We Made This Baby!

OMG! This kid is cute. He wasn’t all that super expressive in this video, but rest assured he is smiling like crazy now. I’ll save this for the next video.

Lawrence and Grandma 01-02-2007, originally uploaded by bbaunach.

A recent visit by Grandma and nana’s baseball outfit provide for some great photo ops. Definitely check out the whole set to see the artsy side of Lawrence.

Notes on Evening Crying for our kid at one month old:

• There seems to be a few minutes to hours every evening when the kid completely can’t be consoled.
• One thing that seems to work is to pull out the toys. It’s my contention that the early evening is the time of day that kids have their most energy, and the newborn toys seem to help kids get this energy out.
• Another thing we’ve tried with great success is to stand him up on our laps. Stacey and I wrap our hands around his chest and back, so our fingers can support his neck. Then we raise him up for a few minutes and bounce him so he is on his feet sort of. This helps him build strength and coordination with his feet and legs, and also he appears to like to have this sense of control over his body.
• After a few minutes, we usually get tired of holding him up, so we can kind of drop him a bit where his knees touch our laps and get the same response.

Please let me know if anyone gets a similar response.

I’m in the midst of getting a new computer. My current machine has no sound, so I’m really not sure what this movie sounds like. Rest assured, the moment I have some time, I will start making movies o … n the new computer and add some soundtrack action. For now, we’re staying raw with the non crying life of the baby.

Here is our baby crying. Pictures really don’t do crying justice, so it makes sense to show a video, right? His crying is a bit tough on the nerves, but now that I’ve heard a lot more of it over these past three weeks I’m getting more used to it.

Just For Fun,  I’ve put our soothing checklist. If none of these things work and you are a new parent then you are S.O.L.

• It might be feeding time. 2-3 hours for the newborn.
• The, the diaper change. While changing him, we look for any annoyances that might be causing the crying. I would suggest getting some butt paste for the kid. He likes that.
• Put the kid in the sling. He really likes this.
• Maybe try a pacifier?
• You’re running out of luck now. Maybe we’ll try taking all the kid’s clothes off and laying him on my chest which works sometimes.
• Now back to the sling. He’s probably getting tired from all the activity by now. Chances are you’re on your way to quiet for a few minutes, at least.
• Where the hell are the grandparents?!!!

I watched the Harvey Karp video long before we became parents because I was so scared of the sleepless nights that I wanted to know months in advance that we would be able to cope with a fussy baby. In his video, he lays out the 5 Ss:

• Swaddle
• Suck
• Side
• Swing
• Shush

I highly recommend this video with a couple of footnotes added that I’ve experienced so far. I should say that I really do not have much experience with the 5 Ss, so if done perfectly correct, then this may work out well all the time.  Here’s my experience thus far:

Swaddle- This is an art unto itself that may take years to perfect. What Lawrence, my son, has shown me is that swaddling can really piss babies off some times. I may never have the answer, but there appears to be times when swaddling works and times when I would not use it.

Suck- Our kid apparently hates sucking anything except his mother’s breast. End of story. Maybe this will change, but I’m not going to force the issue if he’s not having it.

Side- Has worked like a charm for us putting the kid on his side. I especially like the kid on his side when he’s in the sling and I’m walking him. This works wonders, so far.

Swing- (or shake) Harvey Karp shows a method that has worked great except when I’m completely sleep deprived. I can feel myself being more abrupt and not as attentive as I should when I do the Harvey Karp shake. Again, consider the sling and let the kid shake as you walk around.

Shush- The loud shushing seems to work quite well, but it’s actually kind of a workout if done effectively. I’ve found myself having to shush for ten minutes straight which is kind of like singing at the top of my voice for ten minutes. It’s something that will make you sweat, not to mention the loud shushing will wake everyone else up with the extreme volume.

Finally, once you’ve got the kid down, use the swing, Mr. Karp says. I’m going to try this out for the first time tonight. I will keep my fingers crossed.

A note to all new parents: Our early two week experience has shown that the sling is an immediate way to soothe a screaming baby. Our Lawrence has taken to the sling so well that I’m almost affraid that we will have to ween him off of it some day. At any rate, if you are feeling desperate, then I highly suggest using the sling. Here’s what you might do:

1. Put the child in the sling at the state of screaming
2. Lightly jog in place allowing the child to jostle a pretty good amount, but not a huge amount. Do this for maybe 1 minute or less.  Just a very light jogging. If you own a big house then a brisk walk would be good. Our place is microscopic, so we have to jog in place.
3. After this just walk briskly so there is a sway. Walk naturally, though. Judging by our kid, they seem to like a natural pace. I also read the newspaper out loud while doing this. Our kid seems to be dead asleep within about 4-5 minutes.
4. Finally, we let the kid sort of sleep in the sling between us so we can have him close by. The sling we have is a bit stiff, so the sling sort of splits open in a green bean shape where the pea inside is our kid.

At this young age, he will sleep a good 2 to 3 hours in this situation which means a nice recovery time for us. I’m just worried: will our kid like this too much? What other good ways are there to calm a child?

How did we arrive at our son’s name?

Lawrence was an obvious choice knowing how important Lawrence Ferlinghetti is to my wife. What everyone might not know is this was my father’s name who also had a strong influence on my life. We honor both of these men with one name. Easy.

Escher is a derivative of Esther, the mother of Leon Lewis and grandmother of Stacey. I had suggested just naming the kid Esther. Stacey was a bit afraid that Lawrence might get picked on with a woman’s name in between Lawrence and Baunach, but I certainly didn’t care. Not to puff my chest out too far, but Stacey and I are tall people, so I can only assume that our son could easily defend a woman’s name in the school yard. (Wow, I’m really projecting here.) In the end,  we were in the middle of the woods sitting around a camp fire with our friends, Yo and Frank, when we came upon simply switching the “T” with a “C” to come up with Escher. And, after a bit of searching we felt Escher was beautiful and unique even though neither of us had any romantic notion of the most famous Escher, that being M.C.. Fortunately, M.C. Escher led a life that I would be proud for my son to aspire to.