5 Months Old!

I can't even believe the little man is five months old today! Here are a few pics from our photo shoot this morning.

It seems like he's changing faster now than ever. The last couple of weeks he's been rolling over more, he's started laughing in response to things we do, he's growing like a weed (we measured at Thanksgiving and he was 26 inches long!), he had his first cold (but barely acted like he felt bad) and...he's teething.

He loves his Sophie. You'll note he also has his pacifier in that hand. He tends to like playing with it more than actually sucking on it. Whatev.

He's napping a lot today and based on that and the fact that he's REALLY chewing today, I suspect he's hurting kind of bad today. Poor kid. So I'm off to freeze a wet washcloth for him to chew on. Good times at our house. If only he would sleep this much at night...

30 Days of Thanks: Day 17

I am thankful for middle of the night feedings. I grumble about them sometimes but I try and remind myself to enjoy this time with my little man before he grows into a big man and goes away to college and so on. Besides, the middle of the night is when I get some of the sweetest smiles!

Four Months!

I cannot believe he's four months old already. In the last month he's started to roll over (not regularly but more than once so we know it's on purpose). He's a drooling machine, and he's got quite the personality. Pretty much always a happy boy! Here are a few pics from our "four month photo shoot":

30 Days of Thanks: Day 13

I am thankful for early Saturday mornings....seriously, who WOULDN'T be a morning person with this sweet face to look at?



...and puppy dog feet. I don't mean actual feet on a puppy dog, I mean this kind:

I was up and at 'em early today because the little man decided 6:15 was wake up time. And I was OK with that. I was able to wake up a little bit before heading out for my run, and we got a lot done today. Yay for early Saturdays! (Never in a million years thought I'd say that.)

Cloth Diapering

Disclaimer: I know that cloth is not for everyone. It takes some planning sometimes, a learning curve at first, asking a lot of questions AND a husband who does the laundry at your house. :) It's not always easy and I know it's not a good fit for everyone and I'm not judging anyone for not using them - I just happen to be a big fan and think they're a good answer for us.

I've had a lot of people ask me how the cloth diapering is going so I thought I'd do a post about it. Let me just say right up front, I am by no means an expert on this matter. I learn something new nearly every day. But, for now, here's what I know.

There are about a gazillion different variations of cloth diapers (and that's not really much of an exaggeration). Below is a pic of three of the kinds we use. From L to R: all in one (AIO), one size pocket diaper, fitted.

• AIO - exactly what it sounds like. One piece, nothing to take apart, no cover required. Pretty easy. Down side to these is that they can take a lot longer to dry, but not a big enough deal to discourage me from using them.
• One size pocket diaper - this diaper (which is what we have the most of) will fit from birth to potty training. They have snaps that adjust the size so they fit even little babies. The pocket part is where you put an insert, which is the part of the diaper that soaks up the fluids. Has to be taken apart for washing.
• Fitted diapers usually (I think) come in a couple of different sizes so you have to have new ones as the baby gets bigger. These also require a water proof cover (the equivalent of the old school "plastic pants" that went over diapers...they're MUCH cuter these days).
• Prefolds - these are the ones that used to be the only kind of cloth diaper, required diaper pins, and you see more commonly used for burp cloths these days. Pins are no longer required. I just recently started using these and they're much easier than I thought they'd be, plus they're a very cheap option to increase the number of diapers you have (and thus decrease the number of times per week you have to do laundry)!

Laundry. We do a lot of it. We were doing it about every three days and then in the course of a week Milo outgrew 12 diapers and now we're doing it every other day. You do have to use special soap - the kind we use we've actually started using on all of our laundry. The good thing is (and this is what a lot of people ask about) as long as he's nursing, there's no dunking or rinsing required. If he dirties a diaper, it comes off and goes straight in the pail just like the wet ones. The diaper pail is just a large kitchen trash can with a lid that we put a large wet bag (pail liner) in. Here's what laundry day looks like at our house:


The finished product:



OK - I'm not going to lie. Part (or maybe all) of my original motivation for using cloth was how cute they are. I mean really, how handsome is he??



Another benefit of cloth, besides the cuteness, is that we have had almost no diaper rash. You do have to use a special kind of diaper rash cream if you use cloth because some creams can affect the absorbency of the diaper. We have a GroVia Magic Stick and it truly lives up to its name. Works like a charm. The other thing that is rare with the cloth diapers is blowouts. We've had three and I can trace two of them to operator error (not getting the diaper on tight enough or using a diaper that was a little too small). We used disposables for the first 2-3 weeks we were home from the hospital because people had given us some so we thought we'd use them up and put off the laundry for a little while. I can't even count how many blowouts we had with those!

I think that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge. I would like to take this opportunity to give a big shout out to my friend Katie who cloth diapers her kiddo and has been a great source of help/information - thanks Katie!

Oh My Goodness!!!

So, here's hoping this works. Milo rolled over for the first (and second and third) time last week. I managed to catch the third time (and the last - he hasn't done it since) on the video camera on my phone. He starts to cry at the end, I think because he bumped his head on the floor when he flopped over. But isn't he talented!!!

Two Months!

I cannot believe that my sweet baby boy is two months old! Friday was the big day. We woke up early and took some pictures before we hit the road headed to Beavers Bend to meet my family for the weekend (details in next post).

As you can see, Milo slept most of the trip. He did so great! He is so much fun these days. He's getting to be more alert, he loves to "talk" to us, and has the biggest smiles! We are really lucky - he's really a good baby. He doesn't fuss often and when he does, there's usually a very good reason! (He has to go get shots today so I suspect that'll be a very good reason...one that mommy does NOT look forward to dealing with.)

Another milestone this week was my return to work. I only went back for a day and a half this week, normally (at least through fall tax season) it'll be 2 1/2 days a week. I am very torn about the whole thing. I suspect it will get easier (at least I hope it will) as I go on. I love my job and am blessed to have one where I am able to work part time and still spend time with our little guy. We also are lucky that we have a wonderful girl to watch Milo while I'm at work. My brother-in-laws cousin comes to the house and keeps him. This first week she texted me updates and sent me a pic to show he was happy and doing fine...not necessary but definitely helpful for this mommy!

I better get the Beaver's Bend post done before Milo wakes up hungry!

Random pics

Just a few pics from the past couple of months. Some of my favs. :)

Good Cause

I've blogged about the Vintage Pearl before (see what I said here). Now Erin has this really great necklace in her ready to ship shop, and the profits go to help people who are trying to adopt children. So, go here and check out her new necklace and "help some babies get home"!

Our First Outing

Technically this was not our first trip - we went out a couple times before this, BUT, this was our first family outing to church. And this pic was actually taken after the fact. Oh well.

Finally

Pics of Milo's room. :-)

Please excuse the mess behind the door...

And a picture of the sweet boy from last night before our bath.

I Had No Idea...

...that labor could last THAT long.

This was Kona during the time I was in labor at home (seventeen hours of it).

...that I could go THAT long without sleep, and survive, with a smile on my face.

Nearly 30 hours after labor started, Milo is here!

...that my husband, who had never changed a single diaper would step up without a word and change every single diaper in the hospital, and most of them at home.


...that, like my friend Katie said, having a baby IS the best diet ever.

Before...(about 2 days before he was born)...


...and after (at about 3 weeks).

...that I could love something SO little SO MUCH!

Anniversary Trip and Hail Storm

Hang on to your hats folks - this is a long one.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago how it was our third anniversary. Usually we take a trip of some sort. For our first we went to San Antonio. Our second we went to Bartlesville/Tulsa and did some fun local stuff. This year, not wanting to get too far from home (and with me not being able to sit in the car for extended periods of time) we decided to just go to do Tulsa again.

Let me back up - my baby sister and her husband graduated from optometry school in Tahleqhah a couple of weekends ago. I am so proud of them! So, we packed up and headed for Tahlequah and went to their graduation a couple of Friday nights ago. Our plan was to stay there Friday night, head for Tulsa sometime on Saturday and do some shopping, have dinner, etc., and then stay at Hotel Ambassador Saturday night, and take our time getting home on Sunday. Everything went according to plan for the first part of the weekend. Graduation was great (and not too long!), we got a little shopping done, had dinner in Tulsa, and went to see the Backup Plan. We headed back to the hotel, decided what we wanted to have for our in room breakfast the next morning, and headed for bed.

Then the fun started. (And for those of you that just went "there" - get your mind out of the gutter.) About 4 a.m. I woke up with some cramps. I tried all the things you're supposed to try - drinking lots of water, lying on my left side, etc. Nothing worked. After an about hour, and a lot of trips to the bathroom, I decided it was time to call the dr. I woke Nathan up (sort of) and called the on-call dr. at my doctor's office. She said it was probably nothing serious BUT as sure as she told me to come back home and let them check me out, something would happen on the way and there is NOTHING between here and Tulsa. So, she suggested we head to the ER.

We cleared out of our hotel room at 5:15 a.m. and headed for St. Francis (because that's where my sister had all three of the girls and I knew they'd been pretty pleased with the care they got there). We arrived and of course the ER was BUSY. I thought to myself, "um, we are NOT going to sit in this waiting room with all of these coughing, sick people". We sat down to register and as soon as the girl figured out I was pregnant she sent me (via wheelchair of course) straight on up to L&D. After quite a while (20-30 minutes) they FINALLY got me to a room and hooked up to the monitors and sure enough, I was having contractions (which I hadn't thought I was because my belly wasn't getting tight like it does w/the Braxton Hicks).


Don't I look thrilled to be there? This was AFTER they'd determined that the problem was a bladder infection (turns out not drinking enough = not going to the bathroom enough = bladder infection = contractions) and that they were NOT going to have to take action to stop the contractions because they had stopped on their own. I didn't have to have an IV thank goodness, but they were pushing the fluids...see those cups on the tray? I had 2 more before I left. All the fluids and no food made me feel nauseous and so they brought me that little pink thing sitting on the tray...and let me tell you, they would have been in for an unpleasant surprise if I'd had to use that. When I get sick, I do it like I mean it!

They released me with an antibiotic and instructions to drink a LOT of water. We headed home, took naps, and just as we were getting ready to go pick up Kona from the vet, this happened:



That is hail. Looks like boatloads of Sonic ice raining out of the sky. We got LUCKY. People just a few blocks north of us got hail the size of softballs. People had car windows and even house windows and skylights broken out. Even now, two weeks later, you can still see damage everywhere.

Barefoot and Pregnant

I have figured out where this saying came from...if you've never seen a pregnant woman's feet up close, it's not pretty. At least not for about 75% of us (and of course I'm in that 75%). For at least the last two full months, maybe a little longer, my feet have been swelling. And not just a little. Normally if I flex my foot I can see the bones across the top of my foot...haven't seen those in weeks. I also have cankles. Besides being unattractive (at least I think my feet are unattractive right now, but my well-meaning friends say they look fine), it's pretty uncomfortable. It also makes wearing shoes a less than pleasant thing to do...thus the saying "barefoot and pregnant". (Disclaimer: I did not research this, I'm just saying, seems like the most likely explanation - with feet like this, who'd WANT to wear shoes???)

So, yesterday, I found my new favorite thing:

These are my Chacos. I used to have a pair back when I worked on the ropes course (because that's what all the cool kids did) and somewhere along the way lost or gave them away. BIG mistake. I had forgotten how comfy they are. But the absolute best feature about these shoes (well, right behind the good arch support) is that the straps are adjustable so they accommodate fat feet (and in my case, my feet are fat as in puffy on top). Really, they're ideal because they'll fit now AND after Baby A makes his appearance and my feet return to their normal state (yes, I realize they may be a little longer but they certainly should not be puffier). Yay!

If you want some and live in the area, go see Nathan's cousin at Backwoods and she'll get you fitted. If you don't live in the area, I'm pretty sure my last pair came from Zappos.

(Is it sad that I just dedicated an entire post to sport sandals? I will try to post more this weekend - I have some crafting I'll post pics of and we will also be working on the baby's room so at some point I will get some pics of that up as well.

Spring is in the air...I just had myself a Cadbury egg...HOORAY!

I know I haven't updated in a while - not a lot going on here.


Well, that's not entirely true. We ordered furniture for the nursery - it will be here in 8-14 weeks. Hopefully before the baby arrives! We also ordered the bedding for his room:

I liked this set because it was different than a lot of the other stuff I'd seen. Also, my sweet husband got me this for Valentine's Day:
I know it's hard to tell but the hearts have our initials on them - an "n" on one, a "b" on the other. I love it! He said he almost ordered one with the baby's initial on it but he figured as soon as he did that we'd change our mind about the name (which we have not decided 100% on AND we're not sharing anyway). So we'll wait on that.

Well, I know it's not much but my time is up for now. Oh, thanks to my brilliant friend Mommy M.D. for blogging about baby slings...I was just wondering about this today after I saw something on the Early Show and this helps make some things clearer for me...thanks, B, for the post!

It's a....

I'm not really sure if anyone besides family (and Katie and Annaleise) read this and they all know BUT for anyone that hasn't heard...IT'S A BOY! Some funny reactions I've had so far:

1. From Grandpa (my dad's dad): "Well that is most, most, most unusual for our family." (You're telling me! On my dad's side there's one boy grandchild and six girls, on mom's side there are four boy grandchildren and nine girls, and out of great grandchildren on both sides there are two boys and six girls. Nathan's side is about evenly split.)

2. From my cousin, Kathleen: "What? That's statistically impossible! I demand a recount!" (See #1 for why she doesn't believe it.)

3. From the A-team (my sister and her family): Name suggestions. My brother-in-law suggested we name the baby after him, Ainsley likes 'Eric' (I assume like Prince Eric from the Little Mermaid) and "Abbey is pulling for 'Jesus'."

I think those are the best ones. I've included some pictures below (but no pics of his little boy parts). The u/s tech said his feet each measure about 1 inch long right now and he weighs around 10 oz. Crazy! We're halfway there now...and I'm finally about to the point that I will no longer be able to wear my regular pants, even using a rubber band to keep them buttoned. This is bad news for someone who has a hard time finding REGULAR pants that are long enough! Anyway, pics are below, most are labeled I think but I'll also label them just in case.

Here's a profile - feet up at the top left, rear at the bottom left, head (and a little hand) towards the middle right.

Same pic as above, but different tint so it might be easier (or harder) to see.

Once he decided to cooperate and let us see what he was, he gave us a thumbs up!

Here's a leg - foot on the left, hip on the right. And his legs look like they are LOOOONG.

Here's a little foot...

He likes to lay face down - so she got a pic because that was the only way we could see him for a while. Look at his spine - crazy! (In order to get him to cooperate she ended up tilting the table to where my head was below my feet and eventually turning me over on my side!)

One more of the feet - he kept crossing them so she had a hard time getting a pic of both of them at the same time.

Other things that people ask about:

I'm still sick, but not every day. I usually have one or two "OK" days (meaning I take meds but not until later in the day), one GREAT day (meaning I don't take any meds at all but still spend the whole day wondering if I'm going to puke on someone's desk) and then back to a couple of yuck days where I have to take meds right out of bed (or before). Today is a yuck day but I've been medicated now and am feeling much better.

Names. Yes, we have a list, sort of short list, but we haven't decided on one for sure and even if we do before he's born (which doesn't seem likely at this point given how indecisive I am these days) we have decided we're not going to share. We want to have one thing that's just ours until he's born. :) Plus, I would be UP SET if I had a name I really liked and we told and someone said something that made me not be able to use it! That being said, if you've got a suggestion, we're certainly not turning them down. You never know when someone saying one name may make you think of another that you really like!

Baby bump. I'm getting there. As I mentioned above, I'm getting to where I can't wear my regular pants very well but a lot of days I still feel like I look like I ate too much for dinner the day before. I guess the biggest difference these days is, the roll around my middle that I could pretty successfully hide before, I now can't hide even a little bit.

Colors for the nursery. Here's where I'm really stuck. There are a few colors that I really like - lime green, orange, aqua blue, brown. All together. There's this one bedding set that has those four colors in it that I really like. I'm not sure why I can't commit to that set - could be the price. Another thing I like about that set is that it's different. It's not animals or a lot of the other "standard" nursery decor. But there are some really super cute sets out there w/animals on them too. I think my two biggest requirements are that I want it to be different, and I don't want a lot of pastels. I love what Katie did with Olivia's nursery (you can see that here or here). It's SUPER cute AND it's not the same old thing! I'm sure some inspiration will strike me somewhere...I guess I should get out and start looking at fabric to see if I can find something I like but with my taste it'll be $50/yard fabric. Add to that the fact that I can't sew and we're back to just buying the bedding. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Whew. Sorry. If anyone reading this is up for a trip to the fabric store (or stores) with me, let me know because something tells me that is NOT at the top of Nathan's list of "things to do to get ready for the baby".

Let's see. I can't really think of anything else. I guess I should probably get to the office (since I've had some kind of appointment or other EVERY day this week). If anyone has suggestions for cute nursery stuff, I'm open to pretty much anything at this point!

One other thing. I have to register at some point. If there are any items that you used that you absolutely could not have lived without, or items you got and have never used once, I would love to hear about it. We don't have room for a lot of things we won't use so I'm trying to be really careful about what we register for or purchase.