And I’m basically writing this post in admiration for the work my wife’s put in since then. The reason it’s delayed is that I haven’t been able to see the fruits of her labor until now. Now sure, I’ve helped indirectly with most all of these items, but she’s the one that really put the hours in, and it’s very obvious now.

• Vocabulary: although Devin’s got about 6 words he uses regularly now (Mom, Dad, Cat, Ball, Baby, and of course No), he’s got at least 25 signs that he uses even more frequently, and I’m only just starting to realize it. My friend Julie extolled the virtues of teaching babies sign language early, and although I was always on board philosophically, it’s one of those parental tasks that takes a LONG time to glean results. When Devin busted his first sign on me a couple months ago (Milk), it came out of the blue, but was absolutely, positively communication. Since then, he’s been springing out with a few new ones every week, and starting to put them together into ‘micro-sentences’ (i.e. more + food + please). The part that’s blowing me away right now is the fact that he’d been using many of his new signs for a while before we realized it. Fine motor skills and precision are not a 1-year old’s strong suit, so many of the signs he was taught came back to us in a slightly modified if not exaggerated form. However, now that he knows it’s an effective way to ‘talk’ with us, he makes sure to let us know when he’s telling us something and we’re not getting it. If Des wasn’t so consistent in always using signs for key words along with her verbal communication, I’m reasonably sure he wouldn’t be so overflowing in ’speech’ right now. It’s just plain awesome!
• Fine Motor Skills: I’m pretty much the ‘read a story’ guy, and the ‘crawl around and chase each other’ guy. I made a comment to Des a few months back that I was wondering when he’d finally start using his stacking blocks and such, and she started setting two parts of the day aside (without me realizing it) to play with him in that regard. When she opens a bottle, she hands him the cap and lets him put it back on. When she needs something picked up from the floor, she asks him to please get it for her, and he’s all over it. I didn’t realize how well this was working until today, when he picked up a water bottle cap I dropped, got mad when I didn’t put it back on, and then proceeded to pick it back up from the end table and place it solidly on my water bottle. This is now manifesting itself with him actually cleaning up after himself, and placing toys back in the basket when he’s done playing. Again, amazing. The real-world tasks have apparently not just strengthened his motor skills, but his independence and responsibility, as he often now follows after US and picks things up that have been left behind.

I suppose I’m writing this as I feel a bit like an absent dad in parts of the process, but am now incredibly impressed with how well Des’ work and parenting has paid off while I’ve been bringing home the mortgage payment. The pivotal moment was today when he was making odd gestures at me and I had to be told that he was actually talking to me – in this particular case telling me about his stuffed bear, and I just thought he was scratching his chest.

Looks like I’ve got a lot of catching up to do, and appreciation to give. This really is a learning experience for everyone involved, and one I’m humbled daily to be a part of.

Seriously. Now that Devin’s 7.5 months old, he’s almost instantaneously transformed from a little crib lurker into a highly mobile and VERY fast little man. He can’t walk or stand up on his own yet, but with the right solid surface near by he’ll get up on his feet in no time flat. And instead of just laying on the floor flailing his arms, he’s now got the concept of ‘arms lift, legs push’ down really well. Between a sort of inchworm style of crawling and his ability to roll laterally he can cover a lot of ground very quickly now.

Hence, we’ve started looking into more self-sufficient toys for him, like this doorway jumper he’s relaxing in here. Trust me, 10 seconds before the camera came out (he likes cameras) he was jumping up and down like a mad boy giving the springs in this unit a run for their money.

And although sometimes he’s quite happy playing with his toys, he does like some quality romp time with Mom and Dad, which has essentially wiped both of us out today. His energy level and mood were at all-time high points, causing him to blow mostly thru his 2 regular naptimes today. I can hear him carousing in the living room right now, in fact. If anyone were ever able to harness this energy it’d be a goldmine, I’m telling you. Little boys are like one big shot of adrenaline, it seems. If it’s any indication, the first word he uses with regularity is ‘Up’, which means he wants to get his play on in most cases. We used to say it to him as an infant when we picked him up, and I only just recently realized he’s been saying it to us – in a slightly more obscure voicing of course – when he wants to be picked up.

Note: Desiree would argue that his first word was ‘Mom’ – actually ‘mamama’, but since it’s been a bit inconsistent and he’s not used it so obviously to ask/tell us something, we’d both agree that ‘Up’ is his first tactically-important word. But she’s right, a variant of ‘Mom’ was technically first.

Devin’s demeanor is amazing- he doesn’t make fusses in public (well, at least not yet), he’s almost always happy and smiling, and most who’ve met him attest he’s one of the most calm/chill/relaxed babies they’ve met. Not today, though. He’s been like a bat out of hell today.

Anyway, I’m back out to the living room now for another game of “copy Dad’s face” (he’s been trying to mimic my faces and sounds/words lately) accompanied by much bouncing around and baby wrestling. It should go without saying that I’m going to sleep like a log tonight.
I just hope Devin does, too!

And the cycle goes on…

Now I’m not complaining, mind you – Devin’s well worth the effort – I’m just saying. You really can take your freedom for granted before having a kid. As wonderful and life-changing as it can be as new parents, we certainly have a healthy level of respect now for those areas of our lives we took for granted beforehand.

Parental pride is going to be difficult to maintain, cause Devin’s just such a damn cute kid. Now we’re not sure, but are reasonably certain he’s already said his first word as of 2 months, and it was a surprising one – “elk”. I had no idea he was so literate with his wildlife, but after a few days of surprised looks between ourselves, Des and I finally figured out what it is he’s saying. Every time he feeds – without exception, he just keeps saying his new word over and over (with his mouth full, no less)…

elk
elk
elk
elk
elk
elk

Now we’ve no idea where he’s seen an elk here within the San Francisco city limits- or even less how he was able to learn to speak it’s name, but clearly our boy’s a genius. Or a naturalist wunderkind of some sort.

Or something.

He’s so freakin’ cute now it’s almost painful. But of course I’m biased.

At this point we’ve got a rudimentary form of communication down in the form of some hand signs/body & face gestures (i.e. I’m hungry, I’m bored, I’ve got a major poop on deck, change my diaper now), but his main vocabulary is a rather adorable series of grunts and noises that get downright expressive. Much like his dad, he ‘talks’ in his sleep a lot, and it’s not uncommon to hear almost lyrical phrases and themes in what he’s grunting or singing out (I may post an MP3 of this at some point, cause it really is classic to hear). Can’t wait til’ we’re all speaking the same language!

For one, I’m the kung-foo master of calming Devin down. Desiree is looked at as both mother and food source, but I’m the calming figure in his life. Between the strategies in “The Happiest Baby on the Block” and my general diplomacy skills, I can usually get him from pinchy-red faced screams to nap-time in about 5 minutes. Not to say Des isn’t good at it too, but somehow – whether it’s the sound of my voice, or the smell of my skin – he seems to calm down faster with me. Nice. I can feel like I have some intrinsic part to play in his parenting already.

It’s a dead-heat as to which of us can change a diaper faster now. I’m damn good, but as Des has been taking the night shift lately she’s got some tricks to do it VERY quickly I haven’t picked up (mostly as she’s so fast I rarely wake up before she’s crawling back into bed).

Most of all, my patience level and general sense of urgency have improved greatly with Devin now in the household. Trips outside take a lot longer to prepare for now, I find myself planning small outings hours in advance just to make sure everything goes smoothly, and with no work responsibilities to take care of, I’m generally unscattered and don’t feel the need to rush anything.

I think we’re learning as much- if not more – about life from Devin as he is from us.

Nice.

Desiree and Devin catch a quick nap on the sofa.

I then interrupt them with my flash.

Follow the saga here.

Our little guy gets his first gulp of real hospital air after 38 grueling hours of labor(!!). 10 fingers, check. 10 toes, check. Healthy cry, abs-checko-lutely.

There’s more pictures here, too

Devin Benjamin Fegette was born at 10:11pm on June 1st, at 8 pounds/7 ounces. Although you can’t see it here, he’s got his Grandpa Pete’s red hair, too. There’s a lot more pictures here, too.

Des insisted that despite the obvious signs it was all really no big deal, and that we should just go in to our scheduled prenatal appointment at 10:30am as planned. I argued that perhaps we should call labor and delivery and switch gears, but she wasn’t hearing any of that. It was just another day. We made the trip into the prenatal unit. Who am I to argue? Now it’s not always advisable to play ‘I told you so’ with a pregnant and contracting wife, but her ob/gyn agreed wholeheartedly with me that we probably should have called labor and delivery instead of making our appointment. Des was definitely effaced and dilated, and after a bit of back and forth between the three of us we came to the consensus that we’d just go home and monitor early labor ourselves- heading into labor and delivery once things started to progress beyond the early stages.

And here we are.

I spent the last couple hours tying up loose ends at work and preparing the bags/car/etc for the next phase of this adventure- a day or two of little-to-no sleep, coming out the end with a new little guy in our house.

Things could start happening any moment now, and I find myself with all kinds of emotions running – fear, anxiety, excitement, but mostly anticipation. Des has done such a good job of not making any step of her pregnancy an emergency, that seeing her in any kind of pain is a bit odd and disconcerting now. Expected, but I’m really anticipating getting it on and getting us both in for the delivery plan. Oddly enough, the contractions have reversed a bit now, and are getting shorter and further apart (which is contrary to the usual progression), but I’m there with my stopwatch throughout keeping an eye out for over a minute, less than 4 minutes apart, and an hour of ‘em straight. That’s the sign to get our collective asses into the hospital and get ready for the real trial of attrition.

So I’ll be here with the stopwatch until then.

Updates soon, most likely once this has all played out at the hospital and we’re settling back in at home.

I can’t freakin’ wait!

That being said- with all the baby stuff lurking throughout the house and no baby to use it on, we’ve discovered that a few of the items of infant gadgetry are actually kinda handy.

• The changing pad makes a perfect cushion for sitting on while watching TV. I’ll probably revise my opinion there after it’s been pooped upon a few times, of course.
• The nose bulb is really handy for blowing dust out of my laptop keyboard. I’ll definitely reconsider this once it’s got some snot in it, tho.
• The cool ocean noise generator we got for the baby room (came with the playpen, if I recall correctly) puts me to sleep lickety-split. If it works half as well with the kid, I’m set.
• And finally – baby wipes are the most awesome and handy item of all. They should just call ‘em people wipes.

I guess it should go without saying that we’re getting more than a bit stir crazy over here. Argh.

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