A visit from the grandparents

On Saturday my parents came to see Olivia. It's kind of funny how now most people (my parents for example) are obviously so excited to see Olvia and then sort of half-heartedly throw in that they are glad to see me, too. I completely understand. To tell you the truth I find Olivia more interesting and cute than myself, and well, I guess most other people, too. One of my favorite things that Olivia does is squawk when she's not quite happy. It isn't a full-on cry; it just sounds like a little shout to get our attention. We are really lucky because Olivia rarely cries. I could count on one hand the times that she seemed thoroughly upset. She is one of the calmest babies I have ever been around. In some ways it makes me nervous because I think she'll make up for being easy now when she is a teenager.

First In Flight

Olivia had her first trip on an airplane last week, flying to Spokane, Washington so we could go to a wedding in Montana. We were both pretty nervous about the whole ordeal, since it was all pretty unknown. Would Olivia's ears pop and would that make her scream the entire flight? Would Glenda be able to feed her on the plane? What the hell do we do with the stroller? We thought we were being prudent by leaving for the airport two hours early. Glenda fed Olivia in the car in the parking garage as I got all our stuff together. But by the time we got through check-in and security, we were cutting it really close. We got to the gate about two minutes before departure time and were told that we couldn't board the plane, and with an infant, you're supposed to be at the gate 30 minutes before departure. The next flight to Spokane was 12 hours later, which was pretty awful, since my dad was picking us up in Spokane and would have to wait for us for 12 hours. We were both stunned, but couldn't really get angry since it was our own fault for not getting there early enough. Dejected, we headed back to the terminal, but just then, the gate clerk came running up to us and said that the plane was coming back to the gate for mechanical problems, and that we could board! Unbelievable luck! So we got to get on our flight after all. The other passengers glared at us, probably thinking, "Who are these people that made up this 'mechanical failure' story?" Our next challenge was keeping Olivia happy during the flight, which luckily was only about two hours. This was extra important for me, because I'm a white knuckle flyer; I pretty much have to sit there in fear, extremely tense and agitated the entire flight, especially if there's turbulence. So I wouldn't have been much help if Olivia got fussy. Luckily she slept the entire time, and didn't get upset even once. The same was true of the flight back to Denver; another passenger on that flight even remarked at what a little angel she was. Too bad old Dad couldn't be so calm: I was hunched over in fear as we descended into Denver (almost always bumpy), sweating buckets and shaking. Olivia was a big hit in Montana, and apparently made a big impression on her grandparents. They couldn't get enough of her, offering to watch her while Glenda and I did other stuff, and buying her lots of cute outfits too. Grandma and Grandpa both remarked at how calm and alert Olivia is, and we can't disagree. If she's hungry, she lets us know, but otherwise, she's happy to lay there and look around and seems to like to have people cuddle her. Olivia also got to meet her great uncle and aunt Steve and Bev, great uncle Ken, and great grandpa Ron, plus lots of other people at the wedding. So what we learned on this trip: get to the airport as early as possible. You can never get there too early, especially with an infant. Sitting around the airport being bored beats being rushed and stressed out any day. Of course, this is all fairly obvious to most people, but for some reason, logic eluded us that day.

Visiting the Buddingtons

Olivia and I spent the afternoon visiting our friends Laura and her newborn son, Nathan. You may remember Yale mentioning that Nathan was born 2 days before Olivia. I used to think that all newborns look basically the same, but seeing these two next to each other proved that theory wrong. The first striking difference is their size. Nathan has already acquired that chunky-baby look that I love ?fat rolls around the thighs and an adorable double chin. I can't wait until Olivia starts chunking up. Nathan also looks very male with defined eyebrows and expressive eyes, whereas Olivia has more petite, feminine features. Check out the photos and see for yourself. Getting out of the house and spending time with another new mother, who is also a good friend, was a real treat for me. I am realizing that getting out of the house and doing things distracts me from the effects of little sleep. We were also able to compare notes on all of those things new parents face.

Olivia is doing great and keeping us both very busy. We find it pretty hilarious that an essentially immobile, nine-pound thing can create enough work to amount to about three full-time jobs for both of us. Not that we're complaining, though. It's been thoroughly fulfilling. She's thankfully a pretty calm baby, usually crying only when she's hungry or when her hat falls over her eyes. We don't have to deal with too much mystery screaming, and when it does happen, we've learned some great techniques* to calm her down. Our biggest challenge lately is just trying to get her to fall into a sleep routine that lets us parents get some REM ourselves. Glenda has been heroically getting up every couple of hours to feed Olivia, letting me sleep so I can function at work. Then when I come home from work, Glenda can take a nap and go for a walk and get a break for a while. Developmentally, there hasn't been much to report other than her umbillical cord falling off. She's very active, especially after nursing, and we like to lay her on the floor and watch her flail and fidget. She makes some pretty bizarre hand gestures that closely resemble gang signs, although we're hoping this doesn't presage a possible career path for little Olivia. *We highly recommend "The Happiest Baby on the Block" by Dr. Harvey Karp to all new parents. He has some excellent techniques for getting babies to calm down. Check it out at your local library.