The Coppit Family Daily News

Williamsburg Honda finally got our minivan in yesterday. Yay! Normally we would try to buy one that is a year old, but (1) we couldn’t find hardly any, and (2) the price was pretty close to a new one anyway.

Dorothy called me at the coffee shop, telling them that it was an emergency. (This was at 1pm, when our appointment was at 4pm.)

We traded in our old Accord (got $800 for it). Everything went smoothly… They even called our insurance company and had them switch over the insurance, and the DMV to switch over the plates.

I’ve created an album for week 4. I’ve also uploaded a funny movie into week 3, and some more photos into the clothing album.

Here’s a bit of news that we haven’t told anyone: Christopher failed his hearing screening when he was at the hospital. We talked to the pediatrician, who said that the hearing test they give is wrong about 95% of the time when it fails. He suggested that we schedule an appointment with the audiologist for a more advanced test when Christopher is 1 month old.

Well, this morning we had him tested again. The results were good, but not conclusive. The reason is that he breathes pretty loudly, and the instrument they use doesn’t work right unless the baby is quiet. That said, Cindy, the audiologist, was able to determine that his ear was responding to 3 of the 6 frequencies in one ear–there was too much noise to get good data from the other ear or the other frequencies.

Once I asked the electrician why, when something is wrong, they don’t look at the wiring in the wall. He said that 99% of the time the internal wiring is fine, and it’s the connections at the ends that are wrong. It turns out that it’s the same way with ears. 99% of the time, if the physical elements of the ear are working, then a person can hear. In other words, it’s very rare for the ear to be working right, but for something to be wrong in the brain that prevents hearing.

I guess this is good news. So far, we haven’t been able to startle Christopher with sounds. You might remember that he slept through the 4th of July–and the fireworks were practically right above us. I’ve also tried waking him up with an alarm. We asked the audiologist about this, and she said that it’s not uncommon for sleeping babies to keep on sleeping. She said it’s more likely that they would be startled when they are awake.

So, overall, I think we got some good news today. It looks like his ears are working. We’ll go back in a few months to test him again, when hopefully he has learned how to breathe quietly.

I’ve started a new album for clothing that people have given us. Rather than have him play supermodel all in one day, I’ll be posting pictures as we put him in various outfits (and remember to take the pictures).

We’ve forgotten who gave us some of the clothing, so I’ll let you guys spot your own gift. If you don’t see something you gave, you might want to wait a bit, or post a “special request” in the comments section of this post.

Yesterday Christopher got 2 baths, even though he had a bath the day before. The reason is that he managed to blow out 2 diapers with what looked a lot like hummus. I have a photo of the second one, which was particularly messy, but I will spare you all the imagery.
I’ve put some photos of the bath in the Week 3 album. He doesn’t seem to mind getting a bath anymore–maybe because he keeps getting so many of them.

By the way, there sure is a lot of laundry to do for such a small person. He probably spits up or messes up 3 or 4 outfits a day.

As Winston Churchill said, “All babies look like me. But then, I look like all babies.” In this shot, you can see the resemblance to a drunken prime minister.

From the start, Christopher’s, shall we say, output, has had some stringiness to it. We talked to the pediatrician, who said we could bring in a sample to have it tested for “hidden blood”.

So we did this, and sure enough, there was blood in there. There could be any number of causes, but the first thing to try is changing the formula. The doc said we should try the fancy, specially-formulated Enfamil “Nutramigen”.

I sure hope his digestive tract straightens up soon–this stuff is expensive! We worked it out, and we’ll be paying $200 a month to feed him on the fancy formula. (More as he begins to eat more.)

On a better note, we finally found bottles we like. They’re “Dr. Brown’s” brand. The problem with most bottles is that they don’t let air in, so after a while the baby is working really hard against the vacuum of the bottle. With these, the air is vented in, and the formula comes out nice and fast. Less struggling on his part, and faster feeding times on our part.

I think I’m going to start new albums for each week or month. I’ve uploaded some pictures and movies for week 3:

Dorothy and I have been taking Christopher for walks every day. The past couple of days we’ve been walking in Colonial Williamsburg. I started a “Williamsburg, Summer 2005″ album for any pictures and movies I take:

* NOT FOUND *

Gabrielle is still in town, and her friend Jennifer came in for a visit as well. We did our walk in Colonial Williamsburg, then stopped at the Trellis for dessert. Of course Dorothy had to order the Death by Chocolate.

Christopher slept through the whole thing, as usual.

Yesterday Christopher’s umbilical stump came out. Well, actually, Dorothy showed me how it was hanging by a thread, and I pulled it off. Don’t worry, it didn’t seem to bother him at all…

One side effect of this new development is that Dorothy finally gets to do another first… His first bath. (Warning: uncensored nudity!)

We got him nice and clean and then into a warm blanket, whereupon he promptly peed in it. So he then got another quick wash in the tub.

P.S. I really hate typing with one hand. Maybe there’s some sort of bottle-necklace for guys.

Everyone in Dorothy’s family came into town this weekend for the 4th of July. Heather and Jeremy were here on Sunday with Willow, Christopher’s 7-month-old cousin.

Sunday I made faux risotto for the first time, which was a big hit. On the 4th we grilled chicken and corn on the barbecue. Then we packed up and tried to drive to Yorktown, but Colonial Parkway was blocked off–I guess they decided that they had had enough people for the day. So we turned around and went to Williamsburg.

I must say that the fireworks were better than I thought they would be. It was nice to be close enough to feel the explosions. (More than one kid was crying by the end.) Here are some pictures, and two movies of the fireworks:

Josh and Carmen arrived today. Gabrielle will arrive tomorrow. David and Jeremy will arrive Sunday. Daniel, who will probably drive in tomorrow, says it’s the first time in years that the whole Rodgers family will be in one place.

Today we visited the pediatrician for Christopher’s two week checkup. He’s doing just fine. He’s grown 1/2 inch in the last 2 weeks, and he’s now at 10 lbs, 11 oz. So he has put back on the weight that he has lost, and then some.