Rockin' the ear flaps

Before becoming quite ill Tuesday, I finished knitting a new hat for B. We are, after all, traveling to Minnesota on Friday. He'll definitely keep warm in this, plus it will be harder for him to tug it off once I have the ear flaps fastened underneath his chubby chin.

Here he is before I did all the finishing, yarn ball still attached:


Here he is sporting nothing but his stylish lime green hat (well, a diaper, too, but had you wonderin'!):

And, yes, those eyes still are very blue!

D'oh!

It finally happened. Up until now, B. had been going, at most, six hours between feeds. We tried to time those at night, of course, but they've been few and far between.

Well, last night he went a whopping eight hours between feeds (sleeping for seven of them)! And what was I doing?

I was wide awake, waiting it out. I fed him at 8 o'clock, he got sleepy around 9, so we decided to forgo his bath until he ate around 10 or 10:30 (that has been the trend, or so I thought). After he went to sleep, C. and I finished watching the rest of the Steelers-Jaguars game (sorry to all my peeps in PA!), ate hot dogs for a late-late dinner, and watched a Saturday Night Live rerun that had one of our favorite skits (promise to post that later).

When 11 o'clock rolled around, I started to get antsy. Should we B. to feed, burp and bathe him? Should we let him sleep? Only one problem with the latter: I was still awake. I would be missing out on valuable ZZZZs if this was his long sleep of the night.

We just said, "Screw it! Let him sleep!" and C. and I started playing Tiger Woods '05 on XBox. We played 18 holes at St. Andrews and I scored a 63 (woot!), all the while hearing little peeps out of B. on the baby monitor. He never full-on woke up, and I even joked to C. this is going to be the night he's going to sleep for eight hours.

At 1:30 a.m., when I needed toothpicks to keep my eyes open, I tiptoed into bed, trying not to make a sound. B. didn't rouse until 3:50 to feed, then again at 8:20 a.m.

I've had six hours of sleep, which is usually great in my book, but I'm lamenting the precious seven-hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep I missed out on. Hopefully this wasn't a freak occurrence and he'll do it again this week, then more and more until it's a nightly ritual.

Trying

I'm trying my hardest not to make this into a baby blog, but since this space is all about me and my life, frankly that is all that is going on with me right now. It's all baby, all the time.

Rest assured I'm doing fine and getting as much rest as I can (though not as much as I'd like), shockingly I've almost lost all my baby weight (though there's another 10 pounds I'd like to lose) and I feel like I'm getting the hang of this mommy thing. It's quite fun! B.'s really adorable, which makes it easier, even when he's screaming his head off. Knocking on wood, he's really a good baby.

So since we're talking baby, I'll update his latest weight: 10 pounds, 9.5 ounces. At yesterday's weigh-in at our lactation support class, the nurses weighed B. before and after a feeding. He gained 2 ounces in one sitting. The nurses were so supportive and excited that he is putting on weight so well, and despite my struggles with nursing, it's good to know I'm doing something right. It's also nice to meet other moms and know that we're all there to support each other. Yesterday, there were 11 babies in class and next week probably will be just as busy.

And now, it's off to JC Penney for B.'s first photo shoot. I hope he stays awake for this!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

The cats are realizing they're now moving down on the totem pole.

But it's fun to see their new behaviors. Gabby has been great, inquisitive and getting on my nerves just a little. She jumped in B.'s crib the first night and hasn't tried it again.

Booty, meanwhile, is standing guard at our bedroom door. I'm very proud she has become the guard cat.

Just now, they both walked up and smelled his head, quietly walking away as not to disturb his little nap. I hope they keep up their good behavior!

He's joining in the fun, too

C. had his first baby dream last night.

He was changing the baby, which was a girl by the way, and he said her diaper was dry. Just as he picked her up from the changing table, she started peeing on the floor. There was a puddle on the floor, and somehow she ended up peeing on a lady standing in line across the street (?). He said, "Just tell her it's water."

After the peeing episode finished, he put his hand under her butt to put her back on the changing table, and of course, she started pooping in his hand. Just then, he said he started yelling, "HONEY! I NEED AN EXTRA HAND HERE!!"

---

Yesterday's "seen"

A bike "bumper sticker" that read: "My other bike is a bike."

Really?!

Baby's first...

...blanket! I hated the color of this yarn when it arrived, but after working a few rows it grew on me. Especially now since I might have chosen a crib sheet set. It would match!

The baby knitting will have to take a back seat for a bit though. I've got to start making more washcloths for my relatives and finish up another baby project - that one is a gift, though. I also promised my cousin a kitty bath mitt for the kids. Methinks I don't want to do another blanket for a while; I don't need a big project draped across my lap as I work. Discloths, bath mitts, even the stuffed monkey I was dreaming of knitting wouldn't fill my lap and make me break into a sweat! I'll keep you posted on my progress. (I am being a hair ambitious with all this talk.)

Tick tock

Time is running out to vote in C.'s and my baby pool (well to select gender, at least). We have our big ultrasound Tuesday afternoon.

Navigate to it from the "Links" section on the bar to the right.

Road trippin'

Can't wait to hit the road for Taos.

I'll be seeing my grandma for the first time since September, and my dad for the first time in a few months. I have not seen a lot of my extended family for more than a year.

Hopefully I'll be back with a lot of new blog fodder, and if not, at least some tasty pictures for you to feast your eyes on!

Edit: Baby movement update! I think s/he liked the concert. I felt a "flutter" last night. Imagine holding a little fish in your closed fist and it wiggling around trying to get out. That's what it felt like! Some people describe it as butterflies, and it felt slightly like that. The fish analogy works much better for me though.