Growing Boy

Seven had his 2 month check up today and was a champ. He was all smiles for the nurse and was getting a bit bored with the whole thing by the time the doctor came in but still found a smile for her. He is now 10 pounds, 12 ounces and 22 inches long. He is still on the small side, but staying on his growth curve. And then came his first round of shots. We waited quite a long time for the nurse to come back in and he was fussy already when she arrived. He was hungry and sucked down the oral vaccine they had. I held his hands and talked to him through the shots but he cried hard. It was so hard to see him so upset. But then I nursed him and he quieted down pretty quickly. Eventually he fell asleep and has been sleeping for the past hour. Hopefully the rest of the day goes well!

Beautiful weekend

The weather was just about perfect this weekend and we took full advantage of it. After breakfast out on our new patio, we went for a hike. Well, "hike" might be a glorified term for what we did, but it was a nice walk through wooded area. I carried Seven in our front carrier. We faced him forward for the first time and he really enjoyed looking at all the new trees and birds we saw.

Today we had not one, but two, picnics. The first was hosted by our agency with all their current and prospective adoptive families. It was a lot of fun and everyone loved meeting Seven. There was one other couple from our group training there who has a child already and it was great to hear about their story. We hope to set up some playdates soon.

Then we went to our parish picnic. That was another fun time, especially because just this morning in church, Seven was fussy and I had gone to the back to calm him down and he fell asleep. Since this was during communion, I was the last person to go and had a sleeping baby in my arms. Everyone at the picnic kept saying how adorable he was sleeping.

What a perfect weekend!

Sleeping update

Seven's sleeping has continued to go relatively well, although not always consistent. At least he does well enough, and E and I have a system, so that we don't feel too sleep deprived. Basically, we trade off who is responsible for getting up with Seven during the night. One night, I will get up the first time he wakes up and E will get up the second time. So if Seven sleeps all night or only gets up once, one of us could get a full night's sleep.

The problem with that plan is that I am a horrible mother. OK, not really, but I am a heavy sleeper. And it makes me feel horrible that even when I am responsible for getting up with Seven, E has to wake me up when he cries. Yes, I am probably the only mother in the world that sleeps right through her baby crying.

So now I'm trying to put a positive spin on my lack of maternal instincts. Last night, for example, it allowed us to realize that Seven has started putting himself back to sleep. It was my turn to get up with Seven's first waking. E pokes me at about 1:30 saying he his crying. I try to listen to the monitor and don't hear anything. E insists he was crying. I heard a couple of murmurs and waited to see if would lead something more. And it didn't. I went to check on him and he was sleeping. He didn't need attention until after 4am (which was 7 hours of sleep)!

Mobile

Every day, Seven is seeming less like a newborn and more like an infant. He sits up really well when we prop him. He's noticed his hands and control them pretty well. He hardly ever has that reflexive shake he used to have. Now, Seven is starting to get mobile! The first thing I noticed was that he turns himself like a clock while sleeping. I have no idea how that happens, but I might put him down all swaddled up with his head pointing north and find his head pointing south when I check on him later. Next I noticed him scooting himself down while on his back. If I put him on his back in the center of his playmat, he will slowly scoot down so his legs are off the mat. This is big news as it means he can scoot himself off something and fall if we don't watch him.

E insists he is rolling over to his side. I'm not so convinced as all of these instances have been when he is on a cushion where one of us was basically providing a downward slope due to where we were sitting. It's much easier to roll when you are heading downhill.

And now this morning, I went to check on him and he had moved from the center of his crib to right up against the side. Uh oh, now I need to start worrying about him getting stuck in the side of his crib.

Child Care Update

While I was anxiously waiting for my ILs to return with a very upset Seven the other day, I got a call that there is a place for him at the child care center at my place of work. This was great news in a bad day. This center is highly desirable, subsidized slightly by my employer, and located right next to where I work. Seriously, it takes me longer to get to my car than to where he will be.

The tricky part is that we had already secured a place for him at a Montessori school that we really liked. I checked out the employer child care today and it was quite good. I can see why most people on campus see getting a spot there as hitting the lottery. Usually the wait is almost two years. Comparing the two programs in terms of personnel and program, there are various things we liked better at each place. The Montessori school will work with cloth diapers while the other place won't. But the location and price difference really give the place near my office a major advantage.

In other news, my ILs watched Seven again today, this time staying at our house rather than going to their home. It went much better today. He ate and slept well, and was happy most of the day. Needless to say, all of us were much happier.

Transition

I did want to share what we did on Mother's Day because it was quite eventful. It started off with a bang as E sprained his ankle on the way into church. It was raining and he was trying to hurry in with Seven. He insists he did not drop him, so I'll just say he put him down very quickly. Seven was in the car seat carrier and was only one or two feet off the ground, so he was OK.

After church, we went home so he could ice his ankle for a bit and then went to Starb.ucks. We enjoyed hanging out and making him laugh. Here is a picture of mommy and Seven playing:

We then met E's parents for brunch. We had been to this place for the past few years, but it was not up to par this year. We spent a little bit of time at their house before heading home. I then took Seven to my knit and crochet group. It was a fun time because this group has heard my updates every month and it was nice to have them meet Seven.

This week has been one of transition as I started back at work. Yeah, we are rethinking how we are doing this transition. E stayed home with him on Monday and it was OK, although Seven was fussier than normal. Tuesday, Nana and Grandpa picked up Seven to watch him at their house. And it did not go so well. Seven seemed happy at first, but I think the new surroundings were making it hard for him to sleep and that made him cranky. So they brought him home at lunch time. It was hard because they were worried he was sick since he was crying so much and so I just wanted to see him and hold him and see what is going on with him. But he was fine once he got home and was able to nurse. So we are rethinking how we are going to transition him and finding ways for me to be home more than we had planned at first.

The Big Day

Mother's Day. So it's here. It seems I should be excited. At least that's what my friends and family keep saying. Your first Mother's Day is supposed to be a big one. Real meaningful. But in truth, the most I can say is that I am not dreading it. This will be the first Mother's Day in a long time where I didn't spend it in a constant protective stance.


I am not more worthy of honor today than I was 3 months ago. I don't deserve platitudes or flowers. After so many years of being cut out of this day, I've realized that it is just a day. It is nice to recognize what our mothers do/have done for us. But we don't need to pump up the day with all the pageantry and idolatry that is currently there. Last year I promised that if we should ever get the child we prayed so much for, I would spend the day teaching him about the person I want him to become. He is too young right now to participate in any service, so instead I will make a contribution to our local library to honor Seven (not me) and the imaginative and intellectually curious person I hope he will be.

Sleeping

I was a little worried that Seven's feat of sleeping through the night was just due to an overly busy weekend. But he's made great progress over this week. In the last week, he's had 3 nights with no wakings before 5am (which is sleeping through the night from my perspective, even if I would like to sleep a little longer!) and the other nights he had 6-7 hours of straight sleep. On our first night with him in his room and us in our room (which are on different floors), we kept waking up to check on him just in case the monitor was not working. It was working just fine, he just wanted to sleep. I have no idea how to tell people what we did to get here, but apparently he likes his crib in his own room way more than the pack and play in our room.

Showing off cloth diapers

OK, I have this irrational competition with my little sister. Not with my older sister, but with my younger one. I can't explain why it is. I am much closer in age to my older sister, so you would think I would be more competitive with her. I think part of it is that my younger sister and I are more similar in some ways. Anyway, I was super excited that she came out last weekend for Seven's baptism. And because I knew she did not use cloth diapers on either of her kids, I had to show off his cuteness in the diapers. So I saved my cutest diapers for the first day she was here. It was a hot day so at one point he was wearing just a onesie and a diaper. My SIL was holding him and asked why we were covering up his shorts. She thought it was cute and said we should put it outside the onesie. That's when I pointed out that that was his diaper. They were so impressed. I got out a clean one and showed it off to them. I'm not sure they were convinced to start using them, but it was fun showing them off!

The other good CDing news is that we found a daycare for Seven (I can't believe I have to go back to work next week!) and they will work with cloth diapers. His grandparents will be watching him for several days over the next few weeks, and I am not sure they are sold on the cloth diapers, but at least we won't be making a big switch to disposables for daycare.

I do have to admit that cloth diapers are addicting. I find myself always wanting to buy some cute diaper or wetbag online. I have to keep holding myself back! He is solidly in cloth diapers now, except for overnight. He did stay all night in a cloth diaper in his first time sleeping through the night because we did not expect him to go to sleep for the whole night. Two weeks ago, we were buying a bunch of stuff at BRU and E wanted to get more diapers. I was hesitant because the only package they had in his current size was a pack of 60. I knew he would not be in that size much longer, so I didn't want to buy such a big pack. So he bought a smaller pack at the grocery store the next day. But we are still only halfway through that pack. It is getting tight to use those diapers, but I don't want to waste the disposables we did buy. Now that he is ready to move up in size in disposables, I might try to keep him in cloth overnight.

Busy weekend

We've had quite a busy few days. And a lot of visitors. My sister graduated from college on Saturday. This is quite an achievement as she had to drop out many years ago to raise her kids. It was hard for her to find time (and money) to go back, and I am so proud that she did so. Most of the family came to see her graduation.

Since all this family was coming into town, E and I decided to plan Seven's baptism for this weekend. We asked my cousins to be his godparents, so my aunt and cousins also came for the weekend. So after a full day on Saturday, we all woke up early on Sunday for his baptism. It was beautiful and he did so well during mass. The baptismal outfit I made for him (with some last minute help from my grandmother) was terrific.

With the celebrations attached to these events, it was quite a full weekend. Seven got to meet so many new relatives. The cutest was finally getting Seven together with his two young cousins. As I've mentioned, both my sister and SIL had baby girls two days apart. They are about 5 weeks older than Seven. In my completely objective opinion, Seven is the cutest of the bunch (but they are all cuties!).

Here they are in matching hats I made them. It is hard to believe that the two girls on each side on Seven are only 2 days apart.

The other momentous news: Seven slept through the night! With all the family in town, we put him to sleep in the crib in his nursery for the first time as E and I slept on the floor there since we had to give up our bed to company. Technically he woke up when we transferred him from his carseat to the crib, but he went right back to sleep. If we don't include that, he slept for 9 straight hours! We were so happy. I guess all we need to do is tire him out with tons of new people.