A Tarheel Fan is Born

Edmund with Daddy at the Carolina Basketball Museum

Chapel Hill is having another mini heat wave it seems. However, that didn't stop Steven, Edmund, and I from making our way to the new Carolina Basketball Museum yesterday. We simply made sure to keep our bouncing baby boy cool. The nice thing about being on maternity leave while Steven is off is that we can explore our town together. Unfortunately, Edmund will only have the pictures to prove he was with us.

The basketball museum is very well done. When you walk in you are escorted into a stand up theater that plays a short movie about Carolina basketball. The theater screen is essentially shaped like a basketball giving one more of the basketball experience. Once the movie finishes, museum patrons make their way to the main exhibit. The room is a Carolina basketball lover's dream. Of course Edmund slept through most of his first true Carolina experience, but did look up at his mom a few times throughout the visit, as if to say "where am I?" Of course we told him he had entered the most wonderful place in the world. We believe the best memorabilia in the museum is Michael Jordan's letter of intent to attend Carolina placed next to his rejection letter to Duke. As we departed the museum, we headed through a room which houses the National Championship trophies. Edmund looks forward to one day being on the Championship team. And to think right now he is barely bigger than one of Sean May's shoes!

Edmund Goes to the Nursery

Edmund Enjoying a Sunday Afternoon Nap

There's not much to report on the home front. Edmund continues to do what he does best...eat, sleep, play, and more sleep!

Yesterday was Edmund's first trip to the church nursery. If you will recall Edmund is quite the noisy baby whether or not he is asleep or awake, making any sort of concentration during church impossible. I must admit I did quite well handing off my baby. This was the first time he has been out of the hands of relatives. However, it does help that I was a lead caregiver for the infant nursery before Edmund was born, and knew all the workers. The woman who shares the lead caregiver position with me is great with kids, and a nurse. Thus I knew my baby was in great hands. According to Martha, Edmund did beautifully. Steven and I were shocked he was still awake when the service finished, as he had been awake all morning. Edmund must have been quite interested in all the hustle and bustle of other little children around him to forgo sleeping. I'm glad he handled it well as his preschool is quite the busy place!

Edmund Discovers His Hands

This has been quite the busy week for our family. With all the coming and going we've been doing, there has been little time to update the blog. I'm glad to finally have a chance to sit down and breathe, as well as update you all on baby Edmund.

Wednesday was Edmund's first truly rough day. Unfortunately, this was also the day Edmund was to be in a research study with Steven. The study looked at interactions between fathers and babies around Edmund's age. Steven said there would be researchers to look after Edmund if I wanted to stay home, but seeing as neither one of us had ever met these people before, I decided to go. It was a good thing too, as Edmund had not quite been himself. I wouldn't want to make him more anxious by handing him over to people, who I'm quite sure had spent little time actually taking care of babies. I took care of Edmund for an hour while Steven answered a variety of questions. Eventually a researcher came and took Edmund for the "interaction" part of the study. Almost immediately I heard my baby's wails. I was quite confused as I knew Steven would be interacting with Edmund, and knew how to calm him down. After a few minutes of hearing Edmund's loud cries, I was about ready to go get him, thinking the researchers had him. Just at that moment they brought him back to me. At this point they told me Edmund was strapped in a seat while Steven attempted to interact with him. Feeling relief in knowing why my baby was crying I said, "oh, he hates any form of restraint. He won't even play in his bouncy seat at home." When Steven finally finished his part of the study he told me that he knew there would be trouble when he saw the seat. Apparently he hadn't been informed that he would have to interact with Edmund while he was restrained. Oh well, at least we made some money out of the ordeal.

Edmund woke up his cheerful self on Thursday morning, and I'm happy to report, has been that way since. He has obligingly accompanied his mom and dad on many an errand with no complaints. Now that Edmund is bigger I've been carrying him in the Baby Bjorn. He loves the closeness he feels and also relishes in the fact it means less time in the carseat. I'm definitely a fan of this particular piece of baby paraphernalia!

And now for Edmund's fascinating discovery...I noticed on Tuesday that Edmund was opening and closing his fists much more so I put a rattle in his fist. He actually grasped the rattle for more than a second. I have since put the rattle in his hand multiple times. He haphazardly swings the rattle around and finishes by either throwing it across the floor or hitting himself in the face with it. The latter abruptly ends playtime with sounds of distress. Although this is a big accomplishment Edmund did not grasp the rattle of his own accord. Last night however, Edmund brought his hand to his face and studied it intently for quite awhile. He then brought his hand closer and closer to his face, went cross-eyed, and hit himself in the nose. This action startled him, but he went back to cooing. Eventually his hand made its way in front of his face again. He steadied his hand to get a better look at it, brought it close to his face, and hit himself in the forehead with it. Edmund continued to find his hand several more times, each time ending his discovery with a hit to the face. Steven and I were glad we skipped a movie last evening, as Edmund's antics were much more entertaining than any blockbuster film.

Edmund Takes on Harrisonburg-Part 2

Having exhausted the majority of Harrisonburg's major attractions, we decided nothing beats ice cream on a hot day. We have been told on many occasions "there is always a line at Kline's," so we figured "do what the locals do." Steven, Edmund, Sandy (my mom), and I loaded into the car and headed to Kline's Dairy Bar. Kline's always has vanilla and chocolate soft serve ice cream, but rotates their flavors weekly. Raspberry was the flavor of the week upon our visit. While I have never had raspberry ice cream, I love raspberry flavored anything, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. Steven and I got a double dip of the raspberry in a cup, as we had been warned by the prominently posted sign "ice cream melts in hot weather, so we strongly suggest a cup." Nothing like the the obvious. I strongly encouraged Sandy to get the milkshake flavor of the day (cake batter) because of course I intended to sneak in a bite here and there. While I was sneaking bites of Sandy's cake batter milk shake, Edmund sneaked a bite of my and Steven's ice cream. So that's where it all went!

*Disclosure (Yes I know babies shouldn't have ice cream, and in case anyone is confused, the above is a posed picture.)

Edmund Takes on Harrisonburg-Part 1

Edmund woke bright and early Friday morning. As my mom, Sandy, had so graciously offered to do nighttime duty while we were in Harrisonburg, Steven and I continued sleeping. When Edmund woke Sandy prepared a bottle and took Edmund downstairs where she handed him over to my dad, Jack. She gave Jack the honors of the morning feeding. Since Jack is already an early riser, having a fellow early riser to spend the morning with was quite a treat. Jack fed Edmund his early morning bottle while watching TV, as Paw Paw the dog looked on. At the completion of the feeding Jack decided to take the opportunity to give Edmund his first remote control lesson. As Steven and I have decided no TV for Edmund until he is much older, this lesson in the use of the remote was quite sneaky of Granddad.

Eventually Steven and I awoke from our blissful, uninterrupted slumber and got ourselves and Edmund ready for the day. First on the agenda was a noon lunch at Mrs. Hardesty's Tea Room. We had tried to go the day before, but apparently such a fancy place requires a reservation. When we arrived at the tea room, Mrs. Hardesty was ready for us. The menu was very dainty, but perfect for me as I am not the biggest of eaters. I was taken with the miniature salt and pepper shakers shaped like teapots and the miniature china teacups hanging from the curtains. I am not a girly girl, but I do love all things miniature. I must note that the Tea Room is also known as the Ladies Tea Room. I've been informed that men do occasionally lunch there, but not so on this particular day. Steven and Edmund were quite good sports, though Edmund could have cared less as he slept through the whole thing.

After lunch we were informed we had to let the secretaries at Harrisonburg Baptist Church see Edmund, as they had heard so much about him. While Sandy planned a prank with the secretaries for the Sunday morning announcements, Steven, Edmund, and I sneaked away to the sanctuary. While in the sanctuary Edmund tried his hands at the drums and wailed his song into the microphone. Earlier that morning I gave him a lesson on the piano. Edmund need only pick up the trumpet, then he will be versed on all of his mommy's instruments. As an aside, Jack had promised our piano to the first child who had a son and included Mercer in the name. I think the middle name Jack is an even better choice, so I'm expecting that piano very soon :) While Edmund was practicing for his jazz band auditions, Sherry, the head of HBC's nursery walked in. Of course she wanted to hold him, so Edmund's jam session came to an end. After being "oohed and aahed" over, Edmund set out on his next adventure.

Our final destination for the day was the Dayton Farmer's Market. It is run by Mennonites and is a "must see" every time we visit Harrisonburg. Sandy perused the kitchen store while Steven, Edmund, and I explored all areas of the market. As we went from store to store, women stopped me to see "the tiny baby." They explained they needed a "baby fix." Again Edmund was quite the trooper about all this as he slept through it. After looking at the delicious cheeses, pastas, and candies in the dry goods section we made our way to the far end of the market. Upstairs they have a "newborn nursery" with lifelike baby dolls. When you walk upstairs you are greeted by sweet coos. I commented on how we were only greeted by happy sounds. Had the cries of babies been playing I'm not sure the newborn nursery would be such a fun place for "little mommies". I told Steven that I would have absolutely loved this place when I was a little girl. I stated "I would have wanted a boy." Steven pointed to sleeping Edmund and said "well you have a real one." How could I forget? Edmund is much more fun than a doll, and cuter if I might add!

So concluded the day's trips around Harrisonburg. Edmund was quite the hit, and his parents learned they will forever be known as Edmund's mom and dad.

A Visit to the Harrisonburg Children's Museum

Steven, Edmund, and I traveled to Harrisonburg, VA yesterday afternoon to spend a few days with my parents. As our days won't have as much downtime as usual I won't be posting much until I return to Chapel Hill. However, I wanted to share this short story of today's outing.

My mom informed us yesterday there is a children's museum in town. I am a huge fan of children's museums and already knew this. I'd been looking for an excuse to visit ever since my parents moved to Harrisonburg, but felt awkward going without a "borrowed" child. Sometimes I pull out the "I'm a teacher and would love to look around" bit, but hadn't done that here. When my mom suggested we go she was sure I'd say Edmund was much too young, but I jumped on the chance. I now have my own child to use an excuse.

When we walked into the museum two ladies greeted us, and asked if we were there to play. We said we were just visiting and were checking out the museum for when Edmund was a little bigger. We showed the ladies our tiny, sleeping baby figuring they would see that he was much too young to play. We offered to pay, but they told us there was no need. As we started off to explore they called out "if you want to stay and play just come back and pay". Again I pointed to the sleeping baby, and said "I'm pretty sure he won't be playing today." Perhaps they knew the adults were itching to play.

The Harrisonburg Children's Museum looks excellent and I can't wait until a visit when Edmund truly is old enough to play.

Edmund Attends Chapel Hill Bible Church

Edmund and Mommy at Church

Though I have seen babies as young as 4 days old at church, I decided to hold off on bringing Edmund until today. Pediatricians often urge parents to wait until their babies are 6 weeks of age before heading to a crowded place, so I figured 5 1/2 weeks is close enough. However, Edmund probably could have gone sooner if it weren't for his weary parents. As Steven pointed out, if Edmund could survive a 4 hour trip to the Durham County Health Department at 2 weeks old, he could certainly handle church.

As per usual we fed Edmund before leaving the house. Contrary to his usual routine he did not fall asleep after eating. In fact he was semi-awake when we arrived at Chapel Hill Bible Church. We were greeted by a co-worker of mine who also attends CHBC. Though she has seen Edmund on several occasions, she had never actually seen him awake. She commented on how blue his eyes are. Edmund's eyes were such a dark blue at birth they were almost black. They have since lightened slightly. Steven and I are still curious to see if Edmund's eyes remain blue. I guess we'll need to wait a few more months.

When we sat down in the sanctuary some rather loud welcome music was playing. At this point Edmund was sleeping, but the music didn't cause him to stir. I took him out of his carseat to hold him. As the music played I rocked him to the beat. I secretly hope that my doing so will give him a musical inclination, though intuitively I know this is wishful thinking. Edmund slept through the opening songs, but again I swayed to the beat. As the sermon began he perked up. Edmund is a very good baby for the most part, but he is quite noisy. He's a noisy sleeper and player. Fortunately at this point he isn't a noisy eater.

CHBC has a "family room." It's a small soundproof room that faces that sanctuary. It used to be called the "cry room," but in these days of political correctness the name was changed. I stood up to take my "noisy" baby to the family room. Steven soon followed suit. When we arrived in the family room two other families were already there. In the next 5 minutes at least five other families joined us. I wonder if their babies also decided that they wanted to be the center of attention during the sermon. While the family room is great in theory it really is not conducive to active listening. The majority of our time was spent focusing on Edmund and watching the antics of the other children. In a few weeks we will send Edmund to the nursery. Given his personality thus far he should really enjoy it. He tends to want to play much more than be cuddled.


The sermon finally came to a close. Edmund was wide awake for the final song. He enjoyed dancing with his mommy to the music. Another mother commented that he seemed to like to move. She definitely has him pegged. Edmund's first trip to church was a success, and the sermon didn't even put him to sleep!



* Edmund does not spend the entirety of his outing in a carseat as some of these pictures suggest. In fact Edmund is not a huge fan of the carseat or any restraint. He also hates getting in and out of his carseat, so once he is buckled up for a car ride we won't disturb him, even if it means missing a great photo op :)

The Case of the Mysterious Night Owl

Success!!!! Edmund slept a 6 hour stretch last night. Steven and I have been told not to get our hopes up, but anything is better than the previous two nights of getting up every hour and a half. Since he was born, Edmund has been a terrific sleeper--he simply prefers to sleep the day away much to his parents' dismay. Gradually though he has increased his awake time during the day and is playing more and more. He is becoming quite the fun little boy.

Edmund's normal night pattern is to wake up every three hours on the dot to eat. Just when we think we may get 3 1/2 to 4 hours of sleep he begins stirring. Somehow his grandmother got him to go 4 hour stretches when she was visiting from Virginia, but until last night Steven and I had no such luck.

Two nights ago, however was about the worst night sleepwise Steven and I have gotten since Edmund's first week home. As an aside, I must mention that Steven is a saint and does most, if not all the night feedings. I have never been able to nap during the day, try as I might, and truly need my nighttime sleep. Due to some serious setbacks with nursing, we as a family decided that I gradually begin to wean Edmund. Although doing so was a great disappointment for me, it is no longer essential for me to wake with him. Also there is the fact that I have never actually seen Steven sleep, so clearly he does not need sleep, though he begs to disagree. (The onesie Edmund is wearing in the above picture best sums up how we feel about Steven. In case you can't see, it reads "My DaaDa is Number 1").

Steven and I have named the aforementioned sleepless night "The Case of the Mysterious Night Owl." Edmund had decided to stay awake past his regular 8 pm bedtime and I was exhausted. It should have occurred to me that skipping the bedtime routine of a story, lullaby, and prayers was setting us up for failure. At 10 pm I put a drowsy Edmund in his crib facing his mobile as I always do. I then proceeded to bed and promptly fell asleep. At 11 pm Edmund began stirring. Steven went to give him his pacifier (which we have deemed for sleep use only). He then came back to bed.

Edmund soon began stirring again. At this point I was wide awake and went to take care of Edmund so Steven could attempt to sleep. I turned on the hall light so I could see what I was doing. When I went to Edmund's crib I noticed that he had turned his body a full 180 degrees and now had his body facing the back of the crib. When I got back in bed I asked Steven why he had turned Edmund to such a strange position. Steven said he figured I had put him down that way. He said that when he went to give Edmund his pacifier earlier he couldn't find his mouth since it was not where he expected it to be. I informed Steven that given my right hand dominance, putting him down in such a position would be a near impossible feat for me. We had a good chuckle and went to sleep. As the night progressed Edmund assumed the strange position two more times. To this day we have yet to solve "The Case of the Mysterious Night Owl."

Currently Edmund is asleep after quite a long awake period. Please keep your fingers crossed that tonight will be just as good, if not better than last night. And now I will leave you all to hopefully get my six hours sleep!

Edmund's Morning Out in Carrboro

This morning I got up at 6:30 am to get ready to head out on several outings. Surprisingly I was not the zombie I thought I would be, as I have consistently gone back to sleep until about 8:30 since Edmund's birth. As I went about my morning routine Steven and Edmund continued sleeping. Steven was very thankful for this extra sleep, since he was not so sure about our jam packed morning and excursions to begin with. Today was also the first time we had planned to be away from home with Edmund for more than 3 hours; the exception being our trip to Holden Beach. I know that packing for an outing with a baby can be quite an ordeal, but I was shocked at the amount of "stuff" needed for our three morning trips--trips that would require almost nothing had Edmund not been accompanying us. As I was brushing my teeth I thought "we should pack bottles, lest we have a screaming baby on our hands". Then as I was getting dressed it was "Steven and I need sunscreen". While drying my hair I thought "Edmund needs his hat". I interrupted each routine to add the aforementioned items to his diaper bag. After filling the diaper bag, I loaded it along with the Baby Bjorn (which I ended up not needing), camera, Puppers (Edmund's stuffed dog), stroller, and carseat into the car. Eventually Steven and Edmund woke up. It took Steven and Edmund a combined total of 15 minutes to get ready. I'm definitely envious of how little time it takes for the men in my life to get ready. My goal was to leave by 7:45. Shockingly we actually made it out of the house by 7:55.

Our first stop was a series of yard sales. We have found that here we can get designer clothing for Edmund for next to nothing. It's not that we go out searching for designer clothing, as we are not designer clothing type of people. The clothes just happen to be in great shape and the owners can't bear to donate them. I'm afraid as Edmund gets older the picking will be slim, but at the moment we're having a blast being part of the yard sale crowd. For the record, Edmund slept through the whole thing.

Next on our agenda was the Carrboro Farmer's Market. July is definitely the best time of year to go. There were many varieties of fruits and vegetables, not just the usual tomatoes. I wanted to point out all the wonderful sights to young Edmund, but as usual he slept. Perhaps during dinner I'll show him the juicy blackberries we found. Hopefully he won't be too jealous that he can't eat them yet.


Finally we headed to the Chapel Hill Cooperative Preschool picnic. Edmund has already met the teachers at work, but this was his coming out to the children and parents. As we ate brunch the other parents marveled at how small he was compared to their own children when they were his age. It's funny how Edmund seems huge to me now, since a few weeks ago he was the tiniest peanut. After exhausting our hellos we decided to head out. Since Edmund's parents were dripping with sweat we figured we better not let him overheat. I'm sure he would have appreciated our decision more if he had been awake to notice the increasing temperature! With our morning excursions finally over we headed home to wake our sleeping babe.

Edmund's 1 Month Check-Up

I'm starting this blog as a keepsake for Edmund Jack. I also want to put in writing things that may eventually slip my mind. I've decided to share this blog with the people who constantly ask for updates on Edmund. You may learn more than you ever want to know, but I hope you find this blog as enjoyable to read as I hope to find it to write.

Edmund had his one month check-up today. He weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz. It's hard to believe that in 5 short weeks he has gained nearly half his birth weight. He's in the 25th percentile for height and head circumference. He's only in the 5th percentile for height, but we think they simply had trouble measuring a squirmy baby. He's clearly taller as he's almost grown out of his newborn clothes lengthwise.

Edmund was a champ during his examination. The doctor said he looked extremely healthy. He talked about things we should look for in the next few weeks. He told us to expect tracking of faces in a week or two. Edmund has been doing that for a couple of weeks now. He then told us to expect a social smile around 2 months. Edmund has given us a few gummy grins in the last few days. The doctor then said we didn't need to push tummy time yet. We said "he generally tolerates tummy time, and if he doesn't he'll flip to his back." We then informed the doctor Edmund has been rolling over for 4 weeks. The doctor said "you know the majority of babies don't roll over until about 3 months." We nodded politely, but secretly we already know Edmund is a genius baby :)