Size Matters

Emmett had his 4 month appointment yesterday. The night before the visit, I dreamed that we had a very fat girl baby with wild hair. I was embarrassed by how she looked. Obviously this dream reflected anxiety about how I appear by virtue of the baby (who has wild hair?). Despite the fact that babies cannot be too fat, I have internalized cultural anxieties about size. The first thing EVERYONE says when they see him is that he is so big and looks to be much older than he is. Indeed, in mum n' baby yoga, he is bigger than older babies. I spent the end of the pregnancy constantly worrying about how big I was, but, of course, rationally I know that his size is a good sign, an indication of thriving. Also, I think he is the most beautiful creature I have ever seen. So the anxiety is largely a subconscious one, erupting in dreams, and reflected in my fear that we overfeed him. He eats much more than the baby books say to expect. It is not uncommon for him to consume 40 oz. of breast milk in 24 hours (though he also spits up about 20 times per day). Luckily, I am making more than he eats every day (thanks to Fenugreek)! Anyway, here are the stats for our big, beautiful bear.
Length: just shy of 69 cm/ 17 inches (97th%)
Weight: 7.8 k/ 17 pounds (90th%) (but 50th% for his height... though I can't imagine his thighs being any bigger!)
Head: 44.4 cm/ 17 in (90th%)

Growing Baby

The baby keeps getting bigger and bigger. I know that statement is incredibly banal. It reminds me of that excellent line from Juno that went something like, I learned in health class that pregnancy can often lead to a baby. We have had some very difficult nights sleep-wise these days. But it is totally unpredictable: last night he slept for 6 hours; a few nights ago he slept about 2 1/2 and then proceeded to wake every 60-90 minutes. Maybe it is a "poussée de croissance," or a famous growth spurt. Though I fear that, whenever things suck, the default explanation is growth spurt. Then again, maybe it is default for a reason, since, as I noted, he is growing. I have to relieve Will right now. He wants to write an article and I tend to blog and watch "True Blood" these days in my free time. I have started to return to the intellectual labor, too, these days, merci de le bébé sitter!

Still Trying

to get non-blurry smile pics. These are mostly out of focus.

Three Months

Emmett is becoming more fun to spend time with every day. He may not breastfeed, sleep through the night, or keep his food down, but all can be forgotten when he wakes up smiling. He loves being an airplane, playing in the jumperoo and (sometimes) his floor gym. He is very keen on exercising his new powers. He wants to lift his head during tummy time, try to stand, and grab onto things and put them in his mouth. He also seems to get cuter every day.

Inner Kitteh

The arrival of the baby human has brought out the inner kitten in our 11 year old cat Lyle, for better and for worse. He chases his tail on a daily basis now and seems to enjoy toys with all the more vigor. He also attacks the 12 year old cat, Zaius, whenever Emmett cries for more than a few seconds. Both cats have more scars, emotionally and physically, as a result of the new animal in the house. They both have taken to trying to usurp any baby furniture or toys. They sleep on Emmie's floor gym or in his mini-crib, if they are not in the car seat or bouncy chair. Zaius has also taken to hanging out on the "changing table," also known as our dryer. He even hangs around for the diaper changes, ignoring the flailing arms that periodically whack him.

Roberts Men

Three generations of Roberts men.

Note Emmett's latest preoccupation: his hands, the tool of tools, the toy of toys.

Recent entries are primarily photo entries. The blog doesn't showcase the photos that well, but you can click on individual photos to see a larger version. I am pretty sure you can copy them, too.

Rattle

Now that Emm 'n Emm is three months, he is supposed to show some interest in a rattle and grasping rings. So far he stares at it and touches it without grabbing. We will do our best not to compare him to an abstract norm of what babies ought to be doing developmentally. He has already rejected the common wisdom that "all babies love breastfeeding." He is a finger man and I have been trying to accept it, which has been harder emotionally than I imagined. This means I spend hours a day pumping and Will does middle of the night feedings (while I pump, pump, pump some more). Emmett has forced our parenting into a less traditional mold, which is more work for both of us. We are committed to doing it, however, in part for the intrinsic virtues of breast milk (it is much easier to digest and he gets my antibodies), and because formula would cost about 60$ CAD a week (!!!@?*!), and formula companies are evil (e.g. introducing formula to traditional and impoverished communities, where mothers lost their superior and free milk supply and needed to dilute it to spare the outrageous cost, resulting in many dead babies... I would like apply a word to them used frequently on the show Deadwood, but I don't since our families read this blog).

Hood

Emmett will surely wear lots of hoodies as long as we are dressing him. This one is a gift from grandma Rosie. There is also a pic of Emmie on his dad's shoulders in front of his favorite painting. Emm has been captivated by this painting from the day we brought him home. I often see him staring at it with a smile.

Learning to Fly

Credit for these impressionistic photos goes to worker's opposition.

Sleeping Angel

Our friends, known in some circles as "Worker's Opposition and "Beavers Abroad" had to snap pics of Emmett sleeping. Babies are beautiful asleep, and not only for the peace sleep brings.

Experiments with the Camera

I call these the "whirlwind" series. They are taken by the famous photog "worker's opposition" who appears in one photo (not taken by him). The photo with our friend Rohan nicely reveals the difficulty of photographing a moving baby. He decided to embrace the tendency toward blurriness and to work with it.

Puff Baby

So gangsta.

Capturing Smiles

Emmett smiles now. A lot. Still, it is very hard to capture them on film, b/c they coincide with very excited kicks and flailing arms. He has had a super hard week and a half... it seems that one extreme brings with it the other. Lots of smiling means lots of crying, too. Maybe with maturity comes greater sensitivity to pleasure and pain. It is hard being a parent and knowing that bringing a being into the world means that he will experience pain and suffering. I know we cannot only be sources of joy and comfort, but I never realized how hard it would be to see him cry. The smiles are a thrill though... we are elated by them. They provide a wonderful lift, even after negligible sleep. Here are some of our efforts to snap a smile. Notice the invisible arms.

Super Baby!

Emmett just had his two month appointment (actually 8 weeks/ 2 days) at which he suffered two vaccines and we got to confirm how much he has grown. He is 63 cm in length (about 25 inches), 5.7 kilos (12.5 pounds), and 41.5 cm (16.3 in) head circumference. This puts him in the 97th percentile for height (97 is as high as the chart goes, which attenuated our disappointment at not achieving 99!), 75th for weight, and 80th for head. The doctor kept approaching other docs and saying, "look at this cute baby; he is four months old today", to see if they would fall for it. I ruined his first experiment by correcting him. He was especially keen to see if this one doctor--a woman with three kids of her own--would blink. Needless to say, the doc was very impressed with his size. After the appointment he asked to borrow him to show him off to various administrative and medical staff. I kept hearing loud sounds of "awwwww," as he would go from room to room. It was a proud moment for all of us.

I got home and wanted to check the stats for myself, so I entered his numbers on various websites with charts. According to one website ("babycenter," or something) sponsored by Similac, his height is 90th percentile, but his weight is only 25-50th. Guess what they are trying to sell? Well, Emmers is a breast milk fueled giant. According to the international standards of the WHO, Emmett is entirely off the charts, nowhere near their top percentile. (Yet I bet he is in the middle of a Dutch or German chart.) We did find one that used metric (so probably not US based, like the Similac sponsored one) and gave us the precise stats of the doctor's office.

We are very proud of his height and his relatively lean figure, even if we are not sure how we made such a tall bearito. Everyone says that he is destined to play basketball (as his mom did in high school), but, for some reason, no one says that he is bound to look like Bill from Freaks & Geeks (and thereby play D&D instead). Bill is my absolute favorite character from the show. Needless to say, if he turns out to be a giant nerdling, he would not disappoint the hopes of his parents. If he has to be a jock, however, at least basketball is a really fun game. If he stays in Kanukistan, we hope that his hockey injuries will be minimal.

Joe's photos

Emmett's grandpa Joe (one of them) was in Montreal for a few days last week, and took a whole mess of pictures. Now he's put some of those up on Flickr, and you can see them by clicking on ... this.

Winter is Coming

The upside: cute outfits. Clearly, however, Emmett doesn't think we need to take 20 pics of each different outfit. Just the beginning of being bored by parents.

Equipment

I have been thinking about those things that are most essential to managing the early weeks of life with baby. The two most essential accoutrements are categories of things rather than individual items. First, I have been extremely grateful for various feedings aids. We have relied heavily from birth (he was not keen on breast feeding for the first week) upon the breast pump. We have also been able to share the (significant) burden of feeding as a result of what we call "the finger." It is a tiny tube connected to a soft bottle that Will tapes to his finger. Emmett loves sucking on fingers and is able to get food at the same time. We have photos of this, but they look a bit bizarre (there is one where he is sucking on W's middle finger and holding the two neighbor fingers as though they were handle bars). Will has been able to do late- and middle-of-the-night feedings now and then and he was able to take care of little M when I saw Lucinda Willilams last week. This is so wonderful, since, as it is, I spend most of my waking hours feeding the bearito.

Second category of can't-live-without items are the baby carriers. We have three that are great under different circumstances. But, if the baby is a major fuss bucket, putting him in a carrier is a solution 75% of the time. He will almost always chill out and go to sleep (though he may not remain asleep when removed). He feels very safe in them. It is great for doing stuff around the house when he won't sit quietly on his own; i.e., most of the time. Also, they are very handy for the use of public transportation and navigating the narrow isles of urban grocery markets--much less cumbersome than a stroller. (Also, we don't yet own a stroller, or "poussette.")

Third, we love our bouncy chair. I think most parents know how necessary such an item is for survival. He is also coming to enjoy the swing. He will often nap or sit quietly for a little while in these fantastic seats.

Fourthly, we adore the camera. We takes pics almost every day. Without it, we would not capture the outrageous cuteness.

Baby Power

Emmett can sort of hold up his head now--we couldn't get a good photo since it bobbles so much, but he is sitting by himself in the chair. As you can see, he likes to champion the cause of babies. You can also enjoy another DIY outfit, decorated by our dear, dear neighbor Sarah. Merci Sarah!