Little Man, Hunter

This week, Hunter and I have not been feeling so great. It all started when Hunter got a reaction from his 4 month shots at his appointment and got a fever.  Then it lead to him sneezing and coughing and then of course, Mommy got it. Plus, not to mention that everyone in my office was sick. So this week has been pretty miserable.  This is Hunter's second cold so at least I knew what to expect. His first one he got when he was 4 weeks old and when they are that little you can't even give them baby Tylenol so this time I was able to give it to him along with some saline drops and that thing that sucks the snot out (forgot what thats called).  As of now, we're both feeling better but still congested and should feel 100% in the next few days.

Also, this week we both hit a milestone of our own!  Hunter now is sleeping in his own room in his crib! I was finally ready and I knew he was pretty much ready for this so we did it!  I wasn't getting much sleep with him in our room with his sneezing and coughing and I definitely wasn't getting any better without any sleep so I knew it was time. So far he has done pretty good. I think that he is used to me being "right" there like I was in the bedroom and I am guilty of consoling him right away when he cries but now that he is a little farther I know the difference between his real cry and his fake cry. Yes, he has this fake cry that he has been doing for awhile now.  I guess he knows how to "work" his mommy.  Haha. I just can't resist his cute little face when he cries (fake or not).  Anyway, he is starting to realize that the fake cry doesn't work so much anymore.

Tired little man.

Hunter's Mom

I feel like there's a formality after a mom (or dad) has a baby.  If strangers, friends or family ask you how old your baby is or how things are going with your baby, the next question is usually: So when are you going to try for your second?  When I hear that, I freeze up and just think to myself, ummmm, are they serious? I just HAD a baby four and half months ago! I feel like I was pregnant for like a year and all I want is to get my body back to the way it was! Don't get me wrong, I loved being pregnant and had what I think was a really easy pregnancy with Hunter and my results with him were some stretch marks on my hips and the last 2 months of carrying him and about 2 months after were two fingers that went numb on my right hand.  I was never sick with him at all (I can't imagine feeling like that). So, when I hear those famous words, I just think to myself I am totally not ready for that at all. I could not even imagine being pregnant again and having to take care of a one year old at the same time. Wow!!!  Right now, I'm just concentrating on getting back into shape. Man, I am out of shape. I'm happy that I have lost all but a little less than 10 pounds of the 50 that I gained. I thank breast feeding for that every day. Even though, I walked a lot during my pregnancy and I walk a lot with him now, you certainly lose that muscle and stamina. I can't walk up 30 steps of stairs without feeling like I'm going to pass out! Coming from someone who has been an athlete all through high school and during college, this is really an eye opener. Oh yeah, not to mention that I'm going to be turning 30 this year!!! Ahhhh! Scary. So I just want to get back into shape so that I have the energy to keep up with Hunter when he does start to crawl or walk.  So on to the next question: When am I going to find time to do it? I wake up at 5:30 am and on a good night I'll sleep about 7 hours (not straight) on a bad night about 4 hours. By the time I get home at 5:30 pm, get Hunter settled for bed and get me ready for work the next day, I'm ready for bed soon after he goes to bed around 8 - 8:30 pm. Haha, yep times have changed but I need my sleep especially now that I am back to work full time. Every weekend we go on about a 2 mile walk around our neighborhood so I do a little on the weekends but during the week, I cannot seem to find the time (or the energy)! Someone mentioned to me about doing it during my lunch break but since I leave early now and take 3 pump breaks a day, I usually only take about a 15-20 min. lunch. So there is no way to do it then.  The only time that I can possibly think of is right after Hunter goes to bed (7 pm) I can do a little 20-30 minute walk/run on our treadmill but then right after I need to eat dinner and then go to bed? I don't know about that. Hopefully, I'll find some time if not sooner it will definitely be later when Hunter finally starts to let me sleep all during the night. Everyone says around 6 months is when they start to do that so I may be looking at doing this in about 2 months. I'll keep you guys posted. Oh yeah, so the answer to the famous question for everyone. Yes, we will have a second baby but have no idea when. Just definitely not any time soon!

Someday this will be a part of my routine (somewhere in it).

Getting on a routine...

For the past 2 weeks I have returned to work full time and we have all been adjusting to a routine that works well with all of us. I think that we pretty much have it down pat. Sean and I have agreed to put Hunter in day care each morning so that he remains on a schedule and it helps for him to sleep well at night. Here is what goes down on a typical day:

- 5:40 a.m. – time for me to wake up and usually by this time Hunter has already been fed and put back down to sleep until I get ready

- 5:45 a.m. – pump session and pack my huge bag for work that includes by breast pump, a little cooler to store my milk at work in the fridge, my lunch and a few water bottles – oh and Hunter’s little cooler to take to day care that has either 4 or 5 bottles in it

- 6:10 – 6:40 a.m. – jump in the shower and get myself ready and usually by this time Hunter is starting to wake up. So I just keep him on the little boppy bed thing that we have on top of the bed and he just lays there while watching some cartoons that I put on while I dry my hair.  

- 6:50 a.m. – get Hunter dressed and spend a little “Q.T.” with him before I grab him and everything and head out the door

7:05 a.m – drop him off at day care and give lots of kisses and then head to work. I take the train into downtown and I'm there by 8:15 a.m. Which by the way, I love coming to work early! No traffic and my boss isn't at work yet, so I can ease into my day while I'm here!

Every day I leave work at 4:30 p.m. and I’m home by 5:30 p.m. and also if Sean has to work that day, I usually arrive to pick him up about the same time. If Sean doesn’t have to work, he picks him up around 3:30 p.m and takes him back to the house and Hunter takes a short nap before I get home at 5:30 p.m.

-5:30 p.m. – I get home, change clothes and of course, give my little guy lots of hugs and kisses. Then I go and soak all of his bottles and nipples and put the milk I pumped from the day in the fridge all ready to go for me to grab the next morning for day care.  Sean and I need to invest in another bottle rack thingy because we have so many bottle accessories and then on top of all the parts and accessories to my breast pump, its out of control!

-6:00 – 7:30 p.m. – Give Hunter a bath, read a book, sing his favorite song by the Giggle Bellies, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” that I ordered on DVD. He loves it!!! There is one part in the song that everytime he sees it, he laughs. It’s so cute! Then I feed him and then he goes right down to sleep. At about 8:45-9 pm, I wake him up again and give him a  “dream feed” and he goes to sleep until about 2 a.m. then I feed him and most of the time he wakes again sometime before my alarm goes off around 5:15 a.m. and then my day starts all over again!

"I'm all clean, Mommy!"

4 months!

Wow! Time does fly! I feel like ever since he turned 3 months old things with him have started to move waaaaay too fast. He sits up (with support but puts his hands out in front of him sometimes and holds himself up), he grabs stuff and of course they go straight to his mouth...and the best one of all, HE CAN ROLL OVER! He has mastered the rolling over from tummy to back and has almost mastered from back to tummy. I really think he can do this one most likely this week. I am really happy at the day care that he is at because I can tell that they really work with him to reach his milestones. It made me feel really good that within a week being there that he can officially roll over now. I  can tell a huge difference.  I've actually started giving him about a pinch or so of cereal in his bottles (only at home and once a day) because he is very active and I feel as if he needs a little bit more other than his 4 oz bottles of breast milk every 3 hours. The great part about the day care he goes to is that they provide all of his foods. So the cereal and when he is able to eat more of solid foods, they provide. So this week I am going to let them know that they can go ahead and give him some cereal in his bottle for one of his feedings.  That reminds me....Hunter can now go down for a nap in his crib now with no problems! This day care has helped me more than I thought! I mean, I have to of course, soothe him and have to place him in his crib elevated in the corner of his crib with a pillow but hey it works! That is how they have his crib positioned at day care so they told me to do the same thing and of course it works.

Here's a video of Hunter rolling over. Bear with me, this was the first time I used another video camera that we had:

I'm such a big boy! I am fitting in 6 months clothes already!

This is how I sleep in my crib now...haha. I know the issue with having too many blankets but he is only in there for naps and I check on him all the time. Also, he has to sleep with his binky that he is holding! Uncle Matt and Aunt Jessica gave him the one he is holding. Also, he hardly takes a paci so his first two fingers are what he likes.

First week back at work....

Luckily, I started work back on a short week (4 days) so that helped a lot. It definitely felt weird being at work! I even thought that our office changed the carpeting on our floor when I walked in and everyone thought I was nuts! Haha. Anyway, my boss wasn't too hard on me this week. It took at least a day to get my bearings after being out of work for 4 months but the second day I was there it felt like riding a bike. I remembered what my job description was! Not sure if I mentioned on here before but my boss approved of me 2 days a week coming in at 8 and leaving at 4:30 on the days that Sean works and on the other days to work my regular work hours: 9-5:30. Weeeelll, the first day I worked, I left at 4:30 and then the second day I left at 5:30 and that day did not go very well leaving at that time. When I leave work at 5:30 I don't usually get home from working in downtown Miami around 6:45  So, Sean picked Hunter up from day care around 4 and brought him home and knew that he would need to give him a bath at 6 and then read him a book and sing a song and hopefully by that time, I should be home to feed him. Yeah that didn't work like it was supposed to be. Of course, I was in some hellacious traffic and didn't get home until after 7 pm. Obviously, Sean fed him a bottle because Hunter was hungry and fussy but when I got home Hunter was super fussy and I guess he was expecting his momma to be there already and ended up getting very upset so it took me awhile to calm him down and put him down to sleep. I know that you other mother's out there can relate to me when I was stuck in traffic trying to get home and I'll I did was cry. I had to call my mom to help me get through the agonizing torture of not moving any closer to my house. In reality all I wanted to do was plow over every car and ask them why of all days does everyone not pay attention and just go! Haha. Yes, I was nuts that afternoon by not seeing my son all day, except for the 15 minutes in the morning of getting him dressed and singing to him while getting out the door to work. The next morning I went to talk to my office manager and tell her that leaving at 5:30 was not going to work. I told her that I would eat lunch at my desk if needed in order to leave early.  So, I ended up talking to my boss on my own and told her about what went down the night before and she completely understood (she has 3 kids of her own, btw). She asked me what would make it better and I just said leaving at 4:30 everyday would work out perfect. I could beat some traffic and be home in time to keep Hunter on his routine at night with his bath at 6 pm and then book, songs, feed and maybe a little play time and lots of kisses goodnight. She okay'd it and the next day I left at 4:30 and was so relieved! Ahhhhhh, I love my new schedule. 

This week I have to point out that my husband did such a wonderful job helping me adjust getting back into work while juggling Hunter and trying to spend time with him.  I really do have the best husband in the world and I couldn't be any happier with him.  He cooked dinner every night that he was home. Not sure if you guys know this but Sean does not cook at all! Seriously, when I met him, he had no idea how to turn the stove on at all! I had to teach him a few basics. Anyway, I guess teaching him a few things here and there and him paying attention to the guys cooking at the station really paid off. He made beef stroganoff and like a arroz con pollo (rice with chicken).  He also cleaned up the house - vacuumed, dusted, cleaned the bathrooms, emptied all the trash cans in the house, mowed the lawn (his job anyway) and did such a wonderful job. Thanks, Sean! I love you very much. 

To top it off, Friday night, G-Foxy and Teddy came over and brought dinner! Haha! They came over and we had a nice time. Sean and I bought Teddy an Android Tablet for Christmas and Sean was teaching him how to use it and downloaded a bunch of Apps for him to play with. Hunter was in bed the majority of the time but woke up for Grandma and Grandma to play with some (and then go right back down to sleep). 

I don't have any photos to post with this blog....which I know helps but its soooo hard to take any  during the week so my new years resolution is to make sure that I take some during the week. I'm not going to put the pressure on myself like my friend Kelly Beane has done. Take a photo every day that she did in 2011 but I will definitely try. I don't want to look back and think that I didn't take any!