The Adventures of Little Griff

It is hard to believe that it has already been 5 weeks since little Griff was born. We have been through an amazing crash course, learning to care for him and ourselves, learning to take a deep breath when it is a little too much, and to take time to just stare and enjoy this little person who has come into our lives. It is incredible how much he has changed, physically and developmentally in this short time. His vocal repertoire is increasing and Darrell and I are beginning to understand his different signals and cries more and more. The little cauliflower ear he was born with is disappearing, but he still has that wonderful, soft infant shoulder fur. You can see that he gained 2.25 pounds in his first month...average is one pound. This despite double mastitis in me during the first week, followed by thrush in us both. Griff loves his milk! We have just begun pumping a bottle every day so Darrell can give him a feeding in the afternoons. This is in preparation for Darrell to go back to teaching during the day in a few weeks. He will care for Griff in the afternoons so I can work on my dissertation. Yesterday was the first day and it was a success. I left the house at 4 and returned at about 7. Griff slept most of the time and woke up for a feeding. When I arrived back home, Griff had drank most of the 3.5 ounces I left for him and was ready for some more. If we can get the timing right, we might be able to have me leave the house at 3:30 and return at 7:30 for a final feeding before putting him down for the night, a nice 3-4 hour chunk to work, along with his naps during the day. Speaking of naps, we have dubbed the baby "the sleep fighter" lately. He has been having a really tough time with napping during the day. We will get him into a deep sleep and put him in the crib and then he will wake himself up a few minutes later. We have finally found that he will nap if he is in a baby carrier, as long as there is perpetual motion of some sort. He will fuss and wake up if we stop the motion for a bit. He loves some good snuggles and moving around...I guess he is a baby ;-)

Griff and I had a visit from some friends today, Nina and Ayla and Alli and Savannah. You might remember that Nina and Alli were two of the gals at the belly parties. Ayla is already 6 months old and Savannah is 3 months old. Nina and Alli have started running together with the babies...I can't wait until I can join for these gentle runs with breastfeeding breaks. Anyhow, since Griff and I were soloing it while Darrell was running the SF Marathon, Nina brought over lunch and we all picnicked on the lawn. Nina posted some photos from the visit on her blog. It was so fun to see these babies who are spread out developmentally, to get an idea of where little Griff will be in a few months; Savannah is full of smiles and Ayla is laughing and holding herself up in a sitting position. I can hardly believe Griff is already 5 weeks!

I am not going to sugar coat it, the last few days have been tough. Little Griff has been cranky when he has been awake, inconsolable in the mornings, evenings, and sometimes daytime. We were going crazy, trying to figure out what is going on with him. It could be gas, which he seems to have ample of, it could be something I am eating, it could be him fighting sleep, it could just be his temperament, it could be discomfort from a thrush infection (due to my taking antibiotics for mastitis), or it could be the medicine for thrush. It is hard not to feel like a horrible parent when your baby is screaming his little head off, especially since this is not how he was just a week ago. Well, we changed his thrush medicine from Nystatin to Gentian Violet, and I just put him down for the night. He fussed a little, wanting to feed extra, but it is 8:30pm, and he is fast asleep. Oh my gosh, I am feeling so happy! Happy that our little munchkin is no longer so unhappy and uncomfortable. We will see if it lasts, but I sure hope so. It definitely tears me apart when he is crying inconsolably. Darrell and I took little Griff on his first social outing to meet his new friend, Piper, born to Randy and Elise last week. Randy and Elise are the last of our baby party friends to have their baby. Piper was born a little early, 37.5 weeks, and you can see that Griff already dwarfs her. We had a nice, little lunch with Randy, Elise, Hal, and Tara. Griff slept the entire time.

I also had my first solo adventure with Griff. We went to the fabric store to pick up the quilt (which I will photograph and post later--it is gorgeous) and some buttons, do the laundry, and stop by the grocery store. Griff only cried three times, and I was able to console him. We almost made it home without incident, but right at the end, I couldn’t figure out how to fold up the stroller. I had about 6 people trying to figure it out and none of us could. Someone offered to put it in the back of their truck and drive it to the house, saving me from having to call Darrell to come get us. Even so, it was a success and has bolstered my confidence about taking Griff out with me.

Since we came home, we haven’t had to make dinner or lunch for ourselves. It has been an amazing outpouring of support from family and friends, with incredibly yummy food...homemade bread and cornmeal pizzas, homemade strawberry sorbet, watermelon and ginger ice, a variety of incredible lasaganas, berries, curries, and so much other tasty and nourishing food made with care and love. People have done laundry and helped with errands. It has been so nice to be able to focus our attention on Griff, learning how to make him comfortable, practice breastfeeding, and getting to know this wonderful little person who has joined our family. We feel so lucky to be a part of this wonderful community and happy to introduce Griff to “a whole flock of people how love you already and are thrilled to be in your life,” as Haley put it. Thank you to all of our friends and family for helping to make our life with little Griff a smooth transition. In addition, there are many talented folks out there who have bestowed gifts on little Griff. I am sharing a few of them here. In Griff news, he is feeding well, as you may note on the Griff Growth chart on the front page of the blog. He gained 13 ounces in 6 days, close to what they usually gain in a month. So no problems there. In fact, he loves to comfort himself so much by eating that we have given him a pacifier to calm himself with when he just wants some “non-nutritive sucking,” as the lactation consultant terms it. We also had some naked baby time outside in our yard, which was quite fun. Griff is already getting pretty strong, pushing off pretty forcefully with arms and legs, almost rolling over from back to front, and building neck strength.

Here are some of the beautiful pictures that Sebastian took of us just five days before Griff was born. Good timing and beautiful work. Thanks, Sebastian! It is hard to believe this baby was packed in there.