Ten things I'm grateful for...

Following the lead of Tessa and Rachel, I want to post about the little things - the simple blessings that make me happy!

1. Driving past cows, horses and bales of hay on my way to work. Even though the electrical lines and defunct power station kinda ruin the country feel, it's nice to day dream about a horse's life in the midst of a hectic day.

2. The sounds Grant makes when he's waking up... before the crying starts!

3. Football season

4. The license plate game that me and Derek play.

5. Seeing an old man in a suit & hat at the courthouse.

6. Having a great boss. We've been in trial all week, working long hours, yet he still thought to tell me (on more than 1 occassion) that he realizes how hard this week is on me - juggling work and baby.

7. Margaritas on a hot summer evening (or any evening)

8. Hand-me-downs from my favorite sister! Actually, I could easily come up with 10 things I'm grateful for out of the tons of gear that she's passed on to me.

9. Friends that are patient enough to endure long photo shoots with Grant or put up with harassment from my family!

10. Gooey Butter Cake!! (Thanks, Gaumy)

Pumping at work

Pumping at work is NOT FUN (to put it mildly). I did get to share an awkward moment with my boss yesterday. My "udders" were on my desk drying out before the next use. He saw them and asked if I was having breathing trouble. I had to tell him they were for my breast pump. What do you think? Does this look like an inhaler?

Giggles

Grant laughed for the first time earlier this week. I was singing "Safety Dance" and he just loved it! Now that song is on repeat at our house. :) I've also figured out how to get good shots of him smiling - I cover his face with the soft blanket while the camera flashes red, then move the blanket just in time for the flash.

We've been battling Grant's eyes since he was about 2 weeks old. He has blocked tear ducts, and sometimes they get infected so he gets gunk in his eyes. It comes and goes, but it's been pretty bad the past week. You can see there is a little redness under his left eye. Derek took him to the doc (twice) to get him fixed up, and I think we're on the way to getting pretty eyes back! The last trip, Derek left the paci at the house - I don't think that will happen again anytime soon.

Grandma Rose visited us yesterday so that Derek (who is still on full-time Grant duty) could take advantage of Restaurant Week. I was so glad she could help out so my awesome hubby could have some fun. She decided to be super-grandma - she dusted, vacuumed and straightened up the house! I'm soooo grateful. Here she is working her magic on Grant:

Happy Birthday to me!!

Last weekend, I celebrated my birthday by having and recovering from shoulder surgery. Derek was kind enough to take my picture once we got home on Friday.
I was only in the sling for 1 day. My bandage was removed Monday & I started physical therapy on Tuesday. I took a few shots of my shoulder last night:
The bruise on the front of my arm is the "ugliest" part. That doesn't hurt at all and will heal very quickly. Other than that, there are 5 small incisions. My physical therapy is going well, but I'm still limited to lifting 2-5 pounds with my left arm. This means Derek is on full-time Grant duty. I must say he's doing an AMAZING job!

On Saturday (my birthday), my awesome SIL brought me cupcakes!!! They were so yummy, and it's always great to have candles and cake on your birthday.
We also took Gaumy to Olivia's 1st birthday party. We had a great time visiting with everyone. I was still hopped up on pain meds and sporting my sling. As you can see, the dads were on pool duty.

I must brag on Derek. He is taking and picking Grant up from daycare, since I can't handle the car seat right now. He has still managed to keep everything else going, too. He took his car to be inspected (and fed Grant a bottle while he was waiting). Every day when I get home, the bottles that he used that day are washed. On Wednesday when I got home from work, he'd already gone to the grocery store and made dinner. On Thursday, he stopped by my office and brought me a DELICIOUS iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts. To top it off, he's changing all the diapers. Even when I feed Grant, Derek brings him to me, then takes him from me to burp him... and all the while, he makes sure I'm taking my meds and icing my shoulder.

Speaking of Grant, here's a shot of tummy time last night. I love his expression... and Lola playing in the background!!

2 month stats

Grant’s 2 month check up was on Tuesday. I had to wake him for the appointment, so he was a little grumpy and very hungry when we got to the doctor’s office. Thankfully, I had a bottle ready and arrived 30 minutes early to allow time to feed. Unfortunately(?), this is the one and only doctor’s office that is prompt. He only ate 3 ounces before the torture began. Here are his stats:

Weight: 12 lb, 3.2oz = 55^th percentile

Height: 23 ¼ inches = 55^th percentile

Head circumference: 41cm = 75^th percentile

As for weight, if you take away the 3 ounces he just ate, the Wii Fit Plus is pretty darn accurate!

He is eating 6 ounces now, usually 5 times a day. He eats mostly from bottles, and only gets food straight from the source once a day, the last meal of the day. It is by far the highlight of my day - getting to cuddle up with him and tell him all about my day. He gets pretty vocal when it's time to burp - the man doesn't like his milk to be taken away!

He is smiling more and more. For the most part, he smiles in response to me and Derek, and any time he gets a clean diaper. He is pooping only 1-2 times a day, but he makes those really count! He likes to watch his mobile and likes my hair across his face and belly. He's been grabbing my hair, eating his fist, and drooling all the time!!

The past 2 days that I've taken him to daycare, he has a HUGE SMILE as soon as I set the car seat down in the room. I take that to mean he loves daycare. It makes leaving him so much easier!

G man (a/k/a "Quatro" since he's my parents' 4th grandchild; a/k/a "G-Unit"; a/k/a "G-Pesos" since Derek's alias is D Money) decided to keep us on our toes last night. After 18 nights in a row of sleeping through the night, Grant woke up at 2:30 AM ready to eat. I went back to bed at 4 and Derek put him down around 4:30. We are going to have a talk when I get home today because he can't repeat that again tonight - I have to check in for surgery at 5:30 AM tomorrow!!

2 months old

Grant is now 2 months old! I really want to start taking monthly photos to update along with monthly stats. We go to the doctor on Tuesday morning, so I will update with stats and how he handled the shots then. According to the Wii, Grant is now 11 pounds, 14 ounces. We'll see how close that really is. He's still in Size 1 diapers, and I don't see that changing any time soon... especially because we bought 252 of them at Sam's today! (They are Size 1-2, so I'm sure we're safe). We spent the better part of Saturday over at the Dacuses'. The highlight of the party (besides the smores bars) was a new frisbee game. I reffed the game all night since it would be impossible to play while holding a baby, and even I had fun reffing! The game involves a beer can on a post, a frisbee, and it must be played with a drink in one hand. I really couldn't tell you anything else about it. That's how good of a referee I was! Family shot from that evening (Grant is exactly 2 months old)!And a fun "hold the camera out, take a quick pic of yourself" shot of me holding G-Unit in the backpack:

Grant decided to put us to the test on Saturday - and we passed! First, we wanted to pack everything he needed for bed, so we took his pajamas, swaddler and the baby monitor. I also knew that I would need to pump while we were out (so much faster to give him a bottle & pump... plus I wanted to drink). So we had all of that gear (to pump and clean up the parts - becoming a pro at that, though, now that I'm pumping at work).

While I was rinsing the pump parts, Derek came rushing into the bathroom. Grant had a blowout! Chase and Clint recommended stripping him down and wiping his butt in the grass like a dog... thankfully Derek didn't listen to them. We put down a changing pad and went through LOTS of wipes and a change of clothes. Thankfully, I had listened to Mary and packed 2 changing pads because the first one got a little dirty. If we were in a bind, we could have continued to use it throughout the evening, but we were prepared and didn't have to!

Today was pretty laid back. We did make our way out to Stonebriar mall. I took a picture for some teenage girls with a young man - turns out he was JC from the Kidd Kraddick morning show. Oh - and someone named Demi Lovato?! was there. I am clearly old because I don't know either of them. Maybe I just listen to The Ticket too much.

Grant had a meltdown when we were about to leave, but thankfully we had parked at Nordstrom. I ducked into the "Mother's Lounge", changed him and fed him in privacy (on their comfy couch), and then we were good for one more stop (Sam's). After the next feeding, we tried out the pool. We will be trying that again soon - with better timing next time!

I inventoried my breastmilk over the weekend. I have 217 ounces. Grant eats about 30 ounces a day, so that's only 1 weeks' worth of milk, and yet it seems to fill our freezer. I'm pretty proud of it (clearly). I still seem to be producing more than he needs, but now I can make it until 5 or 6am before I HAVE to pump.

Catching up on firsts

I haven't blogged in awhile, so let's catch up on a few firsts:

First week back to work:

I did not experience the typical new mom break down, but I certainly did miss my little man like crazy. I think my "warm up" days the week prior really helped. Every day when I get home, I steal him from Derek and barely put him down. I got to ease back into things - Monday I left work at 3pm. I think Wednesday was the hardest day for me because I started to realize that this is our new lifestyle for years to come. Our new routine involves Derek calling me when he picks up Grant to let me know the last time he ate - that way I make sure I'm home in time to feed him dinner.

The biggest pain is pumping at work. The actual pumping is no big deal - I just shut my door and get after it! It's cleaning up afterward in the office kitchen/copy room. There is very little counter space, and I've found myself dodging co-workers trying to get their coffee. Derek said I should offer them some "creamer". mmmm.

Thursday and Friday, Grant was still asleep when I needed to leave the house. So I loaded him up and fed him a bottle when I got to daycare. I really liked this. I get to interact more with the teachers and other parents, and learn more about the kids. I want to do this at least once a week - we'll see what the boss has to say about that!

First time to rollover:

Grant has been rolling over for a few weeks now. I think it's because he hates "tummy time", so he gets angry and ends up making his way onto his back. He had rolled over a few times before, but I think it was 2 weeks ago when Derek told Lola to rollover, and both Grant and Lola rolled over at the same time!! This morning, he rolled over 3 times in a row, so I grabbed the camera hoping he'd perform again:

First time in the pool:

I thought we had a good window of opportunity earlier today to try Grant in the pool. Turns out, we didn't. I got the backyard set up with the umbrella, towels and a float, then changed my clothes. By the time I changed Grant into swim trunks, he was in meltdown mode. Nonetheless, I think the first time in the pool went pretty well... It was just VERY short.

First bath:
This is LONG overdue. A few quick clips from Grant's first bath on June 10th with Grandma Rose in the driver's seat:


But he soon calmed down:


First time I realized Grant's favorite sound:
A few weeks ago, I realized that I usually get some good smiles when I change Grant's diaper... and then I realized the smile seemed to immediately follow the velcro sound of taking off the dirty diaper and putting on the clean one.

What kind of parent...

What kind of parent sends her child to school in his pajamas?! This one.

Today was Grant's first day of daycare. I wanted to have a few practice runs before I start back to work (but not too many). I'm so glad that I did! I packed his bag last night, got his milk ready and labeled everything - only to wake up this morning thinking "I forgot a pacifier!!" I put 2 pacis in the bag for good measure.

I had my morning schedule planned based upon the 9 hours Grant has been giving me every night - but last night he only slept 7.5 hours. I was already up pumping, so it was either stay up for the rest of the day to stay on "my plan" (4:15am wake time) or try to get a little sleep in after putting him back down. I picked more sleep!! (Not much, mind you... by the time Grant went down, Derek was getting up. I think I got an extra 30 minutes in). Basically, instead of doing it MY way, we did it GRANT'S way. He's the boss!! I loaded him up and got him to school by 8am.

After I dropped him off, I went to get a massage. I can't even begin to tell you how good this was for my shoulder!! When I got home, I logged on to the day care's web cams & have stalked it all day long.

I intended to get about 400 things done today, but instead got very little done. This pumping in between everything makes for a very unproductive day!

I also intended to get a pic of Grant's first day of school, but didn't do that either. It was quite a frenzy to get the paperwork in, get his drawer set up, & talk to the teachers... all right in the middle of the morning rush. I had even planned to change him out of his pajamas at daycare (he was asleep when I loaded him up in the car) - but didn't do that because one of the teachers was feeding him - you can't take a man away from his milk! So, yes - Grant's first day was in his pajamas!

3 in a row

Grant has slept through the night now 3 nights in a row. 9 hours, 10 hours, and 9.5 hours, respectively. It has been sooo great! Except that my boobs aren't used to this new routine.

Weeks ago, I started pumping after Grant went a long time between feedings. This meant every morning I would feed and pump. That is how I have such a great supply in the freezer!! (165 ounces now! FYI - a gallon is 128 ounces). I may need a new "trophy case" soon.

So my body has been producing more than he needs. My boobs woke me at 3 am last night, so I got up to pump. Just as I did the previous 2 nights even though he has slept through the night. Each time I pump around 12 ounces. That's a Coke can! It is seriously painful - I feel like my skin may tear apart. And if I try to roll over and ignore it, I feel the milk move around.

I start back to work on Monday, so I need to figure out how to get rid of that Coke can sometime between now and then.

Best night EVER

Steve and Gloria offered to babysit for us last night, so I had planned an evening out to surprise Derek. We had such a great time out! We met up with the Arnolds at Mia's so that Derek could get his brisket taco fix. As a bonus, Meadow and Stu were there! Then we went to La Duni for dessert - yummm.

We got home and Gloria had just got Grant to sleep. He slept ALL NIGHT! 9 whole hours!! This is the first time he has slept through the night.

Of course, we couldn't sleep the whole time. I had to pump before bed ("pump and dump" to get rid of the alcohol), then my boobs woke me up at 2 to pump again... then I kept waking up anytime Grant would coo in his sleep, thinking he was about to wake up. Steve played alot with him before bed and Gloria put him in pajamas. We NEVER put him in pajamas, so that will now become part of our nighttime routine.

Date night + sleeping through the night = Best night EVER!!