Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt, Uncle, Great Uncle. Blaire's Big Week.

Big week for Blaire.  She met her other grandparents as well as an aunt, uncle, and great uncle.

Ally's sister and her sisters husband came out to see us last weekend.  It was really great seeing them and I know Ally appreciated having her sister around for a few days, plus Melissa made us dinner a couple of nights (thanks Melissa).  As an added bonus, they stayed at the W hotel in Westwood which meant baby's first pool party.  Blaire is going to have the wrong idea about life outside the womb...well maybe the right idea about life in LA. 

My parents were in Fremont this week helping with some things in my brothers family and decided to make a slight detour on the way home to come see us.  It was great seeing them and Blaire loved meeting her grandparents!  

As an added bonus, Blaire also met her great uncle Phil.

Thanks to everyone for stopping by and for your generosity.

First Doctors Visit- 2 Weeks

Blaire saw Dr. Efron today for her two week check-up.  She did well.  She weighed in at 8lbs 3oz which is about 12oz above her birth weight.  Dr. Efron wants us to give her a little tummy time each day to develop her neck muscles and also to keep her from getting a flat head.

Also, the doctor had her on her stomach during the examination and was commenting on how good her head control is already.  Then she decided to go ahead and roll over.  Dr. Efron says it's usually a three month trick, so of course Ally and I are convinced she is a genius.

Weenie Houdini

Blaire is beginning to show her talents.  She is an escape artist.

When we put our Weenie Houdini down to rest, we always swaddle her.  It takes her approximately 2 seconds to get out of it no matter how tight we wrap her.  Someone gave us a swaddle that velcros, literally like a little baby straight jacket.  We've only used it once and seconds after getting her all velcroed in we heard the sound of velcro being ripped off, and sure enough...Houdini was out.  She also makes quick work of socks and mittens.

Our own weenie Houdini.

Funny Story

I guess I'll be one of those parents who thinks everything their baby does is the cutest, funniest thing in the world...

While we were in the hospital, the nurses kept telling us "when the baby sleeps, you sleep."  So having never been one to challenge authority, I was taking a nap yesterday afternoon while Blaire slept.  I was awakened suddenly by the shrieking of my wife and mother-in-law in the other room, followed by instructions from my wife that I get in there immediately.

As a new parent I find that my mind often conjures up all kinds of outrageous, highly unlikely, worst-case scenarios that might happen to my baby- when I lay her on the bed for a diaper change she's going to fall the moment I reach for a diaper,  I will somehow suffocate her as I try to burp her, she is suddenly going to come down with a here-to-for unknown illness, an ill intentioned person will somehow make off with her- the list goes on.

So of course when I heard the aforementioned screams, I leapt out of bed expecting the worst.  What I found instead was my wife holding a clean diaper in her right had, Blaire's legs in her left, and a stream of an easily identified substance making its way from Blaire's raised, uncovered tush across the couch and down the length of Ally's knee to ankle.  And we're not talking about #1.  Hilarious I say, hilarious.

Practicing her moves for the paparazzi

Baby Pilates

Sleeping like, well, a baby

Home, Finally

We all thankfully came home from the hospital yesterday afternoon.  Aside from meaning that everything was a-ok with Mom and Baby, home also meant that we no longer were confined to the four walls that made up our cell, err, room.  It's not that we didn't have phenomenal care at Cedars, to the contrary, we were blown away with all our doctors, nurses, support staff etc.  We had a great experience.  If you ever get the chance to have a baby at Cedars Sinai, take it, you won't regret it.

No, the problem was not the care, but the length of time spent at the hospital.  By the time we left our captivity we had been at the hospital for almost six days, three of which Ally was bed-ridden and to some degree drugged up.  It was a lot of trying to learn to care for a baby, crash course style, and not much sleep, all within the confines of our small room.  The sleepless nights weren't even entirely Blaire's fault, she actually slept pretty well, only waking up to eat, and then she would crash for another three hours.  Due to the potential risks to Ally, we had nurses in every 30min, checking IV's, administering blood tests/medication, taking blood pressure, etc.  It was all just very exhausting.

And then we got home.  Last night was pretty rough.  Blaire's little schedule is still just backward (night is day), and the older she gets, the more she expresses her will.  So while at the beginning she just slept whenever she wasn't eating, she now has decided to be awake and fuss when the grown-ups want to sleep.  Still, we are very happy to be home.  It is just great being in our own place, with our own stuff, and the opportunity to get into our own routine.

Please Allow Me to Introduce...

Blaire Abigail Thompson

Welcome To Our World

Our daughter was born yesterday!  Our two just became three.

Baby Dresser

Ally and I decided it would be cool to try and find a "vintage" piece of furniture for the baby's dresser.  So one Saturday afternoon several weeks ago, we set out with plans to visit several thrift shops and goodwill stores in the area in hopes of finding something cool.  At our first stop, a goodwill on Santa Monica Blvd, we found what we deemed to be the perfect piece for baby's room.  A three drawer chest made by a local hollywood furniture company in the 1950's or 60's.  It was well made, the appropriate size, and had the right lines and look.  The only problem was that it was in pretty bad shape, err I mean, really bad shape.  Much worse than I would ideally want to work with.  It was missing entire pieces of the old veneer, had large dings in the wood, and someone had tried to glue something to the top at one point, leaving some pretty ugly scars.  But we decided that for $20 we'd give restoration a try.

It's a funny thing when you sit at a desk 60-70 hours a week and live in an apartment.  You find very little opportunity to do any manual labor.  Things like working in the yard, etc.  Ally thinks I'm crazy, but the thing I miss most about having a house is the opportunity to do some yard work or a home repair now and again.  I'm probably in the minority on this, but I find it incredibly relaxing to disengage my brain and work with my hands, and even more fulfilling when I get to engage my brain (a little) for a little physical labor.  Don't misunderstand, I didn't break much of a sweat, nor did it take much mental exertion to sand, pick some colors, and paint.  This really was a pretty simple task, but it was just what the doctor ordered.

The dresser did turn out to be more work than I initially thought due to the aforementioned defects.  I think if I had to do it again I would get something with a little less "character" to begin with.  But we are both pretty happy with the result and it fits in nicely to our nursery.  Before and after pictures below.

Things I Think I Think

Bill Simmons, a columnist for ESPN sometimes includes in his writings a segment entitled "Things I Think I Think."  With a baby on the way I find that I think about a lot of stuff.  Politics, religion, economics- stuff I've thought about before, only now I think about everything in terms of how it will affect my future child.  The thing is, having never had a child before, I have no idea how anything will affect my (hopefully) soon to be born baby.  So I guess these are things I think I think.

1) Having posterity must be worth all the trouble or else the population would be rapidly shrinking.  Getting pregnant wasn't all that easy, and while Ally has had a pretty great pregnancy as pregnancies go, pregnancy hasn't been all that easy either...especially lately.  Preparing for baby takes up most of our free time, and the cost is well, ridiculous.  And I haven't even entered the hard phase of this whole child rearing thing.  Yikes!  I find a great deal of relief in the fact that despite all the trouble that comes along with baby, humankind is still having them.  There must be something to it.

2) Doctors are inhibited from providing the best medical care possible because they are forced to act in a way that minimizes law suits.  We love, and have faith in, all the doctors involved in our child's birth thus far.  That said, it becomes more and more apparent that so much of what they do and say is driven by how they can best avoid getting sued.  For example, we found out this week that our baby is, how you say, big for his or her age.  Ally's doctor is concerned that if the child now goes full term it will potentially be too large to deliver the traditional way.  Of course in my mind this meant we should have a discussion about what the alternatives/risks are with induction (which we would like to avoid), because I assumed there must be benefits to induction over a probable C-section.  Turns out they won't induce unless we have an amnio first to test for lung development.  Not an unreasonable precaution, but I was still a little surprised.  And then as we were discussing the potential of a C-section, she said that she will usually let patients labor for 3-4 hours past the point where she realizes they will have to have a C-section before mentioning it as an option because she feels like she has to prove she did everything possible to deliver the baby traditionally.  She said "I have to cover myself."  Lame.

3) My wife knows exactly the moment after I've sat down when I become comfortable.  It's at exactly this moment when she will ask me to get up and do something for her -i.e. get her a drink, bring her the phone, etc.  Let me be very clear, I AM NOT COMPLAINING.  I wouldn't want to keep getting up and down either if I was carrying around an entire person, plus the the water it's marinating in.  Rather, I'm just making an observation at when the requests come.

In the evening I do the dishes.  It's always been this way at our house, and now that Ally's pregnant, I especially try to do the chores that require a lot of standing.  It takes me 10-15 min to clean up after a typical meal (it's still just the two of us after all), after which I'll come in an join Ally in front of the TV to watch our usual mindless dribble.  Mind you, I've just come from the kitchen where cups and water abound, but it's not until I've sat down in the living room and found a comfortable position that she decides she needs a glass of water.  It's like that scene in "A Christmas Story" where every time the mother gets a bite of food near her mouth, someone asks her for something.  Again, I really don't mind, just an observation.  (as an aside, as I wrote this paragraph, I was sent to the kitchen to get a book, and asked to fetch pillows on two separate occasions)

4) When you're a parent (or preparing to become one), it is ridiculous on some level that you begin to have conversations about children's items the way you used to have conversations about cars.  Yesterday I was in Beverly Hills, and up the street on the next block was parked a Bugatti.  I couldn't see any decals, and only saw it from behind, but I knew exactly what it was the second I spotted it.  I can now do the same thing with strollers and car seats when I see them out and about.  Six months ago I couldn't even name three baby brands, let alone know which brand made which item.  Now I find myself taking the opportunity to talk strollers with any guy pushing one.  Perfectly ridiculous, I say.

5) I'm going to have to review my movie, book, and magazine collections.  I don't believe I have anything inappropriate in my house, really.  That said, there are definitely some things I'd rather not have my kid exposed to in his or her youth...or maybe ever.  Perhaps that means I do have inappropriate stuff in my house?  If I wouldn't want my child exposed to them, should I be exposed?  Funny how kids make you look at things differently.


That's it for now.  Looking forward to the 4th.  Fireworks with some friends and a BBQ.  Hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday.  Think labor inducing thoughts.