4 Month Blessings

Bo's 4 months old! Everyday is a new blessing. Here's what he's up to:

• He can hold things, but not really control them yet. Which makes for some funny moments. Like when he's got his pacifier in his hand, and his mouth wide open, but can't make them connect ;)
• He can almost sit up. With help. A lot of help. Ok, he pretty much just leans and falls over the second you let go, but he's getting there!
• He's eating rice cereal. Well, he's pushing it around with his tongue more than he's eating it. It's really messy and kind of makes me twitch, but we're working on it.
• He's giggling. He really likes it when you tickle/kiss/raspberry/touch his stomach. He's also a big fan of "flying"
• He's kicking and wiggling all over the place! When this guy starts moving on his own watch out, and put on your running shoes :)

The Best a Mother Can Hope For

It's 9:45 P.M and Bo is in his crib right now talking to himself. I diapered and fed him, read him a story, and laid him in his crib. He looked up at me, smiled, then started uttering a series of "oooh oooh oooh"'s. This has become his bedtime routine. As I was was looking down at him I realized that motherhood is a never ending series of gutwrenching decisions. I want with all my heart to pick him up, hold him in my arms and talk back to him. I want to rock him until he falls asleep, then hold him for 20 more minutes and watch him breath, then lay him down ever so gently in the crib and watch him for 20 more minutes. But I know this is counter productive. I'm exhausted and need to sleep, too. He needs to learn to sooth himself to sleep. We both need to find a routine that works for us. I don't want to become a helicopter mom who hovers over my child constantly. I don't want to create a momma's boy who still lives in my basement when he's 30. Ok, so maybe rocking him to sleep every night won't acutally make him a momma's boy, but these are my thoughts. This is just the latest in a series of "what do I do?" moments. In this moment I know that every day for the rest of my life I will wonder at least once a day "Did I do the right thing for my child?" My prayer is that more often than not the answer will be "yes." That's the best a mother can hope.

All mine

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I have a good excuse. I'm officially a member of the work force again. I started back to work 3 weeks ago. Several things happened. 1) I became too busy to breath. Literally, sometimes I realize that I'm turning blue because I got too busy and forgot to breath. OK, just kidding, but that's how it feels. 2) I realized how much I enjoy being with my son. The walk to my car after dropping him off at the sitter's is the most heart-breaking moment of my day. The walk from the car to the house when I get home is the longest moment of my day. The moment he smiles at me and says "gooooo" when I come in the house is the best moment of my day. Pretty much every moment of my day revolves around him, whether he's with me or not. 3) I realized that there is more to life than my job. Like, a lot more. It kind of takes the stress off at work. 4) I realized that working 2 full time jobs is hard! (Yes, I'm counting teaching as one and being a mom as one. If you disagree you are obviously NOT a mom). My house is messy, I'm behind on my school work, clothes are piling up, I'm tired all the time, and I DON'T CARE!!! It's all good! What's important is that my family is safe, happy and mine. All mine.

2 Months: What's going on?

Bo is 11 weeks old! I can't believe I've been a mother for almost 3 months. I know people always say "It goes by so fast!" but I don't think you can appreciate how short a day is until you are a mother. Here are few milestone Bo hit this month:

• Sleeping 4-6 hours straight. I don't think you can appreciate how long that is until you are a mother.
  
• Talking back and smiling a BUNCH. If you get his attention and start talking he'll eventually say "cooooo, goooo, oooooohhhh". It's so cute! I'm enjoying it because I know in about 12 years it won't be nearly as cute when he talks back.
• Taking a bottle. We struggled with this at first, but now he's a champ. In fact, he got so good at it he decided that boobs were just too much work. I was really sad at first when he spit out my boob and screamed bloody murder, but I guess I knew this day was coming. I'm going back to work this week and I've not been successful at pumping, so he was going to go on formula any way. I enjoyed the time we got to share together while I breastfed, but I'm not really going to miss the sore nipples, or hiding out in my car because he got hungry while I was out somewhere. So this milestone is bitter sweet for me.
  
• Starting daycare. He spent one day at Ms. Tammy's house so I could get some work done at school. He slept most of the time, but Ms. Tammy and Nanny (her mom) fell in love with him, which is really easy to do. :)

That's it for this month. I'll leave you with this thought:
I saw a diaper ad that depicted a mother watching her baby sleep. The tag line read: "He eats. He sleeps. He poops. And it's amazing." It's so true. My baby only has a handful of talents at this point, most of which involve a bodily fluid. And he's amazing.

"Coo"

This is Bowman's Flossie (grandmother) writing this blog. My beautiful daughter, her husband, and Bowman are here at my home for a week. When they got here on Saturday I couldn't wait to get my hands on Bowman, after all it had been two weeks since I saw him last. The boy is like a drug. Once you get your hands on him and inhale that sweet baby smell, you are hooked. I just didn't want to put him down and I must be honest... it is hard to put him down at night and I can't wait to get my hands on him first thing in the morning. Well, he had me hooked from second one, but he really has me more than addicted now. On Saturday night, while Bowman was laying in my lap, he looked at me, smiled and said GOO! (Bowman talk for Coo). Talk about taking my heart... I will never recover, no intervention is necessary, I 'm beyond hope. WARNING: Bowman is a drug and there is no recovering from his sweetness.

Famous Last Words

"All I have to do is throw a onesie on him and I'll be there!"
Famous. Last. Words.
Almost every Tuesday I meet my friend Brittany to walk and go out to eat. Since Bo was born it seems like I'm always late to meet her. But not this Tuesday. I was determined to be on time, and it was all working out. Bo had just finished his meal at Buffet a la Boob and I just needed to change his clothes and we were out the door. Or so I thought.
It started innocently enough. I took off his footie pajamas and started to change his diaper. The very second that I pulled the dirty diaper out from under his butt a stream of poop shot (literally) across the changing table. It hit the changing pad, the onesie I was planning to dress him in, the wall, my hand, and the super cute (now virtually destroyed) duck basket on the changing table. Well, that was disgusting. So as quick as I could I put a clean diaper under his butt, yanked a wipe out of the box and started cleaning off his rear end.
*DING* Round 2: I look down to see a RIVER of pee flowing next to him. Now the changing pad is useless. There is poop on one end and pee all down the middle. I look around for a place to put him and realize that my only option is the floor, so down he goes. I get him all cleaned up, put on a fresh diaper and a new, clean, onesie.
At this point I realize that if I leave all of this mess it will stain, so I put Bo in his cradle, grab everything with bodily fluids on it, and start spraying it with Shout. Once that job is done, I grab Bo and head for the car seat. On the way I realize that he feels damp. Yep, he'd peed AGAIN, soaking his whole left side! So I change him AGAIN, put him in the car seat and head out.
I was only 20 minutes late...

Strapped In

Bowman was breech for most of his stay in Hotel Uterus, which caused several things to happen.
1) He was folded in half for approximately 6 months
2) He arrived in the world butt first
3) He could eat his own toes for the first few hours of his life
4)He was born with hip displaysia, a condition where the hips don't sit quite right in the sockets.
To correct this he had to wear a Pavlick harness for 6 weeks FULL TIME. The doctor strapped on the harness on Tuesdays at Shriner's Hospital. We would return the following Tuesday, when we would take the harness off, bath him, put on a fresh onesie, and get the thing strapped back on.
Let's take a minute and reflect on the implications of this process. He had to wear a onesie, with a full body harness over it, for a week at a time WITHOUT TAKING IT OFF. Now, imagine all the gross things babies do that end up on their clothes. Pee, poop, spit up. Now imagine your baby wearing all of that for a week. By bath day he smelled, quite literally, like a dirty diaper. Disgusting. The harness has two straps that go from chest to feet. Right where the side claps of a diaper go. This meant that you had weave the diaper on around the harness. As if trying to put a diaper on a squirmy, crying newborn isn't hard enough. Sheesh.
Today, however, was the end of this nightmare! Today the harness became "night time only". Now my kid is squeaky clean and flossin' in a cute new outfit with his feet dangling free! I am one happy momma :)