Happy Blogiversary

Happy One Year Anniversary, little blog of mine!  One year ago, I sat down and wrote this post; And it begins.

Today also marks one year since Bud and I found out that our baby was a boy and he looked perfectly healthy.  It’s so hard to believe that it’s only been a year.  Only 365 days ago I had no clue who this kid would be and now it seems like we know each other so well.  I know every curve on his sweet face and every speck of grey in his sparkly blue eyes.  I know that he loves being sung to and hates having to lay still for a diaper change.  I’ve watched him learn how to smile, then sit, and now crawl.  Mostly importantly, however, I know that he loves me and I hope he knows how much I love him.

I started this as a way to keep friends and family up on what’s going on with my pregnancy, but I’ve kept it going for me.  I can’t post as much as I’d like, but it’s fun to go back and read old posts.  Thank you for tolerating my rambling and lack of proofreading.  I appreciate that no one has pointed out any grammar mistakes.

And because no post is worth a damn without a picture of my boy…feast your eyes on this:    

Sorry I had to hide the masterpiece

Is it really that close?

How is it possible that I saw something at Target yesterday that expires on John's first birthday?  Is it really that close?

It was Pumpkin Pie coffee creamer.  

No, I didn't buy it.  Yes, I wanted to.

Guess Who's Twerking Now

He's just being Miley. 

Seven Months Old!

Happy 7 Month Birthday, my sweet Chicken nugget!

Wow, what a month it has been.  There were so many fun firsts this month.  It kills me that each and every little milestone doesn’t get its own blog post, but (1) aint nobody got time for dat and (2) I’m pretty sure Bud and I are the only people who get excited about the little things (ok, probably our moms too).

The biggest of them all happened last Thursday (August 15^th) when I felt two tiny teeth popping through the bottom of my boy’s gums.  My parents had picked Allyson up from the airport and were heading to my house.  John and I were waiting outside because I was too excited to be indoors.  While standing in the driveway, I put my finger in his mouth (how rude!) and could feel them.  Crazy.  I knew it was coming, but was still surprised when I could undeniably feel his first pearly whites.  I adore his sweet gummy smile, but I guess I’ll like his smile with little baby teeth too.  He’s been doing ok with the teething so far, but last night and this morning I gave him a little Motrin to help ease the discomfort.  It seems to really work, plus it smells like Nerds (the candy, not the people).

The other major milestone that began this month was starting food.   He’s still not crazy about anything we’ve given him, but is slowly warming up to it.  So far he’s had brown rice cereal, sweet potato, apple, banana, pear, squash, and water…lots of water.  That’s the only thing he really likes which is fitting considering water was the only real craving I had when pregnant with him.  He doesn’t totally understand the sippy-cup (he turns them upside down and sucks the bottom), but is basically a prodigy with an adult glass.  If I let him, he’d drink my entire glass of water as long as it was in a cold glass (maybe it just feels good on those sore gums).

Other fun firsts for the month include sitting in a shopping cart without his carseat, sitting in the tub without his baby bathing thingy (that’s technical term), and sitting in his stroller without the carseat.  It’s amazing how many doors are opened once a baby can sit by himself.  We’ve said goodbye to my bff the Rock N Play and John’s bff the swing.  They served us well, but my little fatass has outgrown them.  John is starting to scoot around – it’s not quite a crawl yet, but he can definitely move.  He kind of plants his face into the carpet and then uses his thunder thighs to launch himself forward.  It’s adorable and also terrifying…need to get on that baby proofing.

Trying so hard

All that aside, however, the absolute best part of this month is seeing John with Allyson.  She hadn’t seen him since he was a lame 1 month old so it was so wonderful to reintroduce those two.  I’m so happy that John has 3 amazing ladies to call Aunt.  What a lucky boy.

Sleeping:

Great!  We start his bath around 7:30ish.  After getting him out of the bath, I usually feed and rock him for about 30 minutes and then he’s sound asleep for 10-12 hours.  There are some nights that take a little longer to get him sleepy, but Bud usually jumps in on those nights to help out.  Bud has a 4 song medley that does the trick every time.  I usually leave before he starts Wilco’s My Darling because it still makes me cry.  Can I blame that on postpartum hormones seven months later?

Napping is still hit or miss.  On a good day, his napping routine is waking up around 7:00 am, play for a couple hours and then go back to sleep at 9:00 for 30-60 minutes.  Then he’ll be up for a while in the middle of the day and want to nap again in the afternoon.  The trick is, however, is that if he sleeps in the car, even for 5 minutes, he won’t nap in his crib at all.  So annoying.  5 minutes is not enough sleep for a cranky baby.

Eating:

Nursing like a champ.  It’s so, so, sooooo much easier now than it was those first few months.  He eating 5-6 times a day and seems totally happy in between meals.  It wasn’t that long ago he was eating 8-10 times a day and would still act starving in between meals.  Then again, he doubled his birth-weight by 2 months so I guess I’ll give him a break.  One fairly annoying habit that John developed this month is that he only wants to eat in his room and needs silence to do it.  If Bud comes in the room he’ll freeze and look at me like “Holy shit, what’s that? Who’s here?  Should I stop?”  No, keep going. It’s just your dad.

He’s getting better about taking bottles.  In fact, today I was out with Gina and Brian and I brought a bottle with me.  He gladly chugged the whole thing….even held it by himself at times. 

Today at the mall

Eating food is another story, but I’m not too worried about it.  At this point, breastmilk should be 100% of his nutrition.  The food is just for fun and getting him used to it.  He’s getting better and I’m sure he’ll get there.  Squash has been the stand out favorite food so far…weirdo child of mine.  Squash?

Likes and Dislikes:

Scratching the couch – It’s so weird, but John started scratching the couch a few months ago and does it constantly.  We joke that we need to get him a scratching post like a cat.

Drinking water – If he’s fussy, offering him a sip of water will calm him down 98% of the time

Playing with toys –some faves are stacking rings, stacking cups, various teethers, and soft books.

Eating books:

yum, yum, yum

Reading books – His favorites are Barney’s ABC, 123 and Elmo’s Lift & Learn.  Every page has a lot going on so he’ll actually sit and look.

Still doesn’t like getting dressed after his bath. He’ll do ok for a couple nights and then scream the next time we do it.  I think he’s just hungry, tired, and over life.

He doesn’t like getting dropped off at the YMCA (see below)

Size:

Short and stout sweet.  At John’s 6 month doctor’s appointment he weighed 20 lbs and was 26 inches long which is still 85% for weight and 25% for height.  His legs are deliciously and hilariously chunky.

He’s still wearing most of his 6 month sized cloths, but also fits 9 and 12 month outfits.  He wears size 3 diapers, but they are getting tight.  Who knows about these sizes.  Allyson brought him an 18 month t-shirt and it fit him!  WTF…how can the same child wear a 6 month onesie and an 18 month t-shirt???

Me:

Busy, but good.  I’m working a lot lately because there’s so much going on at work.  We have our first Walks on September 7^th and they are now 2 staff people down.  They still haven’t hired a replacement for me and the Coordinator in Orlando unexpectedly quit this week.  I’ve been trying to step in and help as much as I can, but I’ve honestly been stretched a little thin so I might have to scale back.

I’m frustrated with my weight-loss plateau and totally dumbfounded how I can weigh 3-5 lbs less than what I weighed pre-pregnancy and yet none of my clothes fit right.  None.  I’m to the point now that I can’t keep wearing my maternity clothes (it’s been 7 damn months), but I’m so uncomfortable in my regular clothes.  Part of it is my ridiculous boobs, but most of it is just flab-city.  I had great expectations of losing a ton of weight breastfeeding, but I think I’m one of those gals that won’t lose the weight I want to lose until I quit nursing. 

That being said, I’m trying to get to the gym more often.  On Tuesday I walked into the KidZone to drop off John and one of the caretakers came up to me and told me that John usually cries the whole time he’s there.  Uhhhh, ok?  She was asking me for advice on how to make him happier so her intentions were good, but all I heard was “John hates you because you drop him off here.”   I rushed through my work-out that day and no, I haven’t gone back.  I just feel bad for him and I feel bad for them having to deal with it, but I have to keep going.  He’ll get more used to it, right? 

Tears on his cheeks after I picked him up.

And just for fun, the total nursing count is up to 550 hours, 39 minutes (which is about 23 days of my life)

John’s Highlight of the Month:

Aunt Allyson’s visit

Being properly worshiped

John’s Low-point of the month:

I think his low-point is cutting these teeth.  He’s cranky and clingy.  Poor boy.

Favorite Picture:  This was hard to pick this month, but here’s the winner:

Gorgeous boy

Others:

First runner up for best picture of the month

These two are besties lately.

hey, laaaaadies

Check out those lashes

One of the 57 outtakes this morning.  He was way more interested in eating the blocks than he was patiently posing behind them.

  

This doesn't happen often anymore so when it does I EAT IT UP .

He loves me.

Lessons Learned Lately

1.  WAHMs can't blog.  Being a work-at-home-mom is truly an ideal situation for me, but I cannot find time to write anything for this lil blog.  Whenever I have time to sit down in front of a computer I have about 15 items on my To DO list that needed to be done days (or weeks/months) ago.  I’m already feeling a little guilty just for writing this.  It's taking all my willpower to resist writing "Have you registered for the 2013 Walk to End Alzheimer's?  Join us!"  Whoops...just did it.  #endalz

PS...that's the website that I've been building.

2.  6 months and sitting up is as good as it gets until John is in college.  Yep, I've decided that it's all downhill from here.  This is just the perfect age.  He's to the point where he can play independently and doesn't want or need to be held all the time and yet he can't crawl away and get himself into trouble.  His absolutely favorite thing to do lately is sit on the floor and play with all his little toys.

3.  That being said, even a baby who “can’t really crawl yet,” will scoot himself to the closest danger in lightening speed if I leave the room.  A few days ago I left him on the floor by himself for a minute and when I came back he had wiggled himself across the blanket to my iPhone charger which was in his hands and about an inch from his mouth.  200 toys are surrounding him, but oh-look-at-that-electric-cord-way-over-there!

Look at those delicious cords behind me!

4.  You can put a Chic-fil-a milkshake in the freezer and eat it an hour later.  It's still good.  Just thought I'd share.  Oh, and the Mocha Cookies and Cream shake makes my heart pitter-patter.

5.  Breastfeeding doesn't burn as many calories as I was hoping.  Damn you, Mocha Cookies and Cream milkshake!

6.  Highchairs are a game-changer.  Although I was getting pretty good at eating with one hand I have to admit that it's so much nicer to be able to put John in a hair chair and use both hands.  He seems to like it too.

7.  My little chunker would be totally happy eating nothing but breastmilk the rest of his life.  Food post coming soon, but let's just say he doesn't like anything and makes the same face I make when taking a shot of jager when we try to feed him.  Come on, kid.  It's banana, not siracha.

My parents TORTURE me with this shit

8.  My life would suck without them:

George Garro

Oh man.  Bullet dodged.  I basically held my breath from Monday when I found out the royal baby was a boy until learning his name yesterday.  I was sooooooooooooo nervous that they'd name him John and John would quickly become the most overused boy name of the teens (I'm guessing that's what we call the years 2010 - 2019, right).

Not sure if anyone remembers, but George was Bud's #1 choice for our baby's name back when I wrote my 22 Weeks post in September.  So glad I put the kabosh on that one.  Phew.

PS...rereading that post seems like a lifetime ago.

PPS...John reached his arms up when I picked him up today.  My heart melted.  I've been waiting for that one.  He loves me after all.

Six Months Old!

Happy Half-Birthday to my darling boy!

 half way to ONE

OK, now I understand the “I can’t believe it’s been <<fill in the blank amount of time here>> already.” that people say about their babies.  It’s hard to believe that when I wake up tomorrow I’m closer to John’s first birthday than I am to his birthdate.  Craziness.  We’ve had a great month and I feel like we are hitting our grove.  That’s not to say this shit is easy.  No, certainly not.  But the good times outweigh the tough times tenfold lately.

The biggest development of the month is that John is sitting up on his own and LOVES it.  I’ll still put a pillow or the boppy behind him because he’s a little wobbly, but for the most part the boy is upright and having a blast.

This month he got to meet two of his uncles (Jordan and Mike) and three of his cousins (Jocelyn, Brian, and Jake).  Besides my precious four-legged niece Shiva in Chicago, he’s now met the whole family.  Being around our nieces and nephews makes Bud and I very excited to see how close these cousins will hopefully be through their lives.  It’s also kinda terrifying being around 4 kids 4 and under at the same time.  Like whoa. 

Love this one.  

Jocelyn's bluesteel is amazing.

Aubrey is sweet and helpful.

John is just taking it all in.

This month John also had his first trip to the pediatrician besides his regular check-ups.  His big toe on the right foot got infected somehow.  We noticed it last weekend and when it still wasn’t better 5 days later I took him in.  I was afraid I’d be laughed out of there as a crazy first-time parent, but they were pleased I brought him in and prescribed an antibiotic ointment.  His toe is looking much better, thankyouverymuch.

Sleeping:

My perfect little sleeper hit a bit of a speed bump this month when he learned to roll over in his crib.  The poor guy would roll from his back to his stomach and get stuck flat on his face.  And I mean flat on his face...like his nose would be red because it's been smashed into the mattress.  There were a few nights in a row that I would have to go into his room just to flip him over to his back.  I’d literally walk into his room, flip him over, and walk back to my bed.  He’d be asleep again before my covers were on me.  There were two nights when he needed some extra comforting, but thankfully that was only two nights because I’m really not prepared to start nursing through the night again.

After about a week of that nonsense, my little genius figured out to turn his head onto his cheek when laying on his belly and is much more comfortable.  He’s definitely a tummy sleeper now and as long as he isn’t face down I let him do it. 

Eating:

Good!  John remains an excellent nurser.  He usually eats 6-7 times a day for about 1.5 hours total.  It still seems like a lot, but when you have a baby that’ll consistently sleep 11 hours you fill that kid up during the day.   Total nursing count is up to 502 hours, 45 minutes.

We’ve made progress with the bottles too.  He’s just gotta get over it.  Bud and I went to a lovely wedding a couple weeks ago so John was with Bud’s parents for about 6 hours, including his rough time of day – evening.  I left them with two bottles and he ate both of them.  Such a relief.  I have a work-thing on Friday and will be gone for 8 hours so he’ll have another bottle day, like it or not.

Likes and Dislikes:

Sitting up is his favorite thing to do lately.  I’ll put him on the floor surrounded by toys and he’ll happily sit there for a while taking turns shoveling each toy into his mouth.  Uma is not very happy about this development and has to be right next to him at all times.

Chewing and sucking on anything he can get into his mouth.  The boy can’t go 5 minutes without trying to gnaw on you.  If all else fails he’ll suck his fingers, but prefers toys or my fingers when he can get them.

He does not like to be left alone lately.  I used to be able to put him somewhere (in the swing, Rock n Play, etc.) and walk into the kitchen, go to the bathroom, or whatever and he’d be fine, but now it’s as if I just gave him up for adoption.  He’s a bit dramatic.  No idea where he gets that (cough cough, aunt allyson, cough cough).

He likes squirming around in his bed.  I’ll regularly find him flipped onto his stomach and 90 degrees turned from where I left him.

He likes baby tv shows and dvds.  I know, I know….I clearly hate my child because I let him watch tv.  It’s one of those things I swore I wouldn’t do, but I’m a rule breaker, duh.  He doesn’t watch a lot, but if I have a work project that has to get done and need him to be quiet for 24 minutes straight I’ll put on PBS and plop him down.  It won’t kill him.

John's new favorite song: Shake my Sillies.  He wants me to sing it all. the. time.

Size:

We are all very worried.  John has dropped to the 89^th percentile for weight.  Haha.  Yea, he’s still a butterball, meatloaf.  I love it.  At his doctor’s appointment last week he weighed 19 lbs 14 ozs. 

He’s still wearing 6 month outfits, but 9 months are fitting him better.  He’s in size 3 diapers, but I think we are going to have to switch soon.

This one's for you, Grier.

Me:

Doing great.  It’s been a good month.  I’m liking my job although I’m still struggling to find time to do it.  Bud and I have seen a lot of both of our families lately which is always wonderful and I got out to see my friends a bunch.

When John was first born I joking said to a lot of people, “I think I’m going to be a really good mom when John is 6 months old, but this newborn thing is rough.”  Well, I think I was right.  Not to toot my own horn, but I think I’m nailing it these days.  Why can’t babies just be like this from the beginning?

John’s Highlight of the Month:

Meeting his future BFF, Anderson Moyer.

I just noticed that John is holding Anderson's foot, but not looking at him.  

That's creepy.  I'll talk to him about that.

John’s Low-point of the Month:

Pshhhh, this kid can’t complain.  His life is pretty good.  But if I had to pick one, it’d be a MASSIVE breakdown he had on the way home from the beach one evening.  Bud and I met his family at Cabana Club for dinner and stayed a little later than we probably should have.  It was a trifecta – tired, hungry, and nothing to shove into his mouth for comfort.  Bud was alone in the car with him.  Oooph, rough.  Been there.

Favorite picture:

It's hard to get John's eye color on my iPhone, but this picture got pretty close.  There's no editing to this pic.  When he was born, everyone would comment on his amazing black hair, but now I'll get a compliment on his eyes every time we are out.  They really are gorgeous. 

Side note:  I can't decide the proper response when someone compliments John.  I usually just say "Thank you" but it's not a compliment to me so is that weird?  Should I just say "I know, right?"

Example:  

Publix clerk: Oh my, his eyes are beautiful.

Me:  I know.

Others:

Family picture at the beach - John was a bit sleepy so we couldn't get a smile

John's first time in a highchair.

4th of July

Garro men representing the red, white, and blue

These two were breaking in the new livingroom rug.

Doesn't it look like I just interrupted a deep conversation?

7/16/13 John's first time at the YMCA.