Someone hold me & tell me he won't forget who I am!

I'm at work today, it's been about a whole hour I've been here. I've been here and hour and am just getting my "cubicle" put back in order (and sanitized). My poor work fish, Finn, is still alive (thanks to Lindsay and Pat feeding him while I was gone) but his bowl is N.A.S.T.Y. I guess I should clean that for him.

Ed is at home all day today with Garrett. Eek! Thankfully since it's a weekend I can come and go if I need to but I'd rather just stay and get my hours in so I can go home and be home with my guys. My boss rocks and she's letting me work whatever I need to for the next two weeks so I'm working around Ed's schedule since we haven't met our daycare lady yet.

Garrett, Mr. Good Sleeper, decided to mess with me last night. He didn't sleep more than 3 hours at a time, and from 3:30 was up every hour. He must have known something was up, and he must have known I needed to be up early for a change. Of course I'm sure the shots he got the other day played a small factor in the change in sleep pattern. His chunky monkey thighs are still tender from where he got poked and he's still running a slight fever. I tried to make myself leave him in his bed to sleep, but I couldn't help but pull him into bed with me and get the snuggles in that I'm not going to get today.

I woke up and fed Garrett this morning before I started to get ready for work, then he went right back to sleep. Ed has 3 full bottles of breast milk (pumped yesterday and already this morning) and I took one frozen bag from the stash. I hope they don't go through more than that - otherwise I'm going to have to start really stepping up my production. Maybe if I'm really lucky Ed and Garrett will come to visit me at work and I can feed him then! Ed got off work at 3 o'clock this morning and Garrett had him up by 8 am.

I'm back in uniform, but dang is it snug! I'll have to start working on that - makes me uncomfortable to wear snug clothes like this! But now that I'm here I have 2 hours a week of on duty workout time, so I'd better start using it again.

I have my pump here with me and I have already had 2 big jugs of water (I've been up since 6:30 am). I just need to jump back into the work with both feet and hope I don't start crying.

I miss my baby boy!

Garrett's 2 month checkup and my postpartum checkup

Lucky me - I got a pap smear. I still have 17 pounds to get to my prepregnancy weight. Methinks I need to stop eating like a horse, even if I am being milked like a cow.

This little maniac is 13 pounds 4 ounces...and 25 inches long! He was 7 pounds 10 ounces and 20.5 inches when he was born. I'm taking bets that he's going to be at least 6 foot tall. As a 5'03" tall momma - I'm pretty excited about that! Doctor said he looks fantastic.

He messed with all of his bones and joints and said there was no noise (i.e. popping, grinding, etc...) which, for this momma, is a GREAT thing to hear. He tested his reactions, made him follow him with his eyes and head, etc...Then they gave Garrett his first set (well except for what he got as a newborn in the hospital) of shots. Whoa. I thought I was prepared. I distracted him and they had a nurse on either side of him giving him the shots. For a brief nanosecond he was fine, then the floodgates opened. He turned a shade of red I didn't know a little boy could turn and he screamed like I have never heard him scream before. Did Mom cry? Nope - I started laughing.

As soon as they were done (took, what 10 seconds maybe?) I scooped him up and tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't calm down. The nurses went to leave and they left the door open behind them, telling me they'd see us again in 2 months. I asked them (politely) to close the door behind them and told them I was going to be there until Garrett calmed down. I sat down and nursed him, he latched right on and calmed down.

He's been pretty fussy all night. He had maybe a total of 30 minutes of cat naps from 9 am until he fell asleep at about 10:30 pm. He was deliriously tired and every time he did fall asleep I'd put him down, and he'd wake up within a minute or two, screaming blood murder again. So needless to say I held the poor bug all evening. Man my shoulders and back are killing me.

Well since I had to hold my little man I couldn't cook dinner. So I ordered pizza. Ha! So much for getting rid of that 17 pounds.

I'm so proud of this boy! We will schedule our genetic testing for OI at his next appointment.

Tub time and showering with Daddy

Doing great!

Well the baby Zantac has helped G considerably. He burps like a champ again and must be gaining weight, because I've had to pack away his newborn clothes and a good amount of his 0-3 month clothes. Yes, our little 2 month old (well as of tomorrow) is in 3-6 month clothes. Thanks to Aunt Sarah and a handful of other people, his 3-6 month wardrobe is more than adequate. This is one stylin' little boy.

Smiling little chatterbug

I haven't posted about this - sorry about that. Garrett is a super smily little chatterbug. I haven't taken a video with our expensive video camera but I have with my cell phone. Some of you may have gotten it, some of you may not have! The cooing is the SWEETEST sound I have ever heard. Here are a couple of pictures of Garrett smiling!

Beginning the search...

So with four weeks (more or less depending on donated time) left before my maternity leave is over, I began our search for a sitter for Garrett. Since Ed and I are going to be working opposite shifts we don't need full time daycare (why have a baby and have someone else watch him 40+ hours each week?) so we are not even bothering to look at institutional daycare at this age. Most daycare centers won't take a child this young anyway. So just for curiosity's sake I listed on http://www.craigslist.org/ to see what kind of responses I would get. We actually have a few promising prospects that I will be meeting with in the next week or two. There was one email response to our listing that I thought I would share with y'all though - to see if you got as big a kick out of it as we did.

"Hi My name is Mandie. I saw your ad on craigslist. I run a daycare out of my home. I have 8 years of experince. I teach perschool plus for older childern I help them stay up with learning. We play fun games and I do eat the childern at no extra cost to the parents. If you have any questions or want to stop by and see us just give me a call at 238-****. Thank you for your time."

Now we realize that we are being a little big picky in not wanting someone to eat our child, but we decided that if she can't even spell the word children she probably shouldn't be educating them. Our search is still on-going and I hope to find a couple of good candidates that I get along with and will come to trust with Garrett.

Before you were conceived I wanted you

Before you were born I loved you

Before you were here an hour I would die for you

This is the miracle of life.

~~Maureen Hawkins

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A Mother's Vocabulary

Amnesia: Condition that enables a woman who has gone through labor to makelove again.

Dumbwaiter: One who asks if the kids would care for dessert.

Family Planning: The art of spacing your children the proper distance apart to keep you on the edge of financial disaster.

Feedback: The inevitable result when your baby doesn't appreciate the strained carrots.

Hearsay: What toddlers do when anyone mutters a dirty word.

Impregnable: A woman whose memory of labor is still vivid.

Independent: How we want our children to be as long as they do everything we say.

Puddle: A small body of water that draws other small bodies wearing dry clothes into it.

Top Bunk: Where you should never put a child wearing Superman pajamas.

Two Minute Warning: When the baby's face turns red and she begins to make those familiar grunting noises.

Verbal: Able to whine in words.

Whodunit: None of the kids that live in your house.

We did it!!!

Yesterday marked 5 years since Ed and I got married. I'm quite proud of us. It hasn't always been easy, but we've been able to work through all the challenges presented to us.

I asked Ed last night if he could go back would he still marry me or just live in sin instead. He said he'd marry me. Awww, I said. Then he added, "It's a lot cheaper to have you on my medical insurance." Ha. At least we're practical!

Instead of buying each other gifts we just took the evening and went out to a nice juicy steak dinner. We had a friend watch Garrett for a couple of hours and we had a drink with dinner, taking time to enjoy each other's company. It was relaxed and tasty - just like us! Bwahahahaha!

I love you Ed and if I had to go back - I would marry you all over again too. Thanks for the insurance!

Baby on Zantac

Remember awhile back when I posted about him spitting up a lot? Well it started again while we were camping and that's been about 2 weeks ago. We have tried everything, including eliminating stuff from my diet, Mylicon, Little Tummies, etc... The last two days have been downright miserable, he cries and cries. The only time he doesn't cry is when he's finally cried himself to sleep (I'm not letting him CIO, I can't soothe him) or when he's on the booby. He would just puke and puke and puke. We were going thru at least 4 burp rags a day and 2-3 outfits (well onsies) because he was soaking them with puke). I called the doctor the other day and we went in today.

Basically during the appointment I got a lesson on how to burp him. As if I don't know how to. I was so dang frustrated. The doctor was showing me how to burp him sitting on a knee, and G burped. The doctor said, "See, just like that." And then G puked. The doctor jumped like he'd been bitten by a snake and unfortunately the vomit hit the floor instead of his pants. And he still asserted that I just needed to sit him differently and burp him a different way since "he" (the doctor) doesn't like medicating an infant unless it's completely necessary. Okay, I can agree with that, but we have done everything for our poor bug and that's why we were there. He told me that G had gained 1 ounce in the last week and that that was a weight gain and good enough. G has gained 4 pounds 6 ounces in 7 weeks of life...that's an average of approx 8 ounces a week. Does anyone else think that it's odd that a child who has gained 8 ounces a week suddenly drops to 1 ounce and that's still good enough? I know - a gain is a gain. And my $20 copay sent us on our way.

We got home and poor G puked another 3 times, forcefully. He had some more booby, and then cried and puked and cried and puked, etc...until his poor tummy was empty (I'm assuming) and he fell asleep. This went on thru another feeding and I called the doctors office, wanting to cry myself. They called in a prescrip for baby Zantac. I gave him that, fed him, he gave me a good burp and did 2 tiny (in comparison to earlier) pukes and was a happy happy boy. I just gave him some more of the Zantac and fed him, and he gave me two little burps and fell sound asleep. I sure hope this works for him - I hate to see such a happy and calm little boy hurting.

On a good note - Garrett weighed in at 12 pounds exactly - and 24 inches!!! Mark my words - we've got a future 6 footer on our hands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First "real" camping trip

I put "real" in quotes because, well, we camped in our 25 foot camp trailer with a full kitchen, queen size bed, shower, toilet, etc...so is it "real" camping? Well we dealt with horseflies, bees, and plenty of skeeters. So for me it's still camping! :) Garrett did AWESOME - he is certain to be his daddy's little nature boy!!!

Our campsite at Grandview Campground at Lower Mesa Falls outside of Ashton, Idaho. It was a nice and quiet campground (until the party with about 10 kids under the age of 10 came in our last night).
Here is Garrett and Ed checking out the campground. Don't call me a neurotic weenie - I did not want skeeters to eat up my boy! Even when he was in his swing he had the netting over him. He still got a couple of skeeter bites - but he never seemed to notice (but I did!)

Garrett and mommy snuggling by the campfire. He would have some booby and fall asleep and I'd put him to bed on our bed in the camper while Ed and I hung out and played games (i.e. Yahtzee) by campfire light! Then we would go to bed and Garrett would eat a late night snack and we'd all go to sleep.

Can you spot the baby? This is easily my favorite of all his pajamas! I'm sad he's already outgrowing it! Yes, I was the one who left the red socks on him - I didn't want skeeters to eat his little toys!

A friend of mine is an awesome sew-er (I don't know to put that ... sewer makes me think of pee and poop and seamstress isn't the right word either) and she made this camo ring sling for us. It's supposed to be for Ed but he hasn't tried it out yet. I like it because it makes it so that I can carry Garrett and keep both my hands free. Garrett loves it as well, since he loves being held! If he's fussy when I put him in it he calms down and falls asleep shortly after I put him in it!

Handsome 6 week old boy at Upper Mesa Falls!

Garrett and Daddy at Upper Mesa Falls. Ed really was having a good time - ignore his sour face!

Siren and Kevlar are, as usual, great travelers. They love being outside but they are city dogs. They got tired of the horseflies and skeeters and the rocks under their feet. Most USFS campgrounds and all National Parks don't allow dogs off of leashes, and Siren and Kev's favorite thing to do is roam uninhibited. But they still did great.

Yay! The Holbert's at Upper Mesa Falls!

My Dad and Mom bought Garrett a camo camping rocking chair. He loves it - but it is a workout for us! It's a great idea in theory - but the ground is rarely level and so we rocked on rocks, hence the workout for whoever is running the rocker! But it's still very awesome to have. We rocked Garrett over and over and he loved it. He loved staring at the trees and blue sky and he was just a happy boy pretty much the whole time!

The campground host at Warm River (which is a misnomer since it is NOT a warm river) suggested that we go up Fish Creek Road about 10 miles, take a right, go another 3 miles and find this are to swim in. There wasn't much for shade so we didn't spend much time there. Siren, our waterbaby, got right in the water and stirred up the dirty bottom. We all got in but only for a short time. Garrett did not like the water!

Garrett did not like the cooler (it wasn't cold by any means) water, and he cried some. Here is a picture of him calming down.

So, all in all, we had a great time. We relaxed, ate camp food, and just enjoyed each others company and the nature we got to be in. Though we didn't "rough it" by any means, I believe that camping with a newborn is roughing it a little anyway. For example, during a diaper change, Ed did not move quick enough, and I got pee'd on. Well, not just pee'd on but pee'd on enough that I was REALLY thankful for that little shower in the camper. Holy cow for such a little thing this boy can whiz like a champ! We got to combine so many things that we love - each other, the outdoors, new experiences, food, and good good sleep!

Six weeks & pooping in the tub!

Well while we were camping Garrett turned 6 weeks old! Our little boy is growing so so so fast! We all went to the doctor today for Ed's appointment. I stripped Garrett down to his diaper and put him on the baby scale real quick. He is 11 pounds 15 ounces! Holy giant baby Batman! When we weighed him at 2 weeks he was 8 pounds 12 ounces. That means he's gained 3 pounds and 3 ounces in 4 weeks!!! I am so proud of my body for being able to give him such a running start in the growth department!!! Garrett and I make a great breastfeeding team!!!


He was fussy tonigt and we had already decided that now is a good time to start giving him baths at bedtime, to establish a bedtime routine. Garrett has just been showering with one of us in the morning, so it was a transition for him. He has a baby bathtub but he doesn't really care for it right now since it has a sling that kind of holds him up out of the water a little bit. So I ran the bath water and stripped him and myself down and climbed into the tub with him. Lindsay, an awesome coworker of mine who has a 9 month old herself, gave us a bottle of nighttime bath wash and lotion. Garrett loves that stuff! So we climbed into the tub and after a couple of seconds of trepidation Garrett decided that he liked it! He stretched way out and started cooing, farted (not a clean fart if you know what I'm saying) and threw his head back. So he got a mouthful of bathwater. He didn't care too much for that.


I hurried up and finished washing him up and then lotioned him up and massaged him for awhile. He loves it when the lotion is warm and he lays back and relaxes his body while I rub. I put pj's on him and handed him off to his daddy who snuggled him until he fell asleep. So that's where they sit right now - Ed watching CSI and Garrett asleep in his arms.

So proud of Aunty!

Garrett's aunt Sarah was in Cda until she had to leave to fly to Boise for a couple of weeks. Sarah starts at the University of Idaho this fall in Moscow. If we move to Powell we'll be about four hours away from her and we expect we'll see a lot of her when she has time off from school! She went to Boise because she was selected as a ENBRE scholar. I'm not sure what it is - but it sounds pretty important. She's a science smarty and she was at some kind of study thing dealing with vaccines. We're very proud of how hard she worked at NIC and we're excited about how well she's going to do at U of I. She's a smart girl and a good student - a role model for Garrett! We love you Sarah!