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!

40 + 2

Waiting... waiting... waiting...

There has been a realization coming out of the wood works that a couple different people have pointed out in the last two days, and that Skip and I have realized: I am a slow poke. Always have been. "Come on, Ellen," has been the story of my life. Hey, what can I say? I like to take in the scenery :). Skip is the same, and even tends to be more on the "better late than never" side of things.

So, we've all decided, why would this little one be any different? Things are coming along, it's just taking its time to enjoy the scenery! (Although I can't imagine how interesting the scenery is right now, considering it's been swimming in it for 9 months already...)

BabyCenter says I have a newborn...

So, apparently BabyCenter knows something I don't, because it says in my status that I have a "newborn." Um, I could have sworn this baby was still in me as of today, made quite obvious by the foot that I'm looking down at kicking my belly button... from INSIDE. I suppose I will now be getting updates on information regarding my little newborn, even though I have yet to birth this child! Well, I guess the info will be useful, just maybe not for a couple of days yet.

This was a tough weekend for me. Long about Wednesday night I started to get a sore throat and a little cough, which turned into a full-blown nasty cold on Thursday. I went for a walk around campus with my boss, which was a bad idea, because I think I jacked something up in my back from the heels I was wearing. So, I left early from work because I was totally dragging ass, and went home and slept for a couple of hours. I ate some dinner, then basically went back to bed. Friday sucked, too. I had my 39-40 week doctor's appointment in the morning, and I'm 1 cm dilated, but that's about it. So essentially nothing big going on. But like I said, that's okay. It's just that I wished I wasn't as sick as I was, or that my back didn't seize up every time I moved. It seriously took me 5 mins to walk to the bathroom (normally 30 seconds), just because I had to hold onto the wall-- I almost burst into tears. I left at my lunch hour to go see my friendly neighborhood chiropractor (i.e. Andy), and he seriously is a miracle-worker. I had been in so much pain, and after he did some pressure work and ultrasound, I was essentially fixed. Thank the Lord. As for my cold, I went back to work and crabbily made it through the rest of the day (sort of snapping at my boss in the meantime...oops), then went home and crashed. I had a temp of 100 at one point, so I was watching myself pretty closely so that I didn't bake the poor baby...

Saturday and Sunday were pretty much sit-on-my-ass days, which was okay. My cough was terrible and really making me sore. I think the only thing I did out of the house was go grocery shopping, and even that kicked my ass (I called the hospital on Saturday evening just to make sure they didn't want me to come in, and they said to just keep monitoring myself, and if things got above 100.4, then come in). However, I was able to do a little cleaning and putzing by Sunday evening, so I feel a little productive. This morning I'm feeling a ton better, though still trying to get all this crap out. I just want to make sure I have all the strength I can muster to push this little one out when the time comes! I think after how I'm feeling today that I can see being fine... whenever the heck this kid decides to make his/her entrance! We're ready for you when you are ready to come out! :)

Just about ready...

Today is officially one week from my due date. I think we're ready for this baby to get here! I've set myself up thinking that it will come a couple of days late, so that way I won't be disappointed if it doesn't happen in the next week. As of Friday, I was around 50% effaced, and the baby has dropped, so there are definitely some things going on in there. However, being a first time mom, the doctor doesn't seem to think anything will happen early, which is okay. She thinks the baby is on the small side, so "cooking" a little longer is okay with me.

As far as other things going on, Skip and I spent some time last weekend with the Eckels and Prestons, so that was nice. We went down to CL on the 3rd to visit with my mom and dad on Saturday, and had a really great dinner with Pat and Grandma, too. On Sunday, Mom and I bummed around CL for a few things, then got Mr. A's for lunch-- I haven't had that in so long, and it was SOO good! We went up to Woodstock for my uncle Mike's 50th birthday party, which also was a good time. On Monday we met Skip's parents down at the Yacht Club to visit for the evening, and did some light canoeing in the harbor before going in for dinner and the Packers game. We hadn't seen Mannings in a while, so it was nice to catch up. Tuesday night we had our Baptism class, which was nice and touchy-feely... It was actually okay, though, because one of the girls from my water aerobics class was there, and we came to find out that they go to the same church as us. So it was nice to make some new friends!

I made it to yoga and band on Wednesday, but that may be it for band for the next couple of weeks. It's hard to carry my tuba on my back, not to mention everyone thinks it's absolutely hilarious to watch me (no, not HELP me), so I think I may take a break now until after baby is born. We'll see. Thursday I made it to water aerobics and then Steph came over for dinner. We had a great visit, as we hadn't really had a chance to catch up in a couple of weeks. Plus I got to show off all the things we've done around the house to get ready for the baby. This past weekend was essentially uneventful, with nothing planned. We went and celebrated our friend Pam's birthday on Saturday night, but that was about it. Two mornings of somewhat sleeping in was a nice bonus-- I figured it was probably the last opportunities we'll have to sleep in for a long long time, so I didn't feel bad at all doing it!

Now, to try and stay focused and get through this week.....