I have a new niece!

I am proud to announce the birth of my newest niece, welcome to the family little Sasha Victoria! Sean's brother and wife had their baby yesterday evening and she weighed 6 pounds 2 ounces. I'm anxious to talk to Becca and see how it went and see pictures! Boy has 2007 been quite a baby year! Sean's other brother had a baby girl three days before Wesley was born. So when we get together for Christmas this year there will be three little ones, while last year there were no babies. A lot can happen in a year! Congratulations guys!

Say goodbye to the pool!

When we bought this house three years ago it wasn't because of the in ground pool. That just happened to be an added bonus at the time. I mean if you haven't had a pool before, the thought of owning one is pretty exciting. This would be until the realization of how much work they really are sets in. A couple times a week you have to clean them, add oodles of chemicals like Chlorine and algecide, clean stuff out of the skimmer like dead frogs and lizards and keep the filter clean. This all for something we didn't swim in once this summer. The only thing that was exciting about the pool was the thought of Wesley out there splashing around every summer. Well the straw that broke the camels back is that last week it started leaking. Monday it was down an inch and by Friday it was down 7 inches. It might not sound like much, but in an 18,000 gallon pool, that's a lot of water. We can't pinpoint the leak as it could be anywhere including the underground pipes. So we've decided to fill in the pool. Jackhammer it up and fill it in with dirt. We are so excited to start the process. There are so many "positives" to filling it in: I won't have that nagging feeling once Wesley starts walking that he's going to somehow drown in it, also our homeowners insurance should come down from outer space, water and electric bill will go down and I will have more spare time because I won't be cleaning it. This is an all around good thing. As for Wesley, well a really cool water park with huge slides and waterfalls went in 20 minutes away. We'll go every week in the summer if it means I don't have to have a pool at the house.

Wesley goes Green

So you might be aware of the Go Green movement in our country. This is where you remove the chemicals and toxins in your life, thus removing them from your body. This can be as easy as buying organic produce where no pesticides where used to as complex as replacing your sheets with organic cotton sheets. I have been researching this for the past several weeks in an effort to keep Wesley shielded from some of the worse chemicals. We've replaced our regular household cleaners with the Method brand of cleaners from Target, I'm buying organic food when I have a choice and I just ordered some chemical free baby shampoo. I don't think I've gone overboard just yet (although Sean thinks I'm getting there). Overboard is buying the chlorine free, dye free, gel free diapers for $40 a package, found those last night during my midnight internet pumping. It's also interesting how I have to watch what I do while breastfeeding because it is shown that chemicals are stored in your body fat, which is used to make your milk supply during breastfeeding. Maybe I have too much time on my hands.

Cabin Fever

Let me start out by saying I love that I can be a stay at home mom for Wesley. Ok, with that said, if I stay in this house another day I am going to go bonkers. And it isn't even winter yet. We get out everyday and go for a 2 mile "power" walk down the dirt road but it doesn't feel like I get away from the house. Sometimes I envy the Mom that gets to go to work and actually have human interaction, but then I think about leaving Wesley with someone and I just couldn't do it. It's not that my life is much different than before Wesley came, now instead of sculpting all day, I'm a baby watcher. I'm sure as he gets older and starts crawling and walking the rewards of being home will present themselves, this I'm sure of. But for now I will have to make it a point to get out more, or I fear I might go looney.

Put on your booties cause it's cold outside!

So it's really getting cold outside at night and we decided to get the furnace going, it decided it was time to stop working. Perfect. Poor Wesley went to bed Monday night dressed as a little eskimo baby. He had a onesie, socks, light footed sleeper and fleece footed jammies. Poor kid looked like Ralphies brother off of A Christmas Story all dressed up in his snowsuit. It got down to 64 degrees in the house, 33 degrees outside. It could have been worse I suppose. My wonderful husband got it working this evening so no more cold nights. He's good to have around!

Ode to Bath Time!

Yes, my life boring enough that I am writing about bath time. The kid LOVES bath time. I usually only give him a bath every three days, I mean how is he getting dirty? He usually will start smelling like cheese on the third day and that means a bath is eminent. I then have to find the source of the cheese smell, which is usually the rolls under his chin or thigh rolls. It's amazing the amount of "stuff" that can hide in the rolls. When he starts solids at six months I'm sure the bath schedule will have to be moved up. I'm picturing pureed carrots in the fat rolls, oh what fun that will be.

We have lots of noises....

....and they aren't just from the rear end anymore! Wesley is becoming a little chatter box. He likes to ooooo and ahhhh and make all sorts of strange noises while watching college football with Dad. It's like he's talking to all the brightly colored men on the TV running around. Very cute. This evening he was also laughing, a lot. We've figured out the key to making him laugh. 1. He has to be on his changing table, 2. be in a really good mood, 3. you have to tickle him under the arms and on belly, 4. make airplane noises while doing so and 5. the moons have to be aligned just right. But when all that happens, BOY is it cute. Note to my readers: I do not like the fact that my child watches TV (football with Dad), and in a perfect world he wouldn't be able to, but the hour he does this a week is like heaven for me. I get to go relax and do fun things such as dishes, laundry and cleaning bathrooms.

Wesley goes to PT

Wesley went to his meeting with the physical therapist today. I'm happy to report that whatever problems he had with is neck have worked themselves out. The physical therapist couldn't detect any tightness in the neck, so all is well. Over the past two weeks we've really been working on his neck, doing all sorts of exercises...stretching and such. I guess that's all it took. She also told me some new fun things I can do to strengthen those neck muscles. So she spent about 5 minutes talking about the neck exercises and the other 25 minutes cooing and trying to make him smile at her. So, anyways just wanted to share the good news.

Poor secluded Wesley

It is officially the start of cold and flu season. Oh yippie. Me being the worried mother I am, have decided that poor Wesley will no longer accompany me into town to do my weekly errands. I will leave him with Sean and I will do my running around on Saturdays. This is actually how we've been doing it for several weeks now, mainly because I need some "alone" time to keep my sanity. But now it's just official, the poor kid will be stuck in the house all winter. Oh well, not like he's missing much as little as he is. I know, I'm sheltering him but he's my first and I can do that, right?

Babyland update #2

More little items:

1. I believe he is close to rolling over. When he is having tummy time his little legs are off the ground and pushed to one side. Maybe he'll roll soon?

2. I've started getting up at 6:30 am so I can sculpt. That seems to be the only way I can get any work done during the day. Two hours a day is better than nothing.

3. His three month appointment stats: weight 13.5 pounds (60% percentile), height 24 inches (65% percentile), head 17 inches (70% percentile). All is well.

4. Sean and Wesley watch college football on Saturdays. Wes seems to really enjoy it, he makes the cutest oooooing noises. Funny stuff.

5. Ok the newest song I've learned is "Oh I Wish I Was A Little Bar of Soap." My favorite lyric is:

Oh I wish I was a fishy in the sea

Oh I wish I was a fishy in the sea

Oh I'd swim nudey nudey nudey without my bathing suity

Oh I wish I was a fishy in the sea.

It makes me smile.

Observations

I do find it funny that a lot of these recent posts are written at 3 o'clock in the morning. This is when I am up pumping, and the only way to stay awake is getting on the internet. This is also the only time during the day when I CAN get online lately. When your child doesn't sleep during the day anymore (or very rarely) and requires attention 24/7 your free time dwindles. It was very lovely getting out and going to the parade yesterday. Our tiny town had its Fall Festival and Wesley and I went. Of course it started to rain right before the parade started thus causing everyone to run for cover under trees. But after 10 minutes it stopped and events started up. It was fun and Wesley was transfixed by the marching band and fire engines that went by. It was a nice way to break up the day. Ok, I'm going back to sleep now.

Gotta love those growth spurts!

Wesley is currently going through a growth spurt. Babies tend to go through growth spurts at 2,4,6 weeks as well as 2,3,5 months and every month until they reach 23 years old (Ha ha, just kidding). He is always hungry right now, can't seem to get enough to eat. Once again I'm second guessing my milk supply, and just wish he was on formula. I look at those cans of formula that I received in the hospital and jut think "Well is today the day I give in?" It's like crack. The formula companies just give you a taste, get you hooked. I should just throw it all away to get the temptation out of the house. Wesley is just not satisfied after eating and I guess he's working on uping my milk supply in the process. I hate to see him hungry. It's hard to understand the guilt associated with halting breast feeding. I feel like if I can just make it to 6 months I will have offered everything beneficial to Wesley through breast feeding. I'm half way there, I can do it (at least that's what I keep telling myself).

Three months old today!

Once again I am sitting here wondering where the past three months went. I imagine myself typing out "Happy 10th Birthday" wondering the same thing. It is scary how time flies by. Wesley is changing so much. He has started laughing more regularly. I can make him laugh if I act really silly and kiss his belly. It's way cute. He also has started drooling like a drunken sailor. There is a line of saliva coming out of his mouth at all times. I wish I had more to write but our lives have fallen into a nice routine where not much new happens. I do enjoy writing in the blog. It has given me a place to keep track of all the small milestones Wesley achieves. One person said "Won't it be wonderful when Wesley wants to bring in his blog for Kindergarten show and tell?" That would be neat. We are going to our little towns Fall Festival tomorrow. Wesley will be strapped in the Baby Bjorn and we will watch all the entertaining festival events. Should be fun, I'm looking forward to getting out of the house. This will end my ramblings for now.

Little tortoise boy

Wesley and I went to the pediatrician today to look at his neck and sure enough he has a condition called torticollis. This is where the muscle on one side of his neck is tighter than the other thus causing his neck to tilt that way. The doctor said this probably was caused when he was in the womb. The tight quarters caused his head to be stuck in one way. So we get to visit a physical therapist just once who will show me how to do neck stretches to help his little titled head. He has affectionately earned the nickname "tortoise boy." Poor kid.

The worried Mom

When I was pregnant I never realized how much I would worry about this little human I created. It started soon after he arrived with wet diapers, I had to count to make sure he was getting enough to eat. Then it was worrying about other drivers on the road when he's in the car with me. The list goes on and on....I worry about him being around sick people, dropping him, autism, the dogs stepping on him, SIDS, being too hot/cold....etc. Well the latest worry is his neck. The poor kid has had a crocked head since he was born. He tends to keep it crooked to the left side. I keep thinking he will fix it by getting better neck control, but it hasn't changed. So I did the bad thing of looking online (bad idea) and sure enough there is a condition where the muscles on either side of the neck are different lengths with one being tighter than the other. It says tummy time is very important to help strengthen and stretch the muscles. Of course he HATES tummy time still, although he is tolerating it better now than in the beginning. I'll have to talk to the pediatrician about it. Poor Wesley with the crooked head. I'm sure this is just one more thing in a long list of items I will worry about through out his life. Oh the joys of Motherhood!

Fate of the stump

I was cleaning up the little tray attached to the changing table and came across Wesley's umbilical cord stump. Yes, when it fell off I felt the need to keep it. Not really knowing what to do with this little piece of grossness that connected him to me for 40 weeks, I placed it in the tray that holds the baby wipes. I'm now at a loss as to what to do with the stump, keep it for a disgusting keepsake? Photograph it and toss it? Oh decisions decisions.....

Sleep boycott

It's so easy to take certain things for granted, such as a sleeping baby. Wesley has always had such a wonderful routine, goes to bed at 9:30, takes a three hour nap two hours after getting up in the morning. Well the past three days he hasn't taken an afternoon nap and he doesn't go to bed until after 11pm. It sucks. I can't get anything done. No sculpting, laundry, nothing. So now he takes these little 20 minute naps all day long. I'll put him down under his play gym and he passes out for little sessions, not long enough for me to do much of anything other than take a picture of him (see picture to the right). I know this is typical baby behavior but I've been spoiled for so long. Well, I am going to go and try and get him to sleep again. I'm so tired, wish me luck.