The Born Identity

Simon's pictures have started coming through -- we'll have to figure out how best to post them in the next few days, but so gorgeous! We're so lucky to have so many talented photographer friends willing to work with such a fussy model!

Of course babies inherit traits from both parents; all of those fruit fly labs in high school biology taught us that if nothing else. Lately, we've both been noticing bits of each other in Zachary as we start to learn more about his personality. Physically, the hair color seems to be closest to Meh's (though who knows of this will stick -- I myself was seriously a super-fair blond until I was like 9 or 10), the eyelashes are mine, as are the blue eyes (again, if these stick; I know most babies start with blue eyes). Family and friends alike keep saying how much he looks like me, though I'm too clueless to see it. Even Meredith commented that while Zachary and I were sleeping last night, she looked over at me and kept being visually reminded of Zachary.

Personality-wise, we're actually starting to understand some of his attitudes and moods, and to some extent we can even tell from his noises whether he's frustrated (usually a one-off holler), mad (more active crying, though "with intensity", to quote Lost in Translation), gassy/needing to burp (more drawn out whines), etc.

Yesterday we had a lovely visit to the Post Partum Center at Evergreen Hospital, which is only around 10 minutes from our house. The staff there are so helpful and supportive, and perhaps as importantly, they have a shop (what they call a "Baby and Family Boutique") that had a great selection of things that the maternity and baby shops sometimes fail to deliver on -- and are a real shlep from our house to boot. Apparently, getting to leave the store in the bra you've just been fitted for (I'm a guy, I had no idea this is uncommon) is a huge deal.

But beyond the wide selection of paraphernalia for mommy, they had one particularly intriguing item for baby called a Snuggle Nest. Meh admits that it was the name that drew her, but we both saw the potential advantages: rather than having to hover over the pack-n-play at 4 in the morning trying to soothe Zachary, he could be in essentially a mini sleeping area right in our bed. I know the anti-co-sleeping brigade will be after us, but as the Post Partum Center folks said, it seems to work just fine in the rest of the world, the US just needs to get over itself and accept that this is a viable technique. Feels like the American attitude towards soccer or something. Anyway, we tried it out last night and it was hugely successful - I was able to snuggle with Zachary and both of us fell asleep together after one late-night feeding. (Meh later said this was very cute and she wants a picture the next time it happens.) Success!

Today Zachary meets his pediatrician. And if we feel adventurous, we may try our first tour of the neighborhood later on via stroller.