45 posts tagged “baby”
Drew's First Birthday went well! I think everyone had a good time and got to at least spend a second with him. My little cousin Samantha took a nap with him in the middle of it and I was so grateful because without her, he would not have slept. He adores her. Like beyond what's normal. She has this long, beautiful curly hair that he loves to play with and she patiently sits there allowing him to. With all the hoopla going on, it was truly the only way he would sleep and as luck would have it she was tired so, she took a nap with him on my bed. I so wish she lived closer, she'd be the perfect mother's helper after school.
My parents were instrumental for this party. This party wouldn't have happened without them, so thank you Mom and Wayne for your time and generosity, you guys amaze me with your ability to give and give and we're thankful.
And of course the gifts, well he got a lot of much needed clothes and pajamas. But he did get a great play house with a slide for outside from my parents, an indoor tent from RH baby and child from my father that is out of this world and an electric quad that my husband wants for himself from my in laws.
Now one more get together to go and the birthday festivities are done. I can't believe my boy is going to be one. ONE. Ugh. I feel the tears so it's time to end it...
It's been an exciting month for my boy. He went from unsteadily pulling himself up to sailing along from edge to edge and walking with no problem while holding onto things. I'm positive that he's going to walk soon and I'm hoping it's in my presence rather than anyone else's!
He also cut 4 teeth. In one week. It was quite painful for both of us. It's funny to see him smile and see these bright white buds shining back at me. I keep thinking he put something in his mouth that shouldn't be there!
Most important this month was the appearance of mama. My boy said Mama. It was heaven and though i still doubt whether he's looking at ME and saying Mama, hearing that mama babble is just as good for me.
Do you remember being a kid in class when all of a sudden the chalk would screech on the chalkboard sending the entire class into raucous yelling? Well, as of late, I am feeling a lot like that irritated child. Why?
Oh because my son has discovered that if he clenches his jaw together those new white things in his mouth make this noise that makes mommy and daddy NUTS.
NUTS.
As in OHMYGODPLEASESTOPNOW.
The only thing I can do is gently touch his cheeks to get him to let go a bit. But now I've realized that the fun of me saying HOLYMOTHEROFGOD every time he does it is kinda what encourages it.
The problem is I can't stop. The moment the sound is made my shoulders shrivel to my ears and my voice releases a high pitched squeal and words bordering on profanity.
Advice anyone?
This morning was not a good one.
Drew and I had a rough night. The problem lately is that he's going to bed at 8 p.m. and sleeping till 2 am then waking with energy to spare. Last night we woke him at 10 to try and give him the 8 p.m. bottle he fell asleep on. Well, he takes after his dad in that if he doesn't want to be awake no bomb going off in our house is going to get him bright eyed and bushy tailed. So we reluctantly let him sleep.
And of course, as predicted, at 2 am, he woke. I laid with him on the couch till 2:30 when I tried to put him in bed. He screamed. We laid on the couch some more. Finally at 2:45, he went in his crib.
Till 3:30. We did the routine over again. And he stayed in his crib till 4:30.
I was exhausted by then, so I took him in the bed with Andrew and I and he slept till 5:30. He woke Andrew up by climbing on his head and pulling his hair and kicking him in the mouth (Good Morning Daddy!). Andrew actually got up with him (Thank GOD for small favors) and put him to sleep in his crib.
Where he slept till 7 am.
Lucky for me I got up earlier at 6:50 and was prepared with a bottle and my coffee.
Except that all of a sudden I got this flash of heat. And by flash I mean 20-30 minutes of feeling there was not enough air in the world to cool me down. I was sweating profusely, which is a wonderful way to get dressed for work, and couldn't cool down if I stood naked in an icebox. I'm going around and opening windows and putting the fan on and Andrew is closing them and turning the fan off.
I wanted to strangle him. Mostly because he was present and I was feeling insanely claustrophobic.
My mother gets there, late cause off traffic and we leave. We get in the car and I had my eyeglasses in my hand but suddenly in the car, can't find them. Andrew starts to pull out and we hear CRUNCH.
Andrew looks at me and says "Found your glasses."
He gets out and sure enough my very expensive designer eyeglasses are now garbage. Now if anyone knows me, then you know I cannot see without my glasses on while driving and it was raining cats and dogs. And true to nature, I don't have a back up pair.
So I drove to work. In the pouring rain. In my very dark sunglasses.
Can we please just have a do-over?
You know those emails you get where there are a whole bunch of "you know you're a ______ when..." type lines? Well, today I went to Rite Aid after Weight Watchers (down 2.2 this week but it's really like 1 lb cause I gained last time... bloating, I swear) and found Apple Prune Juice by Gerbers.
My son has such a hard time going that I have to make sure to get some Prunes in him every day to help along the process. Finding Prune baby food has been no issue, but finding Prune Juice of any kind for babies... what a headache.
So when I saw it in Rite Aid I was beyond excited. I was as excited as I used to be when I received a new handbag or Sephora shopping spree.
You know you're a mom when you get excited at finding Prune Juice at Rite Aid.
Any funny or interesting you know you're a mom when's out there?
Made ya smile didn't I? Come on? How cute is my boy in his surf shorts and rocker, muscle tee? I might be biased but I think he's the cutest baby in the land! ;-) This was his first day of swimming... I was 2 seconds away from trying flip flops on him but I didn't...
I wish this was a fake conversation between Andrew and I but it's not...
Setup: Baby is crying because he's tired. He was just fed and is fighting sleep, as usual. I was holding him but sometimes, he doesn't want to be held while drifting to sleep and he actually cries MORE because he wants to be down. He actually wants to go to sleep on his own in his crib. He was whining when this conversation happened.
Andrew: Jen, did you feed him?
Me: Yes I did. He's not hungry. He's tired. Just leave him be and he'll fall asleep.
Andrew: No. I know he's hungry. I'm heating a bottle.
Me: Please don't waste the formula. He was just fed 30 minutes ago.
Andrew: Jen, he's obviously still hungry. I'm feeding him.
Me: Do what you want I'm only his mother.
Needless to say, he heated the bottle, the baby screamed when Andrew was nearly force feeding him and eventually fell asleep when he left him in his play yard (play pen for us old timers) with his blanket. Alone.
Sigh.
He's still for sale. And I haven't gotten any respectable offers. Very disappointing.
We had a rough night last night.
Drew slept a lot during the day and decided that 1 am was a perfectly sane hour to get up... and stay up. Being that I work from home on Friday's, I got up with him. He fell back asleep by 2 then proceeded to cry any time I tried to put him in his crib. So at 2:30 am I fed him a bottle, which he downed in about 15 minutes and fell asleep. Until 3 am.
At 3, it started to thunder, loudly, which woke the dogs, the baby and Andrew.
Andrew gets up and starts to complain about a multitude of things. The baby crying, what I should be doing to keep him quiet etc and I nearly lose it. Okay. I admit. I completely lost it.
Instead of getting up and asking how long I've been up with Drew or asking what I have already tried to get him to sleep, he goes right into "Ya know Jen, you can't just let him cry like that... I mean, give him a bottle... you know he's teething, soothe him. Give him something for his mouth."
Oh, that's right, I let my son cry hysterical, starve to death and stay awake in pain. That's me. Mother of the year.
We fought. Loudly. Which of course scared the baby so we stopped. Now it was 4 am. Andrew got the baby to sleep and came to bed. And I was too angry to sleep. So I watched the minutes on the clock go by until I couldn't anymore and fell asleep about 5 am.
When I woke up this morning, I tried to wake Andrew 3 times. He wouldn't budge. So finally at 8 am, which is very late for him to wake up, I tell him it's the last time I'm trying to wake up. He finally gets up and what does he say?
"Why didn't you wake me".
Oh. My. God.
I hold it in and simply say, I did, 3 times in fact. He goes into the bathroom.
When he comes out I'm making his lunch, as a gesture of peace and again... he says..."Why are you using a roll? Can't you just use bread?"
Are all men this dense?
Does he have anything nice to say to me?
With the amount of interrupted sleep I get, the taking care of Drew while working 2 jobs sometimes 3 and the taking care of the house... I really have very little patience left over to train my husband on how to give me a compliment.
So I've decided to sell him. He's somewhat house trained. He is wonderful at running errands when asked. He loves washing the car and taking care of the lawn. And, as my good friend pointed out, he's good looking.
Any takers?
This past weekend I set up a Saturday mountain biking expedition for Andrew with a friend of his in Westchester so I was home alone with Drew all day. It was part of my father's day gift where each weekend in June I've set up something for Andrew to do for himself. I won't elaborate more but you get the gist.
So I was laying on the couch with Drew when he took my finger and put it in his mouth to suck on. I felt his lower gum and lo and behold a sharp object ran against my fingertip. I pulled his lip down and saw - a tooth! My baby boy has his first tooth breaking through.
Like the sap that I am I started to cry. And going to Babies R Us to pick up formula made it even worse. There I am with my smiling boy and ahead of me are two women with newborns. And by newborns I mean less than 1 month old. I was in tears walking out of there. I have no idea why and this was the very first time since having Drew that I saw a baby and thought, Oh my God... how absolutely precious... I'm sure it's a combination of hormones and the idea that Drew is growing very fast but GAWSH, I feel like he was 5 lbs just yesterday.
So my boy has the beginnings of a bottom tooth and made his mama cry. I can't picture him with teeth... but I'll soon see!
Do you ever sit back and compare you now to who you thought you would be?
In college, I thought children wouldn't be my main focus in life. I've never been that person children flock to and follow around like the pied piper. The kids I know love me but if I don't really know them, well, we mutually stay away from one another.
So as young lady in my 20's I naturally thought I would be career focused and very driven to succeed and be the very best at whatever field I was working in.
Now all these years later, I realize that what I want is to be happy and that is the only thing that really drives me. And what makes me happy is my son. So my whole purpose has become centered around what I can do to be with him more.
I'm so not the person that I thought I would be. At all. But I'm okay with the person I am. I don't mind being a loner. I don't care that I'll never be a VP, famous actress, singer, dancer or one of the many incarnations of my childhood. If all I do in life is raise an amazing boy, then my legacy is complete.
And that's something my 20 year old self never thought of saying.
