Crib Tent

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Don't Eat the Baby's Food

The pears are now off limits. Harvey loves homemade pearsauce! Pears are tricky. There is a 3-hour window of opportunity before they rot in their own juices. Meanwhile he weighed in on Monday at Dr. King's office:
13 pounds 6 ounces; 26 1/4 inches. His feet are starting to stick out of the edge of the carseat. Dont' grow up too fast my little peanut!

Blessed Crib

No more crib quandaries! Today we picked up the crib at the Baby SuperMart thanks to Jeannie lending us her truck to pick up the enormous (and heavy) freight. I was amazed at the dexterity of the chainsmoker who helped us load the box. I don't think the cigarette ever left his mouth. We actually ordered the crib six weeks ago but we were told that the hurricaines and the "holidays" had everything backed up and that the cribs are special ordered from Brazil. Harvey doesn't care about all that. He's just happy to have his own crawl-and-drool quarters. Unfortunately we had to dismantle a 74" long bookcase and store all of the books in the basement in order to make (more) room for baby. As if we even PRETEND to read anything anymore except maybe Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (which happens to be ranked #239 in books today on Amazon). Oh, and by the way, the Steinway is serving as carport for the stroller, bouncer, carseat and toy bag. They warned me about this...

Yes, I Love My Bessie....She's My Fav-o-rite Cow!

I am starting to feel a bit like Bessie, having to produce milk for the bottles that Harvey's babysitter, Jan, gives him when I go to teach piano lessons. Lately I have been a bit busy feeding the baby, so there is very little time to "pump" inbetween. What puzzles me is that I talk to so many women who "stockpiled" their milk. One mother had to throw a whole freezer full of milk away because her daughter wouldn't take milk from a bottler. I figured that maybe I needed something more aggressive than the "cheap" $50 hand-pump by Avent. So I purchased a state-of-the-art pump from Medela - the Steinway of breast pumps. It is electric and goes "choom, choom, choom - a - laka". You are supposed to empty the breasts within 10 minutes keep the milk cold with the handy cool-pouch, wipe it clean and go back to work. I don't know how the career women do it because I tried it the other day and got about 15 drops of milk and was feeling like a bad cow. What if I get "put out to pasture?" So I called the company and after listening to about 15 minutes of pre-recorded messages advertising all of the accessories and fancy pump gear, I finally got an operator. What was astounding was how much this woman really knew about the specifics of pumping. She said that because I was switching from a manual single pump (one breast) to a double pump, that my let-down had to get acclamated to the new pumping mechanism and the fact that it is a double pump. After picking this woman's brains for a few minutes I found out that there is a BETTER pump out there that mimics the baby's suckling patterns (also put out by Medela). So I said, "Well if this pump doesn't do the trick, I guess I'll just have to resort to the old-fashioned method of pumping." The woman said, "Oh, you mean hand expression?" "No," I replied, "I'll just use the baby when I need to pump."

Swing Vote

I missed the polls for the first time in ages, but I exercised my civic right to getting some much-needed sleep. I don't know how we survived the first six weeks without a swing, but now we are in parental heaven. After reading all of the rave reviews on Amazon about the Aquarium Wonders Cradle Swing, I put in my vote for getting yet another space-hogging baby contraption. The buck stops here, folks. If all else fails, Harvey WILL go to sleep in the Swing and more importantly, STAY asleep. In fact, this is his current bed of choice. For a while he was a bouncer guy, and at one point we had to set up the stroller in the apartment and stroll him around at 5 AM, but now we can safely rely on Duracell D batteries and the swimming fishies to help preserve our nerves and tired arms from the endless jiggling and rocking and strolling. I am going to write a Thank You Card to Fisher Price right away!

Brunch at the Radnor Hotel, October 16

It's supposed to be one of the best brunches in town with 3 enormous tables of vittles, omelettes made to order and live piano music (though the piano is painfully out of tune). There's even a chocolate waterfall (think Willy Wonka and the Oompa Loompas) in which to dip your strawberries and donut holes and plenty of extra parking for your Graco Stroller. This last feature is important since babies seem to take up more room than a table full of adults. Come to think of it, the ratio of square footage of Harvey's "gear" and accoutrements per body weight by far outweighs his parents' respective stuff/body weight ratios. And while we are on the subject of ratios, I have recently learned that the daily intake of breastmilk intake for the newborn is the equivalent of an adult consuming 5 gallons of fluid in one 24 hour period! Joe has calculated that Harvey's weight gain during this past month is the equivalent of an adult gaining 30 pounds in just a few weeks. Come to think of it, just about EVERYTHING that this baby does is writ large: crying volume, fart volume, drool and spit-up volume, amount of laundry per week, etc.

Got Milk?

So far Harvey has proven himself a hardy eater. Over the weekend he was demonstrating the highly sought-after textbook habit of feeding every 3-4 hours. Unfortunately he discovered the fact that if he wants more milk all he has to do is cry and poof! out comes My Breast Friend and the magic nipple. Now he is on the all-you-can-eat buffet plan and is woofing down Godzilla-sized portions at intervals that are aimed towards (dare I say it) SLEEP DEPRIVATION. The greedy little guy often has milk dripping out of the sides of his mouth while he eagerly laps up whatever he can as though it were his last meal. In just 8 1/2 days he has managed to fill two pails full of diapers. I swear he must be working on commission from Pampers.

The Aquarium Bouncer

Saturday morning: Harvey is almost 6 days old and nursing better and better. Last night we were able to sleep for 3 or 4 hours at a time. We finally put batteries in the Aquarium Bouncer, a strange sort device which looks like a mini Barca Lounger. It blinks, vibrates, makes purring and bubbling noises, and has little plastic fish that kiss each other over and over again. It makes us feel a little guilty, but Harvey just loves it. It calms him down and sends him into a zen-like state. At least it's not Barney!

Crib Quandary

Crib, cradle, bassinet, porta-crib, co-sleeper, pack-n-play... We are trying to figure out which option will work best with our limited space and resources. It is daunting. Everyone has something different to say. "Bassinets only last 3 weeks" , "Cradles were pointless for us", "Cribs are too big for a newborn", "Pack-n-plays are only for temporary situations" and so on. After a mind-numbing experience of checking 300 opinions on the Amazon/Babies-R-Us website, we decided to check with...THE PEDIATRICIAN (how novel!) He said, "A crib is best since it has firm support, but then again, you can always put the baby in a drawer".