E's journal thingy

Violet's 2 month checkup

24" tall - 95th percentile
11lb 10oz - 75th percentile
25th percentile head

A welcome thing

The last two nights Violet has gone more than eight hours between bottles. She's almost sleeping through the night already!

It's a cliche!

Violet Grace, born about 11:20am today, 7 pounds 9 ounces, 20" long. Mother and baby are doing well.

Edit: first batch of pictures is up here.

Naptime is over

The other night Colin woke up at around 2am. Chelle was quicker to respond than I was. So, this is as told by her.

Basically kiddo was firmly of the impression that naptime was over. Attempts to convince him that it was not naptime (but rather, bedtime) were for naught. He got out of bed and walked down the hall. When he saw that it was indeed dark everywhere, he accepted that it was bedtime, and not naptime, and went and got back into bed. There were no further disruptions overnight.

repertoire

Colin now knows how to sing "B-I-N-G-O" and "Where is Thumbkin."

I get more amazed with each new song.

... and going...

Colin's song list now includes the aforementioned Old Macdonald, as well as:

- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
- Ring Around the Rosie
- Hello, How Are You (something they sing at day care)

E I E I O

Colin is singing.

SINGING.

COLIN.

IS.

SINGING.

OLD MACDONALD.

Colin, who is just shy of 20 months old, is singing Old Macdonald.

..whoa..

Colin can count to two, and say the first four letters of the alphabet. He's a little weak on saying C, because he doesn't have the "S" sound fully developed, but it's pretty good.

Stereotypical boy action #1

Yay! Colin is doing something completely typical for a boy: driving some toy cars along the floor while making engine sounds.

APPLE!!!

Colin said "apple" this morning!!!

Almost 1yr

We got some photos done of Colin this weekend for the 1 year old thing.

Man is he ever a ham for the camera. I'm amazed at how well he recognizes a camera and flashes a smile.

Not that he isn't usually smiling anyway, but still.

Growing change

Pretty soon this category will change from Project: Baby to Operation: Childrearing or something equally silly. Open to naming suggestions, but it's but to be Operation: something.

Last night Colin and I were playing in the living room and he walked half the room to get to me. He stopped here and there to get his balance and such, but he didn't fall or touch the floor with his hands at all. Skeery.

Walking, walking, walking on

So I hear Colin's taking up to 9 steps at a time.

Wow!

Too bad he won't do it for me yet :(

Nothing too much but

Colin is learning to crawl over/onto objects/people.

It's pretty neat to see. He always was the type to make a bee-line for whereever he wanted to go anyway... never wanting to take even the slightest detour to get there. But now he can actually get there most of the time. Actually I guess the thing he's been climbing onto the most, that I have seen at least, is my lap... though once he's there, he doesn't usually know how to get down yet. Heh heh.

I am told he climbs quite a bit at day care as well. They have some firm pillow like things, I don't know the right term, but basically they support his weight but are soft. Some are steps and some are ramps. He climbs those.

Applause

Colin's learned to clap. Not loud or anything, but still.

That's just uh... well. It's not one of those things they list in the development charts or anything. "At 10 months if your baby is growing well he will be clapping."

Unfair

I'm realizing a few things about the way we raise babies/children aren't really fair.

When they are babies we encourage them to burp. If they can do it on their own, that's fantastic!! But when they are older, we look down on it.

When they are babies, we encourage them to chatter as much as they want. But as they get older, they are put in situations where they are told to be more and more quiet.

Blah.

new pictures

There are some new pictures up at this page. They are bigger than before. I realized I am never going to fill the memory card in our camera anyway, so I might as well take bigger pictures. There's a really awesome shot where Colin posed perfectly, I love that one. Also there are a few (out of focus) shots of me with my trimmed facial hair, but it's now mostly grown back. Sorry for the out of focus pictures, I think it's Colin's mom's fault. :P

Forward progress

Well, it's happened. Colin can now crawl forward.

He's not totally coordinated with it yet of course, but he can make definite forward movement. It's a proud sight to behold!

He's also up to two teeth. We were wrong about which one came in before. He now basically has the two middle bottom teeth.

Yay! He's getting so big so fast.

Seven months!

I can't believe Colin is seven months old already! Holy crap!

Teef -> Toof

Okay so as it turns out, Colin really only has one tooth for now.

Chelle and I are both sure we felt two teeth before. We could both be mistaken or it could be that the other one retreated / the gums grew back over it. No big deal, one's exciting enough!

Teef!

Colin appears to have two teef coming in!!! They are the um... well, it's hard to describe which ones they are. You have the two middle bottom teeth, the ones right in the middle, right? Okay, well, it's the ones on either side of those. Woohoo!

Update

Colin pictures are again updated. Includes some shots of him playing with cats but not with computer keyboard.

Fascinating

The two things that seem to fascinate Colin the most lately:

The cats. He sees 'em moving around and stares and reaches for them. The cats themselves have been really accomodating for when he is actually close to them. He really only manages to sort of grab their hair in a manner I'm sure is unpleasant for them, but it's so cute!

My computer keyboard. I probably shouldn't be doing so much at the computer in the first place while holding him, but when he's awake and there, he just reaches for the thing. Most of the time he just hits the bottom row of keys, which doesn't do much harm, but he once managed to launch like 30 copies of a program. Future geek!

I think Collo's mom took some pictures of him + cat. We'll have to try for some of him + computer too. So cute!

More new pictures

We went up to Erie for the weekend, basically to visit family. Remembered the digital camera this time. The second page of Colin pictures has been updated. Not all of these are from the trip up -- some are just recent photos from home -- but most are from the trip. Featured on some of them are our nephews Ryan and Mason, and Colin's Aunt Jen.

New photos

New photos of Colin are up here.

I also put up some miscellaneous photos that I took around the time of Colin's birth, mostly from the hospital, but that aren't of Colin himself. In particular, this shot makes a great desktop wallpaper.

Induction

Yesterday Colin was baptized. Since our favorite priest (Father Neil) could not perform our wedding ceremony, we did not want to miss him baptizing our baby.

We had a gathering at the house afterward and lots of relatives and friends came. It was really nice; we like having guests in general, and I think that's as many people as we have ever had over at once. Too bad about the Steelers, though.

Thanks to all who came :)

Well, they said it wouldn't be easy

And they were right. Argh. Last night was so incredibly difficult. Colin was seemingly hungry for quite a few hours -- but he either wouldn't eat, or he wouldn't eat fast enough, he'd get frustrated, and we'd not be able to feed him at all. And he was awake for so incredibly long last night. If he has to do this -- I know he's a baby, I don't blame him -- I wish he'd do it during the day when we are more awake than we are at night (saying "when we are awake" isn't quite right).

And whoever told us that he'd probably be going through 4-5 diapers a day, that would be oh, about 1/2 - 1/3 of what he's actually doing :(

More moving along

C and I are not getting much sleep lately, but it's not for lack of trying. Colin is getting better at sleeping during the night for longer periods of time, but when he wants to be fed, you better feed him, and he will wake you up.

Fortunately/unfortunately his favorite position seems to be lying on his stomach, on your chest. He can normally be made to relax there and probably fall asleep. So cute.

Pictures are updated. Click here and look for the images with newer dates. Recently updated pictures include visits from family, including my mother and C's brother and his family. The larger baby is our niece, Kelsey.

Moving along

I think we are starting to get into a regular sort of routine. Colin is sleeping for longer at a time and eating more at each feeding. We are getting to know what some of his types of unhappiness mean.

Haven't had much computer time at all. Need to figure out a way to have Internet downstairs so we can use the laptop from the living room and still be online.

This is something altogether new

Colin and Chelle came home from the hospital on Friday. Since then, things have been really hectic. Colin's doing fine overall. The new parents are short on sleep, worried every time the baby coo's, and worrying about upcoming daycare arrangements.

My mother is visiting through tomorrow. She has been a lifesaver, mostly in the department of taking care of Colin and letting Chelle and myself get more sleep here and there.

Viewing the pictures

There is apparently some confusion about viewing the pictures. There are indeed multiple pictures. Please view the detail for the link. Thanks.

Day 2

Pictures are updated in the same URL as yesterday. Just look for the ones with today's date. Note about dates though -- the date in the camera was wrong for the first couple pictures. I fixed it, but the first few say they are from 2000. That is wrong; they are recent.

Jen H (er... Jen C now) stopped by again (and fed the cats, thanks!!). Sister Mary Theresa and Father Neil from St. Stephens also stopped by, that was really nice.

Mother and baby are scheduled to come home Friday.

A star is born!

Colin Joseph Pronko was born October 21, 2003 at 3:42pm. He weighed 9 pounds, 2 ounces, and measured 21 inches in height (length).

Status summary

Nothing happened over the weekend. "Mucus plug" might have been passed.
They are going to try to induce again tonight.
Wish us luck.

No news like the present

At the sonagram appointment this morning, we were told basically that everything looks fine. That's about it. C's not had any contractions or anything, she's still hanging in there and nothing has really changed.

Denied!

Some details which maybe I don't want to put on the front page, so I'll put 'em in the extended section.

Bout time!

Just got off the phone with C, she says that if nothing happens over the weekend, they are going to induce her on Monday!

Edit 3:30pm: They could not fit her in for Monday, so we are now scheduled for Tuesday/Wednesday. Updates to follow.

Hee hee

Everyone keeps asking/commenting, so I'll make something up and say that I am actually ready for baby. Heh heh. Hee hee. If I keep saying it I might almost believe it.

No news is... well, no news

The baby situation is stagnant still, and I suppose that's okay since it delays any heart attack on my part. I'm not sure if I'm ready for baby yet.

People keep asking me if we have decided on a name, and I tell them that we have some candidates, but I will have to see baby before I will know for sure.

People keep asking me "Do you know what you're having?" and to me that seems poorly phrased. My answer has typically been "a baby."

C had some discomfort last night, I haven't heard back from her yet this morning whether she was feeling better or not. Cross fingers.

Nothing really different

We have an Infant CPR class tonight. I hope the diminished sleep last night won't make it hard for me to get through this one. Last night C received a speculation from a lactation consultant that baby would come this weekend. I kind of hope not; I am not ready.

Busy weekend

I feel pretty beat from this weekend. Painted the baby's room (something which honestly should have been done a few years ago -- one coat of paint had been put on but the old color still really showed through). Now it looks really good. Took some furniture stuff down from the attic. Assembled crib and changing table. Reasoned the former out with C and the latter by myself. Not bad. :) Mowed the lawn and sung at 8am mass (okay, not baby related, but still tiring).

I still don't think I'll be ready when baby arrives, but we're moving in that direction at least. Next step is moving stuff up from the LR to the baby's bedroom. Yay at the possibility of the LR getting cleaned up. :)

Getting ready

Wasn't easy, but I put a new coat of paint in the room which is to be the baby's. The results are pretty worth it at least. We are somewhat scrambling to have everything ready (and of course now we do not know just when baby will come).

What's going on lately

Tuesday while out on errands at lunch, C tripped and fell forward. :( She didn't think she landed on the baby but went to the hospital anyway. Once there everything seemed normal/okay but they kept her there overnight for observation.

Wednesday we had a new sonagram. Remarkably, the placenta has moved enough to not be a "previa" and we can have the baby naturally. No c-section today!

I'm almost not sure if this is good or bad. :) Good because C does not have to have surgery, and because the baby will not be born before it's "time." Bad because now I have to get used to the issues of stuff like waking up in the middle of the night and rushing to the hospital, etc.

Random stuff

Over the weekend we attended Lamaze classes. There was some good information but the facilities were somewhat uncomfortable and made for some distraction from the matter at hand. The sad part is that we won't likely get to use the information this time due to the overbearing probability of having a C-section.

Sunday we picked up another base for the car seat (I get the black/silver one!) and a few other random items.

Got a new memory card for the digital camera, 128MB. We can take 600+ pictures at 1024x768 :)

Not a due date, but...

If nothing changes in regards to the current situation, baby will be arriving Sept. 18.

Panic

So I am driving home last night, cell phone rings, it's C, she says her blood pressure was up at the OB/GYN's and they are sending her to the hospital.