Love Affair with the Library

I have had a public library card as long as I remember. I love the fact that I can check out as many books as I want. Even if my eyes are bigger then the speed I read, I don’t have to feel guilty for not getting to read them before they are due because they are free. A few years ago the library set up a website where you can even recheck your books online so no more late fees!
Ryan isn’t in daycare so I feel like he needs more social interaction. While I’m sure he is having fun just hanging out with me ALL DAY LONG, I have been trying to think of things to change it up. Well, the public library comes through again. Monday I went to my first baby class at library. They sing songs, blow bubbles and read books. There were like 30 babies and moms there! What does all this fun cost you might ask… it’s the public library so it’s free!
My love affair with the public library continues!

It wasn’t all good of course (my fault not theirs). I was frumpy mom, I don’t know how I got here, but I have. I showed up in jeans and a t-shirt (not a particularly attractive one at that). The other moms showed up with hair blow dried, makeup on and outfits that match! Who are these women? How do they accomplish such a Herculean feat? All I can hope is to do better next week- mothering is a process and I am still figuring it out.

Video: Loving Food

Short clip of Ryan enjoying his food! He is freaked out of the camera so I don't have a lot of videos, I will try and get better.

Too Early

You know you are in trouble when it is 8:00am and your baby is already taking a nap.

This picture was taken at 7:30am.. they were both ready for a nap.

Eating

Ryan started solids! Well they call them solids but truth be told- it is watery mush. His first feeding was Wednesday, so he is 4 months and about 7 days. We started him on this lovely food early because he was out of control hungry. He eats 40+ ounces a day- over 7 ounces at a time and within 3.5 hours he was hungry again. (I think doctors recommend between 32-38 ounces a day). Sure there were times he could sleep for 6 hours, but most of the time he was waking up in the middle of the night 2 times to eat because he was just so hungry. This is not to say we are raising a porker- he is exactly the average weight and height- apparently he has Don’s metabolism.
The doctors warned us that when we started feeding him cereal (rice cereal), he might give us dirty looks, spit it out, cry etc… This was not the case. The only crying happened because I wasn’t feeding him fast enough. He grabbed the spoon and was trying to make it get to his mouth faster. When introducing solids you are supposed to introduce something new no more then every 4 days (in case there is an allergic reaction you can tell what caused it). I am thinking I might make baby food… I’ll let you know how it goes, I’m sure I will make a mess but that is part of the fun of cooking right?

Sleeping

Everyone has different theories on getting babies to sleep. Ryan has developed a new habit of waking up ever 4-5 hours throughout the night to eat. He has also started waking up soon after going to sleep for the night.
Well, some books say you should teach your child to put themselves to sleep by placing them in their cribs while they are still awake, some say you shouldn’t go in the room if your child is crying unless there is a problem. I understand this theory teaches them independence and in the long run we (Don and I) will get.
Here is my problem. I can’t deal with Ryan crying, I just really can’t do it. I put myself in his shoes. When I am alone at night in a house I have been known to freak out a bit… imagine if I were in a crib, unable to move, turn on a light and I didn’t understand what was going on. Babies until a certain age don’t understand that when you leave their sight you are coming back. So when Ryan is crying I imagine him thinking that he has been left alone in the dark all by himself forever. With this running through my head, it isn’t really surprising that I run in there whenever he cries.
The truth of the matter is that I know a lot of very confident, trusting, happy people who when they were babies were allowed to cry it out, and a lot of confident, trusting, happy people who were not. I have a feeling it does more to the parent then the child (my personal observation- a lot of very highly trained professionals disagree).
When I was at my art class Tuesday Don let Ryan cry for 4 minutes and he fell back to sleep on his own. I am way more of a push over then Don. Who knows what we will end up doing a week, month or year from now. All I know is Ryan is a very happy, energetic baby who most of the time gets enough sleep no matter what Don and I have both done to screw him up!

Bar Application

I might be slightly MIA in the next few weeks. I am trying to get in my application to take the February North Carolina Bar Exam. The application is out of control long and requires me to list practically everything I have done since I was 18 (every loan I have taken, job I have worked at, place I have lived, application for law school, transcripts etc etc...) I need 12 references... it seems excessive. Obviously lawyers become criminals AFTER they sit for the bar because they wouldn't qualify to even take the test if they had done anything so much as gotten a speeding ticket.
All this so that I can take a two full day test on subjects I didn't like learning in the first place.

Domestic Goddess

My new project is to learn to cook better. I have a few recipes which I can make on the fly and I am trying to expand that list.

So far I have made from scratch: Chicken Pot Pie, Bread (thanks Jenn), Pizza (including the dough), Chili and a grilled eggplant dish, I have also been trying out new marinade recipes (Thus the steak picture). I've added a few pictures because I know there are people who read this blog who will not believe that I can cook :). later this week I am going to try to make slow cooker ribs.

There have been no major cooking disasters so far, I think this is a project Don can get behind!

Bath Hat

Ryan LOVES bath time. Even if he is in a terrible mood, when he hears the water going he cheers right up. We have started playing "bath hat" which he thinks is very funny, he laughs and screams with delight. There is nothing more fun then wearing an outfit on your head and then taking a nice hot bath. Oh the simple pleasures of being a baby!

Ryan 4 Month Stats

Here are the 4 month stats on Ryan: he weighs 14 pounds 7 ¾ ounces (this is the 49th percentile), he is 24 ½ inches in length (50%), and his head is 17inches (75%).. which means that he is a perfect healthy baby except he has more brains then most babies!
He is also super strong, when the doctor pulled on his arms to see if he would sit up, he decided that sitting up was too easy instead he stood up (with her holding onto his hands), she commented that he was abnormally strong and I was in for it.

Doctor's Appointment Gone Bad

Ryan had his 4 month doctor’s appointment today, for all of you that don’t know, with a baby you have doctor’s appointments every 2 months for…. Well I don’t know how long but until baby starts slowing down with the whole development/growth thing. I actually don’t mind going that much, it is nice to get official progress reports- today was the exception; we had the doctors appointment from hell.
So Ryan and I arrive at the appointment about 5 minutes early, Don arrives shortly after; we take our seats after signing in. All seems well right? Well, an hour later we are still sitting there. Ryan has had a total melt down and was now sleeping in my painfully asleep arms. Apparently our doctor was running an hour late, which they decide to tell us after we have been sitting there for 50 minutes. Ryan has gone right through his scheduled nap time, thus the melt down. (Ryan has a schedule- we made our appointment around his schedule- they called and moved it to a less convenient time because… someone wanted a longer appointment so obviously we get kicked... bad form).
So FINALLY we get shown into the office where we get Ryan all ready, he gets weighed and measured, and then the nurse leaves and we are yet again waiting. This time Ryan is in just his diaper in the cold room, and we end up waiting about 25 minutes for the doctor to come in, by which time Ryan is utterly miserable…. We have been there 2 hours, Ryan is quickly approaching his feeding time, I being stupid thought we would be home by now and so I have brought no food. She checks him out; everything seems fine (I will give more details in a less ranting post). We establish which shots we are getting this appointment- in other words she tells me something wrong and I correct her (Dtap and Hib only for this appointment). Don had to take a work related phone call and had to go outside- he too stupidly thought we would be done within 2 hours of appointment time.
After the doctor leaves, another nurse walks in and says “so Ryan is getting his Polio shot”…. Uh no! Read a chart much? I tell her that we are not getting Polio this appointment, she looks at the shots in her hand (2 of them) and goes “huh…?” sets the shots down next to Ryan and says, “these are right”… I am freaking out, she wants to give my son shots and she doesn’t even know what they are. I ask her “are you sure you know what those are” and she goes “maybe I will go ask someone”…. OH MY GOD, REALLY???? While she was gone I looked at the shots and they were in fact correct, it was easy to look at them considering she left them WITHIN REACH OF RYAN.
Needless to say it didn’t go well, Ryan made it home and ate like he had never been fed before and took a much needed nap (2 hours late). I have really liked my pediatrician before this appointment. I have learned that in the future I will call ahead of time to see if the doctor is running on schedule, I will only schedule appointments with doctors I really want to see and most of all I will know exactly what is supposed to be given/ done at any given appointment because I cannot be guaranteed that anyone else knows or cares what is supposed to be done. Rant over… on with our normally scheduled programming.

Ryan's 4 month birthday

Ryan decided that he was a big boy now that he is 4 months old and for his “birthday” he decided that he was SO over naps. He lasted until 3:00 before losing control. He was asleep before I finished swaddling him. Poor guy, hopefully he sleeps well tonight so tomorrow he is a happy camper. I will tell you how big he is (height and weight) after tomorrows doctors appointment.

1/3 of a Year Old!

Ryan is 1/3 of a year old already! Can you believe it? I think he has hit all his milestones. I try not to read what the milestones are, I feel like if I’m not in denial I will be able to tell if something is wrong. He can roll both from his front to his back and from his back to his front. He can hold up his head as long as he wants to. He “talks” meaning that he really sounds like he is talking though we can’t yet figure out what he is trying to say. He grabs and plays with toys (and cameras as you can see in the picture). He sits with a little help. He wants to crawl, if I put my hand on his feet he can push off and scooch on his stomach. Everyday there is something different... his newest thing is that when he gets super excited, he wiggles out of control (you have to be prepared or you might catch a headbutt in the chin). Oh and he has grown a faux-hawk... I swear I didn't do this to him, it is completely natural. I've attached a picture of its fabulousness
They say at 4 months you can start feeding babies solid foods. This of course is disputed so I don’t want to get a bunch of emails telling me to wait. The range is 4-6 months to introduce solids…. I am going to make my own judgment based on Ryan. He is already trying to take food off my plate and staring at the food when I am eating. We are going to the pediatrician’s office Wednesday so we will see what they say (before they give the next round of shots… boo).

Remembering 'Why'

Ryan turns 4 months old next week. Crazy how fast time goes when you have a baby, it seems like everyday they are doing something new. Ryan is full of personality already. I was talking to my mom the other day about how Ryan was right after his birth compared to how he is now.

One story from his first day sums up what I think Ryan is going to be like as he grows up. We were all in the hospital room (Rachel, David, Don, my mom, Ryan) and someone told Ryan he needed to do something… eat or cry or something along those lines. Right after they were done speaking Ryan let out a noise that sounded unmistakably like “WHY?!”… So now we all joke that Don and I are in trouble because our child’s first word, on day one was “why?”

I will have more on Ryan turning 4 months next week when it actually happens!

Girlfriends

Here is the picture I promised- Ryan holding Ava's hand, she is less then thrilled.

Ryan's other girlfriend Fiona

Reconnection, Middle School Style

Remember how hard it used to be to keep in touch with people before you could just pop them an email or add them as a friend on facebook? I didn’t have the Internet until high school and I went to a different school then everyone I went to elementary/middle school with so I lost touch with everyone.

While I was pregnant I reconnected on-line with a really good friend from middle school, she happened to be pregnant and due right around when I was. It is really nice to have people to talk to who understand the craziness of your life as a pregnant person and then a mom. Well she happened to give birth the day before me so with each milestone we have each other to come to and discuss what is going on and what we as moms can do to help our little ones.

She sadly lives in TX so we hadn’t actually gotten to see each other, just phone calls and emails. She came to visit her family in NC and we finally got to meet up with our little ones! Check out some of the pictures, I have another picture I will post soon where Ryan is trying to grab Ava’s hand and Ava is desperately trying to roll away… poor Ryan, he will have time to grow on her though.

It was crazy being back in the house where I spent so many great childhood memories. Last time I had been there I must have been 12? Now here we were with our own babies.

Ava is looking very skeptically at Ryan

Moms and babies... moms met 19 years ago

Why are Ryan and I shiny you may ask, sadly there isn't a good story or explanation :)

Ryan wants to figure Ava out, he was staring at her and reaching for her

A few pictures (16 weeks)

New Toy! Ryan is a huge fan of this saucer, it is exciting for him because everytime he gets tired of playing with one of the things, he just moves over a little and ah ha! there is something new to grab. His neck is strong enough now to play with no problem.

Loving the Baby Bjorn, we are off to take a walk yay!

Ok mom seriously, you have taken 12 pictures of me, let's just go on the walk already.

Stranger Danger.

Ryan is starting to develop stranger anxiety. I didn’t think that these things started until like 7 months, but apparently it is just not true in our case. He is fine while someone he knows is holding him, but if he is picked up by someone else he looks freaked out and if not given back to someone he knows he will start to cry. I have mixed feelings about it. I feel bad that he cries when people I know hold him, he is generally so “talkative” and happy and they miss it. On the other hand I am glad that he feels safe around the people he does know, and honestly if a stranger gets too close (which for some reason a lot of people do when we are out in public) I’m glad he doesn’t want them to be in his face (germs, kidnapping and other mommy paranoia). I have a feeling this is going to get worse before it gets better, so if Ryan cries in your presence he means nothing by it, it is just how he rolls these days.

Working Mom

Lately I have been going through what a lot of new moms go through. I am wondering what my future holds. Should I go to work? Is there any way that I can do that and keep Ryan out of daycare? What sort of job should I get? If I do go back to work, when should I do so? Can we give Ryan all we want to if I don’t go back to work? On the flip side, is it fair to put him in daycare if we can afford not to? But honestly, can we survive once my student loans become due?
These questions have been all consuming since I had a conversation with my loan company last week. The panic grows stronger every time I think about it. At some point I will have to make a decision. Don tells me that we will be fine, that I shouldn’t worry so much and that everything will work out. He tells me on a daily basis to chill out.

I will soon have a law degree that I worked entirely too hard to get, shouldn't I at least try to use it?
Last night I had a dream that I was in the car on the way to a job interview. I was almost there with about 10 minutes to spare when I realized I was in sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt! I had totally forgotten to change into presentable attire for my interview. Read into that what you will, but I am not taking it as a good sign.

VOTE

I'm not going to hide the fact that I am not a huge fan of the republican candidate and his running mate. I have been watching the convention this week and have been less then thrilled that they even have the possibility of being in the oval office in the near future. Enjoy this little clip... oh I just love the media.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=184086

Everyone should go out and vote... you can find voter registration forms online, you just have to send it in and then go out to vote.

Go Patriots!

WHAT!!! the NFL season starts this week?? I haven't even learned the rules yet!

Dad has a lot of teaching to do.