Gnawing on actual apple cores

Eating meat (sorta)


Getting up on all fours and rocking (no actual crawling yet!)


Playing in the leaves


And two teeth :) (if you look closely enough)

Phew! No wonder he's cranky...

Dear world,
Something's gotta give. Is it really too much to ask for gainful employment for my husband so he doesn't have to teach evening classes, 7.5 hour days so I don't have to login for 2 hours after chasing kids by myself and 2 days in a weekend so I have some chance of recuperation before starting the mess all over again?

Nope?

Didn't think so :(

I'm too lazy to morph this into a coherent post :)

• Eli's little smile when he just falls asleep... like he's had a hard day and the sleep is well won.


• Alex's current obsession with the American flag. He noticed that Nana and Mommy both have the same flag flying at their houses. Now we can't go anywhere without him pointing out every "Gamerican" flag along the route! In an attempt to distract him during one trip, Nana pointed out a church with stained glass windows portraying saints. "Yes," Alex replied, "But they're called 'Gamerican Idols'" "Or saints," I replied. "No, Mama, actually Gamerican idols," complete with the knowing look and nod of the head.


• Alex eats a "samwajick" for lunch.

And don't you wish you could remember when running through a sprinkler even when it's really too cold to do brings so much glee that your world is about perfect? And that a vibrant rainbow against the rainclouds brings it to completely perfect? Wish I'd brought the Flip to the spray and play last night... didn't even manage the cell phone camera.

This is from our daily note of what the kids at Alex's daycare did today:

"Today we started our new unit on The Ocean. We talked about how if you look at a globe that you would see mostly blue representing water. We discussed what the 5 names of the ocean which are: The Atlantic, The Pacific, The Indian,Artic and Antarctica"

Two whole months my little Eli has been bringing joy to our lives. What a two months it's been. In the past month, Eli has been baptised and made his first road trip to see Nana and Poppy in Ohio. He met his great-grandmother, my uncle and his aunt. He's such a happy little guy. He smiles at everyone and spent an evening flirting with girls in a restaurant. But he still loves his mommy the best of all. Eli has made great strides in the last week or two in holding his head up. He loves to push himself back on his arms when he's propped up on someone's shoulder, but would smash his little face against that shoulder when his neck muscles got tired or he'd try to occupy the same head space, causing pain for all parties involved. Now the face smashing occurs much less frequently.

He still hasn't outgrown the colic, but thankfully he no longer seems to vomit once a day. If I keep up on a once a day dose of Mylocin drops and don't let him get too unhappy too often, the amount of spew he ejects from his body is significantly less copious. This is good :)

Eli likes to lie on the floor kicking his legs and waving his hands. That usually results in cute little cooing noises interspersed with panting from the exertion. Then when he's done, he'll just fall asleep. Unlike Alex, nursing is not an automatic sleep inducer, which I find a little puzzling and frustrating at times. But above all else, he loves to sit in his swing and watch his fishy mobile go round. Sometimes he gets so fussy that nothing else will pacify him and as soon as those fish start "swimming" he goes right back to cooing away.

I love the way his whole face scrinches up when he smiles.
I love that sneezing is a whole body affair
I love the little lip quiver that he still hasn't grown out of when he gets So Mad
I love the softness of his baby hair when I kiss him behind his ear (which I do frequently!)
I love that when he stretches he curls his legs into his tummy instead of stretching them straight
I love the wonderful baby smell after he's been freshly bathed
I love the way he's captured the hearts of everyone around him ("He smiled at me! He's soooo cute, Mama")

I love you my little boy, and I can't remember my life without you.

(pictures soon)

The Indians are playing at Wrigley Field in June. Wonder about the logistics and cost of attending that game...

Why do they pay the people from MSNBC? And why do I continue to read them? Today's Kentucky Derby Headline:

Want a winner?
Colt could do it

Now the article does have a longer headline of "

Bet on Pioneerof the Nile to win the Derby

" but the one on their home page is way more amusing since only colts are in the main race, so wouldn't a colt have to win it?

Eli had his one month well baby appointment today. He's 12 lbs 6oz! (that's a 3 lb gain in 4 weeks...) He's also grown an inch to be 23 inches. The doctor said he's a week or two away from a social smile and he could flip himself over at anypoint. He's working really hard at it. She loves his double chin.

We also got an earful about swine flu. And I do mean an earful. She does have an opinion, and it's all negative about the media. She thinks there's so many other diseases killing more children which should be getting more press than this. So, this household will continue in our usual vigilant, non-panicked state per doctor's orders.

And just so you can compare, I dressed Eli in his coming home outfit yesterday.

Here's Eli at 4 days:



Here's Eli at 5 weeks:



And a picture of Alex for good measure :)

‘Lost’ actor faces sexual harrassment claim

Henry Ian Cusick is accused of folding a woman’s buttock and breasts

Ouch! I'd hate to have my breasts folded!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30423053/

I went to Babies R Expensive yesterday and bought an Amy Coe sling. I wore it to the park today, snuggling Eli close. He fell asleep and I was able to wander around after Alex without my arms falling asleep.

Conclusion:
Slings Rock

And this one lets baby ride positioned in three ways! Rock on!

Eli is already 4 weeks old, I can't believe it! He's such a chunk-a-munk I want to spend all the rest of my days staring at his cute little chubby cheeks :)

He's been the perfect baby. He rarely cries and usually will quiet down as soon as steps are made to relieve the discomfort. He hates sitting in a dirty diaper, but isn't fond of the changing process. He eats for 10 minutes, then sleeps for 3 hours! Lots of time for Mommy napping :) We snuggle together with Eli curled on my chest and nap nearly every afternoon (God bless Peter for taking Alex Away for a little bit).

Eli is a champion nurser, but it cracks me up that he closes one eye, opens his mouth wide and promptly turns his head away everytime he wants to eat. He looks like a little pirate and then gets frustrated he isn't getting what he wants. When he finally figures out which way the food is, he slurps. Loudly. Then he farts. I swear the child only releases gas while he's attached to my breast and the resulting cacophony between the slurps and the gas is pretty funny. Peter's convinced that he brings on the hiccups, which are usually pretty violent with Eli's entire body shaking and a petrified look on his face.

I'm amazed at things he's already able to do. Eli's pretty good with his head control. I think it's so that he can scream at me louder during tummy time instead of being muffled by the floor. He also tracks a little better than he should. I think it primarily has to do with being able to keep track of Big Brother. Eli seems just as fascinated with Alex as Alex is with Eli and will twist his neck to follow Alex's progress around the room. In an ironic twist, Alex thinks Eli is too loud!

In his four short weeks he's done so many things:

• He celebrated his first holiday, Easter
  
• He was a participant in his bris
  
• He technically slept through the night
  
• He's more than gained back his birth weight (by the end of 10 days!)
  
• He had his first bout with Pink Eye
  
• He had his first real bath. Although bathtime goes much more smoothly when Alex helps (you'd think it wouldn't...)
  

Now without further ado, here are the pictures
( Cuteness under here )

Scene: Alex sticks my fork in my glass of water causing him to go sit on the stairs (this is a repeated transgression)

Peter: Do you know why you're sitting on the stairs?
Alex: Because I stuck Mommy's fork in her glass of water
Peter: Are you supposed to do that?
Alex: No
Peter: Why did you?
Alex: Because I want to eat my bread.
Peter: How does sticking Mommy's fork in her water help you eat your bread?
Alex: I don't know. That doesn't make sense.

Someone in the medical profession once defined sleeping through the night as 5 consecutive hours generally between midnight and 5.

So, I think 11:30 to 4:45 is close enough :)

Eli first slept through the night at 4 weeks. I love sleepy kids!

Since Eli's going to be 2 weeks old tomorrow, I suppose I should make my post here :) This is fairly long and detailed partly because the post is for my journaling edification as well. There's pictures, but feel free to skim or skip :)

( Cut for length )

...just no time to write it! Anyone who said that having the second is just as easy as the first is lying through their teeth. (and there were actually people who said that to me...)

So I bought the baby's baby book yesterday. I'm going to try a little harder to keep up with it this time unlike Alex's. Two pages are devoted to about your world. So... what should I put in?

Here are the topics in order of the ones I need most input with to the ones I need less input with:

Fashion Trends
Actors & Actresses
Sports Figures
Toy Fad
Musical Groups
Best-selling books
TV Shows
Hit Songs

I know it can just be my perspective, but in a few of these I have a fairly narrow one, so I thought I'd see what other people think is the most popular.

So this time next week I will definitely be a mommy of two!

I had a marathon doctor's appointment today. Ten minutes after my appointment time, the nurse called me back for vitals. Then sent me back to the waiting room.

Then was the ultrasound. Baby's growing fine, everything looks normal. There were no OMG He's HUUUUGE comments today, so that's a plus, right? She took a picture of his foot for me, but the doc didn't hand it over.

Then was the Non-stress test, but the room with the fetal monitors was being used. So back to the waiting room for me... 20 minutes later, they hooked me up. For 40 minutes! This little guy does not like the fetal monitors and started jumping all over the place! I'm having contractions, just like I have for 3 weeks. I'm still not dilated or effaced. So here I sit.

Good news is that there's that c-section scheduled for Monday. It was a little weird to walk out of the office still pregnant and not have an appointment card in hand. It's even weirder still to have my little boy's birthday marked on the calendar without actually having a little boy in my arms. So we'll be headed to the hospital in 6 days...

Can't wait!!

We noticed yesterday that Alex has outgrown his tricycle. Time to put it aside for Player 4's future use. So we went today to look and see what's on the market for small people bicycles and try to figure out what size we need. Somehow we both managed to delude ourselves into thinking that we could actually leave without a bicycle... Both of us quickly came to the realization that it wasn't worth having the fight about an item we were going to purchase him anyway, although it probably would not have been that exact one and we probably would have shopped around to save $20. On the plus side, this one has no character branding (woo hoo!).

( Hell on Wheels, part the first )

I called the doctor yesterday about the baby dropping and the VBAC/C-Section thing. I essentially wanted a 5 minute conversation. When I explained the situation to the receptionist, she called the doctor who decided that I needed to go in and be hooked up to a fetal monitor. So I headed to the doctor's office and did just that. Baby's heartbeat looked good, I was having contractions, but they weren't causing me anything more than mild discomfort. However, since I'm only 36 weeks, she wanted me to head to the hospital for a couple hours of monitoring. Just in case. We had the VBAC/C-Section discussion.

So Peter heads off to pick up Alex and drop him off with Miss Melissa (who is the greatest person in the planet right now in my mind) for the next few hours. I head home to grab my book and then go to the hospital. They check me in and hook me up to the monitors. Everything looks good. They keep asking how far apart I've been having contractions, but since I haven't really felt them, I can't give them that information. So whatever. 5:15 and things are going swell. They check my cervix and it's still closed. Two hours, we'll be out of there around 7:30/8:00, plenty of time to grab McD's and get Alex to bed. Great.

7:30 comes and goes. They check my cervix again, no change. That's not particularly shocking since I'm still not really feeling the contractions. But they've started to notice that baby's heartrate occassionally drops from 120-130 to 60-70 bpm. Not often and not for long. They switch out the fetal monitors to make sure it's not hardware, but it's still happening. So they call back the dcotor. She wants me to stay 2 more hours. They'll do an ultrasound and then they'll let me go. So we wait. And the ultrasound tech doesn't come. And two hours go by (American Idol, btw, without Tivo is excruciating to watch). And the ultrasound tech still doesn't come.

Finally the ultrasound tech shows up and she confirms the arrhythmia on the screen. She has the attending for the night come by, he also confirms the arrhythmia. They call back my doctor and the decision is made to keep me for the night so I can see the peri-natalogist in the morning and have a level 2 ultrasound to find out the cause for the arrhythmia. Then they'll determine if they discharge me or send me for a c-section.

Now the good news is this: apparently fetal arrhythmias are not uncommon and 98-99% of them resolve themselves shortly after birth. The problem is if this is that other 2 percent. I had the distinct impression that if I were at 37 weeks, they would have just sent me to the OR for the c-section. But I'm still technically preterm by a few days. Great. Peter calls Melissa. Alex is sacked out on her fouton, she doesn't think we should move him. Peter drives home to provide Melissa a change of clothes for Alex, she'll drop him off at daycare, and grab the hospital bag for me. The perinatalogist should be there between 6 and 8 this morning. I'm given the opportunity to eat a turkey sandwich before midnight because of the potential c-section in the morning. I scarf the sandwich and we both have a crappy night's sleep.

The perinatalogist wasn't there beetween 6 and 8. He wasn't there by 9. At 10, the nurse comes in and tells me it will be soon and I can have ice chips. He finally shows up at about 10:15. He tells me the baby's heartrate seems to have stabilized overnight, they aren't seeing nearly the same number of occurrences of the arrhythmia as they were overnight. He still wants to do the ultrasound. It gets scheduled for noon-ish. He thinks they'll do the ultrasound and I'll be discharged shortly. So I'm cleared for lunch. YAY! (warm turkey sandwich, mashed potatoes, carrots, minestrone soup and vanilla pudding. And best of all... a glass of water).

At noon they wheel me over for a 45 minute ultrasound. The baby is very big. He's measuring at 8 lbs now, although my BIL (the OB) tells us there's a 20% margin of error. The perinatalogist spends 15-20 solid minutes just looking at the baby's heart and heartrate. He sees no trace of the arrhythmia. He thinks that it perhaps was a coincidence that I was checked into the hospital on a night it was occurring and that it's more of a fluke than anything. He recommends either doing an amnio to see if the baby's lungs are ready to go in and get him now or wait a couple weeks and just schedule the c-section. Me and needles? Not a good combo. I decline the amnio.

So where we stand now is:

I'm home (YAY!) very tired, fairly hungry and with a sore rear end from a solid day spent in a hospital bed
I have an appointment on the 9th and 16th for a Non-Stress Test to make sure Baby's still looking okay
I have a scheduled c-section on March 23 at 1:30.
No caffeinated beverages and no chocolate (!) for the duration of the pregnancy.

Now I'm going to go pick up my other son and give him a big gigantic hug.

Thanks to everyone for their well wishes!