The Progress Report

Sigh. My little boy is growing up.



Yesterday, we set up his Big Boy Bed (BBB). The plan has always been to move Ava into the crib and Jonah into a bed, and have them share our second bedroom. I read somewhere that it can be helpful in making the transition to set up the bed ahead of the actual move, giving him time to get used to it - playing on it, etc. After we got it set up, he decided he wanted to take his nap in the BBB. We read books and he snuggled up in the BBB, but just a few minutes after I left the room, he called out for us and decided he wanted to nap in his crib after all.



I figured that would be the end of it - until naptime today, when he again wanted to nap in the BBB. This time, Matt read his stories and tucked him in, and thirty minutes later, all was quiet.



As I type, he's getting tucked in for the night in his BBB. Wish us luck!

In Ava news, we had a two-week check-up today, and she is up to 9 lbs, 2 oz. The doctor asked what I was feeding her. :)



Her belly button is all healed, which means her first real bath will follow shortly! And, she can wear onesies. A whole new avenue of fashion is open to her.

What we've been up to

Jonah has been riding in the "blue line":



There's a "green line", too, but that's full of stuffed animals, and so most of the time it doesn't get used as part of the T. Although today, he emptied the green line, put it next to the blue line, and transferred back and forth between the two. I guess he was at Government Center.

He's also been wearing my shoes around:



Ava has been having lots of diaper changes:



And she's had two sponge baths since we've been home:



She's even sleeping fairly well, although we're all trying to nap as often as possible:

Ava's Arrival

Miss Ava made her arrival into the world on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 8:06 AM, weighing in at 8 lbs, 2oz, and measuring 21 inches in length.

I woke up to a contraction at 5:50 AM that morning. The next one came at about 5:58 AM, and the one after that was at about 6:03 AM. By 6:15, I knew these were real contractions and that they were getting closer together QUICKLY. I woke Matt up, and then called Katie and Blythe and had the midwife on call paged. By the time the midwife, Susan, called me back (about a half hour later, which is unusual, but she was at a delivery when I called), the contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart and very strong. We let her know we'd be coming in soon.

For a few minutes, I thought we might have to wake up Jonah and bring him with us, and have Katie and Blythe meet us at the hospital, but fortunately, they arrived shortly after the midwife called. Also, Jonah woke up right around 7, so I went in to let him know that we were going to the hospital to have his baby sister, and that we'd see him soon.

From then on, I'm not too sure about the timing of things. We pulled up to the emergency entrance and I was wheeled up to the maternity floor. They took me to a triage room, but I was only in there for about five minutes when Susan came in and decided we should go right to a labor room. I didn't have time to take advantage of a whirlpool tub, so it wasn't a big deal that I didn't get one! But I did take about five minutes in the shower before we decided it was time to push. I'm not sure how long I pushed, but Matt thinks it was only ten or fifteen minutes, and then she was here!

I can't say enough good things about Susan! She wasn't the midwife I saw for my care, but she was just amazing. I switched to a different practice for this pregnancy, and I'm so happy with the care I received. We also went to a different hospital this time, and overall, had a much better experience than Jonah's birth.

We went home Thursday, and so far, so good. Ava's eating well, gaining weight, and gives us three or even four hours stretches of sleep. Jonah's struggling just a little bit with having to share his Mommy, but he's also been easy to distract when I've been busy with Ava. And best of all, he still naps every day, so we always get a little rest in the afternoon.

Thanks for all the well-wishes!

Sometimes Mommy needs to say what she means

Monkey has this shaker toy, kind of like a maraca, but shaped like a cylinder, that he recently rediscovered. This morning, he was banging it against a wall, and I told him, "We don't bang things against walls. If you want to bang something, you can go get your drum and bang on that."

I turned around to do something else, and a moment later, I saw him walk past me, carrying his drum. He continued down the hall to the same spot where he was banging the shaker on the wall. I caught him just in the nick of time.

"No, no, honey, I meant that you should bang on your drum! With your drumsticks! Not bang your drum against the wall!"

Photos courtesy of Nana's camera, which she graciously lent to us until little girl is born.

In Which the Monkey Begins to Resemble His Mother

Monkey has always been pretty easy-going, but lately, he has really started to assert his own opinions and show his stubborn streak. Here's an excerpt of a recent conversation I had with him:

Me: "Jonah, can you please do [insert task or activity here]?"
Jonah: "No, I cannot." [It's cannot, not can't.]
Me: "Jonah, I think you can."
Jonah: "No, I cannot can!" [Commence screaming, whining, flailing and/or stomping of feet.]

I think part of it is the normal terrible twos stuff, but part of it is also the total and complete upheaval that he's been through over the past 6 weeks.

• We had to say goodbye to our fabulous nanny, Sabine, and our nanny-share partners. Since Amelia's mom had her little sister, and I'm not planning to go back to work full-time, we figured it made more sense for Sabine to work for them once Amelia's mom went back to work.
• I went away for a week.
• Once I got back, we had less than a week before we went away for Thanksgiving.
• Since I got back, day care has been a combination of two part-time babysitters, "emergency" day care at Bright Horizons (a benefit Matt gets from work), and a sporadic day off here and there with Daddy.
• And of course, the baby could come at any time, so we've been trying to prepare him for that. Although I'm not holding my breath, since Jonah was two weeks late!

I stumbled upon an article in the Globe recently about dealing with a three-year-old's specific behavioral issue, and some of the recommendations really struck me. Best of all, the author offered to send anyone who was interested a link to another article she had written that dealt with three-year-old behavior in general. I wrote her for the article, and I think it's really making a difference.

For example, lately, Jonah has been really resisting his bath. It's gotten to the point where he refuses to sit and pretty much screams the whole time. So last night, when he started to yell about how he did not want to take a bath, I thought I'd try some of the article's techniques. I squatted down at his level, and told him that while he had to take a bath, he had the choice of reading a story before his bath, or after his bath.

It worked like a charm, although he made up a new choice, that fortunately was a perfectly acceptable alternative. He grabbed a book off the table, and told me he wanted to read now, and then walked directly into the bathroom with the book. So I followed him in, and while Matt gave him his bath, I read the book to him. He got right into his tub, sat down with no struggles, and listened, laughed, and splashed - with only a minor screaming bout when it was time to rinse his hair.

What a relief! Now if we can just reacclimate him to the bath before his sister is born...because I don't think we'll be able to continue to do bathtime as a two-parent job!