Littlejago

Yea – what else can I say?! I never thought I would enjoy changing diapers, and quite frankly, I don’t. I mean who does. But, it hasn’t been too bad, until now. We are starting to transition him off just milk and formula and start introducing some baby food. We fed him sweet potatoes (or maybe it was sulfur), and when it came time to change his diaper, Good grief Charlie Brown! We both almost died. Next time, I’m stopping off in the garage and picking up my respirator.

I often tell my friends and family that we are trying to find our new normal. The  time gap between this entry and the last, may give some indication we haven’t quite found it yet. But, a lot has happened since the last entry. Jago started daycare, we are both working full time again, we started leaving the house again, having parties again, heck we even took our first road trip. All with Little Jago of course! Each one of those things could make for a blog entry by itself, and I’ll get around to it eventually, but I was talking about the new normal. So the big question is, what is the new normal, and how do I envision the new normal? Well, that’s simple, I want the old normal, just add Jago. So how’s that workin’ out? Well, before we (she) got pregnant, we kept pretty busy. We pretty much didn’t stop moving from the time we got up, until the time we went to bed. Working more than full time, always going different places, doing different things, seeing different people. Our weekends were always packed with activity and excitement. Monday evenings were always crash nights, as we still tried to recover from the weekend. So how’s about now? Well, we are still busy from the time we get up in the morning until the time we go to bed. Check! No difference there! But what do we do from morning until night? Let’s see; there’s feeding Jago, changing Jago, taking Jago to daycare, picking Jago up from daycare, putting Jago down for a nap, feeding Jago again, etc etc. etc. Wow – there’s a lot of Jago in there. Oh yea, and we work all day! And then there’s the weekends. We still go places, do things, see people! We just bring a heck of a lot more stuff! And Jago! And then there are weekends we JUST SLEEP! The new normal is definitely sleep deprived. But sometimes those weekends are the best, because we get to spend the whole day just hanging out with Jago. And sometimes, after working all week, and not getting to spend any really fun time with him, that’s a perfect way to spend the weekend. So what’s the new normal?? For now, all I can say is, its lots of Jago, not a lot of sleep, and it seems to be ever changing. But I can certainly say, its what we want it to be! Stay tuned, for the next revelation! :)

During the pregnancy, I was reading the book I received in daddy boot camp, which I do recommend for any first time father to be.  Daddy Boot Camp gives you some good things to think about as you prepare for this life changing event.  So, right, the book.  There was one chapter which was talking about how to encourage your partner during labor.  One of the phrases really caught my attention, and I keep saying it over and over prior to the big day; “your body is doing its job wonderfully”.  I thought that was completely hilarious, and so did she, but not quite as funny as I did.  So in the spirit of making sure I had plenty of proper encouraging things to say during labor, I asked my friends to give me some hints.  I handed out index cards and asked them to write the encouraging comment on one side and their name on the other.  The idea was that we wouldn’t read the cards until labor.  As fate would have it, labor progressed so fast, we didn’t have time to read the cards during labor.  Eventually, after little Jago was born and the dust settled, we got the chance to read them and they were great!  I wanted to share them here, in no particular order.  Note: there were a few others, but they were political in nature.  And while I rather enjoyed them, I am choosing to omit them.

Just think:  If you were an elephant, you would still have ~13 months of pregnancy remaining.  The gestational period of an elephant is 22 months.

Roses are Red, Violets are blue, who gives a crap about flowers, when will this pain be through?

A New Life Haiku:  Constant wave of pain,

A focus women breathes –

New life says Hello

Do you think this will take long?  Should I order a pizza?

Are you really planning on using that whole bed?

I’d hold your hand honey, but there’s a beer in mine.

Nurse, Oxygen, Stat!

How hard could this be?  Sheep have lambs out in the fields all the time…

(sing this…)  I’m a little teapot, short and stout, Here is my handle, here is my spout.  When I get all steamed up I just shout, Tip me over and pour me out.

Loosely defined as the high velocity low density poop that leaves your child at near sonic speeds with no warning, while you’re changing him and he is diaperless.

It has been an eye opening experience how much time you dedicate to raising an infant. People tell you things like, finish all your projects now because you won’t have time once he is born. I appreciated the advice, but I couldn’t appreciate the gravity of what they were telling me, until now! I figured, yea, when it’s my “shift” to watch Jago, I will just watch TV, or read the news, or work on my blog, or wash the car or whatever, while he sleeps. Especially for the first 6 months. I hear they aren’t mobile for the first 6 months or so, so how bad can it be? – Yea so, that’s not working out quite like I expected. And sometimes, he is just sleeping in my arms, or the crib, or whatever. The other times, as it turns out, he is fussing, squirming, crying, making noise, or generally being disruptive to whatever it was I thought I would be doing. I wouldn’t say most, I would go with about 50/50 so far. But, for that 50% of the time, it seems to take both hands and all of my attention to keep him entertained and content, (and sometimes nothing I do keeps him from screaming!). I stopped to think about it, and kind of realized, “Hey, this is your time with your son. You might as well enjoy it and concentrate on him.” Thankfully, I had that epiphany inside the first couple weeks, as the shock of having a baby was wearing off, and we were trying to find a new baseline for normal. I have to say though, that calibration to my thinking has really helped me to keep from getting aggravated. I notice that if I am trying to do something, and he is distracting me from it and I have to divide my attention between some task and him, I tend to get aggravated quick(er). If I am focusing just on him, I generally don’t get aggravated (yet). I realize that I am 5 weeks in, and this could all change. I plan to go back and read this passage (often), to see if this changes with time.

Hello World!  A very special friend told me that I must start out my blog by saying just these words, or I would look like a Nube!  Well, truth be told, I am a Nube.  Not only to blogging, but more importantly, to being a parent.  And wanting to share some of my experiences on this new crazy adventure with some close friends, and learn a little bit (more) about social media and the internet were two of the principal ideas behind this blog.  The other principal reason for this undertaking was to create a vehicle to help me keep track of this new adventure.  Life goes by so fast, and I’m not the dear diary type, so I am hoping that my desire to entertain my friends (albeit somewhat at my own expense) will give me the motivation to keep this blog alive.  If not, in true capitalist form, I will be seeing how much the domain name littlejago.com will bring on the open market.  (Since it was free when I bought it, probably not much)

Before we get started, I must give credit to a few people.  First, my lovely wife, who has agreed to let me post this adventure on line.  Next is my son, who will become the main character of not only this blog, but our lives.   And then there is my good friend who created the artwork on the cover.  He is very good at branding ideas, and if you like what you see, contact me privately for his info.  And then there is my work lunch group (you know who you are).  This blog was really conceived during one of our many silly lunch conversations.   

And finally, one request.  The idea for this blog was to share my experiences in an anonymous way.  So please help me keep the blog anonymous.

And, with the stroke of a key – littlejago.com is born.