2 Months

Actually 10 weeks. 12.55 pounds, 23.5 inches. pretty average all in all. Got an oral vaccine combo which he actually took relatively well considering he's never had anything but milk. he also got 3 shot vaccines. OUCH. He did really well actually. The first needle he didn't cry at all (yet) and she was really fast putting in the second in his quad then the third in the other leg. Then he screamed for about 10 seconds then relaxed but he still wasn't pleased.

Doctor is nice, no concerns from him or me. He said he has water in his scrotum, so that's why his balls are so big. They won't always be that big. Pretty normal stuff. An innocent murmur and a little bit of cradle cap starting. But his tear duct might be cleared up. it's been gunk free for several days now.

Otherwise just sitting around growing and running errands. It's pretty boring actually and makes me want to work. I miss coaching right now and wish I were involved in something, but my main focus (after him) should be losing weight. No other moms I see are chunky still!

Rick is still getting ready for his deployment out in the desert. We get emails when he can but no cell phone reception. They also go into the field every now and then, where they camp out and eat MREs. t sounds like he's doing mostly legal work at the remote base site. And it's about 105+ degrees, so he makes sure to hydrate. He is coming here Sept. 14 which happens to coincide with Harvey's visit....

California

Quick update while the baby naps. I was all packed up and we were walking out the door when I realized Rick has the stroller in the back of his car, at work. Doh. I can wrap him up but it's a little hot and long for that, so we'll go sit by the pool and hopefully rick can come home for lunch. he's really busy but I'm still glad I stayed, the weekend went really fast.

it was great having the Martins visit. We went to the LaJolla beach for a bit, but weren't really prepared to have a beach day so it was just the right amount of short. Lunch out and then just dinner and visiting after naps. Sunday was pool and lunch. Time flies with children, nothing is quick with us yet and napping dominates. Baby adjusted very well after first night and day. Slept all Saturday night - almost 12 hours with small feeding breaks. and since then has been well rested and behaved and sleeping on pacific coast night time, about 10-7am. He's been very gassy but at least at night has been going back to sleep easily.

Monday we went on the base and took care of adding bobby to the insurance and went shopping a bit. then walmart and best buy. got rick a 10 inch netbook for $300 and it has turned out to be worth it. small keyboard but sharp display and webcam and very functional and light. no CD drive, but for email, Internet and skype, it's perfect.

today we will go over to the Carlsbad outlets and check out coach and gymboree and BCBG and barneys and the like, tomorrow who knows, maybe Judy M can get me out of here, then i take the red eye back at 10pm so hopefully that experience will be smooth too, getting out here was pretty simple, baby was awake but undisruptive. he slept the whole short first flight, but then only about an hour on the 4 hour flight, it helped the guy next to me had noise cancelling head phones but i hated getting him up to change diapers. no movie which i thought was weird but good salmon dinner!

i am really excited to see wiley and archer again and sad i missed the cake decorating party but will make up for it this coming weekend.

The 336

Life in Greensboro is good so far. We have adjusted well and are enjoying it. Bobby is even getting used to the barking, and only occasionally gets spooked still. He was doing great the last couple days, working up to almost 5 hours straight of sleeping for a couple nights. This is however from 9-2am so if I don't go to bed until 11, I don't get all that sleep too. The last two nights have been more of a blur and he has quit sleeping after about 2 and I don't know where the hours go until 7am. Oh well. He is growing and eating. Currently, he's been asleep for 2.5+ hours so I might pay for that later. He's also doing well when we go shopping and run errands, provided he is fed well and generally stays in motion. He has behaved really well for Grammy while I go to the gym and takes his bottle when hungry.

I am still a city person and hate having to drive 12 minutes to the gym. Ick.
And people down here have real thick accents sometimes.

Comparison Shopping

So I've been looking through old flickr a lot. it's actually fun, i just wish they had an easier way to scroll through. Beside the point.

It is wild to see how kids grow. Wiley at 11 months was a totally different creature. when he was just learning to walk etc. wow

then since Carolyn has birth pics up, I've come to the realization, that babies are sort of generic looking. Not in a bad way at all, but they don't look like much at 5 weeks. just cute. I see a lot of similarities btw Cash and Bobby. Cash is a lot chubbier though, even for 9.12, we are at 9 and a half pounds or so but don't have the cheeks Cash did. I think Bobby might be long for his weight right now. I am feeding him a lot, I want him to get big and fat. Also, if that's what brown hair looks like on babies, we don't have it here. Still TBD.

Grammy is on her way, we are excited to have company again.

i'm screwed

so i've been waiting for the baby to get up so i can feed him, but he is out. and has been. basically since 2pm. he's gotten up twice to eat but then goes down again for 2.5-3 hour chunks. this might be a long night for me. i guess i'll lie down now too.
we were up a lot last night and all morning We slept well 9ish-12pm Thursday, and 12-2:30am but then he was up until 5am, slept until 6am, up until 7:30, up after 8:30am then awake until 2pm. so i hope he's making up for that instead of taking away from tonights rest.

July

nothing going on. had a good visit with rick. sad to see him go again.

1 month visit for the kid on Monday. he was 9 pounds, 6 ounces. 21.5 inches or something like that. length was pretty inprecise. got a hep B vaccine. big needle right in his skinny thigh. couple good screams then settled down.

i went to my follow up OB appt today. i am all healed. the nice little old lady nurse thought i was doing good since i was 14 pounds less than my 17 week check up. didn't mention i was still 18 pounds over my 10 week appt weight.

baby is pretty good. he gets fussy at spells and won't settle down but they don't last long at all. he spits up what i think is a lot, and i assume he eats too much too fast but then starts crying for food about 5 minutes later. odd. pooping less which i guess is normal.

i am getting pretty cabin feverish, but there's only so many errands i can create and do. and things i would do inside i can't do unless i ignore him. i don't like walking too long since if he gets hungry i can't plop down on a curb and feed him just like that. so it will be nice when i can hopefully pass him onto grammy to watch at naptime and i can go to the gym or something.

4th of July

Robert is one month old. Yay. It is nice having Rick here. He has changed a lot of diapers for me! Also did laundry and some house errands. And I took a really long shower today. It's nice to just have company too. If I could somehow wrangle a pedicure and massage, life would be great. We have a doctors appt on Monday then Rick leaves in the evening.

We went to the Outback for dinner. Robert did really well (sleeping). We also spent today at the pool while Rick practiced his swimming. Tonight we watched fireworks then walked to Wendys for a frosty in the moby wrap.

Looks like I will be out of here around the 15th. I think that is a good timeline and I am ready to be in North Carolina. I think it will be fun.

Two Things

Well, this whole bad economy never affected us so far, but now it has - Screwed by the struggling airlines. Rick's 79,000 frequent flier miles have expired. I guess back in February, but with no warning or anything. Maybe just some fine print about use it or lose it. Sucks. Why we need them is because he is coming home for 4th of July. Woohoo. However, tickets are $550+. Money is no object this time, he's coming no matter what, but it would have been nice to use the 50K miles he thought he had saved.

Completely separately, I stole this from elsewhere, but what will TLC call the next generation of the show now?

• Jon Plus 8 (Friday through Sunday), Kate All The Other Days.
• Jon & Kate Seper8
• Jon H8s Kate

We are doing well, enjoying walking longer each day. Making up errands to do to kill time. Feeling a little cabin fever, but I know it's best to keep him sheltered a little bit. I do wish I had some patio furniture though. If I could get it home I would buy a plastic lawn chair from the CVS.

Weight

According to the Wii Fit, my baby weighs 8.8 pounds. I don't think it's all that accurate.

The floor scale has him at 8.0.

And.

He got fussy so I chickened out on giving him a real bath again so he's a dirty boy. He is getting a lot of wiping down. A submersion bath is now our goal for tomorrow.

And apparently, I have to have baby lights and baby dark clothes. I guess I have enough to wait for a half load, but honestly, that is a lot of laundry and you all know my washer takes upwards of 90 minutes to do a load, maybe more. Anyway, now I have a really cute light blue romper instead of a white one and a dingy yellow one. But my new navy blue changing pad cover is ready to go. I did have a moments pause when I put it in, but not enough I guess. I did hold the red onesie out though!

Day 15 of Life

Well that was sort of rough. We went to Babies R Us uneventfully around noon today, then home for a long nap and sitting around. Went out to ATM and Subway around 6 then he was up. I think he got his 18 hours of sleep in from midnight to 6pm today at least. He was very fidgety and eating a ton, or at least 'on the breast' but I assume there was milk coming out, eventually he dozed off and I put him in the bassinet, but then he let out 2 or 3 screams, which I never want to hear again. He doesn't ever cry and barely even whimpers so I hate that sound even more. So we cuddled and I didn't think he was hungry, but he ate some more and then I'd go to put him in a more comfortable position in my arms and he'd be up all over again. Switch sides and same thing would happen. I was waiting for a huge spit up but it didn't come either. Wonder if he was that hungry. Fine by me if he was. I am just sort of feeding him all the time and letting him decide when he's done. Sometimes it's an hour apart, sometimes 3, generally lasting for 10-20 minutes. There's really no pattern. Anyway, he's down now, on the changing pad on the couch and I'm sitting in the dark typing. I need to fold laundry, I guess I could do it in the kitchen. This better be a one time thing. Bedtime cannot be this complicated. I think he was just wound up for whatever reason and got overly tired. I didn't even want to change him or carry him the 20 steps to the bedroom in case he woke up. Poor kid, I have no idea what I'm doing.

2 weeks old

Well Rick is on the road, so we are on our own. Nights are fine. Lonely but fine. I will probably miss adult companionship really soon. We went out to the grocery store this morning. Around 11am. Took 6 minutes to get there, we were in and out in 30 minutes. And I didn't even park in the expecting mothers spot. Put his car seat in the cart and food all around him, so it was a smaller trip, but that's what i have to get used to because unloading the car and getting it upstairs is the real hassle. He was awake but calm the whole time. We're going to rest for a few hours now and then maybe treat ourselves to a smoothie and a walk later. It's really me who is worse for the wear physically after going out. Don't know if I have a busted stitch or this is just normal recovery. I am ready to get out of here though. Ready for the move, but will wait until mid July after both of our next check ups. Hopefully Rick can come back for 4th of July and we'll pack up then.

We're Alone

And I'm sort of excited about it. I guess I just feel stressed with house guests and want them to be entertained and taken care of. I got over it for the most part, but I like just the 3 of us.

We tried something a little different last night. After he fed a lot, like 10, 11, 12 pm we burped, changed and put right down. Same thing at 3am, usually I cuddle until he is out then move him to the bassinet, but once his eyes closed, he went down and stayed down. Made for more sleep for all of us I think. I think every day is still different, it's tough to have to burp him or even change him because those things wake him up.

I'm not sure if it's us doing the laundry or the kid is bigger but 2 of his rompers didn't really fit from heel to neck.

Due Date!

We had a follow up check up this morning for Baby's billirubin levels. I would like to go to the pediatricians every week. it puts me at ease. he's probably in the top percentage of healthy babies but not knowing how one acts, i can be suspicious of everything.

He weighed 7 pounds 12.8 ounces. Last Monday he was 6 lb 14oz when we went in for follow up at 5 days old, born 7 lb. 3 oz. I was very happy to hear this. They didn't pull blood, although he is still a bit yellow down to his armpit line, they weren't too worried since eating and peeing and pooping is going well. I asked all my questions and got them answered. His stool is normal, his tear ducts are closed but we are going to massage them. This doctor still recommended the Vitamin supplement (more A and D than iron).

We returned the pump. It was $2/day and we haven't used it since Wednesday probably but it was worth not making the trip back.

Everything went smoothly and they actually combined our 2 week visit with this to save us a trip so we go back July 6 for 1 month.

How do I look?

Notice anything different?

Saturday

After I took Grammy to the airport - breaking my no driving for 2 weeks rule, we got in a little nap, a feeding then we went out! There is a quite nice farmers market at the corner, but I did a lap and chickened out. We sat outside and ate. It was good to get out and the longer Rick sleeps in, the more I think I could really handle this by myself. We'll see at the end of next week when I haven't been cooked for and cleaned up after.

Friday

Why is nothing so appealing to poop as a brand new diaper?

We have both been peed on several times. Poor kid rarely has clothes on. I don't know if it's because it's warm or we just don't get around to it since we change him so often.

So my feet didn't swell until the very end of pregnancy (during the shower) but boy did they swell up while I was in the labor suite for some reason. no clots or anything, but my new crocs which i wanted so bad did not fit. a little better now though.

milk supply is not a problem, 'nuf said.

we went for a lovely walk. he slept through it all, but boy was i happy to get out. the whole neighborhood is either up or downhill though. and bumpy!

We think he's filling out more, but it's probably only a whopping 3 ounce weight gain. he looks better each day. less saggy skin.

i don't like burping. i guess I'm just impatient. especially when I'm trying to get him to feed on both sides, it just seems like a long break in between and he won't go back to work after his break.

Grammy leaves tonight. we'll miss her. she has spoiled us very much. but we'll be okay too.

One week

Another good night. Not great, he tends to like to drag his middle feeding out (2-3:30) in this case. But then a nap and up at 6 to eat again. He is latching well, sometimes a little resistant, but because he can, not because he's actively refusing.

I am really fat. I don't care it's only been a week. I see now I gained too much weight and am regretting it. Don't worry, I'm still eating 3 meals and about 3 snacks, but add in my new sedentary life, I'll never lose this 20 pounds. We do have the stroller together so may venture out into the world today.

I have lots of random thoughts, so I think I'll start keeping a note pad so you too can experience them. Maybe I'll skip the boob and girly part thoughts. I put up my extensive description of labor, so it's way too long, but I'll print it out and put it in his baby book since I have a lousy memory.

My only concern today is his stool, the runny part has been very yellow mustard and runny, but he also has some "solid" stool - moer artichoke paste consistency than yogurt. almost a little turd that is very squishable. he is pooping a lot so i'm not that worried.

Jaundice :(

He also looks like a redhead here, but it's probably his yellow skull.

Home Day 3

So I meant to write this this morning, but the day just passes. I don't know where it goes since we do nothing. Which is nice, just rest and feed. Last night was pretty good. I had my alarm on even to really be sure he eats a lot and regularly, but he actually woke up right on schedule 12, 3 and 6 ish. He eats for 30 minutes then we cuddle and he goes down really easy. The 6am meal took a lot longer, and we were working on it until about 7:30am. But I am confident he is eating well today. Some were shorter than I like, but in that case he'd get right back on after being put down. He just falls asleep with me way too easily. Luckily Grammy likes to harass him kindly and give him little talks and he usually behaves after that. The previous two nights had started the same, but the second half he was wide awake from 4am onward.


I have a little general anxiety, but only because I want him to be perfect and gain weight and be healthy. I think mom has told me "he's only 5 days old" a million times. So all this sleeping is normal and he's basically just getting used to being alive.

He does have some serious jaundice. We had a follow up Monday morning after being dismissed Saturday at 2pm. They took another bilirubin blood test to see where his levels were at. He was 14.5 out of an allowable 15 before they would want to bring him in for an overnight with the lights. Tuesday morning he seemed even more yellow - it had worked down to his chest and arms. So I called the doctor. I had to and feel better that I did. They left it up to me if I brought him in, basically to ease my mind, but I am choosing to wait it out day by day, rather than have his little bony heel get pricked again. Bottom line is he is eating well and peeing and pooping a ton. Eating isn't perfect but he is getting latched on just fine and getting lots in. I think he is a little lethargic, but he can be aroused, eventually - usually by getting naked and tickled a bit.

What else... well this is where we need a private reading section so Dad doesn't have to be subjected to such details. I am sure this is a natural process and quite a design, it sure does take a toll on your body. I can't imagine how I'll lose this weight. I guess when mom isn't cooking for me, it may be easier. So right now I'll just take care of healing.

We might have to venture out to the sidewalk or something so I don't go crazy and Bobby can get some indirect sun. We are sitting in a huge thunderstorm now and he doesn't flinch. Same thing when the smoke detector went off. He is a deep sleeper which is good and bad. More as soon as I feel up to it. Roseann comes tonight. Thanks to all for concern, care and advice.