Mr. Mom, Mrs. Paycheck, & Mr. Smiley

I went back to work last week. After 12 weeks of one of the most joyous times in my life (Thank you heavenly Father!!), it's back to the reality of earning money to live my life. Mark and I feel very blessed to have lived off of our savings so we could enjoy this special time together: learning how to be new parents, learning from each other, learning about our new baby and his needs, learning that we can, in fact, survive on very little sleep, learning that we still need time for our individual selfs, and learning that no matter what time I have to be somewhere with Alex in tow, that I will always, always, always be late! :)

Mark seems to be enjoying staying at home with Alex while I am at work. They have been having some great play time together. I think it's very important for Mark to leave the house at least every other day, so I'm going to continue to offer my support when I get home from work. Besides, all I want to do when I get home each day is play with Alex anyways...

Now, on to baby Alex: He has finally learned that there's more to life than eating, sleeping, and pooping! He is staying awake for longer stretches during the day and staying asleep for longer stretches at night. Mark has found the ultimate secret to nighttime sleep: wrapping him up in his swaddle me blanket! Our boy will sleep anywhere from 6-10 hours at a time when wrapped up in that blanket.

He's definitely making us laugh, and he's started to giggle himself a little bit. Mark said that he loves learning about his cute personality. He's definitely into music, he likes to listen to your voice when you read him a story, and he was actually watching an old episode of Full House on the TV the other day (no joke...)

Alex is a kicker! When he is awake, he kicks non-stop. He kicks when lying down & kicks when people hold him. The only time he is still as a mouse is when he's eating a bottle (and even then, he crosses his little hands in this "I'm being proper" position, and his feet dangle below). Also, we are amazed that he is already bearing a bit of weight on his legs. He likes to stand up (while supported of course) and look around at everything. Something tells me we'll be pulling out his Car Walker & Exersaucer soon. Oh my gosh -- my boy is growing toooooo fast!!!

Just this past week, he is starting to make noises: He said 'brrrr' the other day when staring at his musical star. When I say to him "talk", his mouth opens up, and he tries to make sounds. Sometimes with success, and sometimes not. But he is indeed trying!!

He also likes to stare at the pictures of himself on our walls. We tease him and say that he is being narcissistic, but really -- I think he likes the black & white frames that surround his picture.

Milestone alert: He is 13 1/2 weeks old, eating 5 oz every 3-4 hours, and he is about to roll over anyday now! Something tells me that will be my next post...

Indiana trip

We survived our first road trip -- and what an experience it was!

Let's start with Friday morning when we left around 9:15 am:

About 15 minutes from home, I make the silly comment to Mark: "Wouldn't it be just terrible if baby boy made a blowout diaper mess in his car seat while we are on the road? What would we do? We don't have any extra car seat liners." And Mark said: "Well, I think you just got what you asked for." Next thing I know, we're in the Brunswick McDonald's to solve Crisis #1 of our trip: The bathroom was so tiny and had an angled Koala Care changing table that made him keep sliding down towards me as I cleaned him up. Trying to keep my cool (I've done this a million times, right?), a McDonald's employee came out of a stall and said "Boy she's chubby, you're sure feeding her well. How much does she weigh? She's so pretty. What's her name?" I said: "HIS name is ALEX. HE weighs 12 lbs." What I wanted to say: "He's healthy lady! So what that he likes his bottle! His Dr. is happy. You want to see his messy butt?" Lesson learned: Pack Shout wipes or a Tide pen in my diaper bag for the future. (And I was positive that I had everything I could possibly need in there...)

Then, we decided to go ahead and feed Alex since he started acting hungry, and then we got back on the road. By this time it was about 10:30. Needed to fill up with gas about another hour down the road. Then another hour goes by, and we stopped to 'Noodle' in Columbus. Diane and I always joke about Noodles & Company, so an inside joke there... If you've never eaten at a Noodles & Co., go! By this time, I think we had been on the road for about 4 hours, and we were only in Columbus. Hubby & baby boy slept for about 3 hours while I drove us all the way to Indy. Thank goodness we made up some time. Stopped to feed Alex again in Indy at a Burger King, had a diaper change in the trunk of the Mazda because BK didn't have a bathroom changing table (what in the world?), and on our way again. Needed gas again when we reached Terre Haute, and Alex had another messy diaper! We usually only get one per day, but since we were traveling, of course he wanted to surprise us. He cried and cried and cried and cried until Sullivan when IT happened:

Meltdown #1: 6 hours in his car seat was all he could handle. As he cried off & on, Mark and I just let him cry. But then, he got louder, and his face started turning red, and I couldn't calm him down. Then, he started gasping for air and his face started turning blue. I scream: "Pull over!!!" On Johnson street, I pull him out of the car seat, hold him, & kiss him. He calms down, but then has these after shakes, which freak me out, so I start crying. Motherly love told me he deprived his little brain of oxygen and was now having miniature seizures. We were miles from home -- oh God what will we do? Mark told me to stop freaking out, took baby Alex, hushed him to sleep, and we continued to Oaktown when we finally made it to Magic Mimi's house (more on that later...) I've got to chill out. I'm still learning how to be a Mom.

9 hours later (I was right about my car trip length prediction), Alex meets Mimi and she says: "He's so pretty!" Everyone thinks he is pretty. Mark's Grandma Rose says that he has perfect little baby features. Rose's nursing home friend asked what HER name was too... He's a boy! He's a boy! But I'm not getting all bent out of shape -- because yeah, he is kind of pretty. Mommy is biased on his cute factor though.

So Mimi wants to feed him, and hold him, and kiss him. I was so happy that she finally got to meet him. Auntie D was there too, and she was dying to hold him as well. Then, my Mom comes in from work, and she heads straight to baby Alex. No "Hi Sweetie, how was your trip?" -- straight to the baby. Lesson learned: No one tells you that after you have a new baby, your existence is barely there anymore. So, I joke and say Hi Mom, nice to see you!! After we made it to Mom & Dad's house, I dug out my baby book to learn about a future timeline for when to expect other milestones from Alex. It seems that I was crawling at 7 1/2 months, walking at 10 1/2 months, and teething at 11 months. Potty trained before I gave up the bottle though...

On Saturday -- we spend the entire day at Mimi's. We have Oscar's breaded tenderloins for lunch that were the size of a basketball. It's not a visit home unless I have a breaded tenderloin. Barb & the girls arrive. Barb takes him and sheds a few tears. It was enough for my own waterworks to start flowing. The girls each hold him, and we had a yummy cookout for supper. We named Mimi "Magic Mimi" this evening because no matter how mad Alex was, when she took him, he calmed down and slept. We truly tried to convince her that she needed to come back to Cleveland with us.

Sunday -- we visit Tiff, Nick, and Spencer in TH. Spencer is sooo cute! He's a year older than Alex. We have some Italian Beef for lunch (yum!), and have a nice visit. Back to Mimi's Sunday night for some more Alex time with the family, and we have some Bobe's pizza. Gosh, I love their pizza. We take our 4 generations picture with Alex, me, Dad, and Mimi. In one of the pictures, Mimi is looking straight at Alex. Just like Mark's Grandma Rose did in the 4 generations pictures we took of his family. :)

Mom's friend Debbie had a granddaughter Myrah who was born 3 days before Alex, and she wanted to get the babies together while we were home. Myrah comes over, and the 2 babies cry at each other. Ha! And Myrah's already on solids -- eating sweet potatoes!! So she's of course sleeping 8-10 hours at a time. (Sounds pretty tempting huh?) But Alex's doctor hasn't even approached us about eating solids. We're positive that he's getting all the nutrients that he needs right now in his formula. So, we will continue our regimen.

Monday -- Molly comes over to visit with Alex. We had an awesome visit. I think she liked him. :) Then, Mom wanted to take baby boy to her work to show her friends. He has a crying fest at the hospital. He had hardly napped all day, and I think today was the day where he had enough of being shuffled around everywhere because he was just cranky. Went to Zander's for lunch. 3 words: pistachio ice cream! I can say with 100% confidence that this was the first public place that I noticed stares while Alex was having another crying fit. It bothered me for a brief second, and then I didn't care anymore. After we left, we have car Meltdown #2 right before Apple hill orchard. Mom consoles him while Mark and I sneak inside to get a cherry pie and some peaches to take back to Cleveland with us. He was still pretty upset as we left, so Mom takes him out of his car seat again and walks around with him out of the car. Took Mom to Cecil's to get Dad's truck, and I went to visit Papa's grave. Had a nice chat with him. I was already pretty sad, so it seemed like a good time to visit him since I knew I'd just cry again when I got there. Told Papa that I was still tired. He always used to tease me about being "born tired". Told him about baby Alex being too cranky to meet him right now. Told him what a great Pepaw my Dad was. Told him to take care of Stephanie's baby Kaia, my friend Travis, Holly's Dad, and Michael Jackson. Told him that I had been surrounded by many deaths lately, and it's been really hard. Told him that I loved him, kissed his grave stone, and I left. Had a nice chat for 2 hours with my Mom outside that evening while Mark fed Alex. And he finally slept for most of the rest of the night. Literally 6 hours in a row...

Tuesday -- going home. I think we were ready. Alex was ready for sure. He sure needs his cradle swing by this point. We have an awesome breakfast and chat with Mimi. She makes us coffee, toast, english muffins with peach jelly & blackberry jam (a new addiction of mine, which is strange because I loathe blackberries). We talk about life. Life with Alex, life in our careers, life, life, life.... I love these discussions. Mark and I agreed in the car ride home how much we really enjoyed that breakfast with Mimi. I will remember it for the rest of my life. Mimi gives us another tractor that was Papa's for Alex's expanding tractor collection started by my Dad. I love his tractor collection. It represents our side of the family.

In Terre Haute, we fill up with gas for the long trip home, and get some lunch. Long John Silvers was giving away free baja tacos that day, so we head there. Mark and I dub the "LJS incident" of which we laugh about for at least an hour together while Alex slept. It was silly laughing too; he described it as 'dating again' laughing. I think we just have been so stressed about making it through this trip, and out of our home element, that we were entirely slap happy. But man, was it fun!

Meltdown #3 happened in Indianapolis. Baby boy started making his faces again. The freakout faces. We pull over on Washington street. I pull him out, he calms down, we wait about 30 minutes, put him back in his car seat, and he freaks out again. Then, I just went ahead and gave him a cold bottle because we were trying to make it to Auntie D's to give him a bottle, but he just wasn't going to settle down. Finish feeding him in the park, and then head to D's. By this time, we'd been on the road for 4 hours, and we were only in Indianapolis.

Meltdown #4 happened at an Ohio taco bell. Mad, mad, mad. If Alex isn't sleeping or enjoying the 'Mr. Ribbit show' in his car seat, then he is mad. Mark finally gets the Pina Colada drink he's been wanting from Taco Bell, we feed Alex the final bottle we had packed (please God don't let him want another bottle), and we had another 'trunk of the Mazda' diaper change. Mark coined our ride as a bunch of traveling hilljacks. Seriously, the trunk was packed with a bunch of baby stuff, sweet corn, peaches, etc. and a make-shift diaper changing station. We laugh absurdly again.

Now, I normally don't break the law intentionally. Sure I speed like the rest of them, but when you have meltdowns #5, #6, & #7 (we will name them the 'almost home' meltdowns), you take your baby out of his car seat and calm him down while driving. You drive the speed limit instead, you put on your defensive driver frame-of-mind, you calm him down, and then you put him back in his seat. We finally get home around 11 pm. Another 9 hour trip...

Lesson learned: For road trips, I definitely need a pack n play, our pitcher mixer (if a fridge is available), extra travel size diaper wipes, nursery water, my bottle brush, and stain remover. I DON'T necessarily need a bottle warmer (Alex drinks cold bottles just fine).

All in all, it was an exciting, stressful, emotional, exhausting, elating, joyful, summer-fun filled adventure!

10 Weeks Old & Toys!

Alex is 10 weeks old, and he's going through a musical phase (he's definitely OUR child). After introducing his Baby Einstein gym sometime last week, I noticed how much he loved the musical star. He would stare at it for minutes at a time. I had never seen him so focused before. He used to be entertained with objects for no more than 1-2 minutes. Now, he will stare at that star for at least 5 minutes while I prepare a bottle. Hoorah!

Then, I also remembered him listening to Mark play guitar a couple of weeks ago, so I went on a toy hunt. I received an email from WhatToExpect.com about age appropriate toys. So, after lots of fun shopping online, I bookmarked some toys. Some were from when I was a child -- such as the barnyard animal friends at Mimi's house. So, I ventured to BRU looking for musical toys and bought him "Mr. Ribbit", which is a frog for his car seat, and I also bought him "Big Al", which is actually a tiny alligator. He also got Mallory the Monkey, but she is very big, so we will wait awhile before introducing her.

Now that Alex is becoming interested in toys, I am becoming obsessed with Craigslist! Last week, I found a gently used blue Bumbo seat for $15 (retails for $40) to teach him how to sit-up. And just 2 days ago, I found an ABCD Exersaucer for $40 (retails for $100).

Other exciting developments from the past week: He has been in Size 1 diapers for awhile now, and he is about to graduate to Size 2. (Oh my gosh...he's growing too fast). I went through my clothes last week to prepare for going back to work. So, after I finished my closet, I did some rearranging of Alex's clothes. What a journey down memory lane! His little premie & newborn clothes are now retired (how sad...), and he is officially wearing anywhere from 0-3 months or 3-6 months clothes depending on the brand.

Also part of my BRU trip was preparing for our first long car trip to Indiana! Alex will get to meet Mimi, Barb & the girls this coming weekend. We had to get some nursery water for his formula, diapers (of course), on-the-go bottle warmers, & a bottle cooler. What is usually a 6 1/2 hour drive will definitely be much longer. I am crossing my fingers that we make it there in 9.

The Jinx of July 1st

I was so excited about July 1st being a great day for once in my life. Some people may not know this about me, but July 1st is my ever eternal jinx day of bad events. It seems that every year when this day comes along, something real bad happens to me. Seriously, it's been this way since I was 15.

So overall, I was shocked that it turned out to be a good day yesterday until our power went out for no reason for almost 4 hours last night. No thunderstorms, no possible overuse of the A/C throughout our entire apt. complex, nothing. It does this all of the time -- random outages. I dealt with it fine until now. Now that Alex is here, this can absolutely not happen on days when it happens to be 95 degrees outside, hot, & humid. Luckily, it was only 70 yesterday, but it still stays so hot in this box of an apartment. We cannot open our balcony & windows because our lousy neighbors who live below us go outside and smoke every 5 minutes, and it carries up to our apartment. Just 2 of the many reasons why we hate the apartment complex where we live... but for some reason, this place is part of God's plan for us right now. And I just accept it. But it's hard to prepare a bottle with cold tap water; the formula just doesn't mix right. Not to mention, it's hard to feed a baby by candlelight. Alright, so on to the good things about July 1st:

We bought a new car! It's a 2007 Mazda CX-7 (crossover SUV). Black cherry mica color, only 13K miles, 6 cd changer, moonroof, cloth seats, and we got a great deal on it. We bought it in Andy & Holly's neighborhood - Cuyahoga Falls. (Guys, if you're reading this, it was during the day, were you home? So sorry we didn't call or stop by, but we will see you tomorrow night!) We really needed a new car. My Camry will need a new muffler system and new shocks soon, both of which are $$$. Also, we needed more trunk space for future family trips and visits to Indiana. And when I go back to work, I wouldn't have been able to drive the "toaster" instead of my Camry since it's a stick shift. (We will miss you, toaster! It was a wonderful journey.) But we love this new ride. It makes us feel awesome when we drive it. Mark compared it to a dream last night. If we can't get a house yet, then a new car will just have to do. Yay for us!

Also, I talked to my boss about my schedule when I return to work. I proposed 2 ideas, and she was fine with either one. So for now, I will be working 7-3:30 everyday, and 2 days a week at home. I am so excited! I can still see my baby boy. I hope this helps with the transition.

And it finally happened... Baby boy smiled at Daddy yesterday, and I saw it! He was talking to him and making faces, and he smiled 2-3 times in a row. My heart just melted. I hope he smiles at me soon. As soon as he's smiling like that more often, I'll take pics y'all! Don't you worry...