Totally horrible blogger! 18-month update

Yes, I'm dropping in after weeks of agonizing whether I should own up to my shame of not posting in a very long time ... many months.  October, I think?  Sheesh.

Anyway, I went back to work in January and Henry went off to day care.  We both adjusted well.  Henry has adjusted well to my travel schedule and is a fantastic traveler.  He does very well on the flights even though he is now in the "I must scale and crawl on any upright object" phase.  The 2-hour time zone change we have during summer months isn't the best but Henry adjusts fine.  He loves getting to see grandma, grandpa (H calls him papa and made that up on his own) and his cousins regularly. And they love spending time with him too.

Henry is tall (85.4 cm) and heavy (13.5 kg) for an 18-month old so I'm convinced he's going to be a big kid and eat me out of house and home when he's a teenager.  That or he'll have to get a job to pay for the groceries.  He's been quite healthy since his last cold in January and no more bouts of wheezing, thankfully.  My fingers are crossed that he'll outgrow that issue.

He's finally started speaking and repeating things I say to him including 'moo' which he finally said tonight after a long time trying to get him to do it.  For the longest time he would only say about five words and no animal sounds and at his 15-month appointment the nurse practitioner told me they could intervene by 2.  Now he offers a variety of words spontaneously in varying levels of quality depending on the day.  Some days he's clear and others I just get a first consonant out of him.  He loves to answer various versions of 'good' when I ask him how he is.

He's a very physically active kid which will be a good thing down the road.  But he also loves music and books.  He's now started taking a book to bed with him and I don't care since it seems to keep him calm and busy until he finally falls asleep.  Tonight he started repeating 'moo' when I put him in his crib and was still going at it when I walked out of his room.  I heard this thunderous noise not that long after and went in to check afraid he was banging his book on the wall.  No need to worry about the neighbour going nuts from the noise.  Nope.  He was just banging his feet on the end of the crib to check out the sound.  Another thing he loves to do these days especially if it is something that can cause damage.  Oh yes, he's a little go.dzilla, this one.  lol

I'm busy with work, traveling, keeping the yard in order (I did a ton of landscaping in the front this spring) and generally just keeping up with things.  My house is always in a state of mess but I do my best to at least keep the main floor organized lest anyone think I'm a hoarder.  lol  Nah, more like someone who doesn't get the floor vacuumed nearly often enough.  I've gotten into genealogical research and am trying to get back into travel writing as well so that will also be taking up free time. I've also got to figure out how to fit some sort of exercise in there somewhere too.  I weigh less than when I got pregnant but my shape is a little different and I'm in need of some muscle toning.  A little cardio wouldn't hurt either.  I'd love to go for walks in the evening (and that was the plan before the ridiculously hot weather moved in) but that will have to wait until cooler weather appears.

I'm hoping I can do a better job of posting even if it will be a bit sporadic.  Because of my travel schedule I am unable to set a time such as Sunday mornings to post an update because we're often getting ready to catch a flight on Sundays ... well, at least every 2nd week until the end of September.  Until then here's a couple of new photos of the little guy from the day he turned 18 months.

He loves to play in my bathroom in the morning. (July 10, 2013)

I love climbing on the couch!  (July 10, 2013)

House of sickness

We're a house of sickness this week.  After the vomiting episodes (and cat poop incidents) Henry got sick, for real.  Thursday morning he woke up with congestion and as much as I kept hoping it wasn't a cold I just knew it was.  I did my best to keep from getting sick but started feeling it on Friday morning and it just got worse.  And based on my symptoms we don't have a cold, we have some type of influenza.  Just peachy.

Thankfully Henry has been doing really well.  He is mostly full of energy and played a lot through his illness.  Friday he was very clingy and whiny but that was to be expected.  He slept 12 hours Thursday and Friday night.  Which was good because I didn't sleep a wink Friday night even after taking some nighttime cold medication.  Zombie time!  I've been alternating between fever and chills and now that my nose is finally starting to stop running I'm hoping that things will turn around.  Unfortunately, Henry didn't have such a good night last night.  At 12:30 he woke up crying and nothing would console him or help him get back to sleep.  So, I finally decided after multiple tries to take him back to my room and put him on my chest.  That used to be the only way to get him to fall asleep some nights.  He finally settled down but I can't keep a 25 pound child on my chest all night and sleep.  So I had put him between the pillows (with a changing pad under him so he didn't drool all over my bed) and he was none too pleased.  He complained on and off all night finally waking around 5:45.  I fed him a bottle and gave him some Tyl.enol and he eventually fell back asleep.  My fingers are crossed that we'll both have a better night tonight.

Hopefully we'll both be feeling better by Tuesday so that we can go to music class.  We had to miss our first swimming class on Friday.

In better news Henry is now consistently pulling himself up to standing on furniture.  He could do it with the ottoman because it is a bit lower and more sturdy than the sofa.  The sofa cushions are a little soft and that made it more difficult for him to get up as well.  And on Friday he started motoring along the sofa all on his own.  He can't stop himself from falling and banging his head if he loses his balance so we've had a few accidents as of late.

My parents are arriving Wednesday and I'm very much looking forward to having a little help around the house for a while especially as we're not going to be 100% yet.

Nearly wordless Wednesday

Henry hit the 6 week mark yesterday.  Here are some pictures.

After my bath

Putting on a new outfit

Taking a break to stick out my tongue

Having a snooze on mommy's lap

Happy Valentine's Day

I get to spend Valentine's Day with the new man in my life ... Henry.  ;-)

 

 

5 weeks old today!

Today started out really well.  Henry slept from just after 1 am to about 6:30 and followed that up with a good feeding.  He was off to a good 3 hour schedule and gave me time to shower when he fell asleep this morning.  It didn't matter much that he had diaper accidents again today ... he's growing out of newborn diapers and isn't quite wide enough for the next size up hence the accidents. 

And then some time in the afternoon he decided that today would be a cluster feeding day!  He's been on the breast most of the day since I ate lunch.  He falls asleep from time to time then wakes up and munches away.  And if he wakes up unlatched or I take him off in his sleep and he wakes up he just cries.  I'm not quite sure how things are going to go tonight.  Hopefully we can both get some sleep but if not we don't have to go anywhere tomorrow. 

I managed to get a rare shot of Henry with his leg fully extended in his sleeper, this one gently used by my nephew and so cute I've been trying to get a good photo of him in it:

I say rare because usually Henry does this:

I like to pretend I have no legs!

He does a good 'mermaid' look and he even has a Flipper version too.  lol  I think it is cute and it has turned out to be very practical.  We're getting extended use out of his smallest sleepers.  If he kept his feet where they should be he'd have already outgrown his first 2 sizes of sleepers already.

The Queen of Poo

First, the good news.  Henry finally figured out how to breastfeed with us both lying in bed.  Yay!  That is progress.  After a late night I had no energy to feed him sitting up so I tried this yet again.  He fussed and was frustrated for quite a while but he eventually figured it out.  He did fall asleep after about half an hour which was great. 

When I finally woke up from my in and out of sleep - as I usually do when he's in bed with me - I started getting things ready for when he woke up ... cleaning my pumping supplies and nipple shield, popping my oatmeal in the microwave, feeding the cat, etc.  Henry woke up and gave me a couple big smiles ;-) but then proceeded to give me his poop face.  You know what that is, I'm sure.  I didn't want to change him in the middle of a pooping episode so I kept on working on my stuff.  I came back later and discovered he'd had a blow out.  Again.  The good news is that it was a good colour and consistency, also a bit of an issue with him so I'm happy when he has good poop.

While dealing with this spectacular mess (down his leg and up his back) I wondered whether I should have done things differently I realized my options were:

1. Change him in the middle of his pooping episode and risk him spraying his poop everywhere during a particularly gassy episode.
2. Do what I did and let him poop it out and risk a major blow out. 
3. Grab him before he started actively pooping to skip the blow out but possibly risk scenario #1 and waste another diaper.

I went with #2 and decided after the fact that it was probably the best option.  Yes, his clothes need a soaking before washing but at least he didn't poop all over my bed.

Between this little guy and my cat I am the Queen of Poo.  ;-)

33 days

Last night, for the first time ever Henry did not cry during his bath.  Thank you!  He hates it every time he is in the little tub.  I was scared of bathing him alone because I was worried about his head falling in the water.  But now that he is a little older it is going better.  He even watched what was going on in the mirror during his bath.

I'm slowly getting into a routine which is super important for us because we have zero, and I mean zero, help.  I have no family close to me and all my friends work so it isn't like I can just call for help or show up at my parents' place on a bad day ... like my sister can and frequently does.  *sigh*  Henry is helping with the routine too. Now that he is older and is gaining weight, his body is working better.  He fluctuates between a 3 and 4 hour cycle depending on the time of day and longer at night.  I was so happy that I was able to get 2 (yes, count them - 2!) loads of laundry done yesterday.  One I didn't have much choice in because he needed his clothes washed - one diaper blow out too many.

Some things I have noticed (and can relay now that I have 5 minutes and the cat isn't wanting my attention):

• I have no idea what colour Henry's eyes are.  His eyes were a deep steel blue when he was born but they look dark grey now.  I still think they're going to turn brown but my mom is convinced he'll end up with hazel eyes.  Mine are brown and the donor's are hazel.  So, who knows?
• His eye shape is most definitely not from our family.  We have smallish eyes that are more on the deep set side.  Henry has really round eyes that get super huge when he wants to focus on something.  Or scare mommy in the middle of the night by opening them when she checks to see if he is sleeping after trying to get him to sleep.  Scary because it reminds me of a creepy horror movie doll whose eyes pop open in the dark ... just to scare you.  I almost jumped when he did this over a week ago when my mom was out of town overnight.  Horror movie ... honestly!
• Henry is seriously long.  He was 21.5 inches when he was born and I noticed immediately that his legs were super long.  Then his fingers, then his feet.  My aunt pointed out that he also has a long torso.  Without ever seeing the donor I can't tell anything about his build other than what he put in his profile.  He said he was 6 feet tall and his sister is 5'11" so this little guy could be plenty tall when older.  He is still super skinny, though.  We're going to have to move up in diapers soon simply because the others are getting too short.
• He came out with the most manicured thumbnails I've ever seen on a baby.  On the end of super long thumbs.  
• This little guy is a super snuggler.  He loves to snuggle and it is sometimes the only way he'll fall asleep.  On my chest.  I try not to do it too much but once in a while he won't fall asleep any other way.  
• He's very good at making a pouty sour face when he's mad.  
• Right from day 1 Henry was very interactive, lifting his head to check out our faces when we talked.  He still does this. I call him nosy just like my niece who would refuse to nap if she heard the slightest sound when we tried to get her to sleep.  He notices everything!
• He loves his FP vibrating chair along with the animals on it.  Thank goodness because this is the only way I seem to get a shower in.  If he doesn't sleep during the day (which is typical) he goes in the seat in the bathroom and I turn the vibration thing on.  He is usually content in the chair the entire time I'm showering and sometimes falls asleep in it.  Like today.  Yay!
• This kid would sleep through the night if I let him.  Probably a serious 9-10 hours. But since he's had some trouble gaining weight I don't get to let him sleep that long.  So the max he gets is about 5 - 5.5 hours at night. But that allows me to feel more human, thankfully.
• He absolutely hates his car seat but loves car rides.  Good thing!

Anyway, here a couple little photos to keep everyone updated.

Hanging out on the couch - I'm 4 weeks old!

Getting ready to take grandma to the airport so she can go home.

I'm happy to say that I booked our first plane tickets today.  We'll be going home for a visit in late April/early May and will stay for Mother's Day.  My niece will be very excited to meet this little guy.