I Can't Believe It!

My baby slept for 9 hours and 45 minutes straight last night! I remember my husband leaving the house at about 5 am and being amazed that the baby had made it almost eight hours. I looked on the monitor and saw the little guy stirring, so I figured I would be getting up any moment for a feeding. The next think I knew, my alarm was going off and it was 7 am. He must have dosed back off just like his Mommy. He was awake and cooing in his crib so I got up and fed him at this point. (My breasts were practically begging him to eat at this point.)

I noticed that he wasn't napping as much yesterday so maybe we are entering a new sleep schedule... or maybe last night was a complete fluke. We shall see how the rest of the week goes...

I'm going to do a weekend update later today but for now I just needed to tell someone of the little man's big accomplishment!

Because I Like Mail...

We decided to send out "Spring" cards to close friends and family. They were actually going to be Easter cards, but with the photo I chose I liked the Spring theme more...

How can that not bring a smile to everyone's face?

One Lazy Friday Afternoon...

... it got a little warm in the house so I decided to strip my baby down to his diaper. While playing with him I realized how much he resembled a genie. I can't be held responsible for what happened next....

He's really working the camera in this one...

Sorry baby doll. I have to be honest. This will not be the last time your mommy makes you play dress up. :)

The Sleep Chronicles

My baby is two months old today! It's so hard to believe that over eight weeks have gone by. I'm going to upload some photos later to celebrate. :)

So my little guy is a whopping two months old... and still not sleeping through the night. There is, however, hope on the horizon. In the last week we have made major strides in the sleep department. Prior to last Wednesday my little guy was waking up not once, but TWICE in the middle of the night to eat. Given his hefty 13 pound frame, there is no good reason for this. It became quite apparent on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning that I was being a little too indulgent with him. He woke up every three hours and definitely only had a "snack feeding" each time that only lasted five minutes. I got a bit fed up and after talking to a few mommy friends decided what things had to change.

First up? We made the transition to his own crib. I think it was harder for me than for him. He had been sleeping next to our bed in a co-sleeper. I now only hear him when he cries rather than when he just coos and talks to himself in his sleep. I also honestly think that he sleeps better without the occasional noise of his parents rustling the sheets or his dad letting out the random snore.

So Wednesday night was the first test. He woke up crying at the 2.5 hour mark and rather than pick him up to feed him I just checked his diaper, rubbed his belly and gave him the pacifier. Of course the pacifier kept falling out so I had to stand by his bed for like a half an hour to reinsert it while he drifted back off. After that he woke up four hours later. That means he went a whole 6.5 hours without eating! Of course I fed him this time.

Thursday night through last night were about the same. He now goes anywhere from 4.5 to 6 hours of solid nighttime sleep which translates to only one middle of the night feeding session rather than two. Thank the lord. Quite frankly I know he can go even more than this, but I don't want to make too many changes too soon. I'm going to give him a couple more days of this and then try to make another transition. He was probably capable of this a couple of weeks ago but I guess I just wasn't ready to lay down the law. Oh-- I also let him cry in his crib for five minutes before going in to comfort him. He hasn't learned to put himself back to sleep after starting to cry yet either, but we are working on it. Those measly five minutes seem like an eternity to me! This parenting stuff is tough!

Now, one things that isn't going as smoothly with this longer night time sleep transition?-- My milk production. By the time he wakes up after his long stretch of sleep I'm bursting at the seams and my breast pads are soaked. I am wondering if this is how it always will be or if your body eventually learns to make less milk at night? I'm thinking it has to if babies eventually sleep 8+ hours at night... I guess only time will tell.

The Drop By

Sometimes I can't decide if it is a blessing or a curse to have so much family in town. This is the first grandchild on both sides of the family. None of our brothers and sisters are even in committed relationships, so assuming that they go about having children in the conventional order, (meaning getting married first) I think it's safe to say that our little guy is going to be the only grandchild for quite some time.

Add to this the fact that the grandparents, great-grandparents and all of the aunts and uncles live in town. Now add the fact that each individual family member thinks that if they don't see the baby at least twice a week they aren't getting their fair share. And for the final piece of the puzzle-- almost everyone has reasons to be downtown (AKA very close to our house) on a daily basis. They either live near here or work near here.

The end result?-- The infamous drop by. Sometimes it's completely unannounced. (Which drives me mental) Most of the time I get a 20-30 minute warning. On a good day I get notified the day before. I love my family and sometimes I'm thrilled to see them. I have written before how much help my mom has been in terms of letting me get things done around the house. Other times however, it is a different story. I don't think everyone quite understands that just because I am home 90% of the time that it means that I'm always open for business. My time seems to be divided equally between feeding him, playing with him and running around like a mad woman doing chores while he's napping.

Oh to heck with it. I was trying not to make this entry sound too crabby but I guess it's too late. A lot of the time they want to stop by after work. (after 5 pm) I seem to be showering in the evenings these days which means that by the time they make it over I am wearing my PJs and my hair is a disaster. They might be family, but I don't want them to see me looking disheveled all the time. I've tried to be the gracious host and hate to withhold the baby from the fam, but I think I need to get into bitch mode to get the message across.... Or maybe just park down the street, turn the lights out and pretend not to be home. That seems like the easier option. :)

Vent: Oak Overload

Will someone please tell me why all of the houses for sale that even remotely fit my criteria all feature tons of honey colored oak? Don't get me wrong, oak is lovely, but my house has WAY too much of it and one of my most important criteria in my home search is to either have darker wood flooring or have such horrible flooring that I would replace it with something of my choosing.

Like I said, no offense to honey colored oak, but when you have it on your floors and mantle...

and your cabinets...

and your bathroom....

it sort of just gets a little old.

Vent over.

Friday Randoms...

- Maybe 50 degrees isn't the most perfect weather in the world, but I'll take it!! We have gotten to take walks in the park the last two days and it looks like we'll be able to do it straight through to next week as long as the weather stays true to the forecast. The baby just looks around for the first ten minutes and then falls fast asleep, but oh well. His momma is sure enjoying the fresh air!

- It is really funny how many people that work downtown come to the park on their lunch breaks, park their cars, eat their lunches and then take an afternoon siesta with their seats in the reclined position. It looks really funny to see them all lined up like that. I sort of wish I would have thought of it when I worked.

- This week I went to the mall for the first time since before I had the baby. Over 6 week mall hiatus + warmish weather + cute new Spring clothes in the shop windows = danger!! I went to the mall to grab some makeup that I had run out of and came out with these...

Shorts from J Crew. I almost bought them online for $60 but when I went in the store they not only had my size but they were also on sale for $29.99. Score!

I also bought this shirt from Anthropologie but I might have to take it back. Is is so cute and really flattering on, but it's not the easiest to lift up to breast feed. Might not have been the smartest choice...

I got this skirt on the Anthro sale rack. I thought I might wear it to the baptism...

Did I mention that I left my son at home with his grandma and managed to drive to Clayton to go to the bank, go to the post office, drive to and shop at three stores at the Galleria AND drive home all in an hour and 20 minute time frame?! New mommies have to be very efficient!

I think that's all I've got. Happy Friday everyone! I hope you all get out to enjoy the weather!

Baby Pics - 6 wks

I am the worst at uploading photos for my blog posts so hopefully this will make up for it. Here are some of Andrew at 6 weeks. It's crazy how much he has grown!

Some little smiles...

Feeling patriotic during the olympics... (I especially love the red argyle socks)

Playing with Mommy and Daddy

6 Weeks - An Update

My little guy is six weeks old this week! That is so hard to believe. He's a little update on how things are going with us...

Me:

-I had my six week check up with the ob-gyn. Everything seems to be back in working order and she cleared me for exersize and sex. (As if I really had time for either at this moment.) She also wrote me a prescription for birth control pills that will not interfere with my breast feeding. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to pills. Prior to getting pregnant I charted my temps for a few months as a form of birth control. I liked the idea of not putting the extra hormones in my body and knew that since we were planning on starting to "try" soon anyways, that was as good of a time as any to try out that method. If I botched it up then we would just be getting pregnant a few months earlier than planned. Now however, is a different story. With this little one at home getting pregnant with another any time in the near future would be a disaster. I definitely don't want my babies that close together. I filled the prescription but haven't officially decided whether or not to take it yet...

-I have lost all but 5 pounds of the baby weight. I have been pretty thrilled with the bounce back considering I haven't been doing anything to help myself out other than breast feeding. I still have my linea nigra though... I am hoping that fades by summer time. I am fitting into all my old clothing and jeans but I do have some extra flab and stretched out skin in my belly. You can only really tell when I wear tighter jeans. There is a little of that "muffin top" look in the front. It didn't really bother me until I went and got a pedicure. The salon had those vibrating massage chairs and lets just say that there was definitely some jigging going on when the chair was turned on. Not attractive.

-Mentally I am doing pretty great other than the lack of consecutive night sleep. He really is a pretty easy baby. I am definitely getting cabin fever though. I want to be able to get out and take walks in the park with my boy! I still haven't gotten out to do my mall walking though but am actually planning on trying it out tomorrow. I haven't even used the stroller yet, so I should probably figure that out first. I am so lucky to have my Mom here in town. She still comes over three or four days a week so I am able to get out on my own for two hours at a time to run errands, get the pedicure mentioned above, etc. Hubby and I even had a two hour "mini date" at a restaurant down the street over the weekend while my Mom stayed home with the baby. I think that has really helped out my mental state.

Baby:

-We took him in for his 6 week check up yesterday. He is now 12 pounds, six ounces and 23.5 inches long. (8 pounds 5 ounces and 21.5 inches long at birth.) That puts him in the 75 percentile for height and weight. He's a big boy!

-I sort of thought that considering his size he would be coming close to sleeping through the night by now. That's definitely not the case. Occasionally he'll do a four hour session, but he'll follow it with a two and a half hour one. We average a feeding every three hours-- day and night. Hopefully I'll get some relief soon!

-It's amazing to see how much control of his head he has now. He doesn't even hate tummy time anymore although he definitely prefers doing it on my belly than on the floor. The smiles are becoming more frequent every day. For some reason it is the easiest to get him to smile when I'm changing his diaper. Aren't babies supposed to hate that?! I guess seeing his mommy wipe his poopy bottom is funny.

I haven't uploaded any pics this last week but I'll be sure to get some up here asap!