52 Weeks

52 weeks ago today my life changed forever.  That's when I saw this:

I remember it like it was yesterday.  I had gotten up for work and done the whole pee-in-a-cup thing and used some of the internet cheapie tests. (Yes I did two different kinds!)  J walked into the bathroom as I was standing there staring at them.  Our conversation went like this:

J: What are you doing?

Me: Looking at my lines.

J: What does that mean?

Me:  It means I hope you're ready.

J:  Are you pregnant?

Me:  I think so.

He busted out laughing, grabbed me, and gave me a huge hug and a kiss.  On the way to work I stopped at the store and bought the digital test seen above to confirm.  I took it in the work bathroom and when the word 'Pregnant' popped up instantly I got the biggest smile on my face.

Now here we are one year later and we have this:

He's much cuter than a pee stick, don't you think?

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that I work for a company that is understanding and flexible and has allowed me to work at home this week.  Andrew will start daycare on Monday and I have loved getting to spend this last week with him all to my self.

I am also thankful that my baby, who was boycotting naps yesterday and was a cranky mess from 4:00 until about 6:30, has decided to sleep through the night and make up for it.  He is almost always a great night sleeper, so this is nothing new, but he had a rough night Tuesday night which made for a rough day yesterday for both of us.  He appears to be back to his normal night schedule so I'm hoping for a happier day for him (and me!).

Last, but definitely not least, I am thankful every single day that I have a happy and healthy baby.  I haven't mentioned it on here, but a friend of my mom's from work had her baby girl on April 29th.  They knew beforehand that she would be born with a cleft lip and palate, so they knew they had a long road ahead.  What they didn't anticipate was her being diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (M5) on June 24th.  She has undergone the first round of chemo and is responding well. And last week they found out that their 5 year old son is a match for a bone marrow transplant. I'm not a religious person, but I pray for sweet baby Ellison every night, right before I thank God for blessing me with Andrew.

Looks like I have a lot to be thankful for today  :)

4 Months

Ok, actually it was yesterday but I didn't get a chance to post about it.

How in the world is my little munchkin already 4 months old?  Is it really possible that he has been here that long?

It seems like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital with both J and I being excited and terrified at the same time.  We were so clueless then (not that we're all that much better now!).  All we could do was stare in wonder at this tiny little person that we had created.  Of course he didn't do much at the time - just eat, sleep, poop, and cry.

These past four months have brought so many changes.  Now instead of crying all the time, he "talks".  Instead of involuntary smiles in his sleep we get huge grins from him when he sees our faces.  When he's really happy we get the funniest little laughs out of him that make my head hurt because I am smiling so wide.  He is getting such a personality and getting to be so much fun.

See - he's saying "I'm 4 months old!"

His favorite chew toy - his hands

Not exactly sold on the Bumbo just yet

His feet are always a blur in pictures - he won't stop moving!

I love this kid so much and I really can't wait to see what the next months are going to bring.  But I don't want him to grow too fast - I love this little munchkin!

This could be a challenge

As I mentioned in my last post, I am working from home this week with the munchkin

One can imagine that getting work done while simultaneously caring for a 4 month old can be a little challenging.  Fortunately I am always up for a little challenge!

I started working at 6:30 AM with the hopes that he would sleep a while longer so I could get some stuff done.  Andrew decided not to play along and was up at 7:00.  Damn.

I went and got the munchkin, brought him upstairs with me, and laid him across my lap so he could nurse while I worked.  I had hoped that he would pass back out after eating since he slept less than 10 hours last night. Nope.  Damn.

He wanted to play.

He lasted about 20 minutes on the playmat and then wanted to be held.  He amused himself on my lap by gnawing on my arm like a piece of corn on the cob.

Makes typing a bit more of a challenge, but it kept him happy and quiet.

After chewing on me for a while he decided to regurgitate half his breakfast on both of us.  Awesome.

Back downstairs for a wardrobe change and while I was down there I grabbed his bumbo seat.  I figured maybe he would like to sit on my desk and watch me.  This was only fun for  him for about 5 minutes.

He played with his rattle and chewed on his teether til he was hungry again.  Fortunately I was able to get him to eat and pass out for a nap.  Currently he is draped across me napping on his boppy.  My back kind of hurts from the way I'm sitting and typing is slightly awkward as I try not to bump his head. But he is asleep and I've been able to get two test plans done, so I consider it a win-win.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of the week is a success, too.

Nine whole days!

That's right - once I make it through today I have nine whole days at home with my munchkin. 

No, I'm not on vacation next week. I'll be attempting to work from home for the week.  J's mom has been here the last two weeks to watch Andrew and I figured she would want to go home so I decided to work there.  He will then start in daycare the following Monday (August 1st - which I'm sure will bring on a whole new meltdown from me...).

I'm keeping my fingers crossed the he cooperates and lets me get at least some work done during the day.  I'm so glad that my company is flexible and will let me do this.  As long as we get our work my boss doesn't care where we work from (my office mate will be working from Colorado for 2 weeks when she goes to visit her brother next month).

I can't wait to get to spend all my time with this sweet baby!

"What is wrong with you?!?"

No, I didn't say this to Andrew.  I'm talking about my idiot brother-in-law.

Here's the scenario.  Last night while J was finishing up cooking dinner I was nursing Andrew in his room.  My mother-in-law was sitting outside on the deck relaxing.  She had left her phone in the back room.

It rang.

Then it rang again.

And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and AGAIN!

That's right. Her phone rang 9 TIMES in the span of about 2 minutes.  I didn't even have to ask who it was that was calling so incessantly.

You would think that if someone was calling so urgently that it would be about something important. Like they were just in a car accident or the house is burning down.

Nope. Nothing like that.  This 38 year old man/child just wanted to tell his mom something.  WTF?  Have you never heard of voicemail???

I won't call or text him because I don't want him to have my phone number, but I am about to send him an email and tell him that if he continues to call incessantly like that and he wakes the baby that I will drive up to Charlotte and kick his ass.

Ugh - I can't stand that guy.

But at least I had this little cutie to look at and take my mind off of that moron.

So hungry!

Yesterday when I left for work I was confident that I had plenty of milk in the fridge for my munchkin.  I was thinking that I was actually ahead and would have a bottle left in there when I got home.

Boy was I wrong!

I got home from work (bypassing the gym) and found that Andrew had eaten all the bottles PLUS the 2 oz extra that was in there. What the hell?!?

I had been able to pump 17.5 oz while I was at work, so almost enough for three 6 oz bottles for today.  I nursed him when I got home and pumped the other side, getting another 2 oz.  We went for a nice long walk (during which he slept) and I nursed him again later.  After he was down for the night I pumped again and got another 3 oz.

When I left for work this morning I had three 6 oz bottles and one 3.5 oz one for him.  I'm praying that is enough to last him til I get home.

Now I am sitting here googling 'Mother's Milk Tea' and 'fenugreek' and seeing where I can pick some up.  I'm gonna have to up my production in order to keep this little guy satisfied!

"Feed me, mom!"

Another Sunday (sigh...)

Here we are again - getting to the end of the weekend.

Sigh...

They never last long enough.  The two days that I get to spend with Andrew seem to fly by. Ok - maybe not the times that he is screaming, but the rest of it is a blur.

At least we got plenty of quality time in this weekend.  Friday night we took him to dinner with us where he spit up a huge puddle on the floor while J was walking him around. Nice.

Yesterday we took him for an hour walk with the dogs.  I was happy to get him to sleep that entire time since he has turned into a horrible napper.    He hung out on the porch with us for a while, chillin' in his Bumbo.

He likes to chew on stuff and enjoyed gnawing on J's water bottle

Spending some time hanging out on the table (with me sitting right there with him - no need to call DCFS)

Then we went to Outback for dinner before a trip to Wal-Mart.  Our plan to drive around to get him to sleep before going to dinner worked. For about 10 minutes.  He woke up before we even ordered our food and we ended up taking turns trying to entertain him.  Oh well, it was worth a shot. He DID sleep the whole time we were at Wal-Mart as I marveled at the crazy people you see there on a Saturday evening.


Today I took him for a long walk again and he slept for about 80 minutes.  And we've even gotten him to nap in the crib for over an hour so far this afternoon (he's still sleeping).


I want to get as much cuddle time as I can this evening since I know I have to leave him again tomorrow. Man - I hate Mondays...

What a difference 3 months makes

Last night after the little munchkin was asleep in his crib I was messing around on the computer. I was looking at the pictures from his first few weeks of life.

It's crazy how much he has changed in 3 short months:

April 11, 2011 (2 weeks and 2 days old)

July 11, 2011

He barely looks like the same baby to me.

I thought he was really cute when he was born. Now when I look at those pictures I think "OK, you were cute, but you were kind of weird looking!".  Now that he is all filled out it seems like he gets cuter every day.

I love my little munchkin  :)

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that my mother-in-law has been such a huge help with taking care of Andrew while we wait for him to be able to go to daycare.  It has made the transition of me going back to work much easier knowing that he is at our house with someone who loves him almost as much as we do.  I know sometimes I complain about the in-laws, but she has been wonderful and I will be forever grateful for the help.

My, how things change

I mean besides the obvious life change of having a baby. 

Never in my life have a been a morning person.  I'm one of those people who curses their alarm every morning when it goes off.  I can't shut that thing off fast enough.  I've never been a bouncy happy person first thing in the morning. I generally don't hit my stride until at least 9:00 AM.

The 6:00 and 7:00 hour are generally not my favorites.  Too early for anything serious.

Until now.

Now 6:30 to 7:15ish is one of my favorite times of the day.  It's when I go downstairs and get my little munchkin out of his crib for some morning cuddles and nursing.  I love picking him up as he is stretching - his little body is all contorted and he lets out his little morning groan.  By the time I put him on the changing pad he is normally looking up at me and giving me one of his big goofy grins.  Unlike me, he IS a morning person. He's always so smiley and happy from a good night's sleep.

The 20 to 30 minutes that he spends nursing in the morning is our quiet time together to start the day.  I rock in the glider, stroke his soft fuzzy head and talk to him.  I let him know how much I love him and that I wish I could stay home and play with him all day.  It's still hard for me to leave him every day to go to work, but I let him know I will be home as soon as I can and we will play in the afternoon.

After he is done eating I change him into an outfit for the day.  He is all smiles since he apparently loves being naked.  He 'talks' to me during his morning lotion rubdown and gives me some more goofy grins.

The hardest part of my morning is handing him off to my mother-in-law and walking out the door. After 3 weeks it still hasn't gotten much easier. It helps to know that in 8 1/2 hours I will be back at home getting some more cuddles from my sweet baby.  And we'll start all over tomorrow with my favorite morning routine.

Who knew that this little person could make me love mornings??

Baby Steps

No - Andrew is not walking. Although I did have a dream a few weeks ago that he jumped up and ran across the room - in his 3 month old body. It was very bizarre.

Anyway, I am talking about things with my sister.  She texted me on Saturday to see if we were available for lunch on Sunday.  Of course she referred to him as 'the baby', not Andrew.

So I got the two of us ready yesterday and we went and met her at 12:15.  It was slightly awkward at first, but she seemed genuinely happy to see him and she wanted to hold him and feed him and get pictures with him.  I gave her a couple of his 3 month pictures and she was excited that I was giving them to her.  Andrew was particularly enthralled by his pictures and kept staring at himself - it was pretty funny.

We spent about 2 hours at lunch. It was a nice start to repairing things between us and getting her to spend some time with her nephew.  Hopefully things continue in the right direction...

She thought it was funny to snap the picture of us while he was yelling

With his aunt Nicole

Yummy!

I know he isn't 4 months yet, but we decided to try cereal this weekend.  Andrew has been freaking hungry lately and we thought maybe it was time.

Before going out and buying it I consulted my sister, the pediatrician.  Yes, this is the same sister who has been kind of a bitch about his name and has only seen him two times in his 3+ months of life.  So yeah, she's been a crappy aunt, but she is a great doctor and I trust her advice.

Anyway, we picked up some cereal and gave it a go.

He wasn't sure about it at first, but once we got going he was a big fan. He was actually yelling at me because I wasn't feeding it to him fast enough.

I tried again today and he wasn't overly interested, though.  I guess it will take some time, but at least I know it didn't mess with his tummy and that we can start trying some other cereal in the near future.

Vote for Andrew!

Yes, I am shamelessly trying to get votes for my little cutie to be the next Gerber baby (even if he hasn't had any Gerber products yet - eventually he will).

If you feel like supporting him you can vote here.  And you can vote once a day every day through July 31st (if you feel so inclined).

He's cute enough to be in ads, don't you think??

3 Month Pictures

Today I took Andrew to Portrait Innovations to get some 3 month pictures taken.  I had no intention of spending as much money as I did, but once I saw how cute the pictures were I couldn't not get them.

I mean - I HAD to get them, right??

Bumbo - Take 2

Since the munchkin is getting a little bigger I decided to try out the Bumbo again and see how well he could sit in it.

Much better than last time. Now he can actually sit up in it and he tolerated it for a good 10 minutes while I sat there talking to him (and taking pictures).

Of course J got home while I was doing it and asked why I was torturing the kid (he was kidding - clearly I am not doing any harm to him).  I told him that it's good for him and gives him a better view than laying flat on his back.

While he was sitting in it he let loose and filled his diaper - which echoed nicely in the confines of the rubber seat.  Gotta love my little pooper  :)