Update

A week or so ago (or maybe it was longer...who knows) while I was driving to pick up Olivia from preschool, I was listening to a radio program with an interview of a man whose most recent book was about the controversy over foie gras and force feeding the ducks or geese for their livers.

And since I've been feeling somewhat like a foie gras farmer...or would it be a goose farmer...anyway, I'm happy to say that at the last weight check (the 3rd in 5 days), Saul is back to his birth weight.

Busted

Last night Isabel needed some candy. Don't ask me what I was thinking considering that I'm pretty sure that since Sunday she hasn't eaten much more than the candy contents of her Easter Basket. But I'm a desperate woman these days...so in the presence of all my children, I promptly reached up to the cupboard above the refrigerator and pulled out small sack full the remaining unused candy that we had bought for making Easter baskets. And then missing the warning glance that Adam gave me, I set the bag and its entire contents in front of Isabel so that she could take her pick.

Olivia looked at the candy selection Isabel was browsing, and then (Eureka!) exclaimed:

"You're the Easter Bunny!"

Oops.

And while I sheepishly looked over at Adam, Max then blurts out,

"And I know that you're the Tooth Fairy too."

1 Month

Today marks one month for the baby.

I commemorated the milestone with a trip to get a confirmed weight check and examination, since I was curious about his still looking pretty scrawny. Sure enough, he weighs a full half-pound less now than he did at birth (but hey, wasn't I just wishing that he could just stay this small forever!).

Even though all of my babies eventually become champion eaters, they have all started out as nursing idiots. But it seems that this baby and I really aren't making much of a team when it comes to the feeding/eating department. It feels like I just spent the first month of his life doing little more than sitting in bed attempting to feed, then pumping, then supplementing--and then somehow the two hours in between feedings had magically disappeared and it was time to start all over again. I'm not exactly complaining--ok, I'm complaining a little, but I thought that I was finally out of the woods since over the last week or so I'd finally gotten him to the point where he was eating without any other mechanical or silicone device assistance. But apparently he still needs a little more help in order to start plumping up.

Not that I intended this subject to be my big return to blogging-since-baby, as nursing stories are pretty boring, unless of course you're at Book Group and the dessert has been passed out everyone's already exhausted the childbirth stories (which is reminding me that I still haven't posted that particular story yet).

Anyway, it's actually been a really eventful and fabulous month and there's been a lot of other great stuff that I've been meaning to blog about: turns out that a new baby is way better than a Wii.

The last month has included: Max's baptism; Saul's blessing; Adam and I both had birthdays (mine accompanied by lots of gifts of the dark chocolate variety); Grandparents visiting who practiced piano with kids, painted walls, cleaned bathrooms, passed out Tootsie Rolls, and required that I had a daily nap-time; and we bought a new mini-van (with not only doors that open and close by themselves, but best of all, an ignition that starts without my having to hold two exposed wires together while I turn the key).

So, I'm hoping that I can catch up a little over the next little while......but considering what my house is looking like these days, thanks to the round-the-clock feeding schedule, I'm not counting on anything.

Who says all our babies look the same?

Some of them are dressed in pink

Big News

I am pleased to announce my first official blog post on this site . . . and we had our baby.

If I were Jennette I would say that we had our baby a week early. But since it's me . . . we had our baby within the standard deviation of due date ± 2wks. Actually if you take the limited data from Jennette's previous pregnancies it appears her mean gestation time is not quite the standard 40 weeks, but we'd have to have a lot more kids to get the confidence interval nailed down.

It took us a little while to settle on a name while I tried every negotiating trick in the Scientology handbook to convince Jennette to name him "Surrey Fringe Fennimore." I was unsuccessful, so we've compromised on:

Saul Smith Fennimore

For those keeping the box score:

Arrived: Mar 10, 2009
Weight: 6 lbs. 12 oz.
Length: 20 inches

Mom and Baby are at home and doing well. Max and Olivia are loving having a little baby in the house and are eager helpers. Isabel, however, insisted her name was "baby" today when I introduced her to a friend, so I guess she's not exactly ready to relinquish her former position. Oh well, the baby-elect is amenable to a power sharing agreement.

For those familiar with our previous infants, this one doesn't exactly break the mold, but there are slight nuances that make him unique. To the untrained eye it probably just looks like I'm recycling a baby picture from one of our previous babies because I couldn't find a USB cable.

At any rate feel free to tell us he's the most beautiful baby you've ever seen. Hopefully we'll post additional news and pics in the coming weeks.

Random Conditions

We're coming off of a big winter snow storm and two days off of school thanks to the icy conditions (although yesterday was lovely and sunny, even if cold). But it was cold enough to freeze the pipes in my kitchen (strange....), so just watch....today will be just the day I have this baby considering that the counter is full of dirty dishes that I didn't feel like getting to last night.

And now it would drive me absolutely crazy if I had to leave them for something like giving birth.

Oh great!.....so I opened up the door to our crawl space under the kitchen hoping that the warm air from the house will help thaw the pipes in there. However, our cat must have made his way in there and now he's come back with a mouse that he's currently playing with under the table next to my desk. Yes, a real mouse. AAAAHHHH!!


p.s. Before I go figure out how to get the mouse out of here, I should mention that the photo above comes from the site TalkLikeAPhysicist.com, which is a funny site, or maybe just funny for those who have to spend a lot of time with physicists who always give a good laugh to jokes involving a theorist and an experimentalist walking into a bar. Anywayzzzz...apparently, March 14 2009 is "Talk Like a Physicist Day"....

....now that sounds like a much better day for having a baby.

Update

How's this for my goal of better time management: employ multi-tasking. Right now with the 10 minutes I have before it's time to get Olivia from school, I'm here at the computer checking on all my daily sites...but I am doing it while eating my lunch and while I put Isabel on the toilet upstairs with instructions to perform either of the necessary potty-activities. Priorities!

Oops...time's up.