After doing some serious thinking, I've decided I should view these weeks without Jason as more bonding time with my son than this horrible tragedy that is being bestowed upon me. Yeah, I'll miss Jason terribly, but it is fact, it will happen, there is nothing I can do to change that. There are so many single moms out there, or moms with husbands overseas right now that have month after month without their husband. What is 3 weeks really? A challenge. A pin for my mom hat. Something I can say I accomplished all by myself. We can do this.
It doesn't hurt that my son just keeps getting cuter and more charismatic every single day.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Henry turns 15 weeks!
So we leave for Alaska (Anchorage to be exact) on Thursday. 4 days! Yikes! I feel it has totally snuck up on me. For the longest time it seemed like forever away, like it would never really happen, and here it is, right around the corner. I think Henry now has more winter clothes than Jason and I combined. It won't be terribly cold there, but we figure babies need layers. He has like 3 jackets, and somewhere around 14 outfits for an 8 day trip plus about another 5 pairs of pants and some onesies. I think we're good in the clothes department lol.
Now as for myself, that's a whole other story. We will be heading to the store here shortly. I'm not too concerned except for the fact I only have like one pair of shoes and no raincoat.
I cannot really explain how nervous I am about coming home without Jason. He will be gone for nearly 3 weeks. When returns we will be heading to New Mexico almost immediately. Like, that say day. He gets in at 5:15 am and about 14 hours later, if not sooner, we will be in the car driving. We hope that Henry will fall asleep and we can make decent headway. Oh yeah, the reason for the NM trip is that my cousin Phillip is getting married.
In Henry news, we recently got his activity center from his Auntie Alicia (a friend of mine) and he absolutely adores it. It is becoming more and more apparent that he has discovered his hands and he knows what to do to do with them - a bit anyway. He is grabbing for things and putting everything in reach in his mouth. Toys are a new favorite word around our house. He actually has toys now! And he loves his stuffed animals.
Also, for the past 3-4 mornings we've woken up around 7:30 to find Henry wide awake in his pack n play, on his back and playing with his blanket or feet or just staring at things. Not crying, just staring at things. He does, however, sitll wake up at 3am-4am and want to be fed. Bah. If only he'd sleep all the way through the night! He's killing me! That's one thing I am not looking forward to, there will be no one to help with those late night feedings, they're all on me. I know people mean well, but I am tired of being told "oh, you'll be fine." Like this is nothing. Like I have nothing to worry about. Pretty much like I'm being completely silly for any worry or concern. My husband is being dropped off in the middle of nowhere Alaska by a bush plane that only carries 2 people and will get maybe 1 thirty second phone call to me in nearly 3 weeks and I have nothing to worry about? It's not like I'll be getting daily calls from him. Also, the one set of friends we have here in Weatherford will be gone the entire time we are away. And the moms group I'm apart of happens to have nothing much planned on the days we are free and everything planned on the days we are gone on either trip. The three weeks inbetween are fairly barren, except for the library trip on the day he gets his shots, a stroll through the gardens (looking forward to that) and something geared towards bigger kids. I am afraid I'll lose it here alone with not anyone to talk to really.
On top of all that I have school work! I have no idea what to expect from this semester, but hopefully it won't be too rough. I hope to stay on top of things, get things done early in the week so I have the rest of my time free to spend with Henry. Hopefully I'll look back on these three weeks and say "What was I so worried about?" I really, really hope so. In the meantime, I'll just worry, thank you very much.
Now as for myself, that's a whole other story. We will be heading to the store here shortly. I'm not too concerned except for the fact I only have like one pair of shoes and no raincoat.
I cannot really explain how nervous I am about coming home without Jason. He will be gone for nearly 3 weeks. When returns we will be heading to New Mexico almost immediately. Like, that say day. He gets in at 5:15 am and about 14 hours later, if not sooner, we will be in the car driving. We hope that Henry will fall asleep and we can make decent headway. Oh yeah, the reason for the NM trip is that my cousin Phillip is getting married.
In Henry news, we recently got his activity center from his Auntie Alicia (a friend of mine) and he absolutely adores it. It is becoming more and more apparent that he has discovered his hands and he knows what to do to do with them - a bit anyway. He is grabbing for things and putting everything in reach in his mouth. Toys are a new favorite word around our house. He actually has toys now! And he loves his stuffed animals.
Also, for the past 3-4 mornings we've woken up around 7:30 to find Henry wide awake in his pack n play, on his back and playing with his blanket or feet or just staring at things. Not crying, just staring at things. He does, however, sitll wake up at 3am-4am and want to be fed. Bah. If only he'd sleep all the way through the night! He's killing me! That's one thing I am not looking forward to, there will be no one to help with those late night feedings, they're all on me. I know people mean well, but I am tired of being told "oh, you'll be fine." Like this is nothing. Like I have nothing to worry about. Pretty much like I'm being completely silly for any worry or concern. My husband is being dropped off in the middle of nowhere Alaska by a bush plane that only carries 2 people and will get maybe 1 thirty second phone call to me in nearly 3 weeks and I have nothing to worry about? It's not like I'll be getting daily calls from him. Also, the one set of friends we have here in Weatherford will be gone the entire time we are away. And the moms group I'm apart of happens to have nothing much planned on the days we are free and everything planned on the days we are gone on either trip. The three weeks inbetween are fairly barren, except for the library trip on the day he gets his shots, a stroll through the gardens (looking forward to that) and something geared towards bigger kids. I am afraid I'll lose it here alone with not anyone to talk to really.
On top of all that I have school work! I have no idea what to expect from this semester, but hopefully it won't be too rough. I hope to stay on top of things, get things done early in the week so I have the rest of my time free to spend with Henry. Hopefully I'll look back on these three weeks and say "What was I so worried about?" I really, really hope so. In the meantime, I'll just worry, thank you very much.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
3 months, or 13 weeks!
It has been far, far too long since I posted here. 2 months! I don't know how many times I've told Jason I HAVE to update this thing. I am going to start forgetting everything that Henry did and when. It has to be come more of a priority!
Well first things first, today (well much later today) Henry will turn 3 months old! Already a quarter of a year. Pretty amazing to see how much he has grown and changed in the past 3 months. It seems every single day something new happens.
Backing up some, Henry started sleeping through the night, for the most part, at around 3-4 weeks. He has stayed fairly consistent with the number of hours he sleeps, however, he wants to go to bed earlier now. This means he wakes up earlier. He will adjust eventually, but it is nice he sleeps about 8 hours a night at the moment, usually 8 or 9 to 4 or 5.
He went to his first wedding (my cousin Paul and his wife Delaney). They got married June 26th in Houston. Unfortunately I got VERY sick with a stomach virus. One of the sickest times of my life if not THE sickest. Luckily Jason did not get sick with it until we got home and then it wasn't as severe as mine. His parents both ended up sick and my mom fought it off for a week afterwards herself. Amazingly, Henry was perfectly fine. That is why I pump, even though breastfeeding did not work for us. It keeps my son healthy, it is better for him, and it makes him happy. He has unfortuantely had to have a little formula because he has been eating more than I can produce. Like today, he ate 36 oz! Luckily I had enough for him, but geez kiddo, slow down! I can only get like 30 a day. Anyway, I know it was the breastmilk that kept him from getting sick. I am 100 percent positive of this.
Moving on, on July 8th Henry had his 2 month appointment. He weighed 11 lbs 12 oz (exactly 4 lbs more than his birth weight) and was 24 inches long (he grew 2.5 inches). He is such a long boy! He is finally starting to get a bit chubbier, but for the most part he is fairly lean. The last time Jason weighed him on the postage scale they have for the business (yes, we've done that a few times!), he was 13.5 and that was about a week ago. He goes for his 4 month appointment September 7th I think it is. He took the shots relatively well, however, he started screaming about 3 hours after the shots were done. We gave him some baby Tylenol and he seemed to calm down. He spent a few days just really tired after that. Oddly enough, and this is just for my own personal reference, he also had really green poos for like 9 days afterwards. Gross, yeah, but I want to remember that for future reference if it shows up again.
Another huge step for us: he is no longer sleeping in the swing! I want to say this happened on about July 21st or so. He had already started taking naps in his pack n play, so he was getting accustomed to sleeping there. We had just gotten home from a visit to my mom's and grandparents. I want to say the next night after getting home, he woke up at 2am, very grumpy, we put him in his pack n play and he fell right back to sleep. Now I will go ahead and admit that he sleeps on his stomach. I know many will crucify me for this, but it is the only way he will sleep. He fussies and carries on if he is on his back and he always hated being swaddled. He is an anomoly apparently. He would spend all his time trying to kick the swaddle off of himself instead of getting any rest. Really this isn't exactly surprising since he spent 9 months kicking the heck out of me. Well ok, more like 6, but he enjoyed all 6 of those months lol.
We really feel he is safe this way since he has excellent head control and has since he was like 8 weeks old. Maybe longer actually because the doctor was very impressed at his 2 month appointment. I really think Henry is a bit advanced in that area. I mean it will eventually even out with all the rest of the kids, but for now he seems to have more head control and strength than the average baby his age. He also has a new game he loves called Standing Up While Someone Supports My Arms. He loves, loves, loves standing up. He gets those legs straight as he can and just stands there for a minute or two. He went from maybe doing it a few seconds to being about to do it for a full minute or more now. And that was within a matter of a week or so. He's been doing this now for about a week or two. His dad and grandfather work with him every day, so he has a leg up on the competition. :) Literally!
He absolutely abhors laying down unless he has to, like sleepy time and time to change his diaper. Well still he fusses sometiems when he gets it changed, but once it is changed he might lay on his changing table and coo at us for a while. Then he gets bored and wants up. He has also decided he doesn't really care for our living room anymore. He gets in these fits when we try to sit on the couch sometimes. He wants to be up moving around. He is a peculiar baby in that regard. He has no desire to sit still. There is far too much to see!
Which brings me to another thing we've been doing. We found a Moms group here in Weatherford! I was so hesitant to go, mostly nervous that I would not fit in, but finally decided I am doing this. I RSVP'd for a playdate at the local splash park even though Henry is way too young for it really, but at this age it isn't really about Henry anyway. Stay at home moms need to get out, they need to interact with other adults. It is so important! Especially to interact with other moms going through the same things you are going through. Well that was over 2 weeks ago and we had a great time! There were a few other moms there that were new and we have sorta gotten to know each other a little better. All the moms I've met so far have been super nice, very friendly and ladies I could see myself becoming good friends with. And most importantly, even though Henry is only 3 months old, he LOVES IT! He is so intruigued by the older kids. We went to Storytime at the Weatherford Library this last week and he was the happiest I'd seen him in a while. Not that he isn't normally happy, but he gets bored. Well there wasn't a dull moment that day. Once he was out of his carseat, he never once fussed. He just say there watching all the other kids, eyes wide open, taking it all in. I love that little guy to death.
He is starting to drool like crazy - not my favorite thing ever. That has been going on for 2-3 weeks now. It seems to be getting worse. Some days we have to put a bib on him just to keep his clothes dry! Not sure when he will start teething, but I am really hoping it is after Jason gets back from Alaska. That is one last thing - we are leaving for Alaska in less than 3 weeks now. We leave August 26th and come back September 4th. Jason won't be back until September 22nd. You do the math. Ugh. Not looking forward to this at all. I will be starting a new semester and I am so worried about how I will get it done with just us. I know my mother in law will be around, but I worry so much about taking advantage of her. I already worry about that as it is. I guess for now I need to enjoy the fact Jason is here and just deal with him being gone when the time comes.
We also leave the day after Jason gets back from Alaska for Santa Fe, New Mexico. My cousin Phillip is getting married! Wooo it is going to be quite a month. Traveling with an infant to Alaska then NM (driving at that) should be interesting. I look forward to the trips, just not so much the traveling part of it. At least my mom will be there for both trips and my MIL will be in Alaska as well. There will be tons of help for Henry while we are there. My brothers are going as well. I cannot wait to have a family vacation! We have not gone anywhere as a family since 2001. Almost 10 years! Wowza. This needs to change - more family vacations for us!
I need to wrap this up and get some sleep since I have to wake up in 3 hours and it takes me 30 minutes just to fall asleep. Hopefully I can find time to update this thing again. I know no one reads it but me, but it is really for my records anyway. Well maybe my mom will read it. She's usually interested in this stuff.
Well first things first, today (well much later today) Henry will turn 3 months old! Already a quarter of a year. Pretty amazing to see how much he has grown and changed in the past 3 months. It seems every single day something new happens.
Backing up some, Henry started sleeping through the night, for the most part, at around 3-4 weeks. He has stayed fairly consistent with the number of hours he sleeps, however, he wants to go to bed earlier now. This means he wakes up earlier. He will adjust eventually, but it is nice he sleeps about 8 hours a night at the moment, usually 8 or 9 to 4 or 5.
He went to his first wedding (my cousin Paul and his wife Delaney). They got married June 26th in Houston. Unfortunately I got VERY sick with a stomach virus. One of the sickest times of my life if not THE sickest. Luckily Jason did not get sick with it until we got home and then it wasn't as severe as mine. His parents both ended up sick and my mom fought it off for a week afterwards herself. Amazingly, Henry was perfectly fine. That is why I pump, even though breastfeeding did not work for us. It keeps my son healthy, it is better for him, and it makes him happy. He has unfortuantely had to have a little formula because he has been eating more than I can produce. Like today, he ate 36 oz! Luckily I had enough for him, but geez kiddo, slow down! I can only get like 30 a day. Anyway, I know it was the breastmilk that kept him from getting sick. I am 100 percent positive of this.
Moving on, on July 8th Henry had his 2 month appointment. He weighed 11 lbs 12 oz (exactly 4 lbs more than his birth weight) and was 24 inches long (he grew 2.5 inches). He is such a long boy! He is finally starting to get a bit chubbier, but for the most part he is fairly lean. The last time Jason weighed him on the postage scale they have for the business (yes, we've done that a few times!), he was 13.5 and that was about a week ago. He goes for his 4 month appointment September 7th I think it is. He took the shots relatively well, however, he started screaming about 3 hours after the shots were done. We gave him some baby Tylenol and he seemed to calm down. He spent a few days just really tired after that. Oddly enough, and this is just for my own personal reference, he also had really green poos for like 9 days afterwards. Gross, yeah, but I want to remember that for future reference if it shows up again.
Another huge step for us: he is no longer sleeping in the swing! I want to say this happened on about July 21st or so. He had already started taking naps in his pack n play, so he was getting accustomed to sleeping there. We had just gotten home from a visit to my mom's and grandparents. I want to say the next night after getting home, he woke up at 2am, very grumpy, we put him in his pack n play and he fell right back to sleep. Now I will go ahead and admit that he sleeps on his stomach. I know many will crucify me for this, but it is the only way he will sleep. He fussies and carries on if he is on his back and he always hated being swaddled. He is an anomoly apparently. He would spend all his time trying to kick the swaddle off of himself instead of getting any rest. Really this isn't exactly surprising since he spent 9 months kicking the heck out of me. Well ok, more like 6, but he enjoyed all 6 of those months lol.
We really feel he is safe this way since he has excellent head control and has since he was like 8 weeks old. Maybe longer actually because the doctor was very impressed at his 2 month appointment. I really think Henry is a bit advanced in that area. I mean it will eventually even out with all the rest of the kids, but for now he seems to have more head control and strength than the average baby his age. He also has a new game he loves called Standing Up While Someone Supports My Arms. He loves, loves, loves standing up. He gets those legs straight as he can and just stands there for a minute or two. He went from maybe doing it a few seconds to being about to do it for a full minute or more now. And that was within a matter of a week or so. He's been doing this now for about a week or two. His dad and grandfather work with him every day, so he has a leg up on the competition. :) Literally!
He absolutely abhors laying down unless he has to, like sleepy time and time to change his diaper. Well still he fusses sometiems when he gets it changed, but once it is changed he might lay on his changing table and coo at us for a while. Then he gets bored and wants up. He has also decided he doesn't really care for our living room anymore. He gets in these fits when we try to sit on the couch sometimes. He wants to be up moving around. He is a peculiar baby in that regard. He has no desire to sit still. There is far too much to see!
Which brings me to another thing we've been doing. We found a Moms group here in Weatherford! I was so hesitant to go, mostly nervous that I would not fit in, but finally decided I am doing this. I RSVP'd for a playdate at the local splash park even though Henry is way too young for it really, but at this age it isn't really about Henry anyway. Stay at home moms need to get out, they need to interact with other adults. It is so important! Especially to interact with other moms going through the same things you are going through. Well that was over 2 weeks ago and we had a great time! There were a few other moms there that were new and we have sorta gotten to know each other a little better. All the moms I've met so far have been super nice, very friendly and ladies I could see myself becoming good friends with. And most importantly, even though Henry is only 3 months old, he LOVES IT! He is so intruigued by the older kids. We went to Storytime at the Weatherford Library this last week and he was the happiest I'd seen him in a while. Not that he isn't normally happy, but he gets bored. Well there wasn't a dull moment that day. Once he was out of his carseat, he never once fussed. He just say there watching all the other kids, eyes wide open, taking it all in. I love that little guy to death.
He is starting to drool like crazy - not my favorite thing ever. That has been going on for 2-3 weeks now. It seems to be getting worse. Some days we have to put a bib on him just to keep his clothes dry! Not sure when he will start teething, but I am really hoping it is after Jason gets back from Alaska. That is one last thing - we are leaving for Alaska in less than 3 weeks now. We leave August 26th and come back September 4th. Jason won't be back until September 22nd. You do the math. Ugh. Not looking forward to this at all. I will be starting a new semester and I am so worried about how I will get it done with just us. I know my mother in law will be around, but I worry so much about taking advantage of her. I already worry about that as it is. I guess for now I need to enjoy the fact Jason is here and just deal with him being gone when the time comes.
We also leave the day after Jason gets back from Alaska for Santa Fe, New Mexico. My cousin Phillip is getting married! Wooo it is going to be quite a month. Traveling with an infant to Alaska then NM (driving at that) should be interesting. I look forward to the trips, just not so much the traveling part of it. At least my mom will be there for both trips and my MIL will be in Alaska as well. There will be tons of help for Henry while we are there. My brothers are going as well. I cannot wait to have a family vacation! We have not gone anywhere as a family since 2001. Almost 10 years! Wowza. This needs to change - more family vacations for us!
I need to wrap this up and get some sleep since I have to wake up in 3 hours and it takes me 30 minutes just to fall asleep. Hopefully I can find time to update this thing again. I know no one reads it but me, but it is really for my records anyway. Well maybe my mom will read it. She's usually interested in this stuff.
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