Hove Family Vacation - Maine

Our first family vacation was a nice trip. Jonah is a very well behaved little guy, even in the car. We are so lucky! He was fascinated by Maine. We walked along the water, ate yummy food at restaurants, and poked our head in Bar Harbor's quirky little shops. He flirted with all the nice ladies that came up to talk to him, smiling and giggling and showing off. They called him "flawless" and "gorgeous" and "perfect." The women in Maine won Jonah and I both over in seconds.

We came home pretty tired, all three of us. The change in beds and routine took it's toll and we spent the next day resting up. Then I had to go back to school, where I was a tiny bit behind on homework from my weekend away. I've worked very hard this week, though, and I'm all caught up. Kevin's been great about watching the baby so I can get work done. He goes back to work October 10th and I think we're both kind of dreading it. If only he could stay home all the time! He's an ideal cook/babysitter and very handy to have around!

Isn't Maine beautiful?! It's worth the all day drive.

Jonah is finally feeling better - and just in time! We're leaving Friday for a weekend in Maine. It will be our first family vacation. We're all really excited. I'm not sure how seven hours in the car will be with Jonah - but there's only one way to find out!

I did not fall asleep at clinical this week, although I wanted to on several occasions. My exhaustion did affect my work performance - I definitely wasn't at the top of my game the last two days. The good news is no one was killed or injured in my line of fire (as far as I know) so I am free to go back and try to do better next week. Like my dad says, they call it practicing medicine. I remember when I was learning piano and tripped and stumbled over all the notes as I practiced. I had to take even simple songs painfully slow until I learned them. That's how I feel at clinical sometimes - missing notes and going painfully slow. But eventually I will learn the song, right? Just got to keep on practicing.

I started messing around with my blog template and now I kind of hate it but I'm way too tired to fix it. It looks weird, doesn't it? Maybe I'll change it again later...

Jonah has been so fussy the last few days. It can't still be from his shots, can it? We don't know what's going on, but we're really starting to fade over here. I'm not getting a lot of sleep and it's hard to be smart and remember things when I'm this exhausted. Diabetes? What's that? Blood pressure? Am I supposed to take it? Eat it? Feed it to some one? What's going on?

Tomorrow should be an interesting day at clinical. I'll probably fall asleep while I'm pumping and end up with my own milk all over my shoes. That will inspire confidence in my patients, won't it? I can't hold up a breastpump without falling over, but here - let me manage your 14 medications. No problem!

Jonah Laughing

I am obsessed with this baby. Can you blame me?

Jonah had his two month appointment today. He's such a big boy! At 15lb, 10oz, he's off the growth charts for weight. He's 63cm long, which is the 95th percentile. The pediatrician said he was one of the healthiest babies that he'd seen and that he was very advanced with this developmental milestones. While I realize that he probably gushes like this to all new mothers, it didn't stop me from beaming with pride and falling madly in love with him. He's obviously a great doctor if he can see how beautiful and smart and perfect my son is!

Jonah had to get his vaccines today (three shots!). He cried big fat crocodile tears that made my chest hurt. He slept all afternoon and is now running a fever of 101. He's a little grumpy and extra cuddly and you can just tell he doesn't feel very good. He's got his hot little head pressed against my cheek now. Kevin made fun of me for checking his temperature every 5 minutes all afternoon, but once it crept up past 101, he was the one that insisted on going out to get infant Tylenol. I guess we're both a little protective of our perfect, healthy, advanced little boy.

Jonah Met Grandma and Grandpa Hove!

I've been busy this week trying to figure out how to juggle classes and being a mom. It's going even busier than I thought it would be but I like being back at school and being out in the real world again. I love being Jonah's mom but when I'm home all day with him, I become a zombie milk machine. Now I come home and really treasure my time with him. It's hard sometimes being gone all day but it's so nice to come home to my two favorite boys.


He's really turning into an ideal baby. He's eating and pooping as well as ever, but he's not nearly as fussy as he was his first few weeks. He's sleeping much better, only getting up once during the night now to nurse and he goes right back to sleep. He sleeps very well in his crib until about 3am, when he wants to eat, and then he usually ends up in our bed again if we want to sleep til morning. But it's kind of nice to be all snuggled in together as a family.


Kevin's parents are coming in tonight. We're looking forward to them meeting Jonah. They've seen pictures, but now they will finally see in person how amazing our little boy is!

Jonah Talks More

My first day of clinical was today. I was terrified going in. I'd never been away from Jonah for more than two or three hours. I had no idea what my preceptor was going to be like or what would be expected of me. And I was pretty sure I didn't remember anything about anything I learned last year.

It turns out clinical is very much like riding a bike. I needed to do a complete physical. I jumped right it and it all came rushing back to me. I wasn't exactly in top form all day, but it went a lot better than I anticipated. Another surprise: I really loved being back. I missed Jonah terribly, of course, but oh my I love what I do here. I had been a little worried about it, but I think I will be just fine as a working mom.

My preceptor was nice and supportive of the whole pumping thing, which was another thing I was nervous about. She offered one of her exam rooms for me to use whenever I need to pump. That makes my life easier, especially considering that she keeps such long days. We worked 10 hours today and she was still going when I finally left.

I was away from home for 13 hours today (the site is a 90 min drive each way) and Jonah and I were very happy to see each other when I finally got home. It was so nice to be out doing something I loved all day and then come home to my little family at night. I have a sweet baby sleeping on my chest and I feel very content, like all the pieces are fitting together just perfectly.

Picture Update

asleep at the park, with socks on his hands to keep them warm

asleep at home

wide awake on the changing table

with his godfather, Skyler

with his godmother, Mary

Jonah has been getting so big so quickly that it's hard to keep up with him. It seems like I'm constantly putting clothes back into the "too small" box. We bought 6-12 month socks last week and he's already outgrown them. How is that possible!? He's not even 7 weeks old.

We took him to the pediatrician to assess a rash he got on his chest. While we were there, we asked to weigh him because Kevin and I had bets going on how much he'd gained. (I thought he was around 12 lb, Kevin thought 15). Jonah is 14lb, 5oz!! I thought Kevin was crazy for thinking a six week old baby could be 15 pounds but he wasn't too far off! We have ourselves a big baby boy. He's cute, though, right? He's so happy most of the time, always cooing and giggling. He can really entertain himself, now, too. It's nice because we can put him on the playmats for a while and make dinner or pick up the living room and he'll just play with his rattles and talk to his stuffed animals. It's very cute (and convenient!) . We took him to visit the nursing home where I had clinicals last semester and I have to agree with a nurse there: "You make good babies. You need to make more."

Jonah is so awesome I can actually contemplate having more babies at some point, although not anytime soon.

Jonah's New Noise

Jonah Laughs

Jonah was a little angel at the play last night. He didn't fuss once, even when he woke up. Today's another good day. Jonah's all smiles and coos and giggles. He's so cute I almost can't stand it.

I spoke too soon yesterday. Jonah had a terrible evening, night, and now day today. He cries constantly unless he's eating, and he can't seem to get enough. We had to give him formula twice today because he emptied me out and still cried for more. He must be going through a growth spurt, but that seems almost impossible since we measured him yesterday and he's already 25 inches long! We looked it up on the growth chart and it's over the 100th percentile, given that he's not even six weeks old. He's too long for his 3 month clothes and we had to go up another size in diapers. He's growing so fast, no wonder he's grumpy. Poor little guy. Last night, his godparents came over but he wouldn't let them hold him. He wouldn't even let Kevin hold him. He insisted that it be me, all evening and all night. It was equal parts endearing and annoying. I felt bad today because I think it started to hurt Kevin's feelings a little bit this morning. I had Kevin give him a bottle earlier and that seemed to help Jonah remember that he has two parents who can comfort him.

The thing about Jonah is that when he won't stop crying, it seems like he can sense when you're getting ready to toss him out the window. Just as my patience is about to run out, he'll flash me this big smile and give me a little giggle and all the hours of crying suddenly don't seem so bad. Which is good, because after that giggle is through, there's always more crying coming up. But he's just so darn cute, even when he's upset, it's hard to get too irritated with him.

Tonight we're going with our neighbors and Mary&Skyler to Shakespeare in the Park. I'm doubly nervous now that Jonah's so fussy, but he's finally asleep so we'll have to keep our fingers crossed that maybe this bad spell has passed.

Kevin worked yesterday and today. A couple of weeks ago, these would have been long, hard days to get through on my own. This week, however, they've been kind of wonderful. First off, the baby is sleeping better and for longer stretches. This makes a huge difference! He still rarely sleeps longer than 3 hours at a stretch, but he does the three hours pretty consistently now and at night he goes right back to sleep after eating. He's also getting better about sleeping in his crib. In fact, he's sleeping there right now. Though when he wakes up and realizes he's alone in his crib, he is NOT a happy camper.

The other thing that makes him so much more fun these days is that he's a lot more interactive. He watches our faces now and sometimes will imitate our facial expressions. He thinks certain songs are funny (especially one about a fly on his nose). He almost always grins when we take his hands to swat at the fly on his nose. Jonah still thinks Kevin is hilarious and he still thinks the wall in the living room is funnier than both of us put together. He doesn't talk to us that much, but he loves to talk to his stuffed Monkey and Duck. You can see in the picture, they're pretty much his best friends.

I've been taking him on more outings. He and I went to Target by ourselves and he was really well behaved. Having the baby sling works wonders. He just sits in it, wide eyed and takes in everything around him. We were at Target for an hour and he didn't cry at all. We also took him out for ice cream with his godparents and he behaved beautifully. He just watched everything and then fell asleep against me while we were eating. What a good baby! Tomorrow we're going to attempt taking him with us to Shakespeare in the Park. It's family friendly and outside, so I don't think anyone will mind us having a baby with us. There's usually a lot of kids there. Hopefully since it will be dark and past his bedtime, he will sleep for most of it, but we're going to arm ourselves with the pacifier and nursing cover, just in case!

What a difference a month makes! The top picture is Jonah a day after we brought him home. The bottom picture is him on his one month birthday in the same outfit.

Jonah is officially one month old! The colic seems to be getting better, although maybe I shouldn't speak too soon - Kevin works again tonight and I don't need any bad luck...

Jonah has started talking, mostly to himself. He's getting better about entertaining himself and will play for 10 or 15 minutes now on his little stack of blankets we've made for him. It's so cute to hear him cooing and gurgling to himself and Monkey while I grab a quick meal or take a bathroom break.

Jonah also now has official godparents! Mary and Skyler agreed to be his godmother/father yesterday, his one month birthday. We were all very happy and will be going out for ice cream to celebrate soon.

Jonah has had a much better day today. He's catching up on all the sleep he missed out on the last two days. Kevin kept him overnight while I slept and he said Jonah slept pretty well. He's been sleeping all day today, too. It's like heaven, having a sleeping baby again. He's probably just storing up again for his next bout of colic, but I don't care - I'll take whatever peace he'll give me.

I'm looking at him and I can't get over how gorgeous his is, colic and all. He holds his head up a lot now and makes all kinds of noises, like he's experimenting to find out what that voice box can do. My favorite are the little cooing noises he makes when he's calm and sometimes in his sleep. I have no idea what he weighs now, but as you can clearly see, he is getting huge! I can't believe my tiny little baby is no longer tiny at all. He'll be four weeks old on Monday and he's outgrown all his newborn clothes and many of the 0-3 month onsies. Thank goodness for hand me downs from his older cousins! Without them we'd be destitute, wrapping our poor baby in grocery bags.

We took a very long walk today, the longest since the baby. We had a big thunderstorm earlier in the day, so the air was nice and cool. We walked through the community garden at my favorite park. The baby slept in the carrier and Kevin and I were able to talk to each other like real people. It was lovely.

It's been a rough couple of days over here. Jonah's colic has hit full force. He has cried around the clock, rarely going more than an hour without fussing. So that means rarely sleeping for more than an hour at a time. It's manageable when Kevin's here to take turns, but he was working the last two nights and then sleeping during the day, which left me alone with the baby for two days and nights. By this afternoon I was pretty sure I was going crazy, maybe hallucinating. But then it turned out that I'd put in a Looney Tunes DVD that had the really early black and white cartoons on it. Do you have any idea how weird those are? Not something you want to watch when you haven't been sleeping. It's terrifying. Probably not something you want to watch when you have been sleeping. Yikes.

I need a nap.