Photos of Jonas from the month of December 2008

December 2008

growing well at 2 months

Jonas had his two month check up today with our very nice pediatrician Dr. Clark. Biff and I bet on his percentiles (I said 40th and Biff said 55th) and we were way off. He is still 50th percentile in length but is 75th in weight. Dr. Clark called him a "chunk" and said he was doing great. He got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. He cried for a second and then was just fine, although he spent the afternoon sleeping. Here he is waking up and fussing. Note the band aid. And, yes, his face does get THAT red.

Jonas visits Greatgrammy

Jonas took a trip to Charlotte with his Mama, Grandmama and Aunt Cecelia to visit his Greatgrammy. Greatgrammy is a very funny and stylish lady with a serious sweet tooth who very much enjoyed his visit, although she was not overly impressed by her Vosges bacon chocolate bar that her daughter (my mom) gave her. Although I haven't tried the bacon one, I'm pretty obsessed with Vosges chocolate. However, I was pleased to discover her Twix stash in the toaster oven. Jonas was his usually happy self, playing until he passed out on the couch and then slept the whole ride back. Here are some photos from the visit, including Greatgrammy's butt in her rhinestone bedecked silver jeans. Yes, no pictures of me, seriously bad hair day.

Jonas meets Santa

Biff and I aren't religious, but we enjoy the midwinter lights, food, and foliage of Christmas, although NOT the music. So, when Jonas and his baby friend Ryder were hanging out while the moms walked UMall instead of the trails due to some inclement weather, I had Jonas pose with Santa. Santa was always such a fun part of my childhood, plus I love the kitsch factor.

Baby friends

Our friends Leslie and Joe and Quinn and Galen came over to meet Jonas and introduce him to Ash, Q and G's 3 month old son. Ash has a lot of syllables and Jonas has a lot of coos. We are hoping they will be BBFFs-baby best friends forever. The good pictures were taken by Galen, Ash's dad, whose Flickr site is here. The not-so-good ones were taken by me ;).

Photos of Jonas from the month of November 2008

November 2008

Saturday outing to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh

We've been trying to make lots of family outings on the weekends during the day since we can't go out much at night. This Saturday we went to the Natural Sciences Museum in Raleigh. It's free and has some really cool exhibits, like whale and dinosaur skeletons, meteorites and geology, and recreations of different regions of North Carolina. We didn't get to see everything (next time we will budget more time), but we did get Jonas to pose with an Archaeopteryx!!!

Jonas's first Thanksgiving

Since Jonas is only 6 weeks old, we weren't traveling for Thanksgiving. We had a nice, local, laidback celebration with my parents, Lee and Tara, Cecelia, and Susan, Shaw and Anderson where we had Tofurkey and vegetables before heading to Jenny and Les's. Ben, Marilyn and Michael where in town, as was, Aaron and Sukie, the famous returning cat.

6 weeks

Jonas's first protest-babies against H8

Today was the national day of protest against Proposition 8, the California ban which just passed making same sex marriage illegal. This is a very important issue to us, so we packed Jonas in the Baby Bjorn, braved the rain, and rallied and marched. It was very inspiring and a rainbow flag was raised over the Governor's mansion. Surely equality will come in Jonas's lifetime.

Hope and Change

It's no secret that we are a big Obama family. We resisted early voting to take part in the historic day. For the first time in a long time, North Carolina was a swing state, so it was really exciting to think that our votes would make a bigger difference. We took a walk in the rain to our precinct, a school across from the park and cast our ballots-numbers 386 and 387, I think. We then decided to go back out to Chapel Hill and watch the election returns at my parents' house with them and Lee. No one was more excited than Jonas when North Carolina finally turned blue!!

We look a bit bedraggled, but Jonas looks adorable!!!

Photos of Jonas from the month of October 2008

October 2008

Librarians are crafty

I'm in the right business. When you're a librarian and your wife is having a baby you're going to get some really amazing craft gifts. It just comes with the territory.

Here are two that have been given to us in the last few days. We are absolutely blown away by how great they are - creative, well-made, and beautiful.

The first is a baby winter hat with stockings that my co-worker Rachel made for Jonas. Look at those colors. And the photograph doesn't do justice to the small details.

Second, is a pair of baby booties that my friend Jessica made for Baby Boy. They're made to look like little furry monster feet. So freakin' cute!

Thanks ya'll. We love them and so will Jonas.

Fair is fair

Kate recently shared one of her baby pictures and has been encouraging me to share some of mine. Maybe if you overlay the two you might get an approximate preview of Jonas?...

Well, this weekend we were lucky enough to procure a FREE all-in-one Lexmark x75 printer/scanner/copier. So I scanned in a couple of old prints of me as a baby and toddler. So here's the slideshow. You can click on each one if you want a closer look.

Thinking about birth

So the countdown continues, less than a month to go, at least until the estimated due date. However, Biff discovered it happens to fall on a full moon, so it's not as an unlikely estimate as it could be. I'm getting very unwieldy and noticeably forgetful. But the weather has just turned cool in the last two days, and it is a very welcome change. For me, fall is a time of new beginnings, the real start of the year, coming from 16 plus years of following school calendars. It's crisp and sharp with change, which makes it both exciting and emotional for me, the ultimate sentimentalist, every year. This year will obviously be quite poignant. It just so happens that my due date is a day before the anniversary of my father's death 9 years ago. I'm not religious; I don't believe in a plan, but I believe in patterns, or at least or ability to create them as ways of giving meaning to our worlds. This coincidence seems somehow appropriately cyclical.

Here's a picture of me just born, with the proud parents.

In more practical terms, we have created a birth plan for our ideal birth (uninduced, unmedicated, and mostly laboring at home). Of course you never know what will happen, but you have to at least know what to aim for. Our bullet points:

• We strongly prefer a quiet, serene environment with minimum noise and disruption. We will probably play soothing music and would like to eat light foods and liquids throughout labor.

• We are looking forward to a natural unmedicated birth. Please do not offer or administer any pain medications before, during, or after birth. We will let you know if we want pain medications under any other circumstances.

• We prefer to have a Heparin lock and not to have an IV unless necessary.

• Freedom of movement is very important to us. Kate should be free to try different positions during labor and birth, including use of a shower, tub and/or birthing ball.

• Intermittent external fetal monitoring as long as Kate is not required to lie down.

• We prefer to have a minimal number of vaginal exams, ideally administered by the same person throughout and only when there is a change of labor or we request a check.

• Bag of waters to remain intact until they break naturally

• We intend to try to keep the perineum intact. We will use perineal massage, warm compresses and oils to achieve this goal. No episiotomy unless deemed necessary for the safety of the baby and this decision is discussed with Biff and our doula.

• If labor stalls, we prefer no artificial induction of labor. If augmentation is needed, we would prefer natural methods first.

• If a Cesarean Birth becomes necessary, prefer to have husband, Biff, in the room seated at mother’s head during surgery. We would like the baby to be held by Biff as soon after birth as possible, and Biff will remain with baby. We hope to attempt to breastfeed as soon as possible.

• After the birth, we would prefer the baby to be laid directly on the mother’s chest without washing and allowed to nurse as soon as possible. All testing to be administered while the baby lies on the mother’s chest.

• We request that the baby remain in mother’s room at all times

• We would like the father, Biff, to cut the umbilical cord. However, we would prefer to wait until the umbilical cord stops pulsating before clamping and cutting.

• We prefer eye ointment and vitamin K to be delayed for at least one hour after birth to allow for bonding.

• We prefer to breastfeed only – no bottles, glucose, artificial nipples, formula or water

No, he will not be circumcised. Yes, he will absolutely be vaccinated.