Flibbs.com

Some of you agree with me (thanks) and some of you plan to get used to it over time (thanks to you as well)… I’ve put it to a vote on this website, Jyte.com. I’ll report back with the results.

Milo is now a full 11 days old. That’s about 10 days later than it was with Holden at this point.

Huh?

The first few days with Holden were frightening. I mean, absolutely terrifying. At every moment we wondered what was wrong - why did he cry so much? Was it because I just cut the tip of his thumb off while trying to cut his thumbnail? Is it because his skin is all dry and flakey - is he in pain all over? Does it hurt to change his diaper? Is he eating enough? Why does he keep throwing up, is there something wrong with him? Why won’t he go to sleep? Is his poo supposed to look like that? Why does my left ear keep buzzing when Holden reaches a certain pitch in his crying?

The answer to all of these concerns turned out to all be, “He’s fine, he’s just a newborn.” Ok, except for maybe that last one. We eventually (probably when he was 2-3 months old) came to terms with the fact that it’s amazingly hard to be a newborn. You’re suddenly living in this world where you have to actually ingest your food. Your skin is exposed to this wierd stuff called “air” You’re not warm all the time. There are sudden, sharp noises that sound nothing like sloshing or heartbeats. There’s this bright thing called “light” that is alternately fascinating and annoying. So really, it’s no surprise that you should want to scream your guts out too. I’d probably do the same thing if I had to spend the next few days in a 98.6 degree sensory deprivation tank breathing liquid and being bounced around 16 hours a day.

But anyway: now it’s almost too easy for us to disregard Milo’s cries. We know it’s hard being out in the world, and we know it’s unlikely due to anything we’ve done. I mean, don’t get me wrong it always makes me sad when I change his diaper and he repeatedly expresses his shock from being stripped down and wiped with cool cloths, even though it happens 10 or more times a day. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Holden is also jumping around saying “Touch the baby! Holden touch the baby!” while wiping his snotty nose on my pantleg. It’s hard to pay attention to one kid screaming when he’s also in imminent danger of becoming the other kid’s latest demonstration of why we have to say “Holden, no poke eyes!”

Ah to be a second child, and to be immediately disregarded due to a more articulate, unabashedly curious and boisterous older sibling. This which neither Heather nor I have ever experienced, we are currently inflicting on poor Milo.

And so time has flown. I believe that first 2 days of Holden’s life were each about 240 hours long. Each painful minute dragged by as we waited for a response from the doctor, or googled endlessly for an accurate description of our baby’s throw-up. (”As it relates to baby barf, how far exactly is ‘projectile’? 6 inches? 2 feet?”) Diagnoses such as “wait 2-3 days to see if symptoms persist” dictated, quite literally, waiting Holden’s entire lifetime just to see “if symptoms persist” 2-3 days? But he’s crying NOW! By day one I had aged a week. By the 3rd day time was almost linear again.

Now Milo is almost two weeks old. We’ve endured the first 9-10 nights of waking up 4 times a night and it just seems like par for the course (not easy, mind you, but par) So I’m just counting down in my head: “ok, so if we’re lucky, we’ll be sleeping full nights by August? We can do that.” Aside from a resurgent buzzing in my left ear and almost falling asleep while feeding Holden dinner at 6pm, it doesn’t sound unreasonable. Right?

Oh man. It’s 9:30pm.. way past our bed time, better wrap this one up. Gotta remember to find an ear doctor next week…

I know you’ve all been waiting.. the news is in: Milo has arrived!

He was born bright and early Monday morning after a surprisingly short labor. At 7lbs, 10oz and 21″ long, he’s a string bean like his brother! After demonstrating his amazing lung capacity upon entry to the world, he has quieted down and seems to love being held.

Heather and I are still amazed at the difference between Milo’s birth and Holden’s: The hospital was downright uneventful and Heather is recovering incredibly well. She was even up for a long walk today down to Caffe Trieste!

Of course the other big difference is the fact that we had a toddler awaiting us upon our return home. Holden’s interest in the new baby is of course very enthusiastic… if he was a little more cultured, I’m sure he’d be saying “best baby ever”. But today’s suggestion was actually “put baby on slide in playground” - clearly Holden is suffering the same impatience for Milo to get “fun” that I did when Holden was that young.

Heather’s Mom got here just 36 hours before all the craziness began and we’re eternally grateful for all her support. Holden has continued to bond with her as she has played play-dough, built lego fortresses and visited Habitot.

We were worried Holden would be jealous but instead he wants to keep tabs on the baby. Today he woke up in the middle of his nap screaming “Where baby go?!” Heather had to stick her head in and tell him the baby was just fine. Satisfied, he laid back down for another hour’s rest.

And without further ado, we bring you the pictures….