Countin' it down

As the year winds down, I thought share with you my Top 10 things I've learned about being a mom this year.

10. Now that LM moves, I take back everything I said about the video monitor. I want one :-)

9. They really mean it when they say that all your careful research/preparation on how you'll raise your baby will disappear like a pair of new Jordan's at a mall before Christmas. Once you meet him, you learn to survive in a way that works.

8. I had the urge to stay at home with LM instead of returning to work much stronger than I ever expected. That said, I'm happy with the choice I made of going back to work.

7. People judge--they judge whether you breastfeed or don't breastfeed or where/when/how you stop---they don't stop just because they realize it hurts your feelings. Everyone is an expert in raising your baby---just remember that you (and perhaps your partner) are really the only experts.

6. Seek out moms. I'm not the the personality that fits in with most of my SIL's mom's groups. I should do a better job at seeking out groups that match my personality/priorities etc better. But--heck who has time. What I have found though--is that my due date group is the best group of moms I know. They give me advice, calm me down, listen to me vent and coo over the latest picture of LM. They also give me a chance to help them--with my opinions, my experiences and sometimes, even some teacher advice. They rock my world and I LOVED getting Christmas cards from them.

5. TH is better at matching baby outfits than I am. All of the compliments we get on his stylish outfits are either "put together" or bought by The Hubs. Is it any wonder I let him buy me clothes? :-)

4. Balancing motherhood/work/wifedom is SO much harder than I thought. I feel like I'm being a great mom, a good teacher (sometimes just ok) and an average wife. In the new year, I will be a better one!

3. Time flies. Thank god we took so many pictures and have been vigilant about keeping a camera nearby.

2. Sleep. Holy crap. It's amazing how one can obsess over one thing so much. One day I hope to not worry so much about his sleep, sleep habits, positions, things affecting his sleep etc etc.

1. I love being a mom. I knew I wanted to be one. I knew I would be a good one (over-achiever much?). BUT--I didn't realize how much I would love being one. You cannot prepare yourself adequately for creating something so special and then being expected for the journey of keeping it healthy, thriving and off the news :-) LM rocks my world.

Dirty mouth? Clean it up with....

Orbit? Soap? Not really sure what we'll have to use with LM but it's looking like soap won't be an option. Last night while giving LM a bath, he used his lightning fast reflexes and grabbed a bath toy, shoving it in his mouth completely covered in soap lather. Now, please note, this is the child that no matter what yummy baby food we put in his mouth---he makes a wretched face. Clearly, every initial taste is like salt and vinegar potato chips dipped in jalapenos and sardines. At least judging by his face. Of course, after this initial bite, he happily nom-nom's down, laughing and cooing. All I'm saying is that he has no problem using a "WTF am I tasting?" face. Now, back to the soap.... Not a single iota of an expression crossed his face. He just gummed/gnawed on it like everything else he puts in his mouth these days. So apparently, soap isn't exactly a punishment to him. I'm flash-forwarding to the future when he's a sassy, grumpy teenage boy who asserts his independence by using dirty words. It looks like we won't be able to re-create the famous soap scene from The Christmas Story at our house. Oh no...not this boy. Apparently he has a taste for the suds. Sometime between now and then I'll have to come up with a good solution to the sassy mouth I know he'll have....if he's anything like me :-)

Six Months

LM is six months now (as of Labor Day). It's been a crazy week so far (aaaaand it's only Wednesday) but I must mark the occasion. The last six months have FLOWN by. I looked back at newborn pictures today and I can't imagine how tiny he was. At one point, he snuggled in one arm....now, he's a moose! I loved when he was a newborn. I could watch him sleep for hours. He was like this warm little hot water bottle that laid on my chest. Apparently, I've also forgotten about all of the "oh my god, I'm going to lose my mind" moments, pain, bodily fluids etc. He goes next week for his 6mo checkup/shots etc. I estimate he'll be between 18-20lbs...a long way from his 7lb 15oz birth weight. He can roll from his belly to his back....but hasn't figured out how to coordinate all his little muscles into hauling his chunky self from back to belly. But since he hates being on his belly for any stretch of time...make sense! He's figured out how to move himself in a circle by lifting his hips and doing little pelvis thrust wiggles to move his body. He likes to try to stand when we're holding him. He's loving solids..my little bird with his cute little wide open mouth. He eats part of a jar every night for "dinner" with us. He's taking about 30oz of formula a day plus nursing when he wakes up at night. Most nights (knock on wood, knock on wood...please oh please don't let me jinx it for me tonight) he goes down by eight and wakes up once between 2-4 to eat. We get him up (why oh why can't he sleep through a diaper change, poor little guy) at six to snuggle, sometimes nurse and head out to daycare. He loves daycare....me, I'm still a little ambivalent about it all but he's happy, he smiles when he sees her and she loves to snuggle him. Most of the time he falls asleep after his bedtime bottle, but when sleepy and full, he can put himself to sleep. He still is a big cat napper but (especially at daycare) he's better at doing an hour morning nap and an hour-two hour pm nap. He watches everything....my little observant man. He's recently discovered a love of watching football on tv--craning his neck to see it. One time he flapped his arms whenever they caught the ball......maybe I will get to retire early when he's a pro :-) I can see him thinking. I love knowing that he's trying to figure things out when he's looking at them....looking at a light that's not on but usually is, gauging the distance between an object and his mouth and then hitting it exactly etc. I want him to be smart for so many reasons...but especially as a teacher, I don't want him to struggle. It hurts me to see kids struggle. He love love loves the dog. He opens his mouth for him to kiss/lick him whenever he can and is getting great at grabbing out and snagging him by the collar. We're practicing petting...he opens and closes his hand on his fur. He also loves his jumparoo and is beginning to appreciate the exersaucer. He still adores playing on his playmat and love his bouncy chair. Books...oh, be still my heart! He adores them. He loves to hold them and look at them. He turns pages with me. He eats them of course :-) His whole body wiggles and kicks when he sees favorite books. I love that he loves them. We're at two teeth...boy are they sharp for such little nubs. So far, teething seems to bother him most at night. He talks, screams, shrieks, sings and coos up a storm. I love having conversations with him. He pretty much rocks my world. I don't want the next six months to go this fast. Pretty soon, he won't be my little snugglebug anymore. He'll start moving and off he'll go.... I'm so glad I listened to all of the advice I got to not worry about letting him nap on me. I wouldn't trade those moments for anything.

Five Months

LM is five months old--yesterday.

Wow! How did we get to this point so fast?

He is all smiles and giggles. He can roll from tummy to back. He love love loves his feet..sucking on his big toe. He can roll on his side from his back so back to front rolling is not far away!

He nurses at night and drinks formula during the day. He is still a big ole spitter!!!

He sleeps from around 8/830 to 730...waking once or twice a night to eat. In two days, when school starts, it will all change!! Who knows what the next month will bring?

Napping is the enemy at the moment--only 10-15 minutes at a stretch if he's not being held.

He loves his dog. His favorite game is "chase the dog". Mommy and Daddy carry him on his belly like an airplane and "chase" after the dog. He laughs SO hard...and it wears out the dog who runs like a fool! He is starting to understand his jumperoo--moving his hands and body towards what he wants. He still love his bouncy chair and playmat. He now doesn't always hate tummy time--especially with his good head control!

He's a big snuggler...loves getting/giving slobbery kisses. He's becoming a bit of a Daddy's boy--laughing and getting excited when he sees him. He loves following him with his eyes. He still loves to sleep on Mommy though.

He started daycare last week. He has a blast and loves everyone there! If only he would nap!

He eats a little bit of baby oatmeal every so often. He likes it but isn't really interested unless he's really hungry.

He pretty much rocks our world :-)

Looking ahead, our next goals/milestones are likely to be:
*Rolling back to tummy
*Sleeping in longer stretches--just getting up once a night, or not at all *gasp*
*Spitting up less (please oh please)
*Solid foods

“Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.” - Arthur Helps

That pretty much sums up why Half Price Books made me go into labor. Did I ever tell you that?

Ok..slight exaggeration. I didn't go INTO labor there. But, I blame them.

I had been home on workrest for 2 1/2 weeks when I couldn't take it anymore.

What is workrest, you ask?? Workrest is when your feet look like Spongebob Squarepants and your cankles would look at home on an elephant...then your doctor tells you it's time to stop chasing around the kinder-sweeties and get off your feet.

Luckily, after a few days at home the the swelling went down (and by "went down" I mean that five pounds worth of fluid went away). I finished nesting (not a long process as I was planning to work until 2 days before my DD and had gotten most things done during a lovely ice storm that cancelled school for several days). I puttered around the house pretending to do things so that TH wouldn't realize I mostly just slept in and watched Cr.iminal Minds, House Hunters and CSI all day. But finally, I just couldn't take it anymore. I felt great. My Braxton-Hicks had stopped and stripping my membranes hadn't accomplished anything. I had been the same amount dilated/effaced for 3 weeks. I WAS GETTING OUT.

So, I went to Half Price Books. I meandered around, buying a nice slew of chick lit, mysteries and a few "what to do after the baby comes" type of books. I figured that this would give me plenty of time to read up a little on what to do with the the little man whose feet lived in my ribcage and then read fun, mindless books until my induction (scheduled for three days after my DD...another story).

I came home, wiped off the kitchen counters (you know, making it look like I had accomplished something!) and took a nap. Later that night, I was wide awake (yay third tri insomnia) reading The Girlf.riend's Guide to the First year when *POP*...my water broke. I retrieved TH from the guest room (someone said I snored) and off we went on our new journey...

So, I blame HPB as why I went into labor 26 hours before my DD and mere hours after I SWORE to anyone that would listen that I wasn't giving birth anytime this decade. Way to make me look like a fool HPB :-)

Aren't you glad I shared this with you? I figured I would share this story since today I went back to HPBooks for the first time since that day. I had run out of books (well, ones not on my kindle) and had a coupon for $5 off. As I wandered through the aisles, I remembered that day...how hard it was to squat down and get books off the bottom shelf, how awkwardly I hauled my bag of books to sell around and how I was so sure I'd read them all before LM came.

Haha.

The funniest thing was when I saw a book that I sold back that day...on the clearance shelf, with the purple sharpie smudge on the spine from a minor sharpie mishap I had. It's amazing to me that in as much as my life has changed in the last four months, that book had sat snugly in its spot on the shelf, waiting for someone to take it home and love it. And in fact, hadn't changed at all.

There's a lot of uncertainty in life and there's a lot of fluidity. Some things are out of our control and some things we over-control. I used reading and book-shopping as a way of dealing with my uncertainty (and some ironically hubris-like certainty) about giving birth. I was avoiding thinking about what was actually about to happen...because I was sure it wasn't.

Getting off my ever-growing a** and going to Half Price Books that day was probably the "get up and move around" that I needed to jump start things. All the books on those shelves have seen a lot of people walk by since then...people sure and unsure about where their lives were taking them. They watch and wait for the right person. And someday, someone will buy that book and take it home to read and maybe love it...and hopefully not go into labor (unless they want to).

(I never did finish reading the book I was reading that night...maybe I should get to it!)