Two

Gabe Is Two! from Erin Matzkin on Vimeo.

Sleeping Beauty Update

Nap time this afternoon: five minutes of whining before falling asleep. Not even real crying, just some fussing and complaining and whatnot.

Bedtime this evening: five minutes, thirty seconds of whining before falling asleep. (That last thirty seconds almost broke me, if I'm being honest. Just as I was walking in to get her I realized she'd gone silent.)

To sum up: total freak show easy-going-to-bed-style baby. Let's just see if it lasts.

Oh, oh, and I totally forgot to mention, she rolled over for the first time ever today! I clapped for her, I was so excited! (I am lame.)

In other news, Gabe turns two tomorrow. I will probably cry because my little baby boy is not a baby anymore! He's officially a big guy now! And I will blame the crying on postpartum hormones. So there.

Status Update

Tessa statistics, three-month check-up:
Height: 23 inches (40th percentile)
Weight: 11 pounds, 6.5 ounces (25th percentile)
Head: 15 centimeters (5th percentile, pea head)
Favorite saying: "Ahh-goo!"
Best new trick: Big, big grins and a noise that might be laughter.
Other notes: Residual cough/congestion from RSV is continuing to abate, thank goodness.



Gabe statistics (no check-up until next month):
Height: Unknown, but growing out of current pants size. Longer pants needed.
Weight: 25 pounds exactly, according to my bathroom scale.
Head: Unknown, but probably pea head.
Favorite saying: This one is a tie between "I want my want." and "I want no jacket, Mommy." (Stated decisively, on his way out the front door on a cold day.)
Best new trick: Singing all of "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed," complete with hand gestures.
Other notes: Refused to eat a vanilla sprinkle cupcake from Susie Cakes the other day. Had I not been there when he came into this world, I would not believe he is actually my genetic child.



To sum up, all is well this week.

V-Day!

Happy V-Day to me and Version 2.0, Happy V-Day to me and Version 2.0!

That's viability day, in case you were curious. As of Thursday I am officially 24 weeks pregnant, which means that if the baby were born now, she would have a fighting chance at survival. Those odds are only about 50-50, so ideally we'd like to keep her in there a whole lot longer, but I find it reassuring to know she would at least have a shot if something unexpected happened and I went into labor now. Plus I wouldn't have to try and talk the nurses and doctors into trying to save her - they would automatically take measures to keep her alive.

Wow, I sound like I'm preparing for the worst, don't I? Really I am not. She kicks and kicks and kicks all the time, and as far as I know everything is healthy and growing right on schedule. But all the same I take comfort in knowing that my little girl is past that critical 24-week mark. (Although I will happily wait another 15 or so weeks to meet her.)

On another subject, I am beginning to feel as though "Version 2.0" is not a great nickname. If her due date were any later I might call her my little valentine. Suggestions, anyone?

Four Quick Things

1. Gabe is totally patriotic. Check out his getup from the Fourth of July (extreme closeup edition):


2. Does marinara sauce count as a vegetable? If so, then Gabe ate a vegetable tonight! Celebration! Party time!


3. Gabe moves from the Infant Room to the Toddler Room in three weeks. Sob! (I have no picture to illustrate this one. Just picture me with sad, sad tears as Gabe toddles off into the sunset to go play with the more exiting Toddler Room toys, or something.)

4. Gabe very much enjoys playing the ukulele these days.

Running Down a Dream

I am so far behind that I can't even attempt to catch up. Suffice it to say that since my last post, we've had many social outings (including Baby Loves Disco with my fab friend J and her husband S and their delightful son B) plus we celebrated an excellent Father's Day. Gabe bought his dad a customized Sigg water bottle reading "Peace, Love & Gabe" and matching shirts for himself and his daddy. They both look very handsome in the shirts, in case you were wondering.

But now onto the big news: Gabe took his first real steps yesterday!!! (At least I think they were his first real steps. Sometimes I think daycare lies to me and says they've never seen him do things like waive "hi" and say "doggie" and take steps because they don't want me to think I'm missing out on milestones. And this is fine with me, by the way. Ignorance is bliss and all.)

Anyhow the steps were highly amusing. Here's how it worked: I sat on the floor and helped Gabe get into a nice solid standing position about arms' length away from me. He pushed my hands away to prove how good he was at standing all by himself. The he grinned madly, hesitated, and lurched forward for two whole steps before crashing into my arms and screaming excitedly. We repeated this sequence several times.

AWESOME.

I know everyone says you shouldn't encourage your kid to walk because it unleashes a new level of chaos into everyday life, and I totally believe this is true, but I still think it's super exciting that he's trying to figure out how to walk. I can't help myself - I have to encourage him. He just looks so proud and he gets so excited! (And he's getting sort of heavy, so it's nice to think that one day I won't have to carry him absolutely everywhere and give myself arm cramps. Because I am LAZY.)

I have to go find myself some dinner now because I am SO HUNGRY and because feeding myself is clearly more important than documenting my baby's life and milestones and precious moments in detail. (LAZY and SELFISH, people.) But I promise to not wait weeks and weeks before posting again. Maybe I'll even throw in some pictures next time. Mwah.

From Lime to Full-Grown Cocker Spaniel

We have a framed picture of Gabe's twelve-week ultrasound that sits on our bookcase. Here, I'll show you:

The bottom of the two pictures is a shot of his miniature spine. If you look closely you can see it clearly; it looks like a tiny string of pearls. As amazing as that spine is, though, the top picture is the one that gets me every time. His little body is so perfectly formed at just twelve weeks old. I glanced at that framed picture this morning as we were playing in the living room and for a moment it took my breath away. I cannot believe my Gabe has gone from that bobbleheaded creature, so very tiny and growing in my body, to this big, strong almost-toddler wrecking havoc in my living room.


OK, admittedly he looks a little ridiculous here because his hair was spiked up for Crazy Hair Day at school last Wednesday. But all ridiculousness aside, it is simply amazing to me how fast a child can grow from little twelve-week-old fetus about the size of lime, to a seven-and-a-half pound newborn mewling in his mama's arms, to a twenty-pound one-year-old bruiser terrorizing the cats and demanding more graham crackers.

We had a great day today. We played at home, and we even had company - we watched Cousin Parker for an hour or so, which was excellent fun! Then we had lunch with friends and went to the park. We watched the ducks in the duck pond, played on the swings, rode on the seesaw, and played in the sand. It was perfect. I am so blessed.

Where are the teeth?

The first birthday was excellent. Gabe was a great sport - he tasted frosting, feigned interest in his gifts (although he really preferred the wrapping paper and empty boxes, of course), and smiled obligingly for photos. He even wore a ridiculous hat and played along as we blew out the candle on his cake. What a great baby. (Toddler. Sob!)

But I have to move on to a more pressing matter. (Literally.) WHERE ARE HIS TEETH?

Normally babies get their bottom two teeth first, followed by their top two teeth. Gabe's bottom two arrived a few months ago, pretty much right on schedule. The top two? Not so much. They refuse to appear. Oh, and he has decided that he's too cool to just get two measly top teeth at once. Instead, he has FOUR top teeth that have been trying to poke through for over a MONTH now. The gums are white, they are swollen, and yet the teeth refuse to break through. What is up with that? Seriously, biology, WTF? How is this a good system?

The teeth are painful-looking enough that even his pediatrician commented on them at his twelve-month (sob!) checkup yesterday. I believe her exact words were, "Yow. Those are no fun."

No fun indeed. They were definitely no fun at 1:47 a.m. last night, when Gabe decided the only logical thing to do was scream inconsolably for an hour and a half. Matt (trying for Husband Of The Year) got up with him first and rocked him for a half hour. Then I rocked him for a half hour. The Matt rocked him for ten minutes. Then I rocked him for another twenty minutes, and he finally went back to sleep. Goodness gracious. I forgot how rough that up-for-two-hours-in-the-middle-of-the-night thing is. Hard on the baby, hard on the mommy and daddy. I don't even have anything witty to say. I'm just kind of sleepy this evening as a result.

So anyhow, teeth, if you're listening, COME OUT ALREADY. Enough is enough. The kid is tired of gumming down bites of food, and he's definitely tired of being in pain. Plus mommy and daddy are lazy and want to sleep for seven consecutive hours tonight. Let's make it happen. (Then again, that toothless grin makes him look like he's still a baby. My precious little baby! Will never be a toddler! Never be a big kid! Never be a strapping teenager! Right?? Sob!)

ONE

Gabe's First Year from Erin Matzkin on Vimeo.

We love you, baby.

It's All About Me

I cannot resist pointing out that exactly 365 days ago, I was just beginning the 23-Hour Pitocin Carousel of Fun! That's right, on May 6, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. my labor and delivery nurse (the first of THREE I would have, I was there so freaking long) administered the first dose of Ineffective Contraction Juice. This dose would be increased in strength every fifteen minutes until I maxed out at about 4:00 p.m. the following afternoon; by then I was receiving DOUBLE the largest dose my doctor routinely uses. My second labor and delivery nurse (who will go down in history as one of the most awesome people I have ever met, just FYI) gave me a little hug and told me she couldn't up the dose any more, but that the doctor had agreed to let me labor for a few more hours on the current dose to see if I could make any additional progress.

At about 7:00 p.m. the doctor himself arrived and explained to me, in his kindest, gentlest, do-not-make-the-pregnant-woman-who-has-been-in-labor-for-more-than-two-full-days-cry voice, that despite the massive amount of pitocin coursing through my system my contractions were weakening, I was still only three centimeters dilated, the baby had had a few scary decels, and it was time to throw in the towel and get him out via Plan B (or Plan C, as it were. Ha ha). I agreed. Labor had been super fun and everything, but I was ready to meet my baby.

My baby. My sweet baby. He was born on May 7, 2008 at 9:07 p.m.

He turns one tomorrow.

At This Time Last Year...

...I was officially in labor. It had been confirmed by my OB via an examination and thirty minutes on the monitor in his office. I was oh so excited to meet my baby, an event which I believed was merely hours away!

Ha.

I was so unaware. So dumb, really. Little did I know the big event was still two and half days (and one false alarm at L&D, about a gallon of pitocin, one epidural [administered three hours after my initial request, FYI], and one c-section) away!

Good times!

Totally worth it, though. No question. No question at all.

I love you, Gabearoo.

Guess Who Turns One Very Soon!

G!

A!

B!

E!

Woo woo woo woo Gabe!

New Tricks

Hi!!!



Good looks, brains, and talent. Impressive, isn't it? (Ignore the part at the beginning where he is fussy because I refused to let him gnaw on the video camera.)

All Grown Up

My sweet little baby revealed his first tooth this morning.

Then, while I was blow drying my hair and getting ready for work, he crawled so very fast across the bedroom floor - away from the super fun and not at all annoying electronic toys with lights and music! - to sit between my feet in the bathroom.

And later, at daycare today, he crawled up the stairs of the little climbing structure, and applauded for himself when he reached the top.

He's full of tricks these days, my little baby. Oh, and growing so big and strong, so quickly. My heart. My heart.