Smorgasbord (and pictures)

• We still don't know if Seth is deploying. Still waiting anxiously. 
• I had an insanely productive weekend last weekend. All while Seth was gone on an overnight camping trip. I was proud of myself for all that I got accomplished with a baby.
• I finally got Max's birth announcements, and have them all addressed! (That was one of the many things I accomplished last weekend. Addressing stuff is a time consuming task).
• We went on an awesome hike two weekends ago in the Olympic National Forest. It was  about 3.2 miles in and the reward was a beautiful lake, with a campground, and then another 3.2 miles out. We just did the hike in an afternoon (and holy crap was I sore...but I also fell on a rock and bruised my tailbone...but I was sore because I haven't hiked 6 miles in a realllly long time...) On the hike Seth went on this weekend with some friends (it was an extension of the hike we went on the other weekend), they suggested we all go camping...with baby in tow...in two weekends. Camping with an almost 3 month old? In a tent? Where our camp site wouldn't be close enough to our car that, if in the middle of the night, I can't walk back to sleep in that? I'm intrigued by this thought and also scared of it. I haven't committed to it, but I am seriously considering it. I've been thinking of the logistics of camping...like nursing and changing Max in the middle of the night. 
• It's been a very long week, and my reward on Saturday will be an afternoon at a day spa with my sister! I can't wait! (it'll also be my first time away from Max for more than 20 minutes. 
• On Sunday, we're going to a Mariners baseball game! Should be a fun weekend!
• We might go whale watching in October. I sooooo want to do this!! 
• Next Friday will be my last work day. I'm so ready to be done, but I don't want to lose my paycheck (and the fact that I work from home so I still earn money AND I get to be with Max). Best of both worlds, really, even if that means I start working at 4 AM because my baby doesn't sleep during the day!
• Yes, you read that right, he doesn't take a full NAP. He cat naps for 30-40 minutes here and there. When I started working again after maternity leave, I decided in order for me to get my work done, I'd need to get the majority of it done while he sleeps. It's rough getting up at 4 AM but I'm done with my work by 9 AM, and that part is really  nice. Depending on what time I go to bed and how the night goes, we sometimes take a nap together in the afternoon. 
• I've really been in the mood to bake. Last week was pretty cool (and I contemplated turning on the heater, but couldn't bring myself to do that because it's only September!!) and I just want to BAKE! Pumpkin bread, a cake, chocolate zucchini bread, chocolate chip cookies...you name it, I want to bake it. 
• I got a new vacuum! I'm in love with it! It's a Hoover Windtunnel Max! MAX! For my baby! We got it on Tuesday and I had vacuumed over the weekend so I thought it was clean in here. NOPE! I filled that whole thing up. Disgusting. I would have been perfectly content not seeing how how much dog fur it picked up, but I'm glad that I did. I'm going to do a deep clean of the house this weekend. By deep clean, I mean vacuum every single room, crevice and corner. I can't wait! 

My favorite little guy ever:

Updates

Max is already a month old! Well, over a month old now. I realized I never put his birth stats on my last post. Whoops! He was 7 lbs and 4 oz and 19.25 inches long. :)

He's gaining weight like a champ; last Thursday, he weighed in at 9.47 lbs and was about 22 inches. I go to a breast feeding class on post each week and he gets weighed. I go mostly to hang out with other moms (we all whip out our boobs and breast feed our kids and chat). There's a lactation consultant and pediatrician there to talk to if we need/want to also. It's at the hospital where he was born and then we go buy a coffee and visit Seth at work for a little bit. It's something for me to look forward to each week (him getting weighed and see how much he's growing) and it gets us out of the house.

Feeding and sleeping has been going well for the most part. Here's a look at our typical day:

Wake up between 7-9, eat off and on until about noon with about a 30 minute nap once or twice in the morning.
Lunch between 12-1 and then he takes about a 4 hour nap. Sometimes I nap with him if I'm tired.
He wakes up around 5-6, eats again and then dozes off and on.
Around 8 or so, we start the "bed time" routine, because he eats off and on from about 8-10. I'm not going to lie: It's sort of frustrating that he eats off and on for so long because feeding him takes forever. I feel bad for saying that, but it's the honest truth. When he's not eating, we just cuddle, so I can't complain too much. Thankfully, the middle of the night feedings aren't nearly as long!

Max is a really good sleeper the majority of the time. He usually sleeps for 3-4 hours at a time (he has since we brought him home). Last night was awesome. He went to bed at 10:30 and slept till 2:56. I fed him and changed him (a routine we have down to 30-45 minutes in the middle of the night) and then he slept till about 6:45. He ate again (another 30 minutes) and we fell back to sleep until 9:26! I got up and showered and by the time I got out, he was waking up. He ate off and on until about 11:30 and he's been asleep since about noon.

Breast feeding has been easy for the most part. I got chapped nipples a few days after we got home from the hospital, but I went to the breast feeding class and got some good advice from the lactation consultant and it's been smooth sailing ever since. She also gave us a manual breast pump and I just recently got up the nerve to use it. OMG. I'm in love with it. It is so easy to use, and it takes less than 10 minutes to produce a 4 oz bottle. Since Max is a cluster feeder, a bottle will be very handy to have on hand when we have to get out the door in a hurry. I still nurse him 95% of the time; it's just the last few days, he's had one bottle per day. And it's usually Seth who feeds him the bottle; I'm glad that they're getting that experience too. The first bottle Seth gave Max, Max kept starting at him, giving him a look like, "who are you? You're not the normal face I see when I eat!" But he didn't care too much because he chugged that bottle. It was really cute.

Over the weekend, we went to test drive a new/used car (that's a whole different post). Max was getting hungry but I had my breast pump, so as we were driving around this quaint little town, I started pumping milk (while silently saying a prayer we didn't get stopped at a light next to some young guy in a huge lifted truck who could look into our windows). We pulled into a Bank of America parking lot and Seth proceeded to 'milk' me, as we call it. A few minutes later, we were in a little cafe, sharing a banana split and feeding Max. (That cute little cafe also didn't have a baby friendly changing table, so I changed him in the booth we were sitting in. A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do!) 

Seth's parents and grandma came to visit us last week and we had a few day trips. We went to the ocean and went to Pikes Place. While we were at the ocean, we stopped for lunch at a sit down restaurant and Max was hungry so I fed him. I got my cover out, attempted to feed him and he was thrashing his head all around, screaming his head off and it was not going well. (Might I add that he always latches on fairly quickly and never throws his head around or wails while he nurses!) So I decided to take him out to the car and feed him there, thinking he didn't like the cover. Honest to God, he gave me a smirk as we were sitting down in the car (like a 'ha ha mom, I rule you now' kind of smirk) and latched on in no time, didn't cry and ate till his little heart was content. The following day at Pikes Place, I fed him at another restaurant and he was good to go under the little cover. Go figure. But at times like the first restaurant, it would have been so handy to be able to pump a bottle real quick and feed it to him.

Overall things are going very well. I have my post partum appointment next week and will get cleared to go back to work. My employer won't allow me to start working until I get a doctor's note. (Because we all know it's so strenuous to walk down the stairs and sit at a computer and answer emails and I clearly need a doctor's note for this). I am nervous how it's going to go with Max and how I'll get work done, but we'll figure it out. We got a baby carrier (courtesy of Seth's grandma!) and I think I'll be using that a lot. Max is a snuggler and I think I'll be able to put him in that after he eats and he can nap and I can work and we both get our cuddle time.

We had professional newborn pictures taken a few weeks ago and here are a few of my favorites:

 

31.5 weeks, Updates and Pictures

It’s been a crazy busy few weeks.

Let's see...

I went home to Michigan for a few days and saw friends and family for the surprise baby shower Seth had planned!  Two families that I used to babysit for when I was a teenager were invited, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to make it to the shower. I still saw one family though and we hung out till almost 1 AM! It was awesome. We all cried when we said bye. I hate seeing their little broken hearts when I leave. It kills me. Each of the girls (13 and 8) picked out a gift for our new baby that would remind us of them whenever we used it. The older girl has had a little blue elephant since the day she was born that has a blanket attached to it (it looks more like a cape with an elephant head. That might sound weird and creepy, but it’s actually a really cute toy). Anyway, she has taken that thing with her everywhere since she was born and still sleeps with it now, even as a teenager. After not being able to find a replica for our baby, she settled on a little blue elephant teether toy! If our baby doesn’t automatically like it, I’m going to force it upon him until he loves it! I’m kidding. Sort of.  The younger girl LOVES soccer and picked out an orange soccer outfit. Seth also loves soccer so this was a perfect gift. Also, I learned while I was in MI that when Seth was younger, he would only wear orange colored clothes, so it was even more appropriate :) We got a lot of gift cards and I only had to mail back a few boxes of stuff. I went shopping and got the baby a lot of Detroit Tigers baseball clothes per Seth’s request. He’ll be decked out for the end of the season and hopefully the Tigers make it to the play offs this year!!!

I think the baby liked the plane rides; he was very active on the flights! He’s only 7 months old (in my uterus) and he’s already been on a plane to Michigan twice! He’s a little traveler already! Seth splurged on the seats with extended leg room, and they just so happened to be right in front of the bathroom, which was an added bonus. They were really good flights (minus the first flight where I was seated next to an off duty flight attendant who was on stand by. He was a jerk…I was texting Seth as we started pushing back from the terminal that we were getting ready to take off and the guy asked me if I knew I was committing a federal crime by continuing to text after they said phones needed to be turned off. I told him yes, and he shook his head no at me, and then continued to read my text over my shoulder. Then I silently cried because I was mad at him. Ironically the on duty flight attendant who was seated directly across from me didn’t seem to care at all and didn’t ask me to turn off my phone).

We started painting the nursery last weekend. We’re going with two colors – a dark bluish/turquoise color on the bottom and a light blue almost gray color on the top. The colors match the bedding and it’s going to be sooo cute once we get it done. We’re going to put chair railing in the middle to separate the colors (that's why it's all uneven right now). Hopefully we can finish up the painting this weekend. We just settled on which crib we’re getting, so we’ll be getting that this week or next weekend. I’m excited to get furniture in there and start washing his little clothes and making it look like a REAL nursery!

Since I have yet to post a picture of myself, here you go. This picture is from last week when I was 31 weeks and 2 days. I can’t believe in about 9ish weeks, he’ll be here. It’s CRAZY to think about.  

These two are crazy together. Patrick stands underneath Woody and pretends he's one of those little Russian stacking dolls, and Woody tries to move every which way to get him. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. We're working on training Woody right now; he's developed some not so great habits that need to stop immediately. They love each other though.

Seth planted gardens in our backyard the other weekend and they're doing really well! The dogs were getting into them and digging stuff up so we had to get the little fences to keep them out. We have a bunch of stuff: lettuce (a few varieties), spinach, carrots, red onions, celery, garlic, brussel sprouts, lots of different tomatoes, bell peppers, a few types of squash, carrots and jalapeno peppers (I think that's all of them!) We also have two blueberry plants and one thornless blackberry bush. They're in planters behind the gardens. We also have tons of blackberry bushes coming up along the bottom of our fence. Hopefully they produce lots of fruit this year and we'll be able to can some.
     

(ever since he was a puppy, he's loved "working" in the garden. and by "working," I mean "digging")

And because I'm obsessed with Mt. Rainier and take pictures of it ALL the time, here's a pretty picture from today. Ahhh, I love it so much. The last several weekends we've had great weather. I LOVE it. It makes me look forward to the summer, big time. I can't wait- it's definitely going to be the best summer yet  :)