Logan at 4 months

Logan is doing great at 4 months!
Stats
Weight: 17.22 lbs.
Height: Still haven't measured his length - we skipped the 4 month Dr. appointment.
Eyes: Blue (I don't think they're going to change at this point)
Hair: Light Brown He's lost most of the newborn dark hair - even his little soul patch on the back of his head is nearly gone.

Sizes: he is wearing both 6-9 months AND 9-12 months. 6-9 mos. are getting a little short (pajamas), and the smaller ones are getting tight.

Vocalizations: Logan makes lots of squeals and coos and laughs/giggles. We also hear lots of "goo" and occassionally a bububu, which is almost always followed by him blowing raspberries.

Motor Development: Recently we have found that Logan can turn 180 degrees while on his back on the play mat. He hasn't rolled over much since the first time, but I think it's because he doesn't want to, not necessarily because he can't (actually he just did it twice as I'm writing this). Also, he LOVES assisted sitting, and most recently discovered that he can push up to a standing position while holding our hands. Seriously, I can't believe he does this already at 4 months. The kid wants to move - all the time. Also, in terms of fine motor development, he is able to grasp small objects for brief periods of time. He has also pushed his little car on the high chair tray. Some of these moves are still accidental, but he is learning from the accidents and typically starts to voluntarily try to work the maneuvers afterward.

Cognitive/Perceptual Development: He is interested in toys and enjoys looking at high contrast and bright toys. He seems fascinated by all crinkly toys. He also tracks the objects that interest him - including people walking past him! Logan also has discovered his hands and plays with them frequently.

Relationships: Logan really responds to us now and demands our attention. If we're not directly interacting with him, he will fuss, and then smile when we come back. I've found that if I'm busy in the kitchen, having him in there with me in the bouncer helps because I can interact with him. Sometimes he gets upset every time I turn away though! This is where RJ can be useful. Logan LOVES when RJ talks to him and if RJ is in the mood, it can buy me a few minutes of no whimpering while I make dinner! If you call Logan's name he'll look at you (and usually smile).

Eating: Logan nurses about every two hours during the day - although I can occasionally stretch him to 2.5 or 3 hours, particularly over naps. At night, I seem to feed him around 11, and then every two hours after 2 or 3. Our goal is to exclusively breastfeed until 6 months, when we'll start some "solids". At this point, we've tried to give him bottles of pumped milk a couple of different times, but he'll only take a few sips and then refuse. We're going to try a different bottle first and if that doesn't work, then fresh rather than frozen milk to see if we can get him to take a bottle, so that at some point we could perhaps have a date night or something.


Sleep: Logan usually falls asleep nursing around 9pm (after RJ gets to bed). Then he stays asleep, with brief eating breaks until about 7am, give or take an hour. The nighttime wakings are something I'd like to work on. He doesn't need the extra milk at this point since he's HUGE, and I think he only takes a few sips of milk and then just uses me as a paci to fall asleep again. I think that if we could get him sleeping away from me, he might wake up less. We're trying to get him sleeping alone in the pack and play, now that it's home from school, because we still haven't replaced his recalled crib (which we used for 2.5 years for RJ before it was recalled - urgh!). He generally takes a 1-1.5 hour morning nap around 9:30/10 in the swing and we're trying to establish a 1:30ish afternoon nap. Sometimes he'll take a good 2 hour nap then or around 2, but occasionally, he'll fight the nap until 4 or so. The afternoon nap has also been in the swing. But once we get a consistent schedule of naps, I hope to try and get him to sleep in the pack and play/crib when we get one for naps too. At this point, the sleep not in my arms is more important than the exact location!

We love our happy and wonderfully developing little Logan!

New Directions

I went back to work on April 19, and was excited to return as the director of the Child Development Center, especially without having any classes to teach for the remainder of the semester. I still had my interim director handling the day-to-day responsibilities and I had the time to really get things rolling for next Academic Year's hiring and orientation. Then the new dean (who just started in April) came on and decided that the center needed continuity of leadership and decided that to provide the continuity, my interim director should stay on for academic year 2010-11, temporarily, while a task force examines what kind of administrator the CDC should have (faculty vs. non-faculty). I cannot even begin to describe my intense frustration and upset. I had my dream job, paused to have a baby, and poof, it was gone. What is frustrating is that this decision has nothing to do with my performance - I had worked my behind off right up until the day before Logan was born.  I worked hard to make sure that there was a seamless transition between me and my interim director for my maternity leave. I didn't do anything to deserve losing the position. And the dean continues to remind me that this is just "temporary" decision and makes it sound like I'm crazy for thinking that she pulled the rug out from under me. Yeah, temporary with the potential to be permanent if the task force decides to not have a faculty director anymore. I'm not sure how that is supposed to make me feel any better. Also, I have been told that I am not being punished for having a baby and taking my leave. Um, okay, then would this have happened had I NOT had a baby?

A common question that I keep hearing when discussing this crappy situation is "How on earth is this even legal? You went on maternity leave, came back and you don't have the same job." I am told that yes, it is (unfortunately) legal.  The Director position is not really my "job", but rather an "at will appointment" under my faculty position. My official position is "Assistant Professor of Psychology and Child Development", which is a faculty position. I was given assigned time out of my faculty work load to serve as the director (50% of my time) at the pleasure of the president - my salary and faculty designation stayed the same. In any other job, this seems like it would be a violation of the Family Leave Act, because in terms of my job duties and authority, the faculty position and faculty + director position are not equal, but after speaking with my union rep, my case probably wouldn't hold water because my pay and primary job title remained the same. I  am now the owner of about 200 useless business cards that label me as the Director.   Plus, I haven't had the appointment for 12 months. 

The side effect is that I would have to revert back full time teaching (rather than 50% teaching, 50% director).  I am not willing to do that again. I resigned from the university instead.   I loved the director 50% much more than my teaching.  Over the last four years, I've become increasingly more aware that being a tenure track professor at CSU Stanislaus is simply unsustainable with the course load, plus research and extensive committee responsibilities. I did almost nothing other than work during the last 4 years. I worked evenings and weekends and still couldn't get ahead. I even worked during the summer when I wasn't being paid to work, to try and get ahead. The only difference is that when I was the director of the center during Spring 2008 (as interim), and Summer/Fall 2009/Winter 2010, I was actually enjoying the work I was doing, which made the sacrifices of fun-time, family-time, and my sanity worth it. I was also more productive in my work during my time there, even making more progress toward tenure than when I was teaching full time. While a part of me will miss the prestige of academia, I think that leaving academia was the best decision for me and for Lance, RJ, and Logan. I will have more time to spend with them and will get to enjoy our happy little family for once.

What does the future hold? First, I will finish up the semester, helping my colleague gear up for the next academic year (there is a LOT to do to get ready). My last day is June 2 and I'll probably stop by graduation on June 4 with the kiddos to see some of their teachers graduate. Then I will be a stay at home mom for a while with RJ and Logan, at least until Logan weans from daytime nursing - which if we follow RJ's timeline will be about February or March. I will look for director positions in the Bay Area, or look into starting my own independent Laboratory Preschool. I might teach a course online for CSU Stanislaus too - I left a door open for doing that, so I could bring in a little money, but not need childcare. I clearly don't have all the answers yet, but I feel confident that this opens more doors for me than it closes.

Pictures

Here are some links to our pictures from February and March.

In February 2010 (and a little bit of January)
With Friends during February 2010


In March 2010.
*This set includes a video of Logan's first rolling over attempts.

With friends in March 2010

April and May pictures will be forthcoming once I'm done with the semester!

RJ and Logan Love Gabby, Harley, and Gizmooooo!

After the NALS conference, we drove a couple of hours to Lafayette, IN, not to see Purdue, but to visit our dear friends, Heather and Iris.

Sunny Dog was a good primer for RJ, since Heather and Iris have THREE doggies that he was thrilled to play with.  He particularly liked their new doggie, Gizmo.  RJ just ran through the house yelling Gizmooooooo.  (Actually he started just calling him Mooooooooo until we added the Giz.)  He also enjoyed being able to help give them Animal Crackers for snacks and letting them out to the back yard.

We unfortunately didn't get to stay very long, but packed in a wonderful meal at Red Seven, which is owned and operated by a friend of Heather and Iris, a great Pancake breakfast courtesy of Iris, and a trip to another park on RJ's US tour of playgrounds, and some yummy frozen custard.  We enjoyed our visit - hopefully the next one will be a little longer!

Logan Goes to NALS

After our South East adventure, we headed up to Muncie, IN (Home of Garfield the Cartoon Cat) so that I could attend the annual conference of the International Association of Laboratory and University Affiliated Schools (NALS). I was presenting some research on how new teachers develop guidance skills and since Logan and I are attached by the breast, we all had to go.
I am really impressed with how well Logan did as a conference buddy. I had him with me each day (of the three day conference) from about 8/9 am until about 1 or 1:30. Then Lance would pick him up and take care of him until 4, so I could have a little baby-free conferencing. During the time I had Logan, he was an absolute angel. Even when he was awake (and not nursing) in a session, he just batted at his dangling toy and stayed quiet, so I could pay attention. I think he enjoyed listening to everyone talk around him. He also charmed everyone who saw him between sessions. And he even slept for Daddy both days.

RJ got to visit the library and the Muncie Children's Museum with Daddy when Mommy and Logan conferenced.
The only crazy day was when my presentation was scheduled for 9:40 on Friday and we had to be checked out of the hotel by 11. Lance had both children and had to pack us up. That just sucked for Lance.

I don't think it will be as easy to take Logan to a conference next year!

DeLanceys Go to the South East

While on Maternity Leave, and before a conference presentation, we traveled to the South East to visit show off Logan to Aunt Amy & Uncle Luke and Grandma D.

It started out with a very early flight. We had to wake up RJ at 4 am and as you can see, he was pretty tired as we were trying to get out the door.
Our first stop on the trip was Anderson, SC. While there, we explored the Clemson Botanical Gardens with Uncle Luke (between his classes!). RJ enjoyed the train caboose parked there and running away from us in the woods.
On another day, we took RJ to the Greenville Children's Museum. Upon walking in, there was a race car for him to play with, which we spent quite a lot of time at. I think he reenacted several scenes from Cars while playing with the pit stop materials.
We also hit a few local playgrounds, which will be featured in another blog entry entitled, "RJ's Playground Sampler".

Then we were on our way to introduce Logan to his Grandma D.While there, RJ made good friends with a nice big Black Lab named Sunny.We also visited the Autrey Mills Nature Preserve, where RJ ran around with pinecones and peed on a tree.
RJ also enjoyed feeding the animals at the Yellow River Game Farm.
After a few days, we were back to Anderson for Easter, where RJ loved his Cars Easter Basket.
The whole DeLancey Family enjoyed seeing everyone while we were there!

Click on the pictures to see more pictures from our trip!

Logan at 3 Months

Logan is now three months old and I'm amazed every day by just how generally easy going he is (for a baby that is!).

Here are some stats for those who like such things.

Weight: 15.5 lbs.
Height: long (We don't have a 3 month pediatrician visit and I'm not measuring him.)
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Blue

Size: Growing out of 3-6 mos. pjs, wears some of the smaller 6-9 mos. outfits.

Vocalizations: We hear lots of "Whoa", "ehohhhhh (rhymes with hello)" and "goo", some giggles, and of course crying.

Motor Development: Rolled over front to back about 5 times at 8 weeks, but not since then. Holds his head up when on his tummy for about 5 - 10 minutes. Also, his head is less floppy and he'll look in the direction that pulls his interest. Kicks and punches and moves pretty much constantly. Also, he has discovered his hands and can now hold toys if helped, and will reach for the crackly parrot on his activity mat.

Relationships: I think he recognizes me. When he can hear me, he perks up and looks for me. He also tolerates lots of hugs and kisses that are not always the gentlest from big brother RJ and his older friends at school. He especially likes getting his diaper changed, presumably because he gets one-on-one attention. He is happy when those around him are happy, and he loves to smile at people!

Sleep: His bedtime feeding is usually at 9pm, after we get RJ down and settle down for some evening relaxation (zoned in front of the TV). After that feeding he wakes up some time between 1 and 3 am to eat again. That's my long stretch. From the first middle of the night feeding, he's usually up every 2-3 hours after that point to eat. However, he sleeps with us, so I generally fall asleep before he even finishes eating and he goes right to sleep when he's done.

Overall, Logan is just a fantastic baby. He's happy and easy going and developing fantastically!

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!