bogen.org

We don’t have many photos or videos of Garrison with his eyes open, but I cobbled together some footage today and put a video on YouTube that gives you an idea of what he looks like with his eyes open.

Now that we’ve had Garrison at home for a bit more than a week, I can reflect upon our lives with an infant in the house.
I’m currently staying home on a three week paternity leave, which has been great for helping Sarah around the house. She has been really busy with feeding Garrison at times, especially in the evening, so I’ve been doing the cooking, cleaning, and the like. We laid in a stock of meals and ingredients before Garrison’s due date, so the meal preparation hasn’t been too onerous.

For the most part, Garrison has been what most people would call a “good baby”. He feeds almost continuously from 20:00-00:30 at night, takes one more feeding around 02:00, and then can sleep for four to five hours. He only sleeps for a half-hour or so unless he’s in our bed. If we leave him in a crib or bassinet, he sleeps fitfully, when he sleeps at all. He generally doesn’t cry without a reason. If he’s crying, he’s most likely either wearing a messy diaper or he’s hungry. That makes it fairly easy to figure out what’s wrong in his world.

He’s been spending more time awake and alert, but not crying or feeding in the last couple of days. He still doesn’t really react to people or objects, but that’s fine. It’s just good to have him awake and alert for reasons beyond “I want” or “I need”.

Dalla and Garrison have been getting along generally fine. She wants nothing to do with him when he’s in full roar, but otherwise tolerates his presence. She does try to lick his hands, feet, and face when she’s allowed, but so far she doesn’t seem threatened by his presence. Garrison doesn’t seem to know her from the sofa at this point, which is probably to be expected.

We took our first post-baby outing as a family to a series of locations that did not include a doctor’s office yesterday. Fortunately, Garrison likes riding in the car, and he seems soothed by the car’s motion. His car seat clips on to shopping carts, and those seem to mimic the car’s motion enough that he did OK on our trip. It’s possible that we got lucky in that we went earlier in the day (when he’s not quite as fussy), so a trip later in the day might not be as smooth.

Dalla’s doggie door broke earlier this month during one of our colder weather stretches. The plastic that she pushes aside to get through the door broke off in some -5F weather, so I had to craft a new door out of some left-over vinyl and some bits of the original door. Fortunately, the replacement door seems to be holding its own, even in cold weather.

Sarah has been recovering from labor at a good clip. She said that she wanted to walk the dog yesterday and she came back from the walk pleased with the exercise. She found it invigorating to get out of the house and stretch her legs.

We put together a short movie of Garrison’s bath this morning. The special effects are basically non-existent, character development is minimal at best, and the plot isn’t much to write home about, but if you’re a fan of noisy wet infants, this one’s for you.

A pair of new photos end the series we took at the hospital. We’re all at home now, discovering how we all will live as a family so I don’t expect that I’ll update the site again for a few days.

By popular demand, there are now a few more photos of Garrison in the photo gallery.

Garrison Edmund Bogen joined our family at 01:34 CST on 17 Jan 2009. His stat line:

• Weight: Seven pounds, seven ounces.
• Length: 19.5 inches
• Labor: 13.5 hours

Both mother and child are well.

If you’re interested, there are a couple of photos in the photo gallery.

"No baby yet," was the theme of the weekend.The first words out of the mouth of everyone we meet, everyone who calls us, and everyone we call are, "Have you had the baby yet?" Our neighbors at the bus stop this morning all asked, "Do you have any news at your house?" Clearly they weren’t asking if we had anything interesting in the fridge, if we saw any interesting birds in the back yard, or if Dalla got another squirrel. So, when I said that everything was the same, they all made me promise to let them know when something changed.

We’re still struggling with a boy’s name, so perhaps the late arrival is a good thing if we end up having a boy.

Sarah’s doctor told her to get plenty of exercise as that usually moves labor along, so we went hiking both Saturday and Sunday. Both days we had nice hikes in the woods since the weather was mild (for this time of year).

My thought to move labor along was to start some home improvement project that would be inconvenient not to finish before the baby arrived. So Sunday, we bought a new faucet for the bathroom sink and I installed it in the afternoon. I assumed that her labor would start just after I got the old faucet and drain off and before I got the new ones attached. Nothing doing, however. Even after I had to make a trip to the hardware store 3/4 of the way through the process. Regardless, we now have a new bathroom faucet that replaces the old ugly one we got with the house.

Dalla now understands all the intricacies of the doggie door, which is nice given the cold weather barreling down on us. We can send her out into the garage, and she lets herself in and out of the yard when she’s ready.

With the close of 2008, we relaxed (generally) and got ready for a new year.
Last weekend, the winter weather moderated a bit and we took advantage of the warmer weather (upper thirties) to install a doggie door for Dalla that leads from the garage to the back yard. That was as much a treat for us as it was for her. We get tired of always going out to the garage to let her in and out late and night (in the winter it gets a bit cold). However, with a doggie door we can send her into the garage, and she can make her way into and yard and back into the garage again without any intervention from us. It’s been a bit of a learning curve for her and us. She has no problem charging through the door and into the yard when there are critters in the yard to be chased. However, she will often wait for a clear sign from us that it’s okay to proceed through the door if her mind isn’t otherwise occupied with the possibility of bloodshed and mayhem. On those occasions she goes into the garage, we close the door, and then look for her to come out into the yard from the patio door. When we don’t see her, we have to go into the garage, tell her that it’s OK, and then she goes through the door. I’m sure that she’ll eventually fall into a rhythm with the door; it’s still new and she’s stuck in her ways. Olive, on the other hand, has no problems with pausing at the door and waiting for an OK. Her big problem with the doggie door is a failure to grasp the fact that only one dog at a time can fit through the opening.

Last weekend I also gave in to the urge to brew up another batch of mead. This one includes blackberries, raspberries, some orange zest, and far less honey than my first batch. It’s currently fermenting in an open fermenter in the baby’s room (I like to call that “the beer room” since I’ve been fermenting beer and mead in there of late and Sarah likes to correct me that it’s the “baby’s room”). I had some problems getting the whole mess warm enough to ferment once I pitched the yeast because we generally keep the house colder than 70F when we’re not around. My solution was to put a little electric heater with a thermostat in the room and close the door. That has kept the temperature warm enough to get the yeast going.

New Years Eve day here in Madison was a gorgeous day with temperatures in the mid-teens and sunshine in a cloudless sky. Both Sarah and I wanted to get out hiking, so we packed up some ski poles for her to use for balance, the dogs, and a camera. We spent an hour walking on a trail at one of our favorite natural areas and everyone had a great time. We couldn’t walk as far or as fast as we have in the past because Sarah is so near to term, but it still felt great to be out and about on a nice day. For those interested parties, there are some pictures in the photo gallery.

New Years Day we took down the tree and all our other Christmas decorations down in the morning. Other years we’ve delayed that for a week or so after New Years, but this year we got right on it. We didn’t want to be left with all of that on our plates once the baby arrives.

This is the recipe for my most recent beer concoction, Mystery Spot Ale. I sampled one bottle a couple of days ago, and it isn’t quite done carbonating yet. Probably by this weekend it will be finished.

13 oz. 2-row malt
10 oz. Briess Pilsen Malt
3.3 lbs. Extra Light malt extract
1.5 oz. Cascade hops
2 lbs. honey
1 t. Irish Moss
1/4 oz. New Zealand Pacific Hallertau hops
Wyeast 1968 London ESB Yeast

Steep 2-row and Pilsen malts for 30 minutes at 160 degrees in 1.5 gallons of water.

Strain out grains. Add malt extract, and Cascade hops. Boil for 45 minutes.
Add honey and Irish Moss. Boil for 13 minutes.
Add Hallertau hops. Boil for 2 minutes.

Sparge, cool, and add to 2.5 gallons of water in fermenter. Add more water to bring total volume to five gallons. When cool enough, pitch yeast. Bottle when fermentation has completed.