Nico News #3

Dear Friends and Family,

A day comes in everyone’s life when you have to take off the training wheels, fly without a net, jump into the great unknown.

No, that day has not come for Nico, but for his parents, as the last of our amazing live-in helpers has headed home.

Gulp.

You might think this wouldn’t be such a big deal. After all, Meghan and I are in our mid-thirties, are reasonably well educated and capable. What’s the big deal of taking care of a baby? Any Tom, Dick and Harriett can have a baby if they want, and must figure out how to play caregiver. Teenage mothers do it. Single parents do it. It shouldn’t be so impossible for us to do it too.

But here’s the difference: Those other people aren’t also the parents of two needy cats. At least our two needy cats.

Don’t get me wrong. Our visiting family members—my mom, then Meghan’s mom, then Meghan’s sister Caitlin—did much more than give attention to Bucky and Bitsy. They cooked. They shopped. They laundered. They held baby.

But perhaps their greatest contributions came as peacemakers. They gave our cats attention, and in doing so helped ease the transition for the newest member of the family.

First there was Meghan’s mom Judy, grooming Bucky and Bitsy as she waited for us to come home (late) from the hospital. Then there was my mom, who called the cats “Cat” and made them a deal: They don’t jump on her and she would sing and talk to them. Neither party ever reneged on the agreement. And then Caitlin, who went above and beyond and took the kitties to get their annual shots. A Herculean task, and one that we as new parents surely would have put off for a year, probably to tragic result. (And how fitting that the vet would comment on how well groomed the cats were…thanks to Judy. And it all comes full circle…)

So, to be clear, Meghan misses the help from our family. I miss the help from our family. Nico misses the help from our family. But the cats miss the help from our family the most.

Not that we haven’t tried to be accommodating to their concerns and feelings. Case in point: We quickly decided to abandon our plans for Nico to sleep in the Arms-Reach Co-Sleeper (a bassinette that attaches to your bed—a “sidecar” as my friend Chris calls it). This idea sounded great in theory before the baby arrived. We would all get the benefits of Nico sleeping near us, just an “arms-reach” away, but, by not actually having him in the bed with us, we would never have to worry about rolling over on the little guy. But let’s face it: sleeping babies make a lot of noises (at least our sleeping baby). And those little noises can keep parents up all night long. So we quickly ditched the bassinette and opted for the crib in the adjacent nursery (just a few feet away) instead.

Which meant that we were in possession of a vacant Arms-Reach Co-Sleeper Bassinette. Nature abhors a vacuum as does Bucky, who quickly decided that it would make a perfect bed for HER. And so it was, for several blissful cat-weeks, until THE MISTAKE.

It was last weekend. Meghan had nursed Nico and filled him up to the gills. My job was to rock him to sleep. And she explicitly said…foreshadowing here…DON’T PUT HIM DOWN ON HIS BACK FOR AT LEAST THIRTY MINUTES LEST HE’LL THROW IT ALL UP.

Now, I’ve become a bit of a sooth-the-baby-to-sleep expert, and had a routine of my own down, and yes, it included quickly putting the baby on his back so I could quickly change his diaper, and then swaddle him. So I said to myself, “A minute or two of back-lying won’t hurt…it hasn’t before…I’ll have him upright again in no time.”

Well, you know how this story ends. What’s remarkable is how much breast milk a little baby’s stomach can hold—and eject.

So how does this impact Bucky and her Bassinette? Well, Meghan’s idea that the baby would up-chuck came, in part, from mother’s Intuition and in part from “What To Expect Your Baby’s First Year”—among my least favorite baby books, but what do I know—which EXPLICITLY warns us NOT to put the baby on its back within the 30 minute window. What it ALSO warns is to beware of cats and babies…that we should put a screen on our crib to avoid a “terrible tragedy.” (Who writes these things?) So here’s Meghan’s late-night brain at work: “The book warned us NOT to put the baby on its back…and it was right. AND the book warned us NOT to let the cats have access to the baby and his crib or else we might face a terrible tragedy…therefore,,, the cats are OUT OF HERE.

And that’s why Bucky got kicked out—not just from the Bassinette, but from our bedroom and adjoining nursery.

And that’s why Bucky (and Bitsy) miss our visiting family members even more than we do.

More soon…

Love,

Mike, Meghan, Nico, Bucky and Bitsy

PS Here are the latest photos including, of course, a picture of Bucky and her Bassinette: http://picasaweb.google.com/meghanmullan/WeGiveThanksForNico.

Nico News #2

Dear Friends and Family,

Nico is settling in to his new home here in Takoma Park. His favorite place to be, besides in Mom, Dad or a Grandmothers’ arms, is on his changing table naked and staring at the light coming from the stained glass lamp shade.

He’s had several baths with Dad and diaper changing is much less traumatic now that Dad has fast fingers. His diaper rash from the antibiotics is clearing up. Basically, things are getting normal again around here and the cats are once again getting some attention.

Nico makes adorable grunting sounds when he eats and his sighs are heavenly. We are welcoming visitors into our home. So, if you’d like to come visit us, don’t be shy. Below are two links to his most recent photos.

Love,

Meghan and Mike

http://picasaweb.google.com/meghanmullan/NicoSFirstHalloween
http://picasaweb.google.com/meghanmullan/FamilyFun