Tryptophan Truffles

Wow, almost a full month has passed.. Iris is now almost twice as old as she was when I made the last post!! She has grown so much- she smiles a lot, has ridded most of her fussy period (sleeping from about 7 PM to 6 AM with 3 quick feedings inserted that don't wake her), has gotten a lot stronger in her neck, and gets a lot less boogers from her piercing ebony eyes...



Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone everywhere! We've had a particularly busy week with several family members coming to town and hosting a big Thanksgiving bash. Iris met her fourth (and final) set of grandparents, naM's dad ("Nook") and Granny B, who drove all the way from Dallas. Iris also got to meet her Uncle Stephan for the first time, who came from NYC, leaving only 1 more Aunt to go before meeting all of our 'nuclear family', which will happen in a few weeks. And finally Aunt Jackie was able to bring over Uncle-friend Pat.

Our feast featured contributions from everyone in attendance, with special thanks to the Food Network website for once again providing a number of new easy-to-follow recipies:

Creamed Corn Casserole
Stuffing made from toasted bread
Scotch
Homemade Cole Slaw
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Oven-Roasted Parsnips and Brussel Sprouts
Brandy Manhattan
Sweet Potato Fries
Portabello Mushroom Gravy
Canned and Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Martini
And of course, we continued our tradition of making a deep-fried turkey!
Did I mention Scotch?

Here's me pulling a raw turkey out of a cauldron of boiling oil:

Upload Video at DropShots.com

And don't forget the desserts:

Sweet Potato Coconut Ballz
Pumpkin Pie
Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pie
Mincemeat Pie
Apple Nut Caramel Pie (store-bought)
Scotch
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake (also store-bought)

As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words, so there are about 20,000 words waiting to be read at the new photo gallery, aptly titled "Thanksgiving Week". Unfortunately, there is not a single one of the feast, which is why I typed it I guess.. Plus there are about 10,000 new words in the "Iris's 2nd Month" gallery. Check them out!!

This will have to do for now.. The daunting task of recounting the events of the last month awaits, so be on the watch for "old" entries to show up soon..

Our love to everyone, with a special shout-out to our friends Drew and Suzannah who spent the day before Thanksgiving in a place no one would be envious of: the Duke Medical Center for chemotherapy treatment. Hang in there, guys, we think of you often!!

-naM

The Second Doctor's Visit

Technically speaking, this was Iris's 3rd trip to the doctor. But the 2nd trip was an unscheduled event, spurred by the appearance by a yellow-ish creamy substance forming around the base of still-attached belly button. That was a while ago.

And today was the first appointment I've been able to attend, since I have taken the whole Thanksgiving week off from work. It was exciting going there as a family..!

So today Iris had her 2-month check-up. And when I say "2-month", I guess that means we need to make the transition of calling out her age in terms of months rather than weeks, because today she was also 1 day shy of being 9 weeks old. Anyway, the pediatrician's office was set up with both a 'healthy' and 'sick' waiting room. This made a tremendous amount of sense to me, even though I don't ever recall seeing such an arrangement.

The first order of business was to wait. Like burning your tongue on coffee or stubbing your toe on a table, waiting in a doctor's office is an agony that we must all learn to endure eventually... Iris slept the whole time. When we were let into our examination room some 40 minutes later, Iris was getting groggy. I can't imagine all the flourescent lights in the office were helping her condition.. A nurse popped in and asked us to take off all her clothes, leaving only her soft, smooth skin and a diaper exposed. We wrapped her in a blanket, she soiled the diaper, and we waited another 15 minutes for the doctor to come in.

First news: Iris weighed 11 lb. 14 oz. and measured 23". Our doctor said this put her in the 75% percentile. This means she has gained 4 lb. 4 oz., or over half of her original weight, since birth. Just for kicks (since I am at work), I calculated that if she keeps up this growth rate, she'll weigh about 100 lbs. by her first birthday, balloon to over 2,000,000 lbs. and 24' tall by the time she enters kindergarden, and reach the equivalent weight of Earth around her 20th birthday. But she'd always be our little girl!

Second news: Results of the APGAR score were in: 9, then 10. Good and good.

Third news: Blood type A negative, just like her mother.

Fourth news: 3 shots today!

The Tale of Iris's Three Shots

After relating all of the above news, the doctor left and we started another long wait for the executioner (of the shots) to arrive. Though it is probably wise that the doctor him/herself not do the deed to spare negative association, this does little to reduce the overall psychological effect that "going to the doctor" develops into later in life..

As mentioned, while we were waiting earlier, Iris soiled her diaper. About 10 minutes into our third long wait of the day, Mama D decided to run out to the car and grab the diaper bag so we could have Iris changed and ready to go when the appointment was over. It was in this slice of time, these 5 minutes, that suddenly the nurse popped in. I knew that Dawn wanted to be there for the big event, but I had no power to ask the nurse to wait, nor did I want to make anyone else wait any longer at this dreaded place than necessary.

It all happened so fast. The blankets got peeled away, exposing her two fleshy, fatty, delicious legs. Cold alcohol wipes stroked both of her quads and she began to look around, somewhat aroused from her slumber. I softly asked the nurse how babies generally reacted to getting shots, to which she answered, "they usually do OK, no problems."

Before the thought of "wow, maybe this won't be that bad" had circulated, three metal needles were uncapped and plugged into Iris's legs, two the the first leg and one to the other, in rapid fire. With no lag in reaction time, Iris was jolted into a state of awareness I had never seen her, screaming above the tippy-top of her lungs. I thought her head was going to explode, looking more red than it did the moment she was born; her face puckered like it had gotten stuck in a small jar of pickle juice.

And as quickly as the nurse had come in after Mama D left, Mama D returned to find her sweet baby in tatters, now with small purple band-aids affixed to the ground zeros. I picked her up and sang 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider' to her over and over, since it was conveniently printed on a framed poster in the room, perhaps intentionally posted just for that purpose.

Fortunately after a few minutes of nursing (since we'd also crossed the 3-hour feeding deadline thanks to all the waiting), Iris had calmed down a bit. By the time we left she was smug in her chair, and she slept a lot over the next two days, thanks to the help of Children's Tylenol. By Thanksgiving, she was good as new, even though she wasn't really very old..

Not Her 2nd Road Trip..

Despite the success of her relatively short road trip to Athens the weekend prior, we decided not to proceed with the much longer trip down to see Grandma and Grandpa Fitz in Florida. Nine hours is long time for anyone to spend straped down into a chair, confined to the same position! Sure, Iris sleeps a lot, but not like this!

So, thanks for some of the advice and good luck wishes, we'll take our chances next month on a plane..

1st Road Trip..

..well sort of. We wanted her to get some 'road time' before heading down to Fl next weekend to see Grandma and Grandpa Fitz, so we headed up to Athens for breakfast on Saturday..

I'm not sure if you can predict the outcome of a 9-hour drive based on a 2-hour drive (hey, we drove back, so 4 hours, right?), but we were happy that we all may it there and back sane and in three peices.

Iris didn't get much sleep after getting to Athens, including time at the restaurant and time with friends King, Seb, and Anne (Kurisu was apparently confined to a fiery pit guarded by flaming bulldogs), or even the drive home for that matter. Heck, it took some good cry-time and a bath to finally calm her down from all the over-stimulation and over-tiredness the day incurred.

But at least we came out of it with some confidence that we just might be able to make the drive un Thurday. Wish us luck!

All Hallow's Wed Eve

Yesterday was Iris's first Halloween! Mama D made her costume- she's a soft, cuddly, quilly hedgehog!!

More details to come.. But I wanted to note that we splurged and upgraded our Flickr account so now we can organize our photos the way we want- now there are seven galleries, most with added photos, with the most recent ones at the top of the listing.

Take another look! I promise that everything from the first month and back is locked..

naM