Hand-Eye Coordination

We are learning hand-eye coordination, and Carter has begun (in about the last week) to bring objects to his mouth. He has discovered how to take his pacifier out of his mouth, and now we're trying to teach him how to put it back. In this photo, he has brought a teething ring to his mouth and tried to put it in (paci was in the way). He also is propping himself up on his arms when he's on his tummy--a key step in the long process of learning his own mobility.

Now that he has discovered his mouth, Carter also has taken an interest in watching us eat. On this particular morning, he was mimicking Jack's mouth movements as he (Jack, not Carter) ate cereal.

Whee! With his newfound body control, we love to play "flying baby!"

Baptism

Carter's baptism was Saturday evening. He did very well. He fussed a couple times, but I was very proud of how well he did. There were six babies baptized at that Mass, so it was quite a crowd of little ones. I'm sure he wasn't the oldest, but he definitely looked like it! I know for a fact one of those babies is a month older than him, and I venture to say most of the others probably were, too, but none came close to him in size.

The sleeping is going a little better; he's getting up once or twice during the night, instead of three or four times. Last night, I didn't feed him at any of his wake-ups. I changed his diaper when he woke around 2 a.m., but aside from that I just put his pacifier back in his mouth, turned on his mobile, and rubbed his back to calm him (he has decided not to sleep on his back anymore, so he turns on to his side or his belly after we put him to bed).

We have been battling a stuffy nose for a few days now. He had a fever of 101° on Thursday, so Nana picked him up early from school. She gave him Tylenol and the fever didn't come back after. It did go back up to about 99.5° on Friday morning at school, so they gave him Tylenol. But his temp has been fine since then. Unfortunately, I have to aspirate his nose several times a day, which does not make for a happy baby. But within minutes of my putting away the aspirator, he's pleasant again. I'm not sure if the fever an stuffy nose are from teething (he continues to bite down on anything he can, and the drool sometimes is unbelievable), or if he has a cold simultaneously.

Weight Loss

As of today, I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight! Nursing Carter has helped so much; I haven't even been making an effort to lose the weight. Kinda makes it hard to find the motivation to run more than the once-a-week that I've been managing. Well, next week starts my compressed work week, so I'll have to be at the office an hour earlier and then I definitely won't be getting up to run in the mornings.

Carter continues to amaze me. He is developing such a bubbly personality: always talking and trying to play with us. He has lots of little girlfriends at school. He smiles at them, and one even tried to hold his hand when I picked him up yesterday! He doesn't like to be strapped in/confined to anything these days; he fights us when it's time to go in his car seat or we try to put him in his bouncy seat (though he usually succumbs to the vibration of the bouncy seat). He has started taking interest when we're eating. Over the weekend, Carter was sitting in front of Jack while Jack ate cereal. Carter watched intently as Jack took each bite, and even mimicked the motions with his mouth. From what I've read, that is a sign that he'll be ready to try solid foods soon (though not before four months).

Milk Donation?

Aside from a brief period when Carter was about a month old, I have had no problems meeting and exceeding the amount of breast milk he consumes. (And even during those couple of days, I worked as hard as I could to increase my supply and avoided supplementing with formula.) As a result, my robust little man has been consuming exclusively breastmilk since birth. As I've written before, I continue to produce a surplus of milk. I'm pumping about 10-15 ounces per day more than what Carter is actually drinking. Our freezers (yes, plural--two of them) are overflowing with milk, and I'm having to make room for more. In talking to several other new moms since returning to work, I've realized how lucky I am to have all this milk for Carter. So many of them struggled with supplying enough for their babies. So today, I stumbled across some information about milk donation. There are a number of national organizations that accept breast milk donations, and I decided to look into one that uses it for premature babies at NICU centers in the US. (There are others that send it overseas, use it for adults with various ailments, etc.) I've requested donor information from the National Milk Bank (http://www.nationalmilkbank.org/) and hope to make some space in my freezers before long. I truly am blessed with this precious commodity, and it would make me feel so good if I could send it to someone who needs it. Does anyone have experience with this type of donation? I'd like to hear from other moms who have done it!

On a topic closer to Carter . . . he continues to wake up every two hours at night. Last night, I was able to put him back to sleep at 11 p.m. without getting him out of his crib. I fed him at 1 a.m., though. And when he woke at 3:30, I know I had trouble getting him back to sleep, but I can't remember exactly what I tried . . . it's all a blur. When he wouldn't go back to sleep a little before 6, I brought him to our room and put him in his swing while I showered. Then he went into a deep sleep, until I had to wake him a little after 6:30. Hopefully this schedule won't keep up; it's tough on him and me.

Rolling

We hit a milestone yesterday. We'd been coming very close, and yesterday Carter finally rolled all the way over. He did it at daycare, so I wished I'd been able to see it (though I did see the aftermath on his webcam). But he did it again for us at home last night. I have read that most babies will roll from belly to back first, and will then build the strength to roll from back to belly. Carter apparently decided to be different, and he pushed off his back and onto his belly (he later rolled back the way he came). I'm excited, but it makes me a little nervous now. He seems to prefer sleeping on his side or even his belly, rather than his back. For SIDS prevention, the doctors are adament that babies sleep on their backs. And I am still pretty paranoid about SIDS (ages 2-4 months are when it's most prevalent). But I've also read that I should keep putting him to bed on his back, and if he moves himself, then I shouldn't worry about moving him. I think I'll check with our pediatrician.

In other news, teething seems to be in full swing. As mentioned before, Carter started drooling at the beginning of September (though it has tapered recently). He's also been chomping on his hands, and will bite down on almost anything I put in his mouth (he still doesn't quite have the hand-eye coordination to bring something to his own mouth). This week he has become finicky about eating (sometimes he wants to; sometimes he doesn't). And suddenly he has gone from sleeping 8-10 hours before waking, to sleeping 4.5 and then waking every two hours--which means my longest stretch is 2-2.5 hours. When he wakes during the night, his cry sounds like he's in pain and the only way I can get him to go back to sleep for more than 15 minutes is by letting him eat a little. I picked up some Hyland's Teething Tablets on the recommendation of several people, but we haven't tried them yet. Hopefully this phase won't last too long, and we can get back to some semblence of an overnight sleep schedule.

Lessons From School

I'm still feeling incredible guilt about leaving Carter and going to work, so I'm validating my decision by noticing all the developments he has made in the week since he started. He's been cooing since just before two months, but in the last week he has become our little chatterbox. He used to talk up a storm when he was on his changing table--now it doesn't matter where he is. He'll carry on very lively conversations with us anytime, anywhere. At the same time, he has started smiling and then shying away from it. So he's opening up by talking but becoming shy at the same time. Oh well--both actions are really cute coming from him.

Since beginning "school," Carter also has been flexing his muscles some more. I noticed that tummy time went a little better on Saturday morning than it had been going before; he was a little better at propping himself up, and didn't get frustrated quite so quickly.

The little man is so close to rolling over. Jack thinks it will happen this week. He seems bound and determined to do it the hard way, though. Supposedly it's easier to roll onto the back from the tummy, so babies usually do that first--and then they build the strength to roll from back to tummy. Carter has decided he wants to do the opposite, so he frequently rolls almost all the way while he's on his back for nap time. In fact, on Saturday, he rolled onto his side and fell asleep in that position for nap time. He did it again Saturday night; he seems to like laying that way. He did roll onto his side from his tummy this weekend, but only once.

Go Dawgs!

I just wanted to share some pictures of our baby Bulldog . . .

You can actually see him saying "Go Dawgs!"

Three Months

Carter is three months old today, and I thought I would give a general update of where our lives stand.

Carter is doing very well. Our little man is roughly 15 pounds. He has been wearing his six-month-sized clothes for a month now, and still has some room to grow in them (thank goodness). He has settled into a regular routine. He eats every three hours from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We start getting him ready for bed at 7:30 and he usually falls asleep around 8. Most nights he sleeps all the way through the night until it's time to wake up at 6:30-ish. Sometimes he wakes once, typically between 4 and 5:30, to nurse a few minutes and then return to sleep. If we were off schedule the previous evening, then his sleeping is thrown off. But as long as we keep him to those times, he'll pretty much sleep the full 10+ hours. He started daycare this week and his teachers all love him. He flirts with the little girls and is starting to take longer naps while he's there. He spits up on a regular basis, but nothing extreme since I cut out the majority of my dairy intake. He is beginning to show signs of teething, holds himself up pretty well and tries to stand on our legs. He hasn't rolled over yet, but he is getting close (and will often pull himself up to lie on his side for extended periods).

Jack is busier than ever, fully involved in his MBA program. He started in August and has been spending 20-25 hours a week working on it. He makes time to spend about 30 minutes each weeknight with me, and usually does Carter's bedtime routine in order to get father/son time. Weekends are not much more relaxing these days, though they generally allow Jack to get more than five hours of sleep at night. Despite a never-ending housing slump and further layoffs at work, Jack's job has been spared so far.

I have been back to work for almost two weeks. I find that I have no desire to be here. Some women say they need the adult interaction, the professional validation for personal fulfillment . . . I know now that I don't. If Carter's transition to daycare has been hard on him, it's been at least that hard on me. I spend most of the day trying not to cry, and from time to time I fail at my efforts to hold it back. As for my recovery from having Carter, most people say they can't tell I've had a baby (though I've been hearing that for two months now). It's flattering. My belly is not as tight as it was a year ago; I still have stretch marks like only a parent can imagine; and my varicose veins haven't disappeared yet. Actually, the mark on my wrist where my IV port was placed for delivery, is still just barely visible. I try to run once a week to keep my body in shape, but since returning to work, Saturday is the only day I find time (and energy). However, the exertion of nursing Carter has helped my metabolism and I'm only carrying two pounds more than when I got pregnant.

Last but not least, Marley. Marley has grown up so much in the last few months! Jack says we almost can't call him a "puppy" anymore. He yearns for attention from Jack and me, and he awaits the day when Carter will play with him. But he has calmed so much. Before Carter was born, Marley was quarantined to his room overnight, while we were at work, and any time we'd be gone more than a few hours. For an assortment of reasons, he now spends very little time in his room. He sleeps in the foyer most nights, and does Lord-knows-what around the house while we're at work. He sometimes barks when we go to bed, alerting us to noises outside that we can't hear--I just come out on the balcony, look at him in the foyer, and explain very calmly that it's time for everyone to sleep. I swear he understands, because he actually stops! He's not perfect, but he's pretty darn close.

Our little family has been so very blessed and they just couldn't make me any happier.

Mommy Guilt

I think it's safe to say I'm experiencing full-blown working-mom guilt. It didn't hit until I took Carter to daycare. I left him with Jack and Nana last week, and didn't feel guilty for it; I knew he needed that quality time with family. But with him at daycare, now I feel it. On Monday (Daycare Day 1), I went to Target at lunch. Granted, I go to Target during lunch about once a week. But on this trip, I picked up a play tray for Carter's Bumbo seat, a toy to suction to the tray, pajamas and socks for Carter, more nipples for his bottles, and a box of tissues. Carter can barely sit in his Bumbo seat for five minutes, and he isn't quite able to "play" with toys yet (though he was intrigued by the site of it). He doesn't need pajamas right now, though we will be able to use them in a couple months. We will need socks as the weather turns cooler (seeing as his feet don't fit any of the 0-6 month socks we own). And the nipples will take a small burden off my nightly cleaning routine. I can say the tissues are in anticipation of the cold I expect to come down with this month, as we're exposed to daycare germs. But let's face it: it was really to blot away the tears before they fell for the 20-30 times during the day that I tried to hide the fact that I was ready to cry.

Daycare Day 2 is going a little better. I've made it to lunchtime and haven't teared up yet. I have been watching his classroom a lot on the webcam, and he looks a little more at ease from what I can see. I also made it to the office almost 10 minutes early this morning, so I think I will wait a little longer tomorrow morning. It might be only five minutes, but I'd rather spend that time at home with my boys, than at my desk. Work can wait.

We're keeping our eyes open for signs of teeth right now. Around Labor Day, Carter started transitioned from not drooling at all, to supplying Niagara Falls with its daily water supply (not really--but he's suddenly drooling quite a bit). He also is chowing down on his hands like there's no tomorrow--whether he's hungry or not. His bottom gums look like they might be more pale in the center, so we might be in for the real deal. Go figure: as soon as we get a routine, we can expect to be thrown off-course by the teething stage.

Daycare

We started daycare this morning. Carter was a little off this morning; he didn't eat much at his 6:30 feeding. So I was a little concerned we'd be getting off to a rocky start. (He did, however, sleep from 8 pm until almost 6 am without waking--which is why he was so irritated when I made him wait until 6:30 to eat.) We left the house at 7:05 and I took my time getting him settled when we arrived (I had to give and receive instructions, deliver his mobile and supplies, etc). I left at 7:30 and made it to my desk by 8:00--I was pleasantly surprised by that timing, so maybe once we settle into a drop-off routine, Carter can wait until 7 to take his morning feeding (that is, until I have to start being at work at 7--so only for the next few weeks).

Carter's daycare has a webcam in all the rooms, so I am able to check in on him while I'm at work. Some areas of his classroom are much more visible than others, so I was a little concerned that I wouldn't even be able to pick him out on the camera. Luckily his crib is front and center on the camera--I am very thankful for that. And the teacher fed him his morning bottle in the glider closest to the camera, so I could see him fighting his feeding. Yes, fighting it. Because he was still tired; he normally would nap from 8 or so until somewhere between 9:30 and 10. But he was fidgeting in his crib (and crying, I assume), so they got him out and fed him early (when I peeked in at 9:15, she was settling in to start feeding him). Hopefully it will get better and we can get back on schedule before too long. When I picked him up, the teachers said he did really well. They spent a lot of time yesterday holding and entertaining him, from what I saw online. He was worn out when he got home and took a good nap while we had dinner. His bedtime feeding came 1/2 hour late as a result, but he did fine with it--and slept nine hours before waking for a snack (then back to bed until I woke him at 6:30).

Sleepovers and Birthdays

Carter had his first sleepover Saturday night. Jack and I dropped him off with Nana and Papa Jack so we could go to a wedding in the evening. From the sounds of it, he did very well. He seems to be a little alarm clock, staying right on schedule where ever he goes. He slept eight hours for them before he woke for a little snack, and then went right back to sleep until his wakeup time. He's eating more than I'd expected. After this week, I prepped about 7 oz. for his bedtime feeding and 6 oz. for his wakeup feeding. He finished the 7-oz. bottle and nearly finished the 6-oz one in the morning.
Sunday after we left Nana and Papa Jack's, we visited Grandma and Grandpa for Grandpa's birthday. So all the grandparents got to see him on their first Grandparents' Day. He wore some grandpa spiritwear for the occasion (in case you can't read it, his outfit says "Grandpa's little sidekick".

Anniversary

Today Jack and I are celebrating our four-year wedding anniversary. We're keeping it pretty low-key, mostly because of Carter. We had weddings to attend last weekend and this weekend, so our annual nice dinner out will have to wait (although we will have one in a couple weeks when we have a date night to see Les Mis at the Fox Theatre). We are sitting for our first family portrait tonight, though. That timing was kind of a coincidence; it was the only date remaining for the church directory portrait sessions.

Today also is Carter's first day not being with either Jack or me (he's been away from us for only a few hours at a time). I dropped him off at Nana's house this morning. It took 20 minutes to get there, and he stayed awake for about 17 minutes of it. The vibration finally put him to sleep, but he woke shortly after we got inside Nana's house (which was good, since it was still 30 minutes before naptime). He's done pretty well with feeding and sleeping the last two days. As long as he sleeps well, he will eat well. And as long as he eats well, he should be pretty happy for her.

I had a new experience this morning when I went to Carter's room at 4:30 (this was an early-morning wake-up; we don't get up at 4:30 every day). He had pivoted his body 180° (and then some) inside his crib, knocking his pacifier out and under the crib as he did so. When I came in, he was facing the opposite direction as when I'd put him to bed, and he was squished up against the side. He's an active little sleeper . . .

The transition to supplying his milk while I'm at work has been going fine. I'm able to pump before I go to bed and twice while I'm at the office, and I'm nursing him for his first and last feedings of the day. He's taking about 15 ounces in bottles and I'm pumping about 25. I'm thawing some "older" previously frozen milk each day, and freezing the amount I thawed plus my 10-ounce surplus, so we're continuing to build our reserve. If I had to, I think I could feed him entirely on our milk reserves for two or three weeks. We have more breastmilk in our freezers (in the kitchen and the deep-freezer in the basement) than we have water in our refrigerator (and that's a lot).

Back to Work

Well, I went back to work yesterday. I was about 10 minutes late getting out the door, but I think that's pretty good for the first day. I think it also will happen most days for the next couple weeks. I'll try to leave in enough time, but it's hard to know how long Carter will feed, how long Marley will take outside, etc. We just have to find a rhythm again.

It was very hard to leave Carter. The thought of it absolutely broke my heart. I teared up only once or twice, though. It seems the thought of being away from Carter is a little harder to bear than the reality of it. I can't tell you how much it helped that I was leaving him with Jack, though. If I couldn't be with the little man during the day, at least he could still be home and have his daddy with him. They even came to have lunch with me! Jack is home again today, so they'll get some more father-son bonding time. Tomorrow we make another baby step by taking him to Nana's on my way to work.

I was surprised how tired I was by the time Carter went to bed. I got up at 5:30 a.m. to get us both ready (I didn't know how nice I had it when I woke at 5:30 to give myself time for a morning run), didn't even get a workout, and I was exhausted (falling asleep on the couch) at 9 p.m. My morning run didn't happen today, either; knowing how tired I was last night, I thought getting up at 5 a.m. would not help things. So I think it's going to be a no-run week. Tomorrow I'll have to get everything ready to take Carter with me in the morning; we'll do a similar routine Monday when we take all our daycare supplies. So we'll just see how this goes. Once I get used to getting him out the door, then maybe I can get myself up a little earlier in the morning. (Of course, by that time, we'll probably be on to the compressed work week, and I'll have to get up at 4:30 if I'm not running.)

Road Trip

Carter made his first road trip over Labor Day weekend. We traveled to Pennsylvania for my cousin Marci's wedding on Saturday. Until Friday, the longest he'd been in the car in a single stretch was about an hour. We drove eight hours on Friday (which mean 10 hours of traveling, with stops) and the remaining four hours (five with stops) on Saturday. We had time to eat, shower and recollect our thoughts before it was time to head out to the church. Carter partied the night away, staying out until about 9:30--way past his bed time. :) He met lots of people, though, and slept well that night. Which was good, since we got him up at 6:30 to begin the 12-hour drive (14.5 hours with stops) home. He did pretty well Friday and Saturday, but did very well Sunday. He didn't eat much on the drive north (I was pumping and giving bottles in the back seat so we wouldn't have to make hour-long stops), but ate just fine on the drive south. Of course, he likes to dirty a diaper only within the first 30 minutes of it having been changed--so we sometimes were back on the road for less than an hour before we had a dirty, screaming Carter. So it goes . . .

We may have been 700 miles away, but Carter suited up for gameday! He matched Jack and me in our UGA gameday gear.

Jack and I wish we'd had more down time on the trip, but work schedules just didn't allow for it. Hopefully next time it won't be so rushed. But for now, it's time for me to mentally prepare for my return to work.