One Hot Mama

Blogging at Deep South Moms today. And my post was picked up for MCT syndication next week (a first for me) - woohoo!

Baby J Wakes Up

I knew this would happen because I remembered it with my other boys. Around week 3 of their lives, they seemed to "wake up" and develop opinions on everything. And they haven't been quiet since then.

After blissfully slumbering around the clock for almost 3 weeks, Baby Josh is now officially awake. For the third straight night in a row, he has been awake from pretty much 5 pm to midnight or 1 am. And letting us know that his lungs work just fine and he will be weighing in heavily and frequently when he is wet, dirty, gassy, hungry, wants his pacifier, etc.

But hey - I can't complain. When he finally conks out, he is going some decent sleep stretches - anywhere from 5 to 7 hours!!! Woohoo!

Too bad the big boys get up at 7 am and advice to "sleep when the baby sleeps" only applies to first time moms...

War Games

I'm over on Deep South Moms this week, talking more about Cade and Drew's favorite games. Check it out!

Ruminations on Parenthood

To see how much I'm enjoying Baby Josh, check out my cross-post on Atlanta Parent today.

Introducing He Who Is Un-named - Still. Sort of.

As predicted, Baby Boy #3 joined our family in July instead of August, although even earlier than expected. He was 2 weeks, 1 day early, born on July 24 at 11:36 pm. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 15 oz and was 20.5 inches long. The weight thing made me glad that he hadn't hung out for another week or two - I would've been giving birth to a baby the size of a first grader.

The baby's name was (and continues to be) a small source of contention. As this was our third boy, we were running a bit dry on ideas for boy names. Despite the fact that we had 9 months to come up with one, we entered the delivery room with our options narrowed down to 3 or 4 combinations, none of which we were both crazy about.

So we didn't name him. He continued to be Baby Boy Fox for the first two days of his life while we tried to see if he "looked" like any of the names would suit him. Nothing really stuck. By the end of day two, my mom and I were calling him Squeaky No Name, which seemed appropriate enough for the hospital setting but not formal enough for a birth certificate.

All the while, Aaron and I continued to discuss names. We turned off our cell phones to avoid the countless calls from well-meaning friends and relatives wanting to know if he had a name yet. Knowing that we HAD to name him before we left the hospital, the pressure was really mounting and the naming discussions got tense. It turns out that only one of us had actually been considering name options for the past 9 months. My husband informed me that he really hadn't given it much thought until the past day or two and he felt it was a decision that couldn't be "rushed".

We finally came to pseudo-consensus on Joshua Quinn. Sort of. We both liked both of the names, but couldn't decide if we wanted to call him Josh (Aaron's unstated top choice, despite the fact that I asked him 100 times to display a preference) or Quinn (my clearly stated top choice). So we agreed to call him Quinn. We called the grandparents and a few friends to begin spreading the word for us. And the matter was settled. Or so I thought.

Fast forward to the next morning. When I hear Aaron whispering, "Hello, Baby JOSH" to the baby. Clearly the matter was NOT settled. So we delayed making a decision and sent out his email birth announcement under the name Joshua Quinn (no nicknames mentioned). We marched through the next few days calling him everything from Josh to Quinn to Josh Quinn (Cade's choice). Finally, when he was 5 days old, I found myself telling my mother in law a story about him where I repeatedly called him "The Baby" because I didn't know what his name was. And I decided enough was enough. Aaron clearly preferred Josh and I was getting to the point where I really didn't care. And besides, Josh was growing on me.

We're still spreading the word to a few key friends from the early days that his name has changed, so if you're reading this, help us out.

Welcome to the Fox family, Baby Josh. And get ready, because yes - we are always this insane.

Passing the Time, Fox Familly Style

Time is crawling here in the Fox household this summer as we anxiously await the addition of (STILL yet unnamed) Baby Boy #3. We've each found our own ways to cope with the long summer days that seemed so carefree in June, but now just seem ENDLESS.

I left work in March and never realized how much of a welcome distraction work provided during the last few months of my other pregnancies. The boys keep me plenty busy, of course, but without the discipline required to do a job I am getting paid for, I am too mentally unfocused to even read books or blog. These days, it seems the most intellectually taxing thing I can do is get through a People magazine - it's pretty sad. But I did finally start last week to wash/put away baby clothes and get the baby's room ready, so he will actually have a shirt to wear and a bassinet to sleep in when he comes home.

With graduation behind him, Aaron is working part-time for one of his professors this summer as he waits to start his real job in October. His other big activity this summer is that he has been "in training" to run a 10K race on July 26th. A race he probably won't even get to run since both my OB and my midwife are predicting that Baby Boy will arrive before the end of July, despite my August due date. But there's nothing Aaron loves more than signing up for big events that occur a few days before I give birth. He signed up to take his GMAT on a Saturday in July 2005 and Drew was born early the following Tuesday morning. It's a good thing we are pretty sure we are done with babies, because I'm sure on the next one he would work his way up to something great like scheduling a cross-country house move and closing on the morning of my due date.

The boys, for their part, are having a blast this summer and keeping us on our toes. The precious, creative little darlings have added a few new favorite games to their repertoire:

• SEATBELT - sit on your bum at the top of the stairs and slide down as fast as you can, using only each other's arms wrapped around your waist as restraints to keep you from tumbling down and cracking your head on the hardwood floor at the bottom of the stairs.
• CRASH TEST DUMMIES - set up the tricycle and play motorcycle and the top of the little hill in our driveway and careen towards the back of the family van at full speed, stopping inches from the van's bumper.
• KUNG FU PANDA - paste a mean look on your face and run around kicking the crap out of each other while screaming, "Get the bad guy!". Assume authentic martial arts pose initially, but quickly switch to an all-out pummeling attack mode.
• SHARK - attack your brother in the bathtub while he is practicing his back float. Demonstrate your ability to hold your breath underwater by taking a deep breath and slamming your face into the water as hard as you can (occasionally dipping too far and slamming your face on the bottom of the bathtub as well). Splash as much water as possible outside of the tub and if all else fails and there is still water left in the tub after you're done playing Shark, resort to filling up empty shampoo bottles and just dumping the water outside the tub.
• GLUE TATTOO - during arts and craft time, take off your shirt and smother glue on your stomach. see what kinds of things will actually stick to your stomach if you put them in the glue.

We know that we should be enjoying the last few weeks of (relative) peace and quiet before we revert back to baby mode (where there will be no shortage of activities for anyone to do), but it's been hard to think about anything else except baby (me) and new job (Aaron). Maybe we should take a page out of Cade and Drew's book and play a little Glue Tattoo once in awhile to pass the time...

Baby and Me

After failing to post on any of my blogs for several weeks, I am on a roll tonight! To hear how the boys did at their Big Sibling class yesterday, check out my cross post at Atlanta Parent Online.