Obligatory Baby Post
Just an update on the baby. Kaitlyn is doing just fine and mom and dad remain surprisingly well rested. I've been out of contact for a little while, so let me do a little dad Q&A:
Does the baby cry alot?
Not ours. She will cry when she is over-hungry (i.e we missed the usual signs and/or let her go too long). Even more odd, baby crying does not bother me -- a fact I credit to growing up in a boisterous Italian family. On the rare occaisions when she cries and there is no reason (most usually and understandably from gas) the only thing that raises my radar is the thought that she is in pain.
How go the diaper changes?
I change about 90% of the diapers. If I had a choice between diaper changes and changing cat litter, I would change diapers the rest of my life. Now, we are breastfeeding (Linda loves how I say "we") so our baby's poo has a decidedly sweet (and equally decidedly temporary) odor. However, for the next several months I get to tell people that "my baby's **** don't stink". How often in our lives can we say that?
What has surprised you most about dadhood?
There have been several surprises about dadhood. I am surprised that I did not faint in the deliver room, the hospital room, in the van, at home, or in the pediatrician's office. There is a small part of me that is proudly surprised that I have not fainted while typing this blog entry. But that isn't the biggest surprise. The biggest surprise is that I have kept and grown my internal calm since becoming a father. More on that in its own blog entry.
How hard is breastfeeding?
I've found it almost impossible to breastfeed. Actually, I've found it actually impossible to breastfeed. Linda, however, has been at it like a pro since we left the hospital. Aside from the fact that she feels like moo-ing sometimes, this has been a success for us, so far.
If everything is so hunky-dory, where have you been these past 2 weeks?
Cleaning my garage. Really. Pictures to follow. In the past 2 weeks I've built some new things for my garage, torn down tons of old shelving, installed new garage organizational systems, and generated about a dozen bags of trash. I took a week off of work and work from home quite a bit. Having a baby has been the most productive thing to happen to my "household chores" list in years.
Does being a dad make you feel different?
Yes. And no. But lately, yes. But on retrospection, no. I shouldn't kid myself. It's yes. Unless I'm just refocusing what is already there, so, no. 8) Seriously, it's a tricky question. I feel just like pre-dad Ed, only more fulfilled. Technically, that is feeling different. I'd liken it to falling in love which is, of course, exactly what is happening. But it's not different in that the adjustment period, so far, has been pretty minimal.
Do you regret waiting so long to have kids?
I regret not meeting Linda until later in life. And I regret most relationships up until that meeting.
So how much do new parents really talk about poo
OMG. All the time. All the frickin' time. It's like that time on Family Guy when they made that one poo joke and everyone laughed until they thought about if Peter Griffin was really standing in their house doing that and then the laughs got all uncomfortable. Good friends of ours had a baby 10 days after we did and we went to visit them this week. The first 10 minutes was non-stop poo. Color, quantity, frequency, consistency. Poo. They should make a cable channel for new parents called "Poo TV" with line-ups like:
- Is that meconium or did someone pave my baby's ass with asphalt (ass-phalt?)
- Pardon me, but does your baby's look like Grey Poupon?
- The 600 causes of green poo (from harmless oddity to dire emergency) and how not to be able to differentiate.
- Did that sound I heard from 3 rooms away indicate the need for a diaper change?
Well.. you get the idea. New parents talk poo alot. Babies do 3 things: eat, sleep, and evacuate. One of the prime piece of telemetry from a baby is their pooing habits and color, consistency, and count all say something about how the baby's insides are fairing.
So, I hope I was able to answer some dad questions for those who have not had a chance to talk with me about life over the past 2 weeks. I'll start posting back more regularly as soon as the garage is done.
-Ed
Does the baby cry alot?
Not ours. She will cry when she is over-hungry (i.e we missed the usual signs and/or let her go too long). Even more odd, baby crying does not bother me -- a fact I credit to growing up in a boisterous Italian family. On the rare occaisions when she cries and there is no reason (most usually and understandably from gas) the only thing that raises my radar is the thought that she is in pain.
How go the diaper changes?
I change about 90% of the diapers. If I had a choice between diaper changes and changing cat litter, I would change diapers the rest of my life. Now, we are breastfeeding (Linda loves how I say "we") so our baby's poo has a decidedly sweet (and equally decidedly temporary) odor. However, for the next several months I get to tell people that "my baby's **** don't stink". How often in our lives can we say that?
What has surprised you most about dadhood?
There have been several surprises about dadhood. I am surprised that I did not faint in the deliver room, the hospital room, in the van, at home, or in the pediatrician's office. There is a small part of me that is proudly surprised that I have not fainted while typing this blog entry. But that isn't the biggest surprise. The biggest surprise is that I have kept and grown my internal calm since becoming a father. More on that in its own blog entry.
How hard is breastfeeding?
I've found it almost impossible to breastfeed. Actually, I've found it actually impossible to breastfeed. Linda, however, has been at it like a pro since we left the hospital. Aside from the fact that she feels like moo-ing sometimes, this has been a success for us, so far.
If everything is so hunky-dory, where have you been these past 2 weeks?
Cleaning my garage. Really. Pictures to follow. In the past 2 weeks I've built some new things for my garage, torn down tons of old shelving, installed new garage organizational systems, and generated about a dozen bags of trash. I took a week off of work and work from home quite a bit. Having a baby has been the most productive thing to happen to my "household chores" list in years.
Does being a dad make you feel different?
Yes. And no. But lately, yes. But on retrospection, no. I shouldn't kid myself. It's yes. Unless I'm just refocusing what is already there, so, no. 8) Seriously, it's a tricky question. I feel just like pre-dad Ed, only more fulfilled. Technically, that is feeling different. I'd liken it to falling in love which is, of course, exactly what is happening. But it's not different in that the adjustment period, so far, has been pretty minimal.
Do you regret waiting so long to have kids?
I regret not meeting Linda until later in life. And I regret most relationships up until that meeting.
So how much do new parents really talk about poo
OMG. All the time. All the frickin' time. It's like that time on Family Guy when they made that one poo joke and everyone laughed until they thought about if Peter Griffin was really standing in their house doing that and then the laughs got all uncomfortable. Good friends of ours had a baby 10 days after we did and we went to visit them this week. The first 10 minutes was non-stop poo. Color, quantity, frequency, consistency. Poo. They should make a cable channel for new parents called "Poo TV" with line-ups like:
- Is that meconium or did someone pave my baby's ass with asphalt (ass-phalt?)
- Pardon me, but does your baby's look like Grey Poupon?
- The 600 causes of green poo (from harmless oddity to dire emergency) and how not to be able to differentiate.
- Did that sound I heard from 3 rooms away indicate the need for a diaper change?
Well.. you get the idea. New parents talk poo alot. Babies do 3 things: eat, sleep, and evacuate. One of the prime piece of telemetry from a baby is their pooing habits and color, consistency, and count all say something about how the baby's insides are fairing.
So, I hope I was able to answer some dad questions for those who have not had a chance to talk with me about life over the past 2 weeks. I'll start posting back more regularly as soon as the garage is done.
-Ed
posted by Ed at 2:27 AM
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