Rollin’, Rollin’…

Friday evening the hubby and I were watching Jack play on the floor – he was trying to flip from back to front… something he has been working on since he mastered the front to back flip last week (in one try, I must say). Anyway, so here he is working on it and getting caught up on his arm like he does every time and EZ says “He’s going to do it tonight… or tomorrow… or sometime this weekend, for sure. He’s so close.” Then he runs upstairs for something and I sneak off to the kitchen to grab a brownie – meanwhile Jack is still working on flipping. When I get back to the living room – literally seconds later – the little stinker is on his tummy!! I totally missed it! What a crappy mother I am! Here I am stuffing my face with brownies in the kitchen while my child is reaching milestones in the next room. Can you believe me? And after all that work. I can’t believe I missed it!

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My Angel Baby

Somehow we’ve managed to get back on track with the whole sleeping situation. No more screaming, fighting the bottle, arching his back etc. etc. … Well, we hope. Keep your fingers crossed. He is still napping in his swing, which is working for now but sooner or later I will have to teach him to fall asleep on his own. At least for now I can rock him to sleep and he is only waking up once to eat. I wish I knew if he was waking up at night out of habit (and because he cannot get himself back to sleep) or because he is really hungry. The doctor seemed to think that he was waking up because he is hungry and needs something more substantial to get him through the night, but when I talked to the nurse (after the night-time issues following the rice cereal) she seemed to think it was completely out of habit. I’m not all that bothered by getting up with him in the night, so I suppose I will continue to do so until we get the solid food thing figured out. I’m not looking forward to trying that again! For now I’m just glad that he is going to sleep without the fight. It is so nice to have at least an hour with the hubby.

The little man is such a sweet pea right now. He is just so laid back and he laughs all of the time. I’m just amazed that this baby is a part of me. I have no idea how I (the anxious, worry-wart, supersensitive person that I can be) ended up with such an incredibly mellow kid. I hope he is taking after his daddy… and he stays that way!

On a completely unrelated note, I was watching a DVR’d Oprah show (every parent in this country should have DVR or TiVo or whatever version of this they can get) and there were a few of those caught on tape moments that really struck me. The first one was a woman and a baby in a burning building and the woman had to drop her baby into someone’s arms to save him. I saw this and cried so hard. I couldn’t believe that this poor woman had to do that. I swear, all day long I have nightmare-daydreams about dropping Jack on the hard tile floor in the kitchen or the pavement in the Target parking lot or dropping his car seat while trying to get it out of the cart etc. etc. – then I watch this show and am beside myself because I can’t imagine that I am the only mom in history that has had these thoughts. I’m sure this woman had these thoughts at some point herself. I can’t imagine how she must have felt.

There was another caught on tape moment of a man in Brazil that heard a noise (sounded like a distressed animal) in the river and saw a garbage bag caught on a log or rock or something like that, anyway he pulls the bag to shore and inside of it is a two month old BABY!! I was completely beside myself. How could someone do that to a baby? It just makes me sick. Give it up for adoption, drop it off at a church, or with a neighbor – whatever, but I just don’t see how someone could try to kill a baby. And this baby was all dressed up in a cute little pink outfit with a headband and everything.

I kind of got off track there somehow… and I’m not really sure what my point was. I suppose I just wanted to tell someone else about it because it bothered me so much. It really made me appreciate Jack. Not that I didn’t before. But you know what I mean.

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Struggling

Oh, goodness it has been a tough couple of days. I’m finally feeling better but things have been a little tough for the little guy. We did the rice cereal thing starting Thursday of last week until about Saturday. He was just getting the hang of the actual eating part, but the problem became the digestion. As bedtime rolled around he was clearly not feeling well and seemed to be having a lot of gas pains. Normally Jack goes down for the night anywhere between 7:30 and 9 without much of a fight. He’ll sometimes have a hard time staying in dreamland but can be easily persuaded to sleep with his pacifier. Ever since the first rice cereal he has been an absolute terror at night. He screams and arches his back, acts ravenously hungry then rejects the bottle with all of his might after a half of an ounce. He hasn’t been able to really go down until about 10 or 10:30 and then really out of complete exhaustion. I’m just not sure what to do with the little guy. I would think that the rice cereal has to be out of his system… although even if it weren’t he is napping just fine throughout the day. The doctor’s office is less than helpful. They are just as unsure as I am. I suppose it could be a multitude of things – gas, teething, exhaustion, a developmental/growth spurt (he is learning to roll over and is also very close to scooting) who knows.

Last night we tried to let him cry it out. That didn’t last long and only made me cry too and EZ and I angry at one another with the approach. We’re struggling here. Hopefully this will get a little easier, but I suppose this is just the first of many bumps in the road to come.

On a much much lighter note… Jack finally rolled over for the first time yesterday!! Front to back. He hadn’t taken much interest at all in rolling over and I was beginning to wonder why. But out of nowhere he just did it. I was sweating as I was watching, I was so excited. It was like watching a sporting event. When he finally did it, I cheered and picked him up and I think he thought I was nuts.

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Did I Just Say That Out Loud?

I’m not exactly sure what has happened to me, but somewhere along the way I have become a complete idiot. Let me explain.

Yesterday afternoon the hubby’s parents called and asked to babysit (can you believe my luck… they are the best). Anyway, so of course we took them up on their offer since we were already planning on doing some furniture shopping – something we have been working on for years (since we moved into this house we have been struggling to find furniture that we actually like to fill it up with – in the mean time we have been living in an empty house). So the idea of being able to hit 3 or 4 stores on our own, rather than 1 or 2 with the little man was very appealing.

After about 3 furniture stores and a quick trip to the mall we finally ended up at Ethan Allen (a place I promised I would not resort back to because the prices are ridiculous and the “designers” are nothing but car salesmen dressed up like women). Sorry, I digress. So, I’m feeling a bit tired and hungry and ready to throw in the towel once again when we come across what looks like a bookshelf. This is when the “designer/car saleswoman” walks up and announces to us that this is actually a media center with a lift. Oh, lovely. Not at all interested, but sure go ahead and show us how it works and tell us how great it is and how we now need to go out and buy the 60″ television to fit in it – whatever. So as it is “lifting” (which takes like, 40 seconds – who has the patience to wait 40 extra seconds to turn on the TV??) I say (this is where I turn into some sort of idiot country bumpkin from the backwoods of NC) “Yeah, I can just see this thing getting broke, and me getting pissed.” Did I just say THAT out loud?!? What the hell is wrong with me! Of course this is where the sales woman immediately jumps in and begins to tell us how this rarely happens, but that the TV is so difficult to install that they have a company on hand that can assist you if necessary (How stupid is this? Anyway, back to my stupidness.) The entire time I am thinking… maybe she didn’t realize how stupid that sounded. Although, in my current state of disarray (including my complete inability to put together a relatively stylish outfit that that isn’t mismatched and makes me look like a 7 year old and accents my redneck tan lines) I’m sure she just lumped me together with the rest of the idiots that come in and pretend like they are going to buy stuff.

This situation reminded me of the time that I was excited for my brother and sister-in-law to visit and was telling my next door neighbor (who happens to be a very cute and stylish stay at home mom/freelance writer) how cute it would be if my 3 year old (at that time) niece and her 3 year old son would play together. When I went to say that they could be buddies or friends or something of that sort, instead what came out was that they could be lovers. WHAT DID I JUST SAY?? I literally just sat there with my mouth hanging open, completely disconnected from the rest of the conversation because all I could think about was a way to pull myself out of the hole I had fallen into. I never fully recovered from that one and couldn’t talk to her for weeks. It was painfully embarrassing, but somehow I think she managed to forget.

Anyway, so my point was, and I do have one… I think… oh, crap just forget it. I’ve just become an idiot. Where has my brain gone? I’m going to blame this one on the lack of sleep I have been getting… long story – the solid food is interfering with JZ’s ability to sleep at night (something we haven’t had issues with since he was a wee little one fresh from the hospital). Ugg. On a lighter note… he is about the cutest little thing in the whole world and he really seems to LLLoOOVvee his mommy!!

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Rice Cereal: Day #2

What is this stuff and where’s my bottle?

Here’s the trick, you get a big mouthful, flash a couple of smiles, then when she’s not looking you spit it all out onto the bib.

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Mr. Serious

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Hey There Mr. Turtle

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Mommy and Jack

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4 Months

As noted in the previous post, Jack hit the 4 month mark last Thursday. His doctor’s appointment went well. The shots went a little smoother this time… no tears from Mommy this time :) Here are his stats: Length: 25 1/2 inches, Weight: 14 lbs. 8 oz., Head circumference: 42 1/4 cms. He’s in the 50th percentile for everything except for height (50-75th percentile). So according to the doctor he’s an average baby… according to Mommy he is waaaayy above average.

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Jack’s First Rice Cereal

Mmm, Mmm, Goood.

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