quilt on the crib was also made by Stacey. She's amazing, huh? Knitting, sewing, AND catching babies. The bumpers on the crib were sewn by C.'s mom, a very talented seamstress. Below is Theo in a handknit bib by another MHC friend. 

And there you go...home grown love for little Theo. 

Well, it's that day again. On that day, I was certainly not thinking that seven years in the future I would be married and have a child and not live in NYC anymore. But here I am. I'm not going to talk about this day. There's plenty said by others and more eloquently. I'll only quietly reflect like many of you are doing, I'm sure. One thing I will say though--it scares me slightly that my son was born under this event's shadow. And I can only hope his generation gets us out from underneath it.

Back to business now--Theo still screams. A lot. There are bad days and then there are slightly better days. Tuesday he screamed so much that the poor kid is actually starting to lose his voice. Growth spurt? Tummy ache? We really don't even know where to begin, so I'm throwing in the towel and bringing him to the doctor tomorrow morning. I'm not an over-reactive medical type of person--but when a baby does nothing but scream, even after eating, even I know something is kind of wrong.

But he is growing--and how! Here's a rare glimpse at Theo smiling, then fascinated with his favorite new friend--the black and white dog we like to call Bingo. Yes, we broke down and bought one of those crazy florescent play mats with the dangly things. He just loves them, so what can we do but acquiesce?

Updates and whatnot

Well, Mr. Theo has pretty much been dominating our lives for the past week and a half, as you could probably tell by our severe lack of posts. After S.'s initial shock at being left home along with a screaming infant all day, Theo seemed to have possibly turned a corner--he was actually pretty good for two whole weekends--in a row! But you parents know how it goes. The best laid plans...yeah. Today, fuss. Nonstop, apparently. Now, of course I'm at school all day so I dodge this until I come home, then I take over fussy baby duty, to a certain extent, to give S. some downtime. At least that's the ideal. Right now, I have actually managed to lull him to sleep with his sleep machine. (This is a must-have for our fussy baby and will now be our go-to shower gift for moms-to-be!) I actually feel sort of guilty for using it during the day, which seems a little weird. I mean, he doesn't know what time it is, really, not yet. I just hope he isn't actually more in-tuned to our nighttime routine than I know and now he's going to sleep for the next four hours and make S.'s night miserable. Ugh.

Other than that, I have to say he's been mostly pretty good (with the exception of today) this whole week. Of course I was around a lot. No work Monday, and we took Theo to his pediatric urology appointment Tuesday so I didn't go then either. His hydronephrosis is really mild, but still needs to be watched, basically--another ultrasound and consultation in four months' time. Hopefully it will disappear by the time he's one.

Oh yeah, and he's an official member of the pork-pie club, weighing in at 11.2 pounds. He's chubbing up at last!