First Flying Experience; Colorado

I just arrived at Dad's house today. Elba was great on the flight. I timed everything perfectly (or it just worked out that way)! I woke up at 5am, pumped, got ready finished the last minute packing and woke the baby up at 6:15am. After changing and dressing, we were out the door a little after 6:30. I fed him about 4oz on the 40 minute car ride to the airport (a little traffic). I checked my luggage (first time in a while because I don't agree with the $25 charge, but in this case I was willing to pay and I needed my biggest bag anyway), and headed to security. I was apprehensive about this. Not just the juggling of baby and stuff but I was also carrying 6 bottles of milk with me (more on why later). My stuff got pulled for chemical screening as I knew it would, but this just allowed me some extra time to retrieve my shoes and dress us both before having to rush to get out of the way. They made me take the baby's shoes off as well as both of our zip up light jackets. Elba was alert and watching everything this whole time. I stopped and got coffee and a muffing before boarding. Boarding with a baby is awesome, but I see the necessity now. It took me a while to get settled. As I was making my way to the seat he started to fall asleep. He slept right until take off (maybe 30 minutes) in which I promptly fed him the first bottle so his ears wouldn't hurt. Maybe an hour into the flight we went to bathroom. I feel like if you get 'mile high' status for certain deeds done in the bathroom, changing a diaper should be added to the list! His most upsetting moment was my flushing the toilet. It was loud and scary. We stayed standing for maybe 20 minutes in the isle just to keep things interesting. I was SOOOOO lucky to have the two seats next to me empty. He took a little nap and I was able to lay him across the seats and do the same. As the fasten seat belt sign comes on and we are getting ready to descend I realize he has poops and he is just starting to leak. I quickly changed him on the seats next to me. I felt bad and uncertain about this (what would the people around me say; and I really hoped it wasn't a stinky one). I changed his clothes, gave him bottle two and we landed uneventfully. This traveling experience went much better than the drive to Chicago. It is 7am locally in Colorado and I'm exhausted. I had to wake up at 4am yesterday morning too to be to work by 6 - and then there is the time change!
My dad pulled out two of his baby pictures. OMG - it is Elba 100%!!! I could mistake them for the same baby; I'm not kidding. Makes sense. I look a lot like my mom, but I look more like my dad. I sent the picture to Mitch on my phone and his response was 'holy crap!'
Okay, so I was WAY over producing milk for a while there, and now I've got a freezer full of frozen milk. My milk decreased (I stopped pumping as often, about every 6-8 hours) and I was producing exactly what we needed and only occasionally freezing some extra. Elba's appetite has increased the last week or so and I'm not quite keeping up. Not by a lot, but I am scared to run out of milk here so I packed 6 full bottles just in case. I think it will be okay, but better safe than sorry. I'm ramping up drinking water, pumping more often, taking Fenugreek and drinking Mother's Milk to get the supply back up.

Monday, Nov 1
Yesterday was Halloween and I took Elba to the few houses on the circle that Dad lives on with Madison and four of her friends. He looked cute, but was getting cranky and then puked all over his costume at the last house. After putting him down for what I thought was the night, I took the girls back out until 7:45pm. These girls don't know how to trick or treat! They were skipping houses, dilly dallying; completely inefficient! :) It was fun! I can't wait for him next year to be able to walk up to the doors himself and have a little bit of an understanding that they are giving candy. He will probably only makes a few houses then too. We took a bunch of pictures of him in his costume in Dad's front yard surrounded by other pumpkins; too cute!
Michelle and Dad had friends over earlier in the day and I was sitting at a chair next the table when all of a sudden Elba starts his high pitched pain cry. What a horrible Mom I am; he brushed the side of his finger against the HOT crock pot! It was red for maybe an hour, but then nothing. It could have been a lot worse.
I've been playing Dragon Age while I'm here and I'm going to go home and get it ASAP; it is a super awesome game and I've really not been giving myself enough game playing time since having the baby. It has been nice to do that here.

13 Weeks - Rollover & Grabbing

Elba is starting to grab at things intentionally. He had batted at stuff a few times before, but I think he was shocked when it happened. Now I see him sort of concentrating and moving his hands toward objects. I was holding a teething toy out in front of him while he was laying on the floor and his arms were outstretched, fists clenched. The butterfly touched one of his hands and he opened it and then closed it around the toy. I think that definitely counts. He has noticed his feet too...I've found him staring at them and sort of rubbing them together as he looks at them. It is so neat, I can almost see the process running through his head, although without language I wonder what it sounds like. He certainly doesn't have the internal dialogue we carry around with us yet. His 'internal dialogue' must be more emotion based instead of word based I would guess. It's so interesting watching him develop.

I'm now a member of a club I didn't know existed. Mitch says he has experienced this too. Now strangers approach us, and we talk about our children in the middle of the store or any public area. It generally always starts with "Oh (or Ah),how old is he?" or sometimes, "Is he your first?" but develops into dialogue of exchanging the current moments feelings and most recent activity followed up by well wishes and advice. It's incredible; I didn't know this invisible network existed, only to be identified when one of the members is spotted out with child in tow. I imagine this continues throughout childhood.

I have a Kindle (thank you Dad!) and I'm overwhelmed by the amount of free content I have access to; all the classics and interesting journals of historical figures I would love to read. I wonder if taking a speed reading course or something would be helpful. Too little time, too much information!

I'm going to traveling to Colorado over Halloween to visit Dad, Madison and Michelle. Elba has a pumpkin costume I tried on him today. He is a little freaked out about the green toole at the top, but I'm hoping he gets over it. He looked adorable. I'm posting updated pictures and videos - check 'em out!

He is also rolling over! At first we only had evidence of this happening as he would be face up after napping a few times, but now I've seen him do it. It is so cute. I need to take a video - I'm such a mom!

12 Weeks - Moving

It's been an insane 2 weeks. We are moved into the new place, that is the short story. There are lots of fun details I could add; like leaving a cabinet and dishwasher full of dishes at the old apartment (I did go back for them), or the disgusting cabinet fiasco I've endured at the new place that has yielded a $100 concession for the next two months and a lot of frustration, but that's all minor stuff I guess (although it has really seemed like major stuff at the time).

It has been a wild ride, but the most amazing and wonderful news is that my baby boy laughed! I've only been able to get him going a few times and get that sweet little giggle from him, but ohmygosh does it ever warm my heart and make me melt! Seriously, there has been nothing better than his throaty chuckle elicited by my nuzzling and giving raspberries on his neck. On the flip side, I almost took him out again. I had him laying on the floor on his play mat while I was running armloads of those dishes I mentioned earlier from my car into the kitchen. I should have slowed down, been more careful, something! As I walked a load into the kitchen, the heavy ass white corning wear baking dish slid off the top, hit the counter, shattered and sprayed my child with glass shards. I watched in horror the fallout as a chunk hit him in the head. It is strange how in an instant your minds eye is actually capable of picturing the worst. I imagined lots of blood and stuck in glass as the dish fell in slow motion and the adrenaline started to surge through me. The reality was that he had a small red spot on his head and cried from the startle. Thank Christ! This was another holy crap moment that I vowed after to slow down and think of the consequences of potential disaster.

So Helene, my daycare provider, told me that she is going to be retiring at the end of the year, so thus begins the search for babysitting again. I'm pretty okay with this actually, not because I don't like her but picking him up after work is going in the opposite direction now and it takes me about 1.25 hours to get home after leaving work. This is unacceptable after my previous commute of oh, 10 minutes! I only live about 15-20 minutes away now and in traffic should take maybe 30. So I think finding someone else was going to need to happen anyway. And better now than after the snow and ice starts.

Elba had his first little cold over the past weekend. He was needy and clingy at times, and then zoned out at others. I tore through boxes to find my three baby bibles (What to Expect, Dr. Spock, and Good Housekeeping) to confirm there isn't really anything to be done short of adding a humidifier to his room and giving Tylenol for comfort. I think daycare did it, she mentioned all the kids seemed to have runny noses lately when I called Monday to confirm he could still be dropped off. I blamed myself at first for not dressing him warm enough at night. Mitch has already taken on the title of champion booger sucker. He loves that thing and I hate it. I've always been grossed out by kids' snotty runny noses. I expected this would change with my own. I have no problem with the poop, pee and puke but I still am disgusted by snot, even Elba's. Is that horrible? I feel bad, I want to be okay with it and I know I'll need to get over this, but oh man, it's so disgusting! I actually get gaggy at the thought. Thankfully Mitch is okay with gross boogers. :)

He has been going through a growth spurt I think. He is drinking 6, sometimes 8 ounces at a time. I broke out the bigger bottles and packed up the little 4 ounce ones. I struggle with 'packing up for next time' and giving away to friends. I want one more...Mitch says no way in hell. I'm mostly packing things up and staying optimistic! He is so long! He is now 3 months and the 3-6 month clothes fit, but not the 0-3 stuff anymore. This is actually quite fun now, as we are getting into the cute handed down outfits and clothes now. We didn't have much for the 0-3 period and needed to do a lot of laundry.

I know there is so much more I wanted to write about, but those are the highlights!