9 hours

That's my boy. He doesn't just sleep eight hours, he annihilates it and sleeps 9 hours for his first all-nighter. Mommy and Daddy are still adjusting to his change, but enjoying the extra longevity. Mommy still wakes up in the middle of the night. Daddy wakes up, listens and hears him making noises in the other room, and falls back asleep.

The motivation to blog has been suffering since Steph went back to work. Daddy has been holding up well but having to slip in school work instead of blogging when the ability arises. Yesterday while Bill was pounding down about 9 oz of milk, I was able to get my cheat sheet done for my mid-term last night. During naps and swing time, I was able to review readings and slides from classes.

Running-wise, I'm following my plan. On the days that I have class, and Steph works I have to take rest days but so far I've been able to make it up on other days. For now, when it is 32 degrees in the morning, I haven't been able to motivate for pre-dawn runs. Today, after lunch I have a 9 mile route planned.

On what is happening in Seattle: Bill, when you are older this problem will be fixed. The newspaper has been running an excellent series of articles on the last Rose Bowl UW Husky Team. Apparently, if you are an exceptional football player, you get second chances after committing crimes like domestic assault, rape, shooting/robbing drug dealers, and pretty much any crime. In the past the system would allow athletes to get away with anything because people liked to win.

Daddy's Afternoon

Dapper in his Herringbone Pants

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Mommy took this photo with her phone. She had an overwhelming desire to document his dapper outfit. We've had a nice quiet family weekend.

Daddy's View

Bear suit

The temperatures have dropped the last couple of days, down into the 20's at night and 30's during the day. What a great time to pull out the "Bear Suit". I like to think of it more as a starfish outfit. Either way, Bill is not very happy when first put into this outfit. He does appear to be plenty warm.

January hummingbird in Seattle

Let Sleeping babies lie

Well, Bill is 2 months old today. And today, his Mommy went back to work. Daddy got to have him all to himself today.

So what did we do?

After Mommy left, we hung out. Bill got hungry, and Daddy defrosted some milk. Bill was a little miffed that it was chilly, and didn't quite care for the rubber nipple. Things just don't taste the same through a rubber nipple. This draws on something from Dad's Brand Management class, packaging and naming are very important. Tomorrow, Daddy will try working on the introduction. We obviously need something classier than a typical bottle, perhaps with coloration? And a hip, catchy name like "Mom's Vibrant Sport Milk". The cognitive affect of the naming and presentation are very important.

After lunch and a moment of calm, we decided to go visit Mom at work. Mommy seemed glad to see us. Since visiting Mommy, Bill has mostly been in a deep sleep.

Now that we are back home, Bill is sleeping and Daddy gets a chance to work on homework, email, blogging, and reading. It is nice looking out the window with the sun shining through the clouds. If I'm lucky, I'll get a picture of a hummingbird at the feeder. So far they are very skittish.

If he is sleeping in the car seat, the rule is to let him sleep in the car seat. Less than 2 hours until Mommy is home and Daddy will have survived his first home-making day.

Crank that smile

Not the stellar photo we were hoping to make. My theory is that an i-phone is not the coolest thing this baby has ever seen. He needs much greater bells and whistles, literally. Since his Grandma went home, Bill has been smiling at us a little more day by day, and staring at things. We've been trying more and more tummy time, of course. Bill is doing fine, if reluctantly. Before you know it, he'll be crawling all over our house finding ever place he can get into. For now, he's pretty safe and less mobile than a starfish.

Yesterday, we went to story time at the library. With all the other West Seattle Mom's of Babes, it was quite busy. Bill enjoyed all the action going on in the room, including the dancing. In the afternoon, we bought a car for the growing family. It's a used Subaru Outback, that has more space than the Corolla and the Tacoma. With a baby and a dog, who needs a new car interior? And with the passing of an era of our lives, we plan to clean up the truck and sell it over the next week or two.

Today, we went to for a walk at the park as part of a social with the Moms of babes group. It was nice to socialize again, although Bill took a pretty good nap. This afternoon, errands for upcoming day-care and the car.

Back from a walk

Grandma flew home this morning, and Auntie Lucy left yesterday. It was great that they could both visit. It really makes things nice having them around.

Bill slept for an entire 6 hour period last night. Perhaps his grandma gave him some coaching.

Today, not much going on. I went for a long jog of almost 7 miles. The route was interesting. I went all the way to Pigeon point and then dropped down onto West Marginal for the way back. Jogging up the hill wasn't that bad, but once I was at the top I was pretty tired.

Steph took Bill on a walk around the neighborhood in his hiking sock leggings and hat.

It's another rainy day here, which is good for naps and reading class work.

First walk forward

Many thanks to Grandma for helping out with Bill.

We had a great day walking around the Junction, eating at the Husky Deli and shopping for baby clothes. While Grandma took a nap, the three of us snuck out for a walk to Schmidt Park.
Bill really liked walking while facing forward checking out everything in the world.

Longhorn Tamer

Bill scores another sleep victory, latest victory: Grandma.

Walk at Alki

Bill, Grandma, Steph and Gus went for a walk down on Alki. Steph sure looks good in her red jacket. We were hoping to get a peak at the pod of Sea Lions that the news have been reporting are in Elliott Bay. We heard the sea lions, but we couldn't see them very well. It was nice to get some sunshine, but it was very windy.

Nana's Visit

Bill sure likes having his grandma visit. She holds him so nicely. He also likes how his parents seem to be able to relax a little more.

Neighborhood photo

The photo is for Bill's California grandma. Yep, they still haven't taken in the Christmas Homer.

Update from Seattle: forecast calls for temps in the 40's, rain and some wind.... until May.

On the child-care front, Bill is a voracious little man. He likes to eat and often. We have been a little stressed looking for day-care. We looked for just a baby sitter to come and take care of Bill for those overlap hours between my school and Steph's work. It is non-conventional, not fully night and not day which makes it a challenge. But it looks like we found a day-care option within a few blocks. We'll see how it goes.

And the song of the day for Bill: "Grandma is coming to town, Grandma is coming to town, Grandma is commmmmminnnng tooo toooowwwnn." Bill's Texas Grandma gets here in about an hour. He's all spiffied up for her.

Running Schedule

Two days in a row, I've been able to catch Steph and Bill relaxing in the window of the baby room together. It's great.

Since Bill was born, I haven't had time for cycling and the weather hasn't been all that great either. So I've taken up running. Last week, I started a training spreadsheet and logged about 16 miles of running over 5 days.

I've decided to set a goal.

My Goal: To complete a trail run this summer. The route is up the North Fork Quinault river trail, over Low Pass, and down the Elwha River trail. It is a beautiful part of the Olympic National Park and a very well maintained gentle trail that should be fun to run.

Now that I have put a stake in the ground, I plan to steadily prepare throughout the winter, spring, and summer. To prepare, I need to increase my weekly mileage by 10% each week. This is the suggested rate for avoiding injury. Conveniently, at a 10% per week increase I should have the base mileage to complete my goal within 5 months.

I must admit, I am not a natural distance runner. In fact, in the pass I've been more of a sprinter. But I have gotten better at endurance over the years and I do like the solitude of the trail especially in as beautiful a place as the Olympic mountains.

Falling Asleep

Tools of the Trade

First, I gotta say that by the time Bill's grandmas see him again, they will no doubt be melted by his gaze. It is getting quite strong. Of note, they will get the gaze long before any fussiness ensues thereby cementing the full effect.

Bill is 6 weeks old now. He is sleeping sometimes 4 hours in a row after he goes to sleep, sometimes only 2. After that initial time, he sleeps an hour to 2 hours at a stretch throughout the rest of the morning. Mom has borne the brunt of this, but I've been trying to help as much as I can.

The biggest challenge has been getting him to sleep. In the evenings, starting around 7:30 or so he starts to get fussy. We check under the hood and change any wet diapers, give him lots of bouncing around, and feed him as much as Mom has available. Then we sometimes give him an extra couple of ounces of formula. Then we pull out the tools of the trade:

Besides the normal bouncing and breasting, we have:

1. The Dishwasher - This one is great because the noise is soothing and it has about a 45 minute cycle. We tend to get 2 hours of sleep out of it. It seems wrong to leave him in the kitchen, but the sleep feels so right.
2. The Vacuum Cleaner - This one seems like overkill. The noise is loud enough to drive our dog from the room, but then so is the screaming baby noise. This works, but sometimes you finish the entire carpet to find him still wide awake and attentive.
3. The Hair Dryer - This one is good. It has an extra high sound or a low sound. We can put him in his crib(less moving afterwards) and leave it running in the room for a few minutes.
4. The Calming Vibrations Chair - This is more of an early evening or daytime settle him down kind of tool. We haven't found it full sleep inducing, just calming. Who doesn't like a vibrating chair?

None of these tools is batting 1000, and at least once we have pretty much used them all in an evening. We are finding that you can put him in the crib while his eyes are wide open. While you may try to start the bedtime windup at 8:30, it really won't finish till 10:30, if only we could get better quality viewing from our Tivo.

There is also a general rule of avoiding "Change of State" actions. If the baby is happy sleeping in his chair, don't pick him up to see if he would be happier somewhere else. No sense in checking a diaper if he doesn't already say that there is a problem.

Time to go give the hair dryer a break.

Happy New Year

Well, I've been a little behind on posting. Happy New Year everyone!

Today, we went to the pediatrician. Bill got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. The nurse was very fast at the shots. Dr Dong was nice to talk with, as always. He is gonna do the Seattle to Portland bike ride this summer. Most importantly, Bill was weighed at 11 lbs 11.5 oz. He is also 23 1/2 inches long now.
Steph won the bet that he would be more than 10.75 lbs.

Yesterday, I got a nice 48 minute run in at Lincoln park while Steph, Bill and Butch had their walk. Later, we went to a West Seattle Moms of Babes meetup over near the Junction. It was great meeting other parents. There were two moms with 6 week old babies that we got to meet.