Vaccine Nation

Two more vaccines at the pediatrician yesterday: one shot for Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), and the second for Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria (Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine; PCV).

According to the CDC website: "Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) disease is a bacterial disease that usually strikes children under 5 years old. Before Hib vaccine, Hib disease was the leading cause of bacterial meningitis among children under 5 years old in the United States. Meningitis is an infection of the brain and spinal cord coverings, which can lead to lasting brain damage and deafness. Hib disease can also cause: pneumonia, severe swelling in the throat, infections of the blood, joints, bones, and covering of the heart, and death. Before Hib vaccine, about 20,000 children in the United States under 5 years old got severe Hib disease each year and nearly 1,000 people died."

"Infection with pneumococcal disease is responsible for about 200 deaths each year among children under 5 years old. It is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in the United States. Before a vaccine was available, each year pneumococcal infection caused over 700 cases of meningitis, 13,000 blood infections, and about 5 million ear infections. It can also lead to other health problems, including: pneumonia, deafness, and brain damage."

The shots were not fun for anybody. It's very sad to take a perfectly happy baby and poke him in both thighs with needles and make him cry, especially since he's perfectly willing to cry without provocation any old damn time. But he did get two more cool Peanuts Characters (TM) in Space Band-Aids (TM).



The vaccines don't stop here by a long "shot" (sorry). Here's the full slate, approved by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/acip), the American Academy of Pediatrics (http://www.aap.org), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (http://www.aafp.org).

Again, we are taking a slower approach (if he gets 4 at once and has a bad reaction, how do we know which one was the cause?). Thus far we are following the Dr. Sears alternative schedule, which gets the kid fully immunized but spreads things out a little:

2 months - DTaP, Rotavirus
3 months - PC, Hib
4 months - DTaP, Rotavirus
5 months - PC, Hib
6 months - DTaP, Rotavirus
7 months - PC, Hib
9 months - polio, flu (2 doses)
12 months - mumps, polio
15 months - Pc, Hib
18 months - DTaP, chickenpox
21 months - flu
2 years - rubella, polio
2 years, 6 months - Hep B, Hep A
3 years - Hep B, measles, flu
3 years, 6 months - Hep B, Hep A
4 years - DTaP, polio, flu
5 years - MMR, flu
6 years - chickenpox

If we put him in daycare next year, where he'll be exposed to all those other dirty children from god knows where infected with god knows what, we might speed things up a bit.

The nurse wasn't going to weight him, just give him the shots. But charting his stats is just about the most fun thing about having a baby (ok, not really), so we insisted. Here goes:

Weight: 14 lbs.
Length: 25 in.

Here is a 14 lb. turkey for comparison:



He had a little bit of a mild reaction to the shots. He lost his appetite for a while, and may have had a slight fever. This morning he was very fussy and wouldn't sleep much. But a nice warm bath and then a warm towel seemed to help make his day a little brighter. Isn't that true for all of us?

You Must Be This Tall To Ride

In an effort to keep the baby occupied, Claire brought out the "Johnny Jump Up" (I think I have some royalties coming my way) swing, which hangs from a doorway. Keeping in mind that the seat of the swing apparently is supposed to act something like a pair of external pants, thus holding the child firmly in place, we think it may be just a bit too early for this activity. But then, we are new parents and we could be wrong. He does seem to enjoy it, although he bobs around inside the exo-pants a bit, like a little bell knocker. Any thoughts?

We are now off to the pediatrician for our 3-month checkup and shots.

Three Months Old

I am happy to report that Claire and I have managed to somehow prevent Spud from turning blue for an entire quarter-year. In spite of our complete lack of formal instruction or prior experience with infants we are in possession of a thriving three month old baby. He's doing just fine. Our neglected house, yard, cars, finances, careers, and marriage are all utter disasters of course, but the baby is great. As soon as he turns 18, we'll get right back on those other silly, minor side projects.

Speaking of the house, some goons came out yesterday and replaced some of our old, rotting masonite siding with non-rotting polymer Hardiplank (TM) siding. I suppose the best evidence you could ever find of my status as a middle-aged father is that I am very very pleased with this event. My house will not rot and fall down! Huzzah! The best news of all was that the wood underneath the siding was, as reported by the goon in charge, "Hard as a rock." This is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me.

We also found out yesterday that Claire will not be losing her job as a result of North Carolina's state budget cuts (or me either for that matter). There was some concern that deeper job cuts would lead to the elimination of recently-hired folks like Claire, but in the end only 18 people were "terminated" on campus. Let's hope they all worked for the campus food service. We also found out that I have been approved for a "Family and Medical Leave" semester (FML also allowed Claire to get 12 [unpaid] weeks off for the birth and didn't have to worry about losing her job. Thank you Democrats...oh, and thanks for Saturdays off and child labor laws too. The titans of industry raise their fists in frustration, and then shrug and light a cigar with a $50 bill.) in the spring. I'll have no teaching responsibilities that semester, and my tenure review will be delayed one year, which at this point seems like a good idea. By the spring, Spud will be 9 months old and highly mobile. That cannot possibly make things easier. He's a handful now, but he pretty much stays put exactly where we put him. We are not looking forward to that day when one of us asks the other: "Where's the baby?", and the other doesn't know.

Three months old means the next round of vaccinations, on Tuesday. Spud was mildly alarmed when he caught wind of this news.

Chuckles

I'm sitting there with Spud in my lap, and Claire and I are both sitting there looking at him, trying to make him smile. He almost always smiles now when we smile at him, especially if we haven't been face to face for a while. So we're both looking at him with goofy grins and he must have thought this was pretty funny, because he not only smiles but he starts making his little 'he he he' laughing noise, which has been sounding more and more like real laughter lately. So he's laughing at us, which we think is pretty funny, so we start pumping up the fake laughter to get him to laugh more. Which he does. So we start laughing for real, and then we're both laughing harder, and he starts laughing harder too, and then we're all three of us sitting there laughing at each other. Buncha dorks.

While You're Out There Shouting and Screaming, He's Just Thinking About Clowns

Nobody would every REALLY make a product like this. I know, because I searched for one on the internet for over an hour.

Click on the image to play the video.


New BabySafe Ball Makes Shaking Your Infant Guilt And Injury Free

Have a Little Backbone, Will Ya?

Spud's physical prowess continues to improve. He is no longer a completely helpless, squirming bag of limp jello that screams. Now he is a completely helpless, squirming bag of jello that can hold his own head up. And screams. In his first month of life, his head bobbled around and was completely out of his control, and an entire adult hand was devoted full-time to holding it steady and protecting it from rolling completely off of his shoulders and bouncing on the floor. Lately, though, he has been able to pick it up for a few seconds during face-down "tummy time", in an attempt to keep himself from smothering in the blanket. Which as you all know, is an important skill. And in the past couple of weeks, he has been holding it up for a long time, and swivelling around and observing the world in the direction of his own choosing, like a little baby-head periscope.

Roller Babies

My mom sent this today. Spud is the 3rd baby on the right; the one that does the wicked flips. Booyah! He has incredible balance, considering how clumsy his parents are.

Summer Spuds

He's growing. We got the baby bjorn back in early May (thanks Mom and Dad), and he was so tiny he was engulfed by it. His head disappeared beneath the brim of the contraption, and he looked up out of it like a baby bird. We were afraid he might slip out the bottom. Now, he's grown so enormous that Claire had to adjust the length.



He seems pretty comfortable.



We took him to his first bar on the 4th of July (better we should take him than his skanky teenage friends in the year 2028). The Solstice Bar in NoDA, mostly deserted in the afternoon, perfect for an infant that can go ballistic at any moment.



The closest he got to fireworks this year; the crepe myrtles.



Happy summer y'all!

Too True

Bob Leggett sent me this cartoon today:



Two busy people + 1 baby = 2 veeerryy busy people.

Arms Control

10 weeks old today!

Spud has made another great stride this week in his continuing quest to transform himself, from a sedentary pink gooball that shrieks and turns milk into poo, into an actual human. He has begun to discover his own limbs. Prior to this week, we were fairly certain that he was unaware that he had a "body", much less limbs. He would grip our fingers in his hands for a moment, but it seemed involuntary. His arms and legs served a single important purpose: to flail around randomly when he was furious or happy.

But lately, he has been pausing to stare quizzically at his hands and feet, as if to ask, "What the hell is this thing?" He has also begun to use his hands and feet to punch and kick at the little toys hanging down from his play mat. He looks at a toy (usually the monkey), aims, and flails with his fist in the toy's general direction. He's not very good at it, and often misses to the great amusement of Daddy. But hey, the first time you went bowling, the ball ended up in the gutter a few times, right? Hand-eye coordination takes a long time to perfect. Only after several years playing Donkey Kong in my teens did I consider myself fully qualified to operate my own limbs.

Sizing up a target:



He's also discovered another wonderful use for hands: the organic anytime no-Mommy-needed on-demand pacifier.

Words:Yes -- Intelligible:No

HE knows what he's talking about.