My Experiences as a Father... May 7 to June 4, 1999 (1st month)

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Friday, June 4, 1999
1 month old
 

Thursday, June 3, 1999
Our 30 day warranty has run out without any problems.  It looks likes she's a keeper.
 

Wednesday, June 2, 1999
Jill keeps calling Maeve "Sweet Pea".  She slurs it, so it sounds like, "Sweepy".  Is this a subliminal message for Maeve or a Freudian slip by Jill?  Either way, I'm ready with the broom.

We went to the doctor again.  Maeve is up to 9.5 lbs and 21.75 inches.  It's early yet, but so far it looks like she is between the 75th and 90th percentile for height and weight.  She got her first vaccination today - the second Hepatitis B shot.  Jill was distraught over the thought of the pain that Maeve would feel.  It was only a 25 gauge needle, so I said there was nothing to complain about.  She cried for a moment, and then she realized it was only a 25 gauge needle and it was all done.  I expected nothing less from MY daughter.
 

Tuesday, June 1, 1999
Maeve and I vacuumed and dusted.  She would watch for 10 minutes, and then pretend to be asleep.  It all looks innocent enough, but I know that when I hand her the dust rag for the first time she's going to say something like, "No one ever showed me how to do this.  I must have been asleep."  I won't let her get away with that.
 

Monday, May 31, 1999
Jill fell asleep while breast feeding Maeve.  (I tried to get a picture - we'll see how it turns out.)  Jill said she felt bad.  I told her it wasn't a problem, because Maeve knows where the food is and she knows how to cook.

STILL NOT TALKING!  But along with the burping, coughing and sputtering, Maeve is making lots of squeaking noises that make her sound like a dolphin.  I call her "Flipper".  The youth in our Sunday School class think she will be marine biologist.  I worry that she might get carried away and end up like the Dolphin Boy that Corky and The Juice Pigs sing about.  He left the land to live with the dolphins, only to be "hit by a boat" and "torn wide open from groin to throat."  When he asked the dolphins for help, they just said, "Eeee, eeee, eeee" and "nibbled pieces as they drifted free".  No parent wants that for their child.
 

Sunday, May 30, 1999
Chuck Skarda told me that the advice I had gotten from Todd about the weight ratings of diapers was not entirely accurate.  He said that, for example, 20 lb rated diapers COULD hold 20 pounds.  He didn't give all of the details, but he did say that it required that we teach Maeve more patience.  That sounds good - she can learn a useful virtue like patience AND save on diapers!  He also said it took more patience on the parents' part and asked if we got a gas mask at the baby shower.  I think we have enough patience, but I'll have to ask about the gas mask part.

Indianapolis 500
Maeve and I watched the race today.  She was awake for most of it.  She had a few notable comments:

• She was very glad that Billy Boat (http://www.billyboat.com - go figure) finished in 3rd place after destroying or damaging three of A J Foyt's race cars in the recent preparation for this race.  Jill thought A J Foyt might be yelling things like, "I can go around the track without running into the walls!  What's your problem?"
• She was sorry that Arie Lyundyk ran himself into the grass.  (She started wailing when it happened).
• However, she was glad, for Tyce Carlson's sake, that Arie took the blame.  Otherwise Tyce would always be known as the guy who ran Arie into the grass at Arie's last Indy 500.
• She was glad (and I think this is very insightful for someone Maeve's age) that Greg Ray only put himself out of the race when he ran into Mark Dismore as he (Greg Ray) pulled into the high speed lane coming out of his pit area.  Mark Dismore was able to run himself into the wall later in the race rather than being knocked out by Greg Ray's mistake.
• Maeve was very aware of the difficult position that Robby Gordon was in - pit and almost definitely lose first place, or try to finish in first place on the fuel you have while risking running out.  Given the distance since Gordon's last pit, Maeve thought pitting would have been best.  It's possible Gordon could win if he didn't pit, but it was also possible that he could have run out of gas just after he passed the entrance to pit row on lap 198, not been able to coast in, and finished in 12th place instead of the 4th he got (which happened after he ran out and had to stop for fuel to finished the race).

Saturday, May 29, 1999
Jill had Maeve working on standing up.  Maeve is always trying to go the extra mile, and it looked to me like she was practicing for a part in Riverdance.  That stepping reflex is really coming in handy.

Maeve's belly button is not an innie yet, but it is getting sucked back in as Jill had predicted.  Now would be a good time to get it pierced, before it's all sucked back in.
 

Friday, May 28, 1999
Becky was working with Maeve on her swimming.  She has to work on her coordination, but she definitely does well with moving her arms and legs.  Becky was working pretty hard on the breast stroke.  It looked like a pretty hard workout, but Maeve seemed to thrive on the challenge.

I notice that Maeve has a very strong grip.  I told Jill I thought she could break walnuts with her bare hands.  Now we need to find small walnuts that fit in her hand.
 

Thursday, May 27, 1999
Maeve was foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog.   I told Jill to be careful of Maeve biting her, since Jill is breast feeding.  Jill just wiped away the foam and said that Maeve was not rabid, but she could not tell me how she "knew" that.  I will certainly be careful about putting any fingers near Maeve's mouth.
 

Tuesday, May 25, 1999
3 weeks old
Her umbilical cord came off today.  She still has a major "outie", but Jill insists it will "get sucked back in".  We'll see.

She's doing a lot of coughing and sputtering.  She sounds like an American-made car with 120,000 miles in desperate need of a tune-up.
 

Monday, May 24, 1999
It's been two weeks since I predicted that Maeve would be dusting and sweeping within two weeks.  Unfortunately, she hasn't made as much progress towards that as I would have liked.  I think she found out about my plans, so she is stalling - pretending to not be able to dust.  Less than 3 weeks old, and already I have to deal with passive-aggressive behavior from her!
 

Sunday, May 23, 1999
Today was Maeve's first day at church.  Finally I got to go without being hounded by questions about her and her mother.

I'm emptying the Diaper Genie again.  I think we have a chair frame in the attic that is missing a seat.  I'm going to try to remove the bottom of the Diaper Genie and just put it on the chair.  I can put a garbage bag through the hole.  It shouldn't be a problem if we hide the whole thing in the closet.  I might be able to go a week and a half before we have no more room and I have to empty it.
 

Saturday, May 22, 1999
My friend Becky came to spend a week walking with Maeve to quiet her down.  After reading my diary, she said that if I wanted Maeve to do things that I should teach her to swim.  Becky said that newborns swim well because it's a lot like the flailing around they already do.

We watched some A&E programs about beauty pageants for kids.  Jill and I decided that hockey would be a healthier pursuit.  Once Maeve learns to stand on her own, I can put skates on her and push her around the ice.  Perhaps it would be easier to go from standing to ice skating to walking, than directly from standing to walking.
 

Thursday, May 20, 1999
I can get Maeve to stand up if I hold her hands.  I'm thinking that the whole "crawl before you walk" thing is the result of lazy parenting.  Sure it will take more effort on my part to teach her to walk now, but I think it's the least I owe Maeve.  Infants don't walk not because they can't, but because they don't have a desire to get anywhere.  If they cry or point, they can usually get a parent to carry them.   I don't think that's doing her any favors.
 

Wednesday, May 19, 1999
We went to the doctor today.  She said Maeve is just fine.  She is up to 8 lb 8 oz (she had dropped to 7 lb 10 oz on discharge from the hospital) and 21 inches.
 

Tuesday, May 18, 1999
2 weeks old
Jill asked me to get her finger food at the store because she couldn't eat food requiring silverware while Maeve was nursing.  I said it would be best for everyone if there were some sort of food tray or plate mounted on Maeve's head so Jill's hands would be freed up.  I’ll have to see what I can do about that.
 

Sunday, May 16, 1999
I emptied the Diaper Genie for the second time since Maeve came home.  Maeve and I discussed how it would be more cost efficient if she were to do all of her excreting at once, instead of wetting a diaper minutes after we change her.
 

Saturday, May 15, 1999
STILL NOT TALKING
Lots of burping
 

Thursday, May 13, 1999
Maeve is still not talking.  There is a lot more squeaking going on.  We'll keep working on learning real words.
 

Wednesday, May 12, 1999
I had to buy another 40 pack of diapers.  I had purchased the last 40 pack over the weekend.  Jill informed me that Maeve was going through about 10 per day.  During previous conversations, Jill had predicted diaper use would be 6 per day.  Jill insists 10 per day is necessary.

Maeve and I discussed the issue.  I told her to "get it under control."
 

Tuesday, May 11, 1999
1 week old
Maeve and I worked on crawling today.  She is good at flailing her arms and legs, but is still having trouble with dragging in the middle.
 

Monday, May 10, 1999
Maeve is getting better at purposeful actions.  She is often able to have both eyes open and focused on an object.  However, it often seems like she is looking at our shoulders instead of our faces.

Tonight she swung her arm around and rubbed my chin.  I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she meant to touch my face.

At this rate, she may be useful within a week or two.  I will make sure the broom and dust rags are ready.
 

Friday, May 7, 1999
Todd advised me to not trust the weight ratings on the diapers.  He said the number 1 diapers are rated at 8-14 pounds, but they won't hold nearly that much.  As for the older kids’ pull-up pants with 40 pound ratings, he said they don't even come close.
 


Contact Daniel at daniel@splatcat.com or Jill at jill@splatcat.com
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