The Trixie Update

Trixie is a very sneaky baby. After a second day of unusual feeding data, we now realize that the feeding spike reported earlier is not an accurate representation of Trixie’s milk intake. She’s been using Jennifer as a human pacifier, latching on for 20-30 minutes at a time but not swallowing anything. Unfortunately for ‘little miss dairy queen’, the data revealed the statistical anomaly and allowed us to regain the upper hand… for now.

In response we have started rigorously enforcing her feeding habits — if she starts fruiting around or dozes off, she’s outta there! On a related note, I have now started tracking her waste products since measuring the intake has proven unreliable.

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Trixie surprised us yesterday when she demanded 203 total minutes of breastfeeding, sharply exceeding the average of 133.25 minutes obtained over the previous eight days. This turn of events made for a rather long and fussy day.

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That’s how much it cost to have a baby, vaginal delivery, no complications, followed by 36 hours in the hospital. Trixie is now officially the most expensive thing we have in the house — she cost way more than the computer. The health insurance paid for itself this year.

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Trixie is still pretty over-stimulated by the black and white patterns. But I think she likes it — as a sort of addiction. Sometimes instead of scanning the image, her eyes go wide, her pupils dilate and she just stares. We expect to see smoke come out of her ears. Still not exposing her for more than about 5 seconds.

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Well, we showed a few of the images to Trixie. Her reaction was pretty much the same regardless of the individual image. Her eyes INSTANTLY get huge, and start rapidly scanning, flitting back and forth. The immediacy was surprising and alarming. I half expected her eyes to roll up in her head and convulsions to begin. I worried that her brain had overloaded and fried some circuits, but she behaves normally once the image is removed.

Based on her reaction, these images are the most interesting things she has ever seen in her life. However, she’s not going to see a lot of them because I’m afraid to expose her for more than 5-10 seconds at a time.

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Everyone says that babies respond best to high-contrast black and white images. A series of images have been created to test this theory. But what kind of patterns are baby’s brains interested in processing? Ordered patterns, disordered, organic? Repetitions? Symmetries? Changes in Scale? Linear, Radial or Clustered groupings? Intersections of Forms? Solid Shapes? Edge Relationships? These questions will all be answered. I know I should be doing other things with my time when she is sleeping (like taking a nap myself or cleaning urine off the couch), but I can’t stop making patterns in Illustrator. Currently waiting for Trixie to wake up.

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I have taken to calling her “Gecko Baby”. I know other parents project cute bunnies or snuggly bears onto their newborns, but the more I see her fingers and toes, and the dark little eyes the more the gecko image is reinforced. I fully expect her to start secreting some kind of sticky fluid from her fingers which will allow her to climb right up the wall.

Trixie left the hospital today weighing 6 lbs, 2ozs.

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Trixie looks a lot like a little lizard. Her fingers and toes are freakishly long. Polite company would describe them as the hands of a future pianist; I think she looks just like a gecko. Her head is also pretty squished and cone-shaped as a result of the birthing process, and her eyes are a little swollen and don’t open beyond dark little slits.

The net result of the uncannily long fingers, feet, pointed head, and black slits for eyes is that she really does look a little reptilian. This notwithstanding, she is quite healthy and received a 9 and 9 on her APGAR test.

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Beatrix Valentina MacNeill is born Thursday July 31, 2003 at 9:52 pm. Her birth weight is 6lbs, 11ozs. She is 20″ long. She is named after Valentina Tereshkova — the first woman to travel in space.

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