having kids

No, I am not pregnant. But I very recently came to the realization that if you want more than one child, it is smartest to get pregnant with that second child before #1 gets much more than 18 months old. At that point Child #1 starts to get a lot of "personality" and starts to become more independent, stubborn, smart, and frustrating. And at that point you start to wonder if you really want more than one child. Seriously, there are brief moments when I wonder why I would want more than one child, and then you get those wonderful moments where you think you would want tons of kids because they are so wonderful and sweet, and want to call their dad before they go to bed just to say goodnight and I love you.
I love my Simon-son, but man, sometimes I ask myself, do I really want to go through this again- and then maybe even a couple more times after that? No worries though, we do want more kids, and intend to start trying in January while we are on amfabulous trip to Malta! And after that, maybe it will be a good idea to have the kids a little closer in age. I actually wanted them to be about 2 years apart, but I also wanted Steve and I to be able to go to Malta- which had to happen after he graduates, and I didn't want to be pregnant on the trip because that would be miserable, and I knew if I had a young baby at home there was no way I would be able to leave it behind for two weeks. Luckily I have finally gotten over my attachment issues with Simon, and I am pretty sure I can handle being apart for 2 weeks. I left him with Steve for 1 week while I went to Vegas for work, and it went very well.
So anyways, if you plan on having kids, have them about 2 years apart, because if you wait until Child #1 is almost 2, you are going to be seriously reconsidering your desire to have more kids.

Weaned

So back in mid-January Steve, Simon, and I went to see my sister Leslie and her family. After that trip and having a hard time with getting Simon to take a bottle in my presence or even a sippy cup we decided it was time to finally wean Simon. It's really not much fun to spend your vacation trying to get your son to take a bottle and I didn't wan to spend the whole time pumping and trying to nurse him still It was hard for me the first two days, but we did it very quickly and Simon never even seemed to notice, so I would say it went very well for us. I did enjoy breastfeeding Simon and I think we ended perfect timing for us. It was getting really stressful for me pumping at work and I was just really tired all the time. Since weaning, I feel more energetic and happy, I am less stressed, I actually get to hang out and do nothing during my breaks at work, I get to eat lunch with both hands, I don't have to stress about getting enough to eat and drink so I can produce good healthy milk, and I feel like I have more time to spend with my son at home. Granted, we have just as much time to spend together, but now we can spend it together playing! At nighttime I do still rock him to sleep and give him a bottle, but it just feels more relaxing now. I let Steve put Simon to bed at least once a week now which I think is nice for Steve because it isn't something he ever got to do in the past.
All in all, breastfeeding was wonderful. I am huge fan of breastfeeding and plan to do it with our next child also. The other day Steve was studying for his OB class and asked how long I want to nurse our next kid, and I said just as long as we did with Simon, and maybe even to 18 months. Yes, I am one of those people... Simon was weaned at about 14 months, and I think if I hadn't been working it would have been a lot easier, it is definitely a huge commitment and lifestyle decision, but for anyone willing to do it, it is totally worth it. I think as a working mother I enjoyed it even more because I felt like since my son is in daycare I don't get to be around him as much, so for me, pumping was a way for me to still provide for my son and take care of him even though I couldn't be with him all day.

Baby food

So lately Steve and I decided we wanted to save some money and start making our own baby food. It's actually really fun and kind of rewarding to make your own food, but in the end it is a whole lot of work and kind of disappointing if you work really hard to make a batch that your kid doesn't like. The latest one was carrots, chicken, and rice. I even thought it tasted good!! But Simon wouldn't eat it, I think it was one of two things: either it was too thick or lacking some bit of sweetness. When I mixed it with pear puree, he would eat it up, so next time I try it I will do it thinner.
Some recipes I have done that Simon has liked: avocados and egg yolks (from hard boiled eggs), zucchini with jalapeno cheese and spaghetti, zucchini with swiss cheese and whole wheat rotini, peaches (boiled and pureed), pears, and the carrot chicken and rice combo I talked about earlier. We have only been doing this for about two weeks, and I have had a few lazy days so we stocked up on the beechnut and gerber again for my lazy days. When I do make it I use our Oster stick blender that comes with a food processor attachment so I just put it in the food processor, blend it up, and then put in baby food jars that I saved from the store-bought stuff.

Some things about Simon

I decided I have put enough blogs on my normal site, so I want to post on this one too. I noticed a common in thread all of my posts, they are all about breastfeeding pretty much, which before now has been a large majority of my time spent with Simon. I am still doing it, pumping at work and everything, but this boy is getting to a point where I cannot keep up with him anymore. He has been eating 20 oz a day at day care!! Not to mention what I feed him in the morning before I leave, and what he eats at home at night, this kid is incredible!! I said a couple sentences back that before now eating is what Simon and I spent a lot of time doing. But now he is getting to a point where we are getting to spend a lot of time playing together. My little boy is so much fun already. Yesterday he rolled over for the first time, so that was pretty exciting. Here are a few little things about Simon.
At his last doctor's appointment March 13th he weighed 14 lbs which is in about the 30th percentile. His height was in the 15th percentile. His head was in the 90th percentile! So I have a short semi-chubby man with a huge noggin!! But that's ok, I think the big head thing must run in the family because Leslie was asking me about Simon's size because Bryant's head is in the 97th percentile!! I think it just means they are really really smart babies and need bigger heads because they have bigger brains.
His right pupil dilates more than the left one, so I need to make an appointment and go see an opthamologist about it. It's called unequal pupil size, it is probably nothing, but we are going to make an appointment just to make sure. Our doctor said it's more important that his pupil's constrict and his do that just fine. You can really notice it in the following pictures where he has one freaky red eye and the other eye is not nearly as big. I have noticed this for a while, and finally remembered to ask the doctor about it last week, she hadn't even noticed. (If you click on the pictures they will be bigger and then you can really see the difference in pupil sizes.)



Simon loves food! He doesn't really eat baby food yet, though we are starting him on rice cereal now. But he has an intense fascination with whatever I am eating, he doesn't seem to care as much about what Steve is eating, just my food. Today Steve and Simon came to have lunch with me and Simon kept grabbing my food and then he grabbed the to-go box and was shaking it all over the place so I couldn't even get my food. The other day I was eating yogurt and he kept trying to grab the spoon out of my hand so a few times I let him have it and he took it and put it in his mouth, and another time he hit himself in the face with the handle. It was really cute. Sometimes if I am eating soft mushy liquidy food I will give him a little taste. He really seems to like yogurt, but I don't think he should be eating it yet.
He loves putting anything he can find in his mouth, especially his toys like his giraffe and his monkey. He eats hangers, spoons, mom's necklace, mom's hair, mom's face, anything really. I just love, he does the most adorable things.
He has been super duper cuddly since he had the flu last week.
When he isn't smiling he is either asleep, or you can't tell because his hands are in his mouth. He is just a super happy smiling baby, I love it.
We have been co-sleeping with him which seemed like a great idea, and was very good for me as far as being able to sleep at night and not get interrupted too much by feedings, but now that he isn't waking as much as night I am starting to try to get him to sleep in his bassinet. It's really hard, I think he doesn't like it because he loves his mommy and loves sleeping with her. The bassinet thing is hard, but I am slowly working on it, starting with naps and hopefully we can get him to sleep in there through the night soon. I think he likes the comfort of having someone near and being able to hear my heartbeat.
His favorite radio station is 105.7, a classic rock station, he LOVES classic rock!
His favorite game is peek-a-boo.
Flying/getting tossed in the air makes him laugh.

Another new post today! Some of MY milestones

Some things I feel I have accomplished in the past few days:
On Sunday I discovered I can fold laundry with both hands while breastfeeding.
Today I learned I can wash dishes with one hand.
Getting dressed with one hand, and holding the baby with the other.
The other day I actually went to the bathroom while holding him, it was a little difficult when it was time to pull up my underwear and pants, ever try to do that? It's not really easy with one hand, it's like one side goes up, then the other one, and you kinda have to shimmy them up.
Figuring out how the heck that sling works and successfully carrying Simon in it.


And Some new discoveries:
Simon can pee ridiculous amounts! This morning while I was changing him peed while the diaper was off, no big deal, getting pretty used it. So I responded like I normally do: I screamed, frantically looked around for something to block the pee with and then waited a second and got back to cleaning him off, he barely got the onesie with it, not bad. Then he did it again, I screamed again, laughed because he was spraying his onesie and then got his face, once again removed the towel and continued cleaning off the poop. Then he did it again!!! I grabbed the towel, sighed and dried off the dresser. Each time he managed to shoot a completely different direction. Oh, and when I was getting him ready for his bath a little later, I had him all wrapped up in a towel and was carrying him from the bathroom to the kitchen when my shirt suddenly became very warm. Yep... he peed on me.

I have been warned about leaking and spraying boobs when breastfeeding, and until today had only experienced the leaking end of it. But when I was feeding Simon this afternoon he spit my nipple out to take a break and I looked down and the milk was spraying out of me all over the place, so of course I panicked and didn't know what to do so I quickly stuck my boob back into his mouth. That was a fun new one for me! Normally they just leak a lot and I have to hold the spit rag over my boob until he is ready to eat again and in the meantime the whole rag ends up saturated in milk!

Mister Fussy Butt

I'VE CREATED A MONSTER!!
Not really, but sometimes it sure does feel like it. Simon hates to be alone, and he hates not being held. Yesterday I had him propped up on the couch so he could watch me while I was doing stuff, and the second I walked out of the room he started screaming. The past few days he has been extremely fussy. I don't know what his deal is. I am praying that it is just being gassy and that it has been caused by all of the triple ginger snaps I have been eating, and am going to cut out of my diet today to see if it helps. I went and bought a sling a couple of days ago and wore him around in it yesterday. He screamed as I was getting him in it, but as soon as he got settled he fell asleep and stayed that way for a couple hours. I was able to have him in it while I got some things done around the house.
Bedtime last night was particularly bad. I had fed Simon out in the living room and then went into the bedroom to change his diaper and go to bed, Steve was in bed asleep. As soon as we walk into the bedroom he starts screaming, soI took him into the bathroom to soothe him, he calms down, so we go back into the bedroom and I put him on the changing table to change his diaper and he just started screaming and would not be soothed. After what felt like an eternity I got him to calm down a little bit but not entirely, and managed to hold him while I changed into my pjs with just minimal fussing. We hopped into bed and after bouncing him up and down a lot he calmed down but was still wide awake, so I kept him with me and fell asleep.
It is now several hours after I started writing this blog and today has gone by much better and included many naps for Simon which is pretty unusual. I hoping it was a combination of the ginger snaps and maybe he just doesn't sleep enough and that makes him cranky. He usually doesn't sleep very much throughout the day which I think is unusual for newborns, I know his cousin is almost always asleep and rarely awake, and Simon is the opposite. I shouldn't complain too much though, during the night he goes to bed at midnight wakes up around 3 or 4 and again at like 7 or 8, so he sleeps really well at night. I think I am going need to invest in a bouncy seat though, whenever he is fussy the fastest way to calm him down is by bouncing him, so maybe a bouncy seat is the thing I need to be able to get things done during the day.
Anyways, I am very glad to report today has gone better in the fussing department, he has been pretty good, and his fussing is normally about two hours after his last meal so today fussing has just meant "feed me" instead of the stuff from yesterday where he was just unsoothable. Also, yesterday we started a little thing Steve's mom told us to try when he is fussy. If he has eaten, has a clean diaper, and still won't be soothed put him down for 10 minutes, let him cry, and then pick him up and calm down for 2 minutes. Didn't work so well last night, or maybe it did since he has been good today? Who knows, but if anyone has any suggestions on calming a baby down let me know, I am open for advice, and it doesn't mean I have to take it, but there are some times where I think to myself when he is crying that I will try anything!!

My First Day as a Mom- alone!!

So technically I have been a mom for a month and a day, but today feels like my first day because it my first day doing this all on my own! My mom came into town the 5th of November, and stayed with Steve and I until yesterday. She took really good care of us while she was here and I feel quite spoiled by everything she did. So today is my first day as a Stay-At-Home-Mom when all the responsibility falls on me and I can no longer rely on my mom to help me out (Steve is at work and school all day). This morning before Steve left to go study he changed Simon's diaper and played with him a little bit, then gave him back to me and we went back to sleep. When I did get out of bed, at 10 this morning, (my mom would be proud normally I didn't get out of bed until closer to noon when she was here) I changed Simon again and then ventured into the living room picked out a movie and nursed him. The day was pretty uneventful around 2 Simon was napping so I decided to take a shower. I made it through the whole shower until right when I was about to get out anyways I heard Simon start crying, and by crying I mean screaming, so I told him he was okay and that I was coming, dried off, brushed my hair, threw on a robe and went and got him. More uneventfulness, and then a while ago he was being kinda fussy and I hate just putting him down when he is upset, but he wouldn't let me do anything, so I finally put him down for some tummy time, he screamed for about thirty seconds and while I was in the kitchen he stopped. Me being the paranoid mom I am and always a little nervous about SIDS had to go check on him since he was on his stomach laying down... he was asleep, thirty seconds after I layed him down he was sleeping. So cute. So now I am making a cup of noodle soup, catching up on some blogging, and wondering why one of Steve's sisters never brought over baby Zane like she was going to. Zane is Simon's cousin, Simon is ten days older than him and about twice as big! All in all today has been good. In a couple hours I have to get us ready to go to Steve's parents house for FHE, we are decorating their Christmas tree tonight, and then Steve and I are going to buy our Christmas tree and decorate it too!! Speaking of which, I told Cindy I wanted to bring something baked.. Too late now to be adventurous, I think I will just make some brownies from a box!