Time is flying!

I am so sad how I have nearly abandoned this blog. I think about it and I make mental notes of what to post but then finding the time to actually do so is another matter! We now have a 10.5-month-old little guy. He is getting into everything. He cruises along the furniture, stands up in his crib, pulls up on everything (even people's legs and has been known to nearly de-pants his teacher). He hasn't taken his first steps yet but that is OK with Mama! He is working on the upper two teeth. The lower two came in late July/early August. His newest word is "bear" as in "Mama Bear." S calls me "Bear" as a nickname and N has taken to copying his dada. So S yells, "Bear" and N follows with "Ahhhr." He misses the 'b' which is funny beause the first sound I heard him make was a 'b' sound at a young age. He is such a joy. He has a bit of a cold right now so he's extra cuddly. I walked into his classroom yesterday to find him curled up against his teacher with his blanket. She said she had been feeding another baby and N went to his crib, pulled his blanket through the slats, and went and sat at her feet and cried until she picked him up. He even brought the blanket home with him! He would not let go. Today he ate a piece of a deposit slip. I don't think I'm in the running for mom of the year but that is OK. In addition to paper (deposit slips, napkins, paper towels, advertisements, mail, etc.), he also loves electrical cords and anything else he should not be touching. He loves to pull all the CDs off the shelf and bang things very loudly on the floor. He waves hi and bye quite often now. He used to just move his whole arm up and down. Now he does more of the finger bending, you know? It is so cute; some days when I pick him up he will wave at me with both hands and then make a beeline crawling to me (head down, all very serious). It cracks me up and melts my heart. He has a posse at school now; he and two other babies (one 11 days older) move in a pack and get into everything. They make me laugh. We are going to have a playdate with the one 11 days older than him later this month. He was over 22 pounds at his last check-up. What a big boy! He is doing much better with table food now and solids in general, probably as of August. He just wasn't all that interested before. In early September he had a reaction to peanut butter. He tasted a tiny smidgen; he loves to grab whatever I'm eating and have a taste too. He broke out in hives on his nose, mouth, and neck. I was so scared! The on-call doctor suggested he was OK if he wasn't acting uncomfortable and if his breathing was OK and sure enough, he was OK. He loves the water. We went swimming three times this year and two of the times he fell asleep! He must find it very relaxing! He was not very fond of the ocean though; it was very rough the one day we went. We are planning his first birthday party, which is going to have a rubber ducky theme. The invitations are being designed and are almost ready. I cannot wait! We rented a community room near us and I'm looking forward to it very much, although not looking forward to my baby being grown. The first year is just so amazing!

We have a crawler!

It's amazing when I look back at these last 7.5 months from a tiny helpless baby to a crawling boy who is getting into everything! On June 30th N crawled on our bed but on the floor still just did his rocking on hands and knees. And then on the evening of July 1st he was in the living room and spotted me doing laundry. He was crying for me and I was planning on getting him very soon but was just trying to switch a load of laundry before putting him to bed. Well, I guess he got tired of waiting for me. "Mamamama," he cried and started crawling towards me. S saw him coming and alerted me. We were both amazed. I am pleased he is developing so quickly and well, sad the days of my little baby are gone, and nervous I won't be able to keep him safe! He does well in his Pack n Play playing with his toys. It's so funny because it looks like he's talking to them. Upstairs if we're both busy up there we'll (most likely my husband will) put him in the crib with some toys for awhile and he'll play up there as well. He also loves to sit in his Bumbo and watch a little movie on my Kindle Fire via Netflix streaming. I don't do that often. On Fourth of July my aunt told me about a little snack for babies called Mum-Mums that her day care charges like so we bought those for him on Saturday. I gave him one on Sunday. He took a bite and put the re!st in his toy bin. Ha ha! But then I gave him another one later and he ate almost the whole thing. He had some yesterday and today at day care too and loved them according to his teacher. She keeps telling me how he is not interested in his rice cereal. I just want to say, "See?" I did not want to give it to him but finally caved to the pressure. I want to do baby led weaning and rice cereal is decidedly not BLW but I was worried about him there all day barely eating. We stayed home Monday because I was sick again. Sigh. I threw up in the morning and felt nauseous so I stayed home. The Monday before I had to pick him up in the afternoon for throwing up (which I really think was nothing). I'm really using up my days which makes me nervous! I forget when this started but he growls. It is so funny. His teacher told me about it but he'd already been doing it awhile. He also is "talking" more and more, making noises that sound like words. Yesterday it sounded like he said, "Hey, you." S and I were cracking up!

Seven months!

Our little dude is now seven months (and one week) old! I wanted to take some time to update. Before I do that though I need to update with his six-month stats that we got on 5/30 at his six-month check-up. He is 19 pounds, 9 ounces, and 27 3/4" tall and his head circumference is 17". So he still has an average size head but is very tall and heavy for his age. Everyone says he looks like he is one year old already! He is going to be crawling any day now, although I feel like I've been saying that well over a week now. I think he can crawl but he just doesn't know it yet. From a seated position he'll reach for something and then he'll be on all fours. He kind of goes backwards or he'll just flop on his belly or he'll go back to a seated position. He gets all over though for not being able to crawl. He is an incredibly happy boy. He smiles a lot, laughs all the time, and is just very pleasant for the most part (until he gets tired but things around are too busy for him to fall asleep!). This past month was a big one for us! We moved him to his crib on June 7. The first night was pretty bad. I had a feeling it would be since every time I just put him in his crib for fun (it had been assembled for a bit) he would scream. So the first night he only lasted three hours. The next night was six. And then the next night was nine! Yippee! We also transitioned him to convertible car seats in June. For my husband's car we put my nephew's in on June 10. And then the following Sunday (June 17) he installed mine (a new True Fit from the First Years). He looks adorable in there. I do feel bad when he falls asleep and his head bobs all over. It is slightly reclined but he doesn't seem to know that. Ha ha. He says "ma ma ma" but I don't think it means "Mommy" although my husband insists it does. It is his hunger cry. He reaches for me and says it when he is hungry. Poor little N was sick again last week. On Wednesday I got a call around 4:15 saying he had a 102.3-degree fever and I had to come pick him up. I stayed with him on Thursday and S stayed with him on Friday and my mom came over Friday afternoon to sit with N for a bit since S had a conference call. I'm sure my mom was thrilled. N is like their first grandchild all over again! He is the only one they get to see on a regular basis (weekly at least). Anyway N did not want to sleep in his crib when he was sick. He would turn into a koala and just cling to my arm and not let go. We did let him sleep in our bed a few nights. I still kind of wish we did that all the time but I have to admit he and I both sleep better in our beds. He sleeps through the night often in his crib. Last night he slept nearly 11 hours straight! We started BLW on May 27. Avocado was the first food. He also eats rice cereal mixed with breast milk and baby yogurt at school every day. He is OK when I get there at lunch but when I get there after work he still seems ravenous. He still loves to nurse! I don't think he is really consuming much "real" food except the yogurt he eats at school. He loves to suck on lemons, little nut. He grabs them from our glasses and sucks on them. The ensuing faces are quite hilarious! He has also tried asparagus (same face as lemons), steak, applesauce, rice cakes, carrots, broccoli, snap peas (is that what they're called?), and I'm not sure what else. He mostly likes to lick stuff which I guess is all part of it. He is drinking better from a cup now. He still never took to a bottle. I do ask them to keep trying at school. I don't think it's good he goes that long. Then all evening I'm nursing him, which is fine but I feel like I can't go anywhere or get anything done. This will not last forever though and I do enjoy nursing him. I have to say though I think I'll be more vigilant with giving any future babies a bottle more regularly. I do not know if it would have made a difference with N or not because he did take one and then just stop. Speaking of future children I am still not fertile again. My LMP was 1/30/11. It feels weird to say that on 6/26/12!

Sick again!

Ugh! I just posted about sicknesses and then I got hit with another! When I picked up our baby on Wednesday there was a 10-month-old who was vomiting. A few hours later I got nauseous and two hours after that I was vomiting. It went on for awhile (1:00 a.m., then 9:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., etc.). I was really scared I was going to be dehydrated! My milk supply had already taken a hit from being sick the week before. I called the doctor's office to ask about what I should do and the receptionist said the doctor would want to see me. Ugh. I did not know how I'd make it there without vomiting but I did. She gave me a 1:30 appointment and up until that point I couldn't keep anything down. I'd try to run my tongue over my teeth and it wouldn't even glide; it just got stuck. My lips felt really dry too. I was still vomiting when the doctor came in. She told me something was going around (forget what it was called) and that the vomiting should stop in a few hours. But she said if I didn't start keeping fluids down and start urinating I'd need to go to the ER for fluids. She prescribed me Zofran and I went to the pharmacy to pick it up and I got some fruit bars while I was there. I took the Zofran and ate a fruit bar and to my surprise it stayed down. I tried drinking some Gatorade too and that stayed down. I did not throw up again after that! I started feeling better and better so I did not have to go to the ER. Whew! I was afraid of how much that would cost but of course if I needed to I would have. The little dude was so cute tonight! We went out to eat and we put him in a high chair with a high chair/shopping cart cover my sister lent to me. Oh, he thought he was big stuff! So cute. He was just grinning and grinning. First he tried to eat his kids' menu. It was so funny because the waiter was asking us if he wanted apple juice or a kid's meal and he hasn't even had any solid food yet. He was very good! This was his third time in a high chair at a restaurant. When we went out for brother-in-law's birthday and again for Mother's Day dinner with mother-in-law we did the same thing.

Six months...and sicknesses.

It's been so long since I posted! I just have no time anymore. Life is good, just very very busy. It's rushing out the door with baby in car seat, pump and pump parts, changes of clothes and bottles for him, dropping him at day care, getting to work, pumping, running back at lunch to nurse, pumping again, picking him up, nursing, nursing, nursing, washing bottles, putting him to bed, and starting all over again. His sleep is not great right now. Some nights he'll sleep all night and then other nights he wakes several times. He just nurses and goes right back to sleep except a few times when he was sick (more on that in a bit). My little guy is continuing to learn and grow and delight us in every way. He is doing well at day care. In fact, I had my first parent-teacher conference yesterday. He is doing well in every area except self-feeding (ha! he hasn't had regular food yet and he still hates bottles so of course he is not going to feed himself a bottle). He sits very well now for long periods of time. He rolls over occasionally. When he first learned both ways he did it once and that was it. Now he is doing it more. He loves his Exersaucer and sitting his Bumbo seat next to a basket of toys. He pulls them out one by one and plays with each for a bit and then when the toys are gone he wails. He is so cute. He is a very happy baby. In the day care I notice many of the babies are very serious. Not my boy! He grins at everyone. He is definitely my son! I'm such a smiler! He got pinkeye on Friday night, April 20. We called the doctor Saturday morning when it was obvious what it was and they had us come in. He started an antibiotic eye drop and his eye started clearing up right away. I did stay home with him that Monday. Two weeks after the first time his eye started oozing green. I thought it was pinkeye again but wasn't sure so I called the doctor on call (not his normal doctor). She said it sounded like pinkeye and to start the drops again. Well, his eyes got worse instead of better. I wound up staying home with him that Monday as well. I called the doctor to say it was getting worse instead of better and they asked me to bring him in. It was already late in the day so I made an appointment for Tuesday and my husband stayed home with him Tuesday and took him to the doctor. This time he was prescribed oral amoxicillin (the pink bubblegum-flavored stuff) which he needed to take twice a day for a week for a bacterial infection. It was horrible trying to get that stuff into him! He would cry like he was being tortured, gargle it, spit half of it back out, you name it. He was starting to do better and then on Monday (the 14th) I got sick with sinusitis. I went to the doctor Wednesday and took him with me just so she could look at him but she said he was fine and there was nothing we could do for his cough (we both had terrible coughs!). I got my own prescription for amoxicillin and within a day I started feeling better, at least from the sinus pain/pressure. The cough hung around for days. The day after I went to the doctor I noticed a gooey discharge coming from his ear when I picked him up at day care. I asked the teacher who was there if she noticed it (it had not been there at lunch time)and she said she did not notice it. It ran all night but he seemed happy and not in any pain. I asked my husband if he thought he was having an ear infection but he thought if he was it would be hurting the baby and he was fine. So against my better judgment I took him to day care. I felt like I couldn't miss any more work as I missed Tuesday & Wednesday of that week. Well, I got a call sometime between 10:00 and 10:30 from the day care telling me about the discharge and I asked if I should come get him or call the doctor or what. They said to call the doctor and call back. Well, of course they said to bring him in. I called my husband and asked him to take him in. Not long after I got an earache that I just couldn't ignore! I wound up leaving work not long after and met my husband and son at home. And I got the news that our baby had a burst eardrum! Poor little guy. So he got more antibiotics, azithromycin, 4 mL one day and then 2 mL the next four days so he finished that yesterday. Through it all he has had a nasty cough and a runny nose. I feel bad for him! He is in pretty good spirits though; you wouldn't really know he is sick. It's just been one thing after another. In other news his high chair is all assembled and we are getting ready to start him on solids! We are planning to do baby-led weaning which is letting the baby feed him/herself, no purees, no shoved spoons, etc. We have avocado and some broccoli which I'll steam. Of course we'll wait four days in between new foods in case there is an allergic reaction. I wanted to start tonight but my hubby can't find the cord for the video camera and it needs to be charged. I don't want to miss this moment on film! Well, I'm going to get back to American Idol! I should go to bed but I have to know who won. :)

Five months! Don't blink...

Five months have gone by in the blink of an eye! There are so many firsts. Little man is now sitting up on his own! He doesn't last terribly long but he's doing it without assistance. He also started day care two weeks ago. I left him there on Thursday, April 5, and Friday, April 6. I SOBBED after leaving him on Thursday. I went back and lunch time and nursed him (as I was planning to do when I returned to work) and sat in the rocking chair and sobbed again. It was one of the hardest days! Friday my husband had off (Good Friday) and we dropped him off and then went out to breakfast. We wound up springing the little guy out of there shortly after lunch. I couldn't leave him there any more when we were home. I was so sad! Monday we had the day off to go to a baseball game and Tuesday was the real deal, my first day of leaving him and going to work. I am SO glad it was suggested to me to leave him a few days before going to work. Oh, my gosh! I barely cried at all on Tuesday whereas on Thursday I sobbed! I can't imagine if I had gone to work like that. Now there is the chance I wouldn't have cried if I was at work but I would not put money on it. I had a few days to see he would be OK and survive without me before having to concentrate on work! Going back to work was both weird and familiar. In some ways it was like I never left, never had an almost six-month break. In other ways it felt weird. The dread of returning to work was definitely worse than the reality, thank God for that. He does not take a bottle very well. They can get him to take a little bit in the morning and then again in the afternoon. I nurse him at lunch and when I get home from work I just sit and nurse him on the couch for awhile. He knows what he wants! And a bottle is not it. I say he drinks just enough to survive and that's it.

April Update & The End of My Maternity Leave

The long-dreaded night is here. Tomorrow I will be taking my boy to day care and leaving him there for the first time. I am really upset and emotional and just trying to talk myself through it. I am not actually returning to work until Tuesday but I thought we would do a few "dress rehearsals." Besides missing him, obviously, my main concern is that he will not take a bottle. I'm really nervous about this. I feel like I failed somehow. He had bottles the first four days of his life and then on and off til the end of January. He started refusing and I couldn't get him to take one since then. He screams. It is very upsetting for us both.

Other than that I think things will be OK. We visited last Friday and again on Monday just so he could get used to being there and he met the other boys in his "class." I dropped the diapers and wipes off on Monday so now tomorrow I just have to put his crib sheet on and take all the normal weekly and daily items (changes of clothes, tuition check, bottles, milk, pacifier).

I am so nervous about getting us out of the house every morning with all our stuff. I just know I'm going to forget something. Once I start work again I'll have to remember my work bag, breastpump, and my food for the day in addition to his stuff. It's a lot to remember early in the morning.

I have been so enjoying this age. He giggles a lot. He shrieks (cute for a little while anyway, ha ha). He smiles tons. He blows raspberries. He grabs his feet. He is just adorable. Tonight I caught him looking at his daddy and just smiling from the other end of the couch.

My maternity leave was so long, it sort of felt like it might never end. But 25 weeks have passed and the next one will have passed in the blink of an eye. I think we did a good amount of fun things. We went to three matinees (two specifically for moms and babies). We went to La Leche League meetings, support groups at the Breastfeeding Resource Center, a couple of playdates. We also started chiropractic care which was three days per week for me and he came along to all of them but only was adjusted once per week. He has just been my little sidekick for so long now. I'm not going to know what to do without him.

My hope and prayer is still that I can go to part-time. I'd have to wait a few weeks anyway for my husband's full-time job to start. I have to remain full-time to carry health insurance for us but once he gets his on April 23rd we can switch to his I hope.

I hired a cleaning lady and she starts this Saturday. If I have to work full-time (or even most of the time) I do not want to spend the few precious hours I have with my son working around the house. I want to spend quality time with him. I'm so excited to have the house all clean. Good-bye, dust bunnies!