Sorry, that title is in the passive voice---we keep breaking things. There haven't really been any big breaks, but we have had to had an old chair fixed from me sitting on it and breaking a strap, we have superglued a couple of items around the house, and a few minor repairs here and there have had to be performed. It has made me realize that we must break a lot of stuff at home, but it is entirely different when they are your own things.
I didn't realize that I had let so much time pass since my last post here. We have been having fun and are really enjoying New York. Emmett has continued to be content with our locale, has been sleeping wonderfully (although waking around 6, which used to be 7 in SF), and we have gotten to do a bit here in the city. The weather has been extremely cooperative with most of the time being upper 70s, low 80s with low humidity, but the last two days have taken a turn toward the muggy.
I would have to say that the biggest thing that has been going on while we have been here has been the addition of words to Emmett's vocabulary. It is surprising that he is saying or attempting to say so many words we say, and that he is comprehending so much of what we say. This is a very fun age with him happy all (most, at least) of the time and actually being able to interact a bit.
The last two days he has had a bit of a fever, just as it got hot. Unfortunately we didn't bring the thermometer, but it doesn't feel too bad. The last fever he had was with tooth eruption and he has his four canine teeth coming in, so I am starting to think that he fevers a bit with teeth showing up (there has been some scientific evidence showing this happens, though they think it is only a few degrees and only the day or two before eruption...apparently they had troubles getting data because parents are the ones taking the data and they always seem to know with these studies that they are being asked to look for fever/tooth correlations).
Since we have been here we haven't been doing too much naked time with Emmett as there are rugs on the floor almost everywhere and we were trying to avoid him pottying on other people's floors. We have had a little naked time, primarily after baths in the evening, and he has taken these opportunities to poop on the floor three times. The first two were somewhat expected, but the third was three nights ago. Emmett was entertaining us by saying "baaa" (his scare noise) to wake his fake-sleeping father with me jolting awake. Emmett thought this was really funny. Actually, we took a video of near the end of the fun where Emmett is just laughing at me jolting awake. The video is sideways and I can't rotate it right now, but I am posting it because you can see where the thought takes over him that he must go potty. He starts walking behind the chair that I am sitting in and the video stops, but what happens next is Emmett emerges from behind the chair, plays the game for a little while longer, then starts pointing to behind the chair and saying something. I get up, go behind the chair, and find that Emmett has pooped behind the chair and wants to let me know what he has done. Luckily it was an easy clean up and he didn't step in it, but it was a bit of a surprise to find that there.
Emmett and I made our second trip to the Bronx Zoo and this time Andrea came along. Unfortunately it was a little rainy, but the zoo is amazing and worth the long trip there. Before our first visit, I had a negative view on zoos, but this one (and the others in NYC) is run by the Wildlife Conservation Society and had a good message and was set up very nicely. One didn't leave with the impression that the animals were unhappy and that perhaps there was a bit of value in teaching youth from cities about the value of nature.
The other bit of excitement was Angela and Scott visiting from Portland for nearly a week. It was fun having them here and they seemed excited to see Emmett (and Emmett was very excited to see Angela, especially, whom he would whine for and beg to hold him). We got to see "Hair" (no Emmett) with David Hasslehoff in the audience. What else could one ask for?
I will try to add to this later, but wanted to play a bit of catch-up. I will add some pictures below...we have not been very good about taking pictures...
Andrea has been involved with her workshop this week, so there has been a lot of Emmett and Pa time in the Big Apple. We are settled into a good schedule now with Emmett sleeping 7-6 each night (could be later in the morning to make us happier, but not too bad) and then one nap starting at 11. The last two days he has taken a three-plus and a three-hour nap, so things are going great in that respect.
A friend here in the city had a bike I could borrow for the time we were here, so yesterday the kid and I took our maiden voyage on this side of the country. I had flown out the bike seat and our helmets counting on the fact that either I could borrow, buy, or rent a bike while we were here, so we were all prepared for riding. I was all geared up and ready to go about one-and-a-half hours into Emmett's nap (he had been sleeping two hours per nap up to this point) and spent the next nearly-two hours checking the monitor and waiting for him to wake up. I actually snuck into his room and checked that he was breathing (something I haven't done since he slept next to us at night) as I was so shocked that he had slept so long. Once awake I gave him a quick meal and we headed into Manhattan about an hour later than I thought we were going to get out of here. We crossed the Manhattan Bridge (bridges with bike lanes...how novel...why can't SF get up to speed on this?) and dropped into Chinatown with a long ride ahead of us to Central Park. We got into the city right about the start of rush hour, so traffic was pretty wild with taxis all over the place and lots of honking horns and were able to make our way to the park without incident and without Emmett complaining even though the ride took a bit longer than I had hoped. The entertainment when we got there was to be the Carousel, but I missed it when we got into the park so we just went to a grassy area and played for a while. I convinced him to get back on the bike and we finally found the carousel and took a spin. Besides my carousel ride in SF a few weeks ago, I don't know that I ever rode a carousel standing, but comparing that and this it was incredible how much faster this one spun than the one in SF. I actually thought I was going to fall over and slide off at one point. Emmett still maintained a face that seemed confused and slightly scared while on the ride (with the exception of the times he would point out the horse he was riding on to tell me it was a horse), but boy was that kid upset when it was time to walk away. It really made me wonder if the ride was worth his getting so upset when we leave, but I guess it is about time he starts learning disappointment.
I should have mentioned how excited Emmett was when he saw the bike seat and the bike all put together when he got up from his ride. His helmet was sitting out and he put it on (well, tried at least) and wanted to go for a ride rather than eat.
The ride home from the Park was equally long even though I thought I had chosen a better path. Emmett was not as happy with a long ride on the way back, but I had filled a snack cup with toastie-o's or something like that and he ate them on the front of the bike while we sped down 2nd Avenue. We crossed the Brooklyn Bridge on the way back which was crowded with lots of foot traffic, and quickly ate dinner, bathed and went to bed. It was nice to get on the bike again with Emmett, but I don't know that riding in NYC is all that fun. Sure there is the traffic thing, but actually it wasn't as bad as SF in some ways because there was so much traffic that cars couldn't really speed around us and it was easy to just take the lane and ride behind a car---breathing all of the exhaust was not pleasant at all, though. My biggest fear was pedestrians who were often crossing on red and not noticing the guy with the kid approaching fast.
Today we rode to Brooklyn's big park, Prospect Park, where we just hung out in the grass. There is another carousel in this park but I decided I would save another lesson in "all good things must come to an end" for another day. The park was on the landing line for JFK airport so approximately once every minute or two a large plane would pass overhead which Emmett would point out and give his best attempt at saying "airplane." I took a video while there where one can see Emmett getting excited at seeing me pull out the camera, approach, and suddenly change course when he hears yet another plane fly overhead:
Emmett's language has been evolving pretty fast it seems. He is trying to repeat much of what we say, and I noticed today that he is often trying to repeat the last word of a sentence that I say. Words that he has added that we could easily discern in context are things like pizza, helicopter, airplane, pasta, boat, truck, banana, train, milk, water, diaper, book, etc. The last couple of days he has also taken to letting me know that he has just pooped, not by saying it but by doing the sign language sign for poop. We didn't really ever get into the sign language thing, but the approximately three things we did show him (all done, more, and poop) he has really used a lot.
I have taken to going to a park that is relatively close by every morning with Emmett and we typically have the place to ourselves until around 9am. I would really like to understand how the park system works since the playground we have been going to is in a ritzier neighborhood and not long after we arrive each morning a city worker shows up who cleans the bathrooms then uses a leaf blower to remove most of the leaves for the play area. Someone had left a plastic tricycle there and the worker threw it away this morning, but the other playground we pass which is closer to our house has many tonka trucks, tricycles, etc. that have been left there and they remain and are used by those who show up...and there seems to be no one showing up to blow the leaves there. Strange.
I haven't been good about taking pictures. We went out to dinner tonight and this was the only picture worth keeping. Enjoy!
We are here...we have actually been here for a while now, but it has taken a bit to sit down and write on the blog. Now I have a little catching up to do, so here it goes:
Let's start with June 30. We spent the day packing in S.F. while a number of friends came by to entertain Emmett. We were to fly out at 10:30ish that evening, so we had all day to pack and prepare the house for our month-plus absence. We had to leave for the airport at around 8:30pm so we decided to put Emmett down bed around 6:30, wake him for the travels, and then hope he slept on the flight. Emmett, however, was a little off all day as it seemed that he could tell something was up with us packing bags, taking all of his favorite toys away, etc., so he decided he wasn't going to go to sleep so he could make sure we weren't going to run off on him while he slept with all of his favorite things in tow. We were already starting the night two hours in the hole
Jeff was kind enough to give us a ride to the airport and Emmett rode happily (I haven't mentioned this for a while, but Emmett now likes riding in the car quite a bit since he gets to do it so rarely). Similar to our last trip to Portland, Emmett fell asleep in the car seat just as we got to the exit for the airport, so he got in about four minutes sleep on the drive. We checked in with both of our bags packed to the brim and each weighing in at 50.6 pounds, just over the allowed 50 (they didn't complain about this, which was nice---I had packed each bag and checked them with the scale at home where they came in at 51 a piece, and I was hoping they would give us one-pound worth of leeway). When we had checked into the flight (or at least tried to) online, we could see there were about a dozen seats still available for sale. We had requested the aisle and window seats in our row in hopes that no one would want to sit between us, but someone had selected our middle. It ended up that the flight was sold out, so we were going to be riding with Emmett in our lap the whole way.
We didn't notice, but there was an "SSSSSSS" code on each of our tickets, and what this meant for us was that the three of us got to go through a special security screening. They patted us all down, had even Emmett take off his shoes, and took apart all of our luggage and swiped it all. It was a long, slow process and Emmett was not very happy about it. We were determined to be bomb free and they left us to repack all of our belongings in the corral they had set up for suspected terrorists. Oh, yes, I haven't mentioned this, but one of the primary bulky items to pack for the trip was 30+ cloth diapers and covers. As I knew we were running tight for space and weight, I made a carryon bag that was an improvized laptop carrier with both Andrea's and my laptops sandwiched between multiple layers of stained cloth diapers. I am sure security thought we were crazy.
We spent the wait before the flight walking Emmett around to try for sleep, to no avail, and then boarded when the time came. Surprisingly, the flight was relatively uneventful. Emmett was a little whiny and loopy from lack of sleep (it was 11ish-p.m. by this time) and we tried all kinds of tricks to get him to settle down. I had downloaded Elmo videos onto my ipod, deciding that it would be worth breaking his first 16-months without watching videos for the sanity of others on the plane. Emmett finally slept after half-an-hour or so on the plane and stayed asleep for pretty much the whole flight. We have watched him sleep on the video monitor quite a bit, so we knew he moved around a lot in his sleep, but it takes it to a whole new level when one is exhausted and trying to sleep too, and Emmett is rolling around every ten minutes or so. Needless to say, Andrea's and my sleep wasn't too great, and Emmett's was a little better but far short of his usual 11-12 hours a night.
We landed on July 1 at JFK and made it through the airport without incident. As we had so many bags, we took a taxi from the airport to our pad, and the drive was long with a pretty ugly accident. Emmett caught a little more shut eye (he was in a car seat which we brought along), as did his parents, and we made it to our new pad after an hour or so.
The flat we are staying in is simply amazing. It is probably 2400 sq. ft. and sits on the edge of the East River in Brooklyn with the Brooklyn Bridge immediately out our window, the buildings of downtown Manhattan right across the water, and the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island out to the left (I am writing this as Manhattan is lit up for the night right behind the computer). The picture at left is as much of the living space of the loft I could get into the picture. There is another window to the left with the same spacing and another to the right around the corner. The pictures below are the view from one of the four windows on the right which face Manhattan. Ideally I would have sewn them together, but I am too lazy to do that now, but the first is starting from the south and moving to the north with the Statue of Liberty visible in the first. The lot where construction is being done in the pictures is the start of a park, so the view will improve later. Oh, I guess not every reader of this would know what is going on, but Andrea and I are doing a house swap for the month of July with an photographer who lives in Brooklyn. The first day was pretty rough as all of us were exhausted and we were not able to enter and leave the house as freely as we would have liked as floor to the lobby was being painted. On top of that it was hot and we were having a lot of trouble getting Emmett to sleep even though he should have been tired, but he was clearly thrown off by the new digs.
Emmett actually slept pretty well that first night, although he cried a lot going to sleep (a theme we will see repeated shortly) which is rare for him. The second day we saw many friends. Our friends from Indiana, Tom and Jacqui, arrived the night before and we saw them for a bit, we had friends from San Francisco over for dinner (Laura, Lesley, and Sal, all transplants from S.F.), and then I left for a karaoke party at a friend, Bob's, where I saw Thor and Liz, all three of whom I played Ultimate with in Indiana with the latter two currently living in Chicago. Lots of friends on our first full day. At the same time all of this was happening we were trying to figure out how to best deal with Emmett's sleep. It is hot here (well, for a San Franciscan...the NY'ers say it is mild and pleasant), and we have been trying different combinations of fan, pajamas, t-shirts, etc. to make sure that Emmett stays comfortable through the night. He was not sleeping well, part of which was clearly due to a new locale, but we assumed part must also be due to temperature/light differences in his sleep area. We have him in a semi-closet area in the second bedroom in order to keep the light relatively low while at the same time making sure air is flowing. Well, the short of it is that he didn't sleep as long on the second night after having a bit of trouble going to sleep to start the night, and on top of this were unsure how much of an effect jet lag was having. Basically we were not having luck and weren't sure which of the parameters we could control would be helpful or not.
The third day was similar to the first two in that we were trying to get all of this hammered out while exploring the neighborhood. There are a number of playgrounds within a ten-minute walk and we were feeling them out. Something we had never come across in S.F. is the presence of constantly-on fountains in playgrounds for children to run through. We had not arrived at the playground prepared for this when we first came across one, but we just let Emmett go to see what he would do. He watched a kid or two run under the water, just went for it, and loved it. Luckily we had him in sandals (leather, not ideal) so drying out wasn't too much an issue. The two nearest and most conveniently located playgrounds have these fountains, and unfortunately they are not fenced off or in any way separated from the remainder of the playground, so one must either be constantly on alert for one's child bolting for the water or cannot go to these playgrounds as a stop-off to run errands or the like. I don't really like this set-up too much, but luckily on a walk to a party at another friend's house last night I came across a very nice playground with no water which Emmett and I tried out this morning and will probably be our playground of choice.
Wednesday our friends, Tom and Jacqui, came back by and spent the day and evening, and they got to see Emmett's sleep situation at its worst. Emmett cried and cried when put to bed at 7pm and between two diaper changes, a bit of time spent wakling him around the house or reading to him, and additional attempts at putting him to bed, he didn't go to sleep until 9ish. This was definitely the worst time we have had getting him to sleep since he was a tiny baby and wasn't pleasant in the slightest. He woke the next morning hoarse from the crying (we think) and woke very early again. He had slept about 8-9 hours a night since our arrival and things didn't seem to be improving. His naps, when he took them, were 1 hour tops and usually only one per day (home: 1 or 2 per day with 2-4 hours total nap time). Andrea and I continued different combinations with airflow and lighting but nothing seemed to be working.
The Fourth came and we made our first trip to Manhattan since arriving to go to a free concert at Battery Park at the bottom of the island with a number of friends. Emmett had taken a morning nap for an hour (still woke early, early, early in the morning, though). Actually, I should say here that through all of this, Emmett has not really been all that cranky for not sleeping. It has more been the case that we know he normally sleeps much more and that he needs more sleep than he has been getting. He has been fun and cranky-free except at the very end of the day for the most part. The 4th of July was no exception and Emmett was a good sport as we waited for the concert to start and rocked out for a little while before heading for a hummus dinner. On the travels to the restaurant Emmett fell asleep in the stroller for a good half-hour or so and then woke up getting to try hummus and pita for the first time, liking both and really putting in a good effort at saying "pita." We made our way home and put him to bed a little late. He again fought sleep but was able to sleep through the fireworks.
Side note about the fireworks. Every year they are on the East River, basically outside our window, except this year which happens to be the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's riding in a boat so they set them off on the Hudson River on the opposite side of Manhattan from us. We could still see about half of the fireworks (the ones making it over the buildings), but in the end it was probably better for Emmett's sleep issues they were a little further away. I took a video that didn't turn out so hot, but here it is for those interested:
This brings us to today. Well, sort of. I went to a 4th party after the fireworks with seven people I played Ultimate with in Indiana while Andrea went to bed. I didn't get home until 3:30 or so and Emmett (and kind Andrea) got up at 5ish. Andrea had the brilliant idea that we turn the fan off completely (perhaps part of the hoarseness problem?) and Emmett slept pretty well for his first nap. I took him to my newly-found playground and ran him silly, and he came back for another 1.5 hour nap (a 2009 NY record) going down with little fight. We went to a different playground this evening and got Emmett to bed at 7:30 with hardly a peep. We may finally be getting somewhere.
This was long and dull. I hesitate to post it, but realize that it is pretty representative of how central Emmett's sleep is to our lives. We had gotten to where we could read him pretty well in S.F. and were figuring out how to make the shift from two naps to one that he was giving us the impression he wanted or needed. Coming out here where there are so many things that are so different for all of us really makes it difficult to figure out what the important things are that we need to get right. Back home both Andrea and I have our own routines to put Emmett to bed or down for a nap that are not too different. Both have parts such as reading books in front of the crib for a while before bed, etc., but with him sleeping in a cramped space here there is no room for these sorts of things near the crib so we have had to design new routines. Today is the first time that I have felt like when I was putting him down we had establishesd something that was going to work for both of us and that made him seem like he felt safe and wasn't just being stuffed in an unfamiliar closet in an unfamiliar crib. I hope we don't have to do a five-day restart and reinvention like this on our return to S.F.
I'll close with a picture from yesterday. Emmett trying on Laura's glasses with dried fruit between his front teeth. He is all NYC style all the time.
Yesterday Andrea, Emmett and I returned from our Oregon vacation (the reason for the two week lapse in posts---I tried on my phone once but it was too much trouble). It was a very nice trip with Emmett getting to spend time with the majority of his nearest relations. We landed in Portland two weeks ago tomorrow on one of the last flights to land at PDX before they canceled a huge number of flights due to the quickly accumulating snow in the greater portland area. We spent just over a week at Andrea's sister's house with her fam (husband and son), Andrea's parents, and my brother. Most of the time we were in the house as the snow got up to the 15"-ish level and Portland's few snow plows played catchup until the rain and 50 degree weather came the following Saturday to quickly do what the snow plows couldn't.
Andrea and I were pretty paranoid about the whole sleeping situation before we left on the trip---Andrea even posted a request for suggestions we composed to her mothers' email group to solicit recommendations. We were worried as we had been around kids around Emmett's age who really struggle when required to sleep in new locales; especially in the same room as their parents. In the end we lost considerably more sleep worrying about the situation than we did while on vacation. I can only think of two nights during our whole 10-plus-day trip where Emmett woke during the night crying, and those two times he was able to settle himself without any intervention from us. The only thing that we made sure to do (and that was recommended in the responses to the email we composed) was to position the crib in a manner that he couldn't wake and see us. We ran into no troubles the whole time.
Emmett was on his best behavior the whole time at his aunt's house. I think he only cried two times the whole time he was there, however he picked up a new, very high pitched scream which, unfortunately, was not a one-time thing. I took a video of him doing it tonight at dinner which shows a wonderful crescendo. Charming.
We spent a lot of time playing pinochle while we were at Andrea's sister's, and the picture at left shows my brother tutoring a young Emmett on the finer points of double-deck. Cards were not Emmett's only field of study on the trip, though, as he also reached a couple of other milestones on the trip. The first, shown in the video below, is the wave. Yes, I know that everyone has seen a person wave before, but I like the stoic facial expression juxtaposed with his mother's excitement at his success. The second is he is picking up clapping after a tutoring session with his great-grandma. The third is that he improved actual crawling (vs. worming along the ground). Exciting times.
I wanted to throw in the picture to the left as it kills me. A little explanation: Tyler (Emmett's cousin, pictured at left) and Emmett each got a musical toy for Christmas and this picture has each playing with their respective new toys. The thing that I find funny, though, is that they look like very young electronic musicians---especially with Tyler gripping his microphone and emmett hunched over his synth. Yep, funny only to a father.
Though it wasn't a Christmas present, the gift I was most excited for for Emmett was the new helmet we got him so he can start riding the bike with me (I just won a bike seat on eBay this evening, so we will be ready to roll next week). He is actually really good with the helmet and doesn't complain about it being on around the house. Oh, and the picture also brings up another milestone: Emmett has eaten a couple of full bananas right out of the peel without having them broken up for him.
The second part of the trip was spent on the Oregon coast (Lincoln City). My mom and grandma drove up and the five of us rented a house overlooking the ocean for four nights (this is where the clapping tutorial took place). The weather cooperated nicely as we were predicted to have four days of rain but ended up having nearly dry days the entire time we were there. The visit there was very nice, too, except that Emmett was a little grumpy as he had another 102+ fever. It is strange as he showed no other sign of illness either time that he had a little fever (except the grumpiness). Perhaps it is teething, but the fever seems high for that. Who knows? The fever is gone now, though.
Again, Emmett slept well on this portion of the trip (even with his fever). The time at the beach was relaxing at Emmett seemed to enjoy walking on the beach in the carrier just as much as he does anywhere else.
This is getting way too long, but the other thing I might mention is the actual traveling. Emmett was great on the flight to portland falling asleep in Andrea's lap early in on the flight. It was funny as Andrea and I were both watching him as he awoke and he had his groggy face on, then he looked up, saw both of us staring down on him and got excited, acting like having us there when he woke up was the best surprise in the world. On the way back he was a little grumpier (fever?) but slept on Andrea once again. The most exciting part for me was that I took him to the Portland airport bathroom to change him, found that his diaper was still dry, walked him over to the urinal, and he peed in the airport urinal. I think people thought I was pretty crazy, but no one commented.
This past weekend the three of us headed up to my grandmother's house to visit. My mom showed up, too, so Emmett got to see one of his grandmas and his great-grandma. It was a fun trip, but that Emmett still doesn't like riding in the car very much and he isn't afraid to let you know, either.
The day we left, though, I watched Emmett's pal Augie for about an hour-and-a-half while him mom went to a meeting. I have never had to take care of two seven-month-olds before (perhaps never one, either), and it was definitely nonstop---even for that short of a time. I took some pictures and movies of the two of them together...here are two pictures:
Emmett was smiling the whole time and unfortunately the first makes it hard to tell as his head is turned away. The second, though, you can see it. Augie is quite a bit bigger than Emmett even though they are only a few days apart in age. We are going to start feeding Emmett protein shakes so he can catch up.
While at my grandma's we visited a farmers market that was actually at a farm, and they had a real-life pumpkin patch. Below is Emmett's first official pumpkin patch picture. We are now certified nerd parents. I don't know why I think these cut-out things are so funny, but they kill me: The big news is that Emmett is sitting up for long periods of time (Augie was sitting up without faltering for ten-plus minutes at a time, so since his visit we have been working on E's sitting and it is paying off). The other thing that I haven't mentioned before is that he rarely sleeps in one position now. Almost without fail he rotates himself 90 degrees so that his head and feet are both nearly touching the walls of the crib (as shown at left from the monitor). That kid is nuts and he better not grow much more (his knees are bent in the picture). He is sleeping on his side and tummy at times now, too. Exciting developments around here.
Ah, yes, the blog. I haven't really touched it since we got back from New York as things are much more mild on this coast. It has not been that great being back here for the Emmett/Damon relationship as I see so little of him during the week---it is very frustrating. Emmett has been sneaking his bedtime earlier while I have been staying a little later at work trying to finish things up before the big switch to the stay-at-home life. On top of this, Emmett has moved away from his waking at 6:ish to waking at 7:30ish (by which time I should be leaving for work) making him not a very dependable alarm clock (I have left late many times over the past week-plus).
Andrea and Emmett are both in what was the guest room/changing room sleeping. Andrea and Belinda painted what was our room in anticipation of the grand switcheroo where Andrea and I move toward the front of the house into the former guest room, Emmett takes over our former room (we are going to try the sleep apart thing), and the dining room gets converted to something of a guest room, which will probably be our room when guests come and our room will be the guests'. So confusing. Anyway, it was very nice of Belinda to come and paint today and they did a great job. Exciting times.
Last weekend we did some planning for the move, but the big event was Emmett attended his first birthday party. The party was for Griffin, the one-year-old son of our friends Charlie and Trish, and took place in Rocklin outside of Sacramento. Trish made great monkey party hats, and as you can see, Emmett loved them. It was great getting to see the Colorado clan, and we rode over with Joe, Jake, and Addison which was nice as well (the latter two can be seen chasing a pigeon in their party hats below). Lots of cute kids at the party...unfortunately we didn't take a ton of pictures, but you can see Griffin and Eva (Trish and Charlie's two) in individual pictures as well.
The party was fun but I didn't get the impression that Emmett was up with what was going on just yet. The neighboring party (we were in a park) had rented a bouncy castle and slide for which emmett wasn't quite ready but soon, soon. As it was pretty darn hot there for us San Francisco types (100ish compared to summer's 60's in the city), we spent a lot of time hanging out in the shade.
Emmett is really going through a lot of changes right now. In the last few days he has taken to grabbing his feet every time he is changed making it incredibly difficulty to perform a diaper switch with any sort of rapidity. He also seems to be reaching the point where he is becoming manipulative of us with his crying (which isn't frequent), but we are trying to avoid being played by a 4.5 month-old---not as easy as it sounds.
We head up to Susanville tomorrow night for a grandparent filled weekend. Emmett told me he can't wait.
We are home which means that I now have pictures. I will try to keep the word count under control and add some pictures. First, the picture to the left was of a piece in the modern section of the Met which was basically a parabolic dish made up of tiny mirrors. As I said before there were some pieces that Emmett really liked looking at and this was one. It is worth clicking on the picture to see Emmett zoomed in a little better. If I was a better person I would have noted who the artist was. I am not a better person.
Thursday night we went to dinner with Laura and Lesley to a really good pizza place (so good that we would go back again the next night, this time with Laura, Nick, and Belinda). The picture below at left is of the shopping/walk through Soho on our way to the restaurant with Laura carrying Emmett in the Baby Bjorn. As you can see, Emmett liked hiking around on Laura quite a lot. There were a couple of times that Emmett actually fell asleep in the facing out position (I have pictures to prove it, but will save them for some other time). The picture at right is Laura, Lesley, and Emmett hanging out in the subway.
Friday Emmett and I took it easy before heading to Columbia U to meet up with Belinda and Andrea for lunch before going to the Natural History Museum. The four of us walked through the museum for about an hour before A, B, and E headed back to the hotel for some rest and I walked around the museum imagining what it will be like to take Emmett to a museum like that when he is older and to see his reaction to things like the dinosaur skeleton exhibit.
As mentioned above, Friday night we went back to Soho for pizza. Saturday we moved from the hotel to Chez Lesley and Laura for our last night's stay. Saturday was a pretty slow day with us going to a Mexican restaurant for drinks with Laura (Emmett with margarita to left) and then in the evening Andrea and I had a date night to celebrate the next day's 6-year anniversary. We took the subway to a vegetarian restaurant on the west side where we had a really nice dinner together before walking back to L&L's while Emmett was entertained by two hours of handkerchief-over-Emmett's-face by Laura and Lesley (a game that is quickly rising to nearly 100% laugh effectiveness).
Sunday we were to fly out at 6:20pm from Newark, so Emmett made sure we were all up at around oh-seven-hundred hours to head to Brooklyn to brunch and a flea market. The brunch place was one Lesley knew about and the food was amazing. The flea market was also nice, but was shade-less on a very sunny day, so we shopped only a little before retiring to a nearby park to enjoy some shade (the picture at left is Emmett in my lap looking up while in the park---that is the reason for the funny angle). We went back to L&L's to pack our very heavy bags, said our sad goodbyes, and headed off to the Newark airport.
The trip home started out rough. We knew that we had bags that were teetering on the edge of the allowable limit (< 50 lbs is free, 51+ pounds is 100 dollars). So at the airport we each started checking in only to find that the airline was under the impression that Andrea did not actually fly out on our flight to NY and therefore should not be allowed to fly back. While she straightened this out I checked in and weighed my bag only to find it was 55 pounds. So we juggled Emmett, the transaction that was taking place to figure out how to allow Andrea onto the plane, and me trying to empty 5 pounds of things from the bag. I took out some books and other things and re-weighed only to find out that I had only taken 2.5 pounds off, but as I started to take the bag off of the scale once again a nice United worker witnessing our struggle said that they would allow us a 52.5 pound bag at no charge "as a courtesy from United Airlines." They allowed Andrea a ticket finally and we headed off to security to wait for our plane that was now expected to be 20 minutes late boarding.
I didn't mention it when discussing our trip out to NY as I thought it was normal practice, but we were allowed to board early as we were traveling with an infant. Well, it ends up that the treatment we received on the way out was "a courtesy of United" in SF and we would not receive such treatment on this flight. As the flight was boarding (now at 6:50 or so when the flight was scheduled to leave at 6:20) Emmett was resting in the Ergo on me and we noticed that I had a section 2 boarding pass and andrea a 4 (even though we were in adjacent seats) so I could board long before her. We decided to make the best of this and I took the bags (small) that would be going in the overhead as well as the resting Emmett. However, according to the airline Emmett was traveling with Andrea and not me, so even though he was asleep on me he had to board with Andrea. Finally as a "courtesy" they allowed Andrea to board ahead of her group so that the computer would allow Emmett on the plane.
It was a little warm and sticky on the plane on the tarmac, and the pilot came on to let us know that there were some 60 planes ahead of us to take off so we would be on the ground another 60-90 minutes. Emmett was a pretty good sport through this, but about an hour in (and with only 20 planes ahead of us) the pilot announced that a computer module had crashed and they would have to go back to the gate to fix it. Once back at the gate people started milling around and Emmett, having been good for an hour-plus decided to really cry. People were annoyed, but the whole problem was that we couldn't stand up and move him around (which would cure his unhappiness most likely) because people were blocking all of the aisles, so Emmett cried and cried and cried. Finally after what seemed like 20 minutes we stripped off all of his clothes , he stopped crying, and was all smiles [ed. by Andrea: cried closer to an hour, stripped down the whole time, stopped crying suddenly and was all smiles when layed on his back on the pillow]. It was the strangest thing, though in hindsight we should have noticed he was getting warm. We had a pillow for him to lay on in our laps and he continued to be in a great mood and, at some point, the pilot announced that we would be back on track for taking off soon. As we made our way to the runway, Emmett got sleepy and fell asleep unswaddled and nearly-naked in our laps, missing the take-off that happened three hours after we had boarded the plane. Emmett stayed asleep the entire flight to SF (5.5 hours or so) and never once complained. Our bags arrived quickly (not as a "courtesy", just because of luck), and we were all home in bed by 2:30 SF time...5 hours after we were to have landed originally.
Today was clean-up day, which was mostly taken care of by Andrea while I was at work, and this afternoon we had Emmett's four-month appointment. Everything went well and he got repeats of the DTaP and HiB shots. He cried when they happened, but immediately after was happy without even feeding. Pretty tough cookie we've got. Now they are in bed and I am going too so that we can get back on west coast time.
I pushed Emmett too hard today, I think. It all started with the trip to get bagels. He took about an hour-and-twenty minute nap when I finally got him down, but things were a little off. As soon as he woke, I was all ready to go with a change of clothes, bags packed, etc. We headed out with the goal of checking out art at the Met which called for two transfers no matter how we swung it. I chose us a route that would take us by Grand Central Station and we exited there to check it out as neither Emmett nor I had seen it before. I took some pictures while there (among others) but can't find the cord for the camera so I might have to wait until we return to add pictures. We got back on the train and reached the museum just as Emmett remembered that he hadn't eaten for a while---which reminds me that I had brought a lot of stuff: a cooler with two cold beers to keep two bags of breast milk cold, the ergo, the stroller, and the typical bag of diapers, etc....all of which I had to haul (with Emmett often in stroller) up and down each flight of stairs we reached. Fun.
I fed Emmett in the park before we headed into the museum. The first bag had melted almost entirely and Emmett paused a little while he ate but didn't seem to get ice cream headaches or anything. We went into the museum with Emmett in the stroller. I changed him up a few minutes in to the Ergo and he seemed genuinely interested in the armor section, especially a couple of shiny, metal, face-like helmets. It didn't hold his interest long, though and I had about 45 minutes through the museum with him asleep. I was deep into the impressionists by the time he woke and it didn't take long until he had had enough. I knew he needed to be changed but unfortunately we were on the second floor (where a floor in this museum equals about 4 floors worth of stairs) and the only men's restroom with a changing table was on the first. It is worth noting here that should one ever want to find a place where a baby's cry seems extraordinarily loud, I am quite sure a museum ranks behind only libraries and classical guitar concerts. So, with this loudly crying baby I the one-floor elevator would not come therefore I decided to negotiate the stairs with Emmett screaming and writhing in my arms and all of the stuff in the stroller. My method was simple: hold on to one handle, kick the stroller so it would fall one stair, step down, repeat. I had made it down one normal-size flight (three to go) when a kind woman offered help as she was going down too. She said something along the lines of "please let help you. I could take the stroller...or the baby??" where both she and I could see that Emmett, even though he was very upset, was the easier cargo to carry down three flights of stairs. This left me with a dilemma, which caused a pause, which she filled with "I am a grandmother," which left both of us wondering in that pause if this was a helpful statement or not with her surely trying to imply that she had had kids and had taken sufficient care of said children that some survived unscathed enough to bear offspring, with the side implication that a grandmother is not going to run off with your child, however leaving open the question of should she be carrying an infant downstairs. So what is a new father to do in this situation? Emmett had another first today!!! The first trip down a flight of steps in the arms of a complete stranger. Andrea is going to love that one.
The changing table was a joke and I would have been better off just changing him on the stroller in the second floor bathroom. If you took a two-foot square table and then cut in half from corner to corner and put the remaining triangular table into a corner, you would have the Met's "changing table." We took care of business, though, and he was much happier. I learned that Emmett really likes modern art, particularly artists who paint large canvases in only one or two colors. He is all over that.
Part of the museum trouble was that emmett was hungry again. The second milk package was cold so I stopped into a deli to buy a large hot water (I wish I didn't have Emmett in my arms so that the guy could have just wondered why I was ordering a large hot water on a hot, hot day). I defrosted the milk in the water while sitting on someone's stoop and fed him right there. By the time we were done Andrea was out of her conference and we decided to meet at the store she wanted to visit. Not long after arriving Emmett needed to be changed with a big potty, but unfortunately for Andrea the only changing tables were in the women's bathroom (I actually made a small snide comment when trying to take Emmett into the men's restroom along the lines of "what, men don't have babies?" I am getting pretty bad). After changing Emmett we went outside to meet Luisa (out to visit family) with me having Emmett in my arms. I decided that I wanted to quickly go back into the store to look at shoes and handed Emmett off to Luisa. While I was walking away I noticed that my shirt felt wet and looking down found out that Emmett had had his first explosive potty and that it had gotten on my shirt (he has been in disposables a lot of the time here...I will explain the diaper situation later). We decided that rather than go back through the store to the bathroom we would change him right there on the sidewalk. First, let me just say that Luisa is a good sport. We did a three-person change with wipes and Emmett being handed around in order to take care of everything. In the middle of it all Emmett realized he was naked and as he had already peed twice in the outdoors in NYC, he kicked it up to three with a little getting on the kind, helpful Luisa. Very unfair.
The change finished I went back into the store to get a shirt and had an Emmett-esqe meltdown of my own as the place was crazy crowded and I couldn't find any other section of the store except marked down Versace t-shirts (was $600, now $200!!). I finally found something and was purchasing while Andrea walked in and found t-shirts that would have easily fit the bill. By that time I had already ripped the tag off of my new bright pink button-up. You win some, you lose some.
We had plans to meet Laura and Lesley for a bee art show (not sure...when we got there we saw bees but not the art). We grabbed a bite to eat at a bad good-for-you restaurant where the server proceeded to basically wake Emmett because she wanted to touch him and then while we were waiting for the check she came up to Andrea with arms out like she wanted to hold him (and we all know how we feel about strangers holding our baby). Strange.
The bee event was hopping, but Emmett was pretty beat by this time. Andrea, Laura, and Lesley went in while I waited on the sidewalk, and Andrea returned to tell me that she had just stood less than a yard away from Kirsten Dunst. Laura and Lesley were still inside so I went in to let them know that we had to take Emmett back to the hotel, and while I was going in Kirsten was making her way out through the crowded room. We both turned away from one another and K.D.'s butt rubbed against mine as we passed. That definitely makes my closest celebrity approach.
Laura and Lesley came back to the hotel with us and we had a nice night chatting it up while Emmett finally got his well-deserved sleep. Now they have gone home, Andrea is here sleeping next to me, and I have passed on too much of what has gone on in New York.
Emmett and I have now developed a pattern which is probably not that different than what Andrea and he do when I am at work. Emmett wakes in the morning for a snack just before Andrea heads off for her conference, goes back to bed for a while and then is up at around 9:00. I am pretty much standing by his crib at this time with his clothes in hand as I know that we have a 1.5-2 hour window of awake time which we have been filling by going to the park most days, or to get bagels across town today. We return for the long nap, which yesterday was 2 hours and today is already at 1 hour as I write. Then E and I have our big outing which yesterday consisted of Lesley, Emmett, and I going to get pickles and doughnuts and today will have Emmett and I heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Yesterday was a pretty muggy one and Emmett was spent by the time that we made it to the Doughnut Plant for the doughnuts. This place is pretty famous with pictures of the cast of the Today show and Regis and whoever-he-is-with these days on the walls eating the doughnuts, and as Emmett was starting to melt down there a little, the owner (or at least who L and I were assuming the owner as he is always there) was doing all kinds of tricks to try and get Emmett happy again as we ate our doughnuts...hopefully the place will still be pretty famous when Emmett is older and we can tell him that the person we thought was the owner tried to entertain him for a while.
Emmett was really starting to go to town with the crying as we left, so the three of us found a patch of grass and I stripped Emmett down once again, which really worked to get him to settle (and he peed on a tree, too, in the heart of manhattan). Once settled Lesley walked with him for a few blocks until he got really cranky, then she traded pickles for baby and I loaded him up in the baby bjorn (we have been trying this carrier, too...not as comfortable as the Ergo, but he can look out, which makes him happy). Emmett really was crying by the time we reached the train so everyone on board got to hear Emmett really let loose. It is funny that the trains are air conditioned so are normally pretty comfortable temperature-wise even on the hot days, but there is something about your kid crying in your lap and people staring that makes even a cool train painfully hot.
Once Emmett was fed by Andrea back at the hotel, all was fine in his world. Last night we went to a nice dinner with Belinda and Nick, and Emmett slept through pretty much the whole thing. We didn't get him to bed until around 10 again, but we weren't so lucky with the long night's sleep---Emmett was up at 4 and 6.
This morning Emmett woke for his 1.5ish hour period at 7:30 so immediately after Andrea fed him, I headed out (8:00) for bagels the midtown on the east side or whatever they call it here (52nd and 2nd). I decided to take a train over and walk back if I thought that there was enough time to make it back by 9:00---my cutoff for when I knew he was going to be back again. Well, who would have thought that they put three extra-wide blocks between 3rd and 5th avenue (and no 4th?? what gives??)? Well, we arrived back at 9:15 and on the way back (Emmett in the bjorn facing out) Emmett fell asleep at almost 9:00 on the nose, and unfortunately I didn't notice right off so I couldn't take and preventative measures. Well, he slept until we got back to the room, and I have realized that Emmett is now convinced that as soon as he wakes up from a nap, no matter its length, it is time for him to get up and play so there was no putting him down on our return from bagels. I tried for about 20 minutes and finally just played with him for an hour or so until the eye rubbing set in. Now he is napping and all is happy.
Sorry, where was I? Ah, yes, we were landing. Well, the flight landed in one piece and for the 5+ hour flight Emmett slept for about 4 hours of it. People in the nearby seats said that he was a pleasure to travel with. The only person that might have complaint is the person who was sitting on the aisle who had to get up about 4 times during the entire flight.
We landed in Newark, NJ (Emmett's fourth state) and our bags arrived just fine. It was pretty hard moving around with all of our stuff, but we took the NJ transit to Penn Station and then subwayed it to our hotel at Columbus Circle. Besides having to move around with so much stuff, the transit wasn't that bad. We got into our room about 7:something to find that they hadn't put in the promised crib and that the refrigerator that was supposed to be in every room was not present. The former was necessary for obvious reasons, but the latter was needed as we had flown across country with 13 5-ounce bags of frozen breast milk to keep Emmett nourished while Andrea conferences. I should mention how we got the milk here as it worked really well.
Andrea has been pumping milk and freezing it for times like this. A couple of weeks ago John and Carlos had a garage sale where they were selling a lunch-sized plastic cooler which we bought for a very reasonable rate. I was able to squeeze 13 containers of milk in the bottom and then a couple of gel ice packs on top. I loaded the whole thing the night before and stored it all in the freezer until the next morning when I packed it in our luggages surrounded by cloth diapers for insulation. When we unpacked the milk about 12 hours later it was still rock solid and opening the luggage felt like opening the door of a freezer as there was cool air inside the bag. It all worked really well.
We got some food while the fridge and crib were installed. It was about 9 by this time and Emmett had a minor meltdown so I waited outside while Andrea did some food shopping for the room. While waiting a nice, older lady sat next to me and chatted me up about Emmett, informing me that Emmett means "truth" in hebrew and giving me a whole lot of other NY insider info. Such a friendly town.
Sleep...this is the best part of the story so far (not saying much). We didn't get Emmett down until about 10pm here time, which is 7 CA time (a little earlier than his regular time) and we went to bed not long after as we were pooped. At 7 am the alarm went off (a first post-Emmett's birth as he has served just fine as an early alarm) and all three of us had had our first 8-hour plus night of sleep since Emmett popped out.
Andrea fed Emmett and headed off to her conference around 8:00. Emmett and I took off for the park on our first day in the city together. We walked around with him in the stroller and he ate in the park before coming back to the hotel for a nearly two-hour nap. Afterwards he and I headed off again for a long walk through Chelsea and Greenwich with him spending most of the time passed out in the ergo. It is hot here, but not too hot, and when he came out of the Ergo we were both pretty drenched. We rode the subway back to our hood and waited for Andrea to return where she fed him in the park. I think she was a little horrified when she found us as it was pretty hot so I had stripped Emmett naked and had him on top of his changing mat. As it was a little small and he kept digging his hands and feet into the dirt, I laid out the huge subway map that we had as I forgot to bring I blanket (I will learn these things), so Andrea arrived to find her naked child sprawled out naked on a subway map in central park. I bet she revokes permission for me to be stay-at-home next year.
Emmett is passed out again, Andrea is back, and we will be seeing our friends who live here soon (Laura, Lesley, Sal, etc.). I will try to put pictures up next time....Andrea had the camera at the conference and apparently didn't find anything worth photographing there.
Oh, I can't believe that I forgot to include the most exciting parts...Emmett and I were hanging out on the bed doing a little tummy time and I got to witness a front-to-back roll (Andrea has seen three or so). The other big news is Emmett did his first poo in the big person toilet. Andrea caught a poo the other day in the Baby Bjorn Little Potty and this was my first since the days of yellow mustard poop (months for those not up on your baby poo consistency). So on our first day in the city Emmett didn't have a single soiled diaper. Thank you NYC.
We are here in the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps, and Emmett is sleeping. Andrea is off at her conference and I decided to update the blog while E saws some logs. We left home yesterday around 6:45am for the airport. The time of the flight was perfect in ways as emmett had just woken up and was in a good mood. We got to the airport (via Jeff who was nice enough to rise in the pre-dawn hours to haul us and our huge bags) and got checked in relatively easily. We had brought two big bags which I had packed the night before for our week's stay---one weighed in at 47.5 pounds and the other 49.5 with over 50 costing us 100 dollars...closer than I thought as I had weighed the heavy one with me the night before and it was supposed to be 47. Sadly, most of the stuff was Emmett's though I think that we could have cut down quite a bit, but we haven't had a long trip like this before so we are still amateurs.
Emmett fell asleep in the Ergo on Andrea about not long before the flight took off and then slept for about an hour missing the whole takeoff procedure and not having any ear issues. He woke up, was changed on the plane by me (not too bad except I had to pee, too, and that was tricky---mainly getting my pants buttoned again), and was playful and fun for about an hour with Andrea taking a shot at changing him in the plane potty, too (she got solids, I didn't...I was lucky). Somewhere in that time Andrea fed him and when he started to get squirmy I put him in the Ergo on me and he fell into a non-deep sleep where I had to continually swing and sway and rock in my seat to keep him settled. Eventually I got up and walked to the back of the plane where I was able to sway properly, and was probably out of the seat for an hour or so. Finally, I asked on of the crew members how long until we started our initial descent and she told me it would be soon, so I went back to my seat and Emmett gradually woke up from his 2.5-3 hour sleep on me. As we really started to descend we got him onto andrea for a feeding to make the descent easier. Ooops he is waking up...I will have to add to this later
I just handed Emmett off to Andrea who is already in bed. He and I spent a bit of the evening reading together. Tonight's literature: the voter information guide for tomorrow's ballot measures. Though the supplied arguments for and against each measure may look good on paper, they just don't have that catchy ring when read aloud---even with happy annunciation added.
This weekend was pretty nice for the fam. Saturday E, A, and I walked to the main library and then over to some friend's new pad to visit for a while. Emmett slept in the bassinet of his stroller for something like four hours. It is pretty amazing how much he likes being out in fresh air and how it is a pretty sure-fire way to get him to relax.
Sunday's primary event was a trip to Marin County to Emmett's friend Augie's grandparents' house. The three babies whose pictures often show up in Andrea's blog (Augie, Ethan, and Emmett) all went to Marin with their respective parents for a day of BBQ and swimming. Emmett couldn't take part in the former (except via breast filter), but he did take advantage of the pool availability for his first ever swim. The water was a little chilly as there was a bit of a cold spell and general overcast-ness leading up to the weekend (solar-heated pool), but that didn't stop Emmett and his mom from hopping in for a short swim. FYI (I didn't know this), there are baby swim diapers which are basically just polyester shells. There was general debate amongst the parents present as to whether diapers should go on under the swim covers (they don't come with instructions) and it was decided they should. Who knows? Anyway, here are some pictures of ma and Ems in the pool---you can see the full range of reactions in Emmett from "hmm" to "OK, that's enough"
We just got back from spending the long weekend at my grandma's house, providing Emmett the opportunity to meet his great-grandmother and his great-uncle Matt (it was also E's first visit to Oregon giving him three states, or 6% of the 50, lifetime. At this rate he will have visited all fifty states by the time he is three-and-a-half).
This was our longest trip to date by any mode of travel, and Emmett used the trip to remind us that he likes riding in the car even less than his father does. To provide views into the multi-faceted child that is Emmett, I thought I would post a short video of Emmett expressing his feelings on car travel while traveling home from Oregon. This video is intended to be juxtaposed against this morning's video of Emmett's vocalizations. The astute video viewer might notice when comparing the two videos that there are slight differences in tone and frequency of vocalizations between the two. In order to prevent calls to Child Protective Services I preface this video by saying that I had been trying to calm him for some time previous (I was in the backseat with him while Andrea drove) and succeeded shortly after this. I figured that recording 30 seconds of Emmett's outburst is important both for posterity and for those who might be led to believe, via this blog, that Emmett is all smiles all of the time.
Speaking of happy, tomorrow is vaccination #2. Emmett is scheduled to receive the polio and pneumococcus (Pc) vaccines. Andrea and I decided that we would do the polio (Dr. Sears recommends it at 9 months, but the vaccine has very few side effects and as we are skipping a number of the early ones he recommends we figured we could slip it in here---I should say that we are not excited about the fact that it is made of monkey parts, but if Emmett is going to have any chance at the presidency we should give him this as the days of the press keeping the secret of a polio-stricken president are surely in the past). I am leaning toward Emmett not getting the Pc tomorrow for reasons I will elaborate below. Those who don't find their interests piqued by vaccine talk should walk away now.
Pc can be pretty bad stuff, causing things like pneumonia, meningitis, etc., so somebody thought it to be a good candidate for a vaccine. The vaccine developed and in use gives immunity to 7 strains of Pc and has been very effective in reducing these strains since vaccination started around 2000. However, the first catch with this vaccine is that there are 90 known strains of Pc (7 of 90 is 7.8%, so the vaccine is 1.8% closer to total immunity than Emmett is to total visitation of all of the states in the USA...hmmm). The second, more important, catch is what has happened since that time. The photograph below is of a plot from a paper that I picked up tonight at UCSF which Dr. Sears references in his book (Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 26, pp. 461-467, for those interested). The gray bars show the number of cases of Pc at a Dallas hospital which were infections of one of the seven strains in the vaccine, and the number has clearly decreased since the vaccination started in 2000 (good). The black bars, though, are the number of cases for Pc strands not in this group of 7 strains, and it is clearly going up with time. Take home message: we are improving with the 7 covered types, but are paying for them with the non-covered types. Worse yet, since the introduction of the vaccine there have been reports (cited in this article) of increasing anti-bacterial resistance of at least one of the non-covered types which is also rising in frequency. All this gives me pause as to whether the bunch-of-seven is the best vaccine approach to this problem and if we are not, perhaps, losing ground as a result.
It would be so great if we could make some sort of a numbers argument to decide if we should have Emmett get this vaccine. Estimates for the number of "severe" cases have a wide range of 400 to 60,000 per year in the US (pre-vaccine with the latter, and "severe" loosely defined), so with ~4,000,000 newborns each year in the US this gives probabilities in the range of 1 in 10,000 to 3 in 200---- however, seizures as a side effect occur with a frequency of about ~1 in 20,000....plus there is the presence (again) of aluminum with its semi-unknown side effects, so the numbers don't tell a whole lot.
Things we have working for us not getting the vaccine are the facts that it is much more prevalent in child-care facilities and with non-breastfed children, so our chances of occurrence should be a bit lower (how much??? who knows??). Right now I am leaning toward not getting the shot and I am hoping that we get a chance to talk with the doctor pre-poke (though I am pretty sure I know her opinion already). I will give the paper and Dr. Sears another read pre-appointment and will report back with our final decision. Also, I have a copy the paper if anyone wants some light reading.
