A Public Service Announcement

When the parents of boys learn that you're expecting a baby boy, especially as the baby's birth nears, they issue a standard warning: "Be careful when you change his diaper! He's likely to pee on you!" These words have continually echoed in our ears at each diaper change, and thankfully, we've avoided Levi's sprays.

Most parents also think to warn you about holding a baby in the air over your face. Some have been the unfortunate targets of ill-timed spit-up, and they wish to save you the horror of that experience.

Not one person in nine months warned me about projectile poop! I didn't know it was possible, and I might not have believed it, had I not been the unfortunate target of Levi's three times over the last month.

The first time, we were at Mary's Lake Lodge, a nice restaurant and hotel near the ranch. It was Levi's first outing to restaurant, and near the end of the meal, he needed a change. He returned to the table with a fresh, clean diaper, and I returned with dirty jeans.

I knew about projectile poop then, so Rob and I developed a strategy: Don't change a diaper after the first shot. Rather, wait several minutes to see if he fires again. Levi rarely fires just one shot.

Yesterday afternoon, I heard Levi fire a shot. I waited for further rounds, and hearing none, I proceeded with caution. I put him on the changing table and opened up his diaper. Then, Levi threw a curveball: diaper rash. Distracted, I dropped the protective diaper wall I usually maintain, and grabbed the Desitin cream. I leaned over, carefully applying cream to the entire area, when it happened: he fired an 18-inch stream of poop that would have hit me in the eye, had my lightning-fast reflexes not saved me.

Pale and shaking, I called out to Rob for backup. He came and helped me clean up the mess, which included several previously clean diapers in the basket at the end of the changing pad. We laughed, hardly believing what had just happened.

Last night, Levi woke me up, announcing that he had a wet diaper. Again, I carried him to the changing table, expecting an easy change. I was sliding the new diaper under his little body when I heard a faint rumble. This time, I maintained the diaper wall and avoided another disaster.

Let this post serve as a warning to all of you who were previously unaware of projectile poop. It is real, and it is nasty. Constant vigilance is your only defense.

Lynda

Genes

He got Pop Luttrull's face, Pop Howell's hands, and his daddy's feet. And from his mother...

Did you hear him snoring? It could have been worse...he could have gotten my oily, acne-prone skin. Oh, wait, he got that, too. Poor thing.

Lynda

Sweet, Sweet Internet

The ranch's tech support guy made it out to the ranch today, and I am able to access the 'world wide interweb' (recognize the movie quote?) from the house again! I've been online most of the day taking care of business that's been waiting for weeks. I'm so happy!

I'm also happy because Levi has taken two naps in his crib for the first time today! He'll be four weeks old tomorrow, and I decided to heed the napping advice in the book I'm reading. The book says that infants can't handle more than two hours of wakefulness without becoming overtired, and they should be put down alone in their crib to sleep with no lights and no sounds. I soothed him to sleep, tiptoed to his nursery and put him down, not expecting much. After all, he's refused over the last two days to nap at all unless he was held. I tiptoed back out of the room carrying the monitor, and held my breath. After five minutes of sleep, I heard some whimpering, but he stayed down for 25 minutes! He stayed down for 45 minutes a couple of hours later. We're getting close to another naptime, and I'm hopeful instead of skeptical this time.

We also had a good night last night - at least two hours between most feedings, and not much waking in between. I heard that the Tallowood BC Single Adults were praying for us all to get more sleep - thank you all for praying! Thank you, God, for answering!

Lynda

Happy Family

Rob and I have discovered that it's hard taking care of a baby without grandparents! Both sets of our parents came and helped us for some time after Levi was born, and it was wonderful. There was always a grandparent available to hold Levi so that I could catch a nap, and our moms made sure that all the cleaning, grocery shopping, cooking, and laundry were done so that I could recover and spend time with Levi. They even made sure that Levi was sufficiently photographed. Thank you, Yia Yia and Pop Howell, and Grandma and Pop Luttrull! We all sat for a family picture while they were here:

My parents were able to stay two weeks after Levi was born. The day they left, Levi cried on and off for several hours, refusing to be put down. I cried on and off, as all of my napping attempts were foiled. That night, he took two hours to soothe to sleep and then spent more time awake than he did asleep. I was reaching a breaking point. I began speed-reading the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, sure that the solution to our lack of sleep would be found in its pages. I learned that there is a biological reason that babies become fussier at the two-week mark. I can't remember that reason (I'm not sleeping enough to retain facts!), but knowing that Levi was behaving like every other baby made me feel better.

We're settling into a new kind of routine now...Levi tends to go from an hour and a half to three hours between night feedings, but sometimes wakes up after 30 minutes because he wants one of us to hold him. I have my hopes set on his sixth week, when the book says that babies' night sleep tends to become organized and lengthier. Three weeks to go!

Levi is a great eater and weighs a little over eight pounds now. His spider-monkey legs and arms are beginning to fatten up, and his face is filling out. I think that we'll have a regular butterball by Christmas. It's usually pretty obvious when Levi needs to eat; he tells us he's hungry by sucking noisily on his hand:

Grandma and Pop Luttrull returned this week to spend Thanksgiving with us. It's been so nice to have them close, and all five of us had a lovely post-lunch nap yesterday. I know that babies aren't supposed to smile socially until six weeks of age, but Levi made eye contact and smiled at Rob twice on Thanksgiving Day. There are no smiles for Mama yet, but I know they're coming. We had a great day with yummy food and a couple of games to watch on TV. Levi and I dressed in our maroon and white and rooted for the Aggies, but evidently, it wasn't enough.

I haven't been terribly consistent with sharing pictures, as our internet access is still down at the house, and it's hard to get away to the office. Here are a few taken over the last few weeks...

This is Levi and his sock monkey, Tex. My mom made a sock monkey for me when I was little, so I wanted Levi to have one, too.

This is one of the best picture we have of Levi with his eyes open. His eyes are slate blue right now, but we'll see what color they settle on in a few months.

This picture is for Dena, our wonderful friend that took great care of Aggie while we were getting settled in Colorado this summer. I am happy to say that Aggie is continuing to warm to Levi.

Lastly, here is a family picture that my parents took the morning they left. We're a pretty happy family!

Lynda

Cradle, Cross-Cradle, Football...

Living with Levi has introduced us to a whole new vocabulary...evidently there are specific names for the ways you can hold a baby, and babies tend to have preferences. So far, I've learned that Levi can be cradled for hours, and his grandparents have happily obliged over the last week. When he's eating, Levi prefers the cross-cradle hold. Rob often carries Levi in the football hold. Here is a demonstration:

Aggie is slowly warming up to Levi. At first, she gave everyone the cold shoulder. We were all on her bad list for bringing that little being home. She refused to let me pet her as long as Levi was in the living room. I put one of Levi's blankets on top of her bed so that she could get used to his scent, and she chose to sleep off the bed rather than touch his blanket.

Levi had a bout with jaundice over the last several days, and we had to place him in the window seat to soak up some sunshine. Unfortunately, the window seat is Aggie's territory. We put Levi in the car seat and moved Aggie's blanket over to the side, and I worried that this would be the final straw. I watched her carefully over the next few mornings as she came closer and closer to his car seat. She wanted a closer look, but she also didn't want me to know that she wanted a closer look. I snapped this picture when she was busy sniffing Levi:

Yesterday, Aggie crawled into my lap when the baby wasn't around, and she sat on the next couch cushion and sniffed his head while I fed him. The cold war is ending.

The first three nights at home, Levi refused to sleep unless he slept on Rob's or my chest. After three wakeful nights, we decided that 1) sleeping on our chest is NOT safe, and 2) we were losing too much sleep. We learned the secret of swaddling, and Levi has slept in his bassinet two nights in a row now, without too much fussing.

And as for fussing, Levi rarely cries without reason. Most of the time, if he begins to fuss, you can guarantee that he needs to eat, needs a change, or has a bubble in his stomach that's making him uncomfortable. When it's time to change his diaper, though, he screams with all the energy and volume his little body can muster. I worried at first that I wasn't being gentle enough as I changed him, or that he was hurt and I wasn't aware of it. The cries cease almost as soon as the last snap on his onesie is fastened though, and I realized that he was just registering his displeasure with the procedure. Now, it's funny to me. This is a shot after one of last night's diaper changes:

We're really having a great time with Levi. We adore him and all the little faces and sounds he makes. As much as I enjoy holding and spending time with Levi, I really enjoy watching Rob with Levi. I walked into the living room a few mornings ago and caught this moment between Levi and his daddy. Rob loves his little boy, and that makes me love Rob even more.

Lynda

He is Here!

Many apologies for the delayed follow-up post...

Levi was born Thursday, November 6th at 2:36 pm Colorado time. At birth he weighed in at 6 pounds 4 ounces and was a slim 18 and a half inches long.

Lynda had some complications after birth, but is recovering nicely - praise God!

We got home Saturday evening to discover that our internet wasn't (and still isn't) working, but we'll get some pictures up before too long.

Thank you for all your prayers - we felt every one!

Rob

Still Waiting...

Lynda here this time, and I fully agree with Rob: things do not always go as planned. This time yesterday, we were waiting on our obstetrician, Dr. K, to start the induction process. Inexplicably, my blood pressure began to fall into a safer range, and instead of starting the induction, Dr. K proposed that we stay another night in the hospital for observation. He knows how much I wanted to have an unmedicated labor, and wanted to give me a chance to return home and wait on Levi to come in his own time.

We waited overnight, and my readings were inconsistent; one reading would be super-elevated, and the next reading four hours later would be in a safer range. In the end, Dr. K told us that we could return home (with total bed rest) and wait for natural labor to start, but that he would induce in a week's time anyway. It seems that the only cure for pregnancy-related hypertension is delivery, and since Levi is full-term, we decided to induce today.

So, here we are. I started receiving medicine to stimulate labor at about 9:45, and my nurse said that so far, I'm responding nicely. I can report that early contractions, while noticeable, are not terribly uncomfortable. I am still smiling and laughing with Rob. We're watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 right now, and my nurse has explained that she'll know we're well underway when I stop smiling.

The doctor has explained that this will most likely be a 24-hour process from start to finish, so we're expecting to meet Levi tomorrow morning or afternoon. I am relieved that all 24 hours will not be hard labor. All the same, if you think of us over the next several hours, please pray that I will be able to cope with the labor pains and have the remaining labor without medication.

We are looking forward to meeting Levi tomorrow. We've wondered over the last few months what he'll look like and what it will be like to bring him home. Now that we're only hours from this new reality...well, I can't really say what my emotions are. This is an all-new situation for me, so I'm not sure how to describe these feelings. I'm hoping for a tiny, blonde carbon copy of Rob, but we'll be happy with our son, no matter what he looks like.

Stay tuned...

Lynda