Logan David DeLancey, Welcome to the World

Well, I seem to have kids pretty much on time. RJ was born on his due date and our newest addition was born YESTERDAY, one day before his due date.


If I had to narrow down the labor and delivery into 3 words, I'd choose timely, fast, and furious.

First, TIMELY, both in terms of being one day before my due date AND because we were actually getting ready to go for my prenatal visit when labor started. My group prenatal visit was at 3:30 at the Birth Center. At around 2:15, I had a contraction that was clearly not a braxton-hicks, and then by 2:30, when we were going to leave, I had 2 more...yep, labor was starting, so we changed our original plan (which was me going with my mom to the prenatal while Lance and Gramma Ho Ho and RJ would follow when RJ woke from nap) to Lance taking me and giving my Mom directions to the Birth Center. It was a good thing that Lance went too because the labor was...

FAST. The first contraction was around 2:15pm, we got to the birth center around 3:30pm, and Logan was born at 4:33pm. Yes, that's a 2 hour and 15 minute labor. Mom, Gramma Ho! Ho! and RJ missed the birth itself, coming in close to 5. (so it's REALLY good that Lance went with me!) And boy was it...

FURIOUS. By the time we got to the birth center, my contractions went from 5 minutes to 2 minutes apart, and shortly upon getting there I was in transition and didn't have a break between contractions and my body just took over. Even my water breaking was in spectacular fashion as it burst and sent three people flying off the bed to avoid the huge powerful gust of fluid. I probably pushed for about 15 minutes and he was out. All 8 lbs. and 2 oz. of him.

It was quite a whirlwind. I had intended to get into the birthing tub for labor and delivery, but once I laid on my side on the full sized bed to get through the first few contractions after arriving, when the tub was filling, I had found my position where I had the most control and indicated that I was not moving for anything - even to get into the coveted jacuzzi tub. It really was a wonderful experience to have control over my birth experience. With RJ I felt as if others were directing me in the hospital, and generally pissing me off. But with Logan, my midwives and doula and Lance just supported my body, helping me to relax and letting my body do what it needed to do. In fact my doula remarked that if anyone asked her what she needed to do at my birth, she would've had to reply nothing. Apparently Lance and I were so in sync that she didn't need to do very much - he kept me calm and worked through each contraction and didn't leave my side (which also resulted in the video camera not being started because there were no breaks between contractions! oops!).

Both Logan and I went through the whole ordeal with no drugs, no interventions, completely naturally and healthily. I couldn't be happier to have birthed this child at an independent birth center. We got home at about 11pm after birthing at 4:33pm, and spent our first night together in our own bed. We spend the first few hours after birth toting Logan's Placenta around with him (it helps with iron levels to keep him attached rather than cutting the cord right away) while I nursed a few times and ate some dinner myself. RJ climbed right up in the nice double bed that I birthed in and got to meet his new baby brother within a half hour of him being born. After a few hours of this bonding, with a few minor vitals checks, Logan had his newborn assessment and got weighed, although it was after he dropped several loads of meconium in his blanket, so he was probably a few ounces heavier at birth.

Here are the stats:
Logan David DeLancey
Born: 1/23/2010, 4:33 PST
8 lbs. 2 oz. 19 3/4 inches long, 13 inch head, trunk, and abdomen circumference

Take a ride wit me...

This post comes from the unfinished archive -- we started it in October but are just finishing up now.

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Since he was born, RJ has been riding rear-facing. This is the safest way for a baby to ride, and so we continued to sit rear facing as long as we could. The limits of the car seat for rear facing were 35 lbs/33inches tall. RJ is still a little guy, so I know he's not 35 lbs and won't be for a while (he was 20 lbs in June!) but he does keep growing out of his feetie pajamas, so I knew he was getting pretty tall.

We had to play a rare game of musical car seats a few weekends back due to my car needing service and Tracy Honda being really really slow. I decided to measure RJ because he has been frustrated about his less than spacious car rides lately (he's been kicking the seat back for a while). Sure enough, RJ was approximately 32.5 inches tall. It was hard to tell exactly because he was wearing shoes, wouldn't stand up straight when I had the measuring tape out and kept dancing around and ducking! Anyway, since he was so close, and my measurement was probably an underestimate due to the ducking, and he's been frustrated and cramped (thus making the long commute uncomfortable for me too), it was time to flip the seat.



Now all I need is to get him a toy steering wheel to play with in the car. He's obsessed with getting at the real steering wheel. This picture was of him after climbing in through the passenger seat and over the armrest to get to the coveted drivers seat!

Adios DamnedPump!

I have been breastfeeding RJ for over a year. Given how demanding work has been, I am damn proud of myself for surpassing my goal of breastfeeding for a year. I had at one time a grand idea of letting RJ dictate the weaning schedule, but given how rough this past school year was with pumping and nursing between classes and meetings, which were never at the same time every day, I wanted to ensure that I wouldn't be nursing RJ during the day when the Fall Semester starts. So, I gave the weaning process a little nudge.

Before weaning, here was our nursing schedule:

Pump for freezer/bottles 5am
Wake 6:30
Snack 9:00
Naptime 1:00
Snack 4:00
Bedtime 7/7:30

When school was in session, I was pumping in place of the 9:00 (and also at the 5am pump), but nursing on the weekends. Since June, I have been nursing for the 9:00, but I kept pumping knowing that I would need the supply of pumped milk in order to mix with whole milk when I started weaning.

The goal is to drop the 9:00, 1:00, and 4:00 feedings, but keep the wake-time and bedtime feedings for as long as RJ wants. To do this, I'm using a "don't offer, don't refuse" approach, dropping one feeding at a time. In early July, I started mixing pumped breast milk with whole milk in a sippy cup. For two days, RJ drank 5oz. breast milk mixed with 1 oz. whole milk, which we reduced by an ounce of breast milk every two days until he was drinking 6 oz of whole milk out of a sippy. The first feeding I dropped was his naptime nursing, because of it's close proximity to lunch anyway. Also, dropping this feeding gave me a big chunk of time when I could drive down to campus on my babysitter days. RJ responded wonderfully and didn't ask to nurse at that time at all. There was one time that he wanted to nurse an extra time in the afternoon, but it was the exception rather than the rule. As you can see from this picture, he is a fan of his sippy cups and even plucked this one out of the fridge when I had opened it to get something else!

We are amassing quite the arsenal of sippy cups free of BPA and Phlalates and PVC. We have 2 Klean Kanteens, 1 Born Free Soft-Spout Trainer, 1 Foogo Sippy, 1 Think Baby Trainer, 1 Boon Fluid, and 1 Nuby Easy Grip Sippy. RJ is not as fond of the Nuby as he is of the rest. Seems like he knows which one is the cheap one already. In terms of leak-proof ness - The Foogo and Klean Kanteen are the best and the Born Free is the leakiest. Now if only we could get RJ's chin to stop leaking, we'd be in good shape! Next on the acquisition list is the "Safe Sippy"

Since the first reduction went so well, we only waited a few days to start the process with his 9:00 am nursing, which allowed us to get moving quicker when we wanted to go into the city or whatever. This worked out quite well when Sully was here and we were going into town a lot.

We're down to three times a day now - when he wakes up, when he wakes up from his afternoon nap, and at bedtime. I'm going to hold steady for a little while and drop his post-afternoon nap feeding just before our 5th anniversary next month, so that we can spend the whole day just as a couple.

RJ seems to have responded to this quite well. Every once and a while, he'll come up and lift up my shirt (his personal, very obvious, baby sign for "I want the boobs"), and I indulge him. It hasn't happened often - maybe 3 times total in the last month, so I think he was ready for weaning anyway. After all, many of his feedings were very active, wiggly toddler feedings, so I'm not convinced he was getting a whole lot. What I have noticed is that he nurses a lot better now that we're not nursing so often.

My favorite thing about daytime weaning is bidding adieu to my not-so-good friend, DamnedPump. Now that there is only one more feeding left to drop, and I have a freezer full of breast milk due to my continued daily pumping, I decided that it was time to stop waking up at 5am to pump. I hated pumping and it was never easy for me, as I had to pump at least twice, most of the time 3 times for every one feeding I missed, with the exception of my first pump of the day. (I shudder to think what would've been had I not had a good Medela pump!) I only kept up pumping first thing in the morning because I wanted to make sure that I still could pump, so that I wouldn't have to give RJ formula. I know it wouldn't have hurt him, but breast milk is better for him and I abhor the smell of formula. But now that RJ is old enough not to "need" breast milk, I am going to let the supply of frozen milk dwindle as he drops the 4pm feeding and give him sippy cups of breast milk if I'm ever not around for bedtime (which will happen about 6 times during the fall semester when I have a night class that I have to teach- urgh!) After it's gone, he'll get a cup of whole milk if I'm not there.

So Adios DamnedPump! I'll probably see you again someday when baby #2 needs milk (No, I'm not pregnant. Don't get all excited, Mom!)

By the end of the summer, RJ will be nursing only when he first wakes up and right before he goes to sleep at night. We plan on continuing as long as he wants to. We both still enjoy it and it's still good for him so I am not going to nudge him to keep it up or to stop. If he's still nursing and I get pregnant again or you know, he's still nursing in kindergarten, then maybe I'll think about nudging him toward weaning those feedings. But for now, there are still some daily boobies in RJ's life.

Traveling with a One-Year-Old

RJ's been to New England, the Mid-Atlantic, and the West. So for his first birthday we took him to the South. We even splurged and bought RJ his very own seat on the plane. We didn't do it for the frequent flyer miles but so that he wasn't cramped and squirmy -- and so that we weren't cramped and annoyed. The added expense sucks since he's still eligible for free rides as a lap infant, but it is a hell of a lot safer now that he is so mobile and squirmy. I'm now convinced it is worth ever penny since he can nap in his seat and it's easier to do things such as feed him when he's strapped down.

Up until this trip we had been hoping our flights weren't full so that he could luck into a seat. The problem is that we're usually on jam-packed flights or the airlines wouldn't tell us there were empty seats until we had boarded and the car seat was already gate-checked. This has been true of Jet Blue, United, US Air, and Frontier. The exception was Southwest.

RJ is now a seasoned traveler and in his first year has traveled from CA to NY, PA, MA, RI, IN, and SC. And that's not even counting any of the layover states (AZ, NV, CO). In the first few days of his second year, he's already been to NC and GA as well. Here's a summary of his trips:

1 mo. - Buffalo, NY, Pittsburgh, PA
3 mos. - Hollywood, CA
6 mos. - Buffalo, NY, Pittsburgh,PA
9 mos. - Boston, MA, Providence, RI, Indianapolis,IN
12 mos. - Greenville,SC, Asheville, NC, Atlanta,GA

As we've traveled a lot with RJ, we have learned a few things. First, we are still loving his diaper backpack (Kelty K.I.D.S. TC 2.5), since it is also a child carrier, which leaves our hands free for gate checking the stroller and holding boarding passes. Our umbrella stroller is a Chicco C6 in Tangerine, which I like a lot better than his travel system stroller. Also, on this trip, we made our first trip without a pack-n-play because we found a product that is in the running for best-baby-travel-product-ever. We are the very happy owners of a Kidco PeaPod Plus Travel Bed, which collapses small enough to fit in our checked suitcase. This thing is awesome because not only does it mean that we don't have to pay for an extra piece of luggage now that airlines are starting to restrict checked bags to one free suitcase per person (if that). Ah, I miss the days when we didn't even check luggage and went halfway around the world with our carry-on sized backpacks. Having the tiny tent also means that RJ can sleep or nap anywhere because it's his own little place that's just for sleeping and can shut out the lights. I had him nap in it a few days before we left just to make sure, but even the first day he had no problems with it! Also, it's safe for children from birth through approximately 6 years or until they get too tall for it.

Onesie up...

A few weekends ago we went to one of the central valley's finest towns -- Modesto, CA. Some of Modesto's claims to fame include worst air quality in the country, highest car theft per capita, home of Scott Peterson, and birth place of George Lucas.

To learn more about our destination we popped American Graffiti in the dvd player. This early Lucas treat was set in Modesto and even makes reference to Turlock High (as in Turlock, 14 miles south of Modesto where Cheryl works).


Anyway, we went to Modesto for "California's Largest Garage Sale". The sale had been advertised on the radio for weeks. Since RJ started busting out of his clothes, we decided it was time to expand his wardrobe. Modesto was a bust, and the "largest" claim was clearly overblown.

This is one of those things that seems obvious, but babies will outgrow their clothes before wearing them out. That makes yard sales an easy way to pick up otherwise expensive clothes for as little as a quarter per item. I set up a little RSS feed to search craigslist for any garage sales in the surrounding towns that have baby items. We spent the past few weekends stopping at these garage sales and did rather well--especially once we started targeting better neighborhoods than Modesto.

For example, this weekend we spent $40 on all the stuff pictured. We got a big Madagascar Alex play mat to fit with our nursery theme. We picked up 9 barely used Gap Kids socks -- our favorite brand. We picked up a jean jacket, an arizona fleece jacket, 2 button down gap kids shirts, a bunch of nighties, a brand new winter bunting with the tag still on it ($28 retail), a brand new pair of converse shoes never worn ($24 retail), a pair of sandals that were worn maybe once, and a bunch more.

Last weekend we were in Tracy and Livermore where for $30 we picked up a bunch of bibs, hats, a few pair of jeans, a few nighties with their tags still on, overalls, blue hoodie (the San Francisco essential), nighties, etc.

Not only can you find clothes, you can also find lead-free toys. A quick run through the dishwasher or sink with soapy water makes them play worthy. In fact, at one yard sale in Livermore after taking a look at RJ and his charming smile the woman just told us to take whatever he wanted. Can't complain about free toys.

I'm two months old, smiling, and conversations with Blue Dog

RJ sleeps his fair share of the average for his age which is around 16.5 hours. Some days it is less, other days more, but so far not more than four or five hours consecutively. But what does he do in the time that he's awake (and not eating)?

He has his mobile with the interesting zebra. He seems to enjoy swinging in his, well, swing that Grandma D got him which also has a mobile that has bouncing leaves.

At this stage there are two things RJ is working on:

- language/social development
- motor control

So, to that end some things that we do to foster his development are:

- provide a running commentary on what we're doing.
- ask questions such as; "Who's the best football team around?" then give RJ a chance to coo and then say, "yes, that's right, the Steelers!"
- read aloud, right now RJ is learning about character animation and developmental psychology in addition to the wacky world of Dr. Suess and other children's book authors
- sing; Lance claims that "The Humpty Dance" seems to be a favorite so far followed by my made-up "Go to sleep little RJ go to sleep" song

It seems to be working. RJ is two months old and he's doing more cool stuff by the day. My personal favorites are his cooing and the smiling, which he's been doing for that last couple of weeks. I finally captured these on the camera to share.And for those of you who are thinking, but hey, I can't HEAR him coo in this images, click on the smiley picture below and you'll be linked to more pictures of RJ and a video of him cooing. One other thing that he's been doing is not only "talking" and smiling at people like momma and daddy, but also to his toys that have faces. For example, he had quite the conversation with Blue Dog while I was folding his laundry the other day and even reached out to touch Blue Dog (on purpose)! This is the first time I've noticed an actual controlled reach for something other than my nipples (yes, he finds it necessary to grab and squeeze them prior to eating), so kudos to Aunt Amy and Uncle Luke for picking the toy that he specifically reached for. Of course my picture only got his touching Blue Dog, and not all the cute expressions and exclamations, but I'll be better about snapping pictures next time. He also enjoys "talking" to Stuffed Monkey and the rainforest creatures on his bouncer and swing and play mat.

Happy Anniversary to Us

Four years ago last week, we got married on a pretty sunny day in Buffalo. We celebrated by leaving our cutie pie with a babysitter and going out for some yummy sushi. We went to Kawa Sushi in Livermore, which was as yummy as the first time we went for my birthday last year. They make a fantastic caterpillar roll!

As much as I love our little boy, and kept seeing his little face in my head, it was very nice to get a break and get through a whole meal together with Lance with no interruptions or eating in shifts! We plan on continuing the celebration when we treat ourselves to a Napa wine tour in a limo on Labor Day when Izzy and Jaime come to town.

RJ seems to like his babysitter, Erika, who is one of my former students and currently a research assistant of mine. When we came home, he was smiling and cooing with her, which is a great sign since she'll be watching RJ when we're on the wine tour also.

RJ's First Family Visits and Clogged Milk Ducts

When RJ and I were in Buffalo, RJ got the opportunity to meet his relatives for the first time.







He even went to his first bar; 'Ponies' in Middleport.

In addition to the wedding, Lance and I also rented a car and drove down to Pittsburgh from Buffalo to take RJ to meet members of his family and our friends Carl and Lisa. It was a whirlwind trip, but well worth it for us to show off our cute little boy some more.

It was also on this leg of our trip that I discovered the agony that is a clogged milk duct. Although given my feeding behavior, it's not surprising that this happened. I fed RJ regularly AND pumped after almost every feed for a week - so my milk supply was up. Then at the wedding, I pumped, but not as often or for as long as I probably should have. Then I slept that night and obviously didn't get up every three hours to pump. Then when I did get back to RJ, I didn't pump after feeding him AND I fed him pumped breast milk from a bottle when we were on the road because he drinks a bottle faster than the breast (and didn't pump because we were in the car). So I had all this milk coming in and it wasn't all getting out. So, our first night in Pittsburgh, my one breast decided that it had enough of this and started getting lumpy and sore - the symptoms of a clogged duct. My shower the next morning and massaging it helped, but didn't unclog it, and so I dealt with the pain all day long, which was only temporarily relieved while I was nursing. Then at the end of the day we got to a store to get some Advil and we got back to Lance's Aunt and Uncle's house, where I discovered the joy that is a heating pad. By morning the clog was a memory, and my breast was not lumpy and sore anymore. And of course, now I know what to do if this happens again.

RJ and Momma's First Week Alone and Cloth Diapering Commentary

The Grandma elves (who cooked and cleaned and brought RJ to me when it was time to feed him in the middle of the night) have left and Lance is back in DreamWorker land, which leaves RJ with his Momma full time during the day. We've had quite a week and we might be getting a rhythm, but it's hard to tell. RJ tends to march to the beat of his own drummer - there doesn't seem to be two days the same at all.

However a couple of things are constant - he definitely eats. We've been doing a lot of breastfeeding, which I'm now discovering as he's gotten crankier as the week progressed is the only surefire means of getting him to stop crying. Who knew my boobs had such mystical powers? If only they could get him to STAY asleep once he comes off the boob and I want to move him to the crib. Also he eats on demand, so sometimes I might get a 20 minute break between feedings and sometimes I get 3 hours (we try not to let him go longer than that at this point). We're trying to get him to stick to every 2 hours in the daytime and every 3 hours at night, and for the most part he does. However, for the last few days he's been crankier and wants to feed more often, particularly in the later afternoon and evening.

The car and the stroller seem to be close seconds to put him to sleep. We went for a walk around the neighborhood on our first morning together and he fell asleep quite nicely. Then on Tuesday, we ventured out to Walmart so that I could get some cheap material to make cloth diaper wipes to go with his cloth diapers. On this adventure he was asleep before I even got his carseat in the car, and he STAYED asleep during the transfer of the carseat to the stroller, from the stroller back to the car, then back to the stroller to go into Michael's, then back into the car, and during our stop to get gas, and miraculously, he stayed asleep even once I took him out of the carseat and into the crib when we got home! I think that was the last time I successfully got him into the crib without his waking at least slightly.

The whole family went grocery shopping on the 4th, and RJ slept through that trip too.

And on Friday, RJ had his checkup and we went to Joann Fabrics after so I could get the additional materials I needed to make his wipes. He slept in the car and in the store then too.

In addition to eating and sleeping, he also poos and tinkles. To catch said poos and tinkles, we started cloth diapering, which so far has been pretty easy. We chose to cloth diaper because in the long run, it's cheaper (even accounting for laundering, i.e. hidden costs), better for the environment since the poo goes into the sewer where it belongs, rather than in the landfills where it doesn't belong, it's better for RJ's skin, since he's not exposed to dioxin and other dangerous chemicals that the major brands of disposable diapers use, AND when it comes time to potty train, typically cloth diapered babies do it earlier because they feel the wetness sooner than paper diapered babies. So the pros outweigh the cons, which are really only having to wash the diapers - but I usually just rinse out the poo and soak the diapers in a bucket and the wet diapers just go right into the diaper pail in the nursery (we have a Diaper Champ - which works for cloth diapers or disposable). And that's really no more work than a disposable, since solids are supposed to be knocked into the toilet anyway (not just wrapped up in the diaper and thrown out like the great majority of disposable diapering parents do). So we have 24, soon to be 48 Unbleached Chinese Prefold Diapers in the Infant size and 4 Bummi's Super Whisper Wraps covers, and 12 Fuzzibunz pocket diapers (all in small), which we're using as covers, but can also be used by putting in an absorbent insert and replacing the whole diaper at every change (we might use these for daycare if it's easier).

So, we first put on the prefold diaper, using the flying angel wing fold and a Snappi fastener.

And then we put on the Fuzzibunz without an insert (which we have in multiple colors) or a Bummis cover.
I also recently tried out the Fuzzibunz as a pocket diaper with the microfiber inserts and they work very well too - but the prefolds with covers are more economical.

All in all, it was a good first week, and I think we're all adjusting and trying to get a rhythm!