Continuing the Transition

Noah continues to thrive. He sleeps very well and is eating generous portions when he does eat. We feel like he has more or less "caught up" since he is now steadily gaining weight. He is now starting to learn that Amanda's breast is not a pacifier.

I got his room painted today. It's the same color as Lily's room. I'm not sure how I feel about this other than I'm glad that we have a baseball border to go around it. I'm not wild about hanging that, but it's something that needs to get done sooner or later. I may as well do it tomorrow before mom and Ernie get here. I think they'd appreciate having the room in order before they arrive.

Lily is doing OK, but things could be better. We're noticing strange coincidences in how she seems to have little physical mishaps any time Amanda feeds Noah. These of course are accompanied by tears and she wants comfort for them. I also think that she hasn't quite got her mind around the fact that I'm going back to work next week. I guess she'll figure it out soon enough!

Bellying Up to the Bar

Little Noah has definitely turned the corner. I think I forgot to mention yesterday that he was up to 6 lbs, 3 oz. I was tempted to stop at the hardware store on the way to the doctor's office so we could load him up with a couple of washers strategically placed in his diaper, but it turns out that we didn't need to do that. He was up 2 oz.

Yesterday he turned into an eating machine. Amanda had a few marathon feedings with him, including one this morning. I can't say that I'm real wild about turning on the bedroom light to feed him, but I do think that our rest is remarkably good compared to how it was with Lily. I got up a little after 6 today and was able to have my normal Tuesday morning workout.

I think we are going to quickly get into a good groove with this guy. A cynical part of me keeps waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I don't think it will.

Day 4

We had a tough night last night. Lily had a stomach virus and got me up twice after throwing up. I ended up doing some laundry in the middle of the night as a result. It wasn't pretty.

What was even tougher was some conflict we had about supplementing Noah's eating with a bottle of breast milk. Amanda wasn't for it, but I wanted to make sure he got some nutrients. We ended up doing it at 2 AM and then at 8 AM.

The good news is that Noah seems to be "getting it" now. He ate well at 5 AM and then on the same breast at 11 AM. However, one was the "bad" breast. We hung out at the pediatrician's office waiting for the lactation consultant, and he surprisingly started eating on the "bad" breast. He is pooping and peeing freely. We couldn't be happier about this.

Thank you all for your prayers. It's great to see us starting to gel as a family of 4.

Early Impressions

So far our little man is the complete opposite of our little lady. Like many preemies, he is very sleepy. I am jokingly reminded of this verse:

Pro 26:15 ESV
(15) The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.

because he will just hang out on the breast and fall asleep. We took him to the doctor today and found that he is down to 6 lbs, 1 oz. This means that he has lost about 12.5% of his birth weight. The good news is that he is well-hydrated. He also is showing some transition in his poop as he's going from straight tar to some mixed seeds in there (those with kids know what I mean). The doctor didn't order any supplementing yet. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I may have to hide a few fishing sinkers in his diaper :)

We had our first night at home last night and it went pretty well. He wasn't generally very fussy except when he had a messy diaper. We're still doing the swaddling tag-team as Amanda just can't seem to get the swaddle tight enough. At least I can help, though I feel terrible when I keep waking up during the night.

Overall, he has been a lot easier than Lily was at first. I hate to compare too much, but it's impossible not to. I took Lily out for a picnic and some shopping today. Tomorrow her Aunt Claudia and Aunt Tiffany are thinking about taking her to the zoo tomorrow. That should be fun for her and a nice break for her.

Welcome Noah Blake!

Noah Blake Chamberlain came into the world on June 21, 2007 at approximately 10:30 PM. He was 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and 19 inches long. So far he seems to be a completely different person from his sister. He is extremely mellow and just wants to sleep (and usually quietly at that). She came out with eyes wide open and looking at the world whereas he seems a bit more mellow so far. Here are some photos to enjoy.

Blue Lips and Chattering Teeth

Sometimes I wonder about how Lily is going to do in school. After all, she is our child and has picked up on some grownup things to say. How many other 3 year-olds speak of "preferring" something or "being comfortable"? Maybe quite a few, but there is something about Lily's diction that makes me think that she is somewhat extraordinary. Oh, and she also knows her way around town. We will frequently go by an intersection and she will say, "That's the way to (person's) house!". Pretty wild.

Amanda gave me a little break this morning by taking Lily to a pool. Natalie gave us a key since they never use it. I came by to see Lily swim with her water wings on. It's quite a sight, let me tell you. She really likes being in the water, which is good. She has some of her dad in her, so is a bit timid, but she is getting used to it.

In fact, she likes it so much that she won't get out. She got the old chattering teeth and blue lips, but insisted that she wasn't cold. It's good to see one normal childhood behavior in her. I guess the tantrums count too, now that I think about it :)

Some Milestones

Yesterday, Lily learned how to use a computer mouse. She is having fun playing some of the online Sesame Steet games. I suspect I'll look back on this day with a mixture of fondness and sadness when she wants to get a MySpace page going.

On Wednesday, we played our first game of Trouble. Lily won with some coaching from mom & dad. I read something about teaching chess to kids that says you should just let them play and figure out the games on their own. I may have to try that. Bless her little heart, she actually gets both feet off the floor as she pops the little pop-o-matic bubble.

She got to play with a basketball yesterday. Unfortunately, she's still too small to shoot even when she is on my shoulders. We'll work on it.

She announced recently that she wants to learn how to read. I'm not sure if she knows quite what she is asking. We're working on it through the book I read her every night. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to talk to small children about Jesus.

A New Sport

One of my coworkers has season tickets to the Carolina Railhawks. I've considered taking Lily to a game, but they start kind of late and the cheapest seats are $10 each. That's a little bit more than I'd want to spend on something that Lily wouldn't really concentrate on. In fact, that costs more than seeing the Durham Bulls.

However, this coworker got a small set of free tickets for the game tonight which he graciously offered to a select group of people. I took a pair and had fun with Lily at the game. She didn't really watch it and the highlight for her was running up and down the stairs with a group of girls she met. Of course, at about the 80 minute mark I told her that it was time to go and she protested in saying that she wanted to watch more of the game. I told her that we'd stay as long as she kept watching. To her credit she did keep watching.

She didn't get to bed until after 9:30 tonight, but I think it was worth it. We had fun at the game despite having to pay $5 to park, $2.50 for a bottle of water, and $3 for a mediocre cinnamon-sugar pretzel. Evenings like this don't happen all the time and it was fun to have a daddy/daughter night out.

I'm thinking that soccer may be Lily's only chance at a team sport. Hopefully she will be a faster runner than her mommy or daddy and be able to be a speedy forward.

Playing Games

For some reason, Lily hasn't been quite as focused lately when we play Memory. I beat her 22-14 last night and 23-13 tonight. She's just started playing, well, like a 3 year-old. I'm not sure if it's because she's getting bored or if she just isn't bringing her "A" game.

Either way, I think we're going to expand the games we play. I'm slowly trying to teach her checkers, but her interest wanes around when we start crowning kings (or her "princess" as she prefers to call a king). We may pick up a basic counting game like Chutes & Ladders or Sorry. No matter what, we need to get her into more counting and strategy.

I'm holding off on chess, though I understand that children as young as 3 have learned how to play chess at some level. We'll see how that goes...

Footwear

Just a quick story today. We were getting ready to go out and I told Lily to put her sandals on. She stated, "I prefer flip-flops".

I'm not sure if it's normal for a 3 year-old to say that she "prefers" something, but that's what Lily did.

A Hard Day

I want to give another update on Lily. According to Amanda, yesterday was a very hard day. She was up very early, so she wanted a snack in the middle of the morning. Grandpa gave her some peanut butter & jelly toast which was a fine snack, but it spoiled her appetite for lunch. She wouldn't eat her sandwich for lunch, so they saved it for dinner. She wouldn't eat it then either.

Apparently she got sent to her room, but she wouldn't stay in there. Three spankings later Amanda stayed in the hall and held the door shut to keep her in there. Grandpa was very kind and came upstairs to hold the door. Lily did settle down eventually and turned the charm on full-blast for the rest of the evening.

In a sense, we kind of like it when grandparents get to experience some of Lily's temper in action. She seems so sweet when she wants to charm someone, but she really is a classic manipulator. She isn't taking "no" for an answer right now. We need to work on that...

Manipulation

It's amazing to watch Lily work with her grandparents. We have Jack and Melanie staying with us for a few days while I take my class. They are helping out since Amanda isn't at her best and she is basically alone when I have class. I probably won't be home until around 9:30 tonight.

Lily knows that she is not supposed to get out of bed until 7:00 AM or "seven-zero-zero" as she calls it. I was pretty surprised to hear her awake and active when I got back from my run at 6:30 AM today. I guess it's fair that she got grandpa up since his dogs woke her. Nevertheless, it's amazing to see how quickly will try to bend the rules as soon as she has a chance. Lily does like to be in charge.

An Aspiring Photographer

We had a combined birthday party at Bill and Tiffany's today. We celebrated Jack's birthday that recently passed, Brenna's that will be on June 5 and Amanda's that will be on June 7. Since digital photos don't cost a thing other than a few seconds to delete them, we let Lily take some photos. This is one of the photos that she took. Not bad, eh?

Amanda will eventually tell her that she needs to zoom in more tightly. However, neither one of us can be critical of this first attempt at photography from someone who won't be four until September 21, Lord willing.

Crying Wolf

Lily and I have kind of a standing dialog going when I put her to bed each night. I can almost always count on her asking if there are going to be "funderstorms tonight", to which I usually reassure her that there won't be. She sometimes asks me if it is going to be chilly tonight, which has not been a problem since it is starting to feel like summer here in Cary. Then she invariably asks me if I will be listening on the baby monitor. I always reassure her that I will be listening on the baby monitor and that mommy can hear her from the bedroom.

We didn't have the full dialog tonight. Frankly, I was in a hurry to try the cake that I made for tomorrow. I used the "waste" cake that is leftover from leveling the cake to make a tiny version of the cake (yellow cake with hazelnut mousse in between the layers and covered in dark chocolate ganache). I also wanted to try the peanut butter cup ice cream I made. I had to reassure her about "funderstorms" tonight, but we didn't get into the whole baby monitor discussion.

Amanda and I were enjoying our cake in the kitchen when we heard Lily get increasingly upset. She was screaming frantically for me and by the time I got up there she was sitting on the foot of the bed screaming for me at the top of her little lungs. I asked her what was wrong and she was kind of noncommittal about that. I asked her if she yelled just to see if I'd come and she told me that she had. She said that she didn't think I was listening on the baby monitor because she didn't ask me about it. Basically, it was a test. I explained that she was not to do that again.

Quite the little manipulator we have here.