Creative uses for breast pumps

• 1960s movie ray gun
• Airhorn for starting races
• Maracas
• Dog muzzles
• Egg toss game catching device
• Mini vacuum cleaners
• Metal detectors
• Cookie cutters
• Bull horns for Halloween costume
• Bat/sonar listening device
• Female villain costume machine guns
• Spray paint applicator
• Bookends

If you come up with any others, comment below.

Week 2-6

So things changed around the 20th December - we got some extra hands on board in the way of the Wendts arrival.  Very much appreciated this was as it gave us the opportunity to offload Ansel to very open and willing arms, so we could get an occasional extra nap and some things done.  We shared a quiet Christmas with them and bounced around the local area just a tad.

The Fisks arrived just before the New Year, as did Paulette's sister, in time for the 1/1/11 baptism of Ansel.  Won't be too hard to remember that date.  It went off smoothly with the boy barely raising an eyelid during the ceremony.  A few local friends also joined us for the ceremony.

 

Ansel seemed to find a new higher octave, delivered with extra decibels, during this time and was willing to share it with anyone who dared change his pants.  He just doesn't like having a cold butt it seems.  He did seem to get some longer stretches of sleep in... but was a bit inconsistent and then reversed the progress for a few days... to the dismay of his parents.  What he did do to the joy of all was show consistent weight gain over this time and fade his jaundice away.  He was breaking the scales at 9Lb/4kg at the end of week 6 - what a little chub-meister!  His parents are getting stronger biceps, but not a lot more sleep.

The Wendts left for home a few days later, leaving the Fisks to frolic in some snow and winter activities since winter decided to arrive at last.  The hectic schedule... well not really but a little more trying when you're up 2-4x/night... ended with the Fisks piling into a car for a road trip towards SoCal.  This left mamma and pappa alone with bubs again for the next few weeks before M returns to work.

The fabled "8 weeks" phase draws near and we really don't know what it will have in store for this family.  We just read about it and wonder... how we can make tons of money off something related to
babies/children since it is always in fashion.

Recently heard at the Jackson's

P: "Can you get him?"
M: "Get who?"
P: "Ansel - he's in the car."

P: "That poor kid - he's gonna wind up just like his parents."

M: "But what will we do with the kid?"

P: "Can you wind this giraffe?"

Ansel asks a question

Merry Christmas!

 

Parental Delirium

So here's a little story about what happened the other night to the
new parents on the block:

It's about 5am and a 'poor' sleep night as Ansel did not settle until
2-3am. We had had a big day the day before.

Paulette says, out of the quiet and darkness, "Can you burp him
please? I just fed him."

And so, on autopilot, Michael gets out of bed to go around to the
other side to get Ansel from her to burp him. On his way around he
hears Paulette say "Wait... did I?" in a perplexed tone to herself.
Michael arrives at the crib, accidentally, and stares down at Ansel
lying tucked in his crib fast asleep.

Paulette in the meantime pats her chest where she thought Ansel was
after 'feeding him', and then looks at him lying in the crib, then
says "Wait a minute...".

And Michael then looks back and forth between them and says "Hang on,
you want me to do what?"

Then both totally confused and clueless parents cry laughing for about
20 minutes while trying to feed/change the poor kid for reals.

It's no wonder that children think their parents are stupid.

Week 0-2

Well the first two weeks as a 'family' have certainly been a lot of things. Whilst we each had experience being a child in similar equations many years ago, the parenting side of things is very different.

1. We are responsible for all sorts of stuff. Some of which we forget and need reminding.
2. We are working to someone's schedule. It is not ours, and that is probably the worst of it.
3. We seem to have lapses in alertness, intelligence, and adultness. It may be baby sympathy.
4. We worry frequently about someone who is not each other. Mutual, but not halved.
   

One of the big concepts for Dad during this first fortnight was that this baby creature does not have batteries that run out. So there is no need to keep checking that it is still alive and kicking when everything is silent (he's in standby mode), and on the flip side, it will continue to need to pee/poop/feed on an 8x/day schedule (he's in repeat mode). These baby things are pretty resilient!

This new dad does recall some general pieces of noteworthy advice recalled from over the years:

1. Many: It'll totally change your life, but in a good way.
   
2. G.F.: As a family, your choice of 'yes' or 'no' to participating in anything asked of by others requires much less justification (compared to being single or a couple).
3. A.H.: A lot of it comes down to being chilled and happy parents.... if you've got that nailed... the kid will absorb a lot of it

Mum is doing a fine job being a milk slave, and maintaining a sense of humour and being persistent when tired and sore and delirious. Dad is very proud of her and is very happy to have this time off work to share these first few months with her and baby.

Currently favourite things about baby are - intermittent squeaks when sleeping, sneezing, eh-eh-eh-eh-eh sound, and being so damn cute it's hard to stop staring at him.

We'll see how it all goes. Ansel, the boy's name is Ansel... I will use it from now on.

[Australian spelling will persist.]