5.5 hours!

Wow, our little man slept for around 6 hours last night. Jan awoke at 430 and thought that she had totally missed something!! Tristan is sure throwin' us curve-balls every day/night. We had our 2 month pediatrician appointment today. Dr. Kamon was happy about his progress. about 50th percentile for height and weight. She also stuck him with a couple vaccines today and he really took it like a man. We were both really surprised at his reaction...Obvious initial wailing, but after about a minute he was totally fine.9 weeks. Thats how long we have kept a totally dependent human alive; its pretty amazing.

I was telling Jan tonight about my epiphany. I can be a pretty selfish and absorbed person. On Saturday I was literally feeling like my insides were tying themselves up in knots; I felt I really needed some "seth" time. I was super anxious and had a lot of nervous energy. Tristan was cyring in his swing and I could feel my blood pressure rising. I pulled him out of the swing and layed him on the couch and started singing to him. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey..." And then I finally realized it. It was like a huge wave came over me and all my anxiety and bad energy just dissipated. It was amazing. I was really disappointed in myself for not instantly becoming immune to his crying from the start. It was a hard transition. I kept thinking, "you are terrible, his cries frustrate you...that isn't normal for a parent." I always was thinking "What am i doing wrong, why is he crying". As a male, we are constantly trying to solve situations and if we cant...FAILURE. But with this little guy, there isnt always an answer or it might not be obvious. So one thing I learned is not to be so hard on myself. I may not be able to get him to stop cyring, and that is OKAY. Maybe a hand-off to mom is in order, or maybe he has an upset tummy. But realizing that was a huge step in the learning process. And he is just so damn cute!

Time is just slipping away...

And our little munchkin is plumping up like a little pot roast. All you FB'ers, you can check this blog at bigabv.blogspot.com there is a link on my INFO tab. Remember you can see more pics by clicking on the link on the right (Seth and Jan's Web Album). I cant believe that Tristan will be 8 weeks on Wednesday. Its an amazing transformation from a arm flailing bowl of jello to a semi-morpheus infant who can now smile and rub his eyes when he's gettin tuckered out. He is now pushing 11 pounds and his has totally outgrown most of his little outfits that we bought coming out of the gate. We have discovered many more of his favorite positions and learned that he may not be too keen on the favorite of last week. He loves to kick and flail on the changing table after he is all cleaned up and i sometimes find myself watching him there for close to 15 minutes. Arms saluting me and his little legs are trying to kick start that imaginary moto. His eyes will bug out and he will fit in a smile here and there...it just melts your heart.

He has now met all of four of his grandparents. My mom arrived the end of July and brought her friend Richard. Grammy instantly fell in love with her 3rd grandson and i think that little Tristan misses her sweet gentle touch. My dad and his new wife Lisa followed a few days after my Mom and Richard left and were kind enough to bring Dublin a few playmates. They refer to their little white dogs as a Canadian Terror Cell, but they were more akin to Canadian Antagonists.

About a week after the four Townsends left, Jan's parents arrived. Rich, Jan's dad, is unstoppable. He saw me mowing the lawn and immediately went into the garage and started edging the yard. A few hours later, he had cut beautifully straight lines along every edge of the yard.

A feat that i haven't attempted all season. The next evening we were

sitting on the front porch and he looks at me and says "Hey,

how about I trim up this bush?" Next thing I know, there are leaves and limbs flying like a scene from Edward Scissorhands; then he recruited Bonnie in on the fun. It was like having Smith and Smith Landscape Architects working on the yard.

They earned a few pints of homebrew for that job!! Sometime I'll tell you about him and our washing machine.

Tristan's best friend

Well, we think we know why he's so drawn to Mr. Lion (do you see the resemblance?)! Tristan is now almost 6 weeks old - so hard to believe! We are still trying to figure out what makes this little guy tick - sometimes with success, sometimes without, but ALWAYS at 4 am it seems! What's a little surprising is that I think our level of patience is increasing, rather than the other way around. At first, it was very frustrating not knowing what to do with him at all. Now, I think we know that sometimes we will never know exactly what to do with him when he cries, but just hold him and love him the best we can. And if that doesn't work, then another meal is usually the answer! But he is doing just great, gaining plenty of weight (he was 8 lbs 14 oz one week ago), and filling out much quicker than we expected . He is getting a little more interactive with the arms flailing and legs kicking around, and some days we even get a 2 second smile that just melts your heart (whether he meant it or not). We are hanging in there with the exhaustion....naps never felt so good!!

Happy ONE MONTH Birthday, Tristan!

Well, we somehow made it through the first 30 days taking care of this baby - he is still alive and kicking! Is it learned skill, a little luck, maybe both? We've never really been challenged like this before, but I think we have both handled things quite well, overall. At least we feel proud of ourselves, a little, whether or not we are doing things right. After all, his only demands include eating all day long, keeping a clean and dry bottom, and falling asleep in our arms several times a day. Doesn't seem so hard, but keeping him happy through all these things is what tests your patience, as 6 am suddenly becomes 2 pm, and you wonder how that could be possible, sitting in your spit-up soaked PJ's thinking about what to eat for dinner. It is more work than we ever imagined, but we can still somehow say with unwavering certainty, it is all worth it.

He is well into the 7lb range (maybe close to 8 now), just starting to outgrow some of his "newborn" outfits, but still a little too small for most 0-3 month clothes we have, so yes, he is sprouting, but he's still a little squirt! We like it that way, but are looking forward to the day when he can hold his own head up, find entertainment in silly faces and simple toys, and communicate his issues with us, just a little bit better. We are still waiting to see how he develops - will he look more like mom or dad? We've heard both so far - but still haven't come to a hard conclusion on who we think he takes after most, just yet. We don't know who submitted a request for the wild hair - but we just love it, and hope it doesn't fall out too quickly, like people have predicted. We'll take him however he comes - he's our little Junebug, Monkey Man, Bugaboo, Peanut. He's a keeper!

Hiccups, spit-up and farts

Who knew that infants were sooo raunchy!!  Tristan had a day full of involuntary muscle spasms; diaphragmatic, tracheal and rectal...the hiccups are cute as hell and are fun to watch in a voyeuristic sense.  The spit up draws an empathetic reaction because we realize that he just nursed for a half hour only to heave it back at ya.  He did that most of yesterday, but we were reassured today that these things happen; they just have bad upper GI days.  Now on to the gaseous emanations.  Nothing short of hilarious.  I think Jan has the best story, although i have one that comes close.

She had just finished feeding him and he was just chilling on his back, laying on her legs and looking at her.  He was rustling about and just enjoying his satiated self.  Arms and legs flailing pretty much uncontrollably a this point in his life.  His eyes would dart between her face and the ceiling fan (which he loves to watch).  When all of a sudden he put his arms up in "victory" and his knees bent, brow furrowed and frrrrrrrrp.  I was in the garage and i could hear her busting up.  I arrived only to witness the aftermath of her just about ready tear up in laughter.

Mine comes, once again, shortly after completing a middle of the night feeding session.  Now normally he will let loose while feeding, but it accompanies a nice crap...But i had just changed him and was moving him over to his crib to swaddle him up and put him back to bed.  When i lifted him up and over the crib rail, i contorted him ever so and it must have been just enough for the gas bubbles to escape.  because at the moment that his legs started bending towards his tummy, out comes this billowing brrraaap.  Just like a bunch of college dudes sitting around the campfire, this 7 pound human produced all the volume and seismic activity of his 160 pound inebriated brethren.  It was quite surprising!!

Dont forget to check the Web Album (link on the top right) for more pictures!

I have no idea what the sound at the end of this clip is...Ill have to send it in for analysis!

Long Days and Longer Nights...

Well i think we are getting into a routine, albeit a little backwards.  Tristan loves to sleep during the day and party all night!!  We try to keep him awake when the sun is out, but its pretty challenging.  His morning starts around 6 am when he wakes up and is excited to show us his diaper monster.  We usually try to feed him first because he almost always births a twin monster while eating....oh to be an infant!  Eat, sleep and poop for the next 16 hours or so and then around midnight/1 am he is awake and hungry.  We feed and feed and he usually doesn't want to go down until about 230.  Then he is up around 330 until 430...We are trying to break him of this habit by keeping him awake for more of the day and doing a quick feed/change during the night and minimize stimulation.  We will have to wait and see if our little man can adjust to this.  But with a face like that, it really doesnt matter...because he's our little guy!!

Eat, Sleep, Poop...and repeat

Happy 4th of July! We spent the day much the same as the others this week. Today was pretty good. Tristan stuck to a schedule of eat, sleep, poop, while Seth managed to clean up the back yard (Dublin tore apart his nice yard work when the side gate to his potty area was left open by the lawn guys, while we were away at the hospital). He even had time to enjoy a beer with our neighbor out on our patio --  a little adult interaction goes a long way, with so many new adjustments and demands of our time. Tristan has no problem sleeping, as you can see here. Once he is out, he's out. Too bad this doesn't happen so easily during the night. Getting up at 3:30 am last night was almost unbearable. At least we each got to nap today for about an hour - which felt sooo great. Unfortunately, that doesn't keep us going strong until 1 or 2 am when he goes down with us for "the night," but every little bit helps. 

Tomorrow will mark one week since we've been home from the hospital (and 10 days since Tristan was born), so we have made it through our first week at home successfully, with only a bit of crankiness during the wee hours. Our wonderful neighbors have helped out so much by bringing food to us this week - thank you!!! Yesterday I planned to go to a breast feeding club at the hospital for tips and advice, but unfortunately after we packed up our things and got moving (half an hour late), we were told the class was canceled. bummer - I was really looking forward to grilling the lactation consultants on many things. I'll have to wait until next week. It was great to get out the house, anyway, and run some errands with our little guy.  He slept most of the time, but was really well behaved even when he was somewhat awake. We're getting better at learning how much he needs to eat to be happy. Hopefully he'll be back up to his birth weight before too long!