Tummy time is a very important part of our day. Tummy time is just as it sounds, and it helps Sawyer strengthen his neck muscles so he’ll be able to sit up on his own. Most babies really hate tummy time. Sawyer isn’t a great fan of it, but we try to make it more fun by having interesting things for him to look at. I have found that books and his own image in a mirror cause long enough distractions that we can get in about 5 minutes at a time.
Zissou’s tummy is great for holding the mirror at just the correct angle for Sawyer to see himself.
Sawyer is really good at doing his own hair in the morning. Actually he works on it all night night long. It is literally “bed head”, because he pushes himself up to the top of his crib until he can’t go any further.
Aside from its pretentious name, I love everything about his bathtub. Apparently Sawyer does too:
We bought it well before his birth, mostly because I loved the idea of watching him splish splash around in it. Once he was born, we waited until he was four weeks old to use it for the first time, mostly out of concern for our ability to control him (he was awfully wiggly back then). Of course, Sawyer took to it immediately, and I remember he looked at me as if to say “why haven’t we done this before?” I was overjoyed until we realized it had a leak…
We returned it after only one bath, and then had to wait another couple of weeks to get a new one in stock. Long story short, we finally have one again and started bathing Sawyer in it this week. And if you ask me, he loves it even more than the first time. He fits so perfectly on the reclining side, leaving his arms and legs in the water while his midsection is held in place and his head is kept above water (we also put a towel down so that he doesn’t slip). When he isn’t busy stuffing his hands into his mouth, he anxiously tries to drink the water that we use to rinse him. Total weirdo.
At any rate, he was much too cute to pass up the other night, so I caught a couple of quick pictures (how cool that he looks at the camera — I guess after at least a thousand of photographs he’s not at all bothered by it, if anything he embraces it):
He is so relaxed, so calm, so at peace in his bath, and almost disappointed when we pull him out. He is clearly my son, happily at home in the water. I can’t wait to take him swimming so I can teach him everything I know!
On Tuesday, Sawyer and I went for a walk along the Embarcadero from the ballpark to the Ferry Building with four other members of our baby friends group. I didn’t get pictures of everyone, but here are two of the mommies with their babies. Sawyer slept the entire time.
Kim with David
Kate with Gideon
Sawyer has little rattles that he can wear on his wrists and ankles. Although he hasn’t discovered his feet yet, in turn leaving him to ignore the ones on his ankles, he is warming up to the ones on his wrists. The buzzie bee is his favorite because it has black and white stripes.
Much like his father, Sawyer seems to dream of taking flight. I caught him on his changing table Saturday night, attempting to do just that. Of course it probably helps that I fly him around whenever I move him throughout the apartment. Plus, he was wearing his airplane shirt, first seen here — look at how much he’s grown!
When Abby saw me taking pictures, she remarked that he was faced with the dodo’s conundrum, a lyric from one of our favorite songs:
Faced with the dodo’s conundrum
I felt like I could just fly
But nothing happened every time I tried.
Press play to listen to the song:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
And now for the pictures, note the windup… he has excellent form:
Here’s a picture from right around his first month (you probably saw it first here). He really does think he can fly! Either that or he has a promising career in fencing. On guard!
Two weekends ago, on the first dry and relatively warm Saturday in quite some time, the Giants had an open house for the fans. Since we love the team and live just a ten minute walk away, we put Sawyer in his orange shirt, popped him in the buggy, and headed down. We were able to walk through the Giant’s clubhouse and dugout, where I snapped this picture of Abby and Sawyer on the player’s bench:
Sawyer, of course, managed to sleep through the entire trip, even with the wind on the bay whipping around the back of the ballpark:
In the previous picture, you can see Oakland in the distance on the left, just over Sawyer’s head. Here’s a picture of McCovey Cove (where all the kayakers wait for homeruns to fly over the wall):
Here’s what it looked like last summer before the Homerun Derby, three hours before it started:
Lastly, here’s a picture of the Bay Bridge in the distance (the entire area beneath the Coca-Cola bottle is a playground for kids — Sawyer will absolutely love when he’s old enough to explore it):
Sawyer eventually awakened, only to find himself sitting in a Dodger blue buggy, surrounded by a sea of orange (or so I theorized). He was not amused:
We’re hoping to go to quite a few games this “summer” (really, it’s more like winter out here). We’re certain to make it on tv when we hold up Sawyer in head-to-toe orange. I hope we can find a way to share that with you on his blog!
When we last left the story of Sawyer’s birth, I was quite sad at my parent’s departure, and Sawyer was showing no signs of wanting to come out to greet the world. 12/11 passed without notice, as did the day of 12/12. On 12/12, we were to call the hospital at 6pm in order to check if there was room for us to come in and be induced. The response was that we needed to call back at 8pm. Apparently the maternity ward was really busy with babies that DID want to come out, and the hospital was short on nurses (a fact that will become much more pressing — to be described in a bit.) We took a nap as we figured if we were to go in, we wouldn’t be getting much sleep.
At 8pm, I called again. After holding for about 10 minutes, we were asked to come in and be admitted at 9:30 pm. So we took showers and finished packing the suitcase. We left the apartment in an odd state of calm. Scott remarked on the way to the hospital that he was somewhat bummed that he didn’t have to race us to the hospital as anticipated — reference any silly movie where a baby is being born.
Inducement is a lot slower of a process than one would think. Upon checking in, it was very quiet in the newly opened baby wing of the hospital. Nurses were even being sent home early now from their shifts because things had quieted down. In the back triage room, Scott noticed a funny drawer marked “fancy pants”. For the record, I met these “fancy pants” following the birth. They were neither “fancy” or “pants”.
We were checked into a very large room. As we were getting situated, one of the nurses mentioned in passing that it may be somewhat noisy outside in the morning. At 7am, the nurses were going on strike. She wasn’t even quite sure why, but she was looking forward to having 2 days off in order to complete her holiday shopping. Apparently she did not intend on spending the entire 2 days of the strike picketing. The new nurses would be well qualified, just unfamiliar with everything, as they were brought in from other states to help fill in.
That night was spent quite uncomfortably due to rubber covered beds. Even though sheets covered the rubber, the breathability was compromised. Scott “slept” next to me in a cot that made camp beds seem luxurious, as we both tried to tune out the sound of other women giving birth in nearby rooms. One woman was screaming so incredibly loudly, that I was quite traumatized. Placing the rubber covered pillow over my head just resulted in an uncomfortably sweaty face.
As previously mentioned, the nurses strike began at 7am on 12/13. Our first “scab” nurse was Debbie from Dallas, no kidding. She was a very big fan of the Beattles, and her granddaughter’s name is Abbey McGill for Abbey Road and the McGill character in Rocky Raccoon, “she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy.” Debbie’s favorite jeans are Levi’s 501’s. She helped us until 7pm. Our next nurse was Michelle. She had 4 children of her own, and had helped to birth her granddaughter. She was from Chicago, but working in LA with her retired husband. They were soon moving to Hawaii, where she was going to work. She was one of the biggest reasons that Sawyer was born naturally rather than a c-section. She knew that we did not want a c-section. She made it very clear that “We’re gonna git this baby out!”
So after the uncomfortable yet uneventful night, our doctor, Dr. Heidi Wittenberg, visited our room at 8am sporting a beautiful Prada handbag and high heels. Somewhere between months 7 and 9 of my pregnancy, she seemed to have discovered high fashion and gotten engaged. Scott was amused that I made mention of the bag to him shortly after Dr. Heidi had helped speed up the birth process by breaking my water for me with a what looked like a long crochet hook.
The next few hours passed uncomfortably as pitocin was administered. At around 11am, I was beside myself in pain. Although I had very high hopes of not using an epidural, it became very necessary after the pain medication I was given wore off in well under half of the promised hour time. The next 11 hours passed relatively pain free. My Mom reminded me that there are no extra points for pain. She was right. Epiderals are very helpful.
At 10pm, it was time to start pushing. Michelle helped guide Scott and I through 2 hours of pushing. About 30 minutes into the pushing, she turned off the epidural in order to help me feel how to push. The epidural leaves little to no sensation, so it was difficult for me to feel what I was doing. Michelle let us know that she was only allowed to let me push for 2 hours, and then the doctor would come in. When the doctor made her appearance, I knew I had to prove that I could keep going and not have a c-section. I garnered up all of my strength. I thought of all the people who were pulling for us. I thought of all my family and friends who had made it through. I thought of my Mom who gave birth to me at 10 lbs 8 oz. If she could do it, so could I.
We were given a little bit of help with the suction cup that helped pop the little guy out. All in all, 30 hours passed and we got our little Sawyer. He was 9 lbs. exactly and 22” long at 1:42 am on December 14th, 2007.
Scott was sleepy…Sawyer wasn’t.
Sawyer is practicing his ability to hold things. We’re not sure if he realizes what he is doing, but it is pretty cute.
Sorry for the short hiatus in blog posts. We had visitors from Ohio over the weekend, and we were too busy having fun and taking pictures to upload them. Grandma Penny and Uncle Kevin stayed with us over the weekend. It was a lot of fun.
Right after they left on Monday, Sawyer had his 2 month check up. He now weighs 12 pounds 3/4 oz. and is 23 3/4” long. He is in the 75th percentile for height, weight, and head size. His head size was in the 90th percentile last month, so I guess his body caught up.
Then Grandma Penny schooled us all on the Wii. She is an excellent bowler. Kevin isn’t too shabby either. I can’t even imagine what kind of video games Sawyer will be playing in a few years.