Burrito Baby

The only way we've been able to get this child to sleep most of the time has been to swaddle him...tightly. Tommy and I refer to it as "burrito'ing" him. So, Baeleigh asked her Daddy a few weeks ago while Gavin was crying, "Daddy, do you need to taco Gavin?" She kills me.

Catching Up On Some Z's

I guess you can say that we are both exhausted - except he seems to be the one that's catching up on his zzz's. Now I just wish I could master the whole sleep-when-he-sleeps thing. Easier said than done. No matter how tired I am I can never manage to nap when he's napping. Though I seem to have no problem crashing into the bed around 9:30pm when I hand Gavin off to Tommy for a few hours. With the exception of those nights when I hear either crying or whining from the nursery (this could be Gavin or Tommy at any given moment), then I toss and turn until I go to help them out.

And, before I hear any grumblings about Gavin being on his belly, watch him for a day - or even better, a night. I've never seen a child that looks completely peaceful and zonked suddenly begin to wave his arms around until he beats himself in his head to smack himself back awake. No kidding. His arms have a mind of their own. I know that the whole SIDS thing is supposed to be "back to sleep", but for his own comfort and our sanity we've been cautiously putting him on his belly. It started out on his side and now he's on his belly. He seems to sleep so much better this way. So, after you've come over and listen to him scream for an hour and a half after his half to hour long feeding at 2am in the morning, we'll talk about what position he should be lying down in.

And, last thing: No evidence capturing this little mini event, but he's already beginning to smile and giggle and coo at me. Perfect example: This morning. I was so frustrated with his feeding because acts like he hasn't eaten in like 5 days and it's only been 2 hours. I pulled the bottle out of his mouth trying not to drown him with the Stage 2 nipple (attempting to fill him up faster without him working so much for the food), and he started to spazz out again. But then, he looked at me and just gave me this little grin and started giggling. So cute, yet so evil.

Taking Matters Into Your Own Hands

When it's time for dinner, it's time for dinner. Apparently I wasn't moving things along quick enough for little Gavin. So, he decided to take matters into his own hands. The funny thing is that I've never seen him suck his thumb (or hand) like this. I've seen him shove his fists into his mouth or gnaw on my shoulder waiting for slow Mommy to "prepare" for his feeding, but not this. So, when I looked down I just expected him to be rooting around as usual.

He had his first visit with the pediatrician yesterday. He's doing very well and has gained almost all of his weight back from birth - up to 6lbs .06 ounces. Mommy and G had to hold him down through another PKU test - but at least it wasn't a succession of shots. I always hated being Baeleigh's visual as they poked her with needles. You always seem like the bad guy.

My best lesson though was that I learned I had to "tuck" Gavin's "package" down when putting on a diaper. The ped was checking his circumcision and proceeded to do this and I asked, "Oh, are you supposed to do that?" Yes, she said, but "I learned that from having my own son, not something you learn in med school." We all had a good laugh. That would explain why he was going through about five outfits a day. We just thought it was the vaselined gauze that we had to apply for his circumcision. Ah, the things you learn with having a new baby boy...it's a whole new world. Eight days old and I've already been peed on twice and poo'ed on once.

Welcome Gavin Thomas Godfrey

Just a few pics of our eventful day on Monday to welcome little Gavin to the world. Everyone is doing well.

Born 10:51AM
6lbs .8 ounces
17.5 inches

We hope to go home tomorrow. More to come...

P.S. Gotta check out the "country western singer" nurse.

If You Can't Take the Heat...

Don't fly to Houston! I just returned from officially my last business trip before maternity leave to Houston for the annual wind energy conference.

I had scoped out Accuweather before leaving - it was going to be in the 90s the whole time that I was there! "Great," I thought. I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant, already swelling up like a balloon in the afternoon and here I am trying to tromp around Houston in 90-degree heat. The last thing I wanted to do was go buy clothes for my last 4 weeks. So, I sucked it up and took out the three maternity dresses that I own (some long-sleeve) and my one pair of capris for my five day trip.

Little did I prepare myself for the actual flight itself. Yeah, sure, I thought about the long walk down the terminal, security check, blah, blah, blah, but I didn't think about exactly how I'd feel on the plane, or gee, lifting my carry-on into the luggage compartment above, or dragging my luggage down to the rental car place. "Superwoman" just didn't give that any thought.

So, you can imagine my surprise as Baby Gavin spazzed out on take-off, like hello "what in the HELL is going on, Mom". Imagine waking up from a dream where you think you are falling and that's kinda what it felt like he had done in my belly. So, I rubbed my belly as we reached our cruising altitude and he calmed down. But, as my flight progressed, I realized that my legs started to feel more and more liked cased sausages that wanted to explode (not to mention my uncontrollable, well-timed bladder that just has to visit the ladies room every 1 1/2 hours on cue). My feet were so fat, I was praising the Lord that I had worn flip flops. I felt bad for my rowmates, which were a dad and his little 2-year old. There is no shimmying past them with my belly. So, I had to cling for dear life to the seat in front of me as I slithered past the 2-year old that was sleeping. The dad says to me, "Just let me know when you need to get up." Yes, I know I'm annoying, I'm sorry. I think I only made him move 2 or 3 times during our 2 1/2 hour flight.

The rest of the trip was not as eventful, at least not until the return flight with the exception of every time I tried to step out outside it's like someone turned on the Braxton-Hicks contractions and he wanted to stretch out, standing on top of my bladder. One block and I was starting to bend over and hold my belly like the quintessential pregnant lady that we always laugh about. Except, it wasn't so funny. So, I was pretty much confined to my room with lots of air conditioning.

Return flight: A little bit of the same, but worse. Gavin didn't spazz out as much, but my right side was incredibly sore. We sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes before actually departing and although I had at least emptied my bladder before we left, I was still completely miserable. I had made the mistake of wearing my capris on home. The one with the belly band that seems to be cinching me slowly in half right at my hip bones. Yeah, that one. My little fat sausage legs had returned within the hour. Only this time I had made the fantastic decision to wear my dress flats home. Yeah, bad idea. So, I sat through my uncomfortably, unbearable flight, wedged in my seat, trying to hold my bladder as I watched my rowmate cuddle up on the other two seats, like it was a friggin holiday, and snooze the whole way. And, what does a pregnant lady eat for dinner - pretzels. Well, at least the flight attendant was nice enough to ration three bags to me. Yeah, that held me off until my McDonald's visit at 1am in Crofton on the way home. On top of all this, I had checked my bag this time. Mainly b/c I had bought about 10 air freshners from Bath & Body Works (they were having a SALE, man!) and I didn't want to be pulled aside by security, pregnant ass and all, to explain why I had 10 air freshners in my bag.

My journey home finally began somewhere around 12:30am (I was supposed to be in by 11:30pm) and by this time I wanted to gnaw my hand off since lunch was around 1pm. I stopped at Mickey D's for their 24 hour drive-thru service, jonesing for a McChicken. Slowpoke finally decides to take my order and I gladly order my McChicken. "Yeah, we are only serving on the late night menu." Wrong answer, buddy. "What does that mean?" "You can pick from #'s 2-10." "So, you don't have any McChickens?" So, what does my fat bloated ass decide to eat at 1am - a 10-piece McNugget meal and some COLD fries. Yumm-o! And, don't think I didn't eat them all either.

And, after all that, what do I bring back from Houston. The damn heat!

How Do Plants Grow?

It was a beautiful Saturday morning this Memorial Day weekend. So, I decided to take Baeleigh outside to bounce around on her hop ball. She hopped up and down the front yard but soon tired of it and started picking the random violets that seem to be growing all over what is left of our front landscaping. She picked one up and showed it to me and says, "Mommy, flowers grow with photosynthesis." Yes, just as matter of fact as that. My mouth dropped open. "What did you say?" "Where did you learn that?" "School," she says. Wow. I was so proud, shocked but proud.

Day at the Zoo...and Seeing Baby Gavin too

Baeleigh had a great day at the zoo yesterday. We hit a little bit of traffic getting there, so it was sort of a rushed visit, especially since we needed to leave early to go to my sonogram, but still a fun day. Bae was rushing around from exhibit to exhibit, dragging Daddy off in every direction she could. It was great to have him there because it turned out to be a bit much for me in terms of walking. They were always ahead of me, and Tommy was able to pick her up to see over the groups which was really nice. We got to see lots of animals - the pandas, elephants, toucans, gorillas, lions, tigers, hippos. We couldn't pull Baeleigh away from the elephants. She kept racing up and down the elephant house to see this one poor elephant, who seemed like he wanted to just dodge us all. But the highlight of the day was when we were watching the gorillas outside. There was one male silverback gorilla that obviously was boss. He turned away from us and slowly walked up to one of the other gorillas, then just suddenly rushed him, beating his chest and hooting at him. It made the whole crowd gasp. My hair stood up on the back of my neck and arms. It was chilling but awesome to see. It only lasted about 5 seconds and then it was over, but you could see just how powerful he was. The beating of his chest sounded like drums that echoed throughout the exhibit.



We made our way to lunch and let Baeleigh chow down with her friends. You can see a picture of her little pack of friends sitting on the wall in the slideshow. Then, we made a mad dash for the car to make it to our 2pm sonogram. This was Bae's first glimpse at her new little brother. He's doing very well, weighing 3lbs and 9 oz. Hair on his head, looking like his daddy already. One pic reminds me of Baeleigh sleeping on the couch when she was really tiny. So, I have a feeling they will have very similar features. Here's a pic of him above but you can also see new pics in the "pregnancy pics" link. Baeleigh just sat there quiet staring at the screen, but she was able to distinguish his eyes and nose in this photo. Only six more weeks to go....scheduled for July 7.