smiles

We’ve been trying to capture Riley’s smiles for the past week, but he has made it a bit challenging. He gets distracted by the camera whenever I pull it out and produces a concentrated look instead. Here’s my best attempts this past week:

I'll keep trying....

Shelby

morning playtime, root canals and miss alecia

J’s time with Riley now occurs in the morning. It’s sweet to see them together and Riley clearly enjoys being with his dad. After I feed him in the morning, I bring him in to J where they hang out in the bed (see July 9 blog for pics) and Riley just chatters away until sleep overtakes him. After he naps, he sits on the bed while daddy irons his clothes. They listen to one of his children’s CDs and daddy plays with him while he gets ready for work. I love how Riley looks so intently at J as he's playing with him.

Dancing to his Pooh songs:

I had to have the dreaded root canal this morning, so Miss Alecia came over for an early morning stroller walk and watched Riley while I was at my appt. I had such a good time on our walk I was actually able to forget about the r.c. for an hour. I’ve been anxious about this for almost a week as my last r.c. (7 years ago) was a horrible experience in which I wasn’t able to be fully numbed and was zapped with pain throughout the procedure. I’d take 10 hours of active labor over repeating that 90 min procedure. Thankfully, I had an endodontist that had an ace up his sleeve and numbed the nerve to be removed, not just the area around the nerve. So, the anticipation of pain and the initial injections were the worst part of the experience (yes, I was shaking and teary eyed at first). It’s interesting how that kind of pain can bring me to my knees and reduce me to a “cry-baby” state. Not so tough, after all.

Riley, on the other hand, had a great time with Miss Alecia -- didn't miss me one bit.

I’ll close with another Riley shot in another one of his Zutano outfits, with a sweet look on his face:

Shelby

early intervention

We had a visit from the Early Intervention folks today. Riley was referred to E.I. after his hospitalization since he’s considered at-risk for developmental delays. They came by to do the initial assessment to see if he “qualified” to enter into the program. There was a physical therapist and two developmental specialists present. They asked about his history and did some developmental tests on him for about 90 min.

When it was done, I was told that he passed his developmental tests with flying colors and therefore failed to get into the program (a hearty hallelujah on both counts). The P.T. said that he’s looking just fine for a two month old and doesn’t have enough risk factors to qualify. It seemed to me that he was developing fine, but it’s nice to hear it from a professional. Since this program is available until he is 3 yrs of age, they told us to call if we have any concerns in the future and they’ll look him over again.

Thanking the Lord for Riley’s continued healing,

Shelby

Riley is 2 months old!

Riley-boy gets to be more and more fun as he gets older and more interactive. He’s 11 lbs 11 oz and has grown out of his newborn clothes. He’s still sleeping well at night, if I don’t screw up his naps too much during the day (see July 14 blog). He goes to bed around 7p and I wake him up at 6am for his first feed, getting him ready for my return to work at the end of August. J’s nighttime feed now occurs around 11p, allowing us a long stretch of sleep during the night.

He’s still swaddled for sleeping to keep his active limbs from keeping him up. Friday, I tried to lay him down unswaddled when he was tired and calm and he worked himself up to a tizzy within 10 minutes. Swaddled, he was out in less than 5. Go figure. I had to buy a larger receiving blanket so we could continue doing this, since he’s getting bigger and stronger.

Here are some of the things that Riley’s up to:

1. He’s beginning to discover his hands. We’re catching him deliberately putting his fists in his mouth to suck (when he’s not hungry) and doing it repeatedly, instead of accidentally banging himself in the face and taking advantage of the moment.
2. He’s hanging on to toys that I place in his hands for 2-3 min at a time now.
3. He’s turning to look at me when I walk into the room and tracking me as I walk around. Very cool -- makes his mama feel special!
4. He can hold his head up for longer when placed on his tummy. He’s doing better at turning his head from side to side and doing mini-pushups from time to time. He prefers to face out of the baby Bjorn and does well at keeping his neck up in that position now.

1. He gives us smiles and “talks” to us. He's especially chatty in the morning when he gets to hang out with Daddy in the bed while mama exercises.
2. He is a happy and content kid as long as he’s fed when hungry and sleeps when tired. He eats about 5-6 times a day and when bottle-fed mama’s milk, takes an an average of 5 oz at a time.

Lastly, He enjoys watching his mobile when he first gets up:

My accomplishment of the past month is being able to run a full 30 min now without stopping for walking breaks. Saturday I enjoyed my first trail run since last fall. Though the runs are slow and labored, it feels good to be able to exercise vigorously again. Also, J has fixed up my bike so I can add that my exercise routine and give my joints a break. Combined with the resumption of healthy eating, I’m feeling better and more “normal” by the week.

Shelby

our boy is baptized

Today Riley was baptized at CTK. Baptism brings with it an element of mystery and hope bound up in a wrapping of faith and grace. In baptism Shelby and I are stating that Riley belongs to God, to a believing family and to God’s church. We’re also acknowledging that we need to lean on promises God gives in connecting our boy to Jesus in this way. We’ve promised to raise Riley in the church, to set a Godly example for him, and to pray with and for him. Most importantly, we acknowledge the need that our son has for God’s grace through the cleansing blood of Christ, and we have promised to teach Riley of the need he has for our Savior, the God who loves him so dearly. We look forward in faith to the day when our boy will profess his own faith. As part of the ceremony all of the church members promise to help us in this endeavor. I’m so glad we’re not in this alone.

Here’s video of Riley being baptized for those who were not able to be there:

On another note, yesterday we took a family trip downtown to walk through the Public Garden and down the Esplanade. The weather was beautiful. While we were in the Public Garden Riley got his first (of what will be yearly) chance to sit on momma duck, who is a part of a bronze sculpture based on the book “Make Way for the Ducklings.” It was very cute. A great time was had by all. Riley was even awake for some of it! Here are a few pictures:

Riley’s first time on momma duck:

Shelby and Riley with the Charles River and MIT in the background:

Riley gets fed on the Esplanade:

Jonathan and Riley with the Charles River in the background:

Jonathan

Zutano

I love Zutano baby clothes with all their fun, bright colors and mix & match patterns. I put Riley in one of their outfits and found out that he wasn’t too crazy about the beanie. He hung in there for the first shot and it all went downhill from there…

modeling the Palm Island collection...

scrunchy-face...

he's had enough...

Shelby

a trip to maine

Riley got to take his first trip to Maine this weekend. We went up to see Shelby's cousin Jon & his family on Friday night after I got off of work. We’re finding that trips like these can be a bit challenging with our newborn boy. It’s amazing how important keeping to his sleep schedule is. We found ourselves with a wide awake and wired boy at 12:30am, mostly due to the fact that he hadn’t had one of his regular naps during a very busy day, and then he didn’t get put to bed until late because we were traveling up to Maine . That left him overtired…a recipe for sleeplessness for all of us. We finally got him to sleep and then got to sleep ourselves. Then came the 1:30 feed. Oh boy! At least Riley was ready to sleep right after that and was out for the next 4 hours. Mom and dad both appreciated the short rest. Shelby was up at 6:00 for a feed. I fed Riley a bottle at about 8:30 (in bed) and he was tired afterward so we both took a nap until about 10:15 (while mom went out for a walk.) Good thing we didn’t want to make an early start.

It’s amazing to me that Riley sleeps less if he goes to bed late. I don’t really understand how overtiredness works, but I can definitely say I don’t like it. Even a baby as easy as our son dislikes having his sleep messed with. I think we’re going to be planning future trips with his sleep schedule firmly in mind. Needless to say he went to bed at very close to his usual 7 tonight…

After we got up Riley got to hang out with cousin Erica. Here’s a shot:

Once we got up and going it was time for a trip to Two Lights State Park. The Maine coast is different than most of the other places I’ve been. The biggest difference: Rocks. Two Lights is one of the rockier sections of oceanfront that I’ve been to and one of the most beautiful. It is actually the first place on the Maine seacoast that Shelby ever took me to when we were first dating. Today was Riley’s first visit. We had a picnic lunch with Jon, Julie and Erica and then sat for a little while on the rocks down by the water. Here are some pictures:

It was a perfect day. A great day for Riley to be introduced to the Maine seacoast and it felt good for us to be back as well. Hopefully future trips will find us more rested… I’d rather go there tired and with a tired boy than go alone though. I’m enjoying this parenthood thing.

Jonathan

good news from children’s

I took Riley in for a follow-up appt at Children’s Hospital today. I wasn’t sure what to expect – the resident physician weighed him (11 lbs), measured him (just over 22”) and checked his developmental progress (tracking faces, grasping objects, neck strength, reflexes etc). The attending physician then took a few minutes with him and announced that we can taper off the seizure meds over the next 5 weeks. That was very unexpected and very good news; my boy will be off his meds by 3 months – yee haw!! No MRI or ECG was done and I don’t have to bring him in again until December. We thank God for Riley’s good health, healing and hope of being seizure-free.

Our family doc (who is Riley’s pediatrician) doesn’t tell me where Riley lands on the percentile charts for growth, which is fine with me. Today however, I was told that he’s in the 50^th percentile for height and weight and in the 10^th (!) percentile for head circumference. His little lemon-drop head is bit on the small side. Now I know why it’s best that I don’t ask for this information. I immediately came home and started researching this subject on the internet to see if I had reason to be concerned (it appears that I don’t – yet). I’m better off staying in the dark when it comes to these things.

In other news, Riley got his first trip to the Museum of Fine Arts today. I spontaneously decided to stop by after his appt so I could view the Edward Hopper exhibit. Riley slept through the whole thing – but I figure it’s never too late to expose your kid to fine art. I didn’t realize that Hopper painted so much of the New England coast. I’m more familiar with his NYC subject matter. Seeing those paintings makes me want to move to New York for a little while (sigh).

Does anything look odd in this picture?

I placed him on his tummy, stepped away to open the blinds and came back to find him on his back! He looked a little stunned by the sudden change of perspective. Maybe he accidentally squirmed “just so” and flipped himself over, but I’d like to think that my baby is advanced in his gross motor development. Since he's just a wee 7 weeks old today, I was proud of my boy's latest achievement. I'll have to keep a closer watch on him now though...

Shelby

two years…

Today is our 2^nd wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe – the time has flown by so fast. J and I are in agreement that the past 3 years have been the best of our lives. We feel so blessed to not only have each other to love, but now a child as well.

We had an early anniversary dinner on Saturday night while Riley got some lovin’ from Gramma Betsy and our mutual friend Cathy, who came down from Maine. After dinner, we took a walk along Plum Island beach, which is the site of our engagement. A lovely and romantic night.

This morning, the Berg 3 hung out in mommy & daddy’s bed. You can see from the pictures how Riley’s able to hold his neck up pretty well:

My sleeping experiment of the past week has shown us that Riley gets 10-11 hours of sleep each night with two feedings, one from dad (midnight – 3a) and one from mom (5a – 7a). Not bad at all for a 6 week old. Going to bed at 7p seems to be right for him, regardless of how long he has napped during the day. Since his early morning feeding can vary a couple of hours, the number and duration of naps during the day varies.

After skimming a couple of books on the subject of children and sleep**, I’m not sweating it. As long as he’s happy and we’re able to put him down when he’s first showing signs of tiredness, I expect him to settle into a routine in the next month or two.

I love both my boys!

Shelby

**Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems

**Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child

a day at the beach

Is there any better way to spend the 4^th of July than to go to the beach? We didn’t think so. So we took our first family trip to Salisbury Beach today. Riley was largely unimpressed by the beauty of sand and sea. He slept for virtually the entire time we were there. Here are a couple of shots:

Dad and boy in the cabana:

Riley finds an unlikely bed:

It’s amazing to me the places that Riley can sleep. He slept through a feeding as well (and took 4 oz.)

It was a perfect beach day made even better by the presence of our boy. Everything is more fun with Riley along. In the future he may even stay awake.

While on the subject of Riley’s sleep, I’ll leave you with a short video of the kind of thing that fascinates Shelby and I nowadays. Cute baby noises. We can’t help it, we adore our son.

Another piece of excitement today was all Shelby's. She rejoined the ranks of runners after seven months off. 20 minutes of jogging out of 30 minutes total and only six weeks out from a C-section. Way to go sweetie! She really felt great.

Life is becoming more and more "normal"...

Jonathan

red socks

Showing his support for the hometown team:











Shelby

where’s riley?

Continuing on the squirm theme, this is how I found Riley this morning:

Usually, his arm and legs are out of the swaddle, but having him slip “under the covers” was a new one. I didn't laugh at my little Houdini at first. Always worried about suffocation, I checked under the blanket and found plenty of airspace. That's when I chuckled and grabbed the camera.

In other news, my 5-day sleeping experiment has turned into a 7-day one as Riley's "routine" was ruined this weekend with our gallivanting around. The one thing we have determined is that 7p seems to be the right bedtime for him. However, we're not seeing much consistency in the morning wake up times (6:30a - 8:30a) and that seems to influence his nap schedule for the day.

It may be too early to see consistency at his age (just shy of 6 wks) -- we'll see.

Shelby

squirmy boy

We took advantage of the near-perfect weather yesterday and had a family picnic out at Georges Island. I took this picture as Riley was in full-squirm mode waiting for his lunch in a bottle:

I don't know if this is as funny to anyone else as it is to us (and my mom who has seen Riley's squirminess), but we thought we'd share it with y'all...

Shelby