Logan at One Month

Logan is one month old (actually 6 weeks now - but the post is about his one-month stats!) and fitting into the family great. We're happy to report that Logan is a healthy baby who is sort of settling into a routine (as best a one-month old can).

On his one-month birthday he weighed 10.8 lbs according to the home scale. We don't have a current length measurement since he hasn't been measured since his 2 week old checkup. I know he's grown since then though since his onesies and pjs are getting harder to snap!

Here is some other commentary about Logan:

Weight: 10.8 lbs.
Size: Grown out of NB, smaller 0-3 mos getting tight, smaller 3-6 mos fit
Eye color: Gray-blue, we think they're going to stay blue since they look bluer than gray, but still too early to tell
Hair color: Brown, although we think it will lighten like RJ's did since his eyebrows are light and lighter hair seems to be under the baby hair.

Food: Breastmilk only. He nurses like a champ, usually about every 2 hours during the day and 2-4 hours at night.

Sleep: It seems as though he does his longest stretch from his 9pm feeding - 1am, although sometimes he doesn't settle down to sleep until 11. Last night he went from his 9:30 feeding - 2:40, which was cool. He also tends to take an afternoon nap sometime between 2pm and 5pm. Morning time (9am-12) is his most alert and happy time and evening (6pm - 11pm) is his fussiest.

Play: We're starting to see him play a little with his playmats and bouncer seat, where he will flail his arms at the hanging toys above him. I also started giving him some tummy time on the mats, which releases gas spectacularly.

Who Looks like Who?

We've been talking a lot lately about who Logan looks like, and so we wanted to put out a fun little game for you to comment on.

Here are pictures of the whole DeLancey Family at around the same age as babies. Who do you think looks like each other?

A.	B.
C.	D.

More Pictures...

Here are more pictures of the DeLancey Family during Logan's First Two Weeks.

This is the full set of Logan's Birth Day pictures, including a few before labor started (click on the picture to see the rest) :

And here are more pictures from the last two weeks (click on this picture to see the rest) :

Baby Shower

I realized now that Logan is here that I've never posted anything about the baby shower that my Child Development Center Family threw me. It was quite the event! During our first class of Winter Semester, my staff completely transformed the preschool room into a baby/Yellow Submarine Heaven.

I really appreciate all the fantastic games that were planned and all the beautiful new baby stuff for Logan. Particularly impressive was the cake that Betty had made for the event.
Thank you to my CDC Staff and Guests for a Fantastic Baby Shower!


**Photography courtesy of Kasie Rozario of Kasie Lynne Photography

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

Christmas 2009

As you might have noticed, we were MIA from our birthplaces this Christmas due to the impending birth of baby 2 in a month. This was sad because we missed seeing the majority of our family, but it also gave us the opportunity to give RJ a Christmas Morning at his own house, with lots of big presents. And we actually saw our Christmas decorations for the first time since about 2004! (They all survived the Cross-Country move and the 9 mile move!) It was fortuitous timing too, since RJ really understands Christmas for the first time in his young life. He was excited about getting tree and talked about Santa bringing him presents for WEEKS in advance. So it was a good year for us to do it up and stay home with him.

Of course, we've never really had our own Christmas before, so we had to figure out what we wanted to pull from our family traditions to make our own holiday to celebrate with our visitors - Grandma D and Johnny O.

On Christmas Eve, we decorated cookies in the morning,



and then I tried my best to make my family's traditional Polish Wigilia (pronounced Vigeelia) dinner. The one casualty was that I forgot to bake the rye bread. The mushrooms were close, but I need to do some fine tuning next time.



After dinner, we decided that RJ should open some of the massive quantity of presents. So, we mimicked the Ciesielski Wigilia tradition and he opened presents from Grandpa Tim and the rest of the Ciesielski clan. The DeLancey/Morris tradition was also to open gifts from family members in the evening on Christmas Eve, so RJ opened some of his presents from Grandma D as well. One particular favorite of the evening was the little Pixar Cars vehicles (Thank you Grandma D!), which we've rarely seen him without since and he enjoyed finding his scooter (thank you Grandpa!), which we put a bow on and hid in his tent when he wasn't looking!



After RJ's bath, he picked out a cookie and milk for Santa and left a carrot for Rudolph. He was remarkably insistent on the carrot - I'm happy I had whole carrots in the house!



Then several Santas got busy and assembled his kitchen set, his basketball hoop, and his plasma car as well as arranging all the presents that were wrapped by Santa when RJ was napping!



Christmas morning was awesome. First, he's old enough to be excited about Christmas, but not old enough to make us wake up at 4 am to open gifts. He slept to a reasonable 7 am-ish time, which was very nice. We actually put his new Cars slippers outside his room for him to open first and then he came downstairs for the big show. The look on his face was fantastic when he saw that Santa had come! He opened a LOT of presents, but was loosing steam before all were open, so he opened a few later. After the majority of presents were open, we had a brunch of belgian waffles with fruit compote and bacon and spent the day playing. Then for dinner, I made my first prime rib roast with Lance's favorite potatoes (Delmonico). This is a combination of what Lance's Uncle Jim (prime rib) and grandmother (delmonico potatoes) make for Christmas Day, and what the Hoelzl side of my family typically eats for Christmas Day (beef). RJ affectionately called the prime rib roast beast a la "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas".



The day after Christmas, RJ opened up a few more presents and took his outdoor toys for a spin around the backyard and had some fun playing baseball and basketball with Daddy.



We hope that all our friends and family, near and far enjoyed their holidays as much as we did!

RJ's Tree

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we took RJ to Dell'Osso Farms First Annual Holidays on the Farm event, which is in the neighboring town of Lathrop. We went a little later in the day than originally planned, so we didn't see the lights or let RJ play in the artificial snow, but RJ did see Santa, who gave him his first ever candy cane (which he adored). He told Santa that he wanted "Mater, Toys, and Something". Then after he smiled for the camera, he asked Santa, "Santa, Can you say Ho Ho Ho Please?". Santa was very happy to oblige!



After braving the Santa line, we went on the hunt for our first Christmas Tree in California -- and RJ's first at-home, live, Christmas tree.



RJ picked out a nice fat Christmas tree, and was quite amused by the fact that we had to strap it to the top of Daddy's Honda Civic. Several pieces of twine and a safety tow rope from Lance's emergency kit later, we were ready for a slow ride home with the sunroof (which we wound the twine through) open.



RJ was not thrilled with the wind, but he was very excited when he got to help Mommy put together the stand for the tree.



Then the next day, RJ helped to decorate the Christmas Tree. He liked decorating so much that the bottom ornaments are rearranged several times a day!

Thanksgiving 2009

This year, I am happy to report that I did NOT have stomach flu like I did last year! (that would've sucked being pregnant!)

RJ and Daddy started out the day watching the WHOLE Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade together while I baked my pies.



RJ especially enjoyed licking the bowl from the pie with daddy. However, it *might* have been the culprit for his diarrhea that came a few hours later and disappeared by the next day. Daddy was unaffected by the pie batter, but I suppose RJ's younger digestive system was not prepared for the batter.



For dinner, our friend Laura came over from Santa Cruz with her dog, Ana. RJ enjoyed feeding Ana turkey after dinner and we enjoyed having some adult conversation after RJ went to bed!

Halloween 2009

I really like that RJ is starting to get into events and holidays now. Last year he seemed to like his costume, but really didn't understand Halloween or Trick or Treating. He mostly enjoyed giving out candy to the non-mask-wearing visitors. This year, he picked out his costumes and enjoyed going to the houses on our street to say trick or treat. When I first asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, he replied, "RJ", so we were delighted to find an RJ the Raccoon (from Over the Hedge) costume. Then he also informed us that he wanted to dress up as Kowalski (one of the penguins from Madagscar).

He also knew enough to want the candy this year!

RJ's Halloween was really a 3 day extravaganza. On Thursday and Friday, he had costume parades at school where he chose to wear his "Kowalski" on Thursday and his "RJ" costume on Friday. I put on Fairy wings on Thursday and was Fiona (from Shrek) on Friday for the parades.



On Halloween, RJ and I put on our Friday outfits again and went out trick or treating. He went all the way down to the end of our street and then back up. After handing out candy for a little while we were visited by a five year old girl dressed as Thomas the Train. Lance and RJ then went out to a few more houses following Thomas around. To our amusement, even though RJ definitely enjoyed sampling some candy -- the houses he visited with Thomas he would take the candy and put it in Thomas's bag instead of his own... and say "Thank You". Seems like RJ is giving candy to the girls already!



And then after finishing up, and getting to eat two small pieces of candy, we had the requisite I-don't-wanna-go-inside tantrum. This could've also been caused by his refusal to take a nap earlier in the day (which is fairly rare!) rather than coming off of a sugar high.

Baby 2010 at 31 Weeks

Yes, I am actually pregnant, but we don't quite have the time we did when I was pregnant with RJ (2 year old + first year in a new position will do that), so all we've managed to do is one belly picture at 31 weeks. I'm now almost 35 weeks, so maybe over Christmas break we'll get some more pictures of my big ole belly out to you before the baby comes out and there is no more huge belly.

This child is not being as easy on me as RJ was though. The heartburn is about a million times worse, I'm bigger earlier, and carrying much lower, so there's a lot more pressure in my pelvis, which is just uncomfortable. So while everyone hated me for having an easy pregnancy before, you can rest assured that I am getting the full uncomfortable pregnancy experience this time around.

All is going well for the baby though. Baby is healthy with a nice strong heartbeat and growing appropriately. Just like with RJ, we are not finding out whether the baby is a boy or a girl - in fact, we didn't have an ultrasound this time around as there was no indication for one.

The birth of this baby should also be a little different as we're planning on laboring and birthing at an independent birth center with a midwife. I had a midwife with RJ, but was not happy with the restrictive hospital birth setting. Since I had an uncomplicated and unmedicated birth, there was really no reason to be in a hospital (home birth and birth center births are actually SAFER than hospital births for low risk pregnancies), so we found a birth center in Oakland, where I've been receiving all my prenatal care and plan to birth as long as all goes smoothly (and I can get there). I plan to work right up until the baby is born, so I could potentially go into labor at work, 2 hours from Oakland. Luckily, the assistant midwife lives a few minutes away from CSU Stanislaus, and since we pass my house on the way to the Birth Center, we could always switch to homebirth if things progress too quickly! I'm very excited about not going to the hospital, having the option for a water birth (not just laboring in water), and getting to come home as soon as we're ready. We'll see how it goes. I'm due January 24 and will be full term in a mere 2 weeks, so now we just wait!

Santa Cruz - Labor Day 2009

We decided that now that RJ is 36" tall, and able to ride the smallest of the kiddie rides, it was time to take him back to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. One of the things that my dad seemed to enjoy when my sister and I were kids was taking us on the rides at Amusement Parks, so we thought it might be something that he would enjoy with RJ too. Plus, it would give him a chance to get his feet into the Pacific Ocean for the first time! Oh, and there's typically good seafood near the coast! The goal was for Grandpa to have some fun after his busy week babysitting RJ.

I think we achieved the goal. RJ loved the rides.
And both RJ and Grandpa really enjoyed playing on the beach. RJ was a little afraid of the waves when we'd go to retrieve water though.

RJ Goes Fishing

On the Sunday after orientation (September 2009) we went to the nearby Bass Pro Shop in Manteca.

"The 120,000 square-foot store...and a 65' replica of the world's largest tree (in volume), The General Sherman in Sequoia National Park, welcomes visitors...Massive rockwork soaring 28' to 30' high above the aquarium replicates Yosemite's Half Dome and allows visitors to walk under the waterfall as it cascades into the fresh water aquarium.

The store is insanely impressive and made my dad completely awestruck (and RJ tired from running around it).



We picked up some bait and some hooks for our fishing poles and took RJ and Grandpa fishing at Caswell Memorial State Park, which is on the Stanislaus River.

RJ loved running into the water at the edge, but was initially a little scared at going in with me and Grandpa. However, by the end of it all, he was loving the water.

RJ was also really good at reeling in his fishing pole - but unfortunately the fishies were not biting that day for anyone. It seems that he might have some more fishing in his future though because at age 2, he was actually able to focus on the activity for more than a few minutes. We'll have to take him more often now that we have the gear (thank you cousin Zach for giving RJ your old fishing pole!) and the river is only about 30 minutes away!

Child Development Center Orientation Week 2009

As most of you know by now, my job description has changed a bit now that I'm the director of the Child Development Center. One of the things that I'm now responsible for is the annual orientation for Child Development Center staff. This orientation is one week chock full of ice breakers, team building, safety and health training, learning about CDC policies, learning about licensing requirements, as well as academic preparation for curricular and lesson planning activities. Each day the teachers are required to attend from 8-5 with an hour lunch break. This means that Chris, my assistant director, and I were working days even longer than that to prepare and to organize such an event!

We managed to pull it off, although I did amass a good amount of notes on things to change for next year. I don't think I did too bad for my first orientation though. I managed to add a Dean's welcome and a 1/2 day of icebreakers and team-building to the usual fare. What I am most proud of though was my makeshift spiderweb. Those readers of our blog who went to Challenge Camp will know what I'm talking about, but for the rest of you, it's a series of ropes fashioned into a people sized spider web. The goal is to get the whole group THROUGH the spiderweb to the other side without touching any of the edges. My big goal for the orientation was to establish whole-center teamwork amongst the administration, the office staff, and the teacher-interns. The best way that I know to establish this is to do a series of activities that push people out of their comfort zone, build trust with one another, and then work together to solve a problem. So my dad (who was RJ's babysitter for the week) and I stretched out yarn all over the living room to build a spiderweb that could be attached to our playground structures the next day. Lance initially thought I was insane for trying to do this, but it ended up working out quite well. My dad and RJ secured the web between the swings and a tree and voila! a people-sized spiderweb was created! I even submitted a picture of the activity for the College newsletter. Next year, I hope to actually purchase the rope and webbing professional version rather than doing it with yarn.

RJ also had an interesting week during orientation. He had been sharing a babysitter with his good friends Daisy and Alison over the summer, but since his summer babysitter is one of my teachers, and thus required to be at orientation, we clearly weren't going to be able to use our normal care. So...lucky for us, Grandpa was able to come for the week and help with RJ duty. This meant that RJ and Grandpa were pulling long hours just like Mommy! I think that Grandpa was quite exhausted by chasing RJ around all day, but definitely enjoyed getting to spend all that time with him.

RJ benefited as well by learning some new vocabulary words and phrases such as:

"Ready Spaghetti?" - to which RJ responded, "I no spaghetti, I RJ!!"

"Nudnik" - Grandpa defined this as a term of endearment he learned from his grandparents, meaning goofball, but Merriam & Webster seems to think that he was calling RJ a pest all week. I think I'll stick to Grandpa's definition since its nicer and RJ likes to use the term (he now calls Grandpa a nudnik over the phone).

RJ really enjoyed showing Grandpa his school and the many waterfowl on campus. One day they brought crackers on their walk and got swarmed by ducks and geese. RJ is STILL fearful of the ducks!

AND, Grandpa figured out what was wrong with the adult toilet at the center (you have to hold it down to flush it for longer than anyone wants to - and the facilities people kept telling us that "that's just the way the toilet is" and wouldn't fix it).

It was a hectic week, but I think a great start to the semester for the teachers.

RJ goes to Yosemite

Finally!

Three and a half years ago on our first trip to California for a conference, we had planned a trip to Yosemite. That trip got derailed when Cheryl was diverted to Turlock to interview for some sorta teaching gig at a state school. At long last we chose a weekend for a camping trip to Yosemite National Park. It is only a 3 hour drive after all and was a free weekend to boot.

We considered this trip more of an orientation to Yosemite since we weren't really ready to do any hard core hiking. Even with the little we tried to do, RJ wanted to be held rather than walk himself and he's getting rather heavy for the backpack we have.

Camping was a big hit with RJ. He got a kick out of sleeping in a tent in a sleeping bag, at least at night. Naps were a complete mess because the tent was too hot and because he thought the sleeping bags were more fun to get in and out of and roll around on, which basically meant that we did a lot of driving in Yosemite so he would get a nap and not be a complete brat all afternoon and evening. He entirely loved playing in the dirt and sand with his digger and dumptruck. I think he also appreciated the lack of bathing involved too! For most of the trip, he had dirt everywhere.

On Friday, we mostly just drove there and set up camp just outside Yosemite at the Summerdale Campground in the Sierra National Forest.

On Saturday, we explored the Southern portion of Yosemite until dinner time.

We took a short hike through the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees until RJ declared that he needed to go potty just before we got to see the California Tunnel Tree. At that point, going back to see it wasn't happening. Maybe next time we'll get farther and get to see more of the big trees.

Afterward, we visited the Pioneer Yosemite History Center in Wawona, where we saw some historical pioneer buildings and most notably watched a blacksmith making stuff. I think RJ's favorite part was peeking into the houses and seeing the horses in their yard though.

Then after lunch from the Wawona General Store, we drove (after an aborted tent nap back at the campsite) to Glacier Point for some site seeing of Half Dome. Someday we'll be in shape enough to hike it to the summit, but for now seeing it will have to do.

On Sunday, we spent the morning packing up the campsite and then drove North to Yosemite Valley to see what all the hype was about (since that's where most people go when they visit Yosemite). What we discovered is that it's generally where the civilization portion of Yosemite is, as well home to some pretty incredible scenery, which gave poor pregnant Cheryl the itch to climb again. I think she's already picked out RJ's climbing gear for next summer. El Capitan has some incredible sheer walls of rock that jut out from the valley floor, which also contains the Merced River. We ate lunch at the Yosemite Lodge Food court and then took a nice dip in the Merced River at Sentinel Beach. RJ was a little afraid of the water after he tripped and fell face first into it, all while holding Cheryl's hand, but we quickly got him back in to enjoy the gold-flecked water.




In the future, we're thinking that we'll need more of a specific plan to include some hikes and that perhaps group camping is a better option for camping with kids. Setting up the tent can be mostly done by one person, except for one step, which requires 2. Cooking dinner over a fire also sort of requires 2 people - one to prepare the food and the other to start the fire. Neither activity leaves an extra person to help occupy the toddler in a brand new and exciting environment, which would keep him out of the street, woods, or neighboring campsites.