Well today Benjamin had his two month visit at the doctors office…this is the one I have been dreading!

He now weighs 13 lbs 9 oz and is 22.5 ins long…..he is getting big! The first part of the visit went very well: he is doing great for his age and following his growth curve to a tee. He is a healthy and happy 2 month old…..that is until the nurse brought in 4 needles for him to be vaccinated with!! Four needles….I didn’t like the looks of this…anyway considering that he got stuck 4 times he did great — although the whole office heard that he was not happy about it. And I got a little tear in my eye….it’s not fun to see your baby cry like that when you know they are in pain.

Anyway we are home now and he’s sleeping so here’s hoping that he doesn’t react to the shots and that he doesn’t get a fever!

The final major hurdle to normal life in the USA for us has been credit. We don’t need credit, or particularly want it, but there’s a limit to what you can do without it. Without a credit history, cell phones are more expensive (if you buy them from a store, but really who does that?), you can’t do things like buy a house, and if an emergency should arise, we’d be stuck pulling money over from Canada.
We found out, a couple months after we moved here, that despite having a Canadian credit history, a bank account, an apartment, a job and an SSN, we don’t really exist as far as the US banks are concerned. Applying for even the “pre-approved” offers you get in the mail was futile, because we weren’t in the system. We’re not sure if we’ll ever buy a house in the States, but we’d sure like to have the option available to us!
Finally after a year here, we’ve proved our existence (and income) enough for our bank to extend us a whopping $500 credit card. On one hand this is limiting. On the other hand, it’s great. We really have no intention of going on a shopping spree any time soon, and we’ve gotten so good at living off cash only, that it’s really just a luxury to have it. But what it means is that we get to start fresh with a brand new credit history.
Remember when you went away to college and got your first $500 student credit card, and your parents and friends said “use it for groceries and pay it off as soon as you get home?” Advice that, if followed, would leave you with a powerful credit rating. Raise your hand if you followed that advice… I know my hand isn’t up. I think the first thing I did, 17 and flush with credit, was buy myself a cell phone and a mini disc player — very cool at the time, but I’m pretty sure there’s still a few dollars of that purchase on a credit card somewhere. I wouldn’t say I was horrible with my credit — my rating in Canada is around the average mark, and we accrued less debt between the two of us than 70% of college students. But if I could do it again, I would have been a lot more careful.
And now I can! And by that I mean: Nic will have the credit card, and I’ll continue to sell things on eBay if I want to buy myself a new toy (I’ve already figured out what I’ll have to sell to be able to afford an iPhone). And we’ve vowed to buy groceries with it, and pay it off as soon as we get home…

But my body is pretty sure that’s 2 hours slow.
VPT: tubing would have been fun, but I don’t think it woulda been as much fun as a giant hour long snow ball fight in snow up to my knees… You guys rock!

All babies cry — it’s one of the main ways they communicate. But some babies cry more than others do. And some, although they’re healthy, well-fed and well cared for, seem to cry inconsolably. If your baby cries about the same time each day and nothing you do seems to comfort him or her, your baby may have colic.

Uh-oh…

Predictable, recurring crying episodes. A colicky baby cries around the same time each day, usually in the late afternoon or evening. Colic episodes may last anywhere from a few minutes to three hours or more on any given day, although babies with colic are likely to cry as long as two to three hours several days a week. The crying usually begins suddenly and for no clear reason.

Activity. Many colicky babies draw their legs onto their abdomens, clench their fists, tense their abdominal muscles, or thrash around and appear to be in pain during these crying episodes.

Intense or inconsolable crying. Colic crying is intense, not weak or sickly. Your baby’s face will likely be flushed, and he or she will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to comfort.

That sounds familiar…

Hold your baby. Cuddling helps some babies. Other infants quiet when they’re held closely and swaddled in blankets. Don’t wrap your baby too warmly at bedtime though — sometimes colicky babies wake up because they’re too warm. Most of all, don’t take it personally if your baby doesn’t always seem to want to be held.

Keep your baby in motion. Gently rock your baby in your arms or in an infant swing. Or lay your baby tummy down on your knees and then sway your knees slowly. Take a walk with your baby, or go for a drive with your baby in an infant car seat.

Try constant background sound. Some infants with colic cry less when they hear a background sound that stays at a low, steady volume. When holding or rocking your baby, try making a continuous “shssss” sound. Other tricks to try include running a vacuum cleaner, turning on a kitchen or bathroom exhaust fan, or buckling your infant in a car seat placed next to a running clothes dryer.

Well I guess that explains a lot…

Colic usually starts a few weeks after birth, peaks at about 6 weeks of age and usually improves markedly by your baby’s third to fifth month.

5th month?! Here’s hoping the vacuum lasts that long…

Update in 2021 for other parents trying to survive: This Primed Parent post has a guide on colic.

Family Force 5: How have I not heard this band before?
They’re hilarious, they rock and they’re Christian! Awesome…
From the song “Replace Me”
Desperation
Needing you
Every last breath
I scream for you
Shatter me into a million pieces…Make me new
Crush me, tear me, break me, mold me
Make me what you want me to be
I am ur’s for you to use
so, Take and Replace me with U

Thank you, thank you, thank you to our friend Chad Clem for suggesting we try the vacuum.
We haven’t had a good night’s sleep since our trip home to Canada — Benjamin wakes up almost every hour on the hour. Nic takes the brunt of it, but when I work 10-12 hours a day, I’m exhausted and can’t help very much. I was about at the point of trying to take him back to the hospital in exchange for a quieter model, when Chad told us about the vacuum….
All you have to do is turn it on and lean it against the crib. This works in three ways:

• The subtle vibrations soothe the baby
• The noise distracts him and then eventually lulls him to sleep
• And the white noise drowns out his crying so that we can sleep

Of course we have our video monitor in action now (thanks Grandpa) so we can keep an eye on him. And I imagine we’ll go through a few vacuum belts before he gets through this little phase. But it’s soo worth it to be able to sleep for more than an hour at a time.

If I’d known about this, it might have been easier to understand what was going on with our car. Despite Nic, and her dad’s, best efforts, the SUV is still out of action.
We’d hoped that a little driving around would warm it up and resolve whatever issue it was working through, so we drove it up to the church on Friday. On the way there we stopped by an auto parts store to have them read the computer (they’ll do it for free if they think you want to buy some parts from them) but it wouldn’t spit out an error code. So we drove on, and I noticed that I couldn’t get the vehicle going faster than 35mph or revving above 3500rpm.
I added these facts to the list of symptoms we reported to our auto adviser, but that only served to confuse the issue. Sparks also come out of the exhaust pipe, and yesterday I started it up to keep the battery alive, and noted that debris was coming out as well. So we have:

• The fan kicks in immediately as if the vehicles over-heating
• The engine won’t rev very high
• Acceleration is under-powered
• Weird vibrating
• Debris and sparks from the exhaust pipe

Well it turns out the first 3 things are the result of something called Limp Home mode. When the computer can’t figure out what the problem is (evidenced by it’s inability to show an error code) it puts the vehicle in Limp Home mode. A mode that limits engine use to keep the user from accidentally destroying the engine by driving too hard or too fast.
So it’s a relief to know that half the issues can be solved simply by fixing what’s causing the other issues. But it’s still a little nerve-wracking to have fire and junk spitting out the back of our car. We’re gonna have to bite the bullet it and take it into the dealership on Monday — fortunately we have warranty for another 20,000km, so it shouldn’t cost us very much. But it’s still pretty amazing to me that God let us finish our road trip home before our vehicle choked. Not quite sure how we’re going to do the rest of this weekend without a vehicle, but we’ll figure it out…