Black Friday

This went better than I thought. I was at Target at 7am, hit Kohls and Walgreens then was home before 9:30! Elba was great! I couldn't justify waking him early so I figured whatever time he woke up we would go. I was hoping he would be up for his 3:30 feeding so I could get to the door busters. Missed those, but got a lot of great deals. I'm sure in other geographic areas it is worse, but I think that for the sale prices BF was totally worth it. I actually don't think it was much worse than a normal busy weekend of shopping. Traffic wasn't bad and people weren't acting crazy. Maybe being there for the door busters would make it worse too, but I'll try that next year maybe. :) Elba kind of nodded off a few times, but otherwise he was quiet, alert and not fussy at all. I think he actually enjoyed the change of scenery. Gosh, it sure is nice having the perfect baby! ;)

We didn't go to Chicago and I don't even want to talk about why, albeit to say that it wasn't what I wanted or planned. I really wanted to see my family. That sucked but maybe it was for the best; there was ice on the streets this morning and I would have been driving home tonight. I'm so scared of getting into an accident with Elba in the car. God help the person that ever hits me with child in tow. Do they grant you any kind of leniency if you lose it on someone when they have endangered the life of your infant?

Mitch and I put up the Christmas tree and decorations today. This is the last year for my miserable tree that has seen a few too many years. I've had the same tree since I was...18, maybe 19? It's time to get rid of some abused nick-knacks too. Really, I have stuff that my mom gave me when I left home. We agreed that after the holiday we are going to go clearance shopping for a new tree and new decorations. Mitch says that my stuff reminds him of chain saw massacre and it is scary. I don't know what he means really, but I'll agree it is old, outdated and desperately in need of replacement.

Big Boy!

I forgot to mention how at my Dad's I fell down the stairs with the baby. Sounds worse than it was. My feet just slipped as I was heading into the basement and I fell backwards, baby in my arms. He was fine, but without the support of my arms, oh man was my back and but sore!
Elba was a champ for his shots. They gave him two shots in the kiester and he sort of whined on the first one and then cried a little for the second, but it was no big deal. I'm fine too! :) Well, he was 26.5 inches, 15 3.5 lbs and 16.75 head circumference. That is in the 75-90th percentile for height. The doctor said he is as tall as a 6 month old! 25-50th percentile for weight and head.
Cereal feeding is going well. He is eating better and the consistency has been thickened to something between a paste and liquid.
Mitch and I heading to Chicago for Thanksgiving. It is crazy that just a year ago when we went I thought I'd miscarried and now this year, here we are in tow with our beautiful baby! I love him so much (both of them!) Mitch has to work Saturday morning so we can only stay for a short trip. I'm thinking about completely being insane and going early morning shopping on BF. There are a few bigger ticket items I'm looking for and Target seems to be my answer. 4am - oh gawd!

4 Months!

My Colorado trip was unlike any other I've taken before. Usually I get to relax the whole time and indulge in guilty pleasures; sleeping in, watching T.V., playing video games and hiking. This time there was no sleeping in, hiking or watching T.V. I played video games while Elba was down for his daytime naps. Otherwise, it was a stay-cation except I didn't have my usual means of entertainment and distraction for the baby and myself. Don't get me wrong; I had a good time. It was just different and I feel gypped! It was great to see Madison and she really enjoyed playing with the baby. I got to do two traditional things I would have otherwise missed this year; I carved a pumpkin (ghost in a window) and went trick or treating. Elba lasted the 4 or 5 houses in my Dad's circle before he puked all down the front of his costume and I took him back. I took the girls out later for a while. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. It is funny how it changes over the years. Trick or treating myself when I was a kid turned into driving down Cuba Rd. as a teenager with my friends, turned into costume clad drinking parties and gone full circle again to trick or treating. I like it! :)
Not much else to report Elba wise; he is rolling consistently from his front to back and occasionally back to front. Our next pediatrician appointment and booster shots are coming in two days. I'm curious to see how much bigger he's gotten. I have to go to the doctor this time. I'm scared I'll cry. I tried a little rice cereal last week but he kept pushing it out with his tongue. I'm gonna try once a week with this. We set up the jumparoo and he can sit in it, but his feet don't reach the bottom yet. I put my CD case underneath his feet, but I don't think he is quite ready for it yet.
Mitch and I have been fighting a lot over the allocation of housework and responsibility lately. I'm feeling like the majority shareholder here without the majority vote. Does that make sense? The thing that is worse is that I think he agrees but just doesn't want to do more. I feel like that is sort of the way it is and no amount of bitching and complaining is doing anything, despite that we are trying to talk about it, work it out and come up with a reasonable solution. I'm ready to threaten him with a chore chart and assigned days off for each of us!

Speaking of which, it is Sunday and Mitch is over at his Mom's picking Elba up (he spent the night with Grandma last night) and I need to hop to it and take advantage of the time to get stuff done quickly without distraction!

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!

10 Weeks - Tears & Fears

I have so much to write about! Okay, so last week was Elba's first in daycare. Mitch drops him off in the afternoon (11:45am) and then I pick him up when I get out of work. The first day I forgot to put the carseat in my vehicle but thankfully remembered before leaving work so Mitch and I switched cars. The third day I did this again but didn't realize it until I was walking out to my car baby in hand. Helene (the baby sitter) had her car packed and was loading her family in to head out; it was obvious they were waiting for me so they could go on with their night. I was scared and embarrassed and didn't know what to do. I did the bad thing. I prayed to the God I don't beleive in the entire way home with him laying on the passenger seat and my hand on his belly. He fell asleep and I think rather enjoyed the unrestricted ride. When I got home I almost cried. If that ever happens again, I will call Mitch and have him meet me. It was a bad call, and I'm sure I'll make more, but not that one again. I prayed and used my phenominal cosmic power to keep other vehicles from smashing into us on the way home, draining me emotionally. Seriously, I was terrified driving home. I thought about how I would go to jail, they would take away my child and I'd probably be the subject of a safety blurb that night on the news if anything happened. NEVER NEVER AGAIN - there is a post it note on the door now.
The good news about daycare is that Elba is exhausted by the end of the day and slept through the night those 3 nights. I guess she also watches a few little girls and they just adore him. They all want to play with him and even got in trouble for not leaving him alone once. I think that interaction is really good for him. Not only for sleeping, but he seems much more aware and interactive. He is content to lay on his back and just watch what is going on around him for long periods of time. This is great since I'm packing, cleaning, making dinner, etc. In one way I am starting to feel more and more like a real person again, but in another way I feel like I'm losing it and my head isn't screwed on right.
I think he made his first attempts at grabbing something. I was at work Saturday for a moment when one of the residents wanted to hold him. I 'sat' him on the counter and let her 'hold' him while I also held him from behind. She was wearing these beaded necklaces (like the ones we throw tubing on the river). He was just staring at them and wouldn't look at anything else. He started to sort of get excited, but kept staring at them...well, his litle arm reached out and kind of hung out in front of him, swatting the necklaces back and forth. Then, he caught his fingers around some and BINGO - his first grab! Now, if this was focused and intentional I'm not sure, but it was close enough to count for me!
Mitch took him to the doctor yesterday for his 2 month checkup and first round of multiple shots. He said he screamed so hard no noises were even coming out, he was just red faced, wide mouthed and looking very upset. Poor baby; we are getting some real tears now so it is even more pitiful when he cries.
Our new furniture is being delivered on Thursday to the townhouse and then we are moving everything Friday after work. I'd like to still get in there and paint before hand, but this is harder than it seems with time running out. So, I bought the brown leather sofa set that includes the chaise lounge, big daddy chair and ottoman. I also picked out a coffee table, end tables and a dresser for Elba. Mitch negotiated with the sales chick to get 5% off the whole order AND 18 months no interest. Since the word is ending in 2012, this is a great deal! :)

Current Weight: 209