Catch Up

Where has the time gone....it is already 2009! Yikes. Well, I'll try to summarize the last month or so. Didn't I promise to start doing shorter, more frequent updates? Whatever.
The babe is actually taking a proper nap. In his bed. Rather than on someone's chest, or face down on the couch (yes, I know what every single parenting book says) or in his bouncy chair. And now that I've got the carpets vacuumed and the dishes put away and the laundry started, I thought I'd do a little blog. I'm sure I've got a total of 5 minutes before he starts waking up. It is now Jan 5 about 3:00 in the afternoon. We'll see what day I actually get this posted. So here it goes.

Thanksgiving was great and a challenge all at the same time. Way back when, I was sure it would be a great idea to have all the holidays off with a newborn and to have all of everybody's family together for Thanksgiving. And it was. It was truly great to see everyone. The weather was great and everyone had a smashing time down in Coos Bay. All the usual activities took place without freezing anyone's patooties off or getting drenched to the bone. The downfall was that I had a two week old baby and I was exhausted. Two weeks is about the time when life with a newborn starts to feel really hard. And I surely felt it by the end of that week down in Coos Bay. Sleep was hard to come by, and Camden was starting to really show his true colors and just what those lungs can do. I wanted and tried really hard to do all the usual activities with everyone and for the most part did - at least I was present physically if not mentally. But by the end of the week I was fried and stressed from all the comings and goings not to mention wondering if I was doing an ok job of raising a son. Regardless, it was a great time even if it is bit of a blur for me. I loved that both my brothers and their girls made the long trek out, but I felt so bad that I was such a dazed spaz while they were here - I'm glad there were plenty of other people to play host to them.

For a recap of the adventures, I am going to cheat and refer you to Carl's blog: http://www.onesweet.blogspot.com/

I will add a few of our own shots.

Gracie at her happiest:


Camden's first trip to the dunes. Yes those are maternity jeans. What? They are super comfy!


Our annual walk along the cliffs of Shore Acres. It wasn't even a stormy day, but there was great wave action on the rocks. I love how it looks like this wave is going to swamp Keri, Chris and the dogs.


The Bauer clan reunites.


As usual, you can catch more lively photos on Flickr.

I'm not really sure what happened between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is somewhat of a blur. My folks were both here in town doing the housesitting thing - so there were lots of dinners at each others' houses and lots and lots of help from my mom with the daily grind. Keith landed a project, so he was off working most days. We fell into somewhat of a routine, still splitting midnight shifts...and beds. Keith takes the 5AM or so feeding letting me sleep in a bit. Then I take over at 8 or 9 and send him off to work. The rest of my day is spent feeding, changing diapers, consoling, playing, cleaning, laundry, walking, and trying to figure out where and how to get the boy to nap - nothing consistent so far in terms of a routine, but we are now having way more good days than bad.

The most frustrating thing about this kid (besides the high rate of growth - heavy to carry and growing out of everything already!) is his split personality. He is either the most smiley, happy, content little fella, or else he is screaming bloody murder. When he decides he needs something, there is no beating around the bush. No cute little whimpers. It is full blown screaming. Sometimes we can console him, but most of the time it is fortunately close to "feeding time" (which just means it has been about 3 hours) so I can declare him hungry and soothe him with some milk. All the books, and so many people say that over time, you learn the different cries of your baby. Well, I call hogwash on that one. Or else my ears are bad. This kid has one cry and it seems to be set at loud. I may be exaggerating a little bit, but not much. Luckily most of the time he is quite content (or sleeping) so I have managed to keep my sanity so far.

But, boy do we love this little guy even though he does cry. It is so amazing to see the almost daily changes in him. He smiles so readily now and becomes so intent and focused in on so many different things. You can almost see all those neurons forming. I think we even got a giggle out of him the other day. Heart melting. How could you not love a face like this (almost 8 weeks old in this photo):


So I mentioned he was growing fast. At our three week check-up he weighed in at 10 lbs 11 oz. That's up from the birth weight of 8 lbs 10 oz. The doctor was a little shocked, but said she only worries about babies that don't gain weight. She calls him a tank. Then I went into the hospital to visit my co-workers and used the scale there to weigh him (this was Dec 22 or so), and he weighed in at 13 lb 7 oz! Granted this was with a very wet cloth diaper and fully clothed. But still. He's almost caught up with Bea who is 2 months older! We have the two month appointment next week so we will be very curious to see what he tips the scale at then.

Christmas was a quiet affair. We stayed in Eugene and had a simple Christmas Eve here at our house with my mom. Dad had gone back to Gig Harbor right as the first snow storm hit Portland then came back on Christmas day as the second wave was settling in. Ask him how much fun he had on those drives. Christmas day we spent with a lazy afternoon at Keith's brother's house with his parents. Merv and Carolyn are foster parents to two very sweet little girls. I have no idea how they do it, but about the same time Camden was born they were handed not one, but two babies to care for. Abigail is 4 days older than Camden and Kaya is about 4 months old. My hat is off to you guys - I'm struggling to stay sane with one! Then, mom hosted us at her house for a nice turkey dinner the day after Christmas. Good times, and nice and low key, just as we wanted.

Christmas outfit #1:


Christmas outfit #2:


Camden and Abigail. Hard to believe they are the same age. What a chunk we have. I can't use the excuse I use with Gracie either that he looks skinnier when wet (the cloth diapers do add some bulk however).


Grandma Melody multi-tasking with the girls. Melody and Dwayne have been a huge help lately to Merv and Carolyn giving them some time to themselves and taking some of the midnight feedings.


Some more of my favorite photos from the past month.


Strategically placed fish.


Exactly one month old for this photo:


The little bit of the December snow storm that hit Eugene. Nothing compared to Portland and points north.


Sweetness:


Grandma C:


We're not getting many family portraits taken, this is the best we've got so far.


Another video. Keith and Camden with some typical early morning conversation.




New Years may be the beginning of a tradition for us. Does two years of doing the same thing qualify it as a tradition? Regardless, we had the opportunity to join Jenn and John at their cabin on the coast again. We spent a lovely three days there relaxing, eating and surprise, surprise, taking care of babies. The second day there we were hit with a huge storm. For 24 hours straight the rain pelted the windows and the wind howled. It was crazy. It kept us house bound for most of the time. Jenn and I at one point had to get out for a walk even though it was still coming down in torrents so we had some fun frolicking in the rain. Then on the way back up the very steep stairs that take you up a very steep bank, the earth gave way. Luckily not from under our feet, but the bank about two feet to the right of the stairs gave way in a mini landslide. We weren't carrying babies at the time, but we were trying to corral two dogs up the stairs and keep them off the dirt. It was a small moment of panic, but we came away unscathed, and the stairs are still there.

The next day the weather was beautiful and Jenn and I snuck away for a longer walk in the woods sans babies. A great time and rejuvenating to have some down time in a different environment.

Walking on the beach the day before the storm.


Double duty with the babes.


The storm produced ungodly amounts of sea foam. But this did not deter Gracie from searching for and retrieving her rocks.


Fun with kelp - it doesn't look like it, but the rain is coming down hard in this photo.


More video. This time of the other child.


She's not allowed to walk up the bank to help prevent erosion. Good thing she is talented.


There are many more photos posted on our Flickr page. To put them all in this blog would be cruel to you and me (forcing my family photos on you and the time for me). I am however, putting pics up on Flickr much more regularly now for the sake of relatives afar, so if you are itching to see what we're up to and this page hasn't changed in a couple months or so, you can check there.

I do have to end with one more piece of very unfortunate news. Gracie has had a sore on her leg that has been trying to heal for months now. After her frolicking in the waters of Coos Bay for 5 days straight, it opened up again. We finally bit the bullet and had it removed for an ungodly amount of money. And I had them biopsy the thing. And it came back positive. Our poor baby has cancer. Not uncommon with this breed, and I can't say I was completely surprised, but still. Damn. The good news is that she doesn't know it and is the happiest and healthiest she's ever been. We will not be doing chemo or treat it aggressively at all. It's not feasible on a number of fronts. We will just spoil her rotten and love her to death, giving her the best life we can with what we have left. Who knows on the timeline. The vet says untreated, after diagnosis the average time is 4-6 months. Seems very short.



Sorry to end on such a grim note. I'm dealing with it fine now as I pretty much just push it to the way far reaches of my head. (Easy to do unfortunately with a screaming child taking up all the space at the front!).

Whew. There. Done. Caught up. It is Jan 6 at 10:00 PM and I should have gone to bed two hours ago as I am very tired. Oh well. Priorities. Sometimes sleep has to be sacrificed for some alone time in front of the computer - it just won't happen any other way that I have figured out yet. We have a friend in Seattle who has two small children, a job, a multitude of freelance writing that she does on the side and she maintains a very cool blog updating it on a virtually daily basis. She did this all through the time when her kids were newborns as well. Oh, and she works out on a very regular basis and keeps an immaculate house. Not quite sure how you do it Linda. I can't even seem to get a bill paid on time these days!

Until next time. I hope everyone (I'm acting like there are a lot of people that read this) had a wonderful holiday!