Fatherhood and the No-Hitter

A week ago Monday Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester threw a no-hitter against the Royals. We were at the game! (Until the 4th inning!) See, Mr. Finn had been having trouble sleeping in strange rooms and strange cribs, so we made the decision to leave to get ourselves back at around his normal bedtime. We left after the 4th inning. I was aware that there was a no-hitter going, but it didn't make much of an impression on me because it was early in the game.

However, when we got back to the hotel the laptop told me that Lester was one out away from completing the no-hitter! As Katie readied Finn for bed I stared in disbelief as the last out was recorded. Stared. In disbelief. Katie fed Finn and put him down while I quietly lay on the bed, shell shocked. I really like baseball. Katie went about her schoolwork and assumed I'd fallen asleep. I'll spare you the details of our conversation, but then, and now, I'm still coming to grips about how I feel about missing the game. Probably now I'll never see a no-hitter in person--I had my chance and now its gone.

I'm a big fan of having my cake and eating it too. I'm really quite good at it. I rarely have to compromise since I can usually figure out ways do everything I want to do. But now this is coming up against the hard wall (and giggly tummy) of Finn, and life has changed. Is it for the better? On the whole, absolutely. But just not in every instance. You owe me Finn! I better get some big giggles on Father's Day! (He does look so very cute in his Red Sox hat....)

Boston, Part 1

It's been a super busy week here for Finn. We're paying by the minute, so he's going to just give you a quick summary.

First (and second) hotel crib: Could have been better. [our son's very diplomatic, and much more polite than his parents]

First New Yorkers: Way fun! Received many tips from seven-month-old Casey on how to drive the parents nuts in the coming weeks. Also, traded pokes to the face.

First banana: Yum! More! [but mama wasn't so excited about the diaper]

First aquarium: OMG! @#$%#$^@!!!!!!!!! IT WAS TEH AWESOME!!!! [Yeah, we've got to start restricting his internet time. He was totally entranced by the fish, though.]

First baseball game - Red Sox v. Royals: Pretty cool, but kinda loud. It was a no-hitter, but Mama made us leave after just four innings. Something about "bedtime" and "baby self-destruct sequence."

First brewery tour: I slept through most of it, but mama seemed like she was having a really good time.

That's all for now! Thanks to Jessamy, Dave, & Casey; Anne & Troy; Shar & Gordon; and everyone who's been making this such a fun trip. Tomorrow, the zoo, and this weekend, western Massachusetts to see Ben, Martha, and Barcelona.

Making a liar out of me

I just have one thing to add to Jonathan's post. The other day I said Finn couldn't roll over from back to front. So what did he do yesterday? Rolled over from back to front! I laid him down on his space blanket and then got on the floor next to him, like I've been doing for weeks, because me & the kitties are generally the only things he wants to grab badly enough that they seem like good rolling motivators, and just like that, he was right there!

I think it was his way of celebrating his six-month birthday. If so it was kind of a poor choice, because once he found himself on his tummy he was pretty upset and couldn't remember how to get back. Oops. So then there was crying, and a nap.

He celebrated by sleeping for a six-hour stretch the night before, which was awesome. And I think he slept that long because he managed to roll himself onto his stomach in his crib. I think we've got some interesting times ahead.

Leaving on a Jet Plane / 6 months!

Tonight we'll be packing up a large suitcase, a big backpack, a small backpack, a purse, another bag, a car seat, and a diaper bag, in preparation for our non-stop flight to Boston tomorrow morning. In Boston I have two scientific meetings (I'm giving a talk at each), and we'll be staying at 2 different hotels and with 2 different sets of friends.

Thankfully we won't have to bring all of our baby gear, as we'll be renting a stroller and exersaucer from www.babysawaynewengland.com. They even deliver! The family has emerged relatively unscathed from Katie's final school projects, which are now essentially done. Katie is looking forward to relaxing in Boston Common with Finn while I'm droppin' my science. This will also be a nice test to see if Finn starts feeling better after 12 days away from the Northern California air / daycare air.

His 6-month checkup yesterday went as well as expended. (Yesterday was also his 6 MONTH BIRTHDAY! Where has the time gone?!) He still has the crud, but is otherwise healthy. His growth is slowing a bit: 18 lbs, 11 oz (73rd percentile) and 26 inches (50% percentile.) He's still got a big noggin though (80th percentile). I think the next solid food we'll try will be bananas.

Big week, featuring: TEETH!

The chaos continues here at Casa Fortney. I have one project left, and it's about half done. Hopefully in another day or two I'll be turning it in, and then I can return to being a reasonably stable, functioning person who responds to e-mails, reads books, and goes outside. In the meantime, the breaks to feed Finn and play with him and hang out with him and Jonathan help me stay slightly sane.

This week marked the appearance of Finn's first tooth, followed closely by his second:
I think the new weird face he makes is tooth related... it's this weird wide mouthed smiling-grimace-with-chomping-motion. We'll try to get a picture. Also growing: the hair! Not going to be long any time soon, but definitely getting fuller and fluffier.

Another first this week: solids! Well, semi-solids. It's just about the six month mark, so we've tried a couple rounds of rice cereal. Finn's a big fan.Then we got too busy, and too grossed out by the diapers, so we might not try again until after Boston. We'll see.
Because they feed him so much more at day care than I can pump when I'm away from him, he's also had formula for the first time this week. I know lots of wonderful mothers who've fed their babies formula for one reason or another, so I'm not guilty about it (not really), but I AM annoyed that we've had to introduce this complication into our routine. Formula requires mixing, and has its own set of rules, and costs money (theoretically - our free samples should last us quite a while at this rate). Also, since formula is either milk or soy based, this really isn't helpful as we try to figure out if Finn has milk or soy intolerance issues.

Wanna see how well he sits up now (and how little he cares when he falls over)? Watch this movie of him playing with Murray:

Tummy time is pretty infrequent and short-lived these days, though, because he's gotten so good at the front-to-back rolling over. No interest in the back-to-front, though. He's generally either perfectly content to stay exactly where he is, or completely sick of the entire house/room/state and DEMANDS IMMEDIATE AND EXTREME RELOCATION.

Did Jonathan mentioned the mucous is back? It's some completely different snot sickness this time - he had a fever on Friday and I had to go pick him up from day care early. But the bedtime routine is going great, and we're getting more sleep than we were three or four weeks ago.

I've had a good first Mothers Day. Mostly it's been homework, but I did make some cookies, and Jonathan and Finn ran a TON of errands that were stressing me out. I got some kitchen stuff (and LASIK) and later this week I'm getting a trip to Boston. :) Keep your fingers crossed for me and I may just make it through these next few days...

Pulling the Plug

One of the "lesser joys" of having Finn in our lives is that we're well acquainted with with stumbling through our darkened house to find out why he's crying instead of sleeping. Before the crud set in 3 months ago, he was waking up 2-3 times a night. OK, fine. Since the crud, this increased to 4-5, as he would sometimes cough himself awake or have trouble breathing easily. There was a bout of super-crud (worse than usual) 2+ weeks back, and he stepped it up to waking up 8-10 times a night! Yeah... However, by the end of that run, all it would take to put him back to sleep was sticking the pacifier back into his mouth. It was instant-back-to-sleep that rocking, patting, and bouncing could not bring. The pacifier would drop out while he slept, then when he woke up, he would wonder where it was and started wailing. Nothing else was wrong.

The solution? No more pacifier. We started on Monday and life has improved considerably. It is harder to get him to go sleep without it? Sure. But when he wakes up, we know since there is no pacifier there is nothing that WE can do to help him go to sleep. He's gotta learn on his own. And he is. His wake-ups are shorter and they're more whimper now than wail. Katie is still feeding him 3 times a night, and I change a diaper during feeding 2, but that is WAY better than 10 times. (We have been caving in on the pacifier from 4-6 a.m. because he's a terrible sleeper then, but soon we'll take that away too.) Hopefully soon we'll move to 2 feedings, and then if the crud EVER leaves, we can probably get down to 1.

It's a little know fact (well known to some) that I had a pacifier until I was X years old (actual number withheld due to embarrassment, but it is less than 5), so I'm fine with him stopping now and managing on his own. We'll see what I think on our 5 1/2 flight to Boston next week.

Is it vacation yet?

Look, he got bigger again!

He's slowing down, though - only 18 lbs 8.5 ounces when we took him to the doctor last week (us? at the doctor? really?).

My mom was here last week, which was great, especially with finals creeping up on me. I think if I can just make it to the end of the semester, I can breathe again, but it's been pretty intense lately. Homework, baby stuff, house stuff, work stuff, planning this Boston trip (a trip I'm looking forward to very much, by the way)... I've been going a little nuts lately, when I'm not just curled up in a ball humming loudly. The sleep deprivation doesn't help. It was nice to be able to hand Finn over to Grandma Sheryl in the mornings and grab a nap, and he seemed to have a blast. He was a real chatterbox while she was here, but seems to have quieted down a bit since she left.

The LASIK went great, and I'm seeing better than 20/20. The surgery itself wasn't painful at all, but it was WEIRD. I mean, I've walked into a candlelit restaurant in Vienna to hear tuxedo-clad musicians playing the Chicken Dance. I've moved to New York, sight unseen, from Iowa. I've been to a completely dry wedding reception. But this was the strangest experience of my life, easily. You're awake the whole time, and all you feel is pressure, just staring at these lights, and then the lights disappear, and ... I guess you just have to try it. The end result couldn't be better though, and it's nice to join the land of the seeing. Yay for no more glasses with baby fingerprints!

Finn's a great sitter these days - we got a video of him playing with Murray today that I hope to get up later in the week, but in the meantime, there are a boatload of new photos over at Flickr, and here's one with my mom: