A Moment

These are some of the better moments from the past month or so.  There have been some horrible ones (like the one night where he was up every two hours with an inconsolable ear infection), but these are the ones I'd like to remember.

 First attempt on the balance beam:

Concentration and determination are adorable

 I'm exhausted after a crappy night's sleep for everyone due to a cold, but he's dreaming away:

Nothing more lovely than a sleeping babe

 At his friend Seneca's house on Friday night, checking out the new toys, and especially protective of the xylophone:

"Mom, seriously?  We're playing here.  Please."

 At Washington Park, exploring new territory:

Easy does it

One of our friends came over the other day while Weston was eating breakfast and was able to capture this moment of a really, really good time:

Who knew breakfast could be so exciting?

Sick.

By some grace card that we've been dealt, Weston has been one healthy little dude for the past 14 months.  He's had a slight cold here and there, but nothing serious, other than the lead poisoning we've experienced (which, by the way, has gone down significantly to 10.6 μg/dL, so we're doing well).


All is good, until Wednesday.  I was on the phone with a friend around 4 pm, and he got super fussy and crabby all of a sudden.  I picked him up to quiet him down, and noticed that he was really hot.  I took his temperature and it read 102.3.  Yikes.  I gave him some Tylenol to bring the fever down, and it helped a bit, but he was very clingy, irritable, not really eating, and just wanted to be held.  More teeth??  Those one-year molars are a doozie...  He did okay that night with some more Tylenol, but woke up early Thursday and still had a really high fever.  That whole day, he kept putting his head down on my shoulder and was not like himself.  Oh, the whining!  He took two really good naps, but was still burning up every time the Tylenol or Ibuprofen wore off.  There were no other symptoms, and now I was beginning to suspect roseola after reading up on it.  I also remember reading a blog post from a friend whose daughter experienced the same thing as Weston.

I figured this whole illness would pass soon, and he'd be on the mend by Friday...

Not so much.  We actually ended up bringing him to the doctor on Friday afternoon because his behavior was so unusual--playing fine, but then frequently crying out as if he were in pain; not napping; eating very little.  His fever was down in the 100s, but fearing an ear infection, we took him in.

Of course, they couldn't find anything wrong with him other than a slightly inflamed throat, so we were told to keep doing what we were doing--alternating Tylenol and Ibuprofen, cool washcloths to bring down his temp, offering lots of fluids, and rest.  We put him to bed on Friday night with a dose of Tylenol.  At 12:30am, Nate was up playing online poker or something like that, and woke me up to the sound of Weston softly moaning and crying out.  We went in to check on him, and as soon as I took him out of his crib, I knew his temperature was going to be really high.  My little guy was cooking at 104.3.

I love my husband--we worked together to get him some Ibuprofen, water, cool washcloths, and we were able to bring his temperature down to 103, and he fell back asleep, but woke up again at 4:30.  Somehow, in his fever induced craze, he was able to put it together that waking up and crying in the middle of the night brings Mama in very quickly!  He fell back asleep for a little while, and the rest of the day on Saturday was a lot like the previous two days, except that I was getting more and more exhausted...  Let me say that dealing with a sick child is somehow quite similar to dealing with a newborn.

Sunday rolled around--nearly four days after the onset--and he had a rash covering much of his torso and neck.

Yup--roseola, a very common childhood virus, was the culprit.  He had a low-grade temperature, so that was improving significantly.  His appetite isn't quite back yet, and I think that has a lot to do with a sore throat, because he's hoarse.  It sounds super cute when he talks, but I know it's probably painful.  He also has some swollen lymph nodes on the back of his neck that will resolve in a week or so.


Here's to hoping that we can stave off any other illnesses for the rest of 2012!

A "Vacation"

Weston and I got back to Cinci last week after leaving about four weeks ago to drive to Wisconsin, spend time with family, and then hopping on a plane to Salt Lake City to visit my sister.  I had anxiety about traveling with a child (How's he going to nap?  Is he going to freak out on the plane, and I'll be that Mom that everyone wants to kill?  What if he refuses to take a nap at my mom's house?).  Some of it came true, some of it didn't, and the seemingly bad oftentimes had some good to it.

Con: He kept waking up at 5am at Central Time while we were in Wisconsin, no matter how early or how late we put him to bed.  Pro: I took advantage of his morning nap, and got to nap with him (like actually sleeping together in the same bed).  I haven't done that for a long time, and it was wonderful to cuddle with him.

Con: Airplanes suck.  The waiting, the cramped seats, Weston's inability to understand that he has to stay on my lap, etc. Pro: Other mothers are empathetic.  On our way back to Cincinnati from Salt Lake, we had an aisle seat in the back of the plane next to two other people.  Across the aisle was a woman, an empty seat, and a guy with the window seat.  As the number of people boarding was thinning out, the woman across the aisle turned to me and said, "Hey, it looks like no one else is going to take this seat.  Do you want to switch so that you have an empty seat?"  I looked at her like she was totally crazy for offering up her seat to me, and said, "Really??!??"  We switched under the agreement that I would "pay it forward" someday.  Absolutely!

Con: Camping with a little person is tough, especially if he's not used to it.  Weston didn't want to go to sleep the night we went--oh, the sounds of nature!-- and I finally got him to sleep at 10 pm.  He woke up at 5 am--oh, the sounds of nature!  Pro: The last time I went camping was on our 2010 Great Divide Route bike trip.  Living in a city, it's not likely that I get to stroll around at twilight, under the stars and a half moon, as hummingbirds buzz overhead.   It was totally peaceful, even as I was holding a sleepy baby, who now and again would catch a glimpse of the moon, point to it, and say, "Muh, muh."

In the tent

One Year Ago Today...

...I was a very pregnant woman.  It was also my "official" due date for Mr. Belvedere, whatever due dates mean.


If I had known last year what I know now, I would have done several things differently.  I certainly don't have regrets about the last year; I'm just armed with experience and information.


First of all, I would have slept more after Weston was born.  Women said to me, "Sleep when the baby sleeps," and I didn't listen to that very well.  Mistake.  Sleep deprivation is an ugly thing, and it doesn't help with the postpartum emotional roller coaster.  One nap during the day doesn't cut it when dealing with a newborn.


I also think moving out of state and starting a new job four months after having a baby isn't advisable.  Having a baby is traumatic enough--no sense in adding more chaos.  However, we were going to move anyway, and it was inevitable.


I can't really speak about what happened to my body after having a baby, other than it's not the same, and I can't really expect anything other than that.  I've said it before--clothes fit differently and everywhere is "mushier."  I'd love to get a membership to the gym again and go on a consistent basis, but somehow 24 hours in a day doesn't seem to allot for that at the present moment.


It's hard to believe how my life has changed in the past year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Not even a flat belly.


By the way, here's my most recent favorite boy band:

My Queasy Stomach

No, I'm not expecting another baby...

I just want to know when that horrible feeling I get of weak knees and a queasy stomach will go away.  You know, the one I get whenever Weston is crawling too fast on concrete and I visualize him face planting, or when he's about to topple over off the deck into a pine bush because he came too close to the edge?

Yeah.  That feeling.  Am I cursed with this because I'm a mother now?  Is it worse because he's a boy?  It happens most frequently when concrete is below him.  Will it get better when he's mastered walking?

Yuck.

Smelling the Roses

First Valentine's Day

It takes a lot to be a parent--especially a working mom.  I'm finding that it takes deliberate actions on my part to just slow down and enjoy the whole process--from when he wakes up in the morning to the middle of the night feeding.

After nursing Weston, it's way too easy to come home from work, and immediately afterward entertain all the frantic thoughts in my head--"I need to take care of the breast pump stuff before the milk spoils." or "How in the world did a Cheerio get over here?  I need to vacuum." or "When's the last time I did laundry?" or "Yikes!  Did I pay the credit card bill?"  I have to consciously forget about all those things and just spend time on the floor reading Birthday Monsters forward and backward and having Weston climb all over me and pull my hair out and scratch my nose.  He's only 9 months old once, and the laundry can wait.  So can the floors.  And the dishes.  And the email.  But maybe not the bills...

A Drinking Problem

Weston's practicing using a cup at dinner time. Note the stream of water pouring down the front of his shirt as he figures out how to get the spout in his mouth.

Happy Eight Months!

Eight months by the numbers:

• What I can't believe: that it's 2012
• Weston's percentage of the way to 1 year old: 66.7% 
• Height: ~29 inches
• Weight: 19 1/2 lbs.
• Diapers used: 1,344 diapers (can that really be true??  ~6 diapers a day x 7 days a week x 32 weeks)
• Diaper size: Holding steady at a size 3 Pampers
• Plants eaten: 0
• Plant leaves torn off and ready for mouth: at least 10
• Times slept through the night (no waking up from bedtime to wake up the following morning): 2
• Average number of times he wakes up in the night: 1.2
• Favorite time of the day: 6:00 pm--BATH TIME!
• Boxes of Cheerios consumed: still working on his 1st box
• Pajama size: 12 months
• Hours spent Skype-ing with family members: at least 4
• Top 2 Skype-ers: the Grandmas
• Average time occupied with the vacuum cleaner: about 10 minutes
• Time interested in his other toys: < 1 minute
• Interest level (1-10) with the dishwasher, cords, plants, an open refrigerator, lights, and toilet paper: 11
• Time I've spent winding toilet paper back on the roll: enough to permanently relocate it OFF of the dispenser
• Naps taken per day: 2 (very rarely will take 3)
• Teeth: 6
• Times I've been bitten while he's nursing: 2
• Eyes: 2 beautiful baby blues
• Nose: 1 Polish button
• Smiles: too many to count

Testing out blueberries (and loving his mommy)

Telling me how much he loves me!

Date Nights, continued

"Your life will completely change after having a baby."  I would say on some level, that's totally true.  It also doesn't change in a lot of ways.  For one, Nate and I still love going out to see a movie--we just have to be creative about how to make it happen.  My mom was in town last week (or was it two weeks ago?), so we hit her up BIG time babysit.  I think we went on three dates in the week that she was here.  We had to pick an early movie time or else I would have fallen asleep.  I also put Weston to bed a bit earlier those nights that we went out so that I didn't have to pump.

**As an aside, I love the fact that I'm still able to breastfeed Weston while I work full-time.  But, there is nothing more relieving than hanging up the breast pump bag Friday when I get home from work.  Needless to say, I loathe pumping on the weekends or anytime when I'm not at work, so I avoid it at all costs.**

I would love to be able to find a way to do date night every Saturday night with just Nate, but the reality is that a babysitter costs about $8-10 an hour (!) and having just recently moved to the area, I haven't made an effort to find a babysitter.  So, we've made Thursday afternoons Family Nights.  When I get home from work, the three of us go out somewhere--a coffee shop, for a walk, to a park, out to dinner--and just spend time as a family.  It's a good compromise for right now.

Thanksgiving

Oops.  Thanksgiving's been over for two weeks.  It was a great holiday because we went back to Wisco to spend it with my mom, aunt, uncle, cousins, and their kids.  The traveling actually wasn't so bad--I get ridiculously worked up before going on car trips with Weston.  I just feel terribly guilty about having him confined to the car seat, and the drive from Cinci to my mom's is about 7 hours.  But, we left at 5pm on Tuesday and he conked out soon after we left for about an hour.  We then stopped to get Nate some coffee, and we played at the Starbucks and changed into pajamas.  He nursed, and then promptly fell back asleep for the rest of the night until we rolled into Grandma's at midnight.  He woke up, nursed again, and went back to bed.

Checking out Great Uncle Peter (and his beard)

The center of attention

Baby did have some real turkey and baked sweet potatoes for dinner and loved it!

He spent the rest of Thanksgiving teething.  He now has 6 teeth total--four on the top and two on the bottom.  I think the other two bottom teeth are coming in...  And then I hope we get a break.

Baby on a Mission

 Yup. Found him in his crib last night standing up, holding on to the rails and crying. Next task: learn how to get down.

Just Give Me a Second

I can't say that I've really felt like a mom the past six months--I mean the frantic, 20 things going on at once, trying to get dinner on the table, baby's crying, kind of mom that I have a great stereotype of in my head.

I haven't felt this way, that is, until this past Wednesday...
------------------

It's 5 o'clock, right around that time when I feed Weston his dinner.  There was a staff meeting after work today, so I didn't get home until after 4, which means that I am just now getting to washing the dozens of parts from the Medela Freestyle Breastpump and the two bottles that Weston used during the day.  As I wash, I'm thinking about what to make for dinner, or at least what I can scavenge from the cabinets before I actually get to making dinner.

Bingo. Macaroni and cheese with broccoli and a can of tuna.  Easy, quick, and--

My cell phone rings.  It's Mom.  With a soapy rubber glove, I answer.

"Sure, let's Skype.  Just give me a second to finish up.  About 5 minutes, okay?"

This gives me enough time to finish my daily dish washing routine, get the water boiling and chop up some broccoli.  Weston's getting antsy for dinner.  Do I feed him first?  My stomach reminds me that I need to eat something soon.  Oh yeah--Skype--get the computer started.

I quickly chop up broccoli, and add it to the noodles in the pot, all while briefly entertaining thoughts about what would happen if I chopped my finger off because Nate's at work with the car, so I don't have a way to get to the hospital, let alone where the closest hospital is--

Weston lets out a squawk from the other room, yet again reminding me that I need to get his dinner warmed up.

I run in to check on him and the computer's up, so I open up Skype and get Grandma on the line.

"I got these super cute pajamas, and when you come next week for Thanksgiving, I'll have a high chair...Oh and check out this super cute toy I got him--"

The sizzle from the kitchen is the sound of the pot boiling over.  Shit.  I run in while yelling back, "Thanks, Mom, it's super cute!"  I turn the heat down, stir the noodles, and look around for my phone because now that's ringing.  It's Nate.

"Do you have Greg's phone number?" he asks.

"Maybe--just give me a second."

"Rob?  Rob?"  I can hear my mom calling from the other room.  I quickly truck back to the living room trying to think if I have Greg's phone number, as I notice that Weston has crawled up onto the laptop in an effort to touch Grandma's face and eat the shiny Intel and Windows 7 stickers on the corner, and at the same time managed to turn the video off on the Skype call.  I peel him off, and "reset" him--meaning that I move him about 10 feet away from the computer so that he has to work a bit to get back to it.

"Do you want his number now?" I ask as I hit the button to turn the video back on Skype.

"What??"  Mom asks.

"No, hang on--Mom, hold on, I'm on the phone with Nate.  Just give me a sec--"  I quickly look through my contacts on my phone (Greg's last name...Greg's last name...wait--the list is alphabetized by first name, so it doesn't matter).  "Nope, I don't have it.  Sorry.  Gotta go, okay?  Loveyoubye."

Weston is attacking the Intel and Window 7 stickers again, I peel him off, reset, and run back into the kitchen to drain the noodles, which are either overcooked or not done, but I really don't care at this point--do we even have any butter??--and I grab his food out of the fridge and toss it in the zapper for a few seconds while I shout down the hall-- "MOM!  I can't hear you--just give me second."  I run back, with a bib, the food, no spoon, drop the food on the table, pop Weston into his high chair, adjust the computer so Grandma can still see her little man, he lets out a wail, "Where the heck is my food, Ma??" and I tell him I'm sorry and that I forgot your spoon, so just-give-me-a-second-please!  I grab the spoon, look longingly at the steaming pile of noodles and broccoli in the colander, and head back, and shovel a couple of bites of food into my son's open mouth.  He calms down, Grandma and I end the Skype call, and Weston finishes eating his squash, chicken, prunes and apples.  Phew.

Afterward, I head back into the kitchen to finish up my dinner, and discover that my steaming pile of noodles has turned into a giant sticky mess that refuses to detach from the colander.  I don't care.  This is dinner, and I don't have another second to make anything else...

Autumn Fun

Wow, October has been an exciting month for my little man--first tooth, almost crawling, solid foods... The other day, he experienced his first ridiculous Halloween costume.  I came home to him half-dressed in what was going to be his Halloween costume (a hand-me-down bonus):

Bat Boy

Unfortunately, like so many other clothing items that Weston has, it's too small.  He's almost outgrown his 9 months pajamas, and I'm going to have to do another round of putting clothes away and pulling bigger ones out.  It amazes me how fast babies grow.

Here he is earlier in the day, rocking a few downward dogs and babbling about ma-ma and ba-ba:


Today we went to Devou Park in Covington and snapped a bunch of pictures of our baby boy.

First swing ride at the park

Ready for a nap after the fresh air

Like father, like son

Overlooking Cincinnati

Bath Time

The past couple of nights our little man has resorted to grunting while taking a bath. This video barely captures how ridiculous he sounds.
 


 I love this kid.

A Schedule? Yeah, Right.

I love reading stuff like this: "By four months, your baby is probably sleeping eight hours at night" or "Try to put your baby down around the same time every night" or "Keep nap times consistent."

I would love to experience all of that.  It'd be great if Weston would decide to wake up at 3am every night, nurse, and go back to sleep until 7am, play, take a 2-hour nap at 9am, get up at 11:30, eat, play and then nap again around 1pm for a couple of hours and then wake up in time for me to nurse him at 3:30 when I get home from work, take a quick cat nap before bath, eating and bedtime at 7pm.

But that never, ever happens.  Ever.

I can't figure out what bedtime works best for him--early (like around 6:30), or later, around 8pm.  A lot of it depends on what time he wakes up from his afternoon nap.  And he's never really consistent on how long he sleeps at night, either.  Last night he was up at 10pm, 1:30am and 5am.  The night before that he was up once at 1:30am.  I don't get it.  Today, he refused to nap until 10am, and then slept until 1pm.  He took a 30 minute nap at 5pm and was in bed by 7pm.

We try--really we do--to have a schedule.  Sometimes he just doesn't want to cooperate.

Ready for a walk in the Moby Wrap

Post-walk sleepy times

Wow.  None of the fabric in this picture matches.  But, baby doesn't care!

Yum, yum ,yum ,yum, yum

Happy Three Months!

Weston celebrated three months yesterday by sleeping, eating, laughing, and pooping.  It was great... and very typical.  He's "unofficially" 15 1/2 pounds and 26 inches tall.  He is still working on rolling over, but he's laughed out loud many times.  He also is trying to reach out to grab things (with a pretty low success rate, but we're getting better).  We've also let him watch a few Baby Einstein videos, and let me tell you, he gets SUPER excited watching them.  He's very vocal during the videos, wiggling and stomping his feet.

I cannot believe how fast he's growing up.  I still can't believe I'm a mom sometimes, either!  I'm responsible for this little mammal and will be for the next eighteen years.  He's such a good baby, and I'm thankful that parenthood is going so well.  I've adapted to the sleep deprivation, breastfeeding is pretty easy, and Nate and I have lots of fun laughing at (and with) Weston.  I am a little shocked at how much hair I'm losing, though.  I knew that it would happen, but wow, if it doesn't let up soon (it's been going on for about a week now), I'm going to have some problems!

So happy to be 3 months old!

Story time with Dad

Pretty soon this onesie from Auntie Mary and Uncle Shad won't fit anymore... :(

"I didn't do that when you were a baby..."

Last week, Nate and I went out on a Super Date--we left Weston at home with my mom at 3pm and didn't get home until 9pm.  It was wonderful!!!  We did a Super Date because we haven't been very consistent about doing our weekly date night since we moved.  I had a follow up IUD appointment in Milwaukee at 4:30 (how un-romantic), and after that was done, we went to Boswell's Books on the East Side and ordered some iced Chai teas and perused the bookstore.  I was feeling ambitious and bought a book, even though I still haven't finished The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.  Nate bought three.  Afterward, we headed over to Roots, one of our favorite restaurants in Milwaukee and had a couple of sandwiches.

When we got back home, my mom had Weston in bed already, which was good.  However, she didn't turn on the radio to Weston's favorite station: STATIC.  We let the little man have white noise when he's sleeping to help block out all the other sounds that occur in the house.  It was especially great in our apartment in 'Stallis because every step made the floor squeak and creak uncontrollably.

She said to me, "I didn't turn the radio on because I didn't do that when you were a baby.  It's silly."

I said, "Okay, that's fine.  But it helps keep outside noises from waking him up.  That's why we do it."

There are all sorts of things that our parents did with us that we would never dream of doing to our own children, and yet, somehow, we've managed to make it into adulthood.  I'm sure we'll laugh at Weston's parenting decisions, and he'll think it's a miracle that he made it out of childhood.

Baby was 12 weeks old last Thursday--I can't believe it.  Here are some recent shots of the little man:

Nate can make him laugh almost all of the time

This little boy is trying on a bunch of hats that used to be super huge on him a couple of months ago

This little hat's a bit snug...

But this little hat will accommodate his growing noggin...

First shoulder ride

His favorite activity?  Chewing on his fingers

What I Didn't Know About Being a Mom

1. Sleep deprivation It's hard to predict what happens to someone after days, then weeks, and then months of getting no more than 5-6 hours of consecutive sleep at a time.  In the beginning, I was afraid I wasn't ever going to be able to sleep.  Thankfully, that's not the case.  I have to admit, though, that it's difficult for me to fall back asleep after Weston sets new records for night sleep.  For example, when he slept 7 hours the other night, I got 6, and after nursing him, I was wide awake because I hadn't gotten that much consolidated sleep in forever!
2. Cutest baby Okay, so everyone thinks that their baby is the cutest, but really, ours is the cutest.  I don't know how other people think that they have the cutest baby because we clearly own the market on that.  I even ask Nate all the time--Isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?  He completely agrees with me.  I wasn't prepared for how firmly I believe that we have the cutest baby...
3. Breastfeeding gets easier It has to get easier or else no one would continue it.  There were a few times when I told Nate that I was done breastfeeding.  Thank goodness I wasn't serious.  I had mastitis when Weston was two weeks old, and then I had an over-active let down reflex which Weston and I struggled with for several weeks until my supply regulated.  For something that's so "natural," breastfeeding takes buckets of patience and energy.  I would say that it got easier for me right around 8 weeks.
4. I smell I'm serious.  I had heard stories and read stuff about women being overly pungent after having a baby, but I was not prepared for my own smell.  It's so ridiculous that I have to put on deodorant immediately after showering regardless of how well I wash.  One has to hope that this happens so that the baby can bond with its mother, but after ten weeks of stink, I'm confident Weston knows my smell.  Enough already.
5. Conflicting information I read every pregnancy book that came my way while I was pregnant.  I spent hours on the Internet reading about even more stuff that was going on with my body and with the fetus.  The information didn't differ much from one another.  After the baby came, I continued to read a lot about what was going on with him.  In fact, I might have read too much.  The problem is that all babies are different, and there are dozens of ideas about how to raise them.  I've read so many things about eating schedules, sleeping, napping, baby poop, diaper reviews, breastfeeding, and much of it differs from one source to the next.  It's quite frustrating, and I actually got worked up about it a couple of times.  It's much easier to just let it all go and have fun with the baby instead.
6. Going crazy over a schedule This relates to #5.  Because of all the stuff I've read and stories I've heard from other moms, I kept thinking that Weston was supposed to be on some sort of sleeping and feeding schedule that was predictable.  Truth is, he's not that predictable.  Patterns have emerged, but I can't pin him down to anything specific.  I am more concerned about getting him down to sleep in a timely manner than I am about feeding him, mostly due to the fact that I've discovered that he can't handle being awake more than 90 minutes.  So, I adhere to that principle and try to get him to sleep before he gets super tired and crabby.  I've noticed that he generally can go about 3 hours between feedings.  And by about 8 or 9 pm, he's ready for bed.  Other than that, we don't have a strict schedule.
7. Baby blues go away...and can come back  Sigh.  I already wrote about my version of the baby blues, thinking that they were over.  It's been my experience that they do go away and that things get better.  However, there are some...relapses.  I'm pretty sure that they have much in common with the quantity of sleep I'm getting.  Last week at 10 weeks postpartum, I had a horrible day.  I woke up feeling sad and pretty much cried the rest of the day non-stop.  I wasn't expecting it, and it caught me off guard.  It was kind of scary in the sense that I thought that I was never going to be happy again.  Of course, it passed, and I'm okay once again.
8. Other's baby stories Reading other blogs and stories of motherhood has helped me tremendously.  It's fun to hear what their babies are doing, but it's also helpful to hear about when things aren't going well.

The cutest baby

We need to invest in a kiddie pool

Traveling with Baby

Nate and I have been busy traveling this past week with Weston, and let me tell you, doing a road trip with an infant is no easy task.  I'm actually guilt-ridden about it.  We left last Friday night and drove to Davenport, Iowa around 7pm.  That trip was actually pretty easy because it was Weston's bedtime, and he slept most of the way after we stopped for dinner.  We got to Nate's mom's house, left him in the car seat, and he woke up around 3am to eat.

He enjoyed two days with Grandma Becca and Grandpa Brady, spending lots and lots of time outside.  He even went for several dips in the kiddie pool and loved it!  Because he spent so much time outside both days, he slept for 7 hours on Saturday night and 7 1/2 hours on Sunday night!!!!!  I couldn't believe it.  It was quite awesome.  He still isn't the greatest napper (he doesn't usually sleep for more than 30-40 minutes, and an hour is a good nap), but I'll happily take long nights of sleeping.

The trip from Davenport to Cincinnati was a different story...  We left Monday morning at 8am and got to Cinci at 6pm.  He slept okay in the car for the first half of the trip.  We stopped at an air-conditioned rest stop so that he could nurse and get some play time.  We sat under the shade of a tree for at least 45 minutes after he ate and played.  Then we got back in the car where he promptly fell asleep, but woke up about 30 minutes later.  He continued to wake up and doze off for the rest of the trip and cried lots.  It's so hard to watch him completely agitated and pissed off in the car seat.  I would gladly take him out of the car seat and play with him while Nate's driving (just like our parents did when we were little), but Nate won't let me break the law.

We're leaving tomorrow morning to drive to Chicago to visit my brother's family and to also have Weston meet my aunt and uncle on my dad's side.  I hope that this trip goes well.  I read a few tips on how to travel with an infant, and I think we're doing our best.  I would like to try to drive while he does his long stretch of sleeping at night, but that makes it tough on the drivers because we're driving while we should be sleeping.

Two Month Check Up

I was dreading this morning's appointment--SHOTS.  Three of them.  There's something about seeing a baby in pain that can only be understood when your own baby is actually in pain.  I've been around lots and lots of babies in my lifetime, and many of them have had runny noses, bruises, bumps, or just not been feeling well.  Weston had a runny nose last week, and I was distraught in a way that baffled me.  I felt so incredibly bad for him.  And I've been anxious for his shots today since last week sometime.  He did alright--just screamed bloody murder for about a minute and got bright red.  He calmed down after I held him close and talked calmly to him.  He whimpered in the car on the way back home, but slept pretty soundly.  I even sat in the back seat with him and stroked his head while Nate drove.  He's upstairs sleeping soundly right now, even after a long 3-hour nap this afternoon.

Let's see... he's 24 1/2 inches (98th percentile), 13 pounds 2 ounces (75th) and has an impressive head circumference of 40.5 centimeters (90th).  It's hard to believe how much he's grown in such a short amount of time.  No wonder babies sleep so much!