weekly baby update: ten weeks
Posted: February 25, 2012 Filed under: weekly baby update Leave a comment »
Love my little redhead!
Oh my gosh, Damien has reached the double digits! (In weeks that is.) On one hand it’s hard to believe time goes so fast, but on the other hand it feels like he’s been part of our family forever.
Note the too-short sleeves - this was the last 0-3 outfit in his drawer...
Firsts:
- Sucking his thumb. Actually, more like chewing it, but only the thumb is in there (as opposed to half his fist like before.) It’s so cute I don’t even mind that he went with Team Thumb (like his daddy) rather than Team Fingers (like me. Though the picture in the link is not me, it’s just a random cute baby. See how cute you’d be sucking your fingers, Damien? Ok I’ll stop lol.)
- First 3-6 month clothes. Damien started out just in sleepers until I realized the sleeves on his long sleeve onesies were getting too short… so I hauled out all the 3-6 stuff and amazingly, most of it fits perfectly. Baby Boy, you’re growing up too fast!
- Meeting Great-Grammie and Grampa, my dad’s parents. They were in California on vacation (from Maine) and flew up to visit – more of that in Memories.
Damien with great-grandparents. Sorry you inherited my Crazy Photo Eyes, kid!
- First college basketball game. We went to see PUC (Kaeli’s and my alma mater!) play a local university. Both boys and girls teams lost but played hard (the boys game was especially entertaining) and it was fun to get out my college sweatshirt and cheer! First road trip. Kassi’s basketball team has a championship game two hours away, so Kaeli, Dan and I drove up to watch. Their team lost, but it was still fun to be there – Damien wore navy and yellow (school colors) and a red plaid fleece jacket (so he looked like a lumberjack, the school mascot.) As for the actual road trip part… it could have gone better. He slept most of the way there (stopping once to eat) but cried much of the way home. I sat in the backseat with him, playing white noise/showing him pictures on my Nook, and if it weren’t for that he would have screamed the WHOLE way! Baby Boy just does NOT like the car, especially after dark.
Memories:
My dad’s parents arrived on Friday of last week (narrowly missing being a part of last week’s update, lol.) That evening we went over to Kaeli’s house for dinner. On Saturday we went on a walk on a really pretty trail by the river. Damien did great in the front pack and sunhat.
Family picture, though all you can see of Damien are his little froggy legs!
That evening we went to the college basketball game I mentioned in ‘firsts’, and Sunday morning we went back to Turtle Bay. Damien was a tad bit grumpy but we still had fun (and actually got to look at all the exhibits this time.) We met a baby a month older than him, and it was fun to see what we have to look forward to. :) After Turtle Bay we went to frozen yogurt and later out to Mexican food. Yum! The great-grand-/grand-/parents left on Monday.
Wearing the Turtle Bay shirt Great-Grammie bought him
Damien has REALLY started smiling and laughing this week, as you can see in this video. He tracks things with his eyes constantly, can see people from further distances, and recognizes faces upside down. I’m really loving this age and can’t wait to see what comes next!
flashback friday: bedroom, late high school
Posted: February 24, 2012 Filed under: flashback fridays, NBR Leave a comment »Welcome to another fun edition of…
Today’s flashback is circa 2003 (either the summer after my junior year of high school, or right at the beginning of my senior year.) Behold: my bedroom:
Oh my, there is SO MUCH I could say about this picture, so get ready for some wordiness. I’ll go into the wall in detail in a bit, but first, let’s examine my awesome outfit. I’m wearing a JCP classic tee, and despite not knowing what lacrosse was, I wore this shirt all the time (I liked the color.) My shorts are cut-off penguin pajama pants from one of those ultra-trendy but crap-quality stores in the mall marketed to teens.My hair is, well, my hair – I dyed it a bunch in high school but this is one of those times it was actually my natural color (it became black soon after.) I had all those short pieces near my face because I messed with my hair as a nervous habit (still do) and accidentally pulled it out (I mostly don’t do that anymore.)
Now for the room: I shared it with my sister Kaeli (it was her room originally so she picked the yellow… everywhere) and we pushed our two beds into the corner to make a V-shaped ‘couch’. I’m sitting on my half of the bed, covered in clothes (I spy green capris with a belt that looked like it was made of bullets that I LOVED, a thrifted boy’s skateboarding tshirt, a black and white Gap skirt that magically fit for like six years, and jeans.) (It looks like there are more jeans on Kaeli’s side of the bed, but that’s actually a pair of jeans stuffed to make a pillow. So basically pillow legs.) On my lap is a roll of duct tape along with a sheet of duct tape, because I’m attempting to make a duct tape skirt. (I actually succeeded, too, but only wore it once because duct tape just doesn’t breathe and it was uncomfortable. Also because I was told never to wear it to school again because it looked ‘trashy’, lol.)
Now let’s examine the walls behind me. My sister and I basically put EVERYTHING on our walls, so there’s a lot to look at:
1. A Princess Bride poster (you can see it better in the big picture.) BTW, this is still my favorite movie of all time! :)
2. A Renaissance-style crown/headband with ribbon on it. Every time my school took a trip to an amusement park (which we often did as part of a choir/band/handbells/drama tour) I’d buy one of these, so I had a LOT.
3. My nickname (‘Lace’) cut out of a box of gloves from my work (at a dentist’s office; I was basically the assistant to the dental hygienist.)
4. A SpongeBob & Gary sticker from a vending machine in Taco Bell – I loved Gary.
5. My work schedule for that week (see #3)
6. A nail file on a keychain (why, I don’t know, since I chewed my nails and certainly never needed to file them for at least another year, when I semi-broke the habit after 17 long years)
7. A cow sign someone gave me; I think my grandma. It makes some pun on the word ‘udderly’. I had a ton of cow stuff because in junior high I had a period of loving all things cow, and once family hears you have a ‘collection’ that’s all you’ll receive for gifts for years to come.
7.5. I forgot to number it, but right next to the cow sign is my eighth grade graduation tassel… yes, we graduated from eighth grade at my school, ha.
8. A photo of a girl, Maricruz, from a Mexican orphanage, the same orphanage I went to on a mission trip in ninth grade. I ‘sponsored’ her (aka sent her money, letters, cards etc each month) all through high school.
9. A card my friendcousin (yes, that’s a thing) Daylene made for me when I was feeling down, using a hilarious picture of us at Anderson’s Pea Soup.
10. A drawing of a cow that I did (and I’m not an artist, so since it actually looked like a cow I had to keep it, lol!)
11. A drawing my little sister Kassi did for me – she was around eight at the time.
12. One of the many glow-in-the-dark flowers we had stuck all over the room.
13. A photograph Dan gave me (for Christmas, I think.) We worked on yearbook together in 11th and 12th grade and frequently used his photography in the books, and he knew I loved this photo. I took that picture with me to college and would probably still be displaying it today had I not spilled water on it at some point. :( (Oh, and bear in mind we didn’t start dating for another 2+ years.)
14. My dreamcatcher, acquired from one of our many road trips to Maine (we seriously did this 3-4 times, from California!) (and we flew to Maine 3-4 more times. My dad’s parents live in Maine and his siblings all live back east.)
15. A postcard of Death Valley. I have no idea where it came from, but I loved it.
So, there you have it – the wordiest post about my late-high school room ever! (I actually have a picture of the same room a year later, which I might post later for comparison purposes. I find these types of pictures pretty funny…)
¡Muchos gracias, Lindsey-de-The Accidental Wallflower, para la bandera bonita! And in honor of my high school room, that’s my best high school Spanish.
tiny baby videos
Posted: February 22, 2012 Filed under: baby video Leave a comment »After uploading the cute video of Damien and Dan playing last night to YouTube, I remembered I actually had a bunch of videos of Damien tucked away. I’ve uploaded a few of them to the internet, and though I can’t say they’re terribly exciting for public consumption, my friends and family might be interested (and of course, I can always watch them ten times a day. Each. Love that baby!)
Here’s the very first video of Damien ever, before they even finished cleaning him off. The pediatrician is doing his Apgar scores while Dan looks on. I’m stuck in bed getting stitched up in unmentionable areas (you can actually hear me apologize to the doctor because I’m flinching. WTH, of COURSE I’m flinching, I’m getting NEEDLES STUCK IN MY CROTCH and it HURTS!!)
This video is after everyone met Damien and went home for the night, but before we were transferred from the L&D room to the regular hospital room. Damien is just hanging out in the warming bed while Dan looks on. I, on the other hand, just fainted in the shower (earning a Fall Risk bracelet!) and you can hear the nurse giving me instructions on how to sloooowly come back to the bed. Fun stuff.
Finally, this is Damien ‘sleep singing’ later that night. The nurses thought maybe he aspirated some fluids and that’s why he sounded like that (they were the ones who called it ‘singing’ too.) Turns out we just have a very vocal sleeper, since it’s two months later and he still does this! :)
happy baby in boppy
Posted: February 22, 2012 Filed under: baby video Leave a comment »Damien was being REALLY cute when Dan was playing with him, so I started videoing, and got some big smiles and even a few giggles! (This was like the sixth and seventh time Damien has ever laughed, so I was pretty excited.) And even though I lived it a few hours ago, I’ve watched this video about five times… :)
getting ready for summer
Posted: February 22, 2012 Filed under: baby Leave a comment »It’s not even spring yet, but I am sooo ready for summer! It feels like it’s been winter forever, which is funny, because it’s hardly rained at all where I live and hasn’t even been all that cold. But there are just so many more things to do with a baby in the spring/summer than the winter, and I think I’m excited about that.
Another possibility for my excitement is that local stores just started putting out their summer things. I am amused and amazed by the tiny baby shorts, swimsuits, and little sundresses (obviously we won’t be getting the third one, which further convinces me that at least ONE of my kids has to be a girl) and I also like the idea of letting Damien run around (read: be carried/roll/crawl around) in his cloth diapers, since they’re so cute on him.
I haven’t been able to resist the call of the summer baby items; here’s what we have:
- Infant sunblock. Granted, babies aren’t supposed to wear sunblock until they’re six months old, but Damien’s skin is almost as fair as mine (read: borderline albino) so I think that using sunscreen in moderation (for example, on his hands when they’re uncovered) is better than getting a nasty burn. Of course, keeping the sun off him altogether is the best option, which brings us to…
- Infant hats. I was a little unsure this would work, since Damien tends to HATE hats and hasn’t worn one since he was a week old (he even cries if I put a hood on him!) I thought maybe a bucket hat would be different so I picked one up, and lo and behold he doesn’t mind it. It was such a miracle I had to go back to the store and buy another one in a different pattern!
Sleeping in the front pack, with his hat on - we were going for a walk
- Infant sunglasses. I didn’t even know these existed with the stretchy band around the back, but it’s actually quite genius, and Damien looks ADORABLE in them. (He also tends to close his eyes whenever he’s wearing them, lol – I think he thinks it’s night. Then again, he’s never worn them in bright sunlight so that should help.)
- Baby swimsuit. OMG is there anything cuter than a little baby in a little suit? We have a pool in our backyard and live close to two lakes, so I’m excited to take Damien swimming this summer (it’s almost always over 100° so we’ll need to cool off!) I bought this rashguard from Target, and swim diaper boardshorts from My Swim Baby (on sale, so I bought one in both small and medium.)
Baby carrier. Yes, yet another one (for those playing at home, this is the fourth I’ve purchased, but I’ve had good reasons for that I swear.) This time I purchased the Infantino Union, and I really like it. I wanted a carrier that Dan and I could both use (so my pretty Maya Wrap is out, lol) and while I have a cheap front pack, it’s difficult to get Damien in and out of and the straps are too narrow/not padded enough. The Union is SUPER comfy, super adjustable for multiple users, and puts baby in an ergonomic position (aka it’s good for his little hips.) You can use it as a front pack for small babies, and a backpack once baby can sit up. The only drawbacks I’ve discovered thus far are that it takes two people to put it on, and all the straps that make it so adjustable are also kind of annoying. : P Oh well, for $30 it’s still an excellent carrier!
baby update: one month/nine weeks
Posted: February 18, 2012 Filed under: monthly baby update, weekly baby update Leave a comment »Since the one month/nine weeks mark happen to be a day apart, I’m just gonna update them together.
Damien loves sitting in a Big Boy Chair
Height/Weight: (I’ll update this as soon as I measure/weigh him, hopefully later today)
Daily: Typically Damien wakes up for the day between 8-9am. I’ll change his diaper (and clothes, if he’s wet), feed him, and cuddle him for awhile. Then he’ll sit on the table in his rocking chair while I make myself breakfast and coffee. If I have things to do around the house I’ll put him in his carrier and he’ll ‘help’ me do laundry, get the mail, put away the dishes, straighten the house, etc. (If it’s a day Dan’s not working, he hangs out with Daddy while I get stuff done.) Before work Damien sits in his rocking chair in the bathroom while I get ready, then I strap him into the dreaded carseat and we go to work together. He likes to look at the lights on the library ceiling while I run the tutoring center. He also likes it when his grandparents or auntie come in and visit him. :) I usually end up feeding him at least once during TLC time (I guess I’m teaching the kids that breastfeeding is normal? Though I do use a cover) and I’ll put him in a carrier/ring sling after that.
After work we’ll sometimes go grocery shopping, and by the ride home Damien usually cries or screams at least part of the way (unless Daddy is with us, and I can sit by him or hold his hand.) We’ll eat dinner at home and maybe watch TV. He’ll hang out with his grandparents or aunts to give Dan and me a break, and usually sits in his rocking chair in the bathroom while Dan and I take a shower (he likes the water sounds) – if he’s not taking a shower with us. By 10pm we’ve lowered the lights and sounds in our room to get him ready for bed. I try to feed him frequently and have a thick diaper on him to get him ready for the night. After he drifts off (either eating or rocking/being held) we swaddle him in his SwaddleMe blanket (it’s really tricky to keep him asleep while doing it, but if we try it while he’s awake he’ll never fall asleep in the first place!) and carefully set him in his bed, which is still the bassinet inside the big crib. Then we cross our fingers and hope for a big sleep block! (Which hasn’t been happening lately… see below.)
Naps on Mommy's chest... (please disregard my hairy cavewoman arms, lol!)
Bedtime: We’ve had some regression this past week, where Damien has decided to sleep in two or three hour blocks. It’s hard, but he’s still cheerful during the day for the most part so I’m thankful for that (if only I could say the same for me… then again, I’m allowed to drink coffee.) I’m thinking it’s a growth spurt (maybe he needs to eat more and that’s why he’s waking up?) and still holding onto hope that the wonderful 5-8 hour blocks will return someday.
Eating: Typically Damien eats every 2-3 hours, though he’ll occasionally let you know he wants to eat more frequently. He tends to take breaks while he’s eating (he unlatches and leans back for awhile) which may make him swallow more air, I don’t know, but I think it has to do with my forceful letdown so I’m not about to force him. It makes nursing in public a little interesting, but if I’m uncomfortable I use my cover and he does just fine. I’m really enjoying breastfeeding and am glad it’s something I can do to bond with my baby.
Sizes: 0-3 is getting a little small, but 3-6 is still big – is there an in between size?! (Actually, it’s mostly the sleepers that are small, so when his sleeper supply is just too low I’ll add some too-big ones to the rotation. He’s just sleeping in them after all.) His sposie diapers are still size 2′s, and I haven’t had to adjust his FuzziBunz this week (alas, they’re still asymmetrically snapped, unless I double-stuff them for overnight.)
I didn't post this one in the V-day post because it's blurry, but it's super cute!
Firsts:
- First Valentine’s day
- First sick baby (and first medicine too – bubblegum flavored Tylenol, which made him sleepy but brought his fever right down)
Memories:
Warning, this is a ridiculous memory! So I noticed Damien had a stuffy nose and thought I’d try to help him out. I misted inside his nostrils with saline and then tried to suck them out with the bulb syringe (utterly useless BTW) but then he started sneezing (something he’s really good at! He almost always sneezes three or more times.) When he was done sneezing there was a booger on his face, and I automatically wiped his face off. With my bare hand. And then I was sitting there with a baby booger on my hand and no idea what to do next, fairly grossed out. (I eventually wiped it on some trash in the trash can. Why I didn’t just grab a tissue, I don’t know.) It reminded me of the first time I spit on my finger to clean his face – you do these little annoying/disgusting mom things without even thinking about it!
I told Dan to take a picture of us, and this is the face Damien made...
Damien has also started ‘singing along’ to songs that play on the radio – well, at least he makes a lot of cooing noises. I don’t know; maybe he’s telling me to change the radio station lol. He’s also started grabbing on/holding on to me a lot, which I love – for example, I’ll hold him belly-down across my arms, and he’ll wrap his little arms around my big arm. He still holds onto my shirt when he’s nursing, too. It’s so precious and forces me to hold him longer when I should be sleeping (like now, for example…)
two months
Posted: February 18, 2012 Filed under: monthly baby update Leave a comment »
February 17, 2012
I took these photos a day late… oops! On the plus side, I took them in the morning so Damien was in a happy, interactive mood. Unfortunately he wanted to interact with his month ‘sticker’, which is actually printed on plain paper because I thought I wouldn’t have to worry about him grabbing it for a few more months. Looks like I was wrong… and need to invest in some sticker paper!
Ohhithere!
Love that you can see his red hair so well in this one
flashback friday: my grandpa
Posted: February 17, 2012 Filed under: flashback fridays Leave a comment »
This is a bittersweet flashback: me, age three or so, with my Grampa Bob.
Grampa Bob is my maternal grandfather. He died the day before Damien’s baby shower (I know, I should say he ‘was’ my grandfather, but I have a really hard time with the whole past/present tense with death. I also refuse to say I ‘loved’ him, because I still do.)
Last weekend my maternal grandmother and step-grandfather were in town, and this weekend my paternal grandparents are visiting from Maine. I keep thinking that something is missing. I know my Grampa Bob would absolutely love Damien and having a great-grandson.
On a happier note, many thanks to Lindsey at The Accidental Wallflower for the banner! Play along if you have a Friday Flashback to share.
happy hearts day!
Posted: February 15, 2012 Filed under: baby, celebrate Leave a comment »
Auntie Kassi gave him the monkey!
Snugglin' with Monkey Friend
...okay, I think we're done now.
Valentine’s Day was pretty unexciting around here. Damien decided not to sleep last night so I was dragging pretty much all day (and he was grumpy too), but we still ran a few errands in town before I had to go to work. Dan usually works late on Tuesdays, so we decided not to worry about doing anything outside the house today. We did exchange cards/gifts and gave Damien his present:
I managed to read this to Dan and Damien upside down, because I'm talented like that
Every once in a while our camera will magically discolor an image like this...
As you can see, Damien received “Guess How Much I Love You” and “Baby Love” (it’s a soft book that folds up; the other side of the ‘Love’ is a lift-the-flap book.) I was surprised that they had a card for exactly this occasion:
Aww... card cuddles!
Tomorrow Dan and I might go out to ice cream or something, but today it’s fun just to hang out as a family (albeit just for a little while until Damien decided to be a fussypants and cluster feed for hours on end… Joy.)
Oh, and here’s a picture that made both Dan and me laugh:
What the heck, both of you? Those are some silly expressions...
cloth dipe reviews, part 2
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: cloth diapering Leave a comment »For Part 1 in this series of reviews, see here.
General Info: in these pictures Damien is around 13 lbs and 8 weeks old.
Review #4: Happy Heinys One-For-All: Hook/Loop
Shocked Baby Face
Previously I bought a HH in what I thought was hook/loop but turned out to be snaps… oops. As you can see, this one is the real deal. It’s sized the same as the snap Happy Heinys diaper, just with Velcro on the tabs instead of snaps, and comes with two microterry inserts (a small and large.) For a pocket diaper it feels sturdy, and the pocket itself is easy to stuff.
As far as ease of use goes, it’s obviously simpler than the snaps, but not as easy as the Blueberry hook and loop diaper. With the Blueberry it doesn’t matter which tab you use first; with the Happy Heiny, you have to overlap the right tab over the left or the Velcro doesn’t line up (and even then, it’s hard to get it straight, as you can see from the photo. That doesn’t affect the use of course, but it is a little annoying if you’re OCD like me.)
Diaper closeup
Overall it’s a good diaper, and I don’t have any really big complaints with it, but I am a little disappointed in the Velcro aspect. However, it washes and wears well and doesn’t leak, at least on my baby, so I’ll definitely continue using it… but I want to check into some other hook and loops as well.
Review #5: Lovely Pocket Diapers: Classic
Quizzical Baby Face
If you’ll remember, this is the $7.50 diaper I was excited about in the last review (the non-patterned version is $7.) LPDs are sold by a new mom/cloth diaper user, so it’s definitely a SMALL business, meaning you get personalized attention (I got a thank you note on my receipt) and a money-back guarantee (if you’re not satisfied, send it back within 10 days for a refund.) My diapers arrived quickly and I was excited to try them out. They each came with one insert rather than two, but it was the long one I actually use so this wasn’t a problem for me.
In comparison to my other pocket diapers, both the outer covering and the inner fleece feel a bit thinner, so they may not hold up as well long-term. That said, at $7 they don’t really need to, and the slight decrease in quality didn’t result in them leaking or working any less well. The shape of the diaper is really similar to FuzziBunz, with a more accessible pocket that even my husband’s giant hand could easily stuff. The hip snap keeps the tabs from floating around in the diaper, but is a little difficult to fasten (then again, all hip snaps pretty much are, at least on my baby.)
Diaper closeup
I like this diaper, and probably would have an even more glowing review of it were it not for…
Review #6: Lovely Pocket Diapers: Rave
Silly Baby Face
This diaper is definitely my favorite of the three. At the price of $12.50 ($12 for the patternless ones) it’s a little more expensive than the Classic LPD but still much cheaper than any other cloth diaper. It’s the same basic size and shape as the previous diaper, with an added bonus – the double leg gussets that absolutely keep any messes inside. (It also doesn’t have a hip snap, which means you have to tuck the side tabs in. Kind of annoying, but not a dealbreaker.) The pocket is narrower by necessity, because of the leg gussets, but it’s not inaccessible. Like the Classic, it washes and wears well despite being a little less sturdy than the $20 pocket diapers. (It is sturdier than the $7 version, though.)
Diaper closeup
Right now I have 18 total pockets (though one is MIA – where is my poor missing diaper?) and I’d like to have 24 total, so I think I’ll have to add a few more of both LPDs. As for the Happy Heiny, if I find one on sale or for a good price used I’ll pick it up, but otherwise I’ll hold off on getting more of these for now. (Of course, this could change as Damien grows up – they might start fitting him amazingly and I might need to get a whole bunch…)
