The Bottle Master

I like to call myself "The Bottle Master". One thing no one ever tells you about becoming a parent (there are a lot of things people neglect to tell you) is that your life will revolve around the bottle. No, not whiskey or alcohol although sometimes you want that too, we're talking baby bottles.

Depending on your breastfeeding schedule you will come into multiple bottles at some point your child's life. Whether it's storing breast milk for later or you're now on forumla, we've accumilated more bottles than a recycling center. Big bottles, small bottles, plastic, glass, fancy and cheap we've seen 'em all. And ... get this ... they have to be clean! I know, who knew?!

So every day it's a few minutes of standing at the sink w/ hot water, soap, big and little brushes and gettin' these little boogers cleaned and ready to go for another round! Even Zoe has sippy cups that have to be cleaned... it's a lot of work! And did I mention we don't have a dish washer?

Here's to anyone who's ever cleaned a bottle! Kudos to you. I've been doing it for almost 2 years now and see no end in sight! But that's ok, it's just one of the many ways I get to show my girls I love 'em ... being the Bottle Master. :)

Cheers,

-marc

Indie Rose Blackwell

Stacey, Zoe and I would like to introduce Indie Rose Blackwell! She's a beautiful little baby girl and we all love her very much. She came into the world on June 13th, at 8:56 pm weighing a whopping 9.3 pounds and 22 inches long! She's happily settling into her hard life style of eating and sleeping and getting her photo taken. Zoe loves her, gives her kisses and calls her "baby" and "sister" and we're adjusting great! Not to say it's easy, but a fun challenge and opportunity to grow as a family ... literally! :)

Love y'all. Be nice to each other.

-marc

Baby Blackwell #2!

If any of you are friends with Stacey on Facebook, you already know.  Or, if any of you are friends with us in real life, you already know...

Stacey and I are expecting Baby Blackwell #2!!

Yup!  We are building the Empire, ladies and gentlemen!  Only 7 more to go!  Just kidding ... who knows how many.  But here - I'll answer some of the questions you may have...

Didn't you just have one? (aka, was this planned?)  Yes, yes we did!  Thanks for the reminder.  The babes will be 21 months apart.  We want to have our children close together for a number of reasons, so this works out perfectly!

Do you know if it's a boy or girl yet?  Nope!  Stacey will be 13 weeks along and you don't find out the gender until 18 weeks!  I'm crossing my fingers for a boy. ;)

What are you going to name him?  Him you say?  Well, we have a few names picked out, but we'll keep that under wraps until he/she arrives.

How the heck are you gonna handle 2? Good question!  But I've learned after handling one, if I can do that, then I can do anything!  I'm Super Dad and Stacey, Super Mom.  We aren't worried any more than we should be and are excitedly planning the future of our growing family!

We are going to the Doc later today for an extensive ultra sound and checkup, but everything so far has been great!  The babe has a steady heartbeat, and he/she is making Stacey hungry, nauseous and tired, which is a good sign!

I just wanted to share!  I've been meaning to for a while, but we just figured the online world would figure out in due time.  This is the time!  :)

Cheers!
-marc

Baby! OH NO!

A lot changes when you have a baby.  Good, and ... well, tough.  One of the things my wife and I have noticed is that our phones ring a lot less. 

I suspect that a lot of our friends just don't know how to handle the fact that we have a baby.  It almost scares them, I think.  Like, if they come over or hang out they'll be forced to change a diaper or something.  I know that's not it, but I'm really interested in why this happens. 

We're the first in our slowly shrinking circle of friends to have a babe - and it's been a really hard adjustment on us, so I  can kind of imagine what's it like for my friends.  My assumption is that their assumptions have led them the idea that we can't hang out anymore, for whatever reason.  Maybe they think we're tied down every single second of the day, or that we never want to leave the house for safety reasons, or that having a child prevents us from doing anything but children things. So not true!!

Maybe getting married has something to do with it too, as we are the first in our friend group to tie the knot.  Love scares some people.

I dunno, maybe our "friends" just suck.

Just because someone has a baby does not mean they've lost the ability to have fun.  Or be normal.  Or even go out!  Stacey and I are still Stacey and Marc.  We're still the same fun loving, spontaneous crazy persons we've always been.  We just have a mini-me hangin' out all the time.  And you think, true friends would be really excited to have another mini version of yourself around, right?

A lot of our friends have been great, awesome, and more than we could ever ask for.  The love that they show towards Zoe and us is astounding and beautiful.  It's fun to watch our friends interact with our daughter, and they love watching her grow up!  Some have offered to babysit at the drop of a hat, others will invite us to "family friendly" events, and more than most remind us on a daily basis that they are here for us. 

I guess, like so often in life I'm learning, you weed out certain people at certain times.  And it's sad, because it's ignorance that leads to these specific falling outs.  But it's also a good thing.  Survival of the fittest...friend edition.

I barely get to see my wife these days ... a few hours after work and on the weekends.  I hardly have time for the ones I love.  I'm not going to waste time on those who aren't cool with the FACT that my WIFE and I have a BABY. 

Peace,
-marc

p.s. I know friendship is a two way street.  There is a natural progression to these kind of closures on relationships.  I'm busy - they're busy - we're all busy.  But the true friends have stuck around. 

The Tough Stuff

My friend Kayla suggested I write about the tough stuff when it comes to parenting.  She said my wife and I made it seem so easy that she wanted something like 5,234,342 kids or something.  Obviously she doesn't have children presently.

So you wanna know what's hard about being a parent?  It's not all smiles, photos, kisses and cute clothes.  There are several issues that could be considered tough in my opinion ... I mean, I was still trying to figure out how to take care of myself - now I have to take care of another human.  But that's another story.  Aside from the dirty diapers, the spit ups and occasional crying the hardest part of being a parent is trying to get your baby to sleep through the night.

Apparently this is a big issue with new parents.  There have been books written about it, philosophies debated and lots of techniques thrown into the mix.  Stacey and I of course thought we knew everything about raising a child before Zoe was born so we skipped the notion that she would wake up every other hour during the night.  Now...4 months in, we haven't gotten a single full nights rest and we're tired.  We just want her to sleep like a normal person so we all can get a full nights rest.

Last night Stacey showed me this blog post from her friend Laura.  It's an entire post dedicated to how she gets her baby girl to sleep.  She even posted it 6 days before Zoe was born.  WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN IT TIL NOW?!?  Well I'm glad I saw it when I did because it's not too late to try something new.  I guess there's a book, but what LaLa wrote is about is a philosophy called "E.A.S.Y".  "Eat, Activity, Sleep, You."  The you stands for sleep!!! :)  So we're tryin' it out.  We've been letting Zoe Toes go to sleep after eating, during eating and just whenever.  Not any more.  We're in the army now and on a schedule.  She'll get to eat every 2 1/2 - 3 hours and then we'll play until she's tired.  Once she's sleeping, it's "You" time and that can mean work, sleep or whatever. 

We may not have the whole parenting thing figured out completely.  We'll probably get it perfect when she moves out of the house.  But until then we're trying our best to make sure that our little baby girl is healthy, well rested and happy.  And that means Daddy and Mommy gotta be healthy, happy and for now, most importantly, well rested.  Here's to the adventure before us!

How do you, or how have you, gotten your baby to sleep through the night?  Tell us your secrets!