Mendel at Work

Last night Travis went down the street to watch Monday night football with a bunch of guys in some garage. WE JUST BOUGHT A GIGANTIC FLATSCREEN TV. I don't get it. I wasn't even using the TV. I was reading (re-reading New Moon in preparation of the movie coming out in November). I guess the neighbor's TV is bigger than ours. Sheesh.

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Have you seen this article about a woman who had black and white twins? Talk about Mendelian.

The Week with Grammy

This past week was great! Travis' mom Brenda came to town from Illinois and watched Aiden all week (Step-dad Rich got in Wednesday to help in all the baby fun). He got lots of quality Grammy time in and I love it. The best part is I got daily updates on what the two of them were doing. Plus, Brenda took some photos and video that I got to see later. Who would have thought that I would be so excited about the same thing every night: Aiden.

Ironically, a couple days after Brenda got here, Travis' dad Curt was in Houston on a delivery, so we met him for dinner. That was the first time Aiden got to meet his Grandpa Curt!

Curt surprised us with a shaved head and a crazy long beard. If I didn't recognize his walk, I would have wondered who was approaching our truck when we met him at the gas station. LOL! We drove down the street to a little local Mexican restaurant. That was a late night. I think I got to bed a little after midnight and had to be up for work at 5am. Phew, that was rough!

The guys

We went out to dinner at one of those Brazilian meat restaurants where they bring skewered meat to your table every five minutes to slice you off a piece. It ran into Aiden's bed time so I tried unsuccessfully to get him to sleep in the car. This kid is weird. He WILL NOT fall asleep in the car. Occasionally he'll take a short cat nap, but that's all we get.

Family time on the couch.



He's definitely a loved child.

We miss you already Brenda and Rich!! Aiden is loving his new toys!

Thank goodness for c-sections!

Good lord I can't breathe...

19 Pound Baby

Uh MAYBE. But 24?!

This is such a strange story. A woman died soon after giving birth to her son, Moses Goodrich, in Michigan. Her husband decided that since breastfeeding was so important to the both of them, he would find a wet nurse to feed his baby. Turns out, he found 24 wet nurses to take care of Moses.

Before I had Aiden (or BC, Before Child), I would have immediately said this is crazy - stop it. Now, I have to step back for a moment to mull this over. As a nursing mother, I can see how important it is that a child be giving the opportunity to breastfeed. I feel bad that this little guy has lost his mother and therefore did not have her to nurse him and form that bond. That said, I cannot imagine breastfeeding another child. I think that if I had an over supply, I might be willing to pump and give it away. But literally nursing a baby other than Aiden FREAKS ME OUT. I would be so worried about transferring a disease to Aiden.

I think it is insane that this man found TWO DOZEN lactating women within driving distance of his home who were willing to nurse someone else's baby. I understand that it might be necessary to have more than one wet nurse, as these women also need to have enough milk to feed their own child. But 24? Sheesh.

What do you think?

Creepy Crawling (and flying) Critters

This was a heebie-jeebie weekend for me. First off, with all the rain we got a week ago, the mosquito population is shooting through the roof again. I HATE MOSQUITOS. And I feel like I can say that with much more fervor than I used to now that I have a baby. I don't know how many times Travis and I came running to the rescue while a mosquito sat on my son's head and made a meal of him. I mean HOW HORRIBLE IS THAT?! Being bitten by a mosquito but not being able to swat the dang thing off! It has to be torture. Aiden has three red bumps on his head and it kills me that he might have an itch he can't scratch.

THEN. On Saturday, Aiden was lying on his play mat on the floor when he started screaming bloody murder for no apparent reason. It took a good 15 minutes to get him to calm down. Sara and JR were over and Sara even mentioned that her niece did that once and it turned out she got stung by a scorpion. I checked the mat, just in case, but didn't see anything. Several hours later while Travis was holding Aiden, I noticed a big red welt on his calf. After a closer inspection, I realized it was a bug bite of some sort. The lump was hot and Aiden had been fussy all afternoon, so I was worried it was affecting him strongly. Thankfully, the swelling went down and he got better throughout the rest of the day.

Saturday night I found a freaking baby gecko on my bed. Scared the bejeezus out of me. While I was not too ecstatic about it being in my bedroom, no way was I about to smash a lizard. I grabbed a cup, scooped him up and put him in a potted plant on my back stoop. When I was walking back into my bedroom, I saw either a flying ant or a termite walking on the floor. I smashed that one for sure. Our house has already been treated for termites, so I'm not worried about that.

Friday night I saw something run under our bed. I assumed it was one of those gigantic cockroaches, so I sent Sagira in our room to take care of it. Now I'm thinking it might have been that gecko. Which gives me super heebie-jeebies just thinking about the possibility of sleeping with a squishy lizard. As does the "Life Cycle" section on that cockroach link (150 young?! Really?!).

Travis is definitely going to have to spray for bugs and fog the yard for mosquitos. You can't open the door without letting 20 blood-sucking pests inside with you. I'm also thinking about investing in a couple of those super-duper fans like they have at Walmart that blow down on you like a hurricane whenever you walk in the door.

Happy Birthday David!

A friend of mine on Facebook put this comment on his Wall. Too funny. Had to share.

"I bought a humidifier and a dehumidifier. When I'm bored, I'll put them in the same room and let them fight it out."

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!!! Hope your day is grand. =D

Potted Pumpkin

Ariel bought me one of those little plant packs from the Dollar Spot at Target. Since it had simple instructions (just add water), I decided to go ahead and give it a try, despite my very-not-green-thumb. After three days, the pumpkin seedlings were six inches tall! The instructions said to move the plants into the ground once they reached three inches tall. Oops!

They didn't seem to mind though. I was worried about planting anything in the backyard where Callaway would be able to get at them, so I ended up putting them in a pot. Without the support of the bag they were originally grown in, the plants fell onto their side and have turned into more of a vine-like growth. I wonder if I'll have pumpkins by Halloween?

PS - Does anyone watch Weeds? Holy crap I couldn't believe the season finale!! Shane is DARK...

Poor Me

I think I have the flu. Hopefully not swine flu or avian flu or any other zoo flu. I'm hoping for the good old fashioned, plain old flu. I have felt like pure crap for the past two days. This is the first time in my adult life that I can recall having a fever. And I no likey.

I'm going to go ahead and admit here that I was scheduled to have a colonoscopy yesterday (to take a look at the devastation caused by pregnancy and delivery). In case you do not already know the joys of a colonoscopy, I will give you a quick run through of the events leading up to one. The doctor needs your system to be clean in order to use the camera in your GI tract. That means lots and LOTS of laxatives the day before and a clear liquid diet. BARF. I don't think I can smell chicken broth for a long time without getting sick.

Anyhoo, Wednesday I stayed home from work to take care of this laxative and clear liquid diet. I took two pills in the morning and then was supposed to drink 2 liters of some laxative drink that was supposed to do the serious work.

At around noon, I started to feel like pure crap. I was hoping it was just the side effects of not eating and being hypoglycemic. By 1pm, I was exhausted and passed out for two and a half hours. When I woke up, I felt worse, so I decided to take my temperature. The thermometer read 99.7 F. I called the doctor to see if it would be okay for me to go ahead with the drink at 5pm. The nurse said as long as it doesn't get above 100.7, to go ahead with it.

At 5pm, I was feeling worse, if that is possible, so I took my temperature one last time. It was at 101.3F!! YIKES. I tried calling the doctor's office to let them know, but they were already closed. I decided not to take the drink and opted for a sandwich and some Ibuprofen instead. The Ibuprofen helped a lot, but I took some Tylenol a few hours later for good measure.

I'm so thankful I didn't have to go ahead with the laxatives and that colonoscopy. I was seriously dreading it. As if dealing with the clear liquid diet wasn't bad enough. I had to do it at the same time as I was fighting a fever. YUCK.

My fever seems to come and go like waves throughout the day. I've also been battling hot flashes (one of which I am having right now) and the chills. Yucky. Since I was unable to breastfeed Aiden for 24 hours after taking those laxative pills, I told Travis that he had to take care of him 100%. I didn't touch Aiden Wednesday night or Thursday morning. It was torturous. Do you know what it's like to see your baby, but not be able to touch him?!

By Thursday night, I was able to breastfeed, so I went ahead with that. Hopefully I will pass some of my antibodies onto Aiden so he won't get whatever this crap is. Somehow Travis woke up Thursday with a stomach bug. I know it's horrible, but I'm hoping it was just food poisoning, so I don't have to worry about Aiden getting that too. It is so strange that Travis and I should both get really sick at the same time with different illnesses.

The first picture on this page was just begging to be shared. Sara and JR took one like this of Logan when he was still a baby. Travis took the second photo last night. You can get the gist of just how crappy I feel. Hopefully I didn't pass it on to Little Man. I've been pretty crazo about the hand sanitizer (if that stuff even works).

Go Stros!

Last week on Thursday, we went to an Astros game against the Braves. A guy that Travis does work for offered up his season tickets for this game and he has flippin awesome seats. I'm not a huge sports fan, but I could definitely appreciate these seats. We were right behind home plate, in Row 13. Our seats were right on the aisle, so I didn't have to squeeze across people every time I had to go change Aiden's diaper. I was a little bummed to find out President Bush and his weife Barbara weren't at this game because I would have been 20 feet from them!



Travis' co-worker Jeremy, his wife Marlene and their daughter Addison went to the game also.



Daddy was so excited about the game that he ran out and bought shirts for Aiden and I. He had to go to four different stores to find baby Astros gear. He was adamant that his son represent the team!

Aiden did really great the entire game. I tried to get him to sleep since it was way after his bedtime. He only slept for 30 minutes, but I felt good that he at least got in a nap.

Travis and I had hot dogs and a few beers. The lady behind us was super nice, but her voice was super annoying. It was really high pitched and screechy. Hence the reason for Aiden's miniscule 30-minute nap. She thought Aiden was the cutest thing though. I just weeded through the 50 pictures she took of us during the game to pull out these five.

It was a late night. I didn't get to bed until midnight!! Oh well, it was worth it. I got to be there for Aiden's very first major league baseball game!

Cleavage

I am sure he will send me to a nursing home with a crappy reputation someday for this one. It was worth it.

Fatigue

I'm a little bit sleepy today. Since Aiden started sleeping through the night (for the most part) Travis and I have started alternating who gets up with him in the middle of the night if he wakes up. Last night was my night. The worst is when he wakes up right before I have to get up anyway. Today he got up at 4am. I had to pop the pacifier back in his mouth and turn on the womb bear (see photo). He finally fell back asleep after 15 minutes. That gave me 45 minutes to snooze until my alarm went off. ARG.

Last weekend, we kind of wimped out on moving Aiden to his nursery. He kept waking up in the middle of the night and since it was so soon after he had started sleeping through the night, I thought it might be one too many transitions for him all at once. So all last week, we went back to Aiden sleeping in the co-sleeper in our room. He slept like an angel all week.

Then comes this weekend when we decide to give it another try. Sadly, he keeps waking up between 2 and 4am. It's not full-on wide awake, it's a sleepy-cranky awake. Now I'm thinking that he's just having a bit of a hiccup getting used to sleeping in his own bedroom. He takes his naps in there during the day on the weekends just fine. Maybe he's not sure where he is when he wakes up a little in the middle of the night since it is dark? The shadows are different on the ceiling and he can't look over and see me sleeping next to him. Poor booger. =(

We are going to rough it out and hope that he transitions quickly. Mommy is tired. I'm still trying to keep the caffeine in my diet to a minimal. IT'S NOT FAIR.

Cats...

I just wanted to do a quick mention here - my cat (Sagira) spent 30 minutes this morning staring into the reflection of our new TV. I mean literally, sat facing the TV, looking "out" like it was a window. I wonder what she was thinking?

"Wow. Look at how much fun all those people and cats are having in this extremely tinted glass window."

???

The salesman did say the picture was like looking through a glass window...

Soon he will enjoy this

More for Mommy than for Aiden...

Jumparoo from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

Boys and Their Toys

Travis and I splurged on Sunday with all the Labor Day sales. First we headed to Babies R Us to use the coupon they sent us to purchase any remaining items on our registry. Turns out, they gave us a discount on everything we bought - even the stuff that wasn't on the registry! I was a little irritated that I forgot about a gift card I still have from the family up north. That's okay - just means I get to go back soon!

We got a bunch of stuff for Aiden, but mostly things he won't be able to use until he gets a little older. Like a shopping cart/high chair cover (can't use to he can sit up on his own) and a few eating utensils (can't use until he starts eating real food). Gives me something to look forward to I guess. The coupon expired Monday, so I wanted to get the best use out of it. The one thing we bought that we can use right now is a GIGANTIC bath toy holder. When I registered for it online I had no idea of it's gargantuan size. But it's really cute! Check it out here.

Travis and I have a running "joke" that we are disappointed with Aiden because he has was born a Texan. It's not his fault at all. But check him out, supporting his birth state!

"Howdy y'all!"

After Babies R Us, we headed over to Best Buy to make the mother of all purchases. Travis has been poking around for months trying to feel me out about buying a flat screen TV. I've shoved him off repeatedly because I wanted to make sure we could stay afloat with our new addition to the family first. When he kept bugging me about it, I finally told him that he should save up some money and we would buy it at Christmas. Well, the Labor Day sale ads came Sunday morning and that all went out the window.

I pulled out the Best Buy ad and realized that there was no way we could pass up these sale opportunities. We found one for 40% OFF. HOLY COW. We still do not have the HD satellite set up, but I don't think Travis is ever leaving the house again. Why go to the movies when you practically have a movie screen in your living room? WITH SURROUND SOUND.

Travis was like a kid in a candy store. I know it's hard to see the expression on his face, but I swear he stood in the TV section with his eyes glossed over for 30 minutes before coming back to me.

(Aiden was worn out from all the shopping.) It does seem pretty surreal though. We have so much more space in our living room after downsizing from a regular TV. Which means more room for Aiden's toys!! We used to have to walk through our living room like we were stepping over land mines because of all the play mats and the swing. Not anymore!

Travis spent several hours last night "hard wiring" our surround sound so you don't see the wires running along the ceiling. I guess that's one of the perks of marrying an electrician. He didn't think twice about climbing into our tiny attic for the sake of aesthetics.

To celebrate our purchase we are having Ariel and Robert over for a pizza and movie night. I can't wait to test it all out!

I'm telling you though, it will be years before I get all the buttons on the remote figured out. I thought Travis was going to start crying last night when he couldn't figure out how to configure the stereo equalizer. He came to me complaining and I told him he came to the wrong person! All I can do is read the same manual he is. Ugh. Guess he'll be calling the help line again tonight. But if I had to "complain" about anything, I sure am happy its this!

Chocolate Covered Ants

I've decided to postpone weaning Aiden. No idea how long I will go for. I'm just going to take it day by day for now. I enjoy it too much to give it up yet.

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It was a long weekend, so no way am I going to get it all in one post. I would definitely like to mention that Ariel ate live ants this weekend. I should probably start with a little background on my sister: She DOES NOT like waking up. At all. It's funny because every once in a while, Robert and I argue over who has to wake Ariel up when we have plans to go somewhere. No one wants to do it because they know she will bite their head off in her groggy, half-awake state. It's no fun.

In the past year, twice Ariel has placed her cell phone in a glass of water during this groggy, half-awake state. Because she is not quite awake, it is not until three hours later when she finally gets out of bed that she notices what she has done. If anyone would like to donate old cell phones to the Ariel Fund, please let me know. We have already given her two of ours. I told her when we get our new phones in a couple of weeks she has to either get a super duty waterproof phone or get insurance.

Here's where the ants come in. Ariel was in one of those modes where she easily could have placed her phone in a glass of water. Instead, she chose to take a bite of her already half eaten candy bar that was sitting on her night stand. After spending several seconds trying to bang the last bite out of the bottom of the wrapper and only getting crumbs, she opened her mouth to see what the problem was. To her horror, the candy bar was covered in ants. Those were not crumbs she had been eating. They were ants. Immediately she began spitting on her bedroom floor in hopes of removing any that might be left from her mouth. Unfortunately, this pissed them off and they began biting the inside of her mouth. She ran to the bathroom to rinse in the sink. Ariel was so upset she even threw up.

She made it out of the whole ordeal with two bites on her tongue, one on the roof of her mouth and possibly some in her throat. She's not sure if those were bites, or just damage from vomiting. Either way, her tongue swelled up. Thankfully, they were not fire ants. That would have been BAD because we are both pretty allergic to those little buggers. She said they were little and black, so maybe sugar ants? Robert was on his way home from work when this happened, so he was there to take care of her in case the swelling got out of hand. In the end, he only had to take her for ice cream and she had a slight case of speech impediment for the night.

Only in Ariel's world...

We take food seriously in this family

Will Bite if Provoked from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

The B Word

Breastfeeding has been going pretty smoothly for the past few weeks. In the beginning, I told myself I wanted to make it until Aiden was two months before I would start weaning him. Aiden is two months and two days old today and I've been trying to decide what to do. Here are the pros and cons I've been debating:

Pros

• Great bonding time with Aiden
• Healthy for Aiden and me
• Saves money (less formula)

Cons

• Pumping at work is inconvenient (juggling everything to and from work, plus taking time out of my work day to do so)
• Clogged milk ducts are painful (I get one for a day about every other week)
• Occasional pain during feedings
• Limited social activities (I'm not comfortable with breastfeeding in public, so we have to plan accordingly)
• And the selfish one - I can't drink caffeinated or alcoholic beverages without risking a hyper child or a pump and dump (I've read that a pump and dump is not necessary if you have just a drink or two and then feed several hours later, but it still freaks me out).

I have been pumping and freezing milk since Aiden was one week old, so I have a pretty decent stock. (I'm running out of freezer space!) That means he will still be getting breast milk for several weeks, if not months after I wean him.

The other thing I am nervous about is the weaning process itself. I mentioned yesterday that Aiden is sleeping through the night now. That means I'm not feeding through the night - 8 1/2 hours. At about 3 in the morning, things get pretty painful due to engorgement. I cannot roll onto my side without waking up because of the severe discomfort it puts on "the ladies". I was hoping this process would be quicker, but here I am Day 5 with one skipped feed and still in nightly pain. I'm not going to cut out another feed until this one is under control. How long will this take?!

Sweet Consecutive Hours

Aiden has been sleeping through the night since last Friday. For the most part. That means I had EIGHT HOURS OF CONSECUTIVE SLEEP. For the first time in over two months. Amazing.

I read in a few different places that babies under two months old should not go longer than five hours without feeding, so we waited until this past weekend to let Aiden sleep through the night. I used to set my alarm to wake me up at 2am to feed him. We decided to wait until the weekend to see what he would do when left to his own terms. Thankfully, he slept right through the night until 30 minutes before his first morning feeding. We kept him busy for 30 minutes and fed him right on schedule!

Since then, he has mostly kept to his nine hours of sleep. With two exceptions: last night and the night before. For some reason, we decided that we would start putting Aiden to bed without swaddling him for the FIRST TIME EVER. This morning I realized that we are changing too many things at once for the little guy. Back to the night time swaddling it is!! Or at least until he gets used to sleeping through the night.

Each night, he woke up at 1:30am. It took a couple tries of throwing the pacifier back in his mouth to get him to go back to sleep. But that's enough to wear me out for the rest of the day. I am DRAGGING BUTT today. Every time I have to stand up, it takes me about 30 seconds of mental preparation to work up the energy. If I wasn't still breastfeeding I think I would find some nurse willing to give me a permanent caffeine IV drip.

This next weekend we are going to move Aiden to his nursery at night. Up to this point, he has been sleeping in the co-sleeper in our bedroom. He's turning into quite the noisy sleeper and it's keeping me from getting solid sleep. We will still have the baby monitor in use, but hopefully every teeny tiny movement on his part won't bother me as much if he's in the next room. I figure we can change things for him slowly over time. That way maybe he'll be more willing to accept the changes.

I do enjoy having Aiden in our room. It's so easy to roll over and pop that pacifier back in his mouth. And he's right there anytime I want to look at him. Like when he's having one of his horrific nightmares that makes him scream out loud. I can just sit up and make sure he's alive still and all is well! Seriously, he does this. It freaks me out. He never wakes up from it though. ???

On the other hand, I look forward to being able to turn on the light when we go to bed at night. Right now, I get dressed for bed by the light of our little plug-in nightlight. We still watch TV in our room, that doesn't bother Aiden. We still talk in the room, but we are quieter than normal. For the most part, these are all things Aiden can tolerate. We just aren't willing to risk it at night. If we wake him up during the day, I have more energy to get him back to sleep for the rest of his nap. Night time is a different story. Mommy has to get up at 5 for work!!

Supposed to be sleeping

Conversations with Lion from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.