The George Family Journal

Friday, July 27, 2007

The Aussies Have Landed

John and Gayle got here fine on Wednesday evening.  Things are going well with the in-laws, however, Alexander is not a happy camper. We think he may have thrush and have to give him medicine 4 times a day :( Either that or his colic is worse than ever.

None of us are getting much sleep right now.

So, apparently Stu posted with the photo I was going to post, so here is another one

Three Generations

Just a quick one; Thats my dad, me and the wee man of the family. Three generations of us under one roof!

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Aren’t they a pair?

Daddy did a great job calming Alexander down tonight. He’s had a bad tummy ache since he hasn’t pooped since Monday!  Yikes.  I’d be in a bad mood, too.  Anyway, since Mummy apparently can’t do anything to calm him down, Daddy took over and here’s the proof that Daddy is the best!

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Sleep anyone?

Oy vey!

Alexander has his schedule that I had worked on so hard for the past two weeks all out of whack.  When I say sleep, he says cry.  When I say eat, he says cry.  When I say change diaper, he says cry.  Basically everything’s all messed up.  So much so that I had to sleep downstairs with him last night so that Stu could get some sleep for his meeting today.  He’s been working very hard (Stu, not Alexander) on a project and today he has a meeting with the people he’s done the project for.  We hope there’s not lots to change/fix because Stu needs a weekend off, darn it, and he’s coming up to Harrisonburg this weekend come hell or high water!  The mamma has spoken!

Anyway, this morning, Alexander ate at 4:00 for about 20 minutes, 7:00 for about 20 minutes, 9:00 for 40 minutes, 11:00 for 20 minutes, and then slept until 3:00!  Now, I’ve just put him down and it’s 4:15.  Who knows when he’ll wake up again and want to eat.  I think I’ll wake him at 6:00 and feed him at 6:00, 9:00, and then have Stu feed at 11:00 to see if he’ll sleep for four hours during the night.  It would be so nice.  And it would really be nice if he wouldn’t make all these growling noises while he sleeps.  That’s what keeps waking us up.  Then again, he hasn’t pooped since Monday so the growling could be tummy problems.  If he doesn’t poop by morning, I will be calling the doctor.  Boy, the doctor is going to be so sick of me.  Can doctors actually make you stop being their patient?  If so, Alexander’s probably in the running!

Anyway, just a few photos from the day, and a photo of the hanging pot flowers I did in preparation for the Aussies arrival on WEDNESDAY!  Stu’s so excited to see his parents, but I may have him beat on the excitement front, just because I’ll have people around the house who want to hold Alexander and do things so I can sleep   Can’t wait to see you John and Gayle!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Passports

So we are starting to try and get Alexander his Australian Passport and his British Passport. Thought we would try and tackle only one set of paperwork at a time, so I started with the aussie paperwork last night.

In order for him to get his Australian Passport, he needs to become an Australian Citizen first. That means proving I am an Australian Citizen (which is ok, I am lucky enough to have two certified copies of my birth certificate left from all my US immigration paperwork).

It will cost a fee, and I’m sure it will require going to the US Embassy in Washington DC for an interview as well.

With luck he will be able to have 3 passports (Aus/UK/US)...

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Focal Points

While Little Mister was sleeping this morning, I got creative.  They say babies like contrasting colors and designs to look at when they’re about a month old.  For “wake time” you’re supposed to tape them up in the crib or in front of them and just let the babies stare.  It builds up their eye muscles and gets them to start thinking.

I made three:

Here he is in the crib his cousin Marlene made for him, looking at one of them.  It kept him quiet for about 10 minutes.  He just stared and stared.  Marlene also made the yellow blanket that he kicked off.  The purple blanket with green stars was given to us by Sarnia, Nuffy’s mom, in Oz.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

First Baths, Losing Umbilical Cords, and Visits from Hiker Friends

It’s been a whirlwind start to Alexander’s 4th week in existence, starting early Saturday morning with the loss of Alexander’s umbilical cord!  Half asleep, I was changing him when low and behold I thought “that’s the funniest looking poo this kid has ever produced!”  I looked closer through my mostly-closed eyes and thought “Wow, that’s the hardest poo this kid has ever produced!”  I opened my eyes a little further and reached a tentative finger out to touch it, all the while Alexander is screaming his head off, unhappy at being exposed to the whole night world at my parents house—which mostly includes the skunk on the porch and the mouse in the candy drawer (no, I’m not making this up!).  The shriveled up little raisin looking thing was in fact, Alexander’s umbilical cord. 

Let the fun ensue!  We get to take this kid into the shower with us.  Play with rubber duckies.  Splash and throw bubbles.  We are excited.

Apparently, though, we have to wait until he can actually sit up.  For now, baths are taken in the sink or in the little baby bath, which is quite a bit less exciting, except when he poos in the tub right when we’re finished watching him!  At least we’re done with the screaming as we wiped him off instead of bathing him until the cord fell off.  He’s still a little skeptical of the whole thing, as you’ll see in the following photo.  Notice his right hand—

Or, he could be scared of Grammy—which, in this photo, can you really blame him?

Grammy sure did enjoy the weekend, having her two grandsons there to play with.  JJ did get a bit jealous since Grammy wanted to hold Alexander the whole time.  We thought we were going to have a meltdown when Grammy held Alexander in the Baby Bjorn on the way down to the lake.  Thankfully, Grampy Dub was there to hold JJ while walking him the whole way to the lake.

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Today we had our first non-family visitors for the day.  It was quite exciting, really, to be able to be calm enough to go out on the town.  Wolf Cookie, who hiked with us in 2004, came over to say hi and bring her son Denton, before her unnamed baby girl makes an appearance in about 3 weeks or so.  (Stu has already declared that Alexander and unnamed baby girl will be fixed up in marriage, thus leaving us out of the awkward meeting the girlfriend’s parents stage.)  At this point, it looks like Denton and Alexander will be great hiking/mountain biking/kayaking/rock climbing buds in the very near future! 

And, one more photo of Denton since he’s so blond and so cute.  I think this is how blond Stu would like Alexander to be, however, I really don’t think that’s going to happen.  Haven’t you noticed all the red in his hair so far?

Hope everyone is doing well.  We’re slowly getting into the swing of things, thanks to the help of a book I’m reading that is giving me step by step instructions on how to make Alexander a happy-go-lucky sleep through the night baby.  Hopefully by between weeks 8-12, Alexander will be sleeping for 8-10 hours at a time!  Well, we can hope, can’t we??

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Red Heads

I think everyone is taking bets that Alexander will have red hair.

I am still pretty adamant that it will be blonde but everyone thinks its going red.

If it goes red, well he will just have to shave his head every day so it never grows in!

Thursday, July 05, 2007

And, right on cue….

Well, our darling little sleeping beauty, seen here….
has changed some what as of late.  Apparently, after a doctor’s visit in which I got peed on, pooped on, and spit up on, it looks like Alexander Kai, right on cue at 3 weeks, has developed colic.
He now must sleep on one of our chests or in his car seat, seen here:

When he’s not sleeping, he’s screaming because he wants to eat but can’t take more than two or three swallows without getting sick or feeling crummy, which in turn, makes us feel crummy.  Stu took first watch and held Alexander while he slept until 1:30 this morning.  Then I took over and held him until five when I was finally able to set him in his car seat to sleep for two hours until he woke up screaming again.  And that’s been my whole day:
eat, scream, eat, scream, sleep on mom, mom puts down, screams, eats, screams, eats, sleeps on mom…etc….

I need a shower.  I need sleep.  Alexander needs a bath.  And neither or us has the energy to do any of it!  It’s a good thing the basement is cool and dark!