Proof of Developmental Riot #1

This video would have been edited and uploaded sooner, but we had a delightful visit from Aunt Kel and Brad this week.  Yay adoring relatives!  Meanwhile, the riot has continued; we're now working on multi-stage sounds, which makes us sound a little bit like R2-D2.  It's amazing how much more alert she is in general, and specifically how amazing she is at standing practice already.  I'm betting on professional surfer as a career path so far; she's just so well balanced for someone so wee.

Here's the video of her first couple of trips to the play mat, or, to paraphrase her actions in the days since this video was shot, "that place where I can slap and then eat the giraffe."

As always, note that you can play the video at better quality by changing the "360p" setting in the video player to something larger (the button will appear once you start playing the video).  If the video stutters or is choppy at a given setting (1080p, for example), the system can't handle it.  Depending on your computer, you may be able to view versions up to the 1080p video, which would give you maximum babyish excellence.

Developmental Riot #1

All day yesterday, Kyla was eating like a maniac -- about twice as often as usual.  We were perplexed.

Then, this morning, she woke up and suddenly knew how to smile (not all that often, but there's no mistaking it this time, definitely social smiles!), was using both feet simultaneously during standing practice, and knew how to negotiate a 180-degree head turn (clumsy, but effective).  It is SUPER exciting, since it's her first real developmental leap.  Go go tiny monkey!  Documentary evidence to follow once I've, you know, taken it.

Tongues and sneezes

This afternoon, we discovered a new game.  It's called "Indecision," and goes like this:

I want the pacifier, I don't want the pacifier, I shall never want the pacifier again, I really must have that pacifier.
I want the pacifier, I don't want the pacifier, I shall never want the pacifier again, I really must have that pacifier.
I want the pacifier, I don't want the pacifier, I shall never want the pacifier again, I really must have that pacifier.
I want the pacifier, I don't want the pacifier, I shall never want the pacifier again, I really must have that pacifier.

It's actually a surprisingly fun game for the adults too, because she's really excited at each phase, so we get to see her make funny faces!  And speaking of funny faces...

Quick change

Here's a pretty self-explanatory video :-).

Watcher

Here we are in week 3, which is by itself sort of amazing.  We've kept a human being alive for 3 weeks!  Score!  Meanwhile, our tiny human is ever more alert and (frequently) delightful.  She has clear likes (face-to-face time, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, snuggles, eskimo kisses), and smiles are starting to appear when she's really cozy.  She also has clear dislikes (being on her back for any length of time, congestion, abstract impressionism).  Mostly, she's a very happy and inquisitive little monkey, as evidenced by her interest in my camera during this changing session:

An imperfect guise

In one of her first ninja acts, Kyla attempted to hide out under a hat and behind a big pile of blankets, the better to ambush any would-be attackers.  Unfortunately for her, her stealth skills aren't quite developed yet.  She has a tell -- can you find it?

I see you are on your stomach, there.

Apparently, it's important to start some form of tummy time pretty early on -- it helps babies develop neck muscle control, and all sorts of associated goodness.  At least in this video, Ky doesn't really seem to mind :-).  Important note: this video is representative of nothing.

Sokath, his eyes uncovered!

(Note: this is easily the geekiest title I have ever given anything.  Reference )

We're partway through week three at this point, which means, among other things, that we're juuuuust starting to establish a routine.  Ky had her second doctor's appointment a few days ago -- she's back to her birthweight, which means that we've moved from feeding her every 3 hours to feeding her when she asks.  This is awesome -- she made it back to her birthweight really quickly, so she's clearly getting all the nutrition she requires.  It also means that sometimes we can sleep for 4 hours, but that generally means that afterwards we sleep for 45 minutes.  Still, she's a pretty good sleeper, and we like her bunches so far.

In a day-to-day sense, well, every day is different.  She has started to be more alert; smiley muscles are clearly being exercised a little bit, which means that we know the following things:

1) We like the nose game, which is a low-key version of eskimo kisses.

2) We like snuggles.

To summarize, this is our current roommate:

Little baby, big room.

So far, Kyla's been sleeping with us. (Yes, it's cute.  Trust me.)  This morning, however, Beth decided to try out the crib to see whether we approve or disapprove, and how that's going to work in the long term.  Well, you'll all be happy to know that it was a rousing success.  How can I tell, you ask?  Well, a number of criteria!  Number of fidgets per minute: few.  Number of minutes to fall asleep after being applied to device: 0.  Size of item to size of baby (ratio): big:little.  All in all, clearly a winning proposition.  What follows is documentation, and I would direct your attention to the fact that this crib is, you know, crib sized.  It's not a trick.  She's really that small.

Serenity

Let's begin the photo posts of Ky thusly:

Minister of Silly Faces

Here is a video of the little miss...um..."sleeping."  As you can tell, she's pretty busy all the time, and the sleeping is probably just a thin ruse designed to throw us off our game, and then BANG -- she'll repaint her nursery or sign up for hot air balloon piloting lessons or something.  Actually, those would both be pretty cool.

You might also notice that I'm less coherent than usual.  This has to do with the fact that I am unaccustomed to sleeping in 2 hour chunks.  Yup. :-)

Slingbaby

Here's one of Kyla's early rides in Beth's homemade sling.  It makes her very happy and squishy.

Stop. Nana time.

Here's a little test video of Kyla's first day with her Nana.  This video illustrates two points:

1) She loves her Nana already.
2) She doesn't stop moving for very long.  Ever.

Behind the Scenes

So, here I sit, with little Kyla asleep on the bed to my right, stuffed between two rolled-up hand towel "bumpers," and since she's clearly thinking deep thoughts (you can tell because she's trying out every facial expression in her arsenal all at once), I thought I should update our faithful readers on how our little monkey came into the world.  Thus, I give you The Birth In One Paragraph Or Less:

Here's how the birth went down.  Beth's water broke at about 6:30 am on Tuesday morning, while I was happily dozing.  We called the doctor, who had us come in to the hospital.  (We weren't even sure it was labor at that point, as there were no contractions yet, so Beth had a nice leisurely shower, I shaved and finished packing my hospital bag -- hey, no time like the present.)  A couple of quick tests later, we were off to our private delivery suite (thank goodness -- absolutely can't imagine going through this with someone else over in another part of the room).  Beth then proceeded to be a complete rock star -- I don't think she complained once, other than to say "ouch."  No meds, nothing but a fluids IV to make sure she didn't get dehydrated.  Nonetheless, Kyla seemed to be pretty sure she wouldn't fit -- she came down, and down further, and after 15 hours of contractions followed by 4 hours of pushing, well, she turned right around and headed back up to her womb.  After some deliberation, it became clear that we didn't have much choice but to do a C-section, and so, a little reluctantly, but secure in the knowledge that we had done our absolute best, and were out of options, we agreed.  It worked out fine, obviously; Ky is awesome and happy, Beth is awesome, happy, and recovering quickly from the surgery, and I am awesome, happy, and got to wear scrubs and a mask.  Everybody wins!

In other news, we may have discovered Beth's mutant power, which is to be made of rubber.  She's recovering VERY well from the surgery, and was resilient enough that, after 19 hours of labor, she was cracking jokes and bonding with the nurse on the way to the OR.

In short, I agree with our nurse.  Beth's my hero.

Kyla Nova

Ladies and gentlemen, Kyla Nova Aronoff has arrived.  She was born December 23rd at about 4 in the morning, and weighed 9 lbs., 2 oz.  Everybody's doing wonderfully, and we're already surprised at how interested we are in the frequency of her diaper changes.  Truly, it is a new world.