grandparents, part II

Your Dad's first Father's Day included a visit from your Grandpa from Houston. They managed to steal away for two rounds of golf, but spent plenty of time juggling you while playing Wii tennis and bowling. Grandpa thought you were an angel ;)

onesies, one more time

In earlier posts (here and here) I discussed the difficulty of dressing you in a onesie. Now I've come to believe you enjoy the struggle immensely. Hail to onesies!

Here are you and dad doing the onesie dance.

while daddy is away ...

While dad and visiting granddad were away on a father's weekend golf game, Tucker had a play date with his Baby Einstein play gym (thanks to uncle Walter and aunt Jennifer for the shower gift!). Of course, not having Tucker in my arms gave me the opportunity for some photo ops.


What is my review of the Baby Einstein? In the first few weeks it was looking a little grim. The gym was mostly used for a brief session of tummy time and a place to spit up. While looking in the mirror offered a few minutes of dedicated "play", the play gym was not a hot item with little Tucker. Fast forward to 8 weeks and Tucker is a play gym regular. The bright lights, bells, and whistles are all the rage with a coming of age 8 weeks old. Self gazing in the mirror is still a hot item, but the butterfly. birdie, and blinking star are getting some face time as well.

The Einstein is definitely becoming a place to put Tucker down for a bit allowing me to sit aside and talk to him or have some quick, quiet computing time. He's learning to follow and grab items and I'm thinking he'll like it even more in the coming months ...

we are tired

We've been busy moving in for the past week. Everything moves slower with a baby to love and dote on. Brian's been working and working hard to finish the tiling in the bathroom. I've been unpacking, organizing, cleaning, and trying to bathe every day. We're tired.

ladies night!

I made it out to my first mom's group event, a wine party at another member's house. While it could have been an awkward social situation, it wasn't. The wine helped. I met a great bunch of mom's with great advice and interesting stories. The event was without kids, so for all they know I could have been a non-mom crashing their mom party. Luckily, I didn't have to stoop that low and had a surprisingly lovely time. At the end of the evening as my wine had dissipated from my blood and milk stream, I eagerly drove home for some much missed Tucker time! Looking forward to the friends you and I can make :)

P.S. Dad baby-sat in my absence, successfully.

grandparents, part I

What does it take to get your parents in front of the camera? A grand child and a few hundred dollars in camera equipment. I've been trying to take pictures of my parents since becoming interested in photography a few years ago. Photo ops were accompanied with funny faces, odd poses, and peace signs to ease the tension a photograph could impose. Now, June 2009, all one needs to bravely have their picture taken is a baby to hold! Bravo little Tucker for bring them into the light...

day 50 - mom's big day and big $$ day

With the addition of a breast pump and a bottle to our daily routine I was able to escape the confines of home and the breastfeeding leash I've been bound to since April 22. Where was my escape? With my split ends and roots meeting in the middle, highlighted with flecks of gray, I was off to the Asha Salon on a desperate mission to not look so ragged. I left with a lot less hair and some new highlights to blend in the gray.

On my way out I stopped by Calumet Photo for the Pocket Wizard FlexTT5, giving me a Pocket Wizard set and my first opportunity to us the off camera flash. Lots of pictures to come...

day 49 - moving out!

At long last we've deemed it appropriate to move in to the new house! We'll be spending our first night in the half unpacked place tonight!

We're counting on the months we've been waiting for the paint and floor fumes to dissipate are sufficient for your health. I'm guessing we will all appreciate the extra space from where we've been living the past 7 weeks...

day 47 - what a looker

I'm reading through my baby bible, What To Expect the First Year, and see ALL these milestones one might expect from a baby for the second month. As a new mother, I was a bit concerned. Should these behaviors be expected when you enter the second month, during the second month, when you turn two? I don't have time to read the small print, but I'm going with my motherly instincts here ... I don't care! I'll let you grow up at your own rate and will be there to document each breath and enjoy it along the way!

For the record, you:

• now adore the mobile you weren't quite interested in those first weeks
• can follow objects as the move, especially grandma doing the itsy bitsy spider and your favorite mobile
• do an amazing job of holding up your head, i think you'll be crawling by next week!
• love to practice standing and crawling up the mom gym - its your favorite game!
  

day 45 - empty nesters

What to do for your very first wedding anniversary when you have a newborn? Well, we initially planned for a quiet celebration at our new home with some take out, a movie, and some cuddle time with baby Tucker. I tend to miss you when you are not in the same room, so the idea sounded great to me. I know, separation anxiety...

On the morning of our anniversary however, your grandparents posed and interesting question,

"what if we babysit?"

hmmm.... the thought had never actually occurred to either of us, but we toyed with the idea all day long. With much thought we concluded we needed to get our obsessive selves out, rationalizing we'd be better parents for not being only about baby. And off we were for my first non-cooked sushi in over 10 months! Lucky for your grandparents our transition to add a bottle to your day left them with something to soothe you with while we were out. Lucky for me that bottle gave me enough time to enjoy another post pregnancy first, a glass of the 2005 BR Cohn Zinfendel we served at our wedding.

With the prospect of heading out on a date, I have to admit I wondered how it would go. While we were both tired lets also face the facts, Brian and I hadn't been alone in the past 18 months where we were not talking about either our wedding, our house remodeling, or our baby-to-be. Driving away from your grandparents' house I felt a bit like an empty nester. Would we have anything in common, anything to talk about?

I have to say that 2009 marked the best of any type of anniversary we have had. Opening that bottle of wine and hanging out with your dad was like catching up with an old friend. The conversation drifted to you now and then, but the two hours we were away were not nearly enough for all we could have chatted each other up. It was a wonderful reminder of why I married my best friend and a celebration of the life and the baby we made together.

day 44 - a night on the town

Armed with your second bottle of breast milk (ever), we joined your grandparents for dinner at their neighbors, Rita and JR. Yes, that marks Tucker's first night out. Thank goodness for the bottle, or the night would have to have ended prematurely (earlier than 9:00 PM that is).

day 43 - onesies revisited

For the past week we've been transitioning to move from your grandparents' into our own house. I have had so much fun finally putting together your nursery (pictures soon!) after a long delay. We have much more room for your belongings; a dedicated closet AND dresser as well as ample floor space in the new house. I've been busy washing the clothes and blankets and all the items we thought we had to have for you, pulling out outfits I didn't even remember you had.

It appears you have an abundance of onesies as I completely thought that is all babies wore before I knew better. If you recall my earlier entry, I'm a bit partial to plain white t-shirts, primarily for their ease of removal and putting on.

I have had a slight change of heart the past week. While the plain white tees are the epitome of easy and practicality, the prints and patterns on the onesies are a thousand times cuter and lets face it, the onesies do have the added benefit of not riding up (your back that is, what they do in your diaper area is another story). Of course, the white tees compliment your skin tone the best, but I thought we might spruce up your daily fashion a bit, leave to white for your photo shoots.

Brian and I learned how to put on a onesie this week. Some are easier than others depending on material and fit and it turns out short sleeves are much easier than long sleeves. I may have just stated the obvious. Putting them on is a bit of a struggle. Its not that you fight having them put on, its just a lot to pull over a big ole baby head. I'm not sure of the best way to slip them on, whether to start at the back of your head or the first, but now that we are not so afraid of breaking or suffocating you during a routine changing, we are quite capable of dressing you in this common baby gear.

All was going well with the onesies experiment, when the ultimate onesies problem presented itself. With his paternity leave over, Brian was down in the basement working, slaving away to earn his keep. You and I had promised to have limited interruptions, but I couldn't help not calling him in for this dilemma: The Diaper Blowout. Now, you poo a lot, A LOT, but this was the first time you have managed to send to poo out of your diaper and up your back. I hear it is a common baby trick, but it was still your first time. The result? Poo seeping through the back of your no longer fresh onesie. And so the ultimate onesie question presented itself in real life, how do you remove a soiled onesies without soiling baby any further?

I first made the mistake of rolling up the poopy back side, only to realize rolling the wrong way has an adverse effect; it just keeps spreading the poo. Solution? Roll the onesie up with the folds facing inwards. It was a bit counter intuitive at first, but solved the poo problem by tucking away the evidence and allowing a clear removal over Tucker's head!

Lesson Learned or Product Review:
Now, I still recommend plain white tee's for those first weeks and for lounging around the house, especially on warmer days. With two big onesies' dilemnas solved in the past week though, I have to say the experiment has permanently added them back into your official wardrobe.

day 41 - back to work?

Today marks the last day of my FMLA (Family Medical Leave of Absense). You will be six weeks tomorrow and supposedly that is old enough for me to drop you off at day care and head off to work. Um, no thanks.

Six weeks is in no way enough time to prepare you to be without your mom nor is it enough time for me to have prepared some sort of child care for you. You are a big healthy baby, you are strong, you can even pretty much hold your head up yourself, but there is one huge problem (among other nearly as important problems). Breastfeeding.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 6-12 months of breastfeeding. They also recommend not using a bottle with a breastfeeding babies until 4-6 weeks of age. So, here we are at the conservative end of the scale, six weeks and we are starting to try you out on a bottle. By starting I mean we are following the recommended transition where you are given a (ONE) bottle a day for an entire week, then two bottles a day the next week, up to the number of bottles you need to SURVIVE while you cannot breastfeed. Let's do the math, you eat at least every two hours. In a given work day I assume I would be gone 10 hours (8 hours plus two hours of commute). That is five bottles. I would need five weeks to get you to that point of survival of an average day. I need the get off this blog and start practicing and pumping...

The persons who decided that 6 weeks was sufficient FMLA must have been male and without kids. Thanks to the lack of influence by other mothers such as me has left me in a very common situation. Tomorrow begins my first day of unpaid leave. Now, I am very thankful to have at least that. I don't have the option to become a stay at home mom at this point, but I guess I can act like one for now.

day 40 - the results are in!

The hot oil treatment seemed to do you well. Most of the scabs are gone with just a few dry patches left. The overall health of your scalp looks much improved. The oil treatment is recommended. And no, I did not really warm up the oil. Straight from the bottle of Johnsons.

day 39 - hot oil treatment

We're trying out an oil treatment for your apparent cradle cap. You have a very mild case of it and your hair conceals most of it, but when the lite shines right and I see those little crusty, scabby looking things... it ignites that primitive urge to pick. Much like the urge to pop a zit.

While I have sequestered the picking urge, I simply must do something! You had a similar scab on your ear which went away in just a day or two with a little baby lotion making it seem harmless to treat. I rubbed some baby oil on your scalp this morning, brushed it in with your soft brush, and set you up in the cap you came home from the hospital in. We're letting it soak in before a bit more brushing and a rinse (as per recommendations).

If this doesn't work, at least you will have nice shiny hair! Check back for the results!

day 37 - proficient at one hand typing

Better with the left than the right. I think they call this phenomenon nursing at the keyboard (NAK). Does this mean I can do two jobs at once? No.

More mommy acronyms here at Blisstree.

day 36 - mom's club

I signed us up for the Naperville Mom's club today. I've never had the motivation to get out and join a club like this before. Hopefully, we'll both find some good buddies. I'll keep you posted...

day 31 - mom and tucker go solo

We ended up staying home this weekend, instead of heading to Dallas with the rest of the family for Mindy and Joey's wedding.

Housing status: still living at your grandparent's. It's been relatively calm with them out of town. No hustle and bustle, just us concentrating on you and the move to our new house. The biggest difference has been in the increase in freedom for you to cry. I still claim you don't cry much, but we're just not as overly concerned as to who we are disturbing when you do ...

In an attempt to help your dad with the house, you and I planned a big day of errands. With only two stops, it seemed manageable, if we could ever get out of the house. With your dad off to meet contractors and tile our bathroom, we started heading out the door around 10:00 AM. Heading out the door means the final feeding, final diaper change, the final spit up - change up, mom tries to grab a bite to eat - then repeat. We nearly left around 1:00, but I couldn't figure out how to fold and unfold the stroller to fit in the car. Knowing now how to do it, it is a simple task, but pair it with a crying child, hours of frustration, hunger, sleeplessness... and it's no small feat.

I called your dad in hysteria for directions on the stroller and by 2 PM we were out the door, with me a hot, sweaty mess anxious about taking you to the store. What if you cry? What if you are screaming in the Bed Bath and Beyond and I can't calm you? Do I pacify you with my pinkie (we believe you're too young for a pacifier yet) while I try to shop and push your stroller with the other? Do I drop everything and leave? And how exactly do I do the shopping itself? Do I keep you in the stroller? Do I put your car seat in the cart? Is that safe? Does that work? Oh goodness what if you cry?!

As many mothers before me have said, the car ride put you out. You slept on the way to the stores, slept throughout the Bed Bath and Beyond, slept through the Buy Buy Baby and all the way to our house. Being home was more stressful than the shopping ... I think we'll have to get out more.

Mom and Tucker's first solo shopping trick. Success.

day 30 - one month checkup

You had your one month checkup today - at exactly one month. Height 22, weight 10 pounds 10.4 ounces. We were informed you were gaining weight at a rate of over an ounce a day, at least double the average for the average child. We thought you were big when you were born ... Luckily, all parts are reported to be in proportion, head circumference 15 inches.

I was thrown off guard when I learned you were to receive your second Hepatitis-B vaccine. With all the scare right now with vaccination induced autism, I'm terrified of them pumping anything into you. But how am I to know that it's safer to not have the vaccinations? The pediatrician seemed annoyed when I asked about the vaccination schedule and signs to watch out for ill effects of the vaccination. I took solace in the fact that its the Measles Mumps and Rubella (MMR) shot that seems to be the kiss of autism, but nevertheless, I worried about you all day and night.

Following the doctor's appointment, you slept for an unimaginably long time (keep in mind that you rarely went more than 90 minutes without eating). Actually, you slept most of the evening, waking to feed, but very little crying, fussing, or playing. You even let us sleep for three consecutive hours. Of course, this made heightened my nervousness, but despite my worries the sleep was blissful. Perhaps vaccinations are not so bad.

day 25 - mommy milestone!

I weigh less than your dad today. Thank you for breastfeeding so excessively!