3rd Percentile-- sorry you got my genes...

Preston has his 2-month checkup yesterday, and it was confirmed that he still is a peanut :). He now weighs 9 lbs 1 oz, and is 21.5 inches long-- which puts him in the 3rd percentile for height and weight for his age. Poor little guy obviously did not get his genes from his daddy, or at least they haven't come out yet! Dr. Meyer is not worried at all, though, since he's been tiny from the start. He has put on consistent weight and is growing longer, so he's a healthy little guy. He got his rotavirus and DTaP immunizations yesterday, too. We will be following the Dr. Sears delayed immunization schedule for Preston. We understand the flack that we may get for doing so, but we are sticking to our guns.**

In other news, SKIP GRADUATED!! What a wonderful thing. Now he has to pass his boards, and he will officially be a nurse! Woohoo!

Our holidays we good. Christmas Eve at Grandma Preston's was very hectic now that there are 28 of us there. But how amazing is it that we were all able to be there together, if maybe for the last time like that?! What a blessing. Christmas morning was low-key like always at my mom and dad's, then we headed up to Racine. We spent a few hours at Skip's parents house, then had dinner over at Gall's. Gotta love the lamb shanks, and Charlie's creamed spinach (I'm still eating the leftovers... :)). We got home and Skip went to work Christmas night, but he basically made a shit-load of money, what with the holiday and 3rd shift pay all in there, so it was okay.

I am back at work. Same as always. Preston's home with his daddy for now, so that makes things a heck of a lot easier, but things will get a little more complicated when we figure out a day care situation for when Skip goes on a shift. That's all I have to say about that for now...

Oh yeah, Scotch is still crazy. :)

**If you know me and Skip (which if you are reading this blog, I assume you do), you know that we are rational, educated people. I have a particular in-depth education and fondness of the philosophy of "the greatest good for the greatest number of people" (i.e. Utilitarianism, a la John Stuart Mill). Therefore, I do not agree with those who choose to cut out vaccines altogether for their children on the basis of "If all the other kids are vaccinated, my kid won't be exposed to anything, so why should I put my kid through them?" (having a legitimate medical reason is another story); in terms of public health, though immunizations and vaccinations have been proven to have eradicated many deadly diseases in our country-- they still exist elsewhere. Therefore, there is still the chance that someone could be exposed and a.) my child could get that disease if not vaccinated against it, and/or b.) could become a carrier for it and unknowingly expose others to it. That's not fair for us to do that to all those other people. Our personal reasoning is that we do not want to inundate Preston's tiny body with a million vaccines all at once (he is running a low-grade fever today-- a common side-effect from the rotavirus vaccine, so we would have hated to have given him any more and risk any additional effects). We have every intention of having him get all the recommended vaccines, just on a delayed schedule. Though we will be following the Sears schedule, we do not agree what he somewhat recommends of "hiding in the herd" and not telling people what we're doing. We are confident that our decision is what is best for Preston, and we will defend it and explain it in order to show that confidence. Though we may not agree with other reasonings for/against vaccinations, we do not judge those who choose to do things differently than us. We've taken time to come to come to this decision through education and conversation together, and by no means should we judge anyone else for doing the same thing, even though their conclusions may be different.

Needs his mommy

I haven't posted in a while, but it's been harder than I thought it would be to get the normal day-to-day things done with the little guy. Not that I would trade it for the world! However, Preston is definitely a Momma's Boy... I'll just start with an update of what's been going on.

We've gotten into a bit of a routine around the house, with Preston usually waking up around 7ish (give or take a half hour), so he eats and then is up and VERY smiley for at least an hour. I try to get a few things done during that time, but I usually just end up sitting there with the little man and we make googly faces at each other for the whole morning :). Or I've managed to make it to the gym a couple of times if Skip is home those mornings. Preston usually eats again around 10:30 or 11, and then naps for a little while. After my lunch (if I'm lucky), he'll eat again around 2, and then again around 5:30. He's a little crankster in the evenings, which is normal (so the experts say), so I tend to try and cuddle him a lot to keep him calm. Our dinners have been up for grabs these days with Skip finishing up school, so I'll try to eat around Preston, but sometimes I'm eating, trying very carefully not to drop rice or something on the little head attached to me... He'll usually eat once again in the later evening, then for his last time around 10ish. We've been lucky in that he either sleeps through the night ('til, say, at least 6) or only gets up once to eat, so that's been nice. Then we do it all again! We've managed to venture out a bit because we're both getting stir crazy, so it's been nice to show him off at the various places I make it out to.

He had a doctor's appointment the other day to check his weight, and he's up to 8lbs 7 oz! Two whole pounds since birth! So that's wonderful, though he still is a little peanut :). My recovery has gone great, and like I said above, I've started back at the gym (thanks to some help from Sarah C. getting me to those step and zumba classes!).

Skip is almost done with school, with his graduation next Friday evening. We're all so proud that he's finishing on a great note, and it will be wonderful for him to finally get some quality time with Preston. He's been really studying hard these past 2 weeks, so I know he'll be glad to be done!

Other news: We welcomed our newest niece on November 20th. Megan Louise Harrison was born weighing 7 lbs 3 oz, and is doing great! Sarah had a c-section, so it was a long day, but everything went smoothly so we were all counting our blessings. They have all been adjusting well to the new little one in their house.

Preston has a little cold today, with a cough and watery eyes, and he's only wanted his mommy... Which is wonderful, but also tiring. I had wanted to put up some Christmas lights today, but that didn't happen. I'll try tomorrow... We're heading down tonight to Racine for a few visits tonight, so hopefully Preston will be okay. He's been fussy so we'll see...

Hopefully I'll get a chance to update again before the holidays, but if not, here's our next two weeks:

Monday the 14th: Scotch vet (thought I'd throw our poor neglected dog in this post a little :))

Friday the 18th: Skip's graduation/pinning
Saturday the 19th: TubaChristmas; Christmas party at our friends Roger and Kathy's
Thursday the 24th: Christmas Eve in Crystal Lake with the Prestons
Friday the 25th: Christmas morning in CL; Christmas evening in Racine
Sunday the 27th: Delanee Dwyer's birthday party (birthday the 23rd)

All for now!