The Month in Review -- Fun with Fauxhawks...

As I'm sure you all have figured out, these last few weeks have been crazy. So here's an update...

The little man still hasn't been sleeping for more than 3 hours at a time, so Tiff has been pretty worn out. Luckily for me I'm working, and she's been great at letting me stay somewhat rested.

Last week I had a two-day conference in Savannah, and we decided it would be fun for the three of us to head down to see the city. I've never been, and didn't get a good chance to really take a look around. Tiff took A.D. out on the town. They took a tour of the city, and although tired from the previously mentioned lack of sleep, they seemed to have a pretty good time.

After two days in Savannah, we stopped in Bluffton for a couple hours while I looked at a church that has a honeybee infestation. It's on the historic register, but that's another story... After that, we drove due north up to the Isle of Palms for a couple days, where we rented a condo and met my parents, who were down from D.C.

After a little fishing, and a lot of shopping (more for Tiff and A.D. than for me), we all headed back up to Greenville to unwind.

Here are a few photos from the past few weeks...

A.D sporting the fauxhawk.

Asleep on Daddy's chest.

First dip in the Atlantic. It was cold.

We got a new beer-holder... It came with a free baby.

They grow up so fast...

It's hard to believe that the little man is already one month old. But if you ask us any morning, we'll tell you that we definitely feel like we haven't slept in about a month.

All in all, everything is going well. A.D. has been wanting to stay up all night, which seems pretty normal as I talk with anyone that has a kid or two. He has a little reflux, but it's nothing that a little Zantac can't handle. And now he has some baby acne. He better get used to it, since he's my son.

Other than that little stuff, he's a really good baby. He's perfectly happy sitting on the couch and staring at the ceiling fan. We try to go for a walk every evening to get him used to the outside, and it seems to be helping Tiff's cabin fever.

Here are photos of the famous one-month-old...

Sunday Photo Goodness...

Top 10 things to do at 3:30 AM...

10. Watch Russia vs Hungary ladies Team Handball in HD. (Russia won)

9. Consider ordering the Clorox Greenworks surface cleaner because the dude with the English accent sounds so damn smart.

8. Burp the baby.

7. Think to yourself... "Is there something on my neck? I swear something is crawling on me, but I'm holding a baby and if I move he will wake up... Crap."

6. Clip your toenails.

5. Try to jam a pacifier in the baby's mouth, hoping it will put him to sleep until noon.

4. Polish off the rest of the Chinese food in the fridge.

3. Hum Beatles songs, but then argue with yourself about whether Paul or John sung "Ruby Tuesday." (At that time, Mick wasn't even an option)

2. Walk the baby in circles around the house, guided only by nightlights.

1. Play the game "Change the baby's diaper without him waking up." Double bonus points if he doesn't pee all over you. (I lost)

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I guess it's fair to say we are having some minor sleeping issues. Tiffany took him to the pediatrician today and they confirmed our suspicions that he has acid reflux.

Hopefully he'll sleep better tonight so I can dream about large handball-playing Russian women cleaning my house with environmentally friendly Clorox while humming "Ruby Tuesday."

I can't wait.

Lesson from Dad: How to be Photogenic...

I'm starting a new blog segment called Lessons from Dad, an incredible learning tool for A.D. (and any other babies out there that might be surfing the web) that will help him get through life.

This lesson is titled How to be Photogenic...

As you will soon find out, people will randomly take pictures of you without your prior knowledge. To be able to handle such conditions, you need to make sure you are always prepared. In order to do so, you need to become familiar with the Smug-Goofy-Cheesy-Grin (SGCG) look.

In order to properly execute the SGCG, you must properly do the following:

1. Look smarmy. That's right, show some swagger.

2. Raise your eyebrows. Let the camera know you are a little excited, but not so much you look surprised. Imagine pointing at the camera and saying "heyyyyyyy"

3. Turn whatever you are holding (beer, hedge clippers, Rick Astley tape, baby, etc.) toward the camera.

4. Showing teeth is optional.

And since you're a baby and pictures help you learn, Figure 1 (below) shows just how photogenic your daddy is (note the perfectly executed SGCG).

Wide Awake Baby...

A.D. isn't awake very often. And when he is, it's not for very long.

Here is evidence that he does wake up every once in a while.

How It All Went Down...

Note: I wrote this blog last week, but for some reason didn't post it. Since today is Tiff's original due date, I decided to dig it up...

One of the first things I learned about expecting a kid is that everyone wants to share their pregnancy and labor horror stories with you. They tell you how horrible every facet of the pregnancy was for them, how long and grueling the labor was, or how incredibly long their pregnancy went... Well I'm not going to do that. Instead, since A.D. came about a week and a half early and I didn't really share how everything went, you'll get our (fairly easy to stomach) story.

On the evening of August 3rd, Tiff and I went to dinner with Ben & Becky at Chicora Alley in downtown Greenville. After plowing down some good food, and some ice cream for dessert, we headed home. Both of us were tired, so we crashed early.

At about midnight, Tiff woke up and waddled to my side of the bed to announce that her water broke. I think I said "Really?" I don't really remember.

So we gathered up the previously mentioned HCWHTHTTH bag, fed the cat, grabbed the iPod, watered a couple plants, vacuumed the house, churned some butter, reenacted the Battle of Gettysburg, and finally headed to the hospital.

There were two older (I used "older" loosely) triage nurses (I use "nurse" loosely) waiting for us in the labor and delivery area of the hospital. I'll call them Gladys and Mabel. Gladys was my favorite. (Note: Some glaciers move at an average speed of 3 feet per day... Gladys moved slower.)

Gladys: "What happened?"

Tiffany: "I think my water broke."

(cue akward pause and crickets chirping in the background)

Gladys: "Are you sure?"

Tiffany: "Pretty sure."

Gladys blinks and walks out of the room.

Gladys comes back in the room. "Was it clear?"

Tiffany: "Yes."

Gladys: "Did it have an odor"

Tim gags a little bit at the thought of bending over and smelling it...

Tiffany: "No."

Gladys lumbers back out of the room, and sends in Mabel for reinforcements...

Apparently Gladys and Mabel don't talk amongst each other, because Mabel asked us all the same questions. Then, Mabel got some magical litmus-like paper and confirmed that Tiff's water had in fact broke. They admitted us into the Labor & Delivery room at about 1:30 AM. It turns out she was having contractions for a while before that, but didn't feel them much.

We sat around in the room until about 6 AM or so until they finally decided to hook Tiff up to Pitocin to speed things along. Prior to going to the hospital, Tiff decided that she would try to go through the whole thing naturally. By naturally, she was hoping not to need an epidural or any other pain medicine. (Any of you ladies out there with kids can stop laughing now...)

We played a couple hands of Gin.

Once the Pitocin kicked in Tiff started to feel the contractions, her head spun around like Linda Blair's, and I think she squeezed (squoze?) my hand so hard that she might have broke a couple of my bones... At this point, we decided an epidural was probably a good idea.

The epidural guy (that's his official name, I think) rolled in and started working on Tiff's back. I was standing up in front of her, holding on to her hands, and translating Tiff's grunts into when she was having contractions for the doctor. It took him about an hour and 15 mins to get the epidural right. Tiff was exhausted with the whole thing, and I was about to pass out from standing up the whole time and from lack of food.

I went down to the Cafeteria and grabbed luke-warm chicken (cat?) fingers. By the time I got back upstairs, they were doing the leg-into-stirrups thing and telling Tiff she was about ready to push. I made sure to stay above the equator the whole time.

After about 30 tiring mins of pushing, and about 15 1/2 hours after arriving at the hospital, little A.D. was born at 2:01 PM. Just to piss off his mom, he came out with his arm up above his head (and his head was cone-shaped... I was told that was normal).

Tiffany did great. We were both tired, but secretly I was really concerned about having a little conehead kid running around out there.

Overall, it's not a horror story at all. The epidural could have taken about an hour shorter, but that's it. So any of you out there who are getting really freaked out about the whole process, just think of Baird...Cubed.