11 months! Oh no!

It seems surreal to think that in less than a month my baby will be turning 1. I've been following the other August MN Moms and Babies and some of them have already hit that big milestone. It's fun to think that Andy will always be the baby of the group, but it's also a reminder of just who had to wait the longest to hold their little angel in their arms.

In two days, most of us are getting together to celebrate wit

h a big bash. I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends again and it's always a treat to see the babies together. I hate that almost no one lives close enough to me to see on a regular basis. These ladies really have been such a great support team for me, and I'm proud to call them all my friends.

Andy is now not only standing up on his own, but walking! Where did the time go! I remember when he was a little peanut who stayed still when we put him down somewhere. Those days are long gone! Here he is watching TV with Brother Kyle. I was excited to finally get a picture of him standing on his own, and then about two weeks later he was walking around the living room. I feel like sometimes I really shouldn't blink!

Some Pictures

Sleeping angel.

Kyle being lovey dovey with Andy in the beanbag.

Andy and Kyle at the playground.

Andy exploring at a local play area.

Andy and Kyle doing brotherly stuff. AKA, Kyle lugging Andy around in the toybin.

Ack

Ok yes, by the way I am horrible at keeping my blog up to date. Oops.

Andy is 10 months old now. It seems like the last year has gone by quick as a flash. If I could do the whole thing over and make the time slow down I would. He's now talking, even some English words, standing on his own, and starting to make some tentative steps towards freedom.

We've discovered that Andy Pants really likes the water, and bathtimes are a lot funner now. He splashes and makes waves and is even ok laying down in the water so I can wash his hair. That was something that Kyle always hated, even to this day. We went swimming at a friend's pool a couple weeks ago and Andy was on cloud 9 after the initial shock of getting into the cool water.

Kyle finished second grade with pretty good marks, especially in math. I'm impressed with the improvement he made over the last few months of the school year. His handwriting has improved and he was starting to learn complicated math like multiplication and division. We're excited to learn even more fun things in third grade. I was going to put him in summer school, but at the last minute changed my mind. Mostly because Andy was teething and keeping me up into the wee hours of the morning, leaving me unable to get Kyle up, ready for school, and at the bus stop all before 7am.

Speaking of Andy and teething, he got his first couple teeth (bottom center) at about 7 months. Then until the past week he hadn't gotten any new teeth. We can now see the very edge of a top center tooth peeking through the gum. I can't wait until this phase is over. He hates teething and so do I.

Rob is still working at Comcast. He went from being a floating lead to leading a team he really likes. He's been doing a lot of overtime, which of course helps to pay the bills, but that also means he's not here much of the time. By the time he gets home, Kyle is in bed and Andy is heading that way if not already there. Gives me a lot of freedom to keep my own routine around the house, but it's still tough work taking care of two by myself.

Andy really likes music and will bop along to faster songs now. He also enjoys hearing the "ABC song" in English and in French. Other songs we sing are "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Frere Jacques", "O Champs Elysees", "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"(in E and in F), "Allouette", and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". I'm not as bi-lingual as I used to be, but I'm still trying to expose Andy to the sounds of the French language.

Andy loves playtime, and is very ticklish. If I tickle him and then act like I'm going to tickle him again, he laughs even if I don't. He's really learning patterns and expectations. I can tell he's an intelligent little boy, which is good. Takes after his parents. LOL He's also very stubborn, and is starting to test the boundaries already. He hates the word No, and won't hesitate to yell at us if we take him away from playing with outlets or the cat dishes.

Garfield and Andy have become great buddies, but Spencer is still wary. He stays out of Andy's way, and Andy usually just ignores him. He knows that Garfield will lay there and let Andy climb all over him and pull his hair; Garfield almost seems to enjoy it! I guess any attention is good attention. :)

I guess that's it for my update. Hope to stay on top of things more from now on!

Life with Baby

Andrew is about to be seven weeks old already. I can hardly believe it. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was feeling incredibly pregnant and wondering what he was going to be like.

He has started smiling, sometimes at us, but more often at the lamp or his bottle. He still likes to eat, and in fact has started taking more formula than breast. The important thing is that he is growing well, and is happy. He's over 10 pounds, and is a chunky little monkey. His newborn clothes are starting to get a bit tight, so looks like we'll be going to 3-6 mos clothes soon.

He's also started cooing, which is so cute. It's fun to have conversations with him, even if we have no idea what he's saying. He has a favorite song, "Itsy Bitsy Spider", and he likes the movements that go with it. Sometimes he's happy to let me sing it three or four times in a row. We also do "Bear Went Over the Mountain" and "Pop Goes the Weasel" but those don't make him quite as happy.

He is starting to get more used to being put down, which is nice, especially in order to do housework. I can actually get him to settle down in his swing for 20 minutes or so daily; I'm so glad the swing is getting used. I was starting to think we had made a mistake in buying it. The Pack-n-play bassinet doesn't get used yet, because we're still cosleeping, but I'm considering putting Andy in it for naps during the day. Right now he naps in his rocking chair, he seems to be pretty comfortable there. The changing table part of the PNP gets used a lot though, we've got a pretty good diaper changing station going on there. I'm sure when he's older and needs a safe place to be while I'm doing stuff, the playpen will be great.

Garfield seems to be just fine having the new baby around, but Spencer still isn't convinced. He's made some effort to sit on our laps while we're holding Andy, but as soon as he starts crying Spencer's gone. Eventually Spencer will just have to get used to Andy, I guess, as he isn't going anywhere!

I am working with Andy to get him to enjoy tummy time more every day. At this point he doesn't like being put on his stomach, and he just gets frustrated with his head. He is getting stronger though, so it shouldn't be too much longer before he can control his head better and actually be able to take a look at the toys on his play mat. I'm looking forward to the milestones coming soon, like rolling over and pushing his upper body up with his hands.

I think he might be teething already! I can see the spots on his front gums where the two bottom teeth are coming in, and he tends to be a bit fussier at night. We've got orajel and baby tylenol for when he needs it, just hope it doesn't take too long to get those suckers to pop through!

Rob's hours at work are changing soon, so he'll be working late afternoon/evenings. That's going to be a big change. I'll be looking for work, too, because we're tired of living paycheck to paycheck. I'm hoping to find something that will allow me to work when Rob's home, and vice versa, so there won't be a need for daycare. Wish me luck!

Finally an update

I know I should have updated the blog before now, but I totally forgot how much work a newborn can be!

The birth went fine, for the most part. We arrived at the hospital at 5:30am on the 28th, after just a few hours of sleep. I had a nice room, by myself, and was hooked up to the monitors as soon as we got there. The nurses had a hard time getting an IV started in my left arm, so I ended up having two IV lines, one in each arm. They wanted one bigger line, but had to settle for two smaller lines. That was not fun.

I really did feel like a human pin cushion that day, because the anesthesiologist also had trouble getting in the line for the spinal block. After about six tries, he finally got it in and laid me down. Then came the fun part-I ended up with dangerously low blood pressure and started throwing up on myself. Luckily, they were able to get my pressure back up and finally let Rob into the room. The surgery itself went incredibly fast, and at 8:19am Andrew was born and let out his first cry. Rob and the nurses took him to the nursery to clean up while they finished me off and it wasn't too long before I was in recovery and able to really see my baby for the first time. I knew immediately how lucky I was, he's such a beautiful baby!

We all learned right away that Andy really likes his food. He became known as the baby who was always at breast when the nurses came in for vitals. He latched on right away and has never had any trouble sucking down his share of milk. In fact, sometimes it feels like I have a Hoover vacuum attached to my chest instead of a baby! Sometimes we do give him some formula in the evenings, because he's pretty much sucked me dry. Luckily for me, he has no objection to both types of milk. When Kyle had to have formula, he didn't want to go back to breastmilk, because the formula is thicker and fills better. Andy just likes food, so both work for him.

I expected Andy to sleep in his pack-n-play bassinet after we came home, but it turns out he doesn't like being put down for very long. So, even though we didn't mean to, we're doing the family bed thing. Actually, because the bed frame is a bit broken, Rob has been sleeping in the living room. We'll probably take the frame apart and put the mattress on the floor and go back to sleeping together, but for now it seems to work. We're okay with Andy liking to be held, because frankly we don't want to put him down!

He's grown so much in the last two weeks. He's keeping his eyes open more often, which is great because they are a beautiful violet blue color. They'll probably change but for now they are so pretty to look at. He spent a bit of time today in his swing, which is the first time I've really been able to get him to do that. I'm sure as he gets older, putting him down in the swing or bouncer will work for longer periods of time. For now though we are just enjoying all the time we spend with our little man. We both know how fast this time is going, especially since it's been over two weeks already!

Almost there!

I'm delighted that there are only 5 days left before we welcome Andrew into the world!

We're taking care of last-minute things, and just waiting waiting waiting. I think we are both excited and nervous at the same time, which is probably pretty normal. Kyle is excited to finally be able to meet his little brother next week. Today we worked on painting a onesie that Andy can wear. What Kyle doesn't know is that I'm going to paint a matching t-shirt for him, to give as a present from the baby. I can't wait to take pictures!

The rest of the week will be spent just tidying up the house and relaxing. I have a pre-op physical on Wednesday afternoon, and then Thursday morning we need to be at the hospital by 5:30 am. I'm ok with that, since I doubt I'll get any sleep on Wednesday night. LOL Rob is taking some time off work so he can spend those first few days in hospital with us, and then some time at home as well. He does have to work on Sept 2nd, but that should be fine. Andy and I will just be resting that day anyway.

There are so many things I'm looking forward to. Seeing what and who he looks like, hearing that first cry(first of many!), and getting to hold him. I got to hold Kyle in the recovery room after his c-section, so I'm hoping to get the same chance this time with Andy. I'm really looking forward to breastfeeding, and I really hope it works out. That's one of my favorite parts of being a new mommy. Well, that, and getting to watch the babe sleep, because they look like little angels.

Ready and Waiting

It's hard to believe, but there's only 16 days left until the scheduled c-section! I remember how long 9 months seemed, way back in December. Now it seems as though the first half of 2008 just flew by. It probably helps that I did sleep through most of the first trimester!

I set up the baby's swing the other day, and yesterday we put batteries in it. I'm looking forward to finally having a baby to put into it! I'm trying to savor everything that I can, since I know this is my last baby. I even managed to talk Rob into buying matching swing, stroller/carseat combo, and pack-n-play. I love the green and blue plaid pattern on it, and it will work just as well for a girl if the ultrasound techs were wrong.

The only things left we have to get are diapers and wipes and we will have everything we need for the little guy to come. I still haven't packed my hospital bag yet, but I will...soon. We got an adorable little Pooh outfit from one of Rob's co-workers and are planning to use that as the coming home outfit. I'm so stoked to be able to hold Andy in my arms finally, and know that I get to bring him home with me. It hasn't been an easy pregnancy, but I just know it'll be worth it in the end.

One of the worst things I'm dealing with right now is pain in my left heel. It's like I bruised my heel somehow, and it hurts like the devil to walk on it. Good thing I'm supposed to just take it easy anyway, but it does make getting to the bathroom just a little harder! LOL