Baby Advice Books

So far I've read two books, The Happiest Baby on the Block and then Babywise II months 5 through 15 (I think it's 15.) I have The Happiest Toddler but haven't read it, and am waiting on the Babywise infant book from the library.

In some ways these two sets of books are opposites. So it was kinda funny/brain hurting to read them back to back.

The premise of Happiest Baby for infants is that babies need a 4th trimester, but due to head sizes of humans don't get it. Therefore, for really fussy babies - and the book seems to be mostly for fussy/colic babies more so than happy ones - you need to do these 5 magic things to get them to self calm. The idea is that until about six months it's impossible to spoil the baby or set bad habits, so make the baby happy.

Babywise is all about moral development, I gather even in infants, and the parents setting the schedule and rules. It reads a little cold, but there does seem to be some good practical suggestions in there. It's written by Christians, which I suppose could annoy readers who aren't. Then again, with some of the ideas, the few Christian parts might not be the most annoying parts.

But really, until Noah Maxx is born, and we know what his personality is, there's no way to know what's going to work best for him.

Because it only took a few hours to read them both, I'd say it was worth the time.

Seriously Shy!

Hooray!! We finally got to see our cute boy! Of course, he had his fist planted in his eye 80% of the time. Then, because that wasn't enough to hide behind, he added his legs and feet up by his face, too! Wow, to be that flexible!!

Here he at least moved his hand to upside his head...



And here he's trying to put his foot up his nose.


He's measuring perfectly dead average for his age. That's good. Next time we see him he'll finally be outside the belly. We can't wait!

The baby shower

On Saturday afternoon, we had a baby shower for Noah Maxx at a friend's house nearby. The funny thing was that the friend who had arranged everything switched the starting time of the baby shower at the last minute, from 2 to 3 PM so that there will be ample amount of time for her own little girl (her daughter is 18 months old.) to have a nap. Of course, and GF and I didn't know about this, so we showed up at her place about an hour early.

One person bailed at the last minute because she had a last minute closing on her new house, and another thought that the baby shower was at our place so she drove all the way to our place....finding it empty. She got really tired from all the traffic and decided that she didn't want to go any further. She did leave the baby's gifts at our house prior to departure though.

There were four people who came to the shower, one was a colleague from work, another was this girl that I had deployed to Iraq with, and the last two were a friend of mine from my reserve unit and his sometimes girlfriend. We chatted, had this enormous chocolate marble cake, had this really good citrus punch, and some other snack foods. Since we really don't have a lot of friends, I'm just grateful for the ones who did make it!

We didn't play silly games during the shower, which was just the way that the GF and I had intended. When our friend's baby girl got up, I went into her room and changed her and brought her out, baby Jo is such a good baby! She was friendly and receptive to everyone there! Our Ramen dog (we brought him to the baby shower, since our friend also have a dog that's pretty friendly.) was on his best behavior, getting everyone to pet him and letting baby Jo play with him.

We're really thankful for all the stuff that we had gotten at the shower! We got some of Jo's clothes, baby carrier, a baby rocker (they will be returned when our friend has her second little one.), lots of baby clothes, baby bottles, baby wash, baby shampoo, gift certificates to babies r us, and some great advice from the people from the shower written in this spiral notebook.

I was really surprised that we had gotten that many gifts for Noah Maxx! We were also amazed about how many things that a baby needs right when it's born! The reality is setting in ever so much more that, in 66 days, our little man will be here!

I will write about the rest of the weekend in my next entry, it's getting late and both the GF and I will have get some zzzzz's in before we hit work!

Handsome and Naked!

Nope, not Noah Maxx (although I'm sure he is!!)

It's Ramen dog:

Whew

Thank God this wasn't literal!!



Here's the last piece of furniture for Noah Maxx's room - the glider. (That's Ramen dog failing to get out of the way.)

Take Your Pick

We finally met with the lawyer Saturday. She's very good. She still thinks that if it's at all possible we should delivery Pinhead in DC. Apparently DC has a fairly new law that's very beneficial to lesbian couples. (It doesn't help gay men because of something to do with surrogacy that I didn't really pay much attention to.) It seems that not only can I be on the birth certificate, we can also go to a judge and get a judgment ruling me as a parent. This is helpful because all states have to honor judgments.

Ok, so that's all good. But babies don't come on schedules - and we're finding it would be so much more helpful if they did!! We don't know when to schedule family to be here. They're not coming for the actual birth, but within the first month, so that's not terrible to schedule, but still.

But it seems there's going to be four possible hospitals we could end up at. There's the one close to home that we're mostly planning on. Then there's the one close to her office in case she literally works up to the last minute. Her commute to and from work can take from an hour to an hour and a half depending on traffic. So we're also putting the one halfway between work and home in the Garmin.

Now, the closest hospital is fifteen to twenty minutes - depending on time of day and red lights.

In optimum conditions, say at 2 a.m., we could be at the hospital in DC in forty minutes. That's certainly do-able.

The problem with not delivering at the hospital closest to home is that we're 90% sure none of the ob/gyn's we've been meeting with would deliver the baby. (We're going to ask at the next appointment.) But we're also pretty sure that's ok with us. We've met with each of the different ones once so far, and it's not like we're going to be attached to any of them.

The insurance company said all four hospitals are in-network, and that yes, you don't always know where you'll end up.

So the plan for now is to get to DC if at all possible, if not - well, whichever is closest.

New Belly Pics

Such a cute little round belly! If I put my ear against it, I can actually hear his thumping heart beat. I still smile every time I feel him wiggling around in there. Poor thing, I know it's got to be hard to get comfy! Nerdstar thinks it's funny that when we snuggle, he kicks me in the butt!

Last night he was kicking her bladder, so I tried moving him over away from it. Instead of moving, he stayed put and kicked her bladder even harder. Stubborn boy! I laughed.