Ellyson

For those who missed it on Facebook, Ellyson decided to make an early entrance. I'll write a separate 39-week, final pregnancy post and a birth story post. But for now, I'll at least announce her arrival.

Ellyson Hazel Dillard
2/26/11
8:25 a.m.
7 lb, 14 oz
21 in

We are doing great, and were discharged today.

Our Budding Photographer

Carter has really developed an interest in taking pictures lately. And since we replaced our digital camera during the holidays, we have a secondary, older digital camera, which isn't reliable in taking pictures. (We replaced it because the flash sensor repeatedly malfunctioned, causing the camera to not take photos.) So it still works, but is hit-or-miss. Making the decision to choose our battles, we've pretty much allowed Carter to take over the old camera, so that he would stop trying to play with the good one. We figure if it's not reliable for us to use anyway, we wouldn't be devestated if something happens to it. So Carter's been capturing life through his eyes, using this camera. Here are some of the things he has photographed.

Baby Ellyson

(nope, not a badly cropped picture of me, but instead a centered photo of Ellyson)

Marley

His Cars toys

His Cars movie

"Baby Lion"

His dinner

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Jack turned 30 today! We celebrated the big day in a big way - we took our families and a few close friends to Maggiano's for a family-style Italian dinner. Carter was a little restless - but overall, did pretty well with sitting through a meal for an hour and a half. He kept his eye on the prize, though: singing "Happy Birthday" to his Daddy. He thought it was so much fun!

Jack was relieved to make it through the meal without an entrance from Ellyson. He'd been looking forward to that dinner for weeks - nay, months - and was so afraid it would have to be put on hold. I was excited to come home with enough leftovers for more than seven meals: the leftover salmon went into the trash (we weren't confident how fresh it would be by the time we got home), a few leftovers went to Nana and Papa Jack, one tray of pasta went into the freezer, and the others fed us for breakfast and lunch, for three days after the party.

As a last-minute treat, Nana and Papa Jack also took Carter for a sleepover after the party. It gave us a chance to catch up after-dinner with some friends who live in Savannah. And then it allowed us to get some rest. Granted, Carter was so tired that he slept through the night at their house . . . but we just know if he'd been home, he would not have let us sleep.

Today, the celebration was a little more low-key. Jack had already "received" (aka picked out) and actually, used his birthday presents from me: a set of golf clubs, a pair of golf shoes and - his gift to himself - golf lessons. (Golf is playing a big role in his new job.) But he did get a few gifts from the kids, which Carter helped him open at breakfast . . . and we enjoyed some "ice cream cone" cupcakes.

10 Days

10 days to go and I am totally wearing a non-maternity dress today. Makes up a little bit, for how tired my whole body feels. Oh, and Carter slept through the night last night. Hopefully it wasn't a once-and-done thing. Even if I am waking 3-4 times during the night anyway. Not just for potty breaks, but because I have to sleep sitting up. Otherwise the reflux is terrible.

Big Brother in Training

Carter's been working on his big brother skills. I've pulled out the infant equipment - swing, bouncer, tummy time mat - and Carter has been testing it with himself and his bedtime pals.

The first time he climbed into the swing, it was cute and funny. But he keeps doing it, and it's getting old. He is way too heavy to be in it . . .

But sometimes he puts his pals in there, and turns it on. He even sometimes reads them books while they're swinging.

One time, Mr. Creativity told us he was going to get Ellyson. He walked upstairs to her crib, and came down with his hands cupped, as if he were holding something small. He told us "see? I got Ellyson!" And then he placed "her" in the swing, pulled up a stool next to "her" and read his favorite books to "her" while "she" rocked.

Valentine's Day

Oops, almost a week after the fact . . . oh well.

Carter decorated valentines for our immediate families. He got a little sticker-happy. He also helped me decide which of his classmates would get which Cars valentines.

And then on Valentine's Day, we made chocolate chip muffins for Daddy.

Word of the Week: Helpin'

If my posting has been lax lately, it's probably a result of my last topic: we're all tired around here. Carter is only sleeping through the night about once a week, which means extra nighttime wakeups - on top of a new, 6 a.m. wakeup call. (He's been 7:30-ish ever since I started working from home full-time.)

But there have been lots of things I've wanted to post, and I hope to get around to them.

For now, I will leave you with this: he is quite the daddy's-little-helper.

Sleep Deprived

We're all a little sleep-deprived around here lately. And funny enough, it has nothing to do with the yet-unborn newest member of our family. Nope, instead, it's her big brother. He's been waking through the night, waking early, skipping naps and just plain wearing us out. By the time he goes to bed at night, I can barely hold my eyes open.

Factors:

• He learned about two weeks ago, how to open our doors with the doorknob covers on them. As I mentioned at that time, we decided to change some of the covers to a different style and see if that would buy us any time. It worked for two weeks. This week, he figured out how to remove the new ones. So we no longer can contain him in his room. (We can lock his bathroom door from the other side, but since his bedroom locks from inside his room, we can't physically lock him in. Plus, we're a little uncomfortable with that scenario anyway.)
• He's getting up throughout the night to use the potty. And how can we discourage him from doing that? He walks a fine line, though. He uses the potty, and then he can't get his pants back on (a skill we're still trying). So he hobbles to our door, pants around his ankles, and yells for us to help him. Once back in bed, he sometimes waits a mere five minutes before forcing himself to pee again, and repeating the process. The first time, he has to go - after that, it's a game.
• He usually takes a potty break around 5 a.m. and for several days, we couldn't get him to go back to sleep after that. So our days started (on the wrong foot) at 5 - no chance of working out, showering or logging in for work before Carter got up.
• To top it all off, after waking every 3-4 hours during the night and getting up for good around 5-5:30, he decided that 20 minutes was an adequate nap. He was tired all day, but just refused to sleep.

After five or six days of this cycle, it finally started to catch up to him. Friday night, we bribed him to stay in his room until the sun woke up. It worked. And as a reward, he got a donut for breakfast. He called out for help at 1 a.m. when he'd peed in his potty. But he stayed in his room. Saturday night, we bribed him again - and again he stayed in his room all night, waking shortly before 6 to use the bathroom.

A friend of mine said her dog mysteriously started waking her every few hours during the night, right before their daughter was born. I wonder if there's an instinct in Carter that is compelling him to prepare me for this cycle again?

Why I Don't Need a Gym Membership

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that we invested in a row machine before Christmas. Well, last week we also sprung for a spin-style cycle. Add that to the with-me-through-thick-and-thin treadmill, the free weights and the enormous weight set, and we're pretty well supplied at home. No gym memberships for this family. Although, we probably could start selling some . . .

Please excuse the cobwebs across the frame. I was trying to get an angle that would actually show the bike, but since it's so narrow, this is the only angle that worked - and I realized after the photo snapped, that there are giant spiderwebs right there. Oh well.

Wordless Wednesday

Driving the Train

Carter likes to line up his pals and other toys, on the stairs, and pretend he's the conductor on their train (or sometimes bus). Here they are one day. Notice Jessie has her coffee ready for the morning commute.

 



Word of the Week: Cars

Sorry, this word of the week, is belated. The hot new thing in the world of Carter, is the movie Cars. For the last three weeks, we have watched the movie almost every single day. It's his new favorite. He knows all the characters, and knows the storyline by heart. He also has most of the characters in die-cast scale models.

We've already invested in Mater's Tall Tales in order to have some variety in storyline. And we're looking forward to the sequel coming out later this year. It might - just might - be Carter's first full-length, in-theater movie.

36 Weeks

36 Weeks

Weeks: 36

Weight change: +25

Exercise: Still a 10:00 pace. now my workouts are on a four-day rotation of: run (2 miles running + .5 miles walking); row machine; run; day off . . . repeat. 

Notes (that I can speak of!):

• Slow digestion. Sometimes heartburn, sometimes severe. Instead of the sporadic heartburn of four weeks ago, it's more "always there" - I had one episode that lasted a full three days. It's caused me, within the last week, to have to prop myself semi-upright when I sleep. And if I slip from my elevated position, I end up popping Tums at my middle-of-the-night bathroom run.
• She still isn't bothering my ribs much, though finally there is some kicking beside them. Instead, she lies on my bladder and tailbone. Continuing to use the bathroom every 30-60 minutes (and 2-3 times overnight). Sometimes I can barely walk because of the pain on my tail. But given the choice? I'll take this over the rib compression any day.
• Had my first full-term checkup yesterday. The midwife is almost 100% confident that Ellyson is head-down, but couldn't confirm without a shadow of a doubt. So next week we have to verify. I'm pretty sure she is, though, because within the last week I've suddently felt little feet in front of my rib cage.

Baby Pool

Jack talked me into it - time for the baby pool!


If you'd like to enter a friendly competition, visit our page and enter your best guess.

To access "Baby Pool for Christina and Jack", point your web browser to: http://bebepool.com/cdillard

Overnight Update

I promised an update, and here it is.

Carter is still rocking the overnight potty training. (Is it even really considered "potty training", or more of "keeping it dry"?) The first three nights, he wore a Pull-up. But he's been sleeping in underwear since then. It has been 13 nights now, and he has had two accidents. And they weren't horrible - he still got out of bed and used the potty; he just hadn't been able to hold it all in during the night.

I haven't made a strong effort to change anything in his nighttime routine - meaning cutting out fluids or anything like that. I try not to give him sugar after bedtime (though one night he had a cupcake - or a few bites of one, anyway) and he still did fine. And I try not to give him juice beginning at dinner time. Those really are the only changes I've made in an attempt to prevent accidents.

We are using the reward system to keep encouraging him, and here's the list of rewards he has been getting, for keeping it dry overnight.

• Brownies. Specifically, Entenmann's Little Bites brownies. These are the primary motivation.
• Cars. He has been collecting the die-cast cars from the Disney movie Cars, since Christmas. On a couple of mornings, he has received a new one as an added surprise for keeping it dry.
• Pals. As in, his bedtime pals. He sleeps with 12 or 13 stuffed characters every night. Well, when we went to underwear, we took it down to two: Simba (because we can't keep him from Simba) and Elmo (because we have two spares) - plus Sleep Sheep, which stayed at the top of his pillow anyway. After the first couple morninga of keeping it dry, we started allowing him to add one more pal of his choice, back into bed with him. We're back up to nine nighttime pals. But for a while, he was choosing his next pal in the evening, and when he woke up dry, he ran straight to it and brought it to his bed.
• Donuts. One morning, he and I had a donut breakfast to celebrate. That was the end of the first week.
• The zoo. We were planning to go anyway, but since we sprung it on him as a surprise, we told him it was a reward for keeping it dry. :) And that boy loves the zoo!

He wants very badly to keep it dry, and is devestated if he wakes up and finds he had an accident. So for us, and for now, the rewards seem to be all he needs - the rest is self-motivated. Hopefully it keeps up. :)