Our Day together

I took off last Wednesday from work to spend another day with my baby boy. I couldn't face the thought of a 5 day work week yet, so needed another Barrett and Mommy day!

Slowly waking up in the morning


Playing together on Mommy's lap






Oops, B needs a new outfit! Happy on the changing table and showing off that hard-earned potbelly!


So many smiles and kicks!




Cuddle time with Mommy


Yay, Daddy's home!


Did you see that Mommy, Daddy's home!


Off to the garage door to greet Daddy


Wait, where is he? Must be dawdling in the garage.


He's home!


What a great day we had together!

Picture Overload

A few of my favorite pictures of our little boy's 3rd month...

So tired during tummy time


Enjoying our last days of mommy and Barrett time before returning to work






Dad rocks?


I don't think so...


Nope, MOM rocks!


One of my favorite of his outfits, that he's nearly outgrown!


Tim and his mini-me


My favorite baby blues and chubby cheeks!

Barrett - Three months old

My darling little angel,

You are now 3 months old, which is just unbelievable to me! How are you already 1/4 of a year old? These last three months have just flown by and I can see how much you've changed. You have absolute head and neck control now. You are definitely becoming much more aware of what's going on around you. When we hold you up to our shoulders, you like to turn your head left-right-left-right so quickly to make sure you're not missing anything. We call that the "periscope."

Mommy went back to work last week and so you are now in daycare every day. While this was absolutely heart-wrenching for Mommy (lots of tears were shed and you got a ton of extra hugs and kisses the week leading up to this day), this was no problem for you and you've adjusted very well. I got a concerned call the first day that you were refusing the bottle but eventually you got the hang of it and are doing just fine. The teachers tell us every day how smiley you were and that you babble with the other little girl who's about your age back and forth. They call you their little flirt!

You continue to love your baths and your swing. You are very good at sitting up now. You love to watch the television and often will turn your head around to make sure you can see it - uh oh! You are the easiest baby to diaper change and are all smiles while we're doing it. I love to sing you little songs and often, you'll stop crying when I sing to you. You are very curious with your toys and have really started to reach out to touch them.

You are now sleeping in your own nursery, which we thought might be an adjustment, but you had no problems at all. You LOVE to watch your mobile - I think this may be your favorite thing in the world right now. You are really at an incredibly fun age, where you're noticing the world around you, there's a lot less fussing, and you are starting to be so much fun and interactive!

Love,
Mommy

Casa de Stench

Let me preface this by saying I absolutely love my dog. Payton is the sweetest, funniest little thing ever. HOWEVER, he might possibly have been the dumbest dog in the world yesterday.

Our story begins around 9:45pm last night. We let him out one last time before bed. Well Tim opens the door to let him back in and noticed he was looking out into the corner of the yard, where there's a hole in the fence between our yard and the neighbors. We had previously seen an opposum there a few months ago, where a stare down occurred between Payton and it. Well this night, Payton decided it would be a good idea to go and see what it is in the yard. And there's where the nightmare begins. Skunk. No matter how much we call him back to the house, try to bribe him with treats or tempt him with the flashlight beams, he ignores our pleas and proceeds to inch closer and closer to the Skunk until skunk lifts its tail, *pffft* and disappears under the fence.

Payton finally gets the hints that it's time to come in, Tim picks him up and says, "I'm not sure if he got him, do you smell anything?" I get within two feet, want to choke on the fumes, and say "Um, yeah." After about 20 minutes of vigorous scrubbing with baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, dish soap and dog shampoo, a very wet and confused dog didn't smell quite so bad. Our house was another story. It took three candles and 24 hours of three bathroom fans running before our house didn't smell like a skunk's behind.

I love our dog but in the last two months we've had two unexpected vet visits, costing $250 total, and a skunk spraydown, so he has lots to make up for!

8 hours, at last!

Cue the band and start the parade - last night Barrett slept a wonderful EIGHT hours!! I could not believe it. He has teased me for months with six hour stretches and there was even a seven hour stretch once but I was beginning to think that eight hours would forever elude us. But last night, he did it at last, hooray! So I got a grand total of six hours of sleep, all of them in a row.

I am not under any delusion that this will continue now, but it was wonderful last night and good to know that it IS achievable!

Well we survived

Well we survived our first day back at work and first day at daycare. It was so difficult - well for one of us anyway. There were a lot of tears building up to the day. The center where Barrett is going seems great - very nice teachers, sweet kids, very clean and attentive. It's right across the street from my office, so I plan to go by every day for a while at lunch and see him and Tim came along today too.

Everyone at the office was very nice today and asked about him and wanted to see pictures. Sitting at my desk, it felt like I had never left. Between catching up with everyone, pumping, and visiting B, I think I did about 30 minutes of actual work. Oh well. I didn't think it was possible to be less productive than I was while pregnant but guess it is!

Today wore Bear out so much that he was pretty much pooped out by 7pm. I barely lasted until 9:15. It was an early bedtime for us all...

Sign on the door, welcoming the new student


Mommy and Barrett - notice the wet tissue in my hand. :(
Doesn't he look like such a little boy in those corduroy overalls??

Work sucks, I know

Going back to work on Thursday will require our family to be uber-organized. Here's my anticipated schedule:

6am - wake up and get ready for work
7am - wake baby up and feed him
7:35am - leave house
7:45am - drop baby off at daycare
8am - work*
10am - pump
10:20am - work. eat quick lunch at my desk
1pm - go to daycare to visit and feed baby
2pm - work
4pm - pump
4:20pm - work
5:30pm - leave work, get baby, drive home
6pm - feed baby
6:30pm - playtime, cook and eat dinner
7:45pm - give baby bath
8pm - feed baby
8:30pm - baby to bed
8:35pm - study for CPA exam
9:30pm - wash dishes, organize for tomorrow morning, get ready for bed
10pm - lights out
+ an additional feeding during the night, TBD by baby (hopefully only one please)

*"Work" includes time spent thinking about Barrett, looking at pictures of Barrett and talking about Barrett. And oh yeah, probably some actual work too.

You'll notice the following items NOT included on our daily schedule due to time constraints:
-grocery shopping/cleaning/laundry/errands (will have to occur on the weekends)
-gym (so much for fitting back into my clothes anytime soon)
-talking to family and friends (this will have to happen on car ride home from work, if at all - sorry!)
-naptime (unless I can find a way to sleep with my eyes open at work, naptime will also have to go the way of my size 4 pants - that is, just a memory)

I'm exhausted just looking at this schedule! Once my exam is over in mid-April, that will clear up an extra hour a night, hopefully, so that I can actually have some time to relax. And once Barrett starts sleeping through the night and I can get that extra 1.5hrs of sleep that I lose now, it'll help immensely in making me not feel like I'm going to lose my mind each day. Unfortunately, I expect work to become incredibly hectic this summer so it's not going to be exactly a breeze anytime in the near future.

Please pray for us that we can get through this! I don't know how families do it with two parents working full-time, I totally have a new respect for all those full-time working mothers out there. I am really hoping for new opportunities to arise for us that would make our situation a little easier.

Spring is on its way

We are finally seeing some signs that spring is on its way. Besides the horrific daylight saving causing us to lose an hour, that is. We've got flowers starting to peek up out of the ground, temperatures above freezing, muddy paw prints on the hardwood floors - all signs that spring is just around the corner, at long last!

We took our first family walk last week and it was a great experience. Hopefully there will be many more to follow.





And Tim and Payton even made a new friend - a golden retriever puppy down the street. In their eagerness to play, someone got a little tied up...






Barrett basking in the sunshine and waving goodbye to winter (or possibly playing the air guitar, was Tim's thought).

A new family member!

We are thrilled that we have a new family member!

My sister Jennifer and Ryan had a new baby. Caroline Ruth is exactly eight weeks younger than Barrett, so it'll be lots of fun to have a cousin so close in age. We haven't gotten a chance to meet her yet, but they sent some pictures of the little girl. She looks like a mix of her parents. We're hoping to plan a trip down to Indianapolis to visit them in the next month or so. From what we know of her, she has quite a set of lungs, which she'll probably need to be heard with two rambunctious older brothers!

Sleep deprivation torture

Some people look at their babies and predict they'll be doctors, or teachers or ballerinas. Last night I looked down at my son around 5:30am and realized what his calling is going to be in life - a professional military torturer. And oh yeah, he's getting his start on physical and psychological torture on me. His weapon of choice - sleep deprivation.

So yesterday was a tough day with him. He refused to nap and was up.all.day. He took a quick 45 minute nap early afternoon and that was pretty much it until bedtime. Looking back, I realize he was spending this time plotting his attack.

8pm rolls around and he keeps falling asleep every time I try to feed him. Finally we put him to bed.

10pm - normally I "top him off" with one last feeding before I go to bed. He refuses to wake up. So we put him back to bed and cross our fingers for the night ahead. And the fun begins...

1:20am - "waah!" Barrett is awake so I stumble into his room to feed him
1:21am - he begins to eat
1:24am - and he falls asleep
1:25:01 - I tickle the back of his neck and he wakes up and resumes eating
1:25:04 - and he falls asleep
this pattern continues for the next 10 minutes or so. I try everything - tickling his neck, opening his sleeper to tickle his legs and feet, bringing him up to my shoulder, jostling him - the boy refuses to wake up and eat.
1:35am - I change his diaper. He wakes up and cries. He wanted to let me know how much it sucks to be woken up in the middle of the night when you're fast asleep. Believe it or not, I was already aware of this fact.
1:37am - diaper change over, resume feeding
1:38am - and he falls asleep

Finally I go back to bed around 2am and manage to fall asleep maybe around 2:40am.

5:10am - "waah!" Barrett is awake again.
5:11am - he begins eating
5:13am - and he falls asleep
Repeat above again.
5:53am - I go back to bed and finally fall asleep around 6:15am.

7:57am - "waah!"

Needless to say, Momma is extremely tired today! This sleep deprivation torture is not much fun, but Barrett is extremely good at it, thanks to all his practice the last few days!

Poor Puppy

Once upon a time there was a little doggy prince that lived a glorious life. He lived with a family in the kingdom of Chicagoland that worshiped the ground he pooped on. He slept every night on a pedestal bed, cuddled in between his mommy and daddy. Every day, they rushed home from work to see him and play with him. His days and nights were filled with quiet, peaceful sleep and his evenings were filled with hours of playtime, pettings, catch, tug-of-war, and walks. He got more attention than he knew what to do with! Life was grand and the little puppy prince couldn't be happier. His furry tail just wagged and wagged all day in happiness.

But one day, a terrible cloud came over the kingdom and it was invaded! This enemy devastated the entire land. Suddenly torturous cries filled the kingdom skies! No longer were there peaceful naps on mommy's lap, her lap was taken over by the dreaded enemy, if she sat down at all. The wide open landscape that was the puppy prince's playground was filled with swings, carseats, bouncer seats and playmats. Tempting fuzzy, noisemaking toys laid around the kingdom, but the puppy prince seemed to get in trouble every time he tried to play with these toys! Visitors came to the land, but they only wanted to see the enemy, the puppy prince had to beg for attention!

Poor, poor puppy prince. One day you will be happy with this invader, when he makes food fall from the skies.

And I'm one year older

I had a great birthday and celebrated with my three favorite boys. The day started off with a wonderful 8 hours of sleep. Hooray! It was absolute heaven, even if it was divided up into 5 + 2 +1. Tim got us bagels and Starbucks. I'm thoroughly addicted to white chocolate peppermint mochas from Starbucks. YUM. I wish I could have one every day. But, sadly, at 600+ calories each (even for the skim!), I can't really justify them now that I'm not pregnant anymore. A nice birthday treat though!

Jen came by and finally saw Barrett awake and alert! Last time he napped through her entire visit.





And we ordered dinner in, had birthday cake and, after a year of abstaining, I finally got a delicious and bubbly glass (or two) of champagne! Mmmmmm!!! It tasted just as good as I remembered. Why don't I end every day with a piece of cake and glass of champagne?











The cake sure seemed a lot brighter than I expected! And there was definitely A LOT of smoke after I blew out the candles, enough to make me a little nervous about the fire alarm going off! But no fire trucks had to be called and I had a wonderful birthday. Thanks to all for birthday wishes!