Kitties, Here I Come

Bits and Pieces

For the second time in his life, the Peanut only woke up 1 time last night and slept 7 hours straight. I, on the other hand, woke up about 4 times, wondering why the Peanut had not yet awoken and to check on him. The funny thing is that we had been bedsharing once again for the past week (we enjoy bedsharing so much we can't stop), and last night was the first time we put the Peanut back in his bassinet. We'll probably have him sleep in his bassinet again, and we'll see what happens tonight.

As I was leaving for work one morning last week, I noticed the husband was setting up the xBox and projector to watch a movie:

Me: Oh, what movie are you guys going to watch?
The Husband: Jackass.
Me: Ummm, I don't think that's a good movie.
The Husband: No, it's a good one, it has good music.
Me: Ok. (and I walked out the door)

When I returned that evening, it turned out that Jackass was in fact not a good choice. Oh well. Live and learn. But the Peanut had been watching a lot of Cosmos. Whenever Carl Sagan is on the screen, the Peanut starts talking back. It's soo cute.

My mom and the husband teamed up to care for the Peanut last week. I think it was a good week for everyone. The husband goes back to work on Monday and he's already missing the Peanut. The transition is hard but it does get easier as time goes by. My mom will be flying back and forth every week to take care of the Peanut this summer. Then we'll have to figure out what we do...daycare, nanny, stay at home mom/dad...decisions, decisions.

Well, that's it for now. I'm so glad it's Friday. I'll try to get more pictures up soon.

Coolness

Getting ready to go swimming.

He really likes his shades.

I'm tired!

We Haven't Laughed This Hard Ever

Sorry for the poor video quality. We have a high-def camera but can't figure out how to make better quality, but smaller sized videos. This one is about 2.5 minutes long and the image gets better when we turn on the light about 30 seconds into the video. Be sure to have the sound on. Enjoy!

It's Been a Great Month

Lots of playing. Lots of walks. Lots of fun. Even some swimming! I can't wait for the days to come.

Oh No!

What happens when I leave the boys alone??? The Peanut gets a new outfit.



That's right, that's an old pair of Hanes, with arm holes.






This is a great sight to come home to.

Working Mom

I've been back at work for 2 weeks now. The first couple of days were easy. The next few were hard. Being at work isn't so hard, it's when I go home and I see what I'm missing that I sometimes feel sad. I tend to only get 2-3 hours with the Peanut of play time before it's time to go to bed. So now my weeknights and weekends have a whole new meaning. I used to have a long list of things of stuff I wanted to do on the weekends, but now all I want to do is hangout with the Peanut. And not getting enough rest at night just adds to the emotional stress. But we're managing.

By the second week, stuff at work got a lot more stressful. I went from hanging out with my son 24/7 to working on developing a numerical model of a bullet for new and improved armor designs. So work is challenging. My boss was in my office a few days ago, and we were trying to figure out how a material model was working and he said: "blah, blah, blah, that's right, because what is the log of 1...?" Huh, the log of 1? Uhhhhhhh?? What's a log? I blanked. The only logs I had been thinking of for 3 months were pooppy and nursing logs. And my boss was referring to something completely different. And I've had more than a few similar incidents. Hopefully my boss doesn't think I'm a total idiot now.

The husband is doing great at home. And the Peanut and husband are developing a great relationship. The husband is now becoming the Peanut expert. But fortunately I still have the boobs so the Peanut still enjoys seeing me come home.

I can't believe I'm a working mom now. So much has changed in the last 4 months. I honestly can't remember what we did with our time before the Peanut was born. And my little joys in life are different now. I am happy to see mustard yellow poops in my son's diaper (the best color to have). I cheer when I can pull a booger out of the Peanut's nose. Before the Peanut I was indifferent to baby clothes and didn't care too much about other babies, especially if they didn't belong to friends or family. Now I love baby clothes and all things babies. And when I see another baby I either reminisce about when the Peanut was that young or imagine what the Peanut will be like when he's older.

Well, it's Friday and I can't wait for the weekend to start. Pictures later.

What We Have Been Up To

This is my last week on maternity leave. I am sad. I can't believe I am going to have to leave the Peanut. The good thing is that he'll stay with someone that loves him as much as I do, his daddy. I'm sure the two boys will have lots of fun together. The Peanut will have a much easier time parting than I will - as long as he gets fed when he wants it and his diaper changed when he needs it.

Over Easter weekend we went to the OC to visit my family. The Peanut was great on the flight. He ate, slept, sucked on his pacifier, and looked around. And of course he charmed a few people. A lady sitting behind us commented to her travel mate that the Peanut was a cute baby. :) The Peanut got lots of love from the family and friends. One of my aunties nicknamed him the blender since he loves to get bounced and swayed.

The husband's brother met up with us in the OC and we all flew back together. During his visit, we went to the new California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park. It was awesome. We didn't get to see a lot because we got there late and it was crowded, but the Peanut loved the fish. However, after about 30 minutes of fish he got a little over stimulated and needed to take a nap. But we had so much fun showing him the fish at the aquarium that today we took him to the pet store to check out more fish. But the store fish weren't as cool.

The Peanut is now 3 months. He's able to mostly support his head, but he doesn't have much control with it and he still often bangs his head against our shoulder or head. So we still try to support it. The Peanut has also started holding on to things, like a rattle. He doesn't yet reach for anything, but I expect that is a couple weeks away. We've also started teaching the Peanut some sign language. We are keeping it simple with words like mommy, daddy, baby, nurse, milk, happy, love. We are using signs from a baby sign language book we got, but I don't think they are appropriate American Sign Language signs (at least not all of them). Hopefully the three languages we are using won't be too much for the Peanut.

And now, for more exciting stuff...PICTURES!!!

Puppy Kiss!!!


Close-up


Hanging out with some oranges in the OC.


What the???


Family Easter picture.


Yummy fist.


Artistic bath picture.


Check out the fish!

Co-Sleeping

A few weekends ago we decided to co-sleep with the Peanut. He gave us 6 hours between feedings which was awesome. But, we were so worried about squishing the baby that we barely slept. The following weekend, we tried it again. The second time around we loved it and were hooked. We've been co-sleeping since. It's so much fun. It's like a little slumber party every night. The only thing is that since we are not planning on co-sleeping in the long term, we probably need to go back to having the Peanut sleep in his crib. But maybe we'll enjoy it for another few weeks.

This weekend we are going to OC to visit family. It's the Peanut's first trip. We are quite excited. We were thinking of visiting the in-laws in Italy later this month (but decided it would have been too logistically difficult), so the Peanut already has his passport. He is set!

Today we went to the San Jose Museum of Art and checked out an Andy Warhol exhibit. The Peanut was awake and observant the whole time. There were certain paintings he liked and would stare and smile and others that made him fuss. He's already an art critic.

In non-baby news, over the weekend I went to the openning game of the new Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league. It was a fun game and it was awesome to see some of the veterans like Brandi Chastain and Tiffany Milbrett still playing so late in their careers. Chastain turns 41 this year. Wow! Before the game, a friend of ours had a tailgating party at her house. Now, since most of my readers are not from the mid-west, let me tell you a little something about mid-west cuisine (my friend is from the mid-west). If you live in the mid-west, on special occasions, next to your meat and potatoes, you might find a jello dish. My friend had talked about these dishes before and I never quite believed her. She described dishes that included ingredients like jello, fruits, pistachios, carrots, and other stuff you would probably not use in the same sentence with jello. Well, this particular jello dish had baked pretzels layered with a whipped cream, cream cheese, and sugar filling, and then topped with jello with strawberry chunks. It was actually quite good. Sweet and tart at the same time. So not that bad. UNTIL I realized that the dish is a side dish and NOT a desert. I had some leftovers but I ate my jello dish for desert.

Happy Easter everyone!!

Bits and Pieces

I walked into our bedroom last night to find Monkey sitting on the husbands laptop. She had Googled "]67" and there was drool on the laptop.

A few nights ago, around 3:30 am, I had fed the Peanut and had changed his diaper. I was sleepily putting his clothes back on with all the lights off except the nightlight. As I was finishing, I glanced up at his face and realized he was staring at me with a very concerned look on his face. He looked really cute and I smiled. He smiled back at me with his big, toothless grin. My heart melted.

I am getting better and faster with the one handed typing.

There's a "big sale" at the trailer park near our house. Hmmm.

Oh, did anyone participate in Earth Hour last weekend? We did. The husband bottle fed the Peanut by candlelight while I read Walt Whitman out loud. It was fun, except for the Whitman part. His poetry is kind of depressing.

I was pretty sure I had a lot more stuff but I can't seem to remember any of it right now. So instead, I present and Ode to Brady Part II (Part I is here).

Brady???


Brady!!!


Daddy and son.

Babies are Fun!

2 Months!

2 months already! Wow! As someone in our new mom's group said, "the days are long, but the years are short." So true. The days are long and not. Sometimes I'll look up at the clock and be amazed that it's already 3 pm (didn't we just get up an hour ago??). By 7 or 8 pm I'm exhausted, but feel as if I didn't accomplish anything. I guess the diapering and feeding is all part of my routine now (like brushing my teeth), so it's not something that's on my list of to-do's from day to day.

Baby massage is going well. During the first class the peanut was quite fussy, as were most of the babies. That's not really what you would expect at a massage class. Last week's class was great. We got a lot of massage done and the Peanut LOVED it.

We finally narrowed our cloth diaper options to pocket diapers. They are pretty easy. So here's a quick tutorial on cloth diapers - there are 4 basic kinds: flatfolds (a big rectangular piece of fabric that you fold/wrap around a baby, secure, and then put a "waterproof" cover on), prefolds (already folded/contoured and also require a cover), pockets (a cover with a pocket so you can vary your stuffing/absorbency), and all-in-ones (these are most like disposables). We went with pocket diapers, mostly because the layer that touches the baby's bum is made of a material that wicks moisture away so it feels dry. Since we struggle with diaper rash on the Peanut, we need that area to stay as dry as possible. There are a ton of different manufacturers of pocket diapers, but I narrowed it down to a few and bought a couple of each brand to try out - Happy Heinys, Fuzzi Bunz, BumGenius, and TinyTush. With names like that, why wouldn't you want to use cloth diapers? After that, you have a few more, simpler choices...snaps vs. velcro, color, etc.

So scratch that. When I first started writing this post last week, I was all excited about cloth diapers. We had already been using them for a while in conjunction with disposables since I had not yet purchased enough to use them all the time (and we were still deciding on a brand). But, since we are always battling diaper rash, we need to keep the Peanut's bum lathered with diaper rash cream, which is terrible for cloth diapers. Diaper rash cream creates a water proof barrier on the baby's bum...and so any that gets on the diaper will create a water proof barrier on the diaper itself. That's bad. Some of the organic creams will wash out of the diaper, but not the heavy duty stuff we need. So we stopped using cloth diapers and also switched up the disposable diaper brand. We've tried the popular brands like Huggies and Pampers and were using the Whole Foods brand (no chemicals). But over the weekend we switched it up to the Seventh Generation brand (also no chemicals), and the rash is almost all gone. Yay! We still need to keep using the diaper rash cream, even if the rash is gone, just to add a layer of protection (as the pediatrician recommended). Cloth diapers are supposed to prevent diaper rash better than disposables, and we would still love to use cloth vs. disposable, but I think we'll need to wait a little while, to see if the baby's bum "toughens up".

So parents don't talk in high-pitched baby talk because they like to, but because it works. If I try to explain to the Peanut that I need to put his socks on before I feed him, "I need to put your socks on" doesn't work. Now if I say "I need to put on your little sockies on your little toesies that are soo cutie" in a high-pitched voice with lots of animation (think smiling like crazy, waving the socks around), then I'll get an extra few seconds to put the socks on before he starts screaming. The only problem is that after talking in such a manner for 10+ hours, it's hard to turn off when I talk to an adult (aka, the husband).

I recently learned I can stuff 7 tortellinis in my mouth at once. The Peanut was hungry but so was I.

The Peanut has been awake and playful a lot more. He's generally very happy in the mornings or after naps. He's even started to wake up during walks (he tends to sleep as soon as he's rocked in the car or stroller). Last night I took him to meet my indoor team and watch the game and he was alert and watching the whole time. It's a lot more work now that he's awake a lot more but it's also a lot more fun.

I finally got back into pilates. My back was starting to bother me and after a couple of pilates and physical therapy sessions, I feel so much better. Pilates is a lot harder now that I am not pregnant. I no longer have a wedge to lie on which makes the ab work a lot easier. And when I do push ups, I have a lot further down to go so those are harder too. The only thing that is easier is the balance.

Here's a couple more pictures: Superbaby and cute hands

MAN and His Many Moods

It's been a while...

I didn't realize it's been so long since I've posted. Wow. We've had a busy couple of weeks. Now that it's sunnier and the Peanut is bigger, we are going out a lot more. It's great to be out and about. I can't help but have a huge grin on my face as I push the stroller around. The Peanut doesn't have any friends yet but hopefully we'll get some by default soon enough. We just joined a new mothers support group. We meet once a week with a facilitator that basically has all the answers to the questions we may have (how do we get the babies to sleep through the night?, etc.). There are about 8 of us, and the Peanut is the only boy. He'll be popular one day.

This week we also start a baby massage class. I know it sounds stupid, but I want to do everything I can with the Peanut before I have to go back to work. I never thought I would feel like this, but I would love to be a stay-at-home mom. At least until the Peanut goes on to school. But in this area we can't afford it. Oh well.

Here's a video of the baby hanging out with Major:



Oh, and here's a little cartoon strip our friend made for us:



What else is new...my parents were in town over the weekend. The husband and I went out on a date on Saturday night. We went out for desert and a drink. And we ran into my boss and his wife who were doing the same thing. I had a beer. It was good. But maybe not worth it. When I got home, I had to pump and dump. I have more than enough milk, but I still felt bad about throwing it away.

Our days are starting to get some structure. We have consistently (last 2 days) gotten 4.5 hours between feedings. Which means I get 3 hours of sleep in a row. So he'll usually feed around 8:30 pm and then again at 1 am. Then 4 am, and then again around 7 am. So we only have 2 night feedings. But in the late afternoons, early evenings, we start cluster feeding, and he'll eat every 1.5 - 2 hours, getting himself ready for the long stretch. It's worth it. Feeding often helps me wind down (it's peaceful to feed). Sometimes the husband does a bottle feeding in the evening, which gives me extra time to do whatever.

In the mornings, he is often awake from 6 or 7 am until 11 am or 1 pm. And during that time it's mostly constant attention. He likes to get bounced (which means I bounce too) and he loves looking at stuff (windows, picture frames, mirror).

Being a mommy is soo much fun!

More cute pictures:

The brothers take a nap!


Noodles looks over the baby (in the polka dot sleep sack).


Check out my bald spot.


Go Red Sox!

Lesson Learned

We learned an important lesson on Friday night:

NEVER wake a sleeping baby. NEVER.

If the baby is not in his crib, well, then you sit there until he wakes up. If you are holding the baby and your arm is asleep, too bad. And you have to go to the bathroom? Even worse for you.

NEVER wake a sleeping baby.

The baby is napping. I better sleep...but first I'll check email...

Quick Update

So today is the munchkin's 1 month anniversary. I can't believe he's one month already. On the one hand it feels like time is flying, but at the same time, I can't really remember life before our son arrived.

My parents, brother, and his girlfriend were in town this week. We had a good time. My mom loves hanging out with her grandson, so apart from my feeding the peanut, she'll do everything else - burp, change the diaper, whatever. I actually managed to get some rest while she was here. But it was also great to be with family the whole weekend.

I have been talking to Capitán Cacahuete in Spanish a little more than 50% of the time. It's not 100% of the time, but it's better than I expected to do. My husband has also been using some Spanish. He hears me say stuff like "mas leche" and "no llores" and the husband will start repeating it to Capitán Cacahuete.

The Peanut has still been eating a ton of milk. And as you can see from the picture below, it's going straight to his cheeks.

Searching for surf nurse.


We were using flatfold cloth diapers but we were unhappy with them, so we canceled the service. I just ordered a trial kit of different, more sophisticated cloth diapers and we just tried the first diaper. The cloth diapers are super soft and I really hope we are happy with them (and the extra work it will entail to wash them ourselves) because I definitely want something that soft against my son's skin. We'll probably still use disposables for outings and travel.

We still try to swaddle the Peanut because his motor skills are still developing so he scares himself by flailing his arms around as he tries to sleep. A blanket swaddle won't hold him, so we have this special blanket with Velcro that is "inescapable". But as you can see, that's not really the case with the Peanut.

No swaddle can hold me.


And here's another cute picture.

Looking for nurse! Again!

Sleepy Parents

So we are surviving parenthood. The lack of sleep is tough, but not as tough as some of the pregnancy changes were for me. Plus, it's hard to be overwhelmed by the lack of sleep when you have a cute little baby staring up at you. The biggest challenge is getting anything done in addition to feeding the baby. He eats every 3 hours, and a feeding session will take 1-1.5 hours. If I'm lucky and we are efficient, it might only take 45 minutes, giving me over 2 hours before the next session. A feeding session usually consists of nursing, burping, changing the diaper, nursing, burping, and sometimes another nurse and or diaper change.

Diaper changes are ok. Half the time the baby throws a tantrum on the changing table so that makes things tough. I don't mind the poopy diapers, but I do mind the water works that catches me unprepared and results in a change of clothes in addition to a change of diaper. As much as I prepare with a pee-pee teepee or a washcloth, he still manages to get something important pretty wet. Thank goodness he has lots of clothes because he often goes through four outfits a day.

Everyone says to sleep when the baby sleeps, but that's nearly impossible. First off it's really hard to just turn off when the baby falls asleep. And second, there's so much else to do...eat, shower, wash clothes, check email.

Here are some pictures from our latest photo shoot.

Check out my Hammer pants!


Brotherly love. Major is a pretty good pillow!

Michael Alexander

Our son was born on Sunday, January 18 at 11:33 pm. He weighed 5 lb. and 15 oz. and measured 20.25 in. long. He was born at week 37 plus 1 day. He was sweet enough to wait to be a term baby but not too long so that mommy wouldn't have to be on bed rest for much longer.

Here are lots of pictures.

"Hello world!" - 2 hours and 6 minutes of life.

Throwing gang signs in the nursery.

Getting checked out by Noodles. Check out the calf muscles on my son - future soccer superstar!

Baby's first dress. Actually, it's a Christening gown that was first worn by the husband's grandfather.

Tummy time!

Being a mom is quite amazing. I need to keep this entry short but I hope to continue adding pictures and blogging about parenthood in the coming weeks and months.