Light in the Leaves and the Great Catastrophes

This past weekend was a bank holiday weekend. WAIT! you say, it's a bank holiday and you didn't go on vacation!?!? Yes, it's true, we must be new parents or something ;) But seriously, we can't get a passport for Finn until mid-October and we're already going away for a weekend in Ireland in September, so we decided to stay at home and enjoy each other on our own turf.
So, bad news first... Sunday was not so good. Travis got called in to work at 4am. Our power went out at home. Then a light bulb blew up in the kitchen and it blew the fuses for half the apartment including all of the appliances necessary to making formula for Finn. I had enough prepped to last for a couple more feedings, but things were looking dire. Shortly after noon I called Travis to see if he could come home to fix our crisis at home which Finn and I thought was more pressing than whatever else he might have been working on.
Travis came home only to find the gates that keep us nice and safe weren't opening. The pedestrian gate was open, so he parked on the sidewalk like any good Irish person would do and walked in. We also have electronic/magnetic locks on the building doors, and he called me from downstairs to see if I could let him in since his little swiper didn't seem to be working. Finn and I trekked downstairs only to discover that we couldn't get out and Travis couldn't get in. OH NO! I did know that we could get out if I pulled the fire alarm, but that seemed a little extreme. Travis ended up scaling a retaining wall and climbing in on our balcony, about 15min later someone did pull the fire alarm and all the magnets released so the doors were open.
So power went on and off a few more times, water went off once, we had no cable, and no internet (luckily we still had our wireless box from the last apt which still worked so we were OK) and no common area power at all until today. Apparently the power company came out to take a look at the problem on Sunday when it happened, determined they didn't have the part, and couldn't get it until after the bank holiday weekend. Sometimes I get a little bit homesick...
Travis snuck in a quick nap and ended up back at the plant the rest of Sunday, so our holiday weekend was looking like a dud :/
Monday, however, things looked up. The pouring rain stopped, the sun came out, so we quick packed up Finn and headed to the botanic gardens. We did a little walking around outside, see Travis and Finn in his super-duper 'buggy' on the bridge. We got to use the sun parasol! It's so exciting not to have to use the rain cover!
We ended up spending most of our time in the tropical greenhouse, we got in there and Finn just loved it - as much as a 5 week old can. He just looked and looked and looked. Unfortunately we didn't get too many pictures of that, we were too excited watching him watching the light in the greenery. Babies his age like high contrast things and the light in the leaves was just right for his developing vision. You can sort of see it in the picture where I'm holding him upright and in the one where Travis is holding him and Finn looks like he's about to fall asleep on a leaf (strange camera angle but his eyes are open and he was looking, I promise!). Plus I threw in one scrunchie face since that's still the face we see a lot of and one 'I'm really sleepy, can we go home now?' face.

Finn's First Pub

Friday was Finn's first trip to our new regular pub, or the 'local' as the folks around here would say. It was the best day we've had in months, not cold, not rainy, not yucky at all. Finn and I walked down the few blocks to meet Travis and some of his coworkers after work and another wife and their 3 kids came, too.
The pub is Crowes and Finn enjoyed (i.e. slept through) it. He even made his special scrunchie face for one of the pictures, he makes this face even when we don't do terrible things like make him face the sun (truly, it was only for a split second and it wasn't as bright as the picture makes it look). Click on the photo for a close up of scrunchie face. These days we seem to see this face a lot... someday his little tummy will start working better and we'll move on past scrunchie face and 'windy' baby...
Pubs here are great family places, not at all like bars in the US. There are often kids of all shapes and sizes running about and they are welcome, up to a point. Generally after 8 or 9 pm all kids are asked to leave, but until then pretty much every pub I've been in is quite the family place. Hard for Americans to understand if you've only ever been to bars in North America, but it's really a different culture and atmosphere. Finn was adequately fussed over by neighboring tables and our waitress :)

Forget the gym...

Forget the gym, no lifting weights for me! I'm just going to lift Finn.
We went to a new GP today to 'register.' This is a weird thing that I don't quite understand...we had to make an appointment to get a new doctor. Both Finn and I had to go in and have a visit with the new doc, who will be our doc for the next 3 mos, and fill out a generic new patient form so Finn can qualify for the child benefit free health immunizations and checkups in the future. We'll be around to take advantage of the 2mos and maybe 4mos immunizations. So today both Finn and I had to pay - note that's pay twice - so we can qualify for two free appointments. Uh, OK.
Anyway, I liked the doc we saw today, nice guy who I think is younger than me. While we were there I asked him to weigh Finn, 5.75kg which I had to come home and figure out in lb and oz... hold on to your seat now... 12 lb 11 oz. WHOA! The doc was a bit amazed at Finn's weight and double checked his age with me. Yes, he really is still only four weeks old. Yes, he does eat a lot and yes we do go through a lot of diapers. And I think part of his overall fussiness HAS to be growing pains. Wouldn't you feel fussy if you increased your body size nearly 10% in a week? Sounds painful to me. All I know is that the 0-3 clothes are a thing of the past and the 3-6 aren't going to last long at this pace.
So, cute outfit pictures this posting. I especially like the 'tall' outfit which won't fit much longer. Travis has never seen this outfit in real life so when I put it on Finn today I was determined to take a picture of it on him so Travis could see what it looks like. For some reason this particular outfit always gets spit up on or falls victim to a diaper blow out. True to form Finn threw up all over it right after these pictures were taken.
Have you noticed the super chubby cheeks? When he sucks his head looks bottom heavy to me. I'm sure he'll outgrow it but it's funny right now :)
I tried to get some pictures with his eyes open, he's been awake more the past couple days. Trouble is when his eyes are open he turns his head to the side. The straight up head isn't coordinated with open eyes quite yet, at least when he's laying down.
PS if you click on the picture you'll get bigger ones... in the close up one where Finn's wearing the striped shirt you can see his milk moustache!

Blondie

Many of you know that Travis and I picked out Finn's name long before his arrival. You may not know that Finn means 'fair haired' and Felix means 'the lucky one.' We liked the name Finn and knew it would be an Irish name that would be easy for Americans to say and spell. We did not, however, expect our wee one to actually be fair haired. Finn's mop of fair hair has become his most commented upon feature around here, we only wish our far away friends and family could see it! It's still thick and blond, and just begs to be touched. After all the comments we got at the hospital we asked if blond babies were less common - it's not that, it's that blond babies are generally born with not very much hair and the unusual thing about baby Finn is that he's got a headful (at least for now).
We make a trip to the health clinic this past week to get weighed. 11lb 13oz at 3 weeks. Finn's now 4 weeks, (yikes, one month!) old, and we have indeed had to pack in some of his 0-3 month clothes already. Bring on the 3-6 month clothes!
This week has been a little drier so we've gotten out some more. We went to the farmer's market just around the corner for some falafels, yummy! Travis managed to get home from work a little early today and we're having a lovely evening at home enjoying each other. Next weekend is a bank holiday weekend so he'll have an extra day at home to play with Finn (and give mom a little break).
Pictures are his head of hair, reading his 'high contrast' book (mostly b&w images that are easy for babies to see) with dad, and chilling out with mom.

Belching, Junk Food, and Junk TV

If you hadn't already noticed, the blog has taken turn towards news about Finn. Well, that's just how it is around here these days. As I'm sure you understand my life is all about Finn right now and when Travis is home it's what his life is all about, too. Probably even some of the time when he's at work...
So Friday marked 3 weeks old and the 0-3 mos pjs are getting too small. Rompers and generous onsies are still doing OK but those pjs are going to have to go in a week or so. We're quick putting him in all our favorites before he can't wear them anymore. Picture this week is one of those favorites...it's got a froggie going after a fly and a fish on it. Plus it's stripy. We both think baby Finn looks really nice in bright colors and stripes.
Big week for us, Finn went for his first ride on the DART. We ventured all the way to city centre for lotion for mom and a couple more outfits for Finn. He slept through the whole thing. We also had our first al fresco lunch, Finn woke up on the train ride home and started howling. Luckily the sun was out so we sat on a bench at the Sandymount station and sucked down a bottle.
Also this week, VISION! He's always been able to see, of course, and way back in about week one he noticed the groovy mobile above the swing. Since we don't have a true crib, just the pack and play, there's no way for us to attach any cool stuff to his sleeping area. That includes the super cool Fisher Price Aquarium that we got from a friend (shout out to Eileen P.). Looking up at the light fixture on the ceiling is only entertaining for so long so we've gotten creative about placing baby friendly stuff within 8-12 inches from where Finn spends his time. This week we found a place to put the aquarium where he can see it from his nap spot. He even manages to turn it on and smack one of the toys occasionally with his random baby arm flailing. It's a bit surprising when I think he's asleep and all of a sudden the music just gets started...
We also discovered 'comfort sucking' this week. This was all Travis, and I'm sure glad he figured it out. Finn likes to suck, but once his bottle is gone it's not a good idea for him to gulp down air while sucking on the bottle. Or for him to suck on a not empty bottle when he's done eating (it gets really messy). Travis stuck a soother (you prob know them as pacifiers, but isn't the Irish way of calling it a soother nice?) in his mouth after he was done eating and voila! Happy baby, not throwing up, sucking merrily along satisfying the urge to suck but not having to eat to do it. He's not old enough to keep the soother in very well so it's well supervised sucking with lots of popping the soother back in, but he's a happy little camper.
So, I'm taking the picture that's posted this week and can't get over how much it looks like the baby version of junk food (soother) and junk tv (aquarium). Feeling a bit like a bad mummy, pacifying my child with battery powered-light up-noise making (it's really a quality toy that I love, the aquarium is allowed in my no-battery powered toy world b/c it makes nice music and has a timer so it turns itself off) and a silicone blob stuck in his mouth. Well, he's happy and calm and if it makes him feel good then I'm OK with it. One of the many ideals I'm sure I'll work through during this whole parenthood adventure!
The windy baby syndrome (gassy baby for Americans) is getting slightly better. We're using some drops that help 'bring up the wind.' Finn lets rip with some belches that have me thinking of Phil Q! I laughed out loud yesterday at one that truly should not have come from one so small. I was laughing so hard I think I startled Finn, he wasn't quite sure what was going on. We've been on the new formula about a week and a half now and it seems to be a bit gentler on his system than the previous stuff. Advice from other moms is that his tummy still has some developing to do and that by the time he's 3-4 months this will all be pretty much sorted out. That sounded like forever to me until I realized that 3 months is only 12 weeks and we're already 1/4 of the way there...all of a sudden it didn't sound so bad. In the meantime we do what we can to make Finn comfortable. Added bonus is that I never have to decide whether I should hang my clothes up and wear them one more time or just toss them in the wash. They always have spit up on them somewhere, I go through almost as many outfits a day as Finn!