davejenbarnes

Where have the last 70 days gone?

James now is able to suck his fingers. I never thought I would be so pleased by those words, but it’s true. This means I am waking up less during the night for pacifier insertion, though we still have one middle of the night nursing usually around 3:00 am when I can’t stand the fullness any longer and must have the little guy drain at least one side, if not both. I forgot to add that James is only able to suck his fingers when he can manage to get his hand close to his face… sometimes the arms just don’t cooperate yet. The flailing abounds indeed.

Last night was his first night to sleep unswaddled on his back all night and he did impressively well. We’ll try it again tonight and we’ll be hoping for the same results. He’s also started stretching his hungry times to a 3 hour pattern instead of the 2 hour pattern he has been on for nine solid weeks. It helps when we stay home all day and can keep a steady routine down. I think things will be thrown off on Thursday when we go to the library Lapsit time and Friday when we spend the day with Lisa and Connor.

I want to type more, but he’s pretty fussy right now so I’m gonna go be with him.

UPDATE (Wednesday morning): Well, the sleeping on the back did not work. I ended up swaddling his little butt around, what?, 11:30 or so… I lost track of time… all I know is that it was a very late night for us. Seeing as how we (me and James) are usually unconcious to the world by 10:30. AND we were up early.

Let. Me. Tell. You.

You won’t believe it; it’s soooo totally gross.

I woke up at 5:30 because I felt a bug on my chin. No kidding. And it felt BIG. Yep, yep, I hate to say it… You’re thinking… a BIG bug? In an apartment? In an apartment whose management changed in May and hasn’t been treated by an exterminator since APRIL, 5 months ago? Could it… naw… not a… Yep, a ROACH was crawling on my face at 5:30 this morning!

I am not a messy person, y’all. I promise. Okay, yah, things have gone a little downhill since James was born, but you’re supposed to let housework go for a bit, right?, when you have a newborn. It’s not like we eat and leave dirty dishes out in the BEDROOM. Our theory is that they’re coming in from outside via our master bathroom, since that’s where Dave has killed the five others that have appeared in the wee hours in the last two weeks. Yes, seven, 7!, roaches in the last 2 weeks. Gross. ABSOLUTELY GROSS. I’m freaked out. Let me take the time to also say that we have not seen a single roach outside the master bedroom/bathroom. Not in the livingroom… not in the kitchen… not even in the garage. Just the bedroom and bathroom. I could totally go buy some screen material and cover all the AC vent and exhaust fan vent openings in this whole apartment, but I’m staying home today since I kinda feel sick…

Waking up with a roach on your chin will do that to ya.

¡El Bumbo, Olé!, uploaded by davejenbarnes

James is sitting up at 9 weeks… using a bumbo baby chair, of course!

Meet Crunchy Bug, uploaded by davejenbarnes

Okay, so I had to wrap his fingers around it, but he held onto it for a long time, so I decided to get some pictures of his good grip.

My high school 10 year reunion starts in 8 minutes and I will not be there. I live, oh, so close, yet I choose to stay home to spend the evening with my two guys. I would have made the effort to go if I could have taken James with us. Of course, I could have worked something out with my parents to have him, but with Rita in the area, I didn’t know how much our weekend would depend on weather and whether or not we would need to stay put. As it is, we’re fine. I guess the real reason I’m not going is because I’d rather forget high school. So many regrets… like choosing Drum Major over Yearbook photographer, Chemistry over the GT program, Band over Ballet and boys, boys, boys. BUT, I would not be where I am today had I not made those decisions… and, I have to admit, I sure do love where I am today. Just take a look at the picture below and tell me that I shouldn’t love the outcome of those decisions.

IMG_6936, uploaded by davejenbarnes

the photo page has his 9 weeks pictures, or you can visit them on our flickr site

Dear James,

Today you are officially two months old. Nevermind that you were eight weeks old six days ago, or that you will be nine weeks old tomorrow… today you are two months old! I am sitting here typing this and you are resting (RESTING!!) in your own room in your crib by yourself (BY YOURSELF!) can you believe it?! I laid you down thirty minutes ago and I braced myself for the onslaught of cries which I can hear in my imagination at any time but you simply relaxed.

Your dad and I have discovered that you LOVE sleeping on your tummy, even though everyone who gives any kind of “official” advice says to put you on your back. We know you would rather be sleeping on your tummy on our tummies all the time, but that’s just not practical, now, is it? When you’re on your back, you had better be swaddled or watch out world, James is m-a-d! I think it has something to do with hitting yourself in your face. I’d wake up and get mad, too, if I got punched every time I laid down on my back!

***

That’s all that I wrote on your 2 month birthday… Your shots gave you a fever and you wanted to be held for the rest of the day so I’m continuing this letter to you on a Friday. Let me tell you, this ninth week of your little life has been quite an adventure. There is a hurricane about to land in Texas or Louisiana that is named Rita. Three weeks ago, there was a hurricane named Katrina that caused lots of people lots of pain and we’re praying that, tonight, no one gets caused any personal injury though we are pretty sure that some people won’t have a home to come home to.

All this buzz about hurricanes has made me think long and hard about how I would feel if I were to lose you, and James, I don’t like that thought one bit. I’ve decided that it doesn’t matter if we hold you too much… every minute you spend in our arms is full of love, right now especially. Our hearts would break if we ever couldn’t hold you.

Two months of studying you has given your dad and me some time to pick out our favorite James parts, and we agree, it’s the toes that win. There’s just something about how you wiggle them… something facinating… they look like little sausages… all the same size and perfectly delicious. Why do we want to eat you?! Every little baby part is so scrumptious!

Your favorite sounds are “ohhh,” “whoooo,” and “oh-ga!” Your dad loves to get you to try to make new sounds and you study his face so hard then you move your lips in all kinds of ways, smile, and then exclaim “oh!” no matter what sound daddy was trying to get you to make. It’s a whole body experience and so much fun for everyone.

I am really looking forward to this next month and all the new things you discover!

Love,
Mom

James’ 2 month appointment was today. He was extremely well behaved. Then again, he is always extremely well behaved… so I guess we weren’t surprised. He even fell asleep on the exam table between seeing the doctor and waiting for the nurse with the shots to come in. The nurse did not like giving shots to a sleeping baby. The shots woke him up and he did cry, but it wasn’t loud and didn’t last long.

Here’s his stats:

• 13 pounds, 11 ounces
• 24 inches long

Yep, he’s doing good!

IMG_6909, uploaded by davejenbarnes

Well, it’s the right length, but not the right style. I told Terry to cut layers all around… I got maybe a half-inch worth of layers when I was expecting about 5 to 6 inches of layers. I guess I should have asked for a wedge cut.

It feels like I have a wig on - the back of the cut is just way too clumpy - too long - and it won’t lay flat, so it sticks out like a big clumpy mess. My hair is just too thick to have a short haircut where the cut is basically all the same length. That’s what I have now… and it doesn’t work. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh

So, I’m going back to the mall tomorrow after church to see if somebody can cut me some layahs in this here hairdo!

IMG_6862.JPG, uploaded by davejenbarnes

I have been busy with James, toting him around to two different playgroups like some kind of trophy. I say that because he is still pretty sleepy all day and doesn’t do much besides cuddle. He doesn’t seem to get much out of them yet but he has been awake for two of them last week. Our first was a free trial to “Gymboree” one afternoon and the second was Cedar Park’s Lapsit yesterday morning.

The Gymboree program lasts 45 minutes and is held in their big playroom. When you walk in, there is a small office/greeting area with a bench for the mommies’ shoes, a counter to pay, and a wall of Gymboree brand activity things for sale. Everything is very colorful and features Gymbo the Clown, their mascot, and silently begs to be bought. I found the Gymboree experience to be a cleverly disguised way of begging for my money and I don’t like that at all.

Well, I was going to take his 2 month portraits today but we have no light… God has made the skies cloudy over Austin today. Yes, that means I must wait until a sunny morning… you see, the secret to getting awesome pictures of children is natural light and NO FLASH. The 5 week pictures I took came out surprisingly awesome and I was hoping to get the same quality photos - if not better - today… but we will wait…