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My birthday was on Friday and Joe arranged for our neighbor to take Colin for a couple of hours so that he could make me a fantastic dinner that we could eat outside on our patio with a bottle of wine and no baby care interruptions.  He also scared the shit out of me by sneaking in through the door in our bedroom (we have an inexplicable door to the outside in our bedroom) to bring me flowers.  I was doing the 30 day shred in the living room when I heard a crash in the back of the house.  I panicked, thinking that the baby swing had fallen or something but I never heard Colin crying.  By the time I got back there Joe was coming in with a huge grin on his face and a bouquet of flowers.  Jerk.  

He was equally wonderful on Mother's day, when I got an elaborately prepared breakfast and a solitary ticket to a Nationals' game next month.  He was all smiles as he said "and I'll watch the baby."  I tentatively smiled back, not wanting to seem ungrateful, but all the while looking for a second ticket.  "And..." I said, "I have to go by myself?"  "And I'll watch Colin!" Joe beamed?  I must have looked really pained because he said all slyly "maybe you should call Lisa and see what Matt got her for Mother's day!"  So Lisa and I will be off drinking beers and taking in some baseball and sun while the guys watch the boys!  Nice!  Lisa also pointed out that at least they picked a weekend that isn't Father's day for the game, because that would have been kind of funny.

All in all an awesome weekend, topped off by a Red Wings win and another night of sleeping for 9 solid hours by Colin.  Well done, boys.

Holy. Crap.

I don't know what we did last night, but we're going to try to recreate it every night from now on because Colin?  Slept for 9 hours straight.  Nine.  As in more than three.

I guess he was tired?  I woke up at 5 am drenched in breast milk and did not even care because I was sleeping uninterrupted.  Colin finally started fussing at 7 so I got him up and changed him, then fed him (whilst spraying him in the face with my uncontrollable milk oops) Joe and I played with him for awhile, and then he started fussing and fell back asleep.  He's now been napping for an hour.  

Joe asked if I thought he was ok, and I said he's fine.  He's just finally inheriting his mother's sleep patterns I guess.  Awesome.

Pure Awesome

Someone has finally figured out how to amuse himself.  

Also, saw himself in the mirror and totally grinned at his reflection.  Vanity...he gets it from his mother's side.

Who Needs Sleep?

I am exhausted.  Colin had a rough week of only sleeping a few hours at a time, and even though the past two nights he's slept in 4-hour intervals I'm still just tired.

Also, dieting is hard.  This just in!  But seriously.  I've been doing the 30 day shred, which is great, and I still can't get through all of level 1 without panting and wheezing and having to take multiple breaks during the strength circuits, but I think nursing and trying to lose weight don't really mix.  I'm always wanting to snack, and we have no food at our house because 1) diet and 2) I haven't been to the store, so I end up just eating whatever I can find because I'm bored and hungry.  Which is why I'm currently eating a box of cheezits I found from when my mom was here, um, a month ago, and a can of pop (diet!) that I found in the back of the cupboard from who knows when.  

I tried to get a nap in by lying with Colin and nursing him but he fell asleep and I was freezing but didn't have a blanket so finally just got up and came to bum around on line while he's out.

Annoyance of the day: I called a national bridal chain store to take my bridesmaid dress in to get altered and they told me to come in this afternoon.  I got all the way there, dress and shoes and baby in tow, and they told me they won't alter the dress because it wasn't purchased at their store.  RAGE!  Then why didn't they just say so on the phone when I asked if they did alterations??  Argh.  

Sad tidbit of the day: Colin got his vaccinations yesterday and the poor little guy was miserable last night.  The doctor told me to give him tylenol if he was "hot and irritable" and I laughed because that pretty much describes him every evening.  He wanted to be held but didn't want his sore legs touched and would doze off only to wake up screeching.  So I dosed the tylenol into his little chipmunk cheek as he cried and he stopped, swallowed, and gave me the most incredulous look.  Obviously breastmilk does not come in cherry flavor.

It has been cold and rainy here for almost a week straight and I'm getting sick of it.  It was a welcome change after the 90 degree temps, but now I would like to go out for a walk just to get out of the house without having to worry about getting soaked in the process.  

Wow, I'm a complainer today.  Off to have some more cheezits and hopefully take a nap!

I'm back

Hi!  You know how the longer you go without blogging the harder it is to get back into it because there's so much that you've neglected to say?  Well, we're there.

You see, we've been really busy around here growing and learning to smile and drink from a bottle and sleep in the crib and outgrowing half of our 0-3 month clothes at the grand old age of 7 weeks.  It's exhausting.

There has also been a lot of playoff watching.  Between the Red Wings and the Capitals and daddy's Orlando Magic, there has been hardly a dull evening around here and thus no time to play around on the computer.
We've also been overrun with visitors.  Uncle Mike came to visit, and then Joe's sister was here, and this week Joe's dad is in town, and really I haven't had any time to sit and play on the computer.  And when I do I'm much more into catching up on emails and reading all of your blogs because how do I start to explain how my little chipmunk is growing up way too fast already?  Who has time to rush and grab the camera when the baby is smiling with his entire body as I tickle his tummy and boop his nose?  I don't think to run to the computer when he finally (finally!) learns to drink from a bottle and gulps loudly while looking at me with the most astonished eyes as the same milk he loves comes not from mama but some weird plastic nipple.  And when my big boy sleeps 4 whole hours in his crib without waking up screaming that I'm not there my first thought is to call my mom and marvel over how mature he is rather than try to remember my blogger login.

I should, however, be updating more because things are going by so quickly and I'm never going to remember everything we do.  Like my brother showing up in a striped golf shirt and me immediately sorting through Colin's clothes (boy has so many outfits) to find the one that matches and make them pose for photos together.  

And can we seriously discuss that this boy is wearing 3-6 month onesies?  Gerber just makes super small clothes, right? And some of the other brands too?  Because I swear my boy isn't actually that huge.  

His two month (two month!) appointment is on Monday and I'm dying to know how much he weighs.  As close as I can figure from holding him with me on the scale he's somewhere between 10 and 11 pounds.  Did I tell you that our neighbors had a daughter exactly two weeks before Colin was born?  And we ran into them the other day and she is so so tiny and way smaller than Colin?  

Oh, and I should mention that I jumped on the bandwagon and bought the 30 day Shred dvd and Jillian totally kicked my flabby out of shape ass yesterday.  As soon as Colin shows promise of sleeping more than 20 minutes today I'm going to try it again.

Oh!  And it's been like 90 degrees here half the week and Colin has decided it's fun to nurse every 2 hours again.   Growth spurt?  Thirsty from the ungodly heat?  Any ideas?  I haven't even been pumping because there just isn't enough to make it worth my while by the time the boy is done nursing.  I know he's getting enough when he eats because he's satisfied when he's done, I just can't tell if he's growing and needs me to up my supply or he's just super thirsty all the time

Ah, and there he is up from his snooze.  Time to run!

Ramble

The parade of family members continues!  My brother left about half an hour ago to drive back home to South Carolina after visiting for the weekend, and I'll pick Joe's sister up at the airport this afternoon.  Never a dull moment.  

It was wonderful having last week on my own, but it was also great watching my brother meet his nephew for the first time.  He didn't change any diapers or make us dinner or anything, but he was great for bouncing the baby when he cried and explaining hockey playoffs to a one-month old and drinking all our beer.  I'm glad to have my house back (if only for a day) but I'm also sad Mike had to go already.

In other news, we've been working on getting Colin to take a bottle and we've had some success.  At first we had a few days of trying to introduce the bottle only to be met with frantic cries and flailing limbs and screams that were only comforted by the real thing.  Which I then read not to do, since rewarding a bottle refusal immediately with the breast only reconfirms that the baby doesn't need the bottle.  Harrumph.  Then we thought maybe Colin just didn't like the Avent bottle/nipple that came with my pump, so we sterilized and tried a Playtex bottle someone gave me for a shower.  Joe had minimal success with that, but most of it ended up down Colin's sleeper and not in his mouth.  On day four, after trying all the things the books recommended about having me out of the room and introducing the bottle when the baby isn't frantically hungry etc etc. I finally realized that at a certain time in the afternoon Colin tends to be pretty zen and happy (for once) to take a pacifier and just hang out with it.  So while he was content in his bouncy seat with his plug in his mouth I pumped, poured the milk from the Avent bottle into the Playtex one, waited for him to drop his plug, and then promptly replaced it with the bottle and....he gulped down an ounce and a half while looking at me curiously then realized it was all gone and started crying for more.  So I picked him up and nursed him and he was happy and I was happy and I emailed pictures of the bottle session to Joe at work and submitted my nomination for Mother of the Year.  And then Joe got home and we tried to give him a bottle and...screams and flailing and not having it.

Since then we've had successes and failures and it really depends on when you try to give him a bottle and yesterday he took an ounce that I had just pumped and then we frantically warmed up another ounce and then another two ounces as our hungry boy just wanted to eat and eat.  (nevermind that he had just nursed half an hour before)  So I guess you could say bottle feeding is a work in progress, but I think we're all getting the hang of it, and I'm happy to think that at some point I'll be able to sneak out for a few hours and not worry that my boy won't be able to eat.  

I had my six-week appointment last week (Colin is six weeks old tomorrow!) and was given the all clear to resume activities, and so I ramped up my afternoon strolls to actual walking, including pushing the stroller up some ridiculous hills around here.  And then added some weights and some tentative crunches.  It felt really good to start working out again, so hopefully I'll be able to work that into my routine and rebuild a bit of muscle tone.  I was looking forward to going for a walk with a friend today, but it's crappy and rainy so I don't think that's going to happen.  Instead I'll be working on getting the house back in order before our next guest arrives and figuring out what I can make for dinner tonight without having to leave the house.  I suppose this is the new definition of Monday.

Home life

Oh hi!  Colin and I are hanging out at home today with no grandparents and no daddy and you know what?  Life is good.  I'd stay and chat but then I wouldn't have time to read what all of you are up to, and at some point we need to play tummy time and eat some lunch.  So really I just wanted to say hello and that we're here and doing well.  

(Also: my kid does not match at all.  Laundry time!)