Junior: January 2005 Archives

On Saturday, we had Magda's christening at Jfer's church. Compared to a Catholic wedding, a christening is a piece of cake. We only had to go to one preparation class that was attended by a ton of other parents.

We had a big contingent of guests, mostly Jfer's family, but also a bunch of mine, including my parents who flew in for the occasion. There were three other babies at the ceremony, but it moved pretty quickly and was very low key and the priest encouraged people to take as many photographs as they wanted. Magda did fine most of the time, though she did not appreciate the cold water. Baptized or not, I have not noticed any changes in her sleeping patters; so that much for the "oil of exorcism's" power...

The reception after the baptism was a blast. We had reserved the "Cardinal Room" at Buca di Beppo (the "Pope Room" with the disconcerning torso of John Paul II on a Lazy Susan being, alas, too small for our group) and completely filled it up with over 30 guests. The food a Buca is OK, but we had way too much of it. We did seem to have estimated the wine much better than the food and the evening got nicely loud and boisterous. It was great having both families there (luckily the Karls don't need much of a reason to get together).

On Sunday we hosted a brunch followed by a nice walk in Walnut Creek Park. All of Jfer's folks bailed on the park and missed out on a very pleasant excursion -- makes me glad that my Czech relatives aren't a bunch of lazy bums :-)

Changing diapers was one of the things I wasn't looking forward to as part of parenthood. However, when Magda was born, she eased us into it nicely slow. She initially dispensed little fudge-like turdlets and then progressed to the more advanced mustard-type poo.

So for the first couple of months, ever other time her diapers needed to be changed, she'd have a little present. Nothing too big or too gross.

Some time before Christmas, though, her "schedule" has changed and she started saving things up. The nice thing is that for a couple of days you don't have to deal with poop. The other side of the coin, though, is that when it comes, it comes in heaps.

Last week we were actually starting to worry. She hadn't gone for close to a week and every time she squirmed or complained, we had visions of constipation, blockage and what not. The typical new parents thing -- even though baby books tell you that it's not unusual for breast fed babies to go sporadically. We were even planning to call the doctor once the week was over.

Of course, as it turned out there was no problem -- and I was the lucky one dealing with the overflowing (literally) mess. And there definitely was not any type of constipation, if you know what I mean. I think diapers should be sold based on volume rather than baby size.

I really hope she starts going more frequently again, for our piece of mind. And if she does save it up, she could have the courtesy to go during the day, when daddy's out at work...