2013's Books

The 23 books I managed to squeeze in this year...Many are YA and or late elementary chapter books, but some are grown up books. I didn't have the brain power to read for much of this year. The baby was born around #5, because I remember working my way through that in small chunks. I remember reading #6 and #11 in even smaller chunks while I was nursing, attempting to hold the printed books in one hand. #20-24 were in the last couple weeks of the year when TV ended for the winter break. I watched SO much TV this fall because it was easier to do when I was exhausted from work and the baby went to bed. Hopefully next year there will be more!

1. Matched Ally Condie

2. Crossed Ally Condie

3. Reached Ally Condie

4. Someday Someday Maybe Lauren Graham

5. The Storyteller Jodi Picoult

6. Six Years Harlan Coben

7. Wonder RJ Palacio

8. Thin Space Jody Casella

9. The PS Brothers Maribeth Boelts

10. Mighty Miss Malone Christopher Paul Curtis

11. The War for Late Night Bill Carter

12. Medicine Men Extreme Appalachian Doctoring by Carolyn Jourdan

13. Looking For Me Betsy Rosenthal

14. Ungifted Gordon Korman

15. Calico Joe John Grisham

16. Heaven is Here Stephanie Nielson

17. See you at Harry's Jo Knowles

18. The Light In The Ruins Chris Bohjalian

19. Laughter, Tears, and Braids Bruce Ham

20. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

21. Reconstructing Amelia Kimberly McCreight
22. Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, A Struggling Town & The Magic of Theater by Michael Sokolove
23. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Wrapping Gift Cards

I'm not a huge fan of giving gift cards for presents. I enjoy thinking about and finding things I know people will like. However, I don't mind getting them ... so that makes me realize that thinking of the right gift card for someone can be a good gift in the long run. But if I do give a gift card, I like to jazz it up a little rather than just handing it to them.

Here are some of the gift card holders I made this year. While I found most of the basic ideas on Pinterest, I did tweak each of them to fit what we were giving.

Coffee cups, whether for a non-Starbucks card,

 or a Starbucks card. (The light did something - I did make it cup shaped but it looks very rectangular in this picture)

 This one is good for anything movie themed.

 This is to a sports bar, so I used sports paper and color schemes.

 This one is just a restaurant, but I liked the design so I went with it.

 (It opens up like a wallet)

 This one didn't photograph well, but I made the holder a little longer, with tan paper, and aluminum foil instead of designed paper...trying to go for the "burrito" look since that's where it's for.

9 month posting (super late, oops!)

Size : 29 3/4 inches and 17 pounds 9.6 ounces - As suspected he has grown too long for the car seat long before he grew too heavy.

Clothes: He needs to move to 9-12 in almost everything, but only because of length. Everything is so baggy! Things are capris instead of pants, 3/4 length sleeves instead of long, and onesies are pulled tight at bottom where they snap.

Eating: Just before the 9 month day, we went through almost a week of barely any eating because of top teeth erupting. It was a long week. We're trying to move to more food slowly. The doctor recommended trying to squeeze an extra container of food into him. Unfortunately, his gag reflex is holding him back on eating whole food. It's frustrating, but he'll figure it out eventually. He currently is happy to put food in his mouth and then he immediately spits it up. We hid a couple grains of rice in a spoonful of baby squash and he gagged but kept it down. He can also occasionally keep down a small spoon of real, unsweetened applesauce. Puffs and potatoes are no-gos right now.

He now eats every stage 2 food from Gerber that we can find that doesn't have dairy or soy. That is some grains, some meats (chicken/apples, turkey/rice, chicken/rice, beef vegetable (that was a problem, we think...some kids who are allergic to the protein in milk react to beef and some don't. We think he had a mild reaction - not sure about the blood, but lots of discomfort when filling diapers) He particularly liked mango, interestingly enough. 

Sleeping: No real changes - naps better at home than school, approximately 8p-8a on weekends, 7 or 7:30p - 6a on school days. A couple naps a day, usually a longer one and shorter one but sometimes two long or two short.

Physical: He can push himself backwards on his tummy now, but not always. The harder he tries to go forwards, the more he goes backwards. It is kind of funny. When sitting on our lap on the couch, he can launch himself to get something further down on the couch (remote, phone, cat, etc) and he can stand up holding on to things as long as we put him there and spot him. He can't lift himself to standing or sitting yet. His pincher grasp is pretty good. (About a week after the 9 month day, he managed to untie my double knotted shoe. Nobody saw it happen, so we don't know how he did it, but when we looked over he had both laces in his hands.)

Vocal: Sometimes we hear consonants - b, d, g, and starting with n. Sometimes there's raspberry sounds but not very frequently

Other: Two top teeth popped through right at the beginning of December. The week before that was rough on the eating front but we were home for Thanksgiving break so at least he got to be blah at home. He's enjoying musical toys these days like the musical mirror from Fisher Price and the Leap Frog learning table. He also likes unstacking the rings and stacking cups.

Birthday = Halfway

Today marks the day that I've had a baby on the outside for as long as I had a baby on the inside. I like him on the outside better. :)

8 Months

Size: He was 17 pounds 3.2 ounces a week before 8 months. 28ish inches

Clothes: He's wearing 6-9 clothes now. The pants are getting a little short already, but the next size up is too big for his waist, so he's wearing a lot of capris. :) The small sleep sack is technically too short, but since he sleeps with his legs bent, that buys him a couple inches. The medium one is just so long that it gets cumbersome.

Eating: 5 bottles approx 5.5 ounces mixed. (12 scoops & 24 ounces of water still) Plus usually 2 baby food containers of Gerber stage 2.

Foods he's up to:
Avocado, peaches, pears, prunes, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans (although he hates them), and this week we started a soy/dairy free version of oatmeal with some fruit. (Thank you, Gerber.) Coming soon: Carrots and a meat

Sleeping: On a good school day he gets up around 6 (not willingly, most of the time) and then takes a nap around 9 and a nap around 1. He goes to bed around 7:30. On the weekend, he sleeps until 7:30 or 8 if we leave him alone so then the naps get pushed to 10 or 11 and then 2 or 3 and he goes to bed around 8 or 8:30

Physical/Facial/Activities: He likes to sit and play with toys. His current favorites are the stacking rings and other hard things he can bang together and use to make noise. He loves to splash in the bathtub. We started baby swimming lessons and he loves to 'float' (supported) on his stomach and frog kick with his legs. He won't mimic blowing bubbles yet though.

Crying/Vocal: We're starting to hear a few more consonants than we had been hearing. We're hearing a 'g' fairly frequently and sometimes a d or b.

Other: Poor kid has had issues the last few weeks. He had bronchitis that they believed was the bacterial kind, so unfortunately he needed amoxicillin. That really helped, so at least we knew it was necessary. But on day 8 he got a whole body rash which made him super fussy, hot, and uncomfortable. 8 days later it was mostly gone, but he didn't feel good for almost 2 weeks. He even slept through Halloween which was a bummer. As soon as that ended the drool started up so maybe we're getting another tooth?

Always at night ....

Day 8 of Amoxicillin. Baby is fussy as all get out and when we gave him a bath we realized he had a rash from head to toe. I'm allergic to it, so I decided to call the doctor even though it was 7:30. Asked whether it was something to be concerned about, whether I needed to give him benadryl or something like that, or just something to ignore. It's 2013. There's all kinds of technology out there, and yet I'm still trying to describe what the rash looks and feels like. Shouldn't there be a way to picture text your doctor???

Size Update

10/16/13 GI Appointment

16 pounds 10 ounces
27.5 inches

7 months

Size: ? We'll have to see if we can figure out a way to check.

Clothes: Still pretty much in 3-6, but wearing some 6-9 as well.

Eating: 5 bottles a day, 24 oz of water + 12 scoops. Seems like there's always something keeping us from getting all the calories in whether it's falling asleep before the last bottle is all the way finished or the runny nose causing a cough/spit up episode. He does eat food now, but that's not too many calories. It took almost the whole week before he decided to accept avocado. Then we moved to peaches because I thought he'd like them better. Also, avocado completely made him stop going to the bathroom so the doc recommended the 3 P's (peaches, pears, prunes) to solve that problem. He literally shuddered. It was hilarious. We thought maybe he'd like them better as the week went on because the peaches we bought were getting riper, but he never took to them all that much. Pears were slightly better. He would gnaw on a hunk in his feeding mesh bag, but didn't like to eat them on a spoon. Prunes were next and while none of these things have really sped up his digestive track, he liked prunes more than the other two. (Plus, prunes were a gift to us in the sense that we could buy them from Gerber. They're one of the few foods available that is just food and water.) Then squash made an appearance because they're another safe Gerber food. Now that he's had squash, he LIKES food. He will open his mouth and ask for them. He much prefers to eat if he's allowed to help with the spoon. Very cute. He does need pretty watery food. We weren't adding enough water in the beginning and he was doing a lot of coughing and sputtering. Watering it down made him happier. The Gerber packages are a good consistency for him, too.

Sleeping: A couple naps during the day, longer if he is home instead of surrounded by the fun at school. Between 10-11 hours at night. Every once in awhile he'll wake up at night, especially when he doesn't finish his bedtime bottle. It was worse when he was sick a couple weeks ago. Now he's back to normal for the most part. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night to talk and sing, but he goes back to sleep by himself.

Physical/Facial/Activities: There are now two teeth on the bottom sticking up! The second one came in several days after the first, but they're starting to even out in amount of white that is showing. He recently learned to shake his head no. He has no idea that it means no, but he thinks it's funny when we do it so now he does it too. We're having fun treating him like a Magic 8 ball with only one answer. ;) He finally spontaneously rolls back and forth onto his tummy and back, but not often enough that we have it on video yet. After weeks and weeks of wobbly sitting, this weekend (a couple days after the 7 month mark) he sat up for a couple minutes before flopping over. He likes to hold the bottle, but not for eating purposes. He is totally capable of holding it and sort of putting it in his mouth, but just for fun. When it's time to eat he'd rather put his hands behind his head and relax while we feed him. He is good at getting things in his mouth when he wants to.

Crying/Vocal: He spends lots of his waking hours talking, singing, babbling, squealing, (and unfortunately) screeching. I love them all except for the screeching. :) Still not really mimicking us. (Who knew there was a k in that word?)

Other: He had his first virus/fever this month. It only lasted about 3 days and he was pretty down and out. Luckily there was minimal screaming, just wanted to cuddle and lay around. Very glad that it did not last long!

6 Months (and a week) (and a day)

Size: 16 pounds (20%) 27.5 inches (80%) (Every calorie goes to making longer femurs)

Clothes: Carters 3-6 fit, most others have issues snapping. But 6-9 month fits too. Some PJ's are getting too short in the 3-6 month, but some are huge. (Everything is different!) There are some 6-9 onesies that we have to start wearing ASAP for length issues.

Eating: 5 bottles a day, less than 6 ounces. This is due to the lingering runny nose he's had for weeks. It started on day 3 of daycare so I figured it was that, but now I'm pretty sure it's allergies. Kids at daycare have gross runny noses that indicate illness. His is just runny and it gets worse and better on the same days mine is worse and better. (And I know mine are allergies) He's been spitting up more with the runny nose too because he coughs and then spits up. So he's way down in calories hence the slowing down of weight gain. (That plus all the extra movement because he's never still. Ever.) We don't force food because the spitting gets worse and the doctor agreed with that. He lets us know when he's hungry and he's growing so he's ok and nobody's concerned. He also got to start real food last week. We had some suggestions from the GI doctor about what to go with. We did pureed avocado. We started with just a little water and he couldn't handle thick food and the runny nose/throat thing so we watered it down really far. I'm guessing he doesn't hate it, because he doesn't scream. He does open his mouth and ask for more, and he will stick the spoon in his own mouth with food on it. But he makes faces like he hates it. Who knows. It's funny. We can only introduce a new food once a week after investigating diapers for allergy signs as well as watching for rashes and all the things that didn't happen with the original allergy diagnosis. So he's only eating with us right now, not at school.

Sleeping: If it's a school day, he often falls asleep before 8pm. He is sometimes ready to wake up just before 6am when I have to get him up to eat. Other days take more encouragement. We just turn on the lights at 5:30 when I get in the shower so that he can wake up gradually. He's not a fan of early wake up times. On the weekend, when he nods off around 7, we keep him downstairs around noise so that it's just a nap. Then he wakes up for a little while after 8 and eats a little more before going to bed for good. That lets him sleep til 7 on the weekend. He naps great here and sometimes great at school, it depends on the day and how much fun they're having. He would much rather look at babies than sleep. :)

Physical/Facial/Activities: He's finally willing to bear weight on his legs when we hold him up. We know he can roll both ways, but he chooses to do it very rarely. His hands are getting pretty good - he can get a spoon in his mouth, and he can grab the bugs on his car seat and pull. (The bug thing clicked today so a little later than 6 weeks.) He makes funny faces when he eats, and in the last couple days he's also started sticking out his tongue and wagging it. That seemed to start when he started eating. He uses his tongue to push out food, so then he mimics that same motion for fun. He can do "the worm" when he's doing tummy time and he loves jumping in the jumperoo.

Crying/Vocal: He's starting to make some consonants but still won't really mimic us. We laugh because some of his sounds kind of sound like "mean mommy" and "mean daddy."

Me: I really did start feeling almost normal right around the 6 month mark. Normal in a "I have a baby" way, but more normal than before. I can even run a few steps here and there to get something, like down to the mailbox in the rain. That's new and exciting!

5 Months Old (Belated, As Usual)

Size: 15 pounds 1 ounce, 26.5 inches (on Aug 7)

Clothes: He is all over the map! The best fit is Carter's 3-6 onesies. They fit like they're made for him. Many 3-6 ones are just about right in the length but very wide. (Gerber 3-6 onesies haven't fit in months because they're miniature clothing) PJ's are hard. His legs are long, but his body is tiny so it's hard to find snug fitting PJ's without them being SO snug fitting that his toes pop through the seams. (This happened on one pair already - but that outfit is so big in the chest area that he can get his chin under the neck and chew on the top!) If I had to put money on it, I'd say he won't be ready to leave his 3-6 clothes in a month, but who knows. He does keep getting longer so onesies have problems with snaps staying closed long before they appear to be to small.

Eating: 5 bottles a day, between 5-6 mixed ounces. When we switched from Alimentum to Elecare, he went down a little. I thought at first it was because the new formula was more fortified, but they have the same caloric intake so who knows. He isn't drinking drastically less, but those last couple ounces really mattered before and now he's happy back at his old intake. He's a riddle, that's for sure!

Sleeping: He's going to bed a little earlier, usually around 9:30. He wakes up around 7:30 or 7:45 every day but we let him lay there and talk for awhile and don't get him up, changed, and fed until between 8 and 8:15. (2 weeks from now school starts. It'll be culture shock for all of us!)

Physical/Facial/Activities: He's so expressive with his face. Lots of big grins for pretty much anyone who tries to get one. Very inconsistent with the rolling front to back. He can get 99% of the way over from back to front, but then just pops back on to his back like a rubber band. He moves all over the place on his mat and in his crib. (This is not as cute at 2am when he gets a foot stuck and starts screaming.) He grabs for toys, pulls them down, pulls the ring on the buzzy chair to play music, and will hit the ipad screen to get music. He is just in the last few days starting to put his hands together. We've been doing the sign for "more" during meals for more than a month, so maybe now that he's physically capable of putting his hands together something will click. It's hard to get him to eat when there's things to look at because he likes to look at the world around him.

Crying/Vocal: His voice went up an octave recently and then he added in consonant sounds. He makes a sound that sounds like "Hey!" which is pretty funny. He's much quieter around big groups because he's fascinated by other people and things going on. He spends a lot of time making sounds, though.

Me: More than one person told me in the beginning to expect it to be 6 months before I felt normal again. That seemed like such a long time. Every day I don't feel like I hurt less, but when I think back to a month ago I do agree that I feel a lot better than I did back then. I still get sore when I do lots of walking. Last night we walked around the mall for an hour to kill time before driving home during rush hour and I had to go pretty slow at the end. Same with our day trip to WV a couple weeks ago. Then I have to take care of myself for a couple days. But overall it's better!

4 Months Old

Size: At last Friday's appointment, he was 13 pounds 9.6 ounces (25th%) and 26 inches long. (85th%) While he is definitely on the thin size in physique, the doctor says he's still on pace to double his birth weight in the right time frame so that's a-ok. We really think the height measurement was off at his 2 month appointment because we were never able to get a measurement that long but the mat we have in his pack & play is 26 inches long and that's how long he is, so we think this month is right. :)

Clothes: Carter's onesies 0-3 months fit his trunk (limbs not included) perfectly, but he wears lots of 3-6 onesies if they are other brands. He missed out on wearing a few things because we didn't think to go into the 3-6 tub while the 0-3 still fit. I'm better at knowing which brands run tiny (Carter's) and which run huge (Circo - the 0-3 is still too big!) so we won't miss outfits on the next go round, hopefully.

Eating: Five bottles a day, almost 6 mixed ounces each. (It's 26 ounces of water and 13 scoops of formula which grows to almost 30 ounces once mixed.)

Sleeping: If we're not doing anything that day (and therefore not riding in a car which induces sleep) he wakes up in the neighborhood of 8-9 and goes to bed between 10 and 11 with an hour or so nap in the morning, 3 hours or so in the afternoon, and a snooze in the evening. We are desperately trying to get that 10 or 11 to be earlier, but we're working on it little by little. If we wake him up earlier in the morning, he takes more naps to compensate. We tried keeping him awake once but that made everything worse. Our plan was do move it 15 minutes sooner, wait a few days, and then do that again. Doctor basically gave us that as a suggestion so our plan seemed to be on target. But when he sleeps for 10 hours we can't complain. :)

Physical/Facial/Activities: He can grab things now. He bats the toys but grabs them too. He can grab the ring on his buzzy chair's toy to make music but gets annoyed when he successfully grabs and isn't rewarded with the song. He will also bat at toys on the Bumbo tray now, but that's new so he isn't as good at it. He was more interested in using both forearms to pick the squishy cube up and move it towards his face so he could gnaw on it. He is starting to extend his hands when he wants something, but he has very little control over them so they don't do what he wants. It's interesting to see his brain work behind the attempts though. Lots of funny faces, smiles, frowns, intense concentration, and furrowed brows. He has rolled to his back a few times, but he's very inconsistent. It was interesting to see how a week of vacation took away the momentum he was making in the physical department because he chilled out and didn't have baby stuff in California. He also spent a lot of time in the car rather than playing on the mat. We gave him time in the middle of the bed to flail around every day, but it was definitely different than being at home.

Crying/Vocal: He talks all. the. time. Mostly when we're home. I think when we're out and about he's more interested in taking in the new sights. When we're here and he has already investigated his surroundings, he is very vocal. Lots of vowel sounds.

Me: I've heard from others it could take up to 6 months to feel physically recovered from the delivery. That makes me feel good, because I'm still not there. Walking almost 5 miles in SF (even on flat ground!) one day was not my best idea and I'm still paying for it 2+ weeks later. It set me back a couple weeks in the sitting, standing, and walking departments. I'm closer to healed than not healed at this point in the long run though! :)

California Vacation 2013

3 of our last four vacations have been to California. (The 4th was Vegas last year at Easter.) This was more of a trip to see people than a vacation because we didn't really see anything new, just hung out in a different state with my family. So, taking a page from Alison's blog, here's a rundown.

Stayed: Hilton Garden Inn, Mountain View - It was expensive because of graduation weekend. Probably the most $ we've ever spent on a hotel stay. But we did get a combination cooked-to-order and buffet breakfast every morning. (Except for the morning we were exhausted and slept through it.) It was clean and even though it's mostly a business hotel, we didn't feel completely out of place with a baby. The crib was functional, but not great. It had a bumper on it to soften the metal bars, but we took that off and let him take his chances with the metal bars. (He was fine.) I asked for an extra washcloth when I walked by the cart in the hallway on our first day so that I could lay out the bottles after I washed them. After that, she always left an extra next to our pile of bottles. Nice touch. It had a fridge which was helpful with the bottles and they let us use their freezer to freeze our ice packs for the flight home. There was a heated pool but we didn't get to use it. I liked that we had a chair with an ottoman and a ergonomic desk chair. Supposedly the bed had a dial for the firmness but we never figured that out.

Ate:
In & Out - Mike had an actual meal but I just had fries because it was late and I was tired and not that hungry. People rave about this burger chain, but I've never been impressed. I'm not a fan of fast food burgers, they don't have chicken strips (my fast food go-to), and their fries are just ok. But even my brother who is a healthy and/or fancy eater loves this place.

Pepples Donuts - Mike's favorite junk food on the planet. Although I don't know if you can call a vegan, organic donut junk food. He likes "green tea" and lots of other random flavors.

Boudin Bakery, Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco - Since we had a huge breakfast, I just had a "turtle bread" for lunch. (It's sourdough bread, shaped like a turtle. Adorable and overpriced - perfect for vacation!) :) The rest of them got takeout crab cocktail and calamari from the seafood stands in the wharf.

Tied House, Mountain View - A microbrewery in cutesy downtown Mountain View. I had the brisket sandwich. It was heavenly. Best I've had in a long time.

Lobster Shack, Portola Valley - A little tiny place in an out of the way strip shopping center with food ranging from brisket or tri tip sandwiches (me) to lobster salad sandwiches (with or without mayo dressing - you can just get lobster on a roll) and whole lobster dinners. I liked mine ok, but with baby timing this was my turn to eat cold dinner so I probably would have enjoyed it more hot. That's life! They did have fancy local organic (?) soda, so I had some great root beer.

Red, Santa Cruz - Like many of the restaurants that the guys chose on this vacation, this decision was driven by the beer selection. :) Also, they have famous mac & cheese. I had a really good burger. Luckily my turn with the fussy baby time aligned with being done with my meal this time!

Pampas, Palo Alto - My parents got a gift card to this "Fogo de Chao" style restaurant from a bunch of my brother's friends after they hosted the group of bikers for the Tucson bike race. We were excited to help them spend it. While it was slightly disappointing to not have the gluttony Fogo experience at lunch, the food was all great and we all left stuffed - so we didn't miss anything in the all-you-can-eat style that you can have at dinner. And we paid half price for lunch. :)

Philz, Palo Alto - This coffee place makes coffee one cup at a time! The whole menu is various beans. That's it. Your only choices are small/large and whether to have them add cream or sugar. Usually I like to add my own cream, but they did a good job and it was frothy. I even had 4 choices of decaf beans to choose from! I just ordered one style, but I later heard people ordering combos of different beans. I'll totally try that if I ever come across this style of coffee shop again.

The Fish Market, Palo Alto - Instead of the steak I usually get at seafood restaurants, I had a chicken caesar salad. It was fine, typical of that meal. The croutons were great and I liked that there were lots of them! Luckily our meals came slightly staggered because we took turns holding the baby. BEST BARGAIN OF THE WEEKEND - Dessert - 6 chocolate covered strawberries for just $6.

Interesting Fact: Not a single place we ate in CA had the type of high chair that flips over to hold the car seat - so he had to either sit on the floor out of sight which he doesn't like, or sit in our laps, which works only for awhile. Also, not a single place we ate had a baby changing station in the bathroom. Are these just Maryland things?

Saw/Did: Santa Cruz Beach quickly ... they have rides and a boardwalk that we've driven by on both of our visits but haven't visited. We were going to walk around town but it closed at 8, which surprised us since it was weekend and summer. We also tried to walk around Half Moon Bay, but it closed at 5:30 on Monday. Thwarted again!! :) We walked the embarcadero in SF from end to end and back the first day and saw an America's Cup sailboat racing around in the bay. RACING. The helicopter and speedboats were keeping up, but it was taking effort for those motorboats to keep pace. Spent Sunday at my brother's graduation. Long day, but they took care of us. Bottled water, cookies, trail mix, fruit, and then lots of food and champagne!

Drove: Fox Rental Car - Our go-to small chain when we're on the west coast. Always beats the big guys prices.

3 months...late again

Size: Memorial day weekend, he was about 12 pounds using Kevin & Tracie's baby scale. It's 2 1/2 weeks later now, so hopefully he weighs more than that. We have a doctor's appointment at the end of this month for the 4 month shots so we'll know officially then. We don't own a regular-size-people scale, so we can't even do the weigh yourself with/without the baby and subtract thing. :)

Clothes: Some 0-3 onesies still fit, but the regular brand 0-3 footy pj's are getting small. He also wears some of the smaller 3-6 outfits. I think he slowed down on the length growing thing and is starting to get a little more round. He still fits in the long category I'd guess, but it isn't happening as fast as before and his legs finally have some chunk to them.

Eating: We've been on formula exclusively for more than a month now. We were doing 6 four ounce bottles and lately we've been putting those same 24 ounces into approximately 5 five ounce bottles. It's a little complicated for our brains because 24 ounces of water + 12 scoops of formula turns into way more than 24 ounces of product for him to eat. So even though it's 24 ounces, it looks like more than 5 ounces in each of the 5 bottles. Brain hurting yet? :) Some days he eats 26 ounces. I feel like he should be eating more soon since we've been on this number for awhile.

Sleeping: Before I went back to work, we were getting consistent 8-10 hours at night with a morning and afternoon nap. It got a little messy over the last couple weeks with having a different person here every day and so every day was a little different. Some days he isn't in to napping as much in long stretches and does little short ones (like right now.) We'd love for him to start going to bed a little earlier, but we're waiting until after our California trip (and it's time zone change craziness) to start working bedtime up a little bit each day.

Physical: He's starting to grab things - the washcloth/spit rag, the owl toy's wing, the rattle if you put it in his hand for him, my hair. If I had to put money on it, I'd guess he was going to turn from front to back first. He is now back to being able to pop up on his side (a skill he had at birth but lost along the way before recently regaining it.) It's easy to push him over and complete the roll, and that wasn't easy a week ago. He just can't figure out what to do with the arm that gets stuck under him. When he's doing tummy time, he can get a hip up pretty far in the air, but it just doesn't look like he's quite as close. His head control is getting even better and he can sit in the Bumbo for longer periods now.

Facial: Huge smiles! And huge pouts! And tears when he's really mad at getting left somewhere he doesn't want to be, like the pack and play after being changed sometimes. He looks around at everything all the time. Sometimes the last bottle before bedtime takes forever unless we turn off lights and TV and anything interesting.

Crying: When he wakes up from a nap and is hungry, that gets a cry. He's also doing one as he fights the 30 seconds before sleep a lot these days too. When he's mad at getting left somewhere or put down when he wants to be held. He's also started fussing sometimes when his diaper is messy and gross. Sometimes after a big spit up he cries, but not always which fascinates me because *I* want to cry when it's big and gross!

Vocal: He's super vocal. We've gotten some really big laughs in the last couple days after starting small with giggles. I clapped his hands together yesterday for an Adam Jones home run and he thought that was hilarious. He continues to talk to the owl and turtle on the mat and will bounce around and chat in the pack n play when we lay him down in there.

Activities: He still likes hitting the owl and turtle. He grabs the owl's wings and feathers and is starting to be able to grab the turtle feet and legs. He sits in the bumbo and sits in our lap and looks around. We do tummy time on the mat and sometimes on the yoga ball, too.

Me: Sometimes I go several hours feeling normal and then I'll sit down or do something that reminds me I'm not 100% yet. But that's much better than a month ago!

Dealing With Pregnancy Brain Ramifications Months Later

Last year at some point, I got my monthly bill from BGE and it was huge. When I opened it, it said I hadn't paid the previous month. I was embarrassed and confused because I don't screw that kind of thing up. But it was during pregnancy and a stressful time, so I decided I just messed up, paid it, and went on my merry way.

In seemingly unrelated news, I recently got a bill from the Baltimore Sun and it made me realize I hadn't seen a bill from them in forever! It seemed a little high for the short period it covers, so I went back into my online bill paying history to see how often the bills come.

Turns out, I paid the BGE monthly amount (it's a set $ because we're on budget billing) to the Sun last year. So I apparently pre-paid for months of newspapers/coupons and accidentally didn't pay BGE that month. Because BGE is in the bill paying system as Baltimore Gas and Electric.

Wow, I feel dumb! :)

Mother's Day

I was a little nervous leading up to Mother's Day. For the last few years, it's been a hard day. Ours wound up being pretty much like a normal day. My husband got me a lovely baby birthstone gift and did the first bottle in the morning so I could lay in bed for an extra hour. That part was great. :) Then we hosted his family for the afternoon. I was feeling a little ragged because first we had to spend the morning cleaning the house. Then, while hubby grilled and then half-napped in exhaustion on the couch and the relatives passed the baby around, I did laundry because it just piles up. The only time I got to see the baby between lunch and dinner was to clean up a spit up/pee/poop explosion and I was feeling very grumpy about it. Basically I was like dude, it's Mother's Day, and everyone is having fun except me! But I worked really hard at trying to remind myself that it's Mother's day ... and I'm doing mother things. Dealing with bodily fluids and never-ending laundry is being a mom.

I started reading this blog awhile back, when we started the IVF process... the point where we were 2 cycles away from knowing for sure if our kids were going to be biological or not. She was then in the process of adopting, and now her little guy is home with her. She has better words for how I was finally feeling by last night.

http://www.addingaburden.com/2013/05/mothers-day.html

A Final Decision

Last night, just after the 48 hour point where the pedi said we'd start to see symptoms if he couldn't handle my milk, I thought I saw some issues. We weren't 100% positive, and figured if there were issues they'd continue to show up. That was our mistake, waiting until morning. Because by this morning he was in lots of discomfort and crying and a generally unhappy (and tired from not sleeping) baby. So the decision was made for us to switch to the formula all the way.

He was perfectly fine switching, especially since he did 10 days of bottles. He didn't even bat an eye. Thankfully he was happy most of the day because I am a little under the weather today and then Mike wasn't feeling well when he got home, either.  Hoping that we all feel better tomorrow!

2 Months ... A little late

Size: At his 2 month appointment, he weighed 11 pounds 3 ounces and was 24 1/2 inches long. That's only the 40th percentile for weight, and the 98th percentile for length. Guess he doesn't know that he has short parents! We're not sure that he really weighs that much, because (how can I say this delicately?) his belly was FULL when he was weighed. The next day at 'baby breakfast' he only weighed 10 pounds 8 ounces, and his belly was very very EMPTY. So I'd guess he weighs somewhere in the high 10's in general.

Clothes: He's completely out of newborn clothes now. He's so long and thin that lots of the onesies we have in the 0-3 size are barely snapping, but are still super super wide. He's in size 1 diapers, but they still leak around the legs sometimes because his legs are so thin!

Eating: When breastfeeding, he eats about 12 times a day. Some long meals, some shorter. In the late afternoon/evening he eats almost every hour. During formula week, he ate 4oz when he woke up the first time, 4 more a few hours later and again for lunch. 4 after his long nap and at bedtime, but in the afternoon it was 1 ounce every hour or so, like he was mimicking nursing. Luckily he doesn't seem to care what he's eating, the temperature, or delivery method. We started using a pacifier when he was on the bottle because babies this little have a strong need to suck for comfort. We don't want him hooked on it, but it worked really well when he finished a bottle because we could tell if he was hungry and really needed more, or if he just needed to suck. (He'd refuse the pacifier and scream if he was still hungry, mellow out and suck on the pacifier for a few minutes and then gently give it up if he just needed the sucking motion.)

Sleeping: When breastfeeding, his long stretch is still about 5 hours on a generic night. Many nights on formula he did 7 to 8 hours, woke up for a bottle, and then slept another 3. We are trying to move bedtime back. We got it to 10:30 or 11 which means a middle of the night feed when nursing but it will help in the long run. During the week of bottles, we worked hard on getting him to sleep, since he was used to nursing to sleep. It was hard and took a lot longer, but it got better as the week went on. I'm more aware of it now that we're back to breastfeeding just in case our experiment fails and we have to return to the formula. He is not yet doing his big nap in the crib. That's a future-but-soon goal of mine. He sleeps really well in the swing or buzzy chair even if he's in the same room as me, but I'd like to get him good at sleeping in both the pack n play and crib in the afternoon.

Physical: He still does tummy time and his neck is getting stronger. I can hold him with one arm sometimes now because he can hold his head or prop it on my shoulder! He recently learned to bat/punch dangling toys on the mat. He also loves sucking on his hands. That used to be purely a feeding cue, now it seems like he does it just because he can.

Facial: Lots of smiles! At us, at toys, at the baby in the mirror. Unless the camera is out!!! Sometimes he'll mimic our facial expressions, and he's been iffy with that since between 3 and 4 weeks, but usually he seems to think we're just making funny faces and then he smiles at us.

Crying: Often means hungry, especially when waking up. Was also meaning bellyache for awhile. He rarely cries at bath or diaper change anymore, unless he is hungry and we're quickly trying to squeeze it in.

Vocal: He is SO vocal. Cooing, happy noises, mad noises, hungry noises, whiny noises, and a hilarious squawk that seems to mean, "hey people you left me here just FYI!" because he uses it when he's in the pack 'n play while I throw out a diaper and wash my hands, or when he's done batting the owl and turtle on his mat. It isn't really an angry noise, but he seems to use it for attention.

Activities: After several days of picking up his hands and making him bat the animals on the rainforest gym, he started accidentally doing it himself. Then a few days later we realized it wasn't an accident anymore because when we moved him, he moved his hands to make it keep happening! He spends 2 or 3 sessions a day on his mat playing with "his friends" the owl and turtle.

Me: In several ways, I am healed. I can lift the car seat with him in it now pain free. I lifted a box of litter to fill the box pain free, too. But I can't sit for too long still or wear tight clothes. I've lost all the pregnancy weight (and I think more, but I don't own a scale and haven't been weighed in 3+ weeks at my dr's appointment) but mostly because of being on the soy and dairy free diet. No easy snacks means much less eating during the day or just less eating in general!

Chugging Along...

Rather than update constantly during the horrible last week, I decided to subscribe to the "if you can't say anything nice..." philosophy. And so here we are, at "next week!"

On Monday at his 2 month appointment, we got the go-ahead to try ditching the formula with the decision that if the symptoms came back, we'll be going to Alimentum full time. We're 48 hours in and we think we're ok, but it's so hard to tell at this point because the transition to and from formula makes things confusing. He doesn't appear to be in distress, so that much is good and we're using that as our guide at this point.

If this experiment fails and the symptoms come back, we'll be bummed but we're not willing to just randomly keep throwing things out of my diet in a rash attempt to figure it out. I'm eating so few things right now that it will worry me a little about future allergies if he does react, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

More Books

#5 - The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult - I read her books as they come out each spring. Some I like, some I really like, occasionally there's one that is just OK. My favorite is My Sister's Keeper, but it's possible that I feel that way because I read it first. Like all of her books, there are multiple narrators telling the story. Unlike her other books, a GIANT chunk is told uninterrupted by one narrator during the holocaust. In many ways it is just another holocaust book, but I still enjoyed the story. All of her books are based around a big "what if" and this one falls under "What if a friendly neighbor/teacher/upstanding community citizen told you he had been a Nazi?" It's an interesting question indeed.

#6 - Six Years by Harlan Coban - I read this because I saw the guy on the Today Show one morning early on in baby time. It was just fine. Possibly one step below fine. The narrator and the love of his life break up suddenly and she marries another guy as the narrator watches from the back. Years later, he sees the guy's obituary and decides to seek out the love of his life in her time of grief. But when he gets to the funeral, the grieving widow isn't the girl he knows. (dum dum DuUUUUUUUUUM!)

General Hospital

Yes it's a soap. But seriously. Back in Nov, a character became a surrogate/gestational carrier for another couple on the show. Of course then she miscarried, had sex that day because she was so distraught, and got pregnant again.

Because it's a soap!

But this week someone is snooping in the medical records and we got a screen shot.

Confirmed pregnant 12/24
Miscarriage 1/2
Confirmed pregnant 1/18

Um, that's impossible!

Books I've Read Lately

I've been trying to put effort into reading more lately. Granted, my life has a little less reading time than it did previously, but I have gotten through 7 since the baby got here! (Granted they're not all adult length novels.) It was a little easier when I was nursing 7 hours a day, because I could read on the ipad and turn the page by tapping with my pinky. It takes more hands to pump and bottle feed so I haven't been reading during meals, however, I did read this weekend while I was pumping and Mike took care of meals!

#1-3: The Matched Trilogy by Ally Condie - This was another future, dystopian, teenager story that I'm sure was loved by readers of the Hunger Games or The Giver.

#4: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham - I got this from NetGalley purely because it was written by Lauren Graham. Lauren was on Kelly & Michael earlier this week and they mentioned she had received a good review in the Washington Post. I'm a little surprised, because while it was OK, it didn't thrill me. Good for her though.

Weary

If the first three days hadn't been weekend with another adult here, I wouldn't have made it this far. I don't know how I am going to manage today, especially because he only slept for 3 hours. I can't 'sleep when the baby is sleeping' because I have to pump regardless of whether he's awake or asleep and there's only about 90 useful minutes between the end of a session and the beginning of another during the day. (Why am I typing here? Because I'm stuck in this spot for another 8 minutes.)

After we saw evidence of a huge improvement and healing gut (36 hours of exclusively feeding formula) I cheated and let him nurse once. I made it at a time where he wasn't going to get much due to the pumping schedule, but he did still have a reaction. Small, but it was there. I did the same thing about 24 hours later and got an even smaller reaction. We'll see about today. Unfortunately we can't settle for "oh it's just a small reaction" and stay there forever because it would be a long-term problem. But maybe the small reactions now are showing that my body is getting cleaner.

It's so hard to deal with the formula thing, just logistically. Once they start a bottle they have to finish it in a reasonable time (hour-ish) or you have to dump it. Sometimes he takes 4 ounces (that's a meal sized bottle) but sometimes he falls asleep and only eats 1 ounce. You wouldn't want to have to throw 3 out, so we try to anticipate based on when he last ate, time of day, pre/post nap or overnight, etc. Luckily you can mix some and leave it in the fridge for a day. We have been mixing several times a day and then pouring out of the mix into a bottle as we dole it out.

Except then he throws me a curve ball and sleeps for 3 hours instead of 6+. Then I have a screaming baby upstairs, a husband who has to get up for work 40 minutes later that I'm trying to let sleep, and no small bottle ready to give - if it's even hunger that is the problem! In nursing world, you try that, and whether his problem is hunger or something else, it usually worked. This whole bottle thing makes me feel like a beginner all over again!

Yawn

Approximately 8 weeks ago to the minute, we were leaving for the hospital and I couldn't make words that people could understand. So really, even though I'm setting alarms to get up and pump, it could be worse. :)

Can we add another thing to our thankful list? Even though it takes a little longer to GET him to sleep, he has STAYED asleep both nights like he has generally been doing lately when he isn't feeling gross.

I still don't know how I will manage this when Mike isn't home for the weekend, since I can't be in two places at once!

30 hours down...

Well after 30 hours on the "liquid platinum," his tummy is showing signs of healing. For the first time in almost 2 weeks he isn't bleeding. That was our #1 goal and we got there. We are very thankful for the following things:

-his belly is feeling better
-he is happy to gulp the stuff down, showed no signs of even noticing it was a different liquid
-he is happy to take a bottle (I started pumping a stash around 1 month and while it is useless and filled with the mystery allergen now, we used those pumping sessions to also introduce him to a bottle in preparation for work and he has thus far been fine.)
-he is happy to take either brand bottle or nipple we have and offer
-he is happy to take bottles from either of us
-he is happy to take bottles of varying temperatures (at first with the pumped milk a month ago, we would carefully warm it to body temp. Turns out we were wasting our time.)
-I am happy it is weekend so that another adult is here while we figure out all these new schedules

Frustration
-I got pumping advice from different places and kind of created a hybrid of them. Hopefully it works. I did get 32 ounces in 24 hours which I am ok with, so hopefully it doesn't drop too far off from there.
-Baby bodies react so differently to formula...I think some of it has to do with the fact that he is eating in chunks more than a never ending snack, especially in the afternoon/evening. We have to learn about this from him, so we feel like its back to square one.
-he is happy and content in general, but often roots and gets frustrated for awhile that he isn't getting what he wants. Pacifiers and bottles only go so far for his brain. I should be flattered I guess?
-formula is a PITA. Hw much to make? To give? If he doesn't finish a bottle in a reasonable amount of time, we have to toss it so we are making smaller bottles.This is hard to figure out. Maybe that part is less stressful on cheaper generic formula?
-getting him to sleep is hard. He is used to nursing until he conks out. I realize that would have been a problem eventually,but I wasn't ready for it to be one now.
-we are all tired. So tired. And tired of watching clocks and setting alarms. And we are only 1 day in.

And so it continues...

Frustration

As has been well chronicled, my body doesn't always decide to do what I want it to do. So when a zillion people asked about my breastfeeding plans while I was pregnant, I always said that we'd like to do it, but that we wouldn't let it ruin our life if something happened to prevent it. To my utter surprise and astonishment, it worked (reasonably) well right from the get go. Yes, it was painful, but I believed that would pass. Yes, we had a week where he didn't gain weight, but I think that was learning curve as opposed to it "not working." I have gone to the breastfeeding support group at our hospital since he was born as both a weight check and a mental health thing to be around others dealing with the same period of life. I wanted to quit many times and there are many things I hate about breastfeeding, but in general it was working. This season of life has included a lot of couch and rocking chair time, but I keep telling myself that someday I'll wish that he was a baby again and wanted to snuggle with me more than anyone else on the planet. Now that he often sleeps for 5 (or even occasionally 6!) hours at a time, it was getting more manageable.

However, then the tummy issues began. (TMI alert - don't read if you are squeamish about bodily fluids!) Between dinner and bedtime one night, baby went from healthy diapers to bloody gross diapers. He was in obvious discomfort everytime he made us one of those gross diapers. It was late, so I checked Google, got 2 ideas, and then the next day talked to the lactation consultant at the support group. There are 2 ladies. I feel like one is very black & white and the other takes mental health into account a little more. I wasn't thrilled to get the one who is more black/white, but oh well. She agreed that maybe it was an oversupply hindmilk/foremilk thing and taught me about block feeding. We tried that, but then the next day I decided that after 24 hours of bloody diapers, it wasn't a fluke thing and that it should at least be on his chart at the pediatrician. They called me back and said to stick with the block feeding thing but to call with an update later in the week. I mentioned it the next day at group when the LC checked on me and she then started talking dairy intolerance/allergy. It's common, lots of kids get it, I know 3 off hand that had it for a year and then were ok. I decided to start it myself (see previous blogs) and then called the doc on Friday just to ask if they had any advice since the diapers were getting worse. (Without mentioning what the LC had suggested, because I hate to play medical providers against each other - nobody wins. Especially when one of them is so aggressive in their viewpoint. Might I add that we have a very laid back doc.) The nurse called back and said the doc suggested dairy free. So with all in agreement, we did that. The doc wanted to see us Monday to make sure he didn't see any other reason for the issue and told us to update him on Friday. That's today.

The last couple days have been the worst of all. The LC said to eliminate soy too, and perhaps wheat on top of it because my sister in law does have Celiacs. The hardest part is that even though I'm eliminating things, it takes weeks for them to clear my system and in that time while we try to figure out the offending food item, his gut is getting hurt more and more. So the doc said that while he knows I didn't want him to suggest formula, he wanted to try him out on the dairy/soy free formula until his 2 month well visit in 10 days and see if we can heal his gut. Meanwhile, if I am interested in going back to nursing, I should pump and continue on the diet so that I'm 10 days "cleaner" when we try again.

I called the LC to get help on how to successfully do that. BOY WAS THAT A MISTAKE. I was told that she didn't recommend it, wanted to know who the doc was, that my pump wasn't good enough, that the hypoallergenic formula doesn't work, and that I should really eliminate the wheat/soy on top of the milk if I want clean milk, and that it's not possible that the formula is best for his gut because breastfeeding is always the best. So not only in a 5 minute time period am I dealing with the medical decision to put him on (the most expensive) formula, but being judged by someone who I am calling in order to get help SO THAT I DON'T GIVE UP. It wasn't like I called to say "forget you and your beliefs." I called for help! To make sure I did all I could to keep a supply going! And I got judged. Talk about a knife to the heart. This is why breastfeeding people and LC's get a bad rap. She made me want to not even try to sustain my supply. I am sad to not have the emotional support from the girls at the support group because I don't think many of THEM would judge me, as we have chatted over the last several weeks, but I don't feel welcome there even to take him to check his weight after the conversation I had on the phone today. That's the worst part. :(

Formula isn't poison. And I know 3 kids who are thriving after switching to this formula when nothing else worked to help them. Life isn't black and white. I want to try to clean myself and be able to feed him. But if it doesn't work and we have to give him this formula for the next 10 months or more, then so be it.

The hardest part of this afternoon has been adjusting my parenting style. Previously, the first thing I tried when he cried was to let him see if he wanted to eat. Sometimes he was really just using me as a pacifier, but about 90% of the time, that solved the problem and he was happy again. Sometimes it had nothing to do with hunger. So to not even be able to let him do that was frustrating and resulted in tears on both sides, but now it's a couple hours later and he's happily doing tummy time after happily enjoying a bottle of formula.

Tuesday/Wednesday

Tuesday High: At dinner time we had a normal(ish) diaper for the first time in more than a week. We were so excited and it made the diet worth it!

Tuesday Low: A couple hours later, we had a bad one, as bad as last week before the diet started.

Then we had a re-do on the no sleep thing, the kind of no sleep that comes with an increase in tummy troubles.

Frustration doesn't begin to cover it.

I was so completely frustrated and drained and tired in the middle of the night that when the baby was crying (at a weird time, since it had only been an hour since we went to bed) that it didn't wake me up at all. It took Mike gently poking and then shaking me awake and then talking to me to get me to wake up to make me coherent.

Meanwhile, I was just having a dream with a baby crying in a crowd and getting bumped around, which I guess was Mike poking me. Now THAT is tired. :)

Wednesday High: A really good nap for the baby, which was so necessary!

Wednesday Low: We had friends drive 90 minutes to meet us for dinner. But the restaurant, one of our favorites, was less than responsive/helpful with being able to help with allergen free ordering even though I emailed them last weekend trying to avoid the waitress having to know the answers. So I had to eat at home at 9pm. On top of that, the diapers are not good again which makes it harder mentally, knowing that I am giving my poor kid something he can't tolerate, and we can't figure it out.

Monday

Today was like a bonus weekend day! 99% of the time, my hubby has Monday off. A couple weeks ago he found out he was going to work today because his boss was going out of town. But then it turned out the boss was staying, so there was no Monday work necessary! Woot! We went to Costco which is 100000000000 times easier on a weekday!

High: I now have an arsenal of food at my disposal.

Dinners - any type of real meat is ok, and that's pretty much where I start with dinner anyway. Pasta, rice, potatoes as long as I use EVOO instead of butter are all ok, and one flavor of the couscous in the pantry is safe, too. I bought a salad dressing that I think I can live with even though it won't be as good as my favorite. My V8 Fusion is safe and so is fruit.

Lunch - leftovers from dinner so that I don't have to think about it, Lots of bread & rolls have dairy but I found a brand of rolls that are ok and my turkey pepperoni is safe as well as peanut butter, so I can have a sandwich if I want to.

Breakfast - I have a flavor of oatmeal that is ok (which I ate most of my mornings when I was pregnant anyway, so that's no big change) and applesauce is ok. I even found a pop tart flavor that is ok for fun. ;)

Snacks - fruit snacks, peanut butter pretzels, Oreos (They are dairy free! Can you believe it?!), Tostidos, and teddy grahams

Thank goodness for Kosher labeling - it makes it easy to see at a glance if dairy is included!

Low: We did have to go to the doctor's office today to get checked out. Nothing new really, they just wanted to see him in person to double check that nothing else funky was going on beyond the suspected allergy/intolerance. I guess it isn't really a low, since they didn't think anything terrible is happening and they're glad to see that he's gaining weight! :) According to their scale, he's gained 2+ pounds since birth in just 7 weeks. Woot!

Lazy Sunday

High - I actually got to give the baby a bath tonight. I've been the assistant in that department the whole time because of my inability to sit on the side of the tub, but we found a stool that works!

Low - Tummy issues still aren't resolved (but we do believe we're at least headed in the right direction. Fingers crossed!)

Friday/Saturday

Friday -

High - A friend came to visit and hang out for the morning. Since she has a baby in the family, she bounced and walked and swayed and did all those make-baby-happy type things while we chatted.

Low - After more inconsolable crying and bellyache pain, we called the doctor again to get another plan. Poor guy was up for several hours crying and screaming overnight and even with our best efforts, Mike wasn't getting much sleep upstairs. The new plan is to test the milk protein hypothesis by me going dairy free. Since I had a feeling that was the next step, I didn't have any dairy products after Thursday's dinner. (Since I had dairy at dinner followed by a terrible night, I woke up on Friday determined to try to solve the problem!) There is dairy in EVERYTHING. I thought of the obvious things like cheese and butter, but there is whey and casein in lots and lots of stuff you wouldn't think about. Meats are ok, rice, pasta, potatoes with olive oil instead of butter, fruits (veggies of course but lets not get too crazy) and I did some googling to find other things. Frustrating, but after 24 hours of dairy free there was a noticeable difference in his demeanor. We hope it keeps up.

Saturday -

High - Happy baby slept from 12:30am until 6, ate, ate again at 7, and then slept til 10! Such a difference! Hopefully his belly is healing which is leading to him being more comfortable! Then we went to a family party and he was totally happy to be passed around to everyone. Thank goodness!

Low - I attempted to grocery shop quickly this evening. While there are plenty of fresh foods to eat for dinner with minimal changes, I wanted to have some quick "go to" foods for snacks or fussy baby time when I just can't take time to cook a whole meal. It is so hard and frustrating to have to read labels for code words that mean dairy. It makes me more motivated to know it is helping him but it's still not easy.

Thursday

Low: where to start? We are still dealing with baby tummy issues. It's starting to border on stressful. In the next couple days if it doesn't clear up, we may be looking at some elimination diet stuff. Just thinking about adding reading ingredients and working around rules on top of everything else makes me frustrated. Plus we haven't gotten to really discuss it because we were only in the same room for 20 minutes today and that involved dinner at 8:30 and a fussy baby.

High: I got to take a 2 hour nap because he slept for 2 1/2 hours!

Wednesday

High: I was busy all day today with one thing or another. After a long early pre dawn breakfast, we slept til after 9:30! We got ready for the day, talked to a friend on the phone for a long time since neither of us had anywhere to be, and then tried to catch up with the DVR. But the we got a call from a grandma to see if she could come visit. While the baby napped, I threw in some laundry thinking oh if grandma is here to play with baby then I can actually fold this laundry later! Then I opened the fridge because we had a big pack of ground beef that needed to be split into small bags for freezing.

That's where the low starts.

The bag had leaked EVERYWHERE. I cleaned off the tray and then noticed it was dripping down the side of the fridge into the produce drawers (empty luckily since it is time to shop) and under the glass shelves. I figured how to take the glass out since they are stationary shelves, not pull out. Then finally when I thought it was all done, juice seeped out from behind the brackets that hold the shelves up! So I had to unscrew those and pull everything apart. Thank goodness the baby kept sleeping through all of that. Then grandma was here when the baby woke up and then Mike came home and we could finish and get it all put back together.

Plus we got take out from Applebee's as a gift. So that brought the day back out to a high.

But hey at least I wasn't bored!

Tuesday

High- We took a field trip to school. If I only worked with adults, I may have done it sooner. But too many germs exist at school so I didn't chance it earlier. We went today because there was an outdoor event so fresh air was involved. It was nice to see my people. The kids were excited to see me and were unhappy that the baby stayed in his car seat, hidden from the breeze. (& them) ;)

Low- while I have a plan to solve the problem, his tummy isn't all the way better yet. Frustrating.

Old news- I survived my 6 week checkup yesterday. It hurt les than I was anticipating, so that was good. I'm still not 100 percent though and he said the pain can last for months in the few places I'm still feeling it. (joy!) He did discover that the polyp was still there and that the baby did't dislodge it as they assumed happened, so he removed it. I finally got to meet that which bugged me since July. So thankful that it's gone now.

Sunday and Monday

Sunday's High - Low key, peaceful day. I did a little scrapbooking, Mike watched the Masters. Baby took a nap.

Monday's High - We successfully went out to lunch in a restaurant as a family of 3! (Pure luck, but we will take it!)

Low of the two days combined - Something is up with the little guy's belly. He's not very happy about it. This led to being awake until 4:45am. Mike stayed up from 12 to 2:30 while I slept and then I came back down and we switched. The silver lining is that it happened on a non-work night for Mike so I wasn't on my own. Thank goodness!

Highs and Lows of a Regular Day

At dinner tonight we talked about how today was the first day that really just felt like a "regular" day in many ways. We woke up at (a new life) reasonable time (AFTER I SLEPT FOR ALMOST 6 CONSECUTIVE HOURS WHICH I HAVE NOT DONE SINCE EARLY PREGNANCY!), went to the farmer's market, ran a couple errands, came home, I scrapbooked while the baby napped and Mike ran, we cooked and ate dinner, and watched the Orioles game. It felt like for a tiny little bit of time, we were in a groove and just living life. We even ALMOST got a smile on film today. Even though he doesn't quite get the whole smile going, he totally says "hi".

Heh...you heard it, right? ;) I remember when I took linguistics in college they taught us about how babies are all hard wired to make every possible sound for every language that exists. Eventually we lose the ability to make the sounds from other languages which is why we can't easily mimic the clicking languages of sub-Saharan Africa at this point in our lives. But it made me laugh that the random noise he made today sounds like hi.

But the real HIGH of today is that my best friend had her baby! How fun that our kids are just 6 weeks apart!

Low: I dunno. But that's ok. Who wouldn't want to have a day with no lows?! Better than a day with no highs. :)

Two More Days

In so many ways, life seems like "Groundhog Day" right now. However, I am disappointed that I wasn't at least jotting down something from the early days because the whole first couple weeks blend together so I am trying to look for anything that's different.

Thursday:
High: we got out and about! After group, we returned something to Kohls, perused a local consignment shop, and stopped for Sweet Frog on the way home. There was also an afternoon nap that lasted long enough in one (unheld!) place that I got some stuff done around the house.

Low: the evening was hard. Mike grilled dinner after his run but he was racing the impending rain and I didn't time baby dinner right so we ate in shifts, one handed, and tried to appease the screaming baby. Rough.

Friday:
High: we got out and about again! It was thunder storming terribly when I woke up and was wondering how to finagle a car seat, stroller, and kid in a downpour when it finally lightened up. We went to Panara with a couple other local mommies. He had a full belly and slept in the car seat the whole time. So nice to get out and socialize!

Low: a terrible night. (it wound up leading to a nice morning though I guess) He ate at 11 pm last night and then 1:30-2 and woke up again at 3! After the 3am meal he made it to morning though. Silver lining? :) Oh and double low- today was payday, and my check was gone. Not looking forward to making it work on one salary for the foreseeable future, that's for sure.

April 9 and 10

Yesterday:
Low: what had been a 5 hour night time stretch was only 3 and a half. Bummer.
High: The lack of night time sleep meant a good mid day nap!

Today:
Low: He was so tired today, but he couldn't take a nap. Such a weird phenomenon...to be so tired that you can't sleep! Once 4pm hit, he finally caved and got a pre dinner snooze in.
High: I got to eat a hot dinner with two hands! (which is good, because it was taco night and that's a hard one handed meal) ;)

April 8 Highs and Lows

High - We took advantage of Mike's Monday off and went for a walk on the Ma & Pa trail today. We went from the parking lot to just before the one mile mark. I started off like gangbusters, but had to go slower and slower as we continued. The walk back was very slow. But that's almost 2 miles and that is almost 2 miles more than I have walked since last spring. So yay for me. Then we came home and sat on the deck and looked at the tree.

Low - I AM SO READY TO BE HEALED. It's so frustrating to be in pain from nothing other than walking. I didn't even have to lift the car seat or push the stroller! Argh. Next Monday is my 6 week checkup and I can't even fathom...

Sunday Highs and Lows

High: We ran 2 errands with the munchkin and he was really well behaved. Woohoo for getting out of the house!

Low: One of the errands we ran was to get a little camcorder (like a "Flip" style even though they don't make those anymore) but apparently NOBODY makes that style anymore. Now we have to do research and decide what we want. It's times like this when I miss the iPhone because my GS3 doesn't talk to my Mac as nicely. It'll transfer pictures but not videos.

April 6 - Highs and Lows

High - We got real smiles today! It happened for both of us separately at different times under different circumstances, so we're pretty sure we're right about them being real. Super fun to have him react to us in this way after a month of crossed eyes, blank stares, and smiles that were gas or reflexes. Another high was going to a baby shower on my own. I really hemmed and hawed about how to handle it - go, not go, take him, take the pump, wing it without the pump, etc. I went with the pump and had a good time!

Low - Being away from my baby for 5 whole hours ... How can that be a high AND a low? I don't know, but it is!

One month (2 days late)

Things to remember at this one month point...

Size:
The day before one month, he was 8 pounds 11 ounces. The day after one month, he was 8 pounds 12 ounces. (So I guess we could say he was 8 pounds 11.5 ounces?) ;) Unofficially, he's just over 21 inches. I feel like I didn't do a good job with that though because his pants have a bigger difference than just an inch, and he was almost 21 inches three weeks ago.

Clothes:
None of the newborn sized sleepers fit anymore. First the Faded Glory brand stopped fitting, then the Gerbers. He still fits in most of the newborn onesies but a couple are too small. The brands are SO different. Size 0-3 months is still a little big, especially the brands that are wider because he's so long and skinny. The "one size fits all" pajama bags and sleep sacks fit him more reasonably now and don't get up in his face when he wiggles around. That makes me feel better. His fleece pajama bags still have the sleeves rolled up a little so his hands can stick out though. For some reason, baby clothes makers think that once they're out of newborn size, parents prefer snaps to zippers. I much preferred the zippers that went from neck to toe. SO MUCH EASIER! Ones with snaps that just go neck to toe down one leg are ok, but the ones that snap up both legs and then the chest are a pain in the butt.

Eating:
During the day, he eats every 1 to 3 hours for a total of approximately 10 times a day. In the last week to 10 days, there have been times were the 40 minute feeding has turned into just 10, and it appears he is getting the same amount of food. Other times it's still long and he is lazy. He ate 3.2 ounces in a sitting at baby breakfast the day after he turned 1 month old. Our previous high was 2.6 ounces. He makes a distinct "ah ah ah" sound while bobbing his head against our arm/chest/shoulder/neck/face while making fish faces or chomping motions to tell us he wants to eat. So far, he has done great with bottles. We have been successful with 2 different brands of bottles and nipples, all with pumped milk. He has been fine eating after the bottle as well. It appears that he enjoys the instant gratification of the bottle but luckily it hasn't messed up his regular eating habits.

Sleeping:
He will sleep for about 5 hours after his midnight feeding many times now. Then after an early breakfast at 530 or so, he will sleep or at least chill in the crib for a while longer to let me sleep. I did pop him in the buzzy chair next to the bed to increase my morning sleep a couple times too. There is no pattern to daytime naps really, but he does tend to have awake times in the mid morning and in the evening. After his midnight feeding when his eyes are droopy, I put him in the crib. Just a couple weeks ago it took forever for him to lay down and chill out. Now it might take a couple more tries, but he seems to be starting to understand what the crib is for. He doesn't get quiet right away, but he doesn't cry. More just babbling to himself while he conducts the invisible orchestra, waving his hands around to some mysterious music he hears in his head.

Physical:
His tummy time head control is constantly improving. He can keep it up for lots of seconds now and flips from cheek to cheek while he is down there. He also moves his knees back and forth a ton resulting in random movement and turns. In the crib, he moves himself to the edge of the crib so that he's touching the rails and sometimes his arm is sticking out. If we hold him up, he'll look around especially if he recognizes the voice of the non holding parent nearby. He still has his startle reflex and the one that makes him hold our finger.

Facial:
He makes many silly faces now. He will hold our gaze on a regular basis. He smiles a ton, but it's just a reflex for now. He laughs and smiles in his sleep all the time. We have yet to catch it on video though. He appears to recognize the two of us, but this gazing stage got more pronounced this week since it's just been the two of us so who knows. He saw and heard 3 people for the first 4 weeks and now he's down to 2 on a daily basis.

Crying:
He doesn't scream bloody murder during every single diaper change anymore. Sometimes, if he's sleepy or in an exceptionally good mood, he can ignore it altogether. Often there is still some crying and sometimes it is full meltdown, but an improvement upon a couple weeks ago, that's for sure. So far we have a 100% success rate with crying stopping as soon as the car starts moving which helps because often getting locked into the car seat starts a little crying. We are lucky in that the wailing, screeching crying for extended times hasn't been a regular occurrence yet. Now that he lost his belly button stump and can have more water in his little bathtub, the crying ends there quicker as well. He will sit contentedly for a little while while getting washed. He really hated the sponge bath portion of his life, but I don't blame him for that. If it's been a little while since he ate and he goes from peaceful to unhappy cry in 0.1 seconds, it's often followed by the need for a diaper change. ;)

Vocal:
It's hard to put in writing, but he makes a lot of different noises now. We don't know what they all mean, but it changes all the time. It's funny when his random noises make words. We get uh-huh (like the grunting version of yes), uh-uh (grunting version of no), and ut-oh!

Activities:
We put him in the rainforest gym on his back and stomach at least twice a day. Once in the morning while that corner of the room is nice and toasty which also happens to coincide with a time he's usually alert and happy. He will kick his legs and conduct the invisible orchestra. If he's sad to be put down, the calipso music usually quiets and calms him down. He swings in the swing about once a day, usually around dinner time in an attempt for both of us to eat a hot meal. He sits on our laps and we try to get him to mimic facial expressions like opening and closing our mouths, or sticking out our tongue. We can't tell if he can really do it or if we just get randomly lucky sometimes because those are things he does do on his own. He also likes to lay propped up in the boppy pillow and stare around the room. It's possible that he noticed the cat earlier this week, because the cat walked by him while he was on the boppy and his eyes definitely tracked the cat's walking path. We've taken several walks around the neighborhood as the weather has started being more cooperative.

Me:
In many ways, I feel back to normal. But if I do too much (or sit too much, interestingly enough) I am still sore. I don't know what exactly is sore because Advil doesn't help much. You don't realize how much you use those muscles for lifting until you're waiting for them to heal. I keep telling myself that there's a reason the first appointment isn't until 6 weeks. Even though it feels like another lifetime that was before March 3rd, a month isn't that long in the healing stitched muscles department. On our first outing I carried the car seat too much and I think I'm still paying for that. Even if it takes more time, I really need to pull the snap 'n go up to the car and pop the stroller on there. (I was carrying it to the store and putting it in the big part of the cart - my arms are strong enough, but the rest of me isn't.) On top of it, I haven't used my muscles since the end of May last year before I started my meds, so that probably doesn't help. I'm really ready to be able to move again! Walking is good, but I have to take that slowly as well. I'm trying to be very aware of my mental state. I had a terrible mental day on Wednesday - our second day alone, nowhere to be, and I only saw Mike for 6 hours in 2 days combined. There's not always something I can do about the circumstances, but I'm going to have to find a way to cope and get used to it for the next 4.5 months...then I'll have a whole different circumstance to deal with as a (10 months at a time) working mom!

April 5

We have been home from the hospital for a whole month now. Individually, many of those days felt like a year. It's already hard to remember details from those early days because it seems like eons ago. But at the same time, I can't believe it's been a month!

Highs for today: Tons of human adult interaction! We have a seasonal plan with an exterminator to deal with ants and a couple other things we just couldn't get under control when we moved in. Since we always have the same tech, we do have conversations with him when he's here. Plus, he's a very chatty guy in our age range. He was happy to see our new addition today and we chatted for a bit after he finished the treatment since he has a couple little kids. Then, mike surprised us by coming home in the early afternoon to watch opening day. (and because I think he was worried about me on Wednesday when I lost my marbles after seeing him for a combined 6 hours in 3 days...he called to check on me Thursday too;) He even brought Taco Bell home. Finally, my carpool friend and her daughter came to visit this evening. All good things for a healthy me!

Low: In reading some emails today, it appears I'm going to be missing some important stuff at work. Things that will impact me far into the future. I'm disappointed about that, but I'm not going to work even for a meeting during the unpaid leave time. I just can't. That is frustrating. It's hard to have such sweeping educational change happening right now! Just at the moment where our kids' performance starts counting in our evaluations, I'm at home learning how to be a mom. Already a hard balance.

April 4's Highs and Lows

One the of the blogs I read does highs and lows of the day to remember a slice of life. I'm taking a lot of pictures these days but honestly they're all pretty similar so I don't know what to do about reviving the blog in that department. Maybe I'll use the fact that I have my camera out on a regular basis to take pictures of other things, too. I have both NO time and TONS of time on my hand, so I'll have to figure it out.

So for now, it's highs and lows because they can be done quickly.

Low - Two diaper blowouts - One at "baby breakfast" after he was dressed and ready to go in the car seat (I guess it's good that it didn't happen a minute later!) I don't even know how it happened that time. Two hours later it happened in the pack n play during a diaper change. I seriously need to get better and quicker at that. Luckily I have lots of chances to practice. ;)

High - Had some really nice conversation with other new moms who are feeling bewildered and lonely at home too while I was at "baby breakfast." It's nice to have access to nurses who are lactation specialists as we get this eating thing under control - that's the real purpose for going, but it's nice to chit chat for an hour or so with other people, too. It made today a much better day than yesterday mentally!

Our First Solo Day

I know it may seem pathetic to some, but today, one day short of the little guy being a month old, was our first solo day together. At first we had 3 adults (the two of us and my mom) to get through the days and nights. Then Mike went back to work and my mom stayed for a week to help over night and keep me company during the day. Then she left, but Mike was home for his (perpetually) 3 day weekend through yesterday. So today was it!

I was glad it was a Tuesday, because we had "baby breakfast." (Name coined by Tracie!) It's the breastfeeding support group at our hospital. In addition to having them help me figure out the ins and outs of bf, it's nice to visit with other new, overtired, bewildered, getting-used-to-being-a-milk-machine-instead-of-a-commuting-professional-for-awhile moms.

Our morning started before 5 with our first meal. About 4.5 hours of sleep in a row. Woohoo! While the little guy ate, Mike left for work. Afterwards, I put him back in the crib and went back to bed. I'm not sure if he ever fell all the way back asleep because I heard a little squeaking, but he wasn't looking for me so I napped for awhile. By 7 we were downstairs killing time. After we played in the rainforest gym for awhile, it was time to eat again and then get ready to go. Thankfully, he was willing to take a quick nap in his chair outside the bathroom door while I showered. He was upset for a minute or two but the hairdryer coming on made him happy again. I got him ready and out the door and we were even on time! After group, we ran to Babies R Us and Staples to grab a couple things and then came home and collapsed.

The hardest thing is still lifting him in the seat. I did sucessfully get him into the car, onto the stroller  to wheel him from the parking lot to hospital, and then from car to store's shopping cart twice. But I'm paying the price now. I think my stitches are mostly dissolved but I still have some pain and at times it's pretty bad. Lifting is harder on that area of the body than you'd think. Just him is ok, but him and the seat is hard. I'm ready for that to be easier!

So then we spent the afternoon rotating between nap time and awake time while watching Opening Day and GH's 50th anniversary. Finally Mike got home around 7, just in time to hold the baby while I stirred the pasta. By the time we ate dinner and did bath time, it was almost time for Mike to go to bed again!

Tomorrow we do it all over again, minus the errands. Less social interaction, but more napping. ;)

End of March

We waited SO LONG for it to be March and for him to get here, and now March is 30 hours from being over. I can't believe it. My mom said that she remembers this time when we were babies as "the days being so long, but the years being so short." I guess that's how it is going to be, because almost every night when I'm up every couple hours feeding and feeling sick from exhaustion and frustrated when he won't sleep, I want to cry and quit. But the fact that it feels like yesterday that he got here blows my mind too.

People talk about how hard it is, but it's indescribable until you're living through it. And I had more help than most people have. I married a guy who is willing to be totally hands on and have a mom that was willing to come and give up sleep for a month to do our cooking, laundry, and dishes and rock the baby to sleep after a 2am feeding so that I could get an extra 20 minutes of sleep before the next feeding. I don't know how people do it on their own.

Mike went back to work last week, so I try to be respectful and help him get as much sleep as possible since I don't have to drive to work and be human all day. Those 4 work nights were hard, and my mom stayed to bridge the transition. Now that she's gone, I will be on my own. Thankfully, the nights have gotten a little easier with a 4 hour stretch of sleep. (He'd sleep forever if I let him, but he wasn't gaining weight at the right speed at one point, so we make sure he wakes up to eat now.)

Without attempting to create them, I am starting to notice small patterns in our day. We pretty much get up in the 7 to 8 range and after he eats, he's pretty perky. He loves tummy time and back time in his rainforest gym in the square of family room sun. Then he eats again around 10 either at the breastfeeding group at the hospital that we visit on Tues/Thurs or during Kelly & Michael on the other days. (This is my new favorite daytime show because they're not annoying like everyone else. It's the only one I can stand!) Then he chills (sometimes awake, sometimes asleep) until the lunchtime feeding and I shower. (This is going to be a new logistic to figure out, because my mom or Mike hung out with him while I showered and he has an uncanny knack for crying when I go to shower. I will have to bring a chair upstairs or something.) After his lunchtime feeding, I eat and he usually sleeps more solidly. Then he eats again around GH time. After that though it's anybody's guess. Sometimes in the afternoon/evening he wants to eat ALL THE TIME. Sometimes he doesn't. That means a lot of dinner times he's in someone's lap. At some point he goes to sleep upstairs (in the crib! Yay!) and sleeps til the middle of the night when he gets up to eat again, then sleeps til 6 or 7 when we eat again and start all over.

10 Days Old

Today he is 10 days old and we've been home from the hospital for 8 days. Some things to remember later in life:

Likes:
Snuggling
His swing
His bouncy seat
Farting
Eating
Tummy Time
Getting dressed after getting changed or bathed
Sleeping in any place, any time, during daylight hours

Dislikes:
Pack 'n' Play/Crib
Being changed (#1 cause of screaming around here)
Bath time, even though it's only a sponge bath at this point
Sleeping without being held if it's night time
Having hands/arms inside a swaddle

Tidbits of Life:
Currently the inside front of his diaper has lots of vasoline to help with healing. We are hoping to get the ok to discontinue this practice at his doc appointment on Friday because vasoline keeps diapers from absorbing all the pee! We have all been peed on at this point. We tried a size up, but he's too tiny for them still so that didn't solve the problem.

He really thinks he has great head control. This leads to funny moments during tummy time and when he's ready to eat.

Knock on wood, but he isn't terribly fussy most of the time. He won't sleep all the time at night, but he will just lay in your arms and look around peacefully.

Walmart Brand "Faded Glory" size newborn clothing is smaller than the other newborn clothes we have. He is very very close to not fitting in his few outfits from there. That's sad, because the jungle outfit and blue argyle zipper-to-the-toe outfits are some of my favorites!

He has good hearing because he'll jump to sudden noises like pops. However you can talk in normal voices & have the TV on and it doesn't phase him if he's asleep.

Since he's 10 days old, I'm 10 days into my healing process. That has been the hardest part, because I'm not real mobile. I am ready to feel better in that department, for sure! Sleep deprivation is hard, pain is hard, but both combined is very hard. I'm the only one that can take care of food, but luckily Mike is taking care of pretty much everything else baby related and my mom is taking care of pretty much everything else life related so it's ok that I can't move much and take lots of medicine!

Baby Is Here!

To finish out the other blog, which was really about the journey to get here, I wrote a 3 part post about baby Derek's journey into the world. Now it's time to experience parenthood!

Part 1: http://jlsh935.blogspot.com/2013/03/baby-is-here-part-1.html
Part 2: http://jlsh935.blogspot.com/2013/03/baby-is-here-part-2.html
Part 3: http://jlsh935.blogspot.com/2013/03/baby-is-here-part-3.html

Photos: http://derekthomas.shutterfly.com/

Crafting Fail

Now that we have all the stuff in the nursery, I've been starting to work on the decorations. We have 2 things already, one from my mom and one from a friend. I have had the plan for the last 3 in motion since November, but needed some down time to work on it. We had friends in town from yesterday til today, but I did several hours of prep work yesterday and then about 6 hours today after they left.

And I ruined almost all of my work on the last step. :(

I made a paper craft, and it looked awesome. Even Mike was oohing and ahhing over it. The last step was to stick all 3 pictures to the 12x12 canvases that I bought. I used Mod Podge, as I have for many other things. But because some of the colors of paper I used were brandex, the mod podge saturated it which made it stretch out and then made it bumpy and ugly. So my 4 hours of cutting and taping and my hour of painting the canvas are down the drain. ARGH.

I'm just going to re-cut all the papers tomorrow, so that I only have to re-do the 4 hours of labor. The 3 hours I spent on the pattern yesterday aren't wasted because at least I can re-create it. Then I'll just frame the damn things instead of putting them on the canvas. Even though that was going to be the best part. I am so annoyed at myself!!! :(

Another Cross Post

Once there's a baby on the outside, I'm only keeping up one blog. But since I want the other blog to be the whole pregnancy, I'm cross posting with links until that happens.

Funny things kids have said in the last couple weeks ....

http://jlsh935.blogspot.com/2013/02/kid-isms.html

Super Hydration!

Due to my exciting morning in L&D (http://jlsh935.blogspot.com/2013/02/first-real-trip-to-l.html) I have spent today drinking a lot of water and Gatorade.

And eating Red Velvet White Chocolate Chip cookies from my friend, but that was just for fun.

One bonus of accidentally being home today is that I got to watch the live stream of the the Knot.com's Dream Wedding and see my friend and her mom in the audience. (They were there as relatives!) I also took a nap and watched some things on the DVR. Hubby stayed home with me after I got released even though I told him he could go back to work. I feel bad because he found out he was supposed to have his surprise work baby shower today. Bummer for him!

One upside of today's event is that the doc did everything in triage that he would have done at tonight's appointment, so I didn't have to go back at 4pm. Small bonuses!

The second draft of my book is in the hands of the editor now and I'm just waiting to see what the next step is and what else needs tweaking. I love the idea of editors because they exist to help me make things better!

Baby wise, we pretty much have everything we need except a baby. A couple things are in the mail still that we purchased with gift cards online, but other than that we are as ready as we'll ever be. The glider does need to be assembled at some point but it's in the building. The crib skirt material has been purchased but it's still in a bag. That's on my list but not my super important list.

The boys are supposed to jump out of a plane on Saturday, but now they're anticipating our next weather event to hit at that time. They're running out of time for that because the groupons expire soon!