He Knows....

Murphy's relationship with EH is fascinating and I have a post already started that will go into it in more detail, based on a comment that someone left me a while back.  The dynamic is really interesting and I think it could be helpful to anyone who has animals in the house and is thinking about adding a baby in the future.

This picture (taken with my camera phone, hence the non-standard photo size) actually says a lot.

Murphy knows that EH is his bet chance at getting an unexpected treat.  EH knows that Murphy isn't going to hurt or bother him, and so he ignores him for the most part.  They're not exactly friends yet, but it's going to happen very soon. I know it. 

And why would EH care about that silly dog anyway?  He's got balloons, people! BALLOONS! Coolest things on earth! So exciting that he literally screams and quivers with excitement when I bring them close to him.  It's hilarious.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Retirement

Monday was my dad's last day of work.  To say that I am jealous is an understatement.  I would be thrilled if I could go home this evening and not return until I was good and ready.  I don't think I'm cut out for full-time employment....

On Saturday evening my sister's family hosted a retirement party at a restaurant for a small group of close friends and family.  It was a great event - food, drinks, and good people.  The only bad thing is that EH did not have a great night at all.  For some reason, shortly before our food was served, he started heaving and  turned bright red/purple and then all of a sudden he starting vomiting everywhere.  It was a mess.  He threw up so much that I don't understand where it all came from.  It even came out of his nose.  It terrified him, and it probably hurt too, and he starting screaming and crying.  It was very hard to console him and clean up all of the vomit as well.  Multiple cloth napkins were covered in a formula/sweet potato slime and EH's clothes were a mess.

DH and I went into "pit crew" mode and quickly changed EH's diaper and put his pajamas on him.  He screamed the whole time.  Then our food came and he was still screaming.  We tried to give him his bedtime bottle, because it was time anyway, but he didn't want it, and honestly, I can't blame him.  (I never want to eat right after I throw up either.)  DH held him and kept trying to give him his bottle, while I cut DH's food and fed it to him.  Every now and then I tried to grab a quick bit myself, but my food quickly got cold, and when you're eating a "medium" cooked steak that has gotten cold, it starts to taste rather raw and I couldn't finish it.

So I took over EH care and finally got him to fall asleep in my arms.  The poor thing was exhausted and sniffling and still crying in his sleep, but at least he was asleep.  We tried to enjoy ourselves for the rest of the night, but EH kept waking up and it was very stressful so we left soon after that.

Since then, EH has not been sleeping well.  On Saturday night he woke up no less than 12 times, and it was probably a lot more than that but I stopped keeping track because it didn't matter.  Sunday night was just as bad.  Monday night he woke up about 6 times and the one time that I ran into his room to see if he needed his pacifier, it was already in his mouth and he appeared to still be asleep but he kept going "Waaah" in this really sad voice, all while making an adorable pouty face.  It was heartbreaking - he was crying in his sleep.  I eventually decided to wake him by picking him up and then I rocked him back to sleep.  After that he slept for 5 straight hours, which was much needed for all of us.

What is causing this???  Is he still traumatized from the vomiting?? Is he having nightmares??? He was definitely still asleep that last time that I checked on him so I don't understand why he was crying in his sleep.  It's destroying our sleep - for all three of us - and after finally getting him to the point of being able to sleep through the night, this is an enormous step backwards.

What does this have to do with retirement?  Well, it struck me as odd that our society is set up in such a way that there are long periods of time in one's life where you have to balance it all - work, kids, no sleep, keeping up a house, and trying to have fun somewhere in between all of that (so, not very often.)  Then, at some point in your 60s, all of that goes away.  You no longer have kids in the house (hopefully) and you no longer have to work (unless you want to.)  All of your time can be dedicated to doing things you enjoy.  It's sad to me that I work during the vast majority of EH's awake time and I hate the constant feeling of having all of things that I have to do when all I really want to do is spend a little time with my kid.  It's too bad that it isn't easier for more parents to stay at home during their kid's early years - there needs to be some sort of "maternity retirement," but given the sorry state of the United State's stance on maternity leave compared to other countries, there's no chance that's ever going to happen. 

So, instead, I'll just be happy for, and jealous of, those who have the option of no longer working.  Maybe some day my circumstances will change....

So, congratulations Dad, I hope you enjoyed your first day off of work, and all of the many that are going to follow.  If you don't have anything better to do, we have a baby down here in Pittsburgh that you're welcome to babysit any time you want!

8 Months Old

EH is 8 and a half months old now, and he is a bundle of fun.  The other day DH asked me what I thought my favorite age of EH's was going to be, and so far, I chose this one.

Think about it -  he's smily and giggly and responsive and gives so much back, but he also doesn't talk back yet.  He doesn't have a strong opinion and doesn't fight when we want him to do something.  He changes a little bit every day and there's always something new to be excited about.   He's not mobile yet so we're not going crazy chasing him around and he's not getting into every little thing or bumping his head off of things and screaming in paining. 

We don't know exactly how much he weighs or what his percentiles are, and sadly we won't know that until his 9 month check-up in May (which is driving us crazy!!!)

We're starting to feel the "pressure" of baby development.  While we are working on and making progress in a lot of areas, EH is still pretty behind other babies his age. 

- He does not have a single tooth yet

- He does not crawl, and does not seem to be interested in crawling at all

- He doesn't get into a sitting position on his own (when he's laying down)

- He doesn't want to hold his own sippy cup

I know, I know, I know... every baby develops at his or her own rate.  And we get that, we do.  But when 5 month old babies are crawling and HE is going on 9 months and still can't stand being on his stomach at all, we start to worry.  We're thinking that he's just going to be one of those babies that goes straight from sitting to walking.

In any case, we're loving him so much right now and enjoying this very fun stage of his life. It's crazy to think about what the next month might bring.

Bathroom Renovation - End of week 3

The progress on the bathroom renovation - which was always pretty slow to begin with - slowed down to a snail's pace with the return of EH, the departure of brother H, and life in general.  The weekend of April 21st we decided that I would take full responsibility for EH care so that DH could make some significant progress on the bathroom.  Since not much happened between days 8 and 21, I'm going to skip those for the sake of everyone's sanity (since these posts are starting to get old) and jump right to the good stuff.

Tasks that were completed in this two day period included:
- Grouting of the shower tile
- Installation of the shower hardware
- Installation of the sink hardware
- Plumbing of the sink
- Installation of the door and door trim
- Installation of the floor trim

Still left to do:
- Install the shower door
- Paint the bathroom door
- Wood putty all nail holes
- Caulk everything
- Sand
- Repaint where needed
- Installation of the cabinet hardware
- Installation of towel rods, toilet paper holder, etc. 

And here is what it looks like:

Vanity

Shower

And a door! (I was most excited about this since it meant we could finally at least use the toilet without having to go downstairs! First world problems, I know....)

We've come a loooong way from this, don't you think?

Bathroom Renovation - Days 6, 7, and 8

Aaaaaand, continuing on!


When we last left off there was finally a bath tub in place, and some purple dry wall.

Day 6 involved a whole lot of joint compounding which was not worthy of photographing.  (Some might argue none of this is worthy of photographing....)

Day 7 the shower tile starting to go up. 

And by the end of Day 8 we had a mostly tiled shower.

So, more than a week has passed by this point.  In the "dreaming" phase of this project, DH actually thought that they might be able to complete this entire bathroom plus redo our small downstairs bathroom as well.  Obviously that is NOT going to happen....

Bathroom Renovation - Days 4 and 5

This past weekend marked the 3 week anniversary of the start of the bathroom renovation project.  Nope, it's still not done.

But a lot of progress was made on days 4 and 5 of the project, and as of the end of day 5, it looked like this:

See that tub? It weighs 300 pounds.  (And I mean the bath tub, not the human.)  Ha!

Anyway, I hear it was a real job carrying that from the garage, up to the back of the house, in through the porch and sliding glass door, through the dining, living room and then down the hallway. I'm glad I wasn't here for that - I imagine there was a lot of cursing involved.

 But now there are walls AND a tub, and it's finally starting to look like a real bathroom.  However, considering that we are now on day 25 of the project and it's still not done, you can make a safe bet that there were some days of very little - or no - progress.   Don't worry, I'm not going to drag this thing out into 21 more posts - this should be wrapped up within the next two or three!

Done Breastfeeding

I am finally done breastfeeding.  EH is 8 months old now, and we had a good run, but it was time to be done.

Ever since I started back to work back in November, I had to (chose to) cut down to feeding EH in the morning and at bedtime, and I pumped once at lunch.  In those early days I was able to pump enough that it filled two of the three bottles that he got at daycare, back when they were 4 ounce bottles.  And that lasted for a couple of months.  But then he started needing 5 ounces per bottle sometime around the end of February, and around that time my supply started to thin out, and suddenly I was only getting enough for one bottle each day.

Then, about two weeks before EH was heading to my parents for the week, I chose to cut out the lunchtime pumping. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't have any problems with clogs or anything like that, with plenty of time before EH was leaving, thus the reason that I started this transition two weeks early.  It was great no longer having to pump at lunch, and necessary, since things got crazy at work and I didn't always have a lot of time to close my door.

At that point I was still breastfeeding every morning and at night, but with 12 hours between each feeding, my body was getting the message that demand was dwindling.  Within a week, suddenly I was no longer producing enough at the bedtime feeding - when EH usually consumed about 2 ounces more than his other feedings to help him get through the night - and I had to start supplementing with a bottle.  First two ounces of formula, then three.

Then the "week away" happened - I dropped him off at my parents house and my super crazy week at work started.  I was working 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. with no time to myself, and so for four of the days in that week I only pumped once per day.  My body wasn't happy about it, but I got through it and by the time I was back to being able to pump twice a day, there was no longer much to pump anyway.

When EH came back, I tried to get back to feeding him twice day - morning and night - but the damage was done.  I wasn't producing enough for a full meal so we had to use a bottle at every single feeding.  One of the main reasons I wanted to breastfeed so that there wouldn't be as many bottles to wash.  If we had to use bottles anyway, and since we could no longer feel confident that EH was getting enough to eat, we (I) decided that it was time to be done.  I fed him once a day, and then once every other day and then once every 4 days. Now I'm pretty sure that I'm at the point where I could stop altogether and still be fine, and in fact that may be the route I take.

I thought that perhaps I'd be sad about being done breastfeeding, and in a small way, I am.  I had some really horrible, awful few weeks at the start there, but once things calmed down and regulated, breastfeeding became incredibly easy for me - for both of us.  Twice a day I had some incredibly relaxing moments with EH, and I came to enjoy them thoroughly.

But I also feel a sense of freedom now that I'm done.  No more pumping at lunchtime - if I want to take a nap, I can. If I want to take a walk, I can.  I can do whatever I want at lunch now! Amazing!  I also still have two really relaxing bonding moments with EH every morning and night - it's just that I give him a bottle now instead of breastfeeding.  I thought that I would hate giving him a bottle, or resent being the one who still had to do his feelings, but neither have been the case.  I haven't minded the bottle at all, and at least now I know exactly how much he is getting.

And although it's still "my job" to feed EH every morning and evening, if I really really didn't want to do it, DH could do it for me, and he would.  I have that option now, and somehow, know that I'm not obligated to do something makes me feel more ok with doing it.  Having a choice compels me to chose what used to be compulsory.  It's a weird irony that hasn't been lost on me.

So I am done breastfeeding.  After 8 months.  My goal was to do it for 3 months, and then 6 months, and I exceeded both of those.  I'm going to pat myself on the back and be thankful that things worked out so well - that I was able to breastfeed him, that he was a good little eater, and that we saved hundreds of dollars by not having to buy formula, which we realize now is incredibly expensive when you're using it full-time.  But that's another post.

I'm done.  Crazy.