Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Inen's first December - a month in review

The final slideshow for 2008: Inen's first December.
Happy New Year, everyone!

Operation NiCE

I love Operation NiCE, and have been following it for some time now, thanks to my incredibly nice friend, Heather EspaƱa. If you haven't ever taken a look at Operation NiCE, I highly suggest you do. I thought I'd share a couple of of my own nice testimonials to close out the year:

I've always known that I live in a great community, here in this little college town in Oregon. However, becoming a new parent this past August has opened up a whole new vision of just how nice the people in my town are.

My wife is a children's librarian, and one of the patrons she sees (who also goes to our church) knew we were having our first child, a son. She and her husband have 3 boys and a girl, and are finished having kids. Asking my wife if we would like some baby boy clothes, my wife could not say no. We were amazed, however, to be given 3 huge lawn-care bags full of clothes! There were enough clothes to last our baby through 18 months! How generous!

Another instance of the kindness in the community came at our local grocery store. A woman named Tina who works at the U-Scan self-check stands knew that we were having a baby when I came through there one day purchasing diapers. A few weeks later I came in with my boy and she came running out of nowhere with an enthusiastic greeting, eager to meet him. When I had finished shopping (and he had finished napping), my son was feeling fussy (to put it mildly). At the U-Scan Tina came running up again and said, "You take care of baby! I'll bag your groceries for you." It was so sweet!

Talk about a nice community!
Here's to a super-nice 2009!

Is that a Star Trek uniform he's wearing?

"My cuteness is set to stun."

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

"They call me..."

Sometimes Korie feels as if Inen is just using her for her food. I tell her that he loves his mommy for who she is, but it also just so happens that she's his primary food source.

One day (December 11, if anyone cares), Korie was at home feeding Inen. Making a very super hero-like face, she said in a very Wonder-Woman-ish voice, "They call me the Lunch Lady." Ha!

Monday, December 22, 2008

What's the new what?

I walked into The Coffee Cottage the other day with Inen (well, November 19th... I'm behind on my blogging, as those of you who actually follow it have noticed). A couple of other people there had babies with them, and we all got talking baby shop. From behind the counter, Tyler was remarking on the baby "fad," and made a great comment:

"Baby is the new black."

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Making up for lost time

Okay folks, I'm going to be making up for a LOT of lost time here. We'll start with this post of a review of Inen's first November – in pictures!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Houdini

Our little Inen sleeps in a co-sleeper attached to our bed. He sleeps best when he's swaddled up nice and tight. He doesn't like the swaddling too much when he's awake, but that's how he sleeps best.

The other morning Korie heard him making some noises in the co-sleeper. She figured Inen would do what he often does and put himself back to sleep. Korie tried to do likewise (put herself back to sleep) while Inen grunted off and on for about a half hour.

Finally it seemed he wasn't going back to sleep. Korie rolled over to see what Inen was doing, and just laughed. "Brandon! You need to see this. Get the camera!" Our little Houdini could not get free of the swaddling, so he wriggled right out of the neck of his pajamas! He had managed to squirm out to his waist, with his legs and hands still stuck in the swaddle.



I got a picture of him just in time, as moments later he popped out one hand and struck a pose.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Biblical

Inen frequently licks his bib when he's hungry, when he's drooly, or when he's just spit up (yum). Because of all the bib licking he's done, I've decided that Inen is biblical.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The rest of Inen's first October

More pictures! That's what this is really all about. My mom came out to visit once again, and even Uncle Mark and Aunt Sheri came down too! So little Inen got lots of good quality people time.

And of course we can't forget about his first Halloween! We dressed him up as the very stereotypical but very cute (and affordable) pumpkin. He loved it! (See pic.) We even took him to a genuine, bona fide, honest to gosh Halloween party hosted by our friends Mike and Heather.

Check out the second half of Inen's amazingly stupendous first October below:

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Newport or Bust

October 7 marked the second wedding anniversary for Korie and I. In celebration, we took Inen with us to Newport where Korie's family has a condo they are able to use there. It's one of my favorite places. The first time Korie brought me there, I fell in love with the area. I've never been much of a beach person, but this spot on the pier at Yaquina Bay is simply charming. It worked out well for our anniversary: It's familiar and homey, so we could feel comfortable bringing Inen. And it's great that we have our own kitchen there so we don't have to break the bank eating out.

The weather was spectacular. We did a lot of walking, visited our favorite breakfast haunt (The Coffee House, best coffee in Newport), went to Nye Beach, the Sylvia Beach Hotel (an author-themed hotel that opens unoccupied rooms to the public on Sundays), and worked on designing our dream house after watching far too much HGTV while Korie nursed Inen. It was wonderful. Here's a little slide show of the trip:

Monday, October 6, 2008

Two Weeks, Too Long

Okay all, sorry for the long dry spell.
This is mostly a post to break up the monotony, but also to kind of play catch-up.

People keep asking "What's going on?" and "When can I see more pictures?"
Well, Inen is getting bigger every day. (Surprise surprise!) To illustrate that, and to answer both of the above questions at once, I've made a slide show of pics from month one. Enjoy!

Monday, September 22, 2008

Sound effects run in the family.

Anyone who knows me knows that I tend to add sound effects and background music to just about every task, motion, or conversation. This is unconscious, automatic, and I am pretty sure it's genetic. (My dad does it too.)

My suspicions about its heredity are slowly being confirmed by the already wide array of noises that emanate from Inen. Here is a list of some noises I've observed, in no particular order:

  • grunt (his favorite)
  • squeek
  • squawk
  • coo
  • fart (as in a raspberry... with his mouth – any baby will pass gas)
  • peep
  • hum
  • chirp
  • burp
  • ooh
  • aah
  • oh
  • whine
  • burble
  • cry
  • moan
  • sigh
  • boo-hoo

He actually intones that last one fairly clearly when protruding his lower lip in an almost comical, nearly farcical, manner. It is an uncanny caricature of what a sad baby is supposed to look like. And he's less than 4 weeks old. Call me easily impressed, or a bit crazy, but I think this is an early sign that our son is an evil genius, out to manipulate his parents with his acute cuteness, and an eerie self-awareness of just how cute and pitiful he actually looks when doing this lower-lip-protrusion-boo-hoo routine.

I'm sure there are more noises in his repertoire that I just can't think of at the moment, but boy are they funny and numerous. Almost as funny and numerous as the faces he makes. I'll have to compile a photo collection of those to post later.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Star Wars: Return of the Inen

So I've found myself making numerous parallels between my newborn son and Star Wars. This is probably my true geekiness showing through, but it seems to happen so naturally. The first time was in the hospital, when they had Inen wearing a little onesie that looked so similar to Luke Skywalker's getup: white, robe-like...

As we got to experience more of the "faces of Inen" (he is SO expressive), I've found that some of those faces are reminiscent of Star Wars characters. First was the scrunchy Yoda face. We've also seen the half-smile smirk so remarkably like that of cocky Han Solo.

Then today, I was wearing a black shirt and Inen was wearing a little white onesie again, ala Luke. I, being his father and not his mother, do not have the built in equipment to feed him. I didn't want to bottle feed him, because his mother was going to be out of the shower and in to feed him shortly. He was perfectly content until he realized that it had been more than 30 minutes since the last meal and he was hungry again. "I can't feed you, Inen. I am your father." (Insert heavy machine-aided breathing here.) Suddenly he showed me the pained, contorted, red face that until previously I thought only Mark Hamill was capable of. "Noooooooo!!! It's not true! That's impossible!"

Oh, child, may the Force be with you.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

So, what's the name?

Because we've received quite a few questions about the name Inen, I thought I'd give the rundown.

First, it's pronounced "eye-nen" – rhymes with whinin' when he's feeling grumpy; rhymes with dinin' when he's eating; rhymes with shinin' when he's happy.


Inen is a name that popped into my head when we were trying to come up with names. I didn't know where I'd heard it. ("Maybe a movie or something? I'm pretty sure it's Irish," I said. "We'll put that on hold," says my wife.) Having not agreed on any names for quite a while thereafter, I decided to go online and translate some words into Gaelic. (You know, like when people name their kid "Faith" or "Blue Polar Kraken of the Lord" and then translate it into another language so it sounds cool.) The first word I put into the English to Irish translator was the word "beloved". There are two words for this in Gaelic: one means "sweetheart" and one is just straight up "beloved" – like "one who is loved." The latter, just-plain-loved, is ionúin, which is roughly pronounced i–noon or yih-noon (with the "i" as in "miss"), as far as I can gather. But when I saw that word, I thought to myself, "Hey! There's Inen!"

So we're saying that Inen is derived from the Gaelic word for beloved, but Anglicized so that it's easier to pronounce and spell.

Inen John Buerkle



Okay! Now that my wife and I have grasped some sort of routine, I can finally blog about our now 9-day-old miracle. Korie went in on Wednesday, August 27, to be induced. The previous Friday she had an appointment in which one of the routine checks had found that, as usual, her blood pressure was looking very healthy indeed. When we went in the next Wednesday, her blood pressure was frighteningly high. The doctor said that if she had come in on her due date for a regular appointment with blood pressure that high, he would have induced right away, so it was a good thing we were there.

After 14 hours of labor, that last 4 of which Korie was stuck dilated at 5 cm and the baby's heart rate began to drop, they deemed it necessary to have a birth by cesarean section. So, at 9:58 pm on Wednesday, August 27, our boy, Inen John Buerkle, was born. He weighed a healthy 8 lb 6 oz, and measured 20.25 inches long. Praise God.



While they were in there for the cesarean, the doctor also removed a cyst from Korie's uterus. Two for the price of one! Yay! She was a real trooper, so strong, and I am so proud of her. The narcotics didn't go to her head, so she was lucid the entire time, which is a blessing.



Like any parents, we've had a rough start. Inen lost 10% of his body weight before leaving the hospital, and issues with Korie's milk coming in, her blood pressure, and Inen's sleeping so often (a blessing at times, a curse when trying to feed) made feeding him a challenge. This challenge has been overcome in recent days; the blood pressure medication Korie was put on after a couple of scary nights is having a positive effect, and Inen is gaining weight back at a good pace.

We love our little boy so much! He is the greatest blessing I have ever received. And I can't say enough how amazed I am at my wife's strength, her love for our child, her endurance, and how thankful I am for all that she does for me and Inen. I thank God for them both every day. This is the greatest adventure I've ever begun, and I can't stop smiling.