Merry Christmas, Baby!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! I hope it is full of joy, fellowship, laughter, festivities, restoration and the Holy Spirit. We will be spending Christmas Eve and Christmas with our fellow displaced Americans here in the 'Deen. If I have to be away from my extended family, there is no one else I'd rather spend the holiday with. We are oh so lucky to have such great companions to share Forest's first Christmas with. 

 

Baby Name Story: Forest Alexander

Awhile back, I wrote this post on 9 potential names we were considering for our baby boy. In addition to this list we also entertained Asher, Everett and Nathaniel as candidates for our son. After months of indecision, hmmm-hawing, and back and forth debate, we decided on Forest in pretty anti-climactic fashion. One night Jonathan basically looked at me and said, ‘So, Forest?’ and I said, ‘Yea, sure.’, and that was that. Jonathan let me be in charge of picking the middle name and I decided on Alexander pretty immediately. I'm ashamed to say there was no particular meaning behind this. I simply liked the way it sounded paired with Forest, and of course, I love classic, strong, historic, fancy-pants names so it fit all of those criteria. Bailey's middle name (yes my dogs have middle names) is Alessandra so obviously I love all derivatives of Alexander. 

Anyway, back to Forest...Back in July, this is what I wrote as a few of our reasons for loving Forest, and also some of our reservations: 
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Pros: I just love ‘Forest’. It’s masculine, yet sensitive all at the same time. It speaks to our love of nature, and subtly refers to our favorite hobby in Scotland: Forest Walks.  No matter how frustrated I can get with living so far from home, I always feel at peace when we load the dogs up in the car for a trek through the forest. This is a word that epitomizes peace and calm to me. 

After the popularity of Forrest Gump, this name basically fell of the face of the earth, dropping off of the US Top 1000 list completely. To me, Forrest Gump isn’t a bad connotation at all. In fact, it’s my favorite movie; Tom Hanks- my favorite actor. So while Forrest/Forest is classic and timeless, it’s basically going unused by the American public right now. Is this our perfect opportunity to scoop it up for ourselves? It does sound really pretty with our last name. Gotta love those repeated R’s! 

Cons: The spelling issue. Even being uncommon, it’s more frequently spelled ‘Forrest’. However, we like the sleeker look of 'Forest' and how it more literally represents the nature vibe. Still, I don’t want my son to have to go through life correcting the spelling of his name. However, in this day and age of ‘creative’ name spelling, is he doomed to that dilemma no matter what we choose?   

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There are a few other little tid bits about the significance of 'Forest' that I didn't include in the original post. There was a sort of evolution for Forest to even get on our nomination list in the first place. Those who know me, know that I CANNOT sleep without watching re-runs. I have all of my favorite TV shows on DVD and watch them over and over and over again. One of my favorites is Felicity, and I just love Keri Russell, the actress who plays the title character. 

A few years back, Keri named her baby boy ‘River’ and immediately it struck me as a beautiful name and with our love of the outdoors, I just took to the idea of a nature name. 

Keri and River  SOURCE

At the time, Jonathan and I were just beginning to think about starting a family so names were a fun topic of conversation. I suggested ‘River’ thinking he would love it and instead he instantly shot it down, but mentioned he liked the idea of a nature name as well. I casually floated 'Forest' and he said, ‘yea, I like Forest’. So that’s how our son’s name flippantly made it onto our long list. It's funny how I remember that precise moment.

I’ve always been drawn to ‘F’ and ‘Ph’ names (if we’d had a girl, she would have probably been ‘Fiona’), probably because my beloved grandmother is named ‘Fern’ and so I always associate the sound with her. Plus it’s a first initial that isn’t used too often, so of course that appealed to me. 

My 'MawMaw Fern' with her great grandkids

When we moved to Aberdeen, we first moved into temporary housing by way of an adorable apartment on Forest Avenue. 

Forest Road/Avenue is a beautiful residential street in the heart of our West End neighborhood, which elevated the name even higher for us due to this Aberdonian association. 

And then there were the Forest Walks. Oh, how we love the Scottish Forest Walks in Aberdeenshire! 

We have become mighty spoiled that most of our jogs and dog walks and stroller strolls take place in a beautiful woodland setting. It is the most peaceful place to me, and has always helped me to clear my head and feel an intimacy with the Lord. It was such a large part of our lives in Scotland, including in my daily pregnancy walks, that it seemed right to name our son after this shared family hobby. 

Also, when we were still undecided on a name, I saw this pin on pinterest about words in different languages that had no translation. One of them was a German word (Waldeinsamkeit) that meant ‘the feeling of being  alone in a woods’. 

It was such a beautiful sentiment and for me, that peaceful feeling is instantly conjured up when I think of the Scottish forests . 

That was the moment ‘Forest’ jumped up in the polls for me. 

Still, towards the middle of my third trimester, we still hadn’t reached a consensus. I think we were both holding out until our babymoon to the Isle of Harris to see if ‘Harris’ would steal the show.   

We both loved the island, both for it’s tweed and  heavenly scenery, and had a hard time NOT using it for our boy, but I think we both thought ‘Forest’ portrayed more of the essence of our time in Scotland. 

After the trip, we sat down and discussed our rankings of the final 5. Jonathan’s list went like this: 

1)Ian 

2)Forest 

3)Harris 

4) Asher 

5) Ezra

My list was as follows: 

1) Asher 

2) Forest 

3) Harris 

4) Ezra 

5) Ian

Since Ezra was so low on each of our lists, it was automatically gone. Jonathan admitted that the only reason Ian was his top choice was because it meant ‘Jon’ in Gaelic. I was feeling that it was a bit unfair to name him after Jonathan since he would already carry Jon’s last name, so we agreed not to use ANY family names (or international versions of family names) just to avoid any hurt feelings.  So with Ian off the list, that logically left Forest as the default #1 choice, with Harris in our back pocket in case he came out and just didn’t look or feel like a ‘Forest’. 

Shortly after this decision, we started having concerns about baby boy’s growth. We had 3 growth scans in those final weeks, all showing that his growth had significantly slowed. It could have been a natural result of being housed in the womb of a petite woman, or it could have been something more worrying such as a congenital or chromosomal disorder. We decided that if it turned out to be the latter, his name should be ‘Asher’. Asher was number 1 on my personal list just because of it’s meaning: Happy, most blessed. If something was less than perfect with our son, I wanted his name to be a constant reminder that he was still a blessing and an answered prayer. 

When baby boy finally made his appearance, one of the first questions I asked Jonathan was ‘Is he a ‘Forest’?’ (I couldn’t see him from the operating table) and Jonathan answered affirmatively. 

And after 7 hours straight of fussing after his birth, I knew for sure that he was not the happy baby 'Asher' I had pictured in my head. And I feel like Forest suits him way better than Harris at this point, although I think his personality portrays more of the wildness of the woods rather than the peace and serenity that I was picturing! He is wild and strong and full of energy. 

I recently read this quote in the novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson which made me think of the duality of meaning in terms of a 'Forest'. It's been running through my head ever since.:  

"That's how life goes--we send our children into the wilderness. Some of them on the day they are born, it seems, for all the help we can give them. Some of them seem to be a kind of wilderness unto themselves. But there must be angels there, too, and springs of water. Even that wilderness, the very habitation of jackals, is the Lord's. I need to bear this in mind." 

Beautiful! The whole novel is full of gorgeous little quotable nuggets of wisdom if you're in the market for something to read.

We absolutely love his name and have zero buyer’s remorse. Also, the hospital where he was born is part of the Forester Hill Health Campus, so that’s an added tie to Scotland. (Not that I’d want to name him after the hospital after my experience, but it’s still a cool connection.)When we were at the hospital, all the midwives would ask if we’d named him yet and when we replied, ‘Forest’ they all gasped and said in their Scottish accents, ‘That’s lovely! We’ve never had a Forest before.’ That was precisely the reaction we were hoping for. 

We also got quite a few ‘Forrest Gump’ jabs, but they were all in good fun and we played along in good humor. My brother said if he ever has a daughter, he will name her Jenny, and I remarked that she and Forest could be like peas and carrots. My mom can’t wait until he starts running, for the obvious 'Run, Forrest, Run' jokes. 

Lord help him if he's a track star...or a football star...or a ping pong star. My favorite was when we announced his name and a friend asked us if he got a daddy named Forest too (that made me laugh out loud). 

Like I’ve said before, Forrest Gump is my favorite movie of all time and I am flat out obsessed with Tom Hanks, so I don’t mind the association, and think Mr. Gump is actually a pretty worthy namesake. 

So that's the story of how we came to name our beautiful son 'Forest'. 

And that's all I've got to say about that.

(Not) Born in the U.S.A.

When we decided to stay in Scotland to have Forest, some of the most frequently asked questions from family and friends were regarding his citizenship. Mainly, would he be a citizen of the United Kingdom? The United States? Both? Can he run for President? Prime Minister? Neither? Both? 
The citizenship laws in Britain are very different from those in the US. Just because a baby is born on British soil doesn’t automatically make him a citizen of the United Kingdom. A child must be born to at least one British parent or to parents with permanent residency in the UK to be considered for citizenship. Since Jonathan and I are living here under a temporary 3-year work visa, that means that Forest, sadly, doesn’t qualify.   

But, because he was born to two US citizens, he is automatically a citizen to the greatest nation on Earth (Land of the free, home of the Super-Target). It’s not that simple though. Because he wasn’t born in the US, he wasn’t automatically registered as a live birth. Therefore, we had to register his birth with the US consulate in Edinburgh in order to get a birth record, passport, and social security number. He has a Scottish birth certificate and a US ‘Consular Report of Birth Abroad’ declaring him a foreign-born citizen of the USofA. 
While we were applying for his record of birth, we also applied for his U.S. Passport. Getting official passport photos of a 2 week old is quite a challenge, and we ended up having to go to two separate places before we succeeded in getting an acceptable image. This is the shot that will be in his passport for the next 5 years:

I was about the same age when I got my first passport, since I was born into an ex-pat family as well. It’s kind of cool to pass that legacy on to Forest, and to start his life as a world traveler at such a young age. I’m definitely not looking forward to that first trans-Atlantic plane ride though. Yikes!

As far as the running for president question…no, Forest can never run for president. I think it’s a sad law. When people were questioning the natural citizenship of our president, Barack Obama, I thought it was nothing but silly. Who cares if he wasn’t born in the US? He was born a US citizen either way, and to me, that’s all that matters. (This is not a plug for Obama, just making a point. Don't want to give our conservative parents a heart attack.)

When the law was made that a person had to be born on US soil to be eligible for the presidency, it was in a much different historical period. Nowadays, we live in such a global world, it just doesn’t make sense that any person born a citizen wouldn’t have that opportunity.

Think about it: If an Italian family is taking a vacation to Disney World, the wife goes into labor and has her baby in Orlando, then travels back to Italy and raises her baby there, that child can one day legally run for president of the United States despite primarily identifying themselves as Italian. However, if my son, born to 2 upstanding US citizens, is born in the UK while his dad is working for a major US company, then goes on to live the majority of his life on US soil, he can’t ever run for the most powerful office in the land simply because he was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. Silliness!

Now, I detest most politicians today (and that's bipartisan) so it’s no skin off my back if my son is discouraged from taking that path with his life. However, it’s pretty sad that I can’t tell my child, ‘You can be anything you want to be when you grow up.’, because I’ll always have to add the caveat “…except for President of the United States”. Again, SILLY!!!!

Now, I was in no way looking forward to taking my 3 week old on the road to Edinburgh for his passport interview. At this point in his life, he was an even crappier napper and was super thrown off any time we got him out and about. The thought of being out of the house from 7 AM til 5 PM and having to feed and change him on the road was not a thrilling prospect. However, he did fairly well on the day of. There was some fussiness in the car but nothing traumatizing. 

We saw the sun rise....

...and set on our day trip to Edinburgh.

He was a bit thrown off when I tried to feed him in the backseat. He seemed to be questioning, “Where is my brown chair? Where is my green breast feeding pillow?” and was a tad hesitant to eat. But by the second feed, he had it down.   

We ended up missing our appointment because the traffic coming into Edinburgh was atrocious. It seriously took us an hour to go about 3-4 miles. Luckily, I called and let  them know we’d be late and since they weren’t too busy, it wasn’t a big deal for us to show up an hour and half later than we were supposed to. 

It did put us in the consulate when Forest’s feeding time rolled around which was a scary time for us all. I’m still not too comfortable breastfeeding in public, and fortunately we were able to get out of the office and back to the car before he had a complete meltdown. 

Overall, I kind of think taking the train to Edinburgh would have been easier than driving, especially since Jonathan couldn’t locate the pay machine for the pay and display parking and managed to get slapped with a parking ticket in the 30 minutes we were at the embassy. I just think a train probably the easiest way to travel with a newborn who has to eat so frequently. 

But anyways, we got it done!! He’s officially a US citizen. And super excited about it!:

Just another chubby American:)

"I pledge allegiance..."

Now all we have to do is get his UK Visa and we can start jet-setting all over the world. First stop: U.S.A, of course. Gotta introduce that baby to the magic that is Target!

7 Weeks Old

I don’t know who all you women are who assured me things would get easier after 6 weeks, but y’all are all a bunch of liars. Week 6 was one of our toughest yet. His colic episodes are more scarce (Thank Jesus!) but he’s become even more stubborn when it comes to taking naps. It doesn’t matter how tired he is, how droopy his eyes get or how many times he yawns, the child refuses to fall asleep for longer than 10-20 minute increments. 

And you name it, I’ve tried it. Swaddling, dark room, holding my hands over his eyes, white noise, consistent naptime routine, gently stroking his forehead, patting, shushing. I have tried it all. He will be on the brink of sleep and just cannot get there. It’s infuriating. There are some days when I feel like all I do is feed him and then try fruitlessly to get him to nap for the next 2 ½ hours until it’s time to feed him again. 

And right now we are on a every other day pattern where one day he will nap like a textbook baby, clocking in 16 hours of sleep over the course of 24 hours. The next day, we’re barely squeezing 10 hours total out of him and every single moment of that is hard earned. But then, the very next day, he makes naptime look easy. I basically feed him, swaddle him, put him down and voila- 2 hour nap. 

I swear, he might possibly have a split personality disorder. I’m a former mental health professional so I can technically diagnose these things. Multiple personality disorder is rare, but it does exist. On any given day, Forest is either an angel or a terrorist, using sleep deprivation as a tactic to bring his mother to the brink of a psychotic break. 

Angel

Me? Nap? Not a chance.

The only saving grace is that when he lacks daytime sleep, he usually will sleep upwards of 6 hours that night. 

But y’all, his good days are sooooo good. On those occasions, I actually understand why people go on to have subsequent children. He is super snuggly and smiley and we are both well fed and rested. And I don’t have to tell you how adorable he is. Ohmygoodnesssocute! 

This week he has made giant leaps in his ability to hold his head up. And guess what he did just this morning? He rolled over!! Here he is in process: 

during

after

Now it wasn’t a true ‘rolling over’ in the classic sense of the word. I put him on his tummy and I put his hands under his chest to help him with his baby pushups. Two seconds later he’d flipped to his back. I re-placed him back on his tummy in the same position and he did it again. Rolling from front to back usually happens at 3 months, y’all. This kid isn’t even 2 months yet. 

He isn’t even close to rolling from back to front, but I have a feeling that his alertness and hyperactivity will lead to some early motor development milestones. He’s already doing most of the 2 month milestones despite being 2 weeks away, including putting weight on his legs and holding his head up for large chunks of time. We will see, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to have my hands full with this one once he’s mobile! Check him out doing his tummy time: 

Today he did really well with going on an outing with mom. I took him to my friend Susan’s to play mahjong and he snoozed  for 2 hours while I got a few games in and got to eat some lunch. I even passed a major hurdle by breast feeding in front of my friends. I used the occasion to practice using my cover up, though I’m sure I still flashed them a time or two. 

On to the 7 week photos (he was quite sleepy during the photo shoot so I didn't get as many good shots this week):

And bonus ones from his 7^th week of life: 

First 6 Weeks Survival Guide.

The other day my friend Pam asked me, now that I’m a mother, what gift I would give at a baby shower. We have a couple of friends that are preggers, so the question has been weighing on my mind, and I decided to compile a list of the items I’ve found essential for the first 6 weeks. 

1) Halo Swaddle Sleep Sacks

 

This is the answer I gave Pam for what gift I would give. Forest always sleeps swaddled, otherwise, his uncontrollable flailing arms would invariably wake him up. Also, as a hyper-alert newborn, keeping him swaddled helps to wind him down and keep him calm in preparation for naptime or nighttime sleep. We’ve tried just swaddling him with swaddle cloths, but our technique was awful, probably because he’s such a squirmy lad, and he would break his arms out in no time. 

I can admit it. I am the worst swaddler ever.

The Halo sleep sacks take the guesswork out of swaddling and make keeping him snug and secure much easier. Plus, the fleece ones keep him warm and toasty in our drafty granite house. 

2) Infacol, Gripe Water, and Infant Tylenol. 

We give Forest Infacol Gas Drops before every meal. Luckily, my friend Talia and my Aunt Kim (both in the medical field) gave me a supply of these at my gender reveal party so I had them ready to go when tummy issues started to be a problem for our little guy. Things have gone much smoother since we started giving him these drops to combat those nasty gas bubbles. My friend Kristin also dropped off a bottle of gripe water shortly after Forest was born. These give gas that extra kick in the pants when Infacol doesn’t cut it. They are also great for zapping hiccups. As for Tylenol, this is just good to have on hand. We’ve had to use it in dire situations once or twice late at night, and it’s not something you want to have to run to the store for in those last-resort moments. 

3) Fisher Price Rock N’ Play Sleeper

 

When I was shopping  for baby boy at Target on a home visit, a lady with a young boy came up to me and told me I HAD TO buy this cradle. 

She said her son slept in it for the first few weeks and because it was set on a slight incline, it was great for easing his colic. I’m so glad I took her advice and snagged one. I’m a bit ashamed to say that my 6 week old is still not sleeping in his crib. We got the rock n’ play for him to sleep in for the first week and then to use for the occasional nap. However, we discovered that he slept much more soundly in his rocker than his crib, and was even able to resettle himself and fall back asleep in his cradle, whereas if he woke up at 1:30 AM in his crib, he would need for me to come in and console him before he would go back to sleep. 

So, for now, he’s still sleeping in his cradle. Sleep trumps all, y’all. Maybe it’s creating bad habits, but Forest is a bad sleeper as it is. For now, it’s survival mode and we will cross whatever sleep training bridges as they come. This has also been a great buy (...gift, actually. Thanks Mom!) because it’s very portable so I can move it into different rooms as a I need to throughout the day. 

4) Fisher Price Musical Seahorse

 

My friend Jill recommended this to us, and I’m so glad she did. This was a life saver in settling Forest down during our hospital stay.

When he has trouble napping, I can usually turn this on for 10 minutes and he will either drift off or else be easier to settle afterward. He has already started reaching for it, and once he’s a bit older, he’ll be able to turn it on himself which will be a great self-soothing tool. 

5) Breast Pump 

 

I use the Medela In Style electric pump and my friend Eileen let me borrow her Medela Harmony hand pump for those late night engorgement occasions.

 

Either way, pumping has been invaluable. Jonathan gives Forest his bedtime bottle of expressed milk which gives me time to drink a cuppa tea and relax without being on breastfeeding duty. It also allows me to occasionally pop out for a spell, whether that be to play mahjong or go to book club. 

I’m still not totally back in the social swing of things, but it’s nice to come up for air every once in a while, and the breast pump gives me the freedom to do this. A supportive husband helps as well… 

6) Fisher Price Little Lamb InfantCradle and Swing

 

This was another borrow from my friend Eileen, and thank heavens for it! When the bugger just won’t nap, this usually keeps him settled for 45 minutes or so while I eat breakfast, take a shower, do housework, write blog posts, etc. About 50% of the time he’ll even drift off to sleep which is an added bonus. I’ll be sad when he outgrows this life saver! 

We have a bouncy/vibrating seat in the same line. He doesn’t usually sleep in it, but it will keep him entertained for a spell and keep the crying at bay. 

7)  White noise. We could not survive without white noise. It helps to lull him to sleep and also helps to block out any noise that we or the dogs might make throughout the house during naptimes. We have several different apparatuses to keep a constant hum around Forest during sleepy time. Mainly we use an app called ‘Baby Sleep’ which features sound effects such as a hair dryer, vacuum, and dryer. We plug in an old ipod into some speakers and keep it in his room. We also have a sound machine. And these portable Cloud B sleep animals are great for the stroller and car seat. 

 

Right now we have the Sleep Sheep and Gentle Giraffe. This Nighty Night Owl  even has a sensor in it that automatically turns it on in the night if the baby wakes up. Santa might be bringing it for Forest’s stocking this year... 

8) Boudreaux’s Butt Paste

 

This diaper rash ointment clears any irritation right up, and usually keeps severe rashes at bay. It’s a staple at our changing station. Plus, it always makes me smile and think of Louisiana.

9) Tommee Tippee Anti-Colic bottles

 

When we first started giving Forest a bottle, we just gave him the standard Medela one that came with the pump. I had no idea that there was such variety in bottles and nipples as far as flow and air control. Forest had a few colic episodes directly after taking a bottle which had us really discouraged. I reached out to the AWA Mom and Tots group here in Aberdeen and they suggested a few bottles that are specifically designed to reduce colic and nipples designed with newborns in mind. We bought one of each, but stopped experimenting after using the Tommee Tippee because it worked so well that we didn't want to take a risk in switching it up. Don't fix it if it's not broken and what not.  

10) My Brest Friend Breast Feeding Pillow

 

Another loaner from Eileen, this has made breast feeding so much more comfortable. And it's not exclusively for breast feeding. Jonathan uses it every time he bottle feeds as well. 

It's just nice to have a little shelf to keep Forest steady while we feed him. 

 

11) Lansinoh Lanolin Nipple Cream

 

Speaking of breast-feeding, I couldn't have made it this long without Lansinoh Lanolin nipple cream. In fact, my first parenting panic attack came when I discovered I had left my tube in the NICU after Forest had been discharged to the recovery ward and therefore had to feed him without applying this soothing ointment first. I asked the midwives to bring me some and instead they brought me hemorrhoid cream???? They are lucky I read the bottle before simply applying it. That could have been very bad for baby boy. I still can't believe they don't keep nipple cream on hand. Their advice was to hand express milk and rub it on myself. Um, ain't nobody got time for that. 

Anyways, I'm sure you've heard, breastfeeding can be very painful in the initial weeks as your nipples get used to taking a pounding. Our little guy has a tongue tie which makes things even more complicated. 7 weeks in and I'm still cringing every time he latches on. I cannot even imagine having to feed him without this stuff. If you are an expectant momma planning to breast feed, I suggest you stock your nursing station with a few tubes of this. 

12) AA Batteries. Just because a lot of the aforementioned items require them, so it's good to have a good stock pile, lest your go-to musical seahorse lose it's juice just when you need it the most. 

There are a ton of other things that we use on an occasional basis, but these are our go-to daily items that have helped us keep our heads above water with this whole parenting a newborn business. I’ll try to do a similar blog post every 6 weeks or so to try to keep track of what items are essential for each stage. Of course, every baby is super different, so what (sorta) works with Forest, may be a total waste on someone else’s kid. But still, I appreciated it when other momma’s gave me tips about their bag of tricks, so I’m paying it forward by passing mine along. Are there any things you would add to the list? Anything I should stock my house with for the next few weeks/months?