Jamie Chew's Web Log: Vol. 0 No. 18

2004-03-09 (Kristen) Jamie is starting to have a real routine, which amazes me somewhat as he seemed to have such a lack of routine for so long. He wants to be in bed around 23:30 at the latest, and will sleep until around 8 or 9 AM. He doesn't really nap consistently in the morning, but is hysterically tired by 13:30 in the afternoon if he hasn't had a real morning nap. He will sleep from two to three hours in the afternoon, which is a godsend, and is pretty much awake, except for catnaps, until he goes to bed at night.

He sleeps well enough at night, but lately has been waking up more frequently. Last night, he woke up wriggling and crying about four times, and it wasn't always for a nurse or a change. I am not sure what is disturbing him; it may be that he is starting to have nightmares, as I can sometimes console him back to sleep by holding his hand or moving him onto my chest. Not always, however. Do almost four-month olds have nightmares? Otherwise, his mood continues to be fair and sunny, and he laughs and smiles freely at people. He's so wonderful, in fact, that the thought of having another child disturbs me, as I worry that Jamie is the trapping baby, and the next child will be Hellboy/girl. Or we could have another just as wonderful...

(John) I had to spend too much time today running errands, but what time I did spend with Jamie, I spent mostly carrying him around on my shoulders (he sucks on my hair - yuck) and somersaulting him down (giggle, whee!).

2004-03-10 (Kristen) Jamie spent a good part of the day asleep, taking a long morning and a long afternoon nap. Mom should have taken the hint and slept herself, but was too tired to sleep (paradoxically). Happy boy, grouchy mom.

Jamie really likes to suck on cloth and on people, but distains plastic. This includes plastic teething toys, although an exception can be made for his fish rings and fish rattle. This includes receiving blankets and my sleeve. He will grab my sleeve and shove the cuff of my shirt into his mouth, and look at me like he's invented some fabulous dish. Towels are currently on the menu, as I look over to him.

(John) Ted and his family are in town. We met them for dinner tonight, and will get to spend a little time with them tomorrow before they jet off on their holiday. Amy gave Jamie a lovely blue stuffed dog for a Valentine's Day present.

2004-03-11 11:05 (John) Kristen calls out from the change table that Jamie has decided to celebrate his four-month birthday by saving up all his poo for one big blast, which managed to exceed the capacity of a #2 disposable diaper. (Environmentalists please note: we're using disposables for changes when out of the house, but still using the cloth diaper service at home.)

2004-03-11 25:00 As Jamie and I were waiting our turn in the bathtub, his attention was caught by a windup fish bath toy that I had left sitting on the windowsill. I'd bought it for him months ago, tried it out once and it had utterly failed to catch his attention at the time. Tonight, he couldn't take his eyes off it, and he was delighted when after his ablutions I put it on my chest so that he could climb up to it, grab it, and (of course) shove it in his mouth.

2004-03-12 23:24 (Kristen) It appeared that Jamie's teeth were bothering him again...lots of drool, lots of chewing on anything that came to hand: cloth, hair, the occasional stray knuckle. He really does get a gleeful, savage look sometimes as he lunges for his next victim. He has been sleeping fitfully at night, waking up, crying, quite suddenly. I really really wish these teeth would just get it over with and show up. It is a sad, frustrating thing to watch your baby cry and be able to do nothing about it.

All is not tears, however, in Jamieland. He loves riding on John's shoulders, and laughs merrily whenever he is up high. He seems to get a charge out of being taller than other people, and finds the reversal of roles very funny. We knew that he would laugh when on John's shoulders, but he laughed and laughed when he got to look down on Daniel from his perch. [John: we did the same thing later with him looking down on Kristen. I think he's so used to looking up at everyone around him that the notion that he can look down and see people is both delightful and hilarious.] If it is sad to watch your baby in pain and you would do anything to make him feel better, it is sister to the impulse to keep making your baby laugh when things strike him as funny. John and I must look positively goofy as we make faces and jump about as his little face lights up and his bright, clear little laugh rings out. It's a marvelous sound.

2004-03-12 24:50 (John) Daniel asked me years ago why I keep Uniball (Vision) Micros clipped to my collar, sometimes in profusion. I explained to him that they are my Pens of Power, the source of my awesome godfatherly* superpowers. Ever since then, he's made a point of trying to take them, either by stealth or by force. He was beside himself this evening when I called him to accuse him of secretly training Jamie, who had managed to take a pen while in my arms: I didn't notice until I put him down and saw it in his fist!

2004-03-13 23:30 (John) Millie came over in the morning to shoot some black and white film of Jamie. I would say that everything proceeded without incident, except that (1) Jamie spat up copiously on my face, and (2) Millie was so stunned she failed to press the shutter button.

We took Jamie and Daniel to the St. Lawrence Market, and had an otherwise quiet afternoon. My other strong memory of the day is that Jamie (who is having teething pain again) pitched a mild tantrum when I told him bathtime was over and it was time to take Windup Fish out of his mouth.

2004-03-14 10:55 (John) According to our measuring tape, Jamie now measures 67 cm (26 in) from crown to heel. That's about 14 cm (5 in) longer than when he was born, for a growth rate of a little over a millimetre a day.

I looked after Jamie while I made myself breakfast this morning. He was happy to sit in his bouncy chair and play with various toys for awhile, then got frustrated with the weird collection of red rings (mainly because it's still a bit big for him - if he grabs one end of it, he can't suck on the other end without poking himself in the eye or throat), so I moved him to the playpen. He was happy there until I finished breakfast, when something occurred to him. He said "Woo", so I came over to check on him. I took a guess and asked him "Up?" He confirmed my smiling and stretching. He steered me into the kitchen (he's just starting to get the hang of steering someone who's carrying him), looked around quickly, then into the living room, and said somewhat sadly "Huh." I took another guess and asked "Mum?" and he smiled - he had missed his mom in the playpen. So I took him upstairs to where Kristen was on the phone with Jennifer and he started laughing and laughing, so pleased with himself that he had managed to tell his dad what was wrong, and that his dad had been able to fix it.

2004-03-14 13:40 I tried letting Jamie suck on a thick chunk of pear, because he was fussing (it's a little past nap time) and he needed to be distracted so that Kristen could finish her breakfast. Holy Bunnicula, he can drain a pear of all its juice in no time flat!

2004-03-14 24:32 (Kristen) After a few questions from people, I thought that I should explain what I mean by "he slept from 11:30 until 8:30." When I say that he slept from X to X time, I mean that he woke up a few times to nurse, and there might have been a diaper change in there (I vaguely remember one...zonk). Then we go right back to sleep, if we ever really fully woke up. Jamie doesn't sleep solidly through the night, but neither does he make me get up, and he doesn't wake up at 3:00 AM and think that this might be a really groovy time to have a conversation or "play." For a little four-month-old guy, this is fabulous, and while I'm still exploring whole new worlds of sleep deprivation, I know that I have it pretty good with him.

2004-03-14 25:00 (John) Jamie was invited to Daniel's grandparents Ken and Tami's house for the first time tonight, and was his usual laughing and smiling self.

2004-03-15 23:00 (John) More and more, Jamie wants to explore his environment. He's happy doing anything interesting for five or ten minutes, but then gets the impression that there must be something more interesting around the corner. I don't think he has object permanence as such, but he does clearly have some form of Mommy permanence and Dad permanence: he frequently decides that It Is Time To Look For Whichever Parent Is Not In The Room, and is always happy to find them.

I took him for a walk to Sobey's (supermarket) this afternoon, carrying him in my sling face forward for the first time. Kristen's been carrying him that way for a while; I'd just been carrying him in my arms rather than slinging, but decided today it would be useful to carry groceries. He still fits the sling, and managed to fall asleep on the way home, after having four people walk up to him in the supermarket and marvel at how cute he is. Then he stayed asleep until we finished making dinner, what a thoughtful boy.

* For the benefit of Scrabble players, words that are not in the Scrabble dictionary are marked with an asterisk.

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