Visitors From the Sunshine State

 Yay!  Mark and O'Dota have arrived!!  They blew in from Florida yesterday afternoon and now Weston can check off "grandpa" and "great grandma" off his relatives-to-meet list.  So exciting!

Weston woke his great grandma up this morning with a little rendition of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."  Totally adorable.  As soon as I can get the video uploaded, I'll post it.

Wake up, wake up!

Enjoying some waffles with Grandpa Mark Mark

Three generations of crazy hair and great laughs

Happy Eleven Months!

This past month has been busy!  We're getting settled in our new home while trying to baby-proof...  Nate's mom and her husband came to visit last weekend, and now my mom is here.  Weston's been testing out his first steps, too!  He took his first steps on March 18, and these past few days, he's been experimenting with walking.  He's gotten about 6 steps in before toppling over.

He also did his first sign yesterday: more!
I don't mean to act like a zookeeper trying to get my little mammal to do tricks as I throw him chunks of fruit, but it was the only way to get him to do it so I could video it.

Seven teeth

It was also time to give Weston his first haircut.  His bangs were down past his eyebrows.  Right before bath on a warm 75 degree day, three adults attempted to cut his hair.  My mother was the stylist, Nate held him, and I photographed while trying to distract him.  What a chore.  It turned out pretty good--we had to touch up the front the following day.

Happy Ten Months!

Weight: 21 lbs. 8 oz.
Height: ~31 in.

Weston's enjoying our new house, especially the stairs...  We didn't have stairs at our apartment, so they are quite an attraction. We have a nice little park near by, and we've gone many times since we've moved here.  He loves watching all the kids run around, and he's even made a friend, Ruby, a little girl who's about 5 months older than he.  She can walk and frequently comes over to pet Weston's head.  It's adorable.

The same six teeth that he got when he was 6 months old...nothing new since then

We're pretty sure that his word for "water" sounds something very similar to "daughter daughter."  He only says "mama" when he's crying, but will say "dada" all the time.

 Oh!  Did I tell you that he's been sleeping through the night for about 3 weeks now???!!??  That will be another post all on its own, but I feel like a new woman.

Going after the keys

His latest thing is holding a ball in his hand for most of the day.  He crawls around with it in his fist, making him look like he's got a peg leg.

Dear Tooth Fairy...

Somebody cut his first tooth today!!  I noticed the bud on Tuesday after what was a unusually difficult day--weird naps, diaper rash, crabbiness.  And 48 hours later--viola!--we have our first tooth.  It's the lower left one.  I hope the rest of his teeth are as easy as this first one was.

Can you see it?

Can you see it now?

Rocking the sippy cup

Already?

As is becoming our little custom, I came home from work this afternoon to a smiling baby boy sitting with Dad on the porch.  I kissed both of them hello, and as soon as Nate ended his phone call, he told me to "Come see this."

He put Weston on the bed, and he helped him get his legs tucked under his body.  Of course, Weston wasn't interested in showing off his new trick, so Nate had to fill me in on the details...He pushed himself up onto all fours and rocked back and forth a bit before he toppled over.

Already?  He's not even five months old (although he will be in a couple of days).

I did get to see this amazing feat this evening before bath time.  I was quite impressed.  Nate was able to capture it this afternoon:

Houston, We Have Lift Off!

(Oh wait, the space shuttle program no longer exists.)

My little man rolled over today!!  Sadly, I didn't witness it.  I missed it by about 45 minutes because he did it after I left for work this morning, so Grandma was Weston's audience while she was home watching him.  She said he rolled over about 15 times today, and of course, when I got home, he was a bit shy and didn't want to do it right away.  But he caved into the pressure and rolled over like a champ.  He's growing up so fast!!

Off to See Kentucky

We're hitting the road today--my mom, Weston and I.  It's going to be a crazy


We've arrived in Cincinnati, just north of Kentucky,


I've tried to post on the blog several times now, and I'm hoping that this time I'll actually get to finish!

As you can see, my mom, Weston and I have left Wisconsin, and are now staying in Cinci with Uncle JeffD, Nate's business partner.  I officially start work tomorrow, but we can't move into our apartment in Covington until August 31, so that's why we're here in Cinci.  Nate's back in Wisco and will be coming next week with the moving truck.

Happy in the car seat (a semi-rare occurrence)

This is the wackiest start to a school year yet.  My mom came with Weston and me because I have no childcare for him until Nate gets here.  She gets to be full-time grandma this week and next and watch him while I go back to work.  I'm very, very conflicted about going back to work.  This is a new job, new district, new age group, and new curriculum (and not to mention new accents).  Oh yeah, and I'm a new mom.  I keep wondering how in the hell this is all going to work out, especially the sleep thing.  He's been sleeping better at night, but with all the moving, driving, changing of time zones, and sleeping in unfamiliar places, Weston still isn't sleeping much longer than 5 hours straight at night.  He'll sleep for about 11 or 12 hours total, but that first stretch of sleep needs to get longer!!  I'm hoping that once we're in our apartment and in a quiet place, he'll be sleeping for 7 or 8 hours straight every night.

Note the car seat covered with a blanket in the bathtub
This is Weston's bedroom when we visit Uncle JeffD

Napping site when no one is in the apartment
(on top of Uncle JeffD's bed)

Weird.

I just remembered that I'm a mom.  I have a son.  And he's so friggin' cute.

Sleeping and Swaddling

I can't believe this.  It's 6:40 am and I just put Weston back down to sleep after having put him down for bed at 10:30pm last night.  Is this a fluke?  Or the start of something awesome?  I'm wide awake having gotten nearly six hours of uninterrupted sleep myself--"a new lease on life."  I didn't go to bed until 11 or so, and I had to get up at 4:30 to hand express to relieve the discomfort of not having nursed for so long.  But I was able to fall back asleep for a little bit before he started stirring.  Even then, though, when I changed his diaper before feeding him, he wasn't really awake.  And when he fed, he didn't really open his eyes and promptly fell back asleep after he was done.

I'm not exactly sure what it was that led to this, but I'm really leaning toward the fact that I swaddled him after his bath and put him to sleep that way.  I don't usually do that for bedtime, but now I'm thinking that I will.  He also was awake quite a bit yesterday with two good naps and then several little cat naps including one in the Bjorn and one in the stroller for about an hour each.

Our little snoozing sailor

I don't know...I'm going to try it all again tonight and see what happens.  I keep reading about the importance of a bedtime routine.  I always get hung up on the fact that babies don't need a bath more than every other day (and even that can be too much), but if I want to make bath time part of the bedtime routine, then what to do?  I'm guessing that I can just draw up a tub of warm water and put him in there and not wash him.  He absolutely LOVES bath time, and it really calms him down.

Auntie Mary Has Arrived

My sister flew in from Portland this morning!!

Weston: meet your cyber-stalker

Happy Easter

I don't really know how much bigger I can get.  Mr. Belvedere, aren't you cramped?  Aren't you just itching to get out of my belly?  Don't you want to stretch out a bit?

I've been up since 5:30 this morning, did some yoga, and cooked breakfast for myself.  Nate's still sleeping (the NBA playoffs are on, and who knows how late the game went last night), and I'm rather bored.

• I cleaned the apartment in its entirety last night.  Miraculously, I was even able to get down on my hands and knees and wash the floor.  It took me a little longer than usual, but I did it.
• I've read everything I possibly can about labor and delivery.
• Nate birthday present is wrapped (it's this Wednesday).
• I bought my mom's Mother's Day gift and card.
• The bag is packed for the hospital.
• I have email drafts saved for the big announcement.
• The laundry is done.

What else can I do???  I suppose I could go to the Pick 'n Save and do some grocery shopping.  I could cook some more meals to throw in the freezer.

Charting the Belly: Week 39

Well, I think I've dropped:

I can breathe again!

Sorry for the bare belly pictures, but the other ones were less than desirable.  I had just woken up, and my photographer thought that my bed head was "sexy."  I disagreed.

News update: Mr. Belvedere's cousin was born two days ago!  My brother, his wife, and their son welcomed Liam Reid into their family.  He's a peanut--6 lbs. 4 oz. and 18 in.!  Now the family is just awaiting grandchild numero seis...  April or May?  Mister or Miss?  Chub or lightweight?  Only one way to know--WAIT.  My appointment last Tuesday revealed I wasn't hardly effaced and only a fingertip dilated.  There are all sorts of ways to naturally induce labor, but I'm not so desperate that I want to try Castor oil yet.  Ask me in a week.

Charting the Belly: Week 38

This weekly plan with the midwife is time consuming!  I have appointments every week now, and I've only scheduled them up until April 19, which is next Tuesday.  I'm just hoping that's my last one before Mr. Belvedere makes his or her debut...  Yeah right--I'll probably go until 42 weeks and deliver a 10 pound baby.

Hopefully no more than 15 days to go!

I am beyond anxious to meet who this little critter is that's been jumping on my bladder, kicking my ribs, making me cry these past nine months for seemingly ridiculous reasons, and having me countdown the days until my next appointment with my hair stylist.  As a side note, I cannot get over how much hair is on my head or how thick it is.  Normally, I have to clean out the drain after every shower I take or sweep up my hair from the bathroom floor on a daily basis.  Since about week 20, I haven't had to do any of that, which means that after this baby is born, my hair loss will be indescribable.

How Many People Love This Baby?

I had a conversation with Mr. Belvedere this morning about how many people are so excited to meet him or her.  It's been rather quiet as far as its movement goes these past few days, and I thought maybe it was lonely, so I gave it a pep talk.  It's got to be awfully cramped in my uterus right now because all it does is roll back and forth, kind of like how I feel when trying to sleep at night.  I mentioned that it could come out any time it wants to; we're ready for it!  I think it felt better after our talk, because then it got the hiccups.

My dear mother threw a baby shower for us yesterday afternoon at Sheridan's in Cudahy, and I am still overwhelmed at my family's generosity.  Everyone who came lives somewhere else besides the Milwaukee area, and many people drove several hours to come and celebrate this little fetus.  It was so fun to see the women that are in some way related to Mr. Belvedere.

Our apartment has completely exploded after yesterday's shower:

I cannot wrap my head around how much stuff a baby allegedly needs.  I'm sitting next to the car seat and stroller that my mom, sister-in-laws and sister got us, and it's really intimidating!  I feel like I have no clue what we're about to get ourselves into, despite the fact that I've spent a decent chunk of my life baby-sitting, working in day care centers, teaching, and being around babies.  But it's way scarier when it's my own, and no one's coming here to relieve me of my duties at the end of the day.  I feel like I did right before our bike trip last summer--nervous because I didn't really know how it was all going to unfold.  I'd never ridden my bike for 60 days straight, nor had I ever been in the wilderness that long.  I had an idea of what it might be like, but it's impossible to know what it is that I don't know.

It's Alive!

I can no longer question if I'm feeling Mr. Belvedere--it's definitely moving around and kicking!  Probably since before Thanksgiving, I've felt the "flutters," but I was hesitant to say that it was.  As a side note, I personally think that the movements feel like a muscle spasm, like when your eyelid twitches or you get a spasm in your arm.  But in the past week or so, it's no longer been in question.  Yesterday at work, after what was an exhausting day, I was sitting at my desk with my hands on my belly, and I felt what was an unmistakable punch, kick or head butt.  I looked down, and on the next movement, I actually saw a small area of my belly pop out.  I laughed.

This afternoon, I had to send a student down to the in-school suspension room, and any time I have a confrontation with a student, the adrenaline starts to pump through my body.  Well, that seems to make the baby flip around a lot, and it tickles.  So while I'm trying to discipline this student in front of a wild class of 32 eighth graders, I feel like laughing.  Not helpful.

The Students are Curious

Yesterday, during my ninth hour Spanish class, I was sitting on the floor grading some papers while the students were working on a project, researching at the computer, and putting together posters.  I had several piles of papers around me, and I went to grab a stack, and there was a folded piece of paper with "To: Ms. W" written on the front.  I opened it up, and it read:
"Are you pregnent [sic]?  If you are, tell the whole class."

I laughed aloud, stood up, got the class's attention and said, "Yes, I am expecting a baby at the end of April.  And no, I'm not just putting on weight from the holidays."  I smiled and asked, "Who wrote this, by the way?"

A girl piped up and said, "I did.  And I wrote it with my left hand.  Can you tell?"

Then came the cacophony of responses:
"Really?!"
"I knew it last month."
"When's your sub coming?"
"Will you name it after me?"
"Are you having a boy or girl?"
"Can we throw you a shower?"
"How come you're so small?"

At least this wasn't nearly as ridiculous as the response I got from a student in my seventh hour class last month:
"Who's the dad?"
I couldn't believe it, but then I remembered where I was.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I'm pregnant!

So it begins...a 40-week journey.  I took the test at 4AM because I had to get up to pee.  I was super excited, especially considering that I had taken three in the past week, and they were all negative.  Nate was up, and I came back into the bedroom with a ridiculous smile on my face.  He looked at it rather dazed, smiled and kissed me and told me to get some sleep.  Yeah right!

I wanted so badly to call my mom because she knew we were trying, but she ended up calling me at 7AM while I had at least seven tabs open on Chrome, scouring the Internet for baby information.

"So??"

"So... what???"  I was smiling.

"What did it say?"

I think I said something like, "Well, you're going to be a grandma again!  And happy birthday!"  I don't think she heard the happy birthday part because she was wildly celebrating.