IrishOboe

Joseph is growing quickly before our eyes.  He can entertain himself for longer periods of time, which makes Mommy’s life easier!  Yesterday morning he discovered his hand.  He stared fascinated at it and when I put a rattle in his hand he held it for a good while “accidentally” shaking it and gazing at it all the while.

He also holds his gaze on people much longer.  My favorite time is when we stare at each other and he smiles and giggles and looks so delighted just to be a live and looking at Mommy!

Wednesday I had a three hour rehearsal for a gig and he did amazingly well.  He is entertained a little my music playing, but toward the end he just wanted attention.  I’m finally feeling like I might be able to play the gig this month without too much stress.

I’m grateful that with all the pain behind me and with adjusting to sleep deprivation I’m finally feeling like I can bond with my baby.  The first month was sadly more like just getting through it because I had to.  I had no energy for that overwhelming love everyone talks about.  It’s wonderful to be able to enjoy Joseph and to see that he loves me despite me not being able to be too attentive in the first month.  Babies are strong!

There are new pictures up.

This weekend was the best weekend yet with little Joseph.  We got to be together as a family the whole weekend and we got lots done and had lots of fun!

We no longer sleep in on Sunday morning for obvious reasons.  Joseph is always ready for some entertainment much earlier than we would like, but it has the added benefit of leaving us with lots of time together before church.  This time we went up the hill behind our apartment and watched the Basel flight club launch and fly gliders.
We didn’t have time for a ride, though . . .

In the picture below you can see our apartment and the pool I swim in.  They almost fly over our place!  (More)

And some days I think that I can’t make it.  Everyone talks about labor being hard, but somehow life after gets lost in the fuss.  Thanks to all my wonderful supporters!  I couldn’t be the mommy I am without you all!

But I started this post saying some days are wonderful – and they really are!  Today was one such day so far.  It’s the little things that make life so exciting.  My daily run is starting to have a very positive effect on my energy level and emotional stability.  It’s starting to be my favorite time of day not just because I can work up some energy, but also because it means swimming time!!!  Joseph has picked up on the pattern.  He smiled big smiles when I put him in the trailer this morning and he smiled big smiles as I undressed him for bath time.  He knows what’s coming!  Grossmutti arrived just in time to see Joseph swim and she got to see how excited he was to go in the water, too.  (And Joseph doesn’t yet have stage fright.)  She also saw how Joseph is learning awareness of his bodily functions.  I always give him a chance to go on the “big potty” i.e. the toilet (I hold him over it – he’s not sitting yet . . .) and he had a little pooh and started to fuss.  I thought that meant he was done so I took him away and he screamed bloody murder.  Ask Grossmutter.  He was one mad little boy.  I put him back on and sure enough he had to pee and afterwards was perfectly content to come off the potty.  Now, if Mommy can only learn the difference between “I’m fussing because I have to go” And “I’m fussing because I’m DONE WITH THIS STUPID POTTY!”

No new pictures up yet, but here's a teaser.

Joseph is very good to me in that he is happy to be in his bike trailer while I go for a run.  It’s a great break for me and it’s wonderful to be running again and it feels great to be getting some exercise.  After running we take a bath together and practice swimming.  Joseph had bath time with daddy while I was recovering and learned to love playing on his back.  Whenever he’s in the water now he throws himself back so that he can lie down in the water like he does with daddy.  I can now hold just his neck and he will happily balance himself in the water, smiling and giggling.  What fun!  I’m excited to start the swim course when he’s three months.  I haven’t tried putting him under the water yet.  We’ll practice a few other games before I try that, but maybe someday I’ll get up the courage to do it.

Yesterday the family went out to celebrate Miss Diana’s birthday at a Greek restaurant in Germany.  Joseph did a great job.  He slept some of the time and was fairly happily awake the rest of the time (during the meal, of course) though he wasn’t too happy to strangers’ arms.  I got tired toward the end and was happy to leave, but we had a great time and it’s good to know we can pull off the restaurant thing as a family!  Plus I got enough meat in to last a week or two . . .

Eastman would be proud.  Never thought I would, but I’m getting a DMA . . . a Doctorate in Mothering Arts that is (hardiharhar).  Can I get a doctorate so soon you ask?  Well, I am already a Master in One-Handed Arts, so it’s time for the next level.  I’m in a pretty intensive program, so it stands to reason I’m whipping through the degrees so quickly.

Yesterday I passed the “I’m covered with fluids but I don’t really mind” test.  This test was invented by someone who wasn’t quite thinking.  You have to hold the baby on the potty while sitting on the bed and nursing at the same time.  I had the foresight to be sitting on a water-proof pad so the bed was spared everything but the spit-up.  I had decided his fussiness was because he didn’t want to be on the potty and had just taken the bowl away when he let out the real reason why he’d been fussy.  Targets: the cloth diaper I was holding under him, my hand, the water-proof pad and my pants.  Somehow the bed survived.  While recovering from the shock of the explosion and kicking myself for taking the bowl away, little one baptized everything listed about plus my shirt with a shower.  I decided things were as messy as they could get and brought naked Joseph up to my shoulder to burp and calm him.  Soon after I wasn’t sure if he was peeing or I was just leaking . . .  And lastly came the spit-up on the bed.  Hurrah!  I passed that test in record time – less than 30 minutes.

Today was the “run a bunch of errands with baby in tow” test.  The tests are cumulative, so I had to first demonstrate my proficiency at the above test before embarking on this one.  I did this by getting pee on my pants and poop on my shirt shortly before departure time and deciding the pee would dry and the poop would be covered up by the Moby wrap so I didn’t have to change.

After that Joseph was such a good little boy to me.  (Speaking of good little boys, he gave me two consecutive stretches of three hours of sleep last night.  I was positively bouncing around with the energy it gave me.)  Joseph was sleeping when we took off for the doctor’s office and stayed sleeping as I put him in the Moby wrap.  [Some grandmas might want to know that he was having a routine ultra sound to check the development of his hip sockets.  I assumed it would be fine so didn’t bother looking into it much.  He’s almost fine.  The right side is 58 degrees and not 60 or more (whatever that means) so doctor’s orders were to keep wearing him with the wrap and come back in a month.  It will be fine then, I’m sure, but prayers don’t hurt.]  Back to the test: I decided to define “bunch” as “three” and planned two stops after the doctor’s visit.  The doctor took an hour and Joseph was only fussy while scheduling an appointment with the receptionist.  If you can have a tradition after two times, he’s made a tradition of being an angel for the doctors and fussy for the secretaries - is he a “somebodies and nobodies” snob already?  Anyway, awake for the tram and bus rides, Joseph fell asleep just as I arrived at the bank.  I closed my student account without trouble – only the grocery store left to go.  Amazingly he stayed a sleep even through checkout and only started fussing once we were outside in the sun and heat face-to-face with the bus we had just missed.  Eight minutes of standing in the sun at the end of a trip with a sweaty squirmy boy strapped to my chest is not my idea of fun so I walked to the next stop hoping he’d fall asleep again.  No such luck but he was happier and we arrived just in time to catch the next bus home.  Miraculously he was asleep again by the time I need to haul the rolling shopping bag full of groceries up the four flights of steps.  This enabled me to hoist the bag and go up the steps without fear he would through his head back because when he is awake he will not stand to have his head tucked in the wrap – it must be out and he must look up!

I arrived home thrilled at my accomplishments and was convinced I had “tooled” the test.  I was just starting to wonder if I might achieve “Super Mom” status after all when I . . . well, let’s just say I should quit blogging and do some Kegels.

This was a big occasion for all three of us.  The other weekend Stephan went and bought a bike trailer with all the help we got from generous gift-givers (thank you!) and yesterday he hooked it up to his bike and little Joseph took it like a champ!  There’s a special baby insert that holds him well and then it comes out and there’s room for two (or leave the baby insert in and it’s a tight fit for the other, but possible).  We’re so excited!  Saturday I spent a few hours cleaning my long-neglected bike.  I had stopped biking early in the 3rd trimester –or was it already the 2nd?  Anyway, it’s been a while and after the birth I thought it would take me months and months before I could sit on a bike seat, but I tried it out and it was no problem!  The capacity of the human body to heal is amazing.  The trip there and back was uneventful and it feels so good to be back on a bike.  It feels so good to be feeling well enough to be back on a bike!

This morning Joseph had his first month checkup.  He did wonderfully!  He slept as I got ready to go, he slept on the way there, he sat happily listening to the music box and batting his arms and moving his legs as the doctor inspected him, he got a little fussy at the end but was stilled with a finger until I could go nurse him, and he slept all the way home!  The doctor was very happy, and even though I wasn’t nervous, I somehow feel better with the doctor’s affirmation.  It’s as though someone from the outside has said “You are a good mother. Stop worrying.”  Not that I worry all that much, I just wonder if I shouldn’t be doing more or doing something I don’t know about but have no excuse not knowing about or . . .

He weighed in at 5.450kg (at the top of the curve), has a big head and is right in the middle with length.  His eye has cleared up (he just had a little ‘sleep’ that can mean various things with babies) so that’s fine and everything else the doctor checked was “tip top.”

Now for an afternoon with Grossmutti!

Joseph does more than poop and pee and it’s about time I wrote about it.  He’s growing quickly and can hardly be thought of as a newborn and it’s only been five weeks!  He has smiled since birth but for the past week he has been consistently smiling directly at people.  Daddy gets the most – he loves playtime with daddy!  I get a few, but mostly I have the privilege of seeing him smile when he nods off to sleep.  He might fight sleep vigorously since he always wants to watch what’s going on, but once he does start to fade often the first sign is a big, bright, beautiful smile.

He also loves to look at the ceiling no matter where we are.  It’s not just a matter of his head falling back.  He purposely pushes his head back so he can look up and then stares with big eyes.  He insists on doing this even while in the Moby Wrap, so usually I have to have one hand supporting his head and I’m still one-handed unless he’s a sleep and then I can tuck his head away and work with both hands – a rare privilege these days.

He gets better and better about holding his head up when on his tummy.  He kicks like crazy and if you put a hand behind his feet he’ll launch forward since he often holds his head up and kicks at the same time.

He still only sleeps 2-3 hour stretches even at night, but at night he’ll go right back to sleep after the eat/change, so that is a great blessing!

It’s fun to watch him grow and change!

Nope, life isn’t much more than “pshsh” and “bthth” right now.  After a frustrating evening of doing everything to calm fussy Joseph and not succeeding for three hours (and only surviving because Valda was visiting and could help me out – but so much for girl time) I decided to brave my fears of pee spraying everywhere and poop exploding in inconvenient places and try some diaper-free time this morning.  After his morning nap I spread out the mattress protector on the floor and put on grungy clothes and decided not to care what got dirty.  I was pretty shocked that we went for over an hour without any misses.  I breastfed him and felt like he was working on something so put him on the potty and he peed and pooped.  I continued feeding him and was burping him when he got fussy and I put him on the potty again and he peed.  It seems crazy that he has such an awareness of his body.  We spent some time on the floor looking at bits and some time resting on my shoulder and each time he was calm I didn’t worry and when he got fussy I first tried the potty then went to a new position.  The last half of the hour I put him on the potty a lot (I’m still scared!) to no success.  At the end he got fussy and wouldn’t take anything.  Maybe I should have held him on the potty longer because he did then pee, getting his pants and some of mine, but mostly on the mattress protector.  Is that what I was so afraid about?  We decided to finish diaper-free time and I put on a diaper and nursed him to happy sleep.

At the very least it’s more entertaining for me . . .

Joseph got his Swiss ID card in the mail today and I got a letter from the NSH testing center.  I passed the German C1 test!!!!  Hopefully I didn’t damage Joseph with the study stress and we already know that the birth went okay even though I had just finished the testing two days before I went into labor.  Somehow it seems more worth it now that I know I passed.  A bit on the test:  The levels are A1,A2,B1,B2,C1, and C2 so I only have one more test to go to show that I’m fluent in German.  I don’t know if I’ll go for it someday.  The C1 is good enough for now.  Of the four sections (reading, listening, written and oral) I passed all but the reading and I failed that by one point (14/25).  I stink at reading comprehension tests in English anyway, so I’m not too surprised.  Luckily my scores in the listening and oral tests were high enough to pull me grade not just up to passing but up to “satisfactory.”  I’m not “good” or “very good” but I don’t care.  This test was a bit of a push for me and the test was hard enough so I’m super proud that I passed!  Excuse my gushing.  I think I’m also excited because here is proof that I have a brain – or at least had a brain – and am not just a cow and a frail piece of flesh.  Speaking of mothering and babies, Joseph is asleep on my chest in the Moby Wrap.  We’re both getting used to it and have made a few successful outings with him in it.  Hopefully soon he’ll be happy to be awake in it as I do laundry and other work.  For now he still likes all of my attention when he is awake.  Luckily it’s a pleasure giving in to the cuitie!

The title should warn those not interested in the subject . . .
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Yesterday was Joseph’s first month birthday already!  We celebrated by saying goodbye to grandma and spending the day all by ourselves. L  I’m certain that part of why Joseph was unsettled was because the apartment was so empty.  We were so blessed to have daddy home so much and grandma with us for a month after the birth.  Joseph did eventually calm down and let me get a two hour nap (that’s a nice birthday present)!  In the evening we went to Valda’s for dinner with friends, which was lovely.  Last night Joseph made up for not sleeping much on his birthday by sleeping a 4, a 3, and a 2 hour stretch – lovely!  Sleep is a beautiful thing.
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Quite a few months ago I made yet another attempt at getting my life organized and while looking online for the best filing system I read about Getting Things Done by David Allen.  It intrigued me and after reading the summary on Wikipedia I thought the ideas worth a try.  I implemented a few and it all but revolutionized my life.  I’m talking big life changes such as always having a clean desk as opposed to always having stacks of unorganized papers collecting – and it was so easy!  I’ve been trying my whole life to keep a clean desk, so this was major for me.  I annoyed all my friends talking about how wonderful and amazing it was.  So with all the excitement over results I figured I’d better get the book and read the whole thing.  It turns out the university business library has it, so I got it out of the library.
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