Entry 161: Don't Know How To Party

Or rather, I do know how, I just can't really do it anymore. 

Yesterday, we had a birthday celebration at our place for S's longtime friend E.  S and I were like zombies all day today.  For me, it was too much merriment; for S, it was not enough sleep.  Increasingly, hangovers are so much easier to get, hurt so much worse, and linger so much longer than they used to.  Sucks getting old.  I can't even necessarily prevent a hangover by cutting back on drinking, because I now get "food hangovers" from overeating where my stomach is just in knots the next day.  I definitely overate last night -- E can cook up a Mexican-style feast like you wouldn't believe.  Throw in a few beers, a few glasses of wine*, and the next morning, that's me fucked.    

It was a fun night, though.  I would say it was worth it, but it would've been just as fun had I eased up a bit, so "worth it" is irrelevant.  This other couple came over with a baby a few months older than Lil' S, so that was cool.  I put my foot in my mouth twice with them.  First, I called their baby "her", but it's a boy.  Then I went on and on about how S almost signed us up for Bradley method birth classes**, and what a waste of time and money they are, how attending would've been a living hell, etc., etc., and, of course, the couple did the Bradley course.  Oops.  Oh well, they didn't seem offended in the least (nor should they have been), so it's all good.

Lil' S woke up about 6:00 a.m. this morning.  S got him from his crib and brought him into our bed with us in hopes he'd go back to sleep.  The success rate of this move is roughly 20%, and unfortunately today was not that special one in five.  He was being pretty quiet at first, which got my hopes up, so I took a peek at him, praying to see his eyes shut, but of course they were as big as saucers.  It was a risky move on my part too, because once you establish eye contact, he gets excited and more alert.  I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but he started making those high pitched baby noises, which put the kibosh on that.  Thankfully (for me), S got up and took him downstairs, and I slept for a few a more hours.  I would've felt bad for sleeping while S had to get up, but I watched him all day yesterday and was supposed to "get the day off" today.  That didn't exactly happen, but I did get to sleep in, so I'm not complaining.

Lil' S can now roll over fairly easily.  It's his only mode of transportation.  He barrel rolls all over the place.  It's pretty cool.  It's funny how when you're a parent you get so excited when your kid first does something that almost every kid ever learned or will learn to do.  Basically you're celebrating the fact that you child isn't developmentally challenged.  I mean, don't get me wrong, that's a good thing, but is it really something that should make you beam with pride?  Probably not, but for some reason it does.

The rolling over gives us a bit of worry at night.  He's started rolling onto his stomach and sleeping there from time to time.  I came in the other night to check on him, and he was lying prone with his face in the bed, not turned to side, but buried in the bed.  I flipped him to his back, and he was fine, but it made me nervous.  His breathing is one of the few things I'm a little irrational about.  From what I can gather, sleeping on the stomach isn't actually that bad.  There is a correlation -- not necessarily a causation, but a strong correlation -- with an increase in SIDS, but some babies (supposedly) sleep more soundly on their stomachs, and this deep sleep is (supposedly) important to development.  Also, S's mom told her that S and her sister slept on their stomachs frequently, because back in her day babies choking on their spit-up was a big concern.  Anyway, who really knows?  We'll flip him to his back when we see him on his stomach, but it's not like we can watch him every second he's sleeping.

Plus, maybe if he sleeps on his stomach a little bit, it'll help his positional plagiocephaly.  If Facebook pics are any indication more and more parents are becoming concerned with this, and they're putting those little helmets on their babies.  On this topic, I side with Dr. Peter Fleming, "I do not think it is a medical problem—it is more of a cosmetic one. Mothers may feel it is a syndrome and a problem when it really is nonsense."  The odd thing about this is, why be concerned with a cosmetic problem nobody ever notices?  I have dental implants; they're cosmetic, but I'm glad I have them because people would notice if two of my front teeth are missing.  When's the last time you've ever noticed an asymmetry on somebody's head?  It just doesn't happen, especially with a full head of hair, which most babies someday grow.  I mean, if your kid looks like Eric Stoltz from Mask, by all means, get a helmet, but a little flat spot on their head that you can only see if you lie down and look up at the baby in such a way that you form 45 degree azimuth?  C'mon.  That's just getting guilt-prone parents to waste their time and money.  A nurse once gave us a card for a doctor who specializes in positional plagiocephaly, but I talked S out of calling him.  Well, I guess if Lil' S grows up viciously tormented for his grotesquely misshapen head, it'll be on me.

 Anyway, until next time...               

*Yes, I mixed alcoholic beverages throughout the night.  Dr. Drew says that all other things equal this doesn't get you any sicker than drinking just one type of alcohol throughout the night.  It's how much you ingest, period.

**She actually signed us up, no almost about it, but we decided not go.  We lost our deposit, and I've never been happier to see $50 go to waste.