Well it's about time!!

So I've been not looking forward to taking Wesley in for his six month well baby visit because I knew the doc would ask if he's rolled yet and I'd have to say nope. Well this morning he FINALLY did it! He rolled from back to tummy without any help. Yeah!! He was lying there and I put the musical train behind his head on the ground and turned it on, he turned his head around to see it and flipped over onto his belly. He just sat there and smiled at me for a minute like he was so proud of himself. Everything I'd read said they usually roll between 3-4 months, I kind of got worried at 5 months and just figured he'd skip doing it if he hadn't rolled by 6 months. I attribute it to him not getting enough tummy time and because he's just the most laid back baby ever. He's been sitting up by himself for a month now and can stand if we hold onto his little hands so he's hitting every other milestone just fine, I'm just happy he finally hit this one.

What a fun age!

It has been a lot of fun watching the transformation that has occurred since Wesley has hit the six month mark. He has always been in his own little world up until now, he's discovered there is a lot going on around him. He's never really noticed the dogs until recently. He'll sit in his high chair and just watch them running around being silly. They always have their big old black noses next to his head looking for remains of baby food. Sophie jumped up on the counter yesterday and cleaned the half eaten bowl of butternut squash for me, guess dogs like baby food too.

Breastfeeding a six month old is dramatically different from feeding a newborn. He used to eat every two hours on the dot, now I will feed him every 3-4 hours and it's short, light feedings...like I have to force him to eat. It's like he's so excited to see what else is new that he's too impatient to sit around eating. It's quite nice. On one hand I'm somewhat excited to see the end of breastfeeding, on the other I'll miss the closeness that it provides. My goal is to wean him at a year old. We have a special little thing that we'll do during breastfeeding that I'll miss: I'll smile down at him and he'll look up at me and smile back while still eating. If I giggle, he'll giggle. It's our little thing. I'll miss it.

Whenever I write about him having a sleeping problem I just need to realize that it lasts about three days and then he goes back to the little dream sleeper I've always had. We are truly lucky to have a wonderful sleeping baby. Right now he goes to sleep around 10pm and sleeps through the night until 10am, twice this week he slept till 11am. It's insane. I love it. Do you know how long it's been since I've been able to wake up ON MY OWN, with the sun streaming in the window and just lay there? Well let's just say a long time. I now can get up, feed dogs, feed livestock, feed myself and watch The Price is Right before Wesley wakes up. It's heaven. I feel a little guilty with Sean getting up at 5am and going to work and me sleeping in until 8 or 9. I'm just stock piling the sleep because I know this routine will come to an end soon, just like all the others. I'm just soaking it up while I can.

Crazy silly naked baby with bad hair

Enough said.

What it means to be a Mom

I saw this over at another Mom's blog who received it from a friend of hers. It's called, "Being a Mom" and it represents so much of what I have thought to myself since Wesley was born but didn't know how to articulate:

We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of "starting a family."

"We're taking a survey," she says half-joking. "Do you think I should have a baby?"
"It will change your life," I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral.

"I know," she says, "no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations."

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes.

I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, "What if that had been MY child?", that every plane crash, every house fire will haunt her, that when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub, that an urgent call of "Mom!" will cause her to drop a soufflé or her best crystal without a moments hesitation.

I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood. She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her baby's sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be routine.

That a five year old boy's desire to go to the men's room rather than the women's at McDonald's will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester may be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother.

Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself.

That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child. That she would give herself up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs.

I want her to k now that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honor. My daughter's relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way she thinks.

I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child. I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike. I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time. I want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.

My daughter's quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes. "You'll never regret it," I finally say. Then I reached across the table, squeezed my daughter's hand and offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of callings.

Happy Half Birthday!

Today our little dude turns six months old! It also marks the departure of our little sleeper. I know now how the rest of the Moms out there feel with the babies that wake up multiple times during the night. It sucks. I'd like to go back to the easy to put to sleep, sleeps for 12 hours a night baby. I shall remember fondly all of the sleep I got in the past. I shall now look forward to bags under the eyes and the lovely glazed zombie feeling. Oh well such is life.

Half a year favorites:

Favorite Food: Pureed carrots and booby juice

Favorite Dog: Chance...he likes to rip out as much terrier fur as possible with his kung fu grip.

Favorite Toy: The demonic Laugh and Learn Puppy....die psycho dog die. Gus the Stunt (not STUD Randi) Giraffe ranks high up there as well.

Favorite Past Time: Riding around in Baby Bjorn, watching football with pops, ripping dog hair off of dog, looking at cute self in mirror, fishy watching, peeing in bath tub, farting...this child can rival my mother-in-law in the gas department.

Favorite Outfit: Buck naked...he's all smiles when he's naked. But the little outfits you got him for Christmas, Becca, are a close second...love them! He's wearing one in the picture above.

Favorite Song: Oh I Wish I Was A Little Bar of Soap...with its new and improved lyrics.

Nicknames: Beefcake, Jabba, Gooselet, Buglet, Ducklet and Little Dude.
_______

Dislikes: Going to sleep at night....that's pretty much it. Oh and getting dressed up in random snowsuits.

The loop hole

We know how much Wesly loves looking at the fishies. We know how much Wesley likes sitting in his Jumperoo, so when you combine the two.....put the jumperoo in front of the aquarium...you get 45 minutes of uninterrupted lay on the couch and do absolutely nothing time. Victory is mine.

Jabba the Hutt Baby

Ok this child has some serious Jabba the Hutt rolls going on. I always thought he was on the skinny side, not anymore! We call him out little beefcake. He's quickly outgrowing his infant car sear, so we are in the market for a convertible car seat. Also, much to my dismay, he is outgrowing his swing. He still takes naps in the swing but the motor can't keep up with his Jabba self so it slows down swinging and starts clanking.....which of course wakes him up. So right now, as I type, I am sitting with the laptop in his room next to the swing with him sleeping in it...every time it starts to slow down I have to give it a small push to quiet it down and keep him sleeping. We are having some battles with his naps during the day so I am resorting to doing pretty much anything to get him to sleep. I'll even go out driving in the afternoon just so he'll get an hour nap in and not be cranky all evening.

Wesley is doing a great job of sitting up by himself and can stand on his legs for a few minutes at a time. He's sure growing up fast. Friday's are his new food day, when a new food is introduced. This Friday is Butternut Squash. Mmmmm Butternut Squash. So far he's had Carrots and Sweet Potato. I think both of them are quite tasty, we'll see if squash is any good. Yes, I have no life....I'm rating baby food.

Ode to the Jumperoo!

Wesley has unofficially hit the six month mark and turned into a little mover and a shaker. So we ordered the Fisher Price Rainforest Jumperoo last week and it came yesterday. Boy does he think it's ultra cool. He hasn't mastered the actual jumping yet but the toys are sure interesting to him. I had to place a phone book under his feet to make him tall enough to touch the floor. I can't wait for him to figure out how to jump. I will be there with the video camera and will post a clip. Also being near floor level has proven to be exciting since he can now see the dogs at eye level. He spent most of the time last night in the jumperoo just looking at the crazy dogs running around.

The baby food adventure is continuing with sweet potatoes. Yet another favorite. He hasn't met a veggie he doesn't like. I won't go into much detail about the change in his diapers, let's just say "What goes in, comes right out the same color."

Six month profile

I got bored this morning during little dudes nap so I made a silhouette of his profile in Illustrator. I'm going to try and do this every couple years and frame them to see the changes.

Wesley's New Years Resolutions

Happy New Years everyone! I'd like to say I had a real eventful New Years Eve but I didn't. I visited my friend Jessica and hung out for a couple of hours, that was fun, went home and put Wesley to bed. Sean and I then played Lego Star Wars on Playstation (Wesley's Christmas gift from Grandpa) until 11:30 at which time Wesley woke up for the first time of the night. I was nursing him back to sleep in his nursery when fireworks and gun fire alerted me to it being midnight. Yes out in the country rednecks like to shoot their guns off, it's kind of scary. When I finally got to bed I got a sleepy "Happy New Years" from Sean and we both passed out. Wow, aren't we a bunch of wild and crazy people?

Wesley's New Years Resolutions:

1. Continue to have Mom or Dad clean my rear until the end of time.
2. Master the Jumperoo
3. Roll over....yep STILL haven't rolled over...he's such a lazy butt
4. Watch as much football with Dad as possible
5. Grow a tooth or maybe ten of them
6. Hang out with Aunt Jessica more...she makes me laugh
7. Learn hand eye coordination so I can play Playstation with the folks

Tasty Veggies

Wesley has been eating rice cereal for almost three weeks now and is getting bored so we started carrots last Friday. Man, he likes carrots. We were given a high chair while visiting for Christmas so now he's not eating in his stroller anymore which is nice. We call him our little T-Rex, he opens his mouth and makes a roaring noise while launching himself at the spoon full of pureed carrots. Pretty funny stuff.

Winter Wonderland

We've only been home from Christmas vacation for two days and I'm already having some cabin fever, so Wesley went into his front pack and he and I ventured into the snow. Our area is having a record breaking December for snow fall amounts so we haven't gotten out much. Wesley caught his first cold while away for Christmas which he then passed on to me yesterday. Luckily it only caused him one sleepless night. He's feeling much better after two days. Me on the other hand......

Wesley's First Christmas

We spent this Christmas with Sean's side of the family up in his old hometown. There were 15 of us all together, there were people from New Mexico, South Dakota and Washington. We had a really nice time seeing all the new babies and catching up with everyone. It's a shame we all live so far apart, but when we do all get together it's a hoot!

Counting our blessings

Christmas is upon us yet again. I'm always so surprised at how quickly it sneaks up on me each year. This year we are piling into the car and heading north 5 hours to spent Christmas with Sean's family. In fact we are heading out tomorrow and I have yet to pack even a sock. I always tend to wait to do anything until the last minute, so this should be an enjoyable next 24 hours. It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and to forget the reason why we're celebrating. Here I am worried about the muddy dog prints on the floor, all the food I'm going to eat in the next week (HELLO thunder thighs), how Wesley is going to travel, the horrid weather forecasted and so on (I could go on for twelve pages)....and I need to remember what the season is all about! We need to all count our blessings! There will be three little precious babies here this year that weren't last year, loving parents and grandparents that just adore them, we all have our health and are able to make the trip to be together, I am blessed to have a wonderful loving husband who puts food on the table and is such a great Daddy. And I am especially thankful this year for this little boy who inspires me to be a better person everyday. There are so many things to be grateful for and I hope everyone can be inspired by the season.

A few of my favorite things....

I've been thinking about all the wonderful aspects of being a new mom and I thought I'd write some of them down. So here goes it:

I love walking into Wesley's room in the morning when he wakes up and getting the biggest toothless smile you've ever seen, almost like he hasn't seen me in twelve years.

I love that out of all the books we read each day, he can get so excited over this one pop up book about trains, planes and automobiles. You can bring that particular book out and he gets wide eyed, shakes a little and makes a Ooohhhh sound. Love it.

I love that we can be doing anything and I can say "Daddy's home!" and he'll look around trying to find Dad.

I love that he smiles at himself when he pees in the tub.

I love that I now play Playstation at 4 am while pumping. In particular, Jax Combat Racing. What's better than racing around blowing up cars while pumping half asleep?

Christmas with my family

Five months old!

Our little man is five months old! Well, I'm a day late but on any other normal day I would be able to post to the blog after the baby goes to sleep in the evening and I have my two hours before going to bed to myself, this is a thing of the past I have realized. Wesley has decided sleeping is no fun and staying up with Mom and Dad is great fun. So he is now going to bed around 11 pm and sleeping in in the morning. Just when I think we are on a routine schedule he likes to switch it up on me. Oh well. Today I'm flying the coop and leaving Wesley with my Mom while I head into town and do odds and ends. She then gets him tomorrow while Sean and I go to the movies for his birthday, it will be the first time we'll be able to go to the movies since July 11th (Harry Potter opening day) which was also the day I was induced. He'll have fun with Grandma, she's been bugging me to babysit him so this should make everyone happy!

Silly little monkey

Our little monkey has decided that staying up until 11 pm is quite enjoyable. In fact he's so awake and happy that we were able to get a video of him laughing. He sat in this chair and laughed hysterically at Gus (his giraffe) for like 10 minutes, silly little man. I don't know why the change in sleeping habits other than he is hitting the five month mark today and that could signify yet another growth spurt (oh yippie). The cereal eating is going ok, still not fond of it and I am pretty sure all of it is ending up on the bib and none down the gullet. Oh well.

Down the hatch

Wesley has let us know over the past few weeks that it is time he needs more than just breast milk. Every time we eat something in front of him his eyes get really wide and he makes these hilarious grunting noises. I thought we could get closer to the six month mark but I decided this evening it was time. I've had the rice cereal in the cabinet and those special little rubber covered spoons in the drawer for a few weeks now. Well, it went ok.....a picture (or two) are worth a thousand words.....

.....BEFORE eating......


.......AFTER eating......

Enough said. We'll be trying again tomorrow....and yes, he's in his stroller... we need a high chair.

Frozen Fish

In our front yard is a decent sized koi pond. Every year I go buy 6-9 fairly good sized goldfish at the local pond supply store. We dump them in the pond in May and by September they have had several batches of babies and the pond is stuffed with goldfish. The first season winter approached and I got my big fish net and fished out a large majority of them and set up a stock tank in an unused bathroom and over wintered them in our house. That was a lot of work for $3 goldfish. So ever since that first winter I've just let nature takes its course and restocked come spring. Well last week I was out looking at the half frozen pond and saw a few sad looking fish swimming sideways. They actually looked dead but upon closer inspection their gills were moving so I ran in the garage got my net and a rubbermaid container and went out and fished out all the frozen fish I could find. I brought them in the house and let them warm up and sure enough they perked right up. I dumped them in the unused downstairs 30 gallon aquarium. Wesley thinks the aquarium is just the most fascinating thing he's ever seen. He'll sit there mouth open, saliva coming out in a string just staring at the fish. I posted a video clip below.

Goof ball

We got to go for a walk yesterday in the 65 degree weather. He enjoyed getting out of the house as much as I did.

Mellow man

Not a whole lot new happening in our household. Wesley has decided to nap again during the day which makes my life so much easier. I'm actually getting some sculpting done again, which is good since my Christmas orders are backing up. He's so much happier with a little sleep during the day. They say the average five month old needs 14-16 hours of sleep a day, he's right in the middle. He's also learning to entertain himself better than before. He'll babble in his crib in the morning, and just waits for me to come get him. He's so laid back, it's wonderful. I'm once again having fun buying clothes for him since he's outgrowing his 3-6 month stuff. The Christmas outfits out there are just too cute. Uggg, I guess it's good I'm working again to finance his new clothes!

Wesley the ball thrower in training

Ok, I love taking little video clips of Wesley and posting them. I took two today that I love but will only bore you with one. I'm sure the novelty of it will wear off soon so just bear with me. This clip is Wesley and Dad during their Sunday football time being bombarded by Cisco and his never ending ball. Cisco is starting to train Wesley a little early, poor kid. You only have to toss the ball once and that dog will give you the ball until the end of time.

First try at video...

Ok, here is the first try at uploading video from the new camera. Wesley at 4.5 months old. Hope it works!

Shopping bliss

Like many women, I like to shop. I haven't had the opportunity to do much of it since Wesley was born so last night I grabbed my chance when I had one. You see with the Holidays approaching, the stores have these strange hours. Kohl's was open until Midnight last night. So I plopped Wesley in his crib at 8:30pm and took off for an uninterrupted personal shopping spree. It was glorious. When I usually go into town I have roughly two hours to run around and buy everything needed before I need to think about going home to release Sean from his Dad duty. Well it looks like I found the Mommy loop hole with these late closing stores. The sad part was that I spent an hour trying on a ton of clothes and I liked nothing, I usually like everything. It seems once you have a baby the days of shopping in the juniors department are over (not that I've shopped in juniors for awhile now), but I also can't stand the frumpy Misses sweaters and Mom jeans. I seem to be in the gray middle area. So I bought nothing for me and instead bought Wesley some really cute new duds. Looks like he's in 6-9 month stuff now. Dang he's growing too fast.

I love the "hand" in all the photos. I can't wait till he can sit up by himself.

The end of an era

So when we moved out to the country I decided that it was finally time for me to buy a horse to ride. I'd been wanting one for ages. I read up on everything I'd need to know about horse ownership and proceeded to start buying gear. I bought a nice saddle, pad, bridle.....and so on. Well today I posted everything on eBay. The horse riding dream has died. For one, we don't have enough land for a full size horse. Two, I don't want to blame the kid for it....but I seriously don't have the time or energy to go horse riding on a whim. Three, I can't afford any more animals. My neighbor used to say "I wish you'd just have a baby and you'd stop buying animals." I always just laughed, but now I understand. It's hard to take care of 19 pets with a baby needing constant attention. I do love my animals and each and every one of them will have a forever home with us, just not a full size riding horse. I've decided whatever money I make on the horse gear I'm going to go buy Wesley a kick ass exersaucer. How sad, I'm trading my beautiful saddle for a brightly colored plastic toy. Anything to make the kid happy.

Enjoying the Holiday

Sean, Wesley and I have been really enjoying the five days off for Thanksgiving. It's been a very relaxing break. I put Wesley in the Bjorn and decorated the house for Christmas today. I'm excited for this to be his first Christmas. Having a youngin around for Christmas will be a lot of fun, especially in years to come as he gets older. I'm already having way too much fun buying him stuff. I'm not alone. My father can't wait for Wes to be old enough to play with trains (so HE has someone to play with). He found a train layout that's built into a table with wooden track and asked if it would be too soon to buy it for him this Christmas. It's for 3-6 year olds. Hmmm, yep might be too early seeing as he'll be 6 months around Christmas. Can't tell this child's going to be spoiled by the Grandparents!

We are the kind of people that "if it ain't broke don't fix it," we have a perfectly fine digital camera that we bought 5 years ago that I use every day. It's a 1.2 mega pixel camera that in it's day was a pretty cool camera. Well, I took it to the funeral and actually had someone laugh at it....at how old it was. So Sean ordered a fancy schmancy new digital camera for us today. It's an 8.1 Mega pixel camera. I'm really looking forward to it because it doubles as a camcorder. This way I can stop using the dinosaur of a camcorder we currently have and have a way to upload clips directly to the blog. This way the Grandparents that live 15 hours away can see video of little man. Isn't technology amazing?

Wesley goes to see the Doc

Today Sean and I took little man into his belated four month well baby visit. Here are the stats:

Weight: 15.5 pounds (70%)
Height: 25.5 inches (55%)
Head circ: 44 cm (90%)

Doc said he looked great, but we knew that already. He got the first of his vaccinations and will go back the beginning of December to get one more. He did really well with the two shots, only cried for a few seconds. He's such a trooper. Doc said we can start him on cereal if we want but I'm going to hold out until around five months. That's all the news from the doctors office.

Falling into a routine

Life with baby has leveled out and we have fallen into a regular routine. Not much new has happened lately. It's just Sean, Wesley and I for Thanksgiving this year. My family will be out of town. I'm thinking of making pumpkin pancakes for Thanksgiving. A turkey would be too much food for just Sean and I. Maybe we'll just go out for dinner, we'll see. Wesley is going in for his belated four month well baby appointment tomorrow so that will be fun. I'm interested to see his weight and height. He seems to be growing out of his 3-6 month clothing, he seems too tall for them. He's still sleeping like a champ. He goes to bed at 8:30 pm and wakes up around 8:30 in the morning. Just a wonderful little sleeper. Well, that's about all...not much new happening.

What am I chopped liver?

I believe Wesley is getting bored with me. Sometimes I think he just sees me as a walking milk buffet. I say this because the moment Sean walks in the door after work the child turns into a smiley, laughing, adorable child. It's like he just puts up with me until Dad comes home, then the real fun starts. He just loves Sean, it's quite cute. I'm going to have to devise a scheme to turn myself into the most favored parent...hmm but how? Offer him oodles of cookies? Nope can't eat solids. Play video games with him? Nope no hand eye coordination. Produce chocolate milk? That might be the ticket! Ok, I'm going back to bed now.

Looking back

Sean and I were lying on the floor with Wesley this evening soaking up his new ability to laugh at everything and I realized how wonderful having a child is. He is such a joy and a blessing and I look forward to the years ahead with all the new experiences Sean and I can teach him. I think about next summer when I plant a garden and how he can "help" me, or in a few years when he's old enough to ride with me in a cart behind the miniature horses. Sean is looking forward to the day he and Wesley can ride the mini motorcycles around the acreage or help him work on cars. But for now we are just engrossed in his ability to do nothing but smile, laugh and drool. Sean actually said something the other day that made me just about fall over, he said "If I had known how wonderful having a baby around was I'd probably have had one sooner." That's big for a man who wasn't sure he wanted children. I'm glad I talked him into it! I can't imagine missing out on this experience, how dull our lives would have been.

Sitting in the recliner....




....Hey Gus when did you get here?....



....come sit on my lap....



.....I do love Gus the giraffe....

Four months old

Our big boy is four months old and getting bigger every day! He's 15.5 pounds according to my baby scale but we'll get an official weight when he goes in for his appointment next week. I guess they are supposed to double their birth weight by six months and he's almost there at four so he's right on track. Not much to report here. We are back into our regular no napping routine today, so I bumped back his bed time to 8:30....his little grumpy butt is going to get more sleep somehow.

Recuperating

Who knew A four day trip and 600 miles could wear us all out so much! All we did today was sleep. Wesley who never takes a nap during the day took a four hour nap, and I had to wake him up from that...so who knows how long he would have slept. I passed out in the chair with him for a couple hours. Sean was the only one that got anything done today, he was outside tearing up the deck around the pool. He's such a good worker. I'm such a slacker.

Ring Time

I had fun with his toy rings and the camera. Poor kid.

Wesley's sad road trip

I'm sad to write that my beloved grandfather passed away last Wednesday. The funeral would be held in Illinois which is 600 miles away. So Thursday we started loading up the car with everything we could possibly need for four days, you would think we were going to be gone for a month. We've decided that the amount of luggage you need is inversely proportional to your age. For example if Sean needs one pair of jeans then Wesley needs five....you never know when you'll need that cute little pair with the frogs on them. We each had one little suitcase, Wesley had four. It took us three trips to bring everything from the car into the hotel, including his full size swing. He slept the whole night in it in the hotel room. That swing is worth its weight in gold. I was so worried about him traveling eight hours in the car but he is such a little champ. He slept the entire way there. We broke the trip up into two days so he only had to sit in the car seat for four hours each day. After the funeral at the grave site they did a military salute for him with the shooting of the guns and taps. It was a beautiful and moving thing to witness. Wesley slept through it all, even the gun salute. As I write this we are traveling through St. Louis and will get home tomorrow. Grandpa, you will be missed.

Snotty little man

Well last night was a new experience. I went in to check on Wesley at 4 am and he was so congested. Poor kid was kicking around and was obviously angry that he couldn't breath. I then picked up my new handy automatic, battery operated aspirator (booger sucker outer) and tried sucking out his snot while he was sleeping....yeah that didn't work. It just pissed him off. So I took him into the bathroom and ran the shower on hot while sitting on the toilet lid and breast feeding him in the dark. The hot vapor opened up his little airways and off to sleep he went. Man I'm good.

Marbles? Where are my marbles?

Oh that's right I've LOST them! It's days like today that I'm certain Wesley will be an only child. There will have to be a whole lot of forgetting the first several months before I agree to do this again. Don't get me wrong, Wesley is a good, really mellow baby 90% of the time...but that other 10% is rough. Today being a rough day. He woke up at 9am smiling and cooing as usual, fed him and he started screaming. We played on the floor and he screamed. I fed him again he screamed. You get the idea. The only way I could get him to sleep was taking him for a walk in the stroller. We walked for four miles. The backs of my heels are bleeding, but by God he slept. I know it's a growth spurt, this is how he acted at the two and three month marks. I hope this one goes by quickly. And I hope I can find my marbles one day soon.

Chapters

With the birth of my niece it got me thinking about the first few weeks home with Wesley. You can read every parenting book on the market and you will never be fully ready for that little pink newborn once you bring it through the front door. In fact I remember setting down the car seat and turning to Sean and saying "Now what?" For nine months you build up in your mind what having a baby in the house will be like. The happy cooing baby comes to mind. In reality it's a lot of work! Feeding around the clock, changing countless diapers, dealing with crying. I remember feeling like I was chained to my recliner. Sean had to bring me meals and drinks because Wesley would cluster feed for hours. Going to the store was scary stuff. I was so afraid he would start crying and people would stare. I would make whirl wind trips for the basics like diapers and milk just to get him back in the car. Now at almost four months old, I could CARE LESS! Go ahead and stare if he cries....believe it or not, that's what babies do. I often see Moms with well behaved toddlers and wonder if Wesley will be like that. Then I realize that woman is just a few chapters ahead of me in this child rearing game and was probably just as scared of her newborn wailing in Wal-Mart as I was in the beginning.