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August 23, 2005
One Month, One Week, One Day
On Monday Dashiell was one month, one week and one day old according to his birthday ticker. Which translates to about 5.5 weeks.
It's been a pretty tough and intense 5.5 weeks. His sleeping is still erratic but as of the last few days he's actually sleeping several longer stretches at a time, mostly though these come after being awake for a very long period of time, usually at night (all night), cluster feeding and being fussy. Longer stretches means about 2.5 hours at a time. Daytimes are tough too because you just can't put him down without him getting really fussy, which can segue into full blown crying within minutes. Sometimes if he isn't already grouchy I can put him in the swing that PreZ's aunt gave us as a gift, but that only lasts 10 minutes tops... the sling works best so far, but there are times when I need to do things that require that I don't have him strapped to my person, because I can't really bend over with him in the sling. The sling is also still a learning process for me, I am not entirely sure he's in there properly sometimes.
Having him be awake during large chunks of the day, and having him needing to be held all the time can be a little frustrating sometimes, I end up tethered to the couch for large swathes of time... frustrating when there are so many things you want or need to do. On the weekends and evenings PreZ and I have taken to tag-team cleaning/chore sessions. So on the weekend we managed to go through a bunch of stuff and the bookcases in the living room, and PreZ managed to tidy up and reorganise a bunch of stuff in the computer room with new storage furniture we purchased. I got bits and pieces of the kitchen organised, but still have a ways to go there, and the bathroom also needs doing.
While we were at a Buy Buy Baby on the weekend, which we found completely by accident, we bought a glider chair, so that'll arrive sometime in the next bunch of weeks. It was a toss up between one that was super comfy, but design wise wasn't the prettiest thing, and the back was low so it had no head support, or one that was marginally less comfy, but had a higher back and was nicer to look at. So we went with option #2. That first chair was the kind that would have you snoozing in it in under 5 minutes, I swear. We ordered the chair in lilac, which was the nicest colour out of a range of swatches and fabric types. I can't wait for it to arrive, it'll be nice to be able to sit in that to feed Dashiell, rather than on the couch, which is hard to get up out of with him in my arms sometimes.
We also got a baby monitor, for use mainly in the computer room. With the fan whirr from the rack and various machines, you can't always hear him starting to fuss, and it's nicer to be able to get to him while he's just fussing rather than full blown crying. It's much easier to settle him down that way.
There was also something that blew my mind while we were there. We were looking at strollers, as we don't have one and were planning on waiting to get an umbrella stroller later on, and I noticed that there was a stroller for sale for $799. Who in the hell buys a stroller that expensive? And for that money I expect it to come gold plated and encrusted with jewels, which it didn't, or bedecked with nifty gadgets and gizmos, which it wasn't. Similarly I thought $200 was a bit steep for a highchair too...
Other than that, Dashiell is doing very well. Last week on Monday he had his audiologist's appointment, and his hearing is fine. Next Monday is a check-up with the pediatric cardiologist Dr. Crowe for his heart murmur, and sometime soon the midwife will be dropping by for her 6 week post-partum visit.
Posted on 04:39 PM to: Dashiell