Why didn't I think of this before??

Yesterday afternoon when I got home Andrew was a very happy baby.  Much different than Monday.  He smiled and talked and nursed and was very content.

Until dinnertime.

He always seems to get fussy when it's time for us to eat.  I've been just holding him on my lap while I eat - I've gotten VERY adept at eating with one hand.

Last night I had a brainstorm.  How about putting him in his highchair and sitting him by us?

Turns out he loves it. I think he just wants to be up where he can see us and wants to be part of the group.  Hopefully he continues to love it so we can actually sit down and eat dinner instead of me shoveling food into my mouth as fast as possible so I can tend to him.

I guess this parenting thing is always going to be a learning process, huh?

Not again...

You'd think I would know better.  Or that I would at least learn from experience.  Apparently not.

Today was the second day this week that I have had to change my clothes before leaving for work.  I don't know if Andrew just ate too much too fast or what, but right as he appeared to be finishing up nursing this morning he gave me a big smile and promptly regurgitated half of what he just ate.  All over me, him, and the glider.

Excellent.

Of course this was after I had put him in his outfit for the day, so we were both onto our second outfits and it was only 7:15 AM.

It super sucks for me because I only have so many work appropriate shirts that have relatively easy access for pumping.  And so far two of them haven't even made it out the door this week.

Maybe it's time to wise up and not put on my work shirt until after the little munchkin has his breakfast.  We'll see if I remember this little lesson tomorrow morning.

Of course he's so damn cute it's impossible to get mad at him

Could he be any cuter??

Andrew turned 3 months old yesterday. How is that possible?  How has he already been on this earth for 3 months?  It seems like just yesterday that I was feeling him kick the crap out of me from the insides and now here he is - 3 months old.

Along with him turning 3 months came a new trick.  It may not have been intentional, but he rolled over for the first time on Saturday.  Click here to see my amazing little munchkin on a roll.

And yes, that was a giant fart around the :30 mark.  I love my gassy little man.

While we were enjoying some tummy time this weekend I also used it as an opportunity for a photo shoot.

My new favorite picture of him. I love his expressions.

I think this is the "What are you doing to me, mom?" look

Love his smile - I just wish I hadn't cut off the top of his head. And had moved the wipes box out of the frame.

I really really really hope his eyes stay blue like this

My little cutie

Way to go, little guy!

Last night after Andrew's bath I had him on the floor and was putting lotion on him.  I rolled him over so I could put it on his back.  Normally he raises hell about being on his tummy. 

Not this time.

This time he popped right up and did this:

I love the 'Look what I can do' expression on his face  :)

I yelled for J to "Get in here and see what he's doing!". He came running in and sat on the floor with us.  Neither of us could stop smiling as we watched our little munchkin kicking his feet and moving his arms like he wanted to go somewhere.

Such a proud mommy moment  :)

Growth spurt? Or best baby ever?

Yesterday, according to my MIL, Andrew was a wonderful little munchkin  He took a 2 1/2 hour nap in the morning, spent lots of time playing and cooing on his playmat, ate like a champ, and took another long nap before I got home from work.

Actually he was snoozing when I got home and I had to fight the urge to swoop him up and shower him with kisses.  Once he woke up, though, all bets were off.  He was a content little guy and I got to spend 5 good hours with him, including lots of nursing, bath time, and oodles of cuddles.

This kid cracks me up

We put him to bed a little after 9:00. J and I both just stood there looking down at him snuggled in the crib.  It still never ceases to amaze me that he is all ours:

(We will be starting to break him of the boppy habit this weekend)

This morning when I got up I went out and listened to see if I heard him. Nope.  I looked at my phone. He'd been asleep for a little over 9 hours.  The whole time I was getting ready I was listening for a yell. 

Nothing.

I went downstairs and packed up my lunch and got everything ready for the day.  Finally I went in to get him.  9 hours and 40 minutes.  Wow.

His eyes were half open, like he was about to wake up.  He squinted at me as I picked him up and gave me a cute little groan and stretch when I put him on the changing table and unswaddled him.

I got my morning baby time while nursing him and got him changed for the day before I let him go.  He was on the playmat when I left, ready for another day.

With all this sleep I either have the best baby ever, or he is hitting that 3 month growth spurt.  Either way, I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world...

And on to day three

The third day away from my sweet little guy.  It's starting out better than yesterday.  It's still not easy and I still had to drag myself away from him this morning, but I made it out of the house without shedding any tears.

It may have been made easier by the great afternoon/evening we had yesterday.

I got home at 4:15 after hauling ass through traffic and cursing the people in front of me who had the nerve to follow the speed limit when I was rushing home to see my baby.  I dashed into the house and found Andrew being calmed by MIL.  She was appeasing him until I could get home to nurse him.

I was feeding him when J got home from work. He skipped the gym since he was going riding instead. In the 100+ degree heat. Good plan.

So Andrew and I hung out a bit and I finally put the crib soother in to see if he liked it. It looks like he does:

And no - I don't put him sideways in his crib like that all the time. I just wanted to see if he would watch the toy.

I nursed him again and then dragged him to the grocery store to get some stuff.  He was a perfect angel in his carseat the whole time. Unlike the 4 year old there with his mom who was walking through the store screaming at the top of his lungs and having a temper tantrum. 

We had a nice evening at home after dinner.  After bathtime and more nursing he was down in his crib for night #3. 

8 hours and 47 minutes later he was up this morning ready for a new day.  Hopefully the rest of this day goes fast because I can't wait to get home to see this:

Damn, I love this kid.

Day Two - not so good

I made it through yesterday with no tears at all. I mean, I was super sad to leave him in the morning, but I think the anticipation of getting back to the office got me through.

Today - not so much.

When I got home yesterday afternoon I was so happy to see his smiling little face.  My MIL told me that he did good all day, but he didn't really nap much and she could tell he missed me because he wanted to nurse.  I grabbed him and didn't let go.   We spent some quality time together and it didn't even bother me when he had a complete poo explosion (we're talking up the front and the back of the diaper - huge mess!).

Last night was night # 2 in the crib. He went down at about 9:45 PM and at 3:45 I heard my MIL up with him.  I went down to feed him and he was so upset. I think waking up in the unfamiliar place put him over the edge. I finally got him to calm down and nurse and he went back to bed.

I eventually fell back to sleep until my alarm went off. I hate that thing.

I got ready for work and then went to go get my little man.  I found him sleeping like this in his crib:

Yeah, I know, he shouldn't be sleeping on the boppy. We're going to work on breaking that habit once he gets used to the crib.  And our little Houdini worked both hands out of the swaddle. I guess I moved to the bigger one too early.

Anyway, I got him up, changed him, nursed him, lotioned him up, put him in his outfit for the day, and handed him over to his grandma.  As I was gathering my stuff up she went over and sat on the floor with him on his playmat.  He started smiling and kicking (he's so happy in the mornings) and was perfectly content.  I said my goodbyes and got out of there before I could burst into tears.  The tears came before I even made it into my car.  Ugh. Is this ever going to get any easier???

He's looking at me like he knows I am about to leave   :(



So far so good

I am back at work.

I made it out the door and all the way to the office with no tears.  Score one for me. Last night was a whole other story. 

Every time I started to think about leaving him I teared up.  When he was crying loudly and my mother-in-law was comforting him I started sobbing thinking 'When he's crying tomorrow I won't be here to comfort him.'. 

To top it off, J decided to pick last night to transition him from the bassinet upstairs into his crib down in his nursery.  That kind of put me over the edge.

I bathed him, got him all snuggled up, nursed him, put him in his crib and then headed upstairs to cry my way through my shower.  I know deep down that he needs to be in his crib and that he is outgrowing the bassinet and that we might as well make the transition while MIL is here, but it was still hard.

This morning I got up after not hearing a peep from Andrew all night. J went down to check on him and said he was still snoozing.  I got myself ready for work and went downstairs into his nursery.  Still snoozing.  After 9 hours and 5 minutes of sleep.  Excellent.

I actually had to wake him up so I could feed him before I left (and get some good baby time to tide me through the 8 hours of work).  He nursed like a champ and blew out two diapers - smiling the whole time.

I got him ready for the day and handed him over to his grandma with a few last kisses.  Then I hauled ass out of there before I could get upset.

Man this is hard.  He's in good hands so I know he'll be ok. I just can't wait to see his smiling face at 4:00.

I'm a Mess

I'm going to miss seeing this smiling face all day  :(

Tomorrow is my last day of working from home. I have to go back to the office on Monday. 

Every time I think about it I cry.

I know millions upon millions of moms do it every day and I know I will be fine (eventually).  But after getting to spend all my time with him for 12 weeks it is going to be so hard to walk out the door on Monday.

On the plus side, he will be at our house being taken care of by his grandma for two weeks. J's mom is coming down to help out since the daycare didn't have a spot for him until August 1st.  I know she will give him plenty of attention so that makes me feel slightly better.

So she'll be here for two weeks. Then J and I are taking vacation the week of July 4th. She'll come down for another two weeks, and then I will work from home that last week in July before he starts daycare the next week.

I always said I couldn't imagine being a stay at home mom and that I would get bored. Now knowing I have to leave makes me wish we had the financial capability for me to stay with him.

Of course last night as I was backing into the garage I hit the drivers side mirror on my car and cracked it. That will cost at least $700 to fix.  Great. I guess I better get back to work so I can pay for it.  Sigh...

My Little Overacheiver

Yesterday - in a word - sucked.

For the first time in probably 2 weeks I had to get up in the middle of the night to feed Andrew.  No 8 or 9 hour stretch of sleep.  Then all day he just wanted to eat and not sleep.  At all.  I think I got one 30 minute nap out of him.

Needless to say, he was a full blown cranky pants.  It was especially fun when he was laying across my lap and started wailing right when I had to get on the phone with a co-worker.  Thankfully said co-worker is a good friend and has a small child so he could understand.

All day I felt like he was attached to one boob or the other. Or he was fussing and yelling and just not sleeping.

It seems like he has decided to hit his 3 month growth spurt a week or so early.  No slacking for this kid - he wants to be ahead of the curve.

Andrew in Action

Yesterday I uploaded a few videos of Andrew so that I could send them to my mom and mother-in-law since they don't get to see him all the time.  The added bonus is that I'll get to watch them next week when I have to go back to work. Hopefully they'll help me get through the days without missing him so much.

Click here to see Andrew's reaction to being put into his bath. He does it every time we put him in there and it never fails to crack me up.

Click here to see his morning calisthenics.  Every morning when I change his outfit he turns into a total spazz on the changing table.  The urgent look on his face always makes me laugh.

Click here to see his reaction to getting his head rubbed.  J discovered this trick a few weeks ago, but it only works if he is in a good mood.  I love his little gummy smile.

I have all of the videos unlisted so people can't just stumble upon them in a search.  Not that I mind people seeing just how adorable he is, but I figured maybe there should be a little privacy on them. (She says as she posts them here!).

Enjoy!

What a weekend!

Andrew had quite the weekend.  On Friday we met some friends out for dinner at a new restaurant that opened up down the street. 

Andrew was not impressed.

Saturday morning we took the new tent and the Nap Nanny and headed to the beach.  Andrew spent some time chilling in the tent:

Saturday night we went to our friend's surprise birthday party.  Andrew was the life of the party.

Yesterday I took my first extended trip with Andrew up to Myrtle Beach to see my parents and so he could meet his cousins.  He did great the whole ride up (a little over 90 minutes), but he woke up when I hit the first speed bump going into their neighborhood and had a bit of a meltdown.

He eventually settled and napped then hung out with his cousins.  The oldest, Kayleigh, is in the "why" stage so she had lots of questions.  Like, "Why is he a baby?" and "Why is he eating a bottle?".  Then she asked me if he likes blueberries and I had to head her off before she tried to feed him some.

After he calmed down he napped in his Nap Nanny

Kayleigh, Andrew and Kendall

All in all it was a nice little trip and it makes me feel better to know that I can make trips with him by myself and it not be a disaster.

Oh, and I must've worn him out because he slept for 9 hours and 9 minutes straight last night   :)

Am I the Only One?

I check the April 2011 moms page on thebump.com and facebook all the time to check in and see how my fellow moms are doing and see what everyone's little ones are up to.

The common theme lately with people seems to be "I hate my husband".  It seems like there are so many women who are in the position of not wanting to even look at or talk to their spouses since the baby was born.  I can only assume that these women have very little help from their husbands when it comes to taking care of the baby.

Am I the only one who loves my husband even more since having the munchkin?

I mean, yeah, he can piss me off to no end sometimes and I have been jealous of his ability to go on with his regular life when I was here with a baby attached to my boob constantly.  But I take one look at him sitting with Andrew, talking to him and playing with him and my heart bursts with love for both of them.

I'm so grateful that I have a loving husband and a fantastic father for my little guy.  It just makes me sad that there are others who don't feel the same way about their spouses.  I guess I'm just one lucky lady.

Things I Can't Live Without

As a first time mom I pretty much knew nothing going into this adventure.  I mean, I've been around babies before, but I had never had to care for one.  Which means I had no idea the things I would really need.  There's tons of stuff out there that we get suckered into buying as expectant parents, but here is the list of stuff that I actually find useful and wouldn't be able to get through the day without:

• Baby Feeding Log iPhone App - At first I was just using the clock function on my phone and the timer to see how long he was eating.  I had bought the Itzbeen timer, but never got batteries for it so it hasn't gotten used.  Once I wised up and looked for an app for it, I found this one.  You can track when they last ate,  how long, which side, if a bottle - how many ounces, diapers (wet, dirty or both), and sleep time. I love this thing!

• Summer Infant SwaddleMe - We have lots of different blankets, but I have never been able to swaddle our little Houdini and keep his hands in any of them.  The SwaddleMe is great since it has the velcro to keep him in.  He sometimes resists at first, but once he settles down it lets him get nice long stretches of sleep at night.  I've never used it during the day for naps, though.

• Boppy Pillow - This has been a must have for us.  It not only helps with breastfeeding, but he loves to lounge on it and has actually been sleeping on it at night.  I know it says not to let them sleep on it, but the way we have it set up in his bassinet there is no way for him to suffocate.  And Andrew loves his boppy!

• Sleep Gowns - As a newborn it was impossible to get his legs and feet snapped or zipped into a footed sleeper.  After one day we gave up and I bought some of these gowns for him to sleep in.  He can kick his legs around all he wants and nighttime diaper changes are a snap - we just have to pull the gown up.  At first they were huge on him, but now they are starting to fit well.  I'll be sad when he grows out of them.
• Gymini Animal Concert Play Mat - Andrew loves to lay on his mat and stare up at the hanging animals.  He is starting to grab at them now and he will lay on this for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour in the mornings, kicking and cooing. Once he starts to enjoy tummy time more he will be able to hit and play the music buttons, too.

• Boppy Changing Pad Liners - These have been great.  Especially with the amount that this kid poos and his penchant for peeing once the diaper is removed. These have saved me from having to constantly be washing the changing pad covers.
• Jogging Stroller - We bought a Baby Jogger Performance Single stroller off of Craigslist. J and I are both avid runners so we knew we wanted one. Andrew is still too small for us to run with him in it, but it has been great for walks around the neighborhood and to go to the beach. The big wheels are so much better for the awful sidewalks around here than the wheels on our regular stroller.
• Swing/Vibrating Seat - We have a full sized swing that my sister handed down, but we also got this small one. This is what Andrew slept in for his first three weeks. He hated laying flat on his back and this kept him at an incline. Plus the vibrating function put him to sleep. Now we use it to entertain him sometimes so we can eat dinner or I can just get something done around the house.  Some babies hate swings, but thankfully Andrew doesn't seem to be one of them.

• Burp Cloths - Andrew loves to make a mess and seems to spit up when you least expect it.   We have these cloths spread throughout the house so there is always one handy. I love these little terry ones that I found at Target.

By no means am I am expert about any of this, but these are just a few of the things that I have found invaluable in these first couple months.

One thing that we have way too many of and absolutely no use for is pacifiers. He will NOT take one. If you put one in his mouth he projectile spits it out.  He has no interest in them whatsoever.  I guess on the plus side we won't have to break him of the habit later on and you always get to see his face instead of seeing a giant paci.  It would be nice if we could use one to soothe him, though.  Oh well, he'll just have to find his hands I guess...

Could it be?

I thought once might be a fluke.  Twice could be a coincidence. But we have now had three nights in a row of 8+ hours of sleep for Andrew.  The past two night have been almost 9 hours.

Could it be that we are actually going to have him sleeping through the night on a regular basis?

And I am well aware that by me just saying that means that I am dooming us to getting up every few hours tonight.

We've also gotten into somewhat of a routine during the day and he has been taking a 2 hour nap in the late morning/early afternoon.  I would LOVE to think this means we are settling into something, but at less than 11 weeks I'm not holding my breath.

Of course one other thing that has become routine is him being a total fuss-butt in the evenings.  Poor J doesn't get to see the happy baby that Andrew is in the mornings. He just gets to spend time with the gremlin in the evenings. 

He's a cute little gremlin, though.

That Really Hurts

As mentioned previously - there has been some tension with my one sister since Andrew was born.  Her irrational response to his name and her hurtful emails may have irrevocably scarred our relationship.  That's a tough pill to swallow because we have always been very close.

I thought maybe we had turned a corner a few weeks ago when I got a (somewhat) apology from her regarding her actions, but now I really don't think so.

Not once since then has she asked how he is doing.  And when I look on facebook she is always commenting on and 'liking' pictures of our nieces, but she has never made a single comment on any of the pictures of Andrew that I have posted.  It's like she is trying to ignore his very existence.  Like if she doesn't acknowledge him he will go away.

That makes me sad.

And how could someone want to ignore this sweet baby?

The Holy Grail of Sleep

After being a complete and total crankypants pretty much all day yesterday (which now that I think about it was probably due to very little napping), Andrew hit a milestone last night.

That's right - he gave us 8 hours of straight sleep.  Actually 8 hours and 3 minutes based on my handy dandy iPhone app.

Needless to say - I am thrilled.  But I'm not going to get my hopes up that this will continue with any regularity. He likes to keep us guessing so I'm going to assume that tonight he will be up every 2 hours, just to keep it interesting.

Anyway, this weekend we did get to do some stuff with him.  Saturday we went for a walk on the bridge and then took a detour through the Sweetgrass Festival that was being held at Waterfront Park.  We didn't buy anything since I refuse to spend $500 on a basket, but we did take a nice little break on the pier where J fed Andrew:

Mmmmm - fresh squeezed mom juice

Then that night we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to attempt to find a tent for the beach (no luck) and then went to Longhorn for dinner since we had a gift card.  Little man lasted through the appetizer in his car seat and then insisted on being held for the rest of dinner.  I've gotten damn good at eating one handed.

Yesterday we went to K-Mart because they have some patio furniture that J saw that he likes so we went to look. Unfortunately it's no longer on sale and we're not sure we want to pay $500 for it.  Then we went to Lowes to get some more flowers for outside.  It almost made me happy that Andrew was fussy because I had to be inside feeding him instead of outside in the 90+ degree heat planting flowers. Thanks little guy!

Here's hoping that after his great stretch of sleep last night he is a more agreeable baby today.

My Company Rocks!

As mentioned previously - I started back to work last Monday.  However, I am working from home for four weeks before actually going back into the office starting June 20th.

Luckily, my company is very flexible and my boss doesn't care where we work from as long as our work is getting done.  Fortunately my job sometimes has a lot of down time - and now is one of those times.

I generally get started around 6:30 when the little gremlin wakes up.  He can lay across my lap and nurse as I get logged in and check emails and such.

Then he has some time on his play mat. He is in a happy mood in the mornings since he's well rested and he will lay kicking and cooing on his play mat for anywhere from 30 mins to an hour.

Sometimes he sits on my lap and snuggles up until I get him to sleep and then I'll transfer him to the bassinet that's located behind me.

Or he can help me type:

Today we broke out the Bumbo to see if he'd sit on my desk while I work. He's not a huge fan.

Currently he is snoozing in his swing beside me.  Now I can knock out a few documents and feel like I actually accomplished something.  And to top it all off - it's Friday!  Woo hoo!

Weight and Lack of Willpower

After popping out Andrew the first 20 lbs of weight seemed to fall right off.  I mean, I was in pre-pregnancy jeans just days after delivering.  Granted I had a nice muffin top to go with them, but they were on nonetheless.

Now it's almost 10 weeks later and these last 10 lbs are refusing to give up.  They have taken up residence in my belly, butt and thighs and show no signs of vacating the premises.

I naively thought that since I am breastfeeding that it would magically disappear. No such luck.  And it doesn't help that I have absolutely zero willpower when it comes to snacking.  We went to Sam's Club two weeks ago and bought way too much crap. I hear those peanut M&M's calling my name and I can't help but answer the call.  That is the only reason that I look forward to being back at work. At least when I am there I don't have access to junk food all day. As long as I pack my healthy snacks I will be good to go.

From what I've read/heard it's possible that a breastfeeding woman's body can hold onto the last 5 or 10 lbs of fat while they are still breastfeeding since the body needs it to lactate (or something like that).  By no means am I going to abandon breastfeeding to satisfy my vanity, but I really hope that little snippet of information is incorrect.  Especially since summer is about here and it's prime bathing suit season.

Sometimes I hate living at the beach...