Category: Family & Home

Miles is coming along so well. Watching him experiment with the eyes he’s never used… we’re aware of exactly when his eyes are open, how wide, and for how long, but unsure of whether he actually “sees” anything. He does seem to turn his head toward our voices, following with eyes.

All of his parts are brand new, untested. These lungs have never been used – how to turn them on? These eyeballs have never seen anything. And they work, right off the showroom floor! These limbs have barely moved, not with this much range of motion anyway – but this elbow does flex! These lips do lick! He’s got to figure out how each and every part works. Doing great so far. Grasping motions are already seeming slightly more focused, more coordinated.

(click)

Amy’s milk came in yesterday – the real deal, not colostrum. The milk knocks him right out – amazing soporific powers. Breast-feeding has gotten easier since last post – mom and baby have both learned the tricks. Wide mouth, tongue down, chin down, lips flanged. His sucking is so incredibly strong – put a finger in there and be amazed.

Filing his nails every other day to keep his face from getting scratched. A and I are learning the diaper thing as we go – it’s not too hard.

He sleeps with us in the bed, between us. No, you don’t have to worry about rolling over them any more than you have to worry about falling out of bed – you just don’t.

We’re floating in love – melting several times daily.

A collection of images from Miles’ first 24 hours on earth, and of mom and dad’s time in the hospital.

Before Miles was called Miles, he was just Appleseed. We tried to take a profile shot of Amy’s belly each week during the pregnancy (although we missed a few), then morphed* them all together at the end.

*Technically, this isn’t a real morph since I didn’t map point to point, just iPhoto’s built-in Slide Show output.

Our baby was born on the 23rd day of September, 2002.

So maybe there was a good reason why Miles arrived a week late — September 23 turns out to be a very auspicious day. For one thing, it’s the Autumnal Equinox, so there’s a nice seasonal/celestial connection.

The 23rd also turns out to be John Coltrane’s birthday – who better for a child sharing a name with Miles Davis to share a birthday with than John Coltrane?

And then there’s the 23 connection – in the works of William S. Burroughs and Robert Anton Wilson, much is made of the significance of the number 23. We’re not numerologists, but Scot and friends have always taken pleasure in uncovering the strange preponderance of the number 23.

• Homo sapiens are given 46 chromosomes from their parents: 23 male and 23 female.
• The human biorhythm cycle is generally 23 days long.
• It takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate through the human body.
• There are 23 vertebrae in the human body.
• Geosynchronous orbit occurs at 23,000 miles above Earth’s surface.
• A full turn of the D.N.A. helix occurs every 23 angstroms.
• The tilt of Earth’s axis is roughly 23° accounting for the changing seasons and the procession of the Zodiac.
• The Dog Days of Summer begin on July 23 when Sirius the Dogstar rises from behind the sun.
• 23 Skidoo

Technically a Libra, Miles was born on the cusp between Virgo and Libra. Like we care ;)

Too overwhelmed to write right now, need time to process all these thoughts. Such a day, such a fantastically beautiful day. Our baby was born less than three hours after Amy went into labor. It was an intense labor, very pure and very fast. We now have a dark-haired boy, six pounds 12 ounces, 19″ long, blue eyes (we think – so far he’s barely squinted up at us out of them). We don’t have a name for him yet – that will come soon enough.

The birth was so incredible. More tomorrow.

At 2:15 pm, Scot got the call at work from Amy, who had just gone into labor during lunch with Stacia, our doula (perfect timing!). Scot rushed home to find Amy having contractions a few minutes apart. We packed her bag, dug out the birth plan, and got ready to head to the hospital.

This is it: the axis upon which the rest of our lives turn. More later.

UN Secretary General Kofi Anan has warned the United States not to act alone against Iraq. Bush is apparently unphased by the warning. How can a serious, official warning from the rest of the world mean nothing to us? Are we really so righteous? Do we know something the rest of the world doesn’t know? Is war entirely about politics now? It’s as if war isn’t even taken seriously by the world’s most powerful leader, like it’s a trifle to be played with for rhetorical purposes. I’m so afraid we’re heading for WWIII, right on the brink of Appleseed’s birth.

Speaking of which, when we first learned Amy was pregnant, back in January, we calculated that the birth could end up being very close to Sept. 11. We hoped it wouldn’t come on that day (yes, superstitious), and were glad to have gotten through yesterday’s tickertape without her going into labor.

Amy reminded me today that the kid will weigh around 7-8 pounds. Our cats weigh 11 and 15 pounds respectively. A human smaller (much smaller) than a cat. Can you get to that?

Music: A Certain Ratio – Loss

… and as I prattle on about irrational consumption and web technologies, Amy inches ever closer toward the big day. Sept. 17 is the “official” date, but she’s full-term as of a few days ago – the baby could come at any time and be perfectly healthy.

We’ve scrambled the past few months to get everything in order – baby room put together, crib bought and built, little dresser, diaper service lined up, bottles and ointments and onesies and smoke alarm and all the million little details. Eight weeks of birthing classes and heads filled with a thousand factoids. Breathing practice and birth plan written and ready…

But it’s all just logistics, nothing more. I don’t feel ready. I don’t know if you can ever be ready. It’s all just a gigantic question mark. So many expectations, and yet no expectations. I lay awake at night wondering, a bit freaked out. Everyone warns us to get our sleep while we can, but I’m having trouble sleeping. There’s too much big stuff around the corner.

Amy had her last day at work yesterday. She’s now officially a stay-at-home mom. And yesterday she said that her lower spine felt wiggly, which made me remember something from our class – in the last few days or weeks, prostaglandin starts to flow into the bones and joints, softening them, and loosening the joints. A jelly-like feeling is common just before birth. We’re almost there. Almost there. Any day now I’m going to get a call at work and that’s going to be it. And everything changes.

When I first heard that our birthing classes were going to require eight 3-hour sessions, I wondered how we could possibly fill that much time talking about the birthing process. Now that the 6th class has passed, I know.

For example, tonight we learned that if you have a problem with overflow while breast feeding, you can fix it with cabbage leaves. Take a fresh cabbage leaf and slip it into your bra like a lettuce cup. After about one hour it will have wilted and can be replaced with another. Lather, rinse, repeat until breasts disengorge. Ancient Chinese method, confirmed by modern western science wizards!

Not everything we learn is so whimsical, but it really is amazing how much there is to learn about something I’ve more or less taken for granted my whole life.

Well, we weren’t really sure whether we wanted too much influence on our baby naming decision, but finally decided what the hell, and posted a baby naming poll at babycenter, where Mike works. Please vote. We reserve the right to totally ignore public opinion ;)

Speaking of baald, he recently picked up this amazing 3-CD compendium of Burt Bacharach tracks – baby, this music is huge!

“Don’t send him off with your hair in curlers, he may never return….”