Sweet Yet Sour

Henry – 4 Months

Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 | Henry, Updates | 2 Comments

As of 4:09 a.m. yesterday, Henry turned 4 months old.  It’s amazing how much babies change in such a short period.

This was taken when Henry was 10 days old -

Henry - 10 days old

And this was taken today:

Henry - 4 Months old

Henry had a check-up at the doctor’s office today.  They weighed and measured Henry and then tested his development.  And then they gave him two shots; I’m pretty sure that was his favorite part…

At 4 months Henry now weighs 13lbs 3 oz. and is 24 3/4 inches long.  He’s gained almost 2 lbs and has grown 1 inch since his last check-up on June 10th.

Pretty soon Henry should start rolling over – which should be fun. Right now he’s doing really well at grabbing things and then pulling them into his mouth.  All things go into the mouth at this point – that’s Henry’s only way of finding out about things.  I went to change him last night and discovered that his whole left sock was soaked because he had found his foot and wanted to taste it.

Right now Henry is feeling the pain from his shots – he’s been fussy and inconsolable for a few hours, except when I put him in the bath.  But generally Henry is a lovely happy boy and he dearly loves his sister, who posed for me this morning in Henry’s crib:

Anna and Henry

Someday I hope they’ll be great friends!

Henry – 3 Months Old

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010 | Henry | 1 Comment

Henry turned 3 months old on Monday.

Here is Henry looking at his sister, whom he absolutely adores:

Henry and Anna

Everytime Henry sees Anna he smiles; too bad Anna does not feel the same way most of the time.  There are times when she likes him, and then there have been a few times when she has hit him in anger over me paying attention to Henry.  I’m sure my older sister would say, “That’s what he gets for being the youngest.”

Henry also is able to hold his head up pretty well and was able to pose with his dad the other day:

Mike and Henry

Henry is generally sleeping better these days, but that can be attributed to some acid reflux medicine that he has been prescribed.

Henry is getting to be a more active and cheery boy, he smiles a great deal and is starting to make all those fun little baby talk noises.  It looks as if he is to be cursed with my pale skin and I’m waiting to see if he will be similarly cursed with red hair.  Those of us who were called “Firehead”, among other things, when we were children do not wish a redhead’s childhood on anyone…

At his last check-up, which was supposed to be a two-month check-up, but ended up being a 12 week visit, Henry did great.  He weighed 11lbs 9oz and is 23 3/4 inches long.  Growing quite well really!

At around this time babies begin to grab at things and Henry is getting quite good at reaching for (and sometimes grasping) the toys above him on his playmat.  I took some video of it today, in hopes of also getting the cute noises he makes, but instead discovered that my camera has been dropped far too many times (by the two-year old who will remain unnamed) for the audio to be clear anymore…  He’s still cute in the video anyway:

Soon Henry will be rolling over and really starting to move – should be fun to watch!

Henry’s 1st Update

Monday, May 10th, 2010 | Henry | 5 Comments

This is Henry:

Henry

His full name is Henry Thomas, and like Anna he is named after people in our families.  I have a Great-Great-Great Grandfather named Henry who brought his family to Denver from England in 1880’s.  He was a shoemaker and had a store in downtown Denver that sold shoes, mostly to the miners.  My grandfather on my mother’s side, who is still alive, is named Thomas and Mike has a beloved uncle named Thomas (Tom) as well.  We’ve always liked the name Henry, it’s classic – and we hope he likes it too.

This being our second time around with a newborn, we were prepared for the sleepless nights, fussiness, frequent diaper changes, etc. that are associated.  However, as with any child, this one has a few tricks up his sleeves.

After weeks of a pretty fussy baby I’ve learned that there are a lot of foods that don’t go down well with Mr. Henry.  A few hours after I eat any of these foods Henry refuses to eat, has a lot of gas and is just plain fussy.  To alleviate myself from suffering these consequences I have so far cut out of my diet the following foods: chocolate, pork (especially bacon), all colors of bell peppers, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower and citrus.  I am of late a little suspicious of his behavior after I have a cheese laden meal, like mac and cheese or quesadillas, so I may need to cut those things out too.  Uggh.  I knew to cut out spicy foods, but I had no idea how many different foods would bug the little guy.  Chocolate and bacon are the worst; once I’m done nursing I’m going out for breakfast and ordering a slab of bacon, two chocolate croissants and some hot cocoa…

It is this experience that has caused me to decide that evolution should come up with something really cool to somehow help me with this.  Perhaps if when I ate one of these things I would gag, or feel a burning sensation on my tongue or something, that would remind me that I should not eat that or suffer a fussy baby.  For weeks I would mindlessly pop a piece of chocolate in my mouth only to regret it a few hours later.

For the first few weeks Henry did the usual newborn things, sleeping, eating, pooping, spitting up and crying ( a lot of that).  These past two weeks (he’s now 7 weeks old), Henry has finally started being a little more awake and alert, granted not always during the day.  He’s looking around, finding things he likes to focus on and even smiling and cooing at a few things.  Henry especially loves the bright toy I hung above his changing table, but he’s also partial to the striped curtains in his room and the ceiling fans.  All of these objects generally elicit a smile and sometimes some joyful baby noises.

Here is some video I took of Henry making eyes at his toy:

And Then There Was Cake

Saturday, March 27th, 2010 | Henry | 5 Comments

As with all good stories, the story of Henry’s birth begins with a chocolate cake.

Last Friday we had a pretty decent snow storm and our lovely neighbor Darrel shoved our walk (all the way up our front stairs too), as he has kindly done all winter.  In appreciation for his hard work I decided I would make a chocolate cake for him on Saturday.

I started the cake early in the morning, since it was my mom’s sourdough chocolate cake, which needs to sit and get gassy before you finish the cake.  In the early afternoon I finished the cake and let it cool on the counter while I set out some butter for the butter cream frosting.

And then I started having contractions… At first, I ignored them, since for the past few weeks I had been getting contractions when I overdid it, and I had walked around a lot, chased Anna around and made cake that day already.  But as I sat and relaxed the contractions didn’t go away so I began to wonder if this wasn’t something else.  I was determined to finish the cake, so I proceeded into the kitchen to whip up the frosting and finish the cake.  Mike and Anna came home from a dog walk while I was making the frosting and I said quietly to him, “I’m timing contractions right now.”  I finished the frosting and got the cake put together while noting that the contractions were about 8-10 minutes apart.

Mike rushed around packing a bag for himself and getting a shower, since he had played racquetball that afternoon.  I finished packing my bag, Anna’s bag and called my sister.  We called the midwife, headed out the door, dropped off Anna at my sister’s and headed in to the hospital.  All the while I hoped that this was the real thing, it certainly felt real, but you always worry that you will be sent home with a “false labor” diagnosis.

Shortly after we arrived at the hospital at 7 p.m. my water broke (contrary to urban legend, the water rarely breaks at the beginning of labor) and it was determined that we were definitely not in false labor.  However, things were moving pretty slowly, cervix wise, so we spent a long time at the hospital with not much progress made.  When things got pretty painful I opted for the epidural, even though the whole needle near your spine thing makes me nervous. Pain will make you do things you didn’t think you could do, like allow someone to poke you with a needle in your spine.

Since I was (still!) recovering from a cold, I spent most of the labor and delivery with either an oxygen tube in my nose or an oxygen mask.  My blood oxygen level was so low that little alarms kept going off, and they were a little worried about the baby’s oxygen level because of that.  I kept hoping that the cold would clear up before labor, but no!

Sometime around 1:30 a.m. it was decided that things were moving so slowly that I needed a little help and I was given some Petosin.  Labor began to progress a little faster, but around 3 a.m. I realized that the epidural was wearing off.  The epidural actually slows labor, so for a while I tried to buck up and deal so that I could have the baby in the next few hours.

At 3:45 a.m. the midwife came in to check me and we had a discussion about the epidural. While I got some more epidural medication in my i.v., the midwife announced “we’re ready to push”.  I won’t lie, this part was painful, the epidural had not really had much affect at that point, but after some serious pushing the baby was born at 4:09 a.m.

When Anna was born I had been drugged up and down with various concoctions because her heartrate had dropped.  I don’t remember Mike cutting the cord, or seeing the placenta and certainly felt less pain.  This time I was in pain, but I was much more aware of everything, I watched Mike cut the cord, got to check out the placenta, and there were far fewer people in the room.  It was nice to only have Mike, the midwife, and two nurses in the room – it felt like there was a medical army troop in the room when Anna was born.

On Monday, while I was still at the hospital with Henry, Mike delivered the cake to our neighbors with the news of Henry’s birth.  If the frosting looked crappy and spread unevenly I had a really good excuse – I was finishing a cake and having a baby!

The Little Man Has Arrived

Sunday, March 21st, 2010 | Henry | 6 Comments

The latest addition to our family arrived this morning at 4:09 a.m.  I am too tired to review all of the gory details, but I do have a picture of him and his favorite activity so far (sleeping):

Henry - Day 1

Henry Thomas Munhall weighed in at 6 lbs 7 oz. and is 19 inches long.  He is in good health and seems to be doing quite well so far.  Later, I’ll share gory details, but for now, I need rest!