Mancub's Journal

The previous site that documented John's life as Cletus the Fetus, has been retired. It contained notes regarding our preparation for John.

The family will be keeping this ongoing journal of major events in Mancub's life. This is not a daily journal, but a record of things that made us happy, sad, or that family and friends asked about. Each entry will be dated, with the most recent entries at the bottom.

We are looking forward to many years of documenting. (Shh, don't tell the boy!

Go to the most recent entry.  Go to the archive of previous dates.

May 21 - We've received about 12 phone calls in the last two days from people asking if the baby is here yet. Amy is quite ready for this to happen. But alas, there is no boy child just yet.

May 25 - Mancub hasn't entered from stage middle yet. It looks like we are going to keep our appointment to induce labor on Friday morning at 7 a.m. Happy birthday Grandfather Jim.

May 26 - We went to the hospital at 7 am. Amy started inducing labor about 8 am. She is proud of herself for 'toughing out' the labor until 1 PM, at which point we kindly asked for the epidural. At 1:05, she was sitting back, happy and calm. When push came to shove, she did. John Hillard Martin was born at 7 PM, weighing 7 lb. 11 ors. He finished off his first day by being a fussy eater, but he's got plenty of time to learn. Baby is well. Mommy is well. Daddy is well. (Most of the nurses say he is a very pretty baby - we must agree!)

May 28 - We came home from the hospital. John and Amy are the picture of good health. Some family came into town and visited with John today. Pictures of some hospital and home visitors are in John's photo album. John is having some difficulty with nursing but Amy wants this to work and is working hard at it.

May 30 - DON'T SHOP AT BEST BUY!@#* We are learning that Best Buy does a good job with the ole' bait and switch routine. The advertised specials were not in stock, of course. We ordered a video camera and were told it would be in on Sunday. We got the paperwork run around and found out today that it won't be in until Thursday. Mr. Manager man discounted the price a little, but it's a close call on the poor customer service Vs the disinformation techniques practiced at Best Buy. Oh, John is doing great!

June 1 - John is looking even more healthy. The first doc visit yesterday went well. He now weights 7 LB 15.8 ors. He has a minor case of jaundice, but that will be taken care of by taking sun baths. (He's working on a tan as I type this.) Amy visited with a lactation consultant (I highly recommend this to new mothers) yesterday. She feels much better about the whole nursing thing. John's feeling better too... big tummy boy! By the way, the video camera which was supposed to be delivered today and in my hands, isn't going to get here until tomorrow. Did you know that BEST BUY BITES!? Boycott Best Buy because they give more regard to inventory manipulation than they do customer satisfaction. The customer is seldom right there.

June 4 - Anyone else want a turn at nursing? There is great respect here for those women who "stuck it out" and nursed their babies. Things are going pretty well, otherwise. It is just an adjustment in knowing all of John's needs through just the one cry. I'll start the 'tap once if you're hungry' training next week. :)

June 6 - There is a great saying that is very true, "Get the right tool for the job." We have a new nursing pump that will relieve much of the stress for Amy. Feeding is going much better now. (If anyone needs a lactation consultant in Austin, call Donna Cordoba. She saved Amy's ... life.)

Okay, with nursing going much better, there will be much less nursing talk from now on, if any. Let's talk cool stuff. John is starting to have to be burped more frequently now. He's developed a great milk-out-the-nose burp that doesn't look too comfortable. We used to make my sister Laura do this at the diner table when we were younger. I must admit, she does it better than John.

June 12 - The Second Doctor Visit! John is officially 21 inches and 8 1/2 pounds today. All of his tests results are great. He is 50% in weight and 75% in height. Because he has been a periodic projectile puker, the doctor wanted a specialist to sonogram his stomach and check the muscles. The pretest requirement was 4 hours of not eating. The by product was almost 3 hours of sleeping and 1 hour of endless screaming. Amy was a champ and John made it to the Dr. alive. This test also turned out very positive for us. John just chugs his milk too quickly. He must burp more frequently, and daddy will help teach him some techniques.

By the way, remember the Best Buy Boycott? Keep it up. The clueless manager called me Saturday. It seems my camcorder arrived last weekend. HA! The camera I was supposed to get on the 28th of May, which was FINALLY delivered on June 2nd, arrived June 10th.

Secret Contest: The first 5 people to e-mail me the message, "Afganastan Bananastan", will get a personalized picture of John. Hurry, beat out the other readers! Make me think the journal is important!    : )

June 19 - Happy Day Matt! Nothing substantial to report. John is now sleeping in his big boy crib. He is still getting up about twice a night to politely ask for food.

June 21 - John has now been to church, a wedding, and today he went to Houston's Restaurant to celebrate Nicole's birthday. He had a great time at his first birthday party.

June 23 - Today is John's 4th week. Amy is waiting to sing happy month birthday until the 26th. John has slept 4 hours between night feedings the last two nights. His first tooth, first meaningful smile, and first word ... haven't come yet. Don't worry, we're not pushing it.

The Evil Bill Gates is somehow the cause of my computer drive failure. On a lighter note, I got a real deal on a cheap hard drive from Los Alamos. What does "cold fusion" mean?

July 4 - John spent his Fourth of July at our Sunday School ice cream party. On the way home, we stopped off on a tall hill and watched the Austin fireworks show. He wasn't impressed, and quickly went to sleep.

July 14 - The doctor saw John for his cold symptoms. He wasn't happy. He has congestion, cold symptoms, and advance school credit in Operatic Screaming 101. He is enjoying his time with Harry Potter's 4th book, despite the over-hyped nature of its release.

July 17 - John slept from nearly 10 PM until 5 am the next morning. I would have slept much better had I know he was going to do that. John's feet can now almost reach the end of his baby tub during baths. He is smiling much more these days as well. I posted some new photos today that show the extent of his chunkiness.

July 28 - We are consistently seeing a complete night of sleep. John goes down around 9:30 and gets up around 5 am. He is losing a bit of his enthusiasm for shopping. He likes to ride in the car. But when he wakes up inside a store, he begins to sing a different tune altogether. (John is secretly practicing his handwriting in order to make his mommy a birthday card for next Monday.) Summer is quickly coming to an end.

August 1 - Amy's birthday was fun. John went with us to Dave and Buster's and we met up with Sunday School friends for a bit of fun. John likes to watch Aunt Vicki's favorite coin pushing game!

Doctor's report from today was good. John got 3 shots for his 2 month vaccinations. He weighed in at a hefty 13 lbs. 1.5 oz and 23 inches; 75th % for weight, 50th % for height, and 25th % for head size. We talked to the doc about the large amount of crying, (John's, not ours), and after a thorough looksie, she said it looks like he might be teething early.

John smiles a lot more now. Two nights ago, he slept for ten hours at night, but he is averaging almost nine hours. He was able to tryout Aunt Angie's baby backpack last weekend. We were hiking around Canyon Lake, TX, and John was wearing his cool dude blue sun glasses and a white handkerchief for a do rag. We are going to have to recreate that event soon as we got no pictures of the little camper dude.

August 7 - After much exploring and sucking of arm flesh, John found his hands. This has preoccupied much of his time this week as he just sits and stares at them.

August 9 - Kleenex stock went up as John began daycare time with Ms Diane. She is a wonderful lady and John has her all to himself during the day. Mommy and daddy go back to work. The earth comes to a screaming halt. We get better, though.

September 1 - Amy weighed and measured John. He tipped the scale at 14 pounds and is about 24 inches long.

September 5 - John's arms are nearly prunie after sucking them much of the day. Today we noticed him sucking his thumb. He likes it! Even though we first officially noticed him roll over on July 11th, as of Labor day, he rolls much more frequently. Ms. Diane broke her ankle! John misses her as we have had to make other arrangements for safe daycare until she gets better.

September 8 - John cuts his teeth, uh, gums on cereal today. He seems to like it, though we think it tastes like paste. (At least I don't know what paste is like. Amy told me.)

September 28 - Yea! Ms. Diane is back in action! Our two week stint with daycare brought much of what we expected. John got his first cold from other kids. Daddy was told, "When is your lady gonna be ready. I got 8 kids and that's just too many for me." Daddy wasn't fond of the morning drop off and spoke to God quite frequently as he left. Ms. Diane has a foot cast and John met her with big smiles his first day back.

October 9 - John had his 4 month checkup with the new doctor. She was very nice and spent almost an hour going over John's progress and future growth stages. Even though we sometimes get the feeling John is a bit too big, doc says he is in the 75% in weight and he's perfectly healthy. John is 17 lbs. and 25 in. long, same percentiles as before. He started jar food 2 days ago, and loves it! The doc suggested we get him off the apples and go through the veggies first. I'm not a fan of the post-carrot presentation, (orange diaper fill??).

October 15 - Granddad Martin and the Garners came to Austin to celebrate John's baptism. Rev. John McMullen brought John into God's family and both John's did a very good job. Our John wore a white linen 'onesie' with an embroidered cross on the bib. He looked like another Musketeer with the big cross on his chest. October pictures have been added to John's photo album. John has mastered peas, green beans, spinach, and is working on carrots.

October 27 - John first experienced a fruit! (No snide comments from the in-laws, please.) His facial expression was caught on video, of course, as he sloshed applesauce in his mouth.

October 31 - His first Halloween was spent sleeping in his dinosaur costume, (Amy calls it a dragon costume), while the hordes of children and adults came running through the neighborhood hunting candy. Memorable events: #1 The older lady who we could hear a couple of houses away yelling at the door, "Open up! Grandma wants some candy!" The children with her were well costumed, (faces hidden), and trying not to get too close to her. #2 The daddy driving the car down the street with his kids. He literally would go 40 feet, stop, the kids would fly out the doors, grab candy, get back in, and do it again at the next house. I guess they were scoping out the good houses for their raids.

November 2 - Amy has 26 inches and 18 pounds at the top of his November calendar. John began grabbing his feet with great precision. He likes to repeat, "Da da da". I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth! He is saying, "Daddy!" :)

November 20 - John spent Thanksgiving in Houston. He got to see his relatives, including Aunt Mary Jo who was visiting from New Zealand.

November 26 - Just on either side of his sixth month birthday, John has produced two teeth. Side by side, in the lower front are the cutest little finger-scraping teeth you've ever seen. Amy has already started brushing them regularly.

December 1 - John had his second date with Rosalie. I think he likes her. He fell asleep on her bed. Also, forget alcohol and cars, never ever mix babies, holidays, and Sears Photography centers! We left our 1:30 pm appointment just after 3 pm.

December 5 - The day after his first solid food (a graham cracker), John had his 6 month checkup. He officially weighs in at 19 lb and 13 oz (90%) and is 27 in long (60%). Dr. Russell says that his weight is perfectly normal and that he's not eating too much or disproportioned. He starts 3 meals a day, with a meat in the evening. Warning: not too much in this world worse that an after-dinner Gerber Chicken burp.

December 13 - John is sitting up alone if he is put in the position.

December 26 - After nice visits in Austin from Uncle Steve and Aunt Laura, Uncle Kirk, cousins Joel and Kathy, John spent his first Christmas Eve in Angleton, Texas. He then went to Houston on Christmas day. He had a great time.

January 6, 2001 - It's Saturday morning and John began to crawl. He had been getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth, but today he got the arms to help him out. Check out the movies on his photo page.

January 19 - John is beginning to pull himself up on the couch and people. As we have been previously warned, John has pulls himself up onto the side of the crib and then cries because he doesn't know how to get down. Amy's unofficial measurements for January are 28 inches tall and 21 pounds.

February 17 - February has been fairly uneventful. John has stood by himself for a few seconds a couple of times this week. He cut his third tooth today. With the new tooth came terrible diaper rash. Teething is a real pain in the, uh, at both ends!

February 22 - John went to the doctor today with a bad cough. Ms Doctor found a clear chest but we were surprised by an ear infection in his left ear. (Amy won't let me count tooth #4 because it went back up.)

February 24 - John took part in a University of Texas study involving 9 month old babies and their language acquisition abilities. John earned a UT t-shirt for his hard work.

March 12 - The doctor gave John rave reviews at his 9 month checkup today. He's pulling 23.7 pounds around with him at an altitude of 30 inches. He is given the go-ahead for many other foods and beer. One day later, he began to use 'sippy' cups to drink out of.

March 22 - We have self-sustained standing! He's been pulling himself up, but he can consistently stand on his own.

March 25 - With John distracted by both hands full of toys, he took about four steps while in Angleton. We almost got some of this progress on video. He is very reluctant to repeat this in the following weeks.

April 1 - No fool'en! John has his 5th tooth.

April 14 - John spends Easter in Houston. He gets his first pool adventure and seems to enjoy it. He met his New Zealand relatives for the first time and has a blast with cousins Malcom and Denny on Easter morning.

April 18 - High temperature sends us to the doctor. Hello Mr. Ear Infection! With the stronger antibiotics this time, every BM John has is painful and the diaper rash wakes him in the evenings. At least he's not feverish and able to laugh with us during the day.

t t f n

Revised: 04/20/2001

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