May 19, 2005

Today my father and I rehash a long standing tradition of going to see Star Wars on opening day by taking a day off. So in 30 minutes, I get in the car (Freedom! Sweet freedom!) and head to my home town of Wilbraham, MA (also home of Friendly’s Ice Cream, in case you were wondering) and go catch the flick in Springfield. In Boston we couldn’t score a ticket for today had we tried a month ago. In Springfield, the theater will likely be half full.

I have seen all but the first movie (I was a tad too young) with my dad at the theaters, and today brings this tradition to a close. I’m sad. I’m sad because this is ending and sad because it’s very unlikely that another series of movies will come out that changes the cinematic landscape forever. Thus, I won’t have a tradition like this to share with Hayes. Bummer.

I guess we’ll have to find something else for Hayes and me… and get my dad involved. Maybe the Sox?

May 17, 2005

We’ve decided to take the plunge and find some paid help during weekdays. This ‘cause business is good for at-home-dad and HBomb is, well still bombing away. We figure the help, 4 hours a day, 20 a week, will help make life easier for both of us. So Jen has posted a listing on craigslist and, beginning today, she’s interviewing.

Frankly, it couldn’t come at a better time. Anyone who has done the at-home gig knows that it’s a fulltime job. Add to that 40 hours a week of paid work and you have… 2… full times jobs. That’s where I am now. Anyone thinking they can freelance and take care of baby, should make some back-up plans in case paid work becomes fulltime too.

Now add that on to a teething and cranky Hayes and you’ve got maybe 2.5 fulltime jobs the fulltime worker (Jen’s) got 2, since I pretty much check out on evenings and weekends. So… the part time help will be… uhm… helpful. Let’s hope our standards aren’t too high and the right person comes along.

May 14, 2005

It seems that part of HBombs irritability may be caused by the possibility that he could be teething. When we let Jen’s friend take care of him, she thought he was starting to teeth and showed us where she thought they were coming in. It does look it may be the case, and even Jen’s sister, a pediatric dentist thought it was coming in the near future.

So, we’ve been doing a bit of reading. I guess the pain is stronger more prior to the teeth breaking the skin, so that could account for his sudden bursts of irritability. And teething babies apparently liek to chew on anything and everything, which accounts for his vicious chewing on anything he can find that started about a week ago.

But really, the most important thing that I found is clearly this tidbit on Teething Tots on kidshealth.com:

If your baby seems irritable, acetaminophen may help - but always consult your child’s doctor first. Never place an aspirin against the tooth, and don’t rub whiskey on your baby’s gums.

which I’m sure glad we found out, cause I had the whiskey out and everything. I wonder if we can still use tequila.

As I said in an earlier post, we were ordering the Amby Bed for Hayes. Well, it came at about 7:30 last night… UPS deliver almost past our bedtime in the city. So I quickly put it togther — it was a snap both litterally and figuratively and we tentatively placed H in it.

Some people said they had early problems getting their baby to like it. Not us, Hayes smiled as it slowly bounced and rocked. He then had a normal nights sleep in it. By normal, I mean he got up three times during the night… actually more like 2, since the first was shortly after he fell asleep and he ate a ton of food.

My intial thoughts are mostly good. It doesn’t creak or groan like the Fisher Price Ocean Wonders Aquarium Swing (the closest thing I have to compare it to) and overall seems well built. On the other hand, it has the aesthetics of a school gym tether ball pole, which is unfortunate, as good looking products are important to me. That aside (and admittedly, it’s trivial), it’s proving to be a good battery free and safer replacement to the Fisher Price Aqua Swing that has been his bed, since he refuses to sleep in his crib. I look forwarrd to reporting on it further down the road.

May 11, 2005

Well, HBomb had his all time best sleeping night last night. Which was FANTASTIC! Even better was that it was directly preceeded by a “night out” curtosy of one of Jen’s co-workers and her wonderful ten-year old son. We went and saw Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (my all time favorite trilogy of 5 books) and went out for sushi.

So what happened? Why have a been throwing up this morning? Why do I feel I spent the night doing vodka shots and eating wings? I feel awful. Still do. Heather, Jen’s sister, made plans earlier this week to come over oon her off day to look after H while I got some work done. She’s here now. I’ve been lying in bed.

Thank you Heather! Thank you HBomb! Thank you Jen!

May 9, 2005

The weekend was ok. Friday night being the best of the bunch… it seems like he was really starting to make some headway. Then Saturday night he backslid into getting up more and last night was a disaster on par with the first night. Unfortunately, Jen took the brunt of last nights’s issues (HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!), as H got up right before our agreed upon H hand-off time of 3AM. By the time he woke up again at 5ish, I was well rested (as well as I could be anyway) and was able to get H back to sleep without feeding him after 30 minutes of hardcore screaming (I bet I’ll get some confused vistors from google with that wording choice).

So where are we today? Well, for one, we’ve got a call in to the pediatrician to up H’s meds again, as he the reflux warning signs are back and he seems uncomfortable after feedings. For two, we’ve decided to throw some money at the problem in hopes of getting this thing figured out and, based on a suggestion from reader AJ (Dude, what’s with the email address? There’s no spam here. BTW, thanks for the suggestion), are purchasing the Amby Bed.

Since AJ alerted us to its existence, we’ve done alot of research. I found a great write-up on Blogging Baby about it as well as other parents that swear by it. Either Amby’s got a group of fictional Amby-lovers out there talking it up, or this thing may be just what we’re looking for. Of course, now there’s this thing about metal shavings but… well… it sounds more like litigous America than a problem. Plus, we’ll be on the look-out for it just in case.

We’re hoping that this will really help him and that in conjunction with weaning him from night feedings, we may actually be on the road to getting a decent night’s sleep. Right now that seems like a dream… you know… like the ones we don’t get to have these days.