I ♥ Puffy Vest Weather

Fall is officially here in Chicago and I love it. I like to call this time Puffy Vest weather. There is a very short window here when one can walk outside, wearing long sleeves & a puffy vest. It's the perfect tempurature - crisp, often sunny and just right. H has a puffy vest too :-)

8 Month Roundup

H is now 8 months old! It's a pretty happy time for him, he's mobile, relatively easy going and not too tough to handle (not that he doesn't have his moments!). Unofficially he weighs 17.2 pounds. Not sure how long he is, but he is one tall guy - I swear his feet almost reach my knees when I carry him in the Bjorn! We've been bad about taking photos on each monthly "birthday", but here's a lovely shot of what we see most these days - H crawling like crazy, often after the dog!

Other things going on with HDog at 8 months:

• no teeth yet, but plenty of times when we attribute crabbiness with impending teeth
• wears size 6-12 month clothes and has started wearing shoes
• eats 3 meals day & has tried baby oatmeal, baby rice cereal, peas, green beans, carrots, squash, sweet potatos, apples, pears, blueberries, raspberries, bananas, plums, and probably a few more I'm forgetting
• likes to play with Cheerios, but not eat them just yet
• naps twice a day, for about 1 1/2 hours each time
• is way too cool for the exersaucer
• crawls at break neck speed
• likes to pull up on things, often just to his knees, but sometimes to standing
• loves to read books
• has his mattress dropped all the way down and bumpers removed
  

ilee letterpress calendars

I adore these calendars! I heard about them last year somewhere on-line and purchased one for myself, my best friend Courtney & my Granny. Well, Granny just requested the 2008 version! If you can't tell from the picture - it stands up in a little plastic case just like those that hold a cd. A beautiful little addition to a boring workplace desktop ;-)

New Home

I've done LiveJournal.
I've done MySpace.
I've done Facebook.

And probably some others I cannot remember. I'm done.
I've decided I want my own space.

So here it is. Heaven In A Paper Cup. Because some days, the only thing that keeps me going, is a delicious Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks.

I hate saying "No"

Since having Henry, I'm realizing I need to learn to say "No". It's so hard. There are many, many things I'd like to do, but by accepting more things, I'm only stressing myself out. Unfortunately, I'm still bummed to pass by things I'd like to do. Such as:

1) Take on more new people at Junior League. They need help with some of the women joining in January. I'd love to jump in and help because I've always enjoyed working with new members.
2) Get back to volunteering with Off the Streets Club. I used to at a minimum, attend the 3rd Thursday program where we take a bus from downtown to the club on the 3rd Thursday of each month. I'd spend the evening hanging out and having dinner with the kids. They are such a great group. I miss them.
3) Join our condo board. It's currently filled with old farts who are so out of touch (except my neighbor) with what most people I know would like to see happen for our great association.
4) Work out. Ummm - yeah, maybe if I skipped sleeping?

I'm sure there are zillion other things, but those are what come to mind right now. I just started reading I was a really GOOD MOM before I had kids.


Seems like a pretty funny story about how everyone tries to be SuperMom and how it's okay to be frazzled and how to deal with it!

Bad Karma

So I'm wondering what I've done that has caused me to have SUCH a bad stretch of luck. Really it's just two things that have gone wrong, but they are things that have caused much stress.

1) Went down to pick up H's 6 month photos from this fancy photographer we used and once I started looking through the book, I realized that half the photos were missing. Gone. And the photographer cannot find them. So, capturing H at 6 months was only half done. And I feel like the second half was probably better than the first. We took pictures of him in this great hat that he wears, in natural light, with a brick wall behind him. Poof. Gone.

2) I spent $460 on medication for our dog Annie. Took it to the secondary pharmacy to have it compounded (broken down and redistributed into the dose she needs) and the pharmacy liquified all the medication. AND blames me for it. I got half of the meds in the form we need and then got into a HUGE argument with the guy at the pharmacy. There are way more hairy details than this, but I can't bring myself to write it all. I'm so pissed about it that I cannot stop thinking about it and I'm afraid the stress is taking years off my life! I just can't get over the fact a)that are holding their ground that I am lying (or not remembering) b)that they were so incredibly rude and c)we stil don't have the full $460 worth of meds we started with. Ugh.

I think I need to go volunteer some time, money, something to make things right in the world. Because I could really use a friggin' break!

Annie on the Mend

Whew! It has been the craziest couple of weeks. Last week was probably one of the most stressful weeks of my life. Here's the long story:

Three weeks ago we took Annie to the vet because she had some weird little lumps all over the place. I had changed her food to a new organic blend, so our vet looked at her, diagnosed it as hives and sent us home with a prescription steriod for her. Fast forward one week. Annie starts limping and by Wednesday morning, can barely get out of her crate. Trip number two to the vet reveals a soft tissue injury, but no break. They also re-checked the weird lumps and found a sore on her that had some yeast, so we went home with another round of steriods, anti-biotics and pain medication.

Fast forward to last week. She starts limping again, but now two paws appear lame - her front right and her back left. She can barely walk. So that puts us at last Monday (8/20) and another trip to the vet. We end up with full body x-rays, blood work, cytology for the lumps and a fungal titer. $725. Ouch. The vet suspects some craziness called Blastomycosis. Tuesday morning the vet calls back - bloodwork is normal. By Tuesday afternoon, Annie is having trouble breathing. It was SO scary. I stayed up pretty much all night Tuesday into Wednesday and rushed her to vet as soon as they opened on Wednesday. I felt like I was laying at home watching my dog die.

Ended up that yes, Annie has Blastomycosis. It's a fungal infection that dogs inhale from spores of dirt. It's deadly. We really thought we were going to lose her. She spent all day Wednesday through Friday hospitalized. Friday after lunch she came home. She is doing so much better now, but we still have a long road ahead of us. She is on an anti-fungal med and will need to be for at least 6 months. That medication can damage her liver so we have to check that frequently.

She is now barking and looking out the window like her old self. She gets winded pretty easily, but doesn't seem to be in pain, which is great!

6 months

Well we made it to six months! HDog hasn't been dropped on his head, or met any other unfortunate fate, so I think we are all surviving! At his six month check-up he was 15 lbs 4 oz (25%) and 28 1/2 inches (95%)! Things he does these days:

- Sleeps through most nights 7:30 p.m. until 6 a.m.
- Babbles a few consonants, including what kinda sounds like Mama

- Tries like mad to crawl, pulls his knees up under him like crazy, but

also gets frustrated because he can't get anywhere!
- Blows raspberries

- Enjoys time in his Exersaucer, but gets frustrated when he can't get

things in his mouth

- Can sort of situp, tripod style for short periods of time

- We moved to the Britax carseat a while ago (around 5 mths), no

more infant seat for H!

- Started solids last week, just some rice cereal, but he is already

eating the full 1 TBLs, not without a lot of mess on his face though

- Loves to be outside, just stepping out on the deck will calm him down

- No teeth yet, but he is drooling up a storm!

Annie is one smooth dog.

So last night I got up to feed Henry and when I put him back down he was wide awake. So needless to say, we were awake for nearly an hour from 4-5 a.m.

Annie was just at the vet yesterday and got some meds for hives. So she was sleeping with us last night since she took new meds. She was sort of moving around and wouldn't settle while Henry was crying. So I grabbed her so she would spoon with me. That lasted a few minutes and she flipped over and put her back against Zach (leaving me w/her scratchy paws - thanks!). Then, she wiggled her whole body further upward until......she got her head onto Zach's pillow!!!! I started laughing! Zach just bought this crazy expensive pillow that he loves and the dog wants a piece!

Last night was not her first adventure in sleeping with a pillow:

And no, I did not put her there!

Happy HDog in his PJs!

Feelin' guilty that I was grumbling over H so much yesterday...so - this little guy (aka Happy HDog) is what makes it all worth it!

The giant plastic uglies that rule my life...

Feeling kinda grumpy today because we had a rough weekend with Henry. And we've been "messing" aka training his sleep, and it's not going well so I'm completely wiped out. Cranky Henry is NO FUN. Other people comment on how fun their children are at this age (5 months this weekend), but it's tough for me to "enjoy" him when I feel like half my day is him yelling at me :-( Other people's babies are laughing and smiling...mine is grumbling and screaming. Ugh. So, in more attempts to keep little bugger happy, we are now the proud owners of this "little" number...

And for the record, it's the MOST expensive one on the market and ZACH insisted we get this one. There was another one with nearly identical toys, that was $20 cheaper. Zach went so far as to do best 2 out of 3, rock-paper-scissors with me and he won. So most expensive exersaucer is now Henry's.

The Police Reunion Tour stops at Wrigley Field

Z & I scrounged up last second babysitters (props to Z's coworkers C&C!) and hit the street to drum up Police tickets. Well, we didn't find tickets, but we really hadn't started to look when we ran into Z's coworker S. She was headed for the rooftop of Sports Corner & had one extra ticket! A quick talk with the doorman, and probably a bit too much cash later, we were up on the rooftop! I'm not a huge Police fan, but it really was a great concert. All their old favorites, a beautiful night and a great view into Wrigley. I tried to take a couple photos with my camera phone, but they all sucked. Here's a shot I found on-line that was our exact vantage point - pre-concert - not too shabby!

Happy 5th of July!

So it's a day late, but Happy 5th of July! We had a great weekend. Spent time downstate at the Floatilla and then took Monday & Tuesday off work to just relax. Z did more work than he should have, but all in all it was good. Yesterday we finally met little Nolan (my friend Rachel's baby who was born preemie at 30 weeks) and had a little cookout. Now I'm trying to "work" for two days before the weekend. Yeah...right...

My jeans! Yippee!!!

After much hard work, today I decided to try on my old jeans again. They fit!!!! Yippeee!!!! They are still a bit snug, but not the obscene/shouldn'twearthemout/spillingoverthetop that they used to be :D

GO ME!!!!

Very long little man...

H, as of his 4 month check up, is 26 1/2 inches long! That is in the 95 percentile. He is only in the 25% for weight so he is long and skinny. Took this photo this morning - legs too long for his overalls and feet hanging over the bouncy seat!

Love the FISHES!!!

Like crack for a baby...the FISHES!!!



We just received this ugly, plastic, non-crib matching, music playing, light-up, bubbling fish thingee. And he LOVES it. I turn it on each time we lay him down to sleep. Even if he wakes back up as we lay him down, he is mesmerized by it's soft twinkly music, the moving fish and the bubbles. Heck - the thing could put me to sleep. People tell that as their kids get older, they start hitting the button themselves. We may run into the poor house from buying D batteries (how can a sophisticated device like an ipod run on a teeny tiny battery, but this plastic contraption requires 3 giant D batteries!?!?), but Happy H is worth it!

Sleep Smackdown

Well, Z is still out of town and I'm still tired. So last night I thought I'd try a different tactic. I fed H at his normal 7:30/8ish and put him to bed easily. Then, around 10, when I was ready to go to bed I decided to go with the dreamfeed (pick him up still asleep & rouse him just enough to eat) to see if doing this would eliminate a wake-up. Dreamfeed went well - took 3.5 oz and drifted back off to sleep easily. Off to bed I went.

At 12:15 - guess who's awake?!?! So I went to check on him. Not stinky. Not in a weird place in his crib. Just fine. Now I'm convinced little man just wants me and my trusty bottle to come & put him back to sleep. And thus the smackdown begins. I wasn't really planning on it, but I just decided to go for it. I didn't pick him up, I patted him a bit, offered a paci (which he didn't take & never will if he's mad) and then left. He got quiet for a second and then the wailing began! It was solid for about 12 minutes. Then quiet. Then on & off for another 15 or 20 or so. Then little man conked out. It was not easy. I laid there with my jaw clamped so tight I nearly gave myself a headache. I almost gave in at one point. But I reminded myself it was worse to go back in, because it would only start the cycle over and he would only learn that if he cried long enough I would come.

He was up again around 2. But it was interesting - he didn't escalate to the extremely loud wail he had been doing lately. I was able to get up, heat a bottle and then go in after I had the bottle ready. I figured at 2 a.m. it had been 4 hours since he last ate, so I'd feed him then. I took a long time feeding him, paused midway through and changed his diaper (which he wasn't too keen on since I don't normally change him in the middle of the night) to wake him back up a bit so he'd eat plenty. He took a solid 4.5 oz and drifted back off to sleep with just a tiny bit of fussing. And the best part - he didn't get up again until 6:50 a.m.!!!

As tough as all this way - I think we are heading down the right path. As much as I hate putting the smackdown - it's going to be better for HDog in the long run!

4-month sleep regression a.k.a. HELL

Well, after being a pretty darn good sleeper, H has decided to go back to getting up multiple times a night. At least 2. I was doing great with just one. One time a night was totally manageable, allowing me at least one 4 hour chunk of sleep, sometimes 5 and then another 2 to 3 hour chunk. It was beginning to feel like a normal amount of sleep, and I had learned to function pretty darn well on that.

I am back to googling every resource on infant sleep and discovering that this regression is NORMAL. Ugh. Not fun. Apparently it means he is gearing on all sorts of new skills that occur around 19 weeks, so since we are at 16 weeks as of today (yay! 4 months!), it means we've got a few more weeks of this waking up crap. Double UGH.

Henry is starting to laugh!

Can't wait to read...

Coming my way via Bookins! I can't belive someone has bought it, read it and put it up for trade already, but I'm excited! Kinda hoping it gets here before Henry & I leave for East Hampton on Thursday, but I'm not going to cross my fingers...

Good Friends

We had a really great weekend. Friday night Uncle Will & Aunt Amanda came over and watched our man H. Z & I went out together for the first time since he was born! We attended a wedding for one of his co-workers. The wedding was outside, downtown in the Rose Garden in Grant Park. Beautiful ceremony with perfect weather! Then the reception was at the Swisshotel. Really nice and good food - even if we only made it to about 10:30 p.m. We were so tired we thought we might pass out at our table!

Saturday morning, H decided to sleep late - until 7:30! Of course he chose this day, when we needed to get up and get moving to do so. We hopped on the road around 8 a.m. and headed downstate. At high noon, we, along with a bunch of other family & friends, surprised my bestest friend, C with a congratulatory party since she just finished her masters degree. She was genuinely surprised! It was so much fun! It was so great to see them all and H to meet her "aunt" ;-)

C & I love that our husbands actually like each other. And really sincerely enjoy hanging out, which isn't always the case with good friend's spouses. Obviously the men are having no trouble since they took off for several hours to the local winery and returned sufficiently drunk!

Packages

I love getting things in the mail!!!! Letters, postcards and even more so - packages. It makes me happy. I look forward to the UPS guy, the Fedex guy and sometimes even the postal worker (I loathe USPS as a general rule). So, today will be a good day because these goodies are arriving:

Lovely brown/cream zebra print bathing suit
from Land's End that will camoflauge
my post-baby belly during Henry & I's
Memorial Day trip to East Hampton:

I hate that all H's clothes are crazy with prints & animals & other stupid things, so when I discovered American Apparel sold solid, non-pastel colored baby clothes I was all over it. These pants are coming for H in black, white, brown, navy & red and these onesie's in brown, navy & red:

Z & I have a wedding to go to on Friday night. It will be our first big night out together since H arrived! The wedding will be outside in Grant Park's Rose Garden if the weather cooperates. We bought the bride & groom these monogrammed wine stoppers & a $100 GC to Binny's Beverage Depot:

Like I said, today will be a good mail day :-)

Three months later...back to work...

Can you believe we are three full months from Valentine's Day?! H is three months old today and I'm now back at work. I'm working from home 5 days a week and we've hired a nanny, Katie, to be here at the condo watching H. And already, as you can read, I'm working very hard ;-)

Not to bombard you with H photos, but I do think he looks rather smashing in his Beatles t-shirt...

Whew!

Well, now that I've entered the proper post that he has arrived, I can update on our journey & our lives since the little man arrived!

It has been a LONG, tough couple of months, but the fog is starting to clear. H is now 11 weeks old, weighs nearly 12 pounds and is becoming more predictible and more fun. He smiles lots in the morning and really enjoys his bouncy seat (read: time for me to shower and get things done!) and his activity mat.

Today our nanny, Katie, started. I have such mixed feelings about it - letting someone else care for H, but I have to go back to work next week. I will be working from home 5 days a week so I will be here, but just not with H all the time. She is putting him down for a nap right now. It's weird having someone else do things with him. I'm not worried about her hurting him - I really like Katie, but I guess I feel guilty and jealous at the same time. Oh well.

I have such mixed feelings between getting my life back to some version of it's old "normal" and not having much time with H!

Who'd want to leave this?!

Baby B has arrived!

Well, it happened! This is LONG overdue, but here are his stats for posterity:

H. T. B.
Born February 14, 2007 at 11:53 p.m.
7 pounds 15 ounces
20 1/2 inches

Labor started at 6 a.m. on Valentine's Day. We went to the hospital around 10 a.m., after I had showered and eaten a lovely Eistein Bagel and had my favorite, a Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks We checked into triage, where they determined that yes, in fact, my water had broken. The only bad thing - I'm not sure when it happened, so it was slow leak and they worry about infection when that happens.

After a couple hours of monitoring, we moved to Labor & Delivery. Contractions really weren't that bad. Not the most fun thing ever, but not bad. I won't get into all the gory details, but I started pushing around 9 p.m. and nearly 3 hours later Mr. H (or HDog as we like to call him) arrived!

9 MORE DAYS?! Get out of my belly!

Well, now I'm done. Little guy is fully "cooked" and I'm ready for him to come out. Techincally there are 9 (well really 8 - there are only 2 hours of day 9 to go as I write this) more days until my due date, but I'm puffy, huge & uncomfortable. Baby B's being paged to the outside world and he needs to answer soon!

I blame my OB. I figured I'd go a full 40 weeks. Then I went in at 36.5 weeks and she said - we have 1 cm, 70 effacement and his head is at station -1. In non-prego speak, she said - I think he will be here in the next two weeks. Well, the end of that "next two weeks" was this Wednesday. When I saw her at 37.5 - she said she didn't think she would see me for my next appointment - which again, was this Wednesday. A full moon, suspected to send pregnant women into labor, has come and gone! I'm now at 3 cm and wondering how it's physically possible for me to cruise around like that?!

And so I wait. Wednesday I got a fresh pedicure. Today I got a haircut. I strolled the aisles of T.J. Maxx at a slow pace over lunch because walking was sort of painful. I made Z take me to Target tonight for more walking/shopping. I am ready. And waiting. The car seat is installed & in the car. The tiny clothes are washed. The diapers are in the dresser. Beetle B. - come on down!

Room for the "Beetle"

Well folks, here it is - little "Beetle" B's new room! First his "closet", glider & book bin (curtains compliments of Nana):

Next his changing table/dresser - the shelf pegs above it will eventually have toys hanging from them to entertain the little man while having his diaper changed. And I'm working on some artwork to set on top of the shelf. And beyond that - a close-up shot of his crib. There was still to much "stuff" lying around his crib for me to take the full on shot. But you get the idea. We will be putting up wooden letters spelling out his name hung with strips of fabric that match his crib once he arrives.

And lastly, I've included this older picture in this post because it shows off his rug, that sort of brings this all together.

31 days - almost fully cooked!

Crazy, but this little ticker thing that I look at to let me know how far along I am has just jumped to the last little picture. Just 31 days to go! I'm in nesting overdrive. Went to the Dr. this week - everything is still normal and looking good. No signs of impending labor so for now, we are still shooting for February 17.

Continued countdown...40 days to go...

Ack! Only 40 days to go. The first half of being pregnant went by so slow and now it is rushing at warp speed. Probaby because I'm getting a bit panicked about having everything ready!

My lovely friend Erin had a shower for my this weekend. Here's a run down of some of the loot we received for the baby:
Save our knees bathing stool & bathing seat:









Grooming set & a fabulously soft blanket (can adults have these!?):









Rainforest print bouncer & mobile (which I might switch for a different one - haven't decided):










Ugly, yet necessary pack-n-play:









And the big gift - our big carseat for once we are done with the infant carrier:

There were also tons of onesies, crib sheets, books, a few toys, some grooming products, etc. I was so proud of my friends - even though we know we are having a boy I didn't receive a zillion blue outfits & blankets!

I also placed an order through Amazon.com on Sunday night. We had $250 in GC's to Amazon, who luckily is affiliated with Target. So I ordered:

Diaper genie & refills
Snap & Go stroller frame (for the infant carseat Pam loaned us)
A fancy dual monitor (that hopefully I can still use outside when I take Annie out!)
A clothes hamper
Mustela 2 in 1 body & hair wash

Whew! All in all it was a big wonderful weekend for us. My Mom brought tons of stuff - the bouncer & mobile were from her, plus two sleepers. And she brought the bassinet for us to use, along with new sheets/liners for it. She also made curtains for the nursery that turned out so cute. I'll post pictures of those soon - need to get more stuff put away in the nursery first. Next we really need a mattress for the crib so I can get his bed put together!