Happy 5 Months Old, Charlie!

Yesterday Charlie turned 5 months old - crazy how time flies. Here are some things about our 5 month old:

-he likes kicking water in tub
-giggles when I kiss his tummy
-likes jumperoo a lot. He riverdances in it
-he does a David Beckham trick with his feet and a ball. I'll have to get it on video

-Interested in food. He's still just getting breastmilk but he eyes us when we are eating, I think he might be ready soon to start rice cereal but we're going to wait until his 6 month appointment

-He is a master at rolling from back to front. He doesn't roll from tummy to back too often.

-Still creeping
-Take naps in pack n play (thanks to Mimi!)
-Still sleeping through the night but getting up verrry early these days (like 4:55/5:30 early)
-Holds his own bottle
-Sitting. We're there when he topples over but he can sit pretty well on his own
-He likes to knock down his stackable cups (another trick Mimi taught him)

I'd like to say we had a good 5th month birthday but it wasn't great if I'm going to be honest.

Charlie hadn't pooped in a week so we decided to give him 2 ozs prune juice plus 2 ozs water (pediatrician recommended this after putting a thermometer in his bum didn't move anything along). He kept spitting up brown stuff (prune juice-yuck!) and no poop. Finally about 6 hours later he had a big poop so big it leaked through onto his outfit he was going to wear to Mimis so she could take his 5 month old pictures. One of the good things from the day is he did poop (twice).

Charlie also decided to wake up super early again. I don't have my paper in front of me but I think it was around 5:15/5:30. He did nap in our bed with us (this is very very rare) for about 30 minutes. About 4 hours go by and he didn't want to go down for a nap but I knew he was tired. I decided to take him around the neighborhood in his stroller and he fell asleep within 5 minutes.

That night was the first night Charlie didn't want to feed from me. My mom told me on the phone "watch out, the first time I gave you juice from a bottle, you wanted nothing to do with me, you totally weaned yourself." So I was about to put him down and as soon as he saw what was going to happen (me feed him), he started crying and arching his back. He has NEVER rejected milk from me. I kept trying and same thing would happen. I went downstairs and showed Rob. He got an emptry bottle, put it to his lips and he started sucking on it. So Rob gave him a bottle last night for bed. Luckily this morning, he fed from me as usual.

The icing on the cake? I started my first post partum period yesterday. Yeah, I told you it wasn't a great day!

The highlight was going to Mimi's and getting these great pictures of Charlie that are in this post (AFTER he prune-juice spit up'd on outfit #2).

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Profiling.

People who know me, know I'm a little weird and random so this post probably won't surprise them.

Last night, I was in the bathroom and glanced at myself in the mirror and thought "I really like the profile of my nose!" Then I shared this with Rob and proceeded to check myself out in the mirror - I know, sounds vain right? Rob jokingly said "People would pay for that nose!" Then I said seriously "I know!" He then realized I was serious and said "Why are you so obsessed with your nose?" I said I don't know and has he ever looked at his nose?

So then it was Rob's turn to go check out his profile in the mirror. He thought his was a little big, measured it with his fingers and said "oh my god, my nose is 3 fingers deep!"

We agreed Buddy had the best profile.

I think we all tend to focus on what we don't like about ourselves - today, focus on what you do like and better yet, blog about it for all the world to see!

Pumping at Work.

It’s not as fun as it sounds (sense my sarcasm?). Luckily we have a private room for me to go to – I know some moms are subject to pump in bathrooms because their work has no place to pump. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do! So I basically go into a room/closet twice a day for 20-40 minutes each time so Charlie has milk the next day. The room is small and just next door to the bathroom and breakroom. I can hear people chatting sometimes and wonder if they can hear the pump. Sometimes I lose suction and it makes a loud “sluuuuurrrrp!!!!” noise. Maybe they think someone is having a makeout session in the closet? That would definately be more interesting than what actually goes on in there.

The room has a chair that is a little crusty and kind of grosses me out.

There is half of a curtain (why a half?),

a broken table

and a nasty lotion bottle.

There is a place to rest my feet which I appreciate. I actually work in a pretty nice office but I guess us pumpers got stuck with the ugly step sister room.

While I’m in there I day dream. I think about Charlie, about upcoming holidays, work, etc. I think I’m going to invest in a pumping bra so I can browse/work online while I’m in there. Right now, I’m not too busy so it’s kind of nice to go in there and zone out but when things start getting busy, I think it would stress me out knowing I have to be gone from my desk for so long.

I should also mention my pump talks to me. My friend Lyn asked me once if it talked to me and I said “no” and thought, how strange. Well I noticed after awhile it DOES say stuff. Even Rob said “it sounds like its saying ______.” Things I’ve heard: Let Go, Let it Go, Let Down, Stupid Ho (I swear this is true), Hi There, Oprah.

Alright, off to my #2 pumping session.

Vote For Charlie!

If you have a facebook account, vote for our little monkey by clicking the "Like" button on this photo:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=4139602&id=98902333420#!/photo.php?pid=4139602&id=98902333420&fbid=402051848420

The picture with the most "Likes" wins a photoshoot!

Leave It To Mimi.

Waking up from 1st nap.

Charlie is a great sleeper - at night. That sleep regression stuff only lasted 2 weeks (although the two weeks were HELL). He is back to his 9-11 hour stretches at night (without waking up). Sometimes when we put him down for sleep he'll wake up in the first hour but we are usually able to get him back to sleep after putting him on his side, with paci and a little back rub.

Naps are a whole other story. He used to sleep in his little chair for 30 mins at a time. Mimi told me she got him to sleep on the bed so we tried and that worked wonders. He would sleep 1-2 hours. One big negative is he rolls around so much we have to be there in the room so he doesn't roll off. We have really wanted to get him down to sleep in his pack n play but it wasn't happening. He would cry and cry and cry.

I think it was Day 2 on the job and Mimi got him to sleep in his pack n play. Um, come again?! That Mimi! She had him sleeping in there again on Day 3. So today, Saturday, I wanted to see if he would go down for me so I called her to walk me through it. First attempt I could tell he wasn't as tired as I thought so I took him out and played a little longer. We went back in and he was out in about 30 seconds and slept for 50 minutes. Score! I just put him down for nap #2 and it took him 1-2 minutes to fall asleep.

I think when we have future things that come up that are just too hard to deal with, I'll leave it to Mimi. You know, like terrible 2's, dating, puberty, etc. ok Mimi?

Mommy Brain, Anyone?

I've heard about mommy brain and now I get it. It seems at all times your mind is going a mile a minute. Sure, it might appear as though you are browsing online or watching tv while your baby is napping but what you are really thinking is, "How long has he been down? I wonder if he is going to wake up soon? Is he breathing? Let me go check. Ok, good, still breathing. Hmm, there sure are a lot of dishes in the sink. Crap! The dryer went off, hopefully he is still breathing. Oh yeah, Real Housewives of NY is on - Kelly is so crazy! Doorbell rang, Buddy is going nuts, don't wake the baby! Baby wakes up, is it time to feed? Is that poop I smell? Buddy, no, I don't want to play now! Gotta get the phone..., etc." So its not a shock I forgot my laptop at work on Friday (using our personal one now) but I caught myself doing some silly things lately.

The other night I opened up my prenatal vitamins got a cotton ball and tried to pour some on the ball - yup, I thought it was my face toner.

Then this morning, I decided the cupboard was a good place to put a carton of egg whites.

Anyone else suffer from mommy brain? When does it go away?!?!

Buddy's New Friend.

My sister and her family are moving up from Los Angeles (yeah!) because my brother in law, Jim, got transferred up here. He is currently here during the week staying with family (he stayed with my parents, now he's with us) and Ashley and the girls will move up when the school year is over.

Buddy loves just about anyone but he always cuddles with Jim on the couch, its really cute. I finally decided to take a picture of his cuteness (Buddy, not Jim). :) Ok, you're cute too...

Vacation Day!

I'm so glad I have the day off today - it made going to work yesterday a little easier. I'm typing really quietly while Charlie naps. We finally got him out of the habit of sleeping in his chair but now he is sleeping on the guest bed. Since he's a mover and a shaker, I can't leave the room while he naps. We tried putting him in the pack n play but he is just not interested - we'll keep trying. The good thing is he naps longer now than he did in the chair.

So yesterday wasn't terrible at work at all but I did miss my monkey. When I got home he planted some kissies on me.

Rob made a quick dinner for us and Mimi to take home. After dinner, we took a family walk with Charlie and Buddy. I really want to do this every night after work. The weather was warm and Rob and I were able to catch eachother up on our days. Plus I love family time! After the walk we hung out a little then I got Charlie ready for bed (bath, lotion, jammies, eat, crib).

Thank you mom/Mimi for watching Charlie. Rob told me about all the fun things you guys did and said "your mom is really great with him - its really neat!" We know he is in good hands! He just can't love you as much as he loves me - ok? :)

First Day Back.

I’m at work now, pretending to work. I don’t really have much to do, yet. I have a couple big projects but waiting to hear back from a couple people before I can start.

I wasn’t able to see Charlie this morning because he was sleeping, but I pumped and got ready and left about 20 minutes later than I wanted to and got into some decent traffic. My coworker told me that on my day back to work, hundreds of emergency personnel – from local, state, and federal levels will participate in a full-scale emergency operations drill simulating a terrorist bomb attack at the port I work by/on. She told me so I wouldn’t “freak out” when I came into work. I haven’t heard any explosions but I guess there have been a few already. Apparently Arnold Schwarzenegger will be there to set off a bomb – good times.

I was welcomed back to my cube with a missing printer, missing cable (so I couldn’t get online) and missing floor heater. I got a new cable and took my old manager’s printer but haven’t recovered my printer. Oh, my calendar is gone too. Maybe they thought I wasn’t coming back? My coworkers did get pizza and Kara’s cupcakes for me and these lovely tulips:

They are too kind.

Work hasn’t been too bad. I got a little teary eyed on the way into work when I thought about him so I tried not to. I do have a digital frame Rob got me for Christmas that I’ve been staring at all day. I can’t wait to go home and give him a big hug!

Last Day Of Maternity Leave.

**Written Last Night

Today is my last day of maternity leave - I've been off since 11/25. I'm so glad I took off the 4 weeks prior to my due date and feel fortunate that I was able to have so much time off after Charlie arrived. It feels like forever since I worked but on the other hand I feel like those 5.5 months just flew by.


Today Charlie and I had our typical day of eating, playing, reading, napping and we also had time to run a quick errand too. My mom asked if I wanted to get a pedicure with her and I said yes - I needed one and I had a gift certificate burning a hole in my purse pocket. It was nice to be pampered with a "Chocolate Pedicure" but I missed my little guy - how am I going to go so long without seeing and holding him?

My plan is to get up around 6:00 am and I should be home by 4:30 pm. Charlie sleeps until 7:00 am or later so I'm not planning on seeing him in the morning. :( Before last Friday, I had only been away from him for 3 hours tops (last Friday I didn't see him for 5 hours). I hope he doesn't wonder "where is she??".


Something tells me tomorrow is going to be a tough day.

Some Reasons Not To Leave Dog Toys Laying Around The House.

1.) They really don't do anything for the decor of the room.

2.) You have to go to each room and pick them up one by one every other Thursday before the cleaning lady comes.

3.) A husband who finally gets his baby down to sleep may step on one in the nursery, making a very loud squeaking noise which may wake up baby. Yeah, that really sucks.

We Took It From Behind.

Rob and I had plans to meet his mom at the mall to go shopping for my Christmas present today. No, that wasn't a typo. My mother in law usually buys me clothes for Christmas but since I was about to give birth, she and I had no idea what size to get and we knew I'd be wearing maternity clothes for awhile longer so I got an IOU. I return to work next Tuesday so we decided to get some shopping done for a few new work outfits.

We left Charlie with his Mimi, sort of a trial run since she'll be watching him when I return to work.

We were almost to the mall on the freeway when BAM, someone rear ends us. There wasn't too much damage, just a little paint on Rob's hitch but we're going to get the car/frame checked since she hit us pretty hard. I was so glad Monkey wasn't with us!

There's Something About Sophie.

When mom's on the message boards said their babies loooooved Sophie the Giraffe, I thought I couldn't deprive Charlie of this wonder toy. I gave it to Charlie and he was so not interested in it. At all. I kept trying to make him like it because I paid $15 for it and its basically a dog toy. A plastic toy with a squeaker in it. Buddy goes NUTS over Sophie. Do not squeak her in his presence or we will all be sorry. I decided all the moms were lying because they felt silly buying such an extravagent piece of cr*p, I mean, piece of rubber. My friend Sarah has one and I asked her what the big deal was and she said "it's French." I said "no really, what is the big deal about Sophie?" Again she replied, "it's French." Hmm....

Well, I kind of gave up on little miss Sophie from Paris until I saw Charlie finally came around. Maybe there is something to this Sophie business after all.

Bear/Bare With Me.

I'm not sure if its bear or bare but you know what I mean.

I've been playing around with different blog templates and haven't found one I love yet. Well, I did find one I loved, but I had to upload it instead of copying and pasting the code and it didn't work. I'd really like to find a template I like that allows for more text from left to right so my posts don't go so far down the page. Oh well, the search continues.

For those who are using google reader, you can ignore this message.

Awwww Nuts! Plus, Some Good News.

Bad news: We got the allergy test back and Mr. Charlie is allergic to......peanuts! The Dr. said, "do you eat a lot of peanuts?"If you know me, you know I love peanuts and especially, peanut butter. I can no longer indulge while I'm still breastfeeding. I haven't had alcohol in over a year, caffeinated coffee only about 4 times and now no peanut butter? Oh well, maybe it will help me kick some of these pounds off. I think I lost 2 lbs during my dairy cleanse. I'm also bummed to have throw out my frozen milk stash. I don't have a ton but I hate leaving my mom to watch Charlie with such a small emergency supply. Another sucky thing: often times babies don't outgrow peanut allergies. We'll re-test around a year. I actually cut out peanuts about a week ago and his skin already looks a lot better.

Good news: Before I went out on maternity leave my manager said we could try me working 4 days a week. While out on leave, my manager left the company. I spoke to the new manager and she wanted me to come back full time. I got a call from her yesterday and she said she is ok with me trying out 4 days a week when I get back. I have a ton of vacation so each week I'll use vacation to take Wednesdays off. After 60 days, we'll discuss if its working for me, the team, etc. If so, they'll reduce my pay 20% and I'll go to part time. This is going to make returning to work so much easier!!

First Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day.

On Saturday, we celebrated with just the three of us. Soon after I woke up, I opened a gift from the boys (Rob/Charlie/Buddy). They are all very thoughtful. :) I wanted to spend the day together as a family. We went to our local farmer's market (got stuff for dinner), then had sushi for lunch.

On Sunday we went to Aptos for lunch and spent the day there with our family. Charlie was being a little turkey and didn't want to nap so we left a little early (he always sleeps in the car).

My little monkey is such a sweetie pie and I can't believe he is OURS. All those months you wonder what your child will be like, what he will look like, etc. and now, I can't imagine him being any different - he is perfect and I'm proud to be his mama.

Crawling.

Charlie isn't crawling but he does army crawl. Does that count?

Step 1 - Get in starting position

Step 2 - Move right foot up

Step - Make sure someone is watching

Almost there!

When he was done, he rolled over. What a show off!

4 Month Dr. Appointment.

Today Charlie had his 4 month appointment. Here are his stats:

Weight: 16 lbs (75th percentile - still)

Height: 25 in (55th percentile - went up by 5 percent which I think is good so it's more in line with weight)

Head: 16.75 in (60th percentile)

He got a couple more shots. He cried a little before they even gave him the shot, but he did pretty well.

I felt like a proud mama when she asked about milestones and I was able to say, yes, he does that.

She said its ok to go swimming with him at 6 months (and can now if we want) but that we'll need to rinse him off right away to get the chlorine off his skin. I think we'll wait until it gets a little warmer.

She also thought his head looked better (flatness).

She gave us some sleep advice because he's not a great napper. I don't know if I'm ready for this "let him cry a bit" deal. I'm weak, ok?

She confirmed again his eczema is "pretty bad" and told us to apply a 1% hydrocortizone cream on the bad parts. She asked if I eat dairy and I told her the whole story and that we didn't see a difference in his skin. We decided to do an allergy test to see if he is allergic to anything. We went to the lab next door and they drew his blood - poor baby! We should get the results next week. We're probably going to wait until after our 6 month appointment to introduce solids, especially if he has food allergies.

Charlie's First Haircut.

Yesterday we got Charlie a haircut. Say goodbye to his old twilight/einstein hair.

Here is Charlie with our hair stylist, Cat.

Charlie and I waiting patiently.

Getting draped.

The first snip!

This isn't a great picture of Charlie but I'm posting it because I like it of me. Why?

1.) you can't tell I have no make up on

2.) I kind of look tan

3.) my arm looks kind of small (for me)

This finished product

30 Under /While 30.

I've recently heard about people making 30 under 30 lists. Its a list of things to do before they turn 30. Since I'll turn 30 in just over 30 days (gulp), I don't think I'll have time to do this. However, I stumbled upon a blog today and someone is doing a 30 while 30 - I can totally do that!

Here are some examples of things to do:

1.) Take Charlie to the zoo
2.) Fly a Kite
3.) Make _____ from scratch (fill in the blank)
4.) Swim with Charlie in our pool

I have a feeling I'll have a lot of items to do with Charlie (do ____ with Charlie, take Charlie to ____).

Have any ideas for me? If so, leave them in my comments. I need about 26 more. My goal for now is to have the list figured out by the time I'm 30, which is June 7, if you want to send me flowers or something.

Groupon Part 2

Ok, I'm a little disappointed in today's deal! It's for cooking classes at Cucina Bambini. Most of the classes seemed to be catered for kids. Also, I had bought Rob a gift certificate to Viking to take classes years ago. I think the gift card was for $150 (that was enough for both of us to go). By the time we got around to using it, they closed. Last I looked, there are no Viking cooking classes in California. So yeah, I'm still a little bitter about that. :)

I think we'll pass up this deal - maybe next time!

Groupon

I'm totally excited about Groupon. Our friend Brian told Rob about Groupon yesterday and he told me. It's basically a website that sends you major deals in your area once a day (1 deal a day) via email. It can be kayaking lessons, restaurant certificates, massages, etc. at very discounted prices.

Today's deal for San Jose was an unlimited month of Bikram Yoga at a yoga studio for $40 (regularly $150). I think I'd try it out if I didn't have a kid and not about to start right back at work again.

I told Rob that we should buy the deal that is being offered tomorrow - for fun since we don't know what it is yet. We won't do it if its something like surf lessons - I'm hoping its a certificate to a restaurant or a place we can bring Charlie.

I'll let you know tomorrow what happens, or better yet, sign up yourself!

http://www.groupon.com/

Head Doctor

We went back to the head doctor last Thursday. They did a scan of Charlie's head and it has gotten better in the past four weeks. What we've been doing (more tummy time, repositioning, noggin nest) did what the helmet is supposed to do: round out his head. So at this point, she said she doesn't see a need for a helmet (can I get a woot woot?!).

Here is a picture of his head. The red outline is from 4 weeks ago, and blue line is from Thursday. You can see the back of the head rounded out quite a bit.

We're going to go back in 4 more weeks and I think as long as its the same or better, we don't have to go back to the head doctor!

8 Day Shred

I only lasted 8 days on the 30 day shred. I was too tired, too lazy, too this and too that. Plus, I weighed exactly the same after 8 days. I know its only a 30 minute workout but it wasn't very motivating. So after 8 days, I quit. I might do it again sometime but not now. Now I'll just continue walking Charlie around the 'hood and trying to make good food choices (not including the veggie benedict I had this morning with my friends).

Since I QUIT the shred (April 1), I've lost 6.5 lbs bringing my total weight loss to 33.5 lbs, which means I have 16 lbs to go (see - who needs a workout video anyway?!). I know my chest weighs more now than it used to so I might give myself a couple pounds slack.

I know I need to work out not just to lose weight and be toned but because its healthy. I know I should work out to serve as a good example to Charlie but I also know that at this age has no clue what working out means and if mom does it.


If anyone has any motivation they can send my way, please do. I could use some!