Redemption

I'm not talking about my redemption here. Molly redeemed herself on Thursday.

The story begins on Wednesday night. Trina had a lousy night of sleep. Molly has developed a pattern of being really pleasant and sleeping easily during the day, and then at 9 pm, shegets fussy, and increasingly uncomfortable. By 10:00 there is lots of screaming. This continues until midnight or later.

Thursday, Trina came into Bellevue to meet me for lunch. We did the PSE tour where I had my chance to show her off to my co-workers. Lots of 'Oooh, she's beautiful' from the ladies. Molly pretty well slept through that, the walk to the Cheesecake Factory, and lunch. Next is something I thought nothing short of incredible. We were walking back to my office and some guys were doing some work on the sidewalk. Just as we walk by they fire up the pneumatic jackhammer, not 10 feet way. She hardly flinched and never woke while we stood waiting for the walk signal.

That evening she was real sweet and easy to satisfy. At 9:30 pm Molly was sleeping and had recently eaten, so Trina and I decided to take advantage of the situation and hit the sack. I fell asleep instantly as always. At 10:15 Molly woke in a scream. Trina tried feeding her, but that would only last for a couple of minutes and she wouldn't be satisfied. More crying. New diaper. Nope. Burp the baby…she burps…continues crying. At around 11:00 I took her out to the living room and bounced with her on the balance ball. That would sooth her quite quickly. I'd stop after she was asleep for a few minutes and move to a comfortable chair. She's stay asleep for about 5 minutes and wake up crying, and back to the balance ball I'd go. This cycle lasted about 15 minutes.

Repeat until 12:30 a.m. when I went back to bed. Trina fed her again, one of us burped her, and I fell asleep at about 1:00 a.m. Molly woke at 4 a.m. crying vociferously. I held her for a couple of minutes while Trina prepared to feed her. Molly gulped for a bit, then was unsatisfiable. I took her out to the living room, turned on Spanish Fly (a fly fishing show) and started bouncing her on the balance ball again. Just like earlier in the night, she was fast asleep. After a few of the bounce-sit-cry cycles she was solidly asleep and I decided to try the swing. Viola! It worked. I managed to nod off some time after 5:00 a.m and slept until 6:00. It was a rough night, but I was okay at work. I can handle one night like that; it is when you start stringing them together that it gets ugly.

Molly redeemed herself on Friday. She suddenly enjoys me bounding her in front of me. She is kicking her legs and is obviously enjoying it. Although she hasn't smile in response to anything yet, it was a lot of fun and what I'd call our first 'interaction'.

Grandma V comes to visit.

My mom came to visit this weekend. We picked her up at the SeaTac Airport at 7:30 on Thursday evening. I could tell from her emails and our conversations that she was quite excited to see Molly. We've had a rather mellow weekend of hanging out, watching Molly sleep, eat, and cry when she wants to eat or has a messy diaper.


Trina enjoying the sweetness of Molly. She's loving being a mom and is wonderful at it.


After only two weeks we are already surprised how quickly we have seen changes in Molly. She is getting much more alert and active. She is sometimes entertained by the ceiling fan, is already holding here head up at moments, and I think can now start to recognize her hunger cry versus other cries. We've already begun the continuous game of wondering how to sooth her; one evening one thing works, the next maybe not. She seems to be a bit of a night owl and very awake at 10:00 pm. Along with preferring to wake at 10:00, at that time soothing her is the most difficult of any time of day - adding to the challenge of our desire to go to bed. I'm thinking I should go with the flow and shift my schedule from going to bed at 10:00 p.m. and waking at 5:00-5:30 a.m. to a 11:00-6:00 schedule. I guess that isn't much of a concern and will make it easier to handle helping Trina with the 2 nightly feedings and diaper changes.

Happiness is a full belly and a dry diaper

There is nothing better than a full belly and a dry diaper, just ask Molly.

Molly fingers 5 days old

Molly fingers 5 days old, originally uploaded by jakevenard.

Molly turned 5 days old today. Two weeks ago time was crawling with anticipation. Could it be today? Now we can't believe that it was a week ago tomorrow that Trina went into labor, we went 24 hrs-plus without sleep and met little Molly. I've had a friend say to cherish every minute of it, and now I am seeing what he means.

We had our first checkup with the doctor yesterday. Both Molly and Trina checked out perfectly. Molly had actually gained weight since leaving the hospital (babies often loose a bit of weight initially). We weren't surprised by this given her appetite. Trina and Molly had to do a demonstration breast feeding for the doc to confirm that she was getting enough. The doc was impressed.

We followed up the doctor visit with a trip to the lunch buffet at the Royal India restaurant just down the road from the house. It is a good thing that place isn't within walking distance of my office, or I'd be getting large. Molly just slept in her car seat while we gorged ourselves on naan bread, chutneys, tandori chicken, and all sorts of awesome food we couldn't identify.

How quickly things develop. Molly has kicked into full gear for eating, and of course, the dijon diaper fillings. Her record so far is 3 dijon diapers in an hour. We've discovered that her sleep-wake patterns are similar to in the womb. She is the most awake between 9:00 and 10:00 pm, the same as when Trina was thinking she had a boy to be name Pele in her belly.

We've been getting enough sleep by taking turns feeding and diaper changing. Last night I took the late duty and fed her between 11:00 and midnight, and she fell asleep at about 12:30 a.m. Trina was asleep at 11:00 and got up at 3:15 to feed Molly, etc. then back to sleep until 6:00 when we both were up from there on. That allows us about 5.5 hours of sleep pieced together. Somehow we are both doing fine without a nap today. I'm curious what tonight and tomorrow will bring.