~4 Months~

I can't believe it was more than 4 months ago that Preston was born! This has BY FAR been the fastest-moving part of my life, EVER. But it has also been the best!!

We took Preston for his 4-month doctor appointment yesterday. We have been so happy lately because he has started to roll over, and also constantly loves to "stand." He's also babbling and giggling like crazy! I'm a little worried I'm going to have that tiny spit-fire kid... but we shall see. The doctor weighed and measured him: he is 24 inches long, his head is 16.1 cm (this is from the paper we got, but that does not seem right... I thought the nurse said 41 cm- I have no idea), so I think that is all still around the 10-20% range for kids his age. However, his weight is only still 11 lbs 8 oz! (We had weighed him on Sarah and Andy's scale the last time, so it could have been off) He is so scrawny! Compared to his younger cousins who are already each over a pound heavier than him, he is definitely the tiny one still. His doctor isn't too worried, since all of his other development is perfectly on track, but he has dropped essentially off of the growth percentile chart in terms of his weight. So, she said that it might be a good idea to start him on rice cereal to get him to put on a few extra ounces, or even a pound or two. I was hoping to keep him exclusively on breast milk until 6 months when we would start actual solids, but I'm okay with adding a little extra sustenance to his diet now. So that will start this evening, and we'll see how he does. I think he's ready for it, though, because he's constantly chewing on his tongue, drooling, and he's always SO alert when we're eating-- so I think he's really picking up on the cues. Which is good, since food and eating are such a huge part of our family's social life! The doctor also told us she wasn't worried about his skin issues, and since it doesn't seem to be bothering him, to just keep a close watch on it. So that was good.

He got a few of his shots (we've modified our schedule a little since my earlier posts, but we're quite happy with how it's going to work out). He was okay with the first one, but the other two made him pretty mad-- he cried so hard and his face got so red! Then the MA didn't quite put his band-aid on right, so he totally bled all over my shirt. Poor little guy! I managed to calm him down by nursing him for a little while right after the shots, but he was still a little crabby last night. It also didn't help that I conked his head as I was walking through his doorway to go change his diaper. Oh my god he was so mad at me. TOTAL real tears. It almost made ME cry! We snuggled last night and this morning to make up for all the trauma yesterday... :) So that's the update with the little man!

On other fronts, Skip has been officially released from orientation and can begin working 100% on his own. He's definitely ready! I'm so proud of all that he's accomplished, and I know he will be a wonderful nurse. My job is the same, but a few things are changing in terms of working more on my own, so that's good. I still would rather be home more, but for now...

Oh, and we've begun the ever-stressful (but exciting!) search to become homeowners. I'll update more on that as it develops! All I can say now is that I wish taxes in Wauwatosa weren't so high!

I'm feeling very stroke-ish today...

... and feel funny on the right side of my face. Maybe it's because my eye is swollen and bruised from where Preston head-butted me the other day! I was burping him over my shoulder, and he tried boinging/nuzzling his head back down towards "the food" when he bonked my cheek/eye. He was fine, I was in pain! And now it's totally a mild black eye. Man oh man.

Anyways, Preston weighs a "whopping" 11 lbs 8 oz now! Haha, still a little shrimp! But a cute shrimp. I'm thinking that's okay, since everything else is right on track, and since his "exponential" weight gain is the same as it's always been-- hell, he's gained over 5 pounds since he was born. He's just a little guy. Which is not abnormal because his mommy isn't exactly a mammoth. He has his 4 month dr. appointment on March 4th, so we'll see then what she says!

His nasty eczema is finally under control, thanks to some help of hydrocortisone cream. I think the little man inherited his daddy's senstive skin. Let's just hope Preston's not allergic to Christmas trees like Skip is, otherwise I am doomed to put up the tree by myself for the rest of my life... Preston had his first sporting event this past weekend-- a Marquette basketball game! He loved the lights and people, but wasn't quite so sure about the noise at times. He made it through the whole game, though. Now he's ready for baseball season!!

Preston has been doing great at his babysitter Cassandra's house. He's always in a good mood when he leaves there, which tells me he's having fun and being treated great when he's there! I've made it through 2 full weeks back at work, and going on 3. Work is work, but it pays the bills. Speaking of bills:

End #1: "Hello my name is End."
End #2: "My name is End, too."
Both: "Nice to meet you!"


It's a nice feeling. And it's about time! Thank the lord for my husband choosing such a noble and always-be-able-to-find-a-well-paying-job career!

Come on, SERIOUSLY?!

It's snowing a lot today. And it's going to keep snowing, so when I got to work I logically decided to park in the parking structure so I don't have to clean my car of snow at 4:30. So I start to pull into a spot, but I realized it was right under the "seam" of the floor above me, and there was a constant stream of water coming down onto my car-- I didn't want it to turn into ice later on. So I backed out and pulled into the next spot over. So then this big-ass fancy Cadillac pulls past me, and then notices the open spot (keep in mind it's only 7:30, so there are 5 HUNDRED other spots open, and not much farther away). In the meantime, I'm there with my drivers' side door open, bending over into the car digging out my work bag, my pump bag, my coffee, and trying to get the button on my jacket that I missed. I look over at the Caddy, and ON GO THE REVERSE LIGHTS. I'm like, seriously?! Of all the open spots, you have to pick this one, AND BACK your big ass into it? Come on now. As she's waiting, there were like 10 cars piling up behind her. I look over my bent-over ass at her, and mouthed "seriously?!" then proceeded to take my sweet-ass time getting the shit out of my car. So THERE. Judging by the car (and the arrogance), she's probably some big college exec, but she annoyingly inconvenienced my measly compliance-coordinating life for 5 minutes, so I figured I'd inconvenience hers for 30 seconds :). Ha.

Oh, and I forgot to put deodorant on today... Don't smell me.

Scratch that...

... he's not up to 12 pounds yet... I weighed him at Sarah and Andy's yesterday and he's only up to 10 lbs 5oz. Still such a little guy! But he's doing so well holding his head up, smiling, "talking," and he's even got a roll on his thighs-- I can tell things are on track. Maybe we'll have to pump a little bit of formula into his diet to fatten him up a bit, but we'll see.

Skip passed his NCLEX (nursing boards), so he is officially a Nurse!! Well, he'll tell you he's a Murse, which is not a typo. It apparently means Male Nurse. Who knew! Anyways, I am now married to Greg Focker. :)

He's growing so fast!

I just feel like Preston is growing so fast! He must be making up for being so tiny when he was born. I haven't weighed him in a few weeks, but I bet he's around 12 pounds now!

We have had a relatively low-key past couple of weeks, which has been okay. I have been working 3 days per week this month. Though it's been going okay, I still really miss being able to be home more with Preston. I really wish I could keep only going 3x per week, but I have to work full-time to get benefits, and that means 39.5 hours minimum per week. Ugh. I suppose I could split that into 4 days of the week and work 10-hour days, but honestly, I think I'd shoot myself. It's hard enough to sit in my interior office in front of a computer for 8 hours straight-- I think I'd go insane if I had to do it for 10, even if I got an extra day off. So alas, Skip will be the part-timer, and I will be the full-timer. I will cherish my evenings and weekends with the boys, though (and maybe squeeze in some time there for myself: i.e. the gym and band...).

We had a busy last weekend, with a fun pizza party at Steph and Mike's on Friday, and Skip's gig on Saturday. Mom and Dad came into town for the show, so us and the Harrisons went over to their hotel to swim and have... more pizza! I'm officially pizza-ed out for a little while! Nancy and Jim decided last minute to come up, too, so we all piled into the van for Skip's show. Halo of Dionysus did a great job, and there was a good turnout. I think they were pleased as to how their first official show as a cohesive group went. On Sunday, we were visited by aunt Mary, so that was nice, too.

By later Sunday evening, both Preston and I were starting to feel pretty crappy. He was running a fever and my stomach was killing me, so we weren't fun. We focused on Preston and gave him some tylenol which brought his fever down, but he was still pretty fussy until he went down for the night. By about 10:30, I was throwing up, and it continued each hour until about 3 am. Yucky. I felt like *butt*. By the morning, Preston was still a little feverish, and I was down for the count, so we literally slept the day away in bed. I think we got out just to go to the bathroom and change diapers. He was okay by Tuesday, but I'm only just today feeling back to normal. I have no idea what kind of bug that was, but it sucked!

I think being sick and the stress from returning to work, however, reduced my milk supply temporarily. Preston and I haven't really been on the same page with all of that all week, and last night it came to a grinding halt. He just couldn't get anything out. He was absolutely hysterical. We were lucky that we had a little bit of formula left, since we only had enough pumped milk in the freezer for today while I'm at work, so we gave him the formula and he was fine. I felt so terrible, though, that I couldn't make anything come out for him. I was pretty upset. We have essentially gone through our freezer stash of milk, because I haven't been pumping as much this week (due to being sick, and also meetings at work that have prevented me a pumping session twice this week, urgh...). So this weekend I will be doing some "super pumping" in order to get our stash back up. It's not an option to run out, since it's the way Preston is fed when I'm not there! We may also have to buy some formula to have on hand, just in case. I've been reassured (though I still am working through it) by enough people now to not feel guilty for having to give him formula. If it's what he needs, then it's okay. I just wish my body would keep up with this growing boy!!

Tonight we are meeting up with some friends from church for drinks, and then tomorrow is Nursing/Pumping Day of America... Sunday we are meeting Dwyers in Lake Geneva for lunch, so that should be a good time, too!

Skip took his boards on Wednesday...... Still waiting to see the results.....

Happy New Year and Baptism!

Happy New Year to all! We had a nice week last week. I started up working again, which was an adjustment, but not too bad. Through the month of January until Skip gets on a shift, I am only working 3 days per week, so it is nice that both Skip and I get to still be home with the little guy when the other is working. It will make for an easier transition into my working full-time starting in February. We have looked into a couple of options for Preston's care on the mornings after Skip's shifts (he will be working 7pm to 3am, so he'll need to sleep), and we think we've found some good options. I'll post more on that when we get it all settled.

Thursday night (NYE) we went out to dinner with my family and had a great meal at Charro. I even got a caipiriña which was a nice reminder of my trips to South America. Afterwards we stopped over at "Ziemerham's" for a little while and did some drunk yoga. Always a fun time... I pooped out way before midnight, but that was okay. Skip worked New Year's Day, so Preston and I hung around the house until Skip came home. We didn't do much else that day or the next.

Sunday was Preston's baptism, and the day turned out really nice. Sarah and Andy (Harrison) are Preston's godparents, and we did his baptism during mass so we were all out there "in front of God and everybody." Preston still smells like the chrism that was rubbed all over his hairy little head! I also thought it was fitting that my little one was blessed with myrrh , considering the Christmas season. It was so neat to be able to baptize Preston in the same church that we were married in, and also by the same priest. After all my "issues" with the Catholic church, it is a blessing to have found one where we feel comfortable and welcomed. We had a luncheon at The Chancery restaurant afterwards, and it turned out to be a good time-- even though we didn't get Preston a cake! Totally forgot about that one...

I have to be honest that I was going into the day a little disappointed, and ended a little disappointed, though. Everyone who RSVP'd that they weren't coming did so last minute, even though we were appreciative that they let us know. However, there were a bunch of others who we expected to be there and then didn't show, which was a little annoying because we ended up with a TON of extra food at the restaurant that we otherwise would not have had to pay for (not that money was the major issue, but still... it was nearly a difference of 15 people less than what we expected). Oh well-- those who were there had a nice time, and most got to take the food home, so that was okay I guess. But food aside, I wished more that we could've had the other people there to celebrate with us on such a special day. I just suppose that will be the last time I do invitations that say "RSVP regrets only."

This week I'm working Monday, Weds and Thursday, while Skip is working Tuesday and Friday. He's on grocery shopping duty today :). No big plans for the next few weeks, which will be nice considering we've been going going going lately...

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!

To his birth weight then some!

Preston had his 2-week doctor's appointment on Thursday, and all is great! When he was first weighed, he came up at 6 lbs 2 oz, which was frustrating to me initially, since his birth weight was 6 lbs 7 oz. Babies are supposed to gain their weight back by 2 weeks, so the doctor and I were going to talk about supplementing his feedings with a little formula. However, when she noticed that the other measurements from what the nurse took earlier were all off, she did them all over. His head measurement is right on track, and he is now just shy of 20 inches, so he's gotten a little longer. His weight is 6 lbs 12 oz, so that means he's gained all of the lost weight back, and then some, which is wonderful! So no supplementing needed-- just a continuance of 30 mins+ at each feeding... But that's okay if he's getting what he needs! Besides, we're really starting to get into a routine throughout the day and night, so it's getting better.

Other than his doctor updates, everything is going well. I'm feeling pretty healed, though I'm still really tired. I'm starting to get used to it, though, and getting better at functioning on less sleep... Ha, I managed to do some crunches today, too, which was interesting-- I felt my muscles starting to ache only like 5 mins after I did them! I guess that's to be expected after not having done them for ~6 months (plus having my ab muscles all jacked up from expanding so much). I figured I can start doing little things at home, then start back at the gym in December (got a wedding in September to start getting in shape for!)

Skip is doing well, but has had a couple of busy weeks since Preston was born. With school and work, he's running on only a little more sleep than me, so he's exhausted. Thank goodness his school is done next month, and then we can really focus on building our little family! Not that we aren't now, it's just a different dynamic. He's doing okay in his classes and clinicals/internship, though, so that's good.

So that's the update for now!

2 Weeks

So, it's been a crazy two weeks! Here's the update, from birth to today:

On Friday the 23rd, I had my 40-41 week doctor appointment. Dr. Barnabei stripped my membranes a little bit, just to see if that would get things moving at all. Well, for most of the day, I was feeling pretty uncomfortable. Not really having contractions, at least not timeable, but I could tell things were starting. Skip and I ran some errands, then I took Scotch to the dog park out in Brookfield. We walked quite a bit, then came home and relaxed as best as possible. By the later night, I was feeling things much stronger, and decided I better go to bed and try to get at least a little sleep. I woke up around 3:30 with real contractions, maybe about 10-15 mins apart. I took a bath and shower, then parked myself on the couch while things really began. By the way, there's not much on tv and 5am on a Saturday morning... So I watched the Eukanuba dog shows... Anyways, around 7, I woke Skip up because my contractions were about 6 mins apart. He got ready faster than I'd ever seen him get moving before! We left the house and were at the hospital by around 8:30. They got me into a room right away, and my water broke right then-- nice timing, huh?! After that point, my contractions were one right after another, and very painful. I was dilated to 6cm, so things had progressed really well on their own. I ended up getting an epidural, because I was starting to have really bad back and side labor in the latest contractions, and knew I wouldn't be able to continue breathing through them enough to have the strength to push later on. The epidural went really smoothly, and after that point I was a lot more comfortable. I pushed for about an hour starting at 2:30, and Preston was born at 3:30! He was a little stunned when he first came out and needed oxygen, but as soon as he started breathing, he started crying, peeing and pooping! Glad to see all the systems were working!

My first thought when I saw him was 1.)get him breathing, 2.)he's tiny (he was 6 lbs 7 oz), and 3.)he looks just like Skip! He seriously is a mini Skip. But he's got a little of me in him, too, so he's a little individual :). He took well to feeding right away, and the rest of our stay in the hospital was uneventful. We were discharged on Monday early afternoon, and were glad to be going home. Scotch took to Preston well: Pretty curious, but sweet. He still doesn't quite know what to do with him when he cries, but he's learning to just ignore him. We've worked on keeping his dog park trips consistent, and were grateful to our friend Steph from the d.p. for taking him on a couple trips while we were getting Preston used to being home.

In the past couple of weeks, we've been adjusting well. My recovery has gone quite smoothly, and Preston sleeps well at night. Not completely through, but he's had a couple nights where he's given us a good solid 5 or 6 hours, of which we can't complain! The feedings are going well, as he takes after his father and loves the tatas... His first doctors appointment was fine, everything progressing perfectly. He has his 2-week appointment on Thursday, so we are curious to see how much weight he's put on. He had only lost 2 oz in the hospital and 1 by his first appointment, which is great, especially considering he didn't have much extra!

We've had visits from the grandparents, of course, but also a bunch of family and friends, so a lot of people have gotten to meet the little guy. He accompanied me to Sarah's baby shower yesterday and then to Harrison's for dinner; though it was a long day for both of us, he was a champ and did really well out with all the people! Today was his first trip to church, and he slept right through :) (Wish I could do that sometimes!)

Tomorrow we plan on just hanging around the house, since we had a long weekend. It should be nice. If all is well, I plan on going to band rehearsal on Weds night, which will be a nice change of pace for Wednesday night. Other than that, no big plans, but I'm sure we'll find things to do!