conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

Because I don’t have a baby book for Colin yet, I’m recording this for my own bad memory. Colin’s cord fell off this evening, and now he’s got a real boy belly button.

Time for baths!

More pics in the January photo album…

It is finally snowing around here. In fact, it started snowing about 30 seconds before we were set to walk out the door for Colin’s doctor’s appointment. His first snow….

Flashback four years and a month ago, to Jim’s first doctor’s appointment. It was snowing so hard and fast that we couldn’t get the car shovelled out. We weren’t afraid to drive in the snow, we just couldn’t get out in it.

Anyway, Colin has gained back the half pound he lost in the hospital, plus two ounces. He’s off the chart (over 100%) for length and at 8 pounds, 12 ounces, at 75% of weight. He recovered pretty quickly from getting his first shot (Hep B).

Now we’re home, enjoying the first snow of the season.

So Dad took Jim out to the store a couple days ago, and they picked up some pacifiers. Jim wasn’t really a pacifier kid, but Colin is a sucker. The pacifiers are a hit, and are making things a bit easier for me.

The cute part is that Jim has mangled the pronunciation of pacifier, and has started calling them no-criers.

Jim of course only had peach fuzz, and Colin’s hair is soft and fuzzy and nice to cuddle. To fluff it up, I gave him a hair wash and sponge bath today. Now he’s even fuzzier to cuddle.

AKA “Snuffles” or “Truffle Pig”, for the snuffley noises he makes when hungry.

Baby Colin entered the world Thursday morning at 7:09am, after a very very short labor — my water broke at 5.30am, and I was barely dialated at that point. There were two other deliveries going on at the same time, and my doctor didn’t even deliver him — she was due in at 7.00am, but got caught up in the phone calls and pages she was getting about me. So she and the OB practice’s midwife (who did my care overnight) watched over the resident, who delivered him. Everyone was great and helpful, and we’re happy with how the whole delivery went. It was actually comical for quite a bit, since there was so much going on, no one expected that I was going to deliver when I did. At one point before the resident showed up, one of the nurses thought she was going to have to deliver the baby.

Colin looks like mom, for the most part, with dark skin and dark fuzzy hair. But his face is just like Jim’s was. He settles himself well when upset, and is eating like a champ.

Mom’s recovery is going well, and I’m very excited to get home.

Colin’s stats:
8 pounds, 10 ounces
22 inches long
Fuzzy dark brown / black hair
Born 01/11/2007 07:09am

Tomorrow night (Wednesday), I’m going to the hospital to induce (intice) this baby on coming out.

Blood pressure was pretty high today, and of course, we’re looking a a big baby (I bet the doc today that he/she will be over 9 pounds).

Time to finish the last, last minute prep and enjoy our last bits as a person family.

that I almost forgot…

Jim got a big Buzz Lightyear from Santa. He brought it over to the kitchen table after some of the present opening excitement had subsided, and proclaimed that something wasn’t right with Buzz — he didn’t have “Jim” written on his foot.

So Dad got out a Sharpie, and let Jim go to town on Buzz’s foot.

So, will it be this week? Our current take is that I’ll be put in the hospital sometime after Tuesday’s appointment to be induced or for a c-section. Even though the last doctor tried to downplay the baby’s size, my guess is 9 pounds or over. I know that all the weight I’ve gained is baby weight – there’s nothing extra on me. And I’ve been able to eat larger meals lately, so I think that’s all going to baby too.

We’ve tried to make the last couple days special for Jim. I took him out to lunch on Friday, and was going to take him to the bookstore, but he decided against it because of the rain. Yesterday he and I put a bunch of finishing touches of the nursery, hanging shelves, hooks and pictures. And he helped put more wallpaper animals and stars on the walls.

Last night we tried to take Jim to Chuck E. Cheese, and we lasted about 2 minutes. There was no place to sit, and the other patrons were a bit of a rough group. Dad saw bunches of kids fighting and hitting each other over games. So after a quick talking too, we headed over to the mall for dinner and shopping. Jim got to ride the Christmas train (still up!), picked out his own dinner (pretzel and slushy drink), and then got a new pupply (named “Fluppy”) at Build-A-Bear. (And I got a treat — a 50% off box of chocolate from Godiva. It was still expensive, but there’s a lot, and Dad gets to eat the nut ones).

Today we’re making chocolate chip cookies after lunch, and then maybe out to the bookstore, if we get the time.

BTW, if you’re at all interested in the Phillies — check out our new adventure — Back She Goes. Dad and I started a Phillies message board, and we’re pretty proud of the results of our efforts.

I’ve thrown in the towel on these doctors, and have taken myself off couch rest. I’m following up on all the things Jim missed out on between Thanksgiving, his birthday and Christmas because I was stuck on the couch, and giving him a last hurrah as an only child.

I’m just venting — this is the third doctor’s visit in a week where I expected to be told to go to the hospital and have this baby. And they say, come back in another few days and we’ll decide then.

So, I took Jim to the little park, and after about ten minutes, one of the two other boys from school showed up, which was wonderful. They ran around for more than an hour.

Then it was home for a tea party lunch — ovaltine “tea”, cheese and crackers, and marshmallows for desert.

Then, to the grocery store to buy chocolate chips for cookies, and some other stuff we magically ran out of. And some backup chocolate chip cookies just in case — Jim has snack day on Monday. And, Jim declared that the grocery store was still Christmasful.

Christmasful.

At first, it seemed like an accident. When we took Jim to DuPont a couple weeks before Christmas, his comment on the well-decorated reception area was, “It sure is Christmasful in here”. So cute.

And his new word has persisted. We made the house Christmasful when we put the tree up. The shopping centers had Christmasful decorations on the lights. Stores were Christmasful.

Now he’s counting down what things aren’t Christmasful anymore. Our house, for starts.

This will be one of my favorite memories of this Christmas.

Today he’s back in school, anxious for lunch-bunch and getting back into the fun things.

Nothing new on the baby front. It’s getting harder to sleep, with more heartburn I’ve taken to sleeping propped up on many pillows.

Had an ultrasound and BP check tonight. BP was lower but still high, midwife said we didn’t need to do anything (seeing the doc on Thursday).

The BIG news was the size of the BIG baby. Projected weight right now (at 38 2/7 weeks) is 8 pounds, 11 ounces.