Back to work!

I have been back to work now for a week and it hasn't been so great. Verity didn't eat much at daycare last week, she started out totally refusing the bottle. This is partly our fault for not giving her the bottle much in the days leading up to my first day back. However, we did try to give her one, she just wouldn't take it! She has drunk from the bottle in the last couple months a few times, so I wasn't that worried. Boy, was I wrong! She spent her entire first day at day care not eating, crying and sleeping. Poor baby... Mama had to leave work early - although I still didn't get there until 4:30pm. She was one hungry girl! She didn't drink much on Tuesday either, just a little bit here and there that dripped in her mouth. She wouldn't latch on and suck on the bottle. I worked at home and picked her up early again. On Wednesday, Verity and Maddox are home so Rudy had to take over working with her and the bottle while I pumped at home all day. By lunchtime he had succeeded in getting her to latch on and suck! Thank GOD! Daddy is a GENIUS! He is such a good Daddy. She drank a little more that day and Thursday, but still not nearly enough, I think like 5 - 7 oz. On Friday she finally started to warm up to Carrie and drank 11 oz.

I was still really worried and called the pediatrician's office and they told me to just stop giving her boob cold turkey until she was taking the bottle consistently. I was NOT happy about this, it was a very harrowing week for Mama and Dada and then I had to pump all weekend? ARGH! I ended up pumping in the morning and feeding her in the afternoon on Sat. She was taking the bottle pretty good by then so wanted to see how she would do on Sunday morning. Again, Sunday she took the bottle, even from me, so thought she had it. Monday she only drank 5 oz though, I was still very worried. She seems to be warming up to Carrie though- I think this has been a combination of missing Mama, not wanting to drink from a bottle and being in a strange place with a stranger. Poor little butterfly - I feel so guilty taking her to daycare and going to work, it is breaking my heart. Tuesday she did better and drank 11 oz again, so I feel better. I want her to drink at least 12 oz, I think that will be good. Maddox drank 16 oz while I was at work though, maybe she will work her way up to that.

All in all, it's been pretty stressful going back to work. I am working at home every Wednesday to be there and breastfeed and take a break from pumping in the middle of the week. Pumping is not that much fun. But, JPMorgan Chase has a mother's room for women to pump in, so that is awesome! It is not as nice as the mom's room at Orbitz, but it is still a nice room with two private places to pump, a sink, fridge and a place to store your things. There are quite a few women using the room too, so that is a positive thing!

Today, Verity is officially 3 months old! I can't believe how time has flown by. I will have a separate post about her and hopefully some new pics soon. I need to take some photos though, don't have any new ones yet.

Christmas babies

Christmas came and went. It was fun to spend with my babies but a little sad too. I don't get to spend the holidays with my family (parents and brothers and their families) so I am a little sad around this time. We were also fighting with Jackson right before Christmas, so that makes it hard to have fun and enjoy. Very tired of that scene. However, here are some highlights of the time we spend together. My babies and husband are the best thing that have ever happened to me and I love them so much! Verity is smiling so much and starting to "talk" to us - ok she coos a little, but it is so wonderful to hear her sweet little voice. Her face has cleared up finally, however she has very dry skin the poor little butterfly so I am lubing her up with lots of goop. She is sleeping for 6 hour stretches at night, whoohoo!! Maddox had fun opening presents, although he really couldn't open them himself. He was most interested in Jackson's 154 piece tool set. We got him his own tool puzzle and he conquered it in no time. We didn't buy that much for the kids, our house is already loaded with toys and they don't need that much clothes right now. It is too much to absorb all the gifts other people buy so hey, saves us some money! Maddox's favorite word right now is "hot!". It sounds more like "hos!". All food is hot. Candles and lamps are hot too. He is so smart! He amazes me every day with the things he knows or remembers. He picked up is Go dog go! book today and opened it to the page that has all the dogs in cars and started saying "car, car, car, car..."! I was flabbergasted! I read him that book days ago and pointed to all the cars and said "car, car, car, car...". So cute! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!

Family posing by the Christmas tree, minus Jackson

I'm in heaven with my babiesPretty princess Christmas baby
Verity has the curliest eyelashes!
Mamie sent Verity her very special Christmas ornament! She also bought her her christmas ball dress, so comfy and sweet!
Almost a smile!
She loved her new book!
Maddox fooling around with these lights, really he just wanted to unplug them and plug them back in, repeat.
His new favorite pastime, screaming!
Snuggling up to Dada
First time in the snow getting pulled in a sled, it was cooooooold! BRRRR!

11 Month Update

We took some pictures in downtown Naperville on the riverwalk when Mamie was in town. Now for the update... I can't believe that my tiny baby boy is going to be 1 year old in a month! The time is going so fast, I wish I could slow it down. He is truly the best thing that has ever happened to me, besides my wonderful husband Rudy of course. Here are some of the fun things Maddox is doing lately:

• He can clap, wave and scrunch up his face when you scrunch up your face.
• He loves to dance and boogies either sitting or standing when you turn on the music or start singing to him.
• He also immediately starts clapping when I sing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!" It is so cute!
• He yells through a toilet paper or paper towel tube like mama or papa does. This requires explanation I guess. We gave him some tubes to play with and used them like megaphones to talk and sing to him. Yesterday, I gave it to him and he started yelling through the tube! Doubly cute!
• He primarily prefers to feed himself. He gets mad sometimes if we try to feed him, he wants to pick up the food and do it himself darnit! He is a good little eater too, will eat pretty much anything we give him and eats it faster than I can put it down. I have to limit how much I give him at a time because he shoves it all in his mouth as fast as he can and sometimes will gag himself!  He can also drink out of his sippy cup on his own too and loves water.
• He crawls pretty darn fast!
• He can walk around holding on to the furniture, the walls of his playpen, pushing his truck or holding our hands. He can also stand on his own, but when he realizes he's doing it, he gets all nervous and wobbly and falls down or grabs onto something.
• He is SOOOO close to walking! He has taken a step or 2 on his own if something is really close by to grab, but mostly he sits down and starts crawling if he needs to go somewhere. I am not sure I want to really encourage the walking yet, so we haven't pushed him to do it too much. But, I bet soon he will realize he can walk on his own. Yikes!
• He can crawl up the stairs! He just started doing it one day with no warning, we were freaked out! We are trying to teach him how to go down, but it's not working yet. 
• He loves to kiss and hug and sometimes grab and hit you in the face. I am sure it is just a love tap, but sometimes it hurts! 
• He has the goofiest, toothiest grin with the big space in the front still. I hope those front teeth close the gap!
• He is still babbling a lot, says Dada a lot, but hasn't really said Mama much at all. Maybe a few Ma's here and there, but it will be a while before he even knows what those sounds mean. I can't wait to hear Mama!

On another note, I gave him a little haircut. He had some hairs that were a lot longer than the rest, so I just tried to even it out but keep the long shaggy look he's got going. I ended up trimming it a little shorter around the ears than it is in the pics above. I saved the hair for his baby book, sniff sniff.

All in all, he is such a good baby, the best baby boy I could have asked for! He is happy most of the time, sleeps through the night very consistently, eats like a champ and loves to play. We love him to pieces!!

 * * * * * * * 

On another topic, I got my first trimester screening results and they were completely normal. They give you the results in terms of risk of the baby having Downs Syndrome or Trisomy 13/18. They were like 1/3000 and 1/2000 or something like that, I wrote them down somewhere, but left it at home today. Anyway, they put our minds at ease, these results are even better than they were with Maddox, so we feel good that our little baby will be just fine.

I am starting to have a fat belly, although I think I just look fat, not really pregnant yet. It looks like an airline pillow under my shirt, a big fat waist. It is pretty similar to last time, maybe I am showing a couple weeks earlier, but not much. I feel pretty good now though, not as tired, no nausea, no sore back (yet, cross my fingers it never hurts), so I am trying to enjoy feeling good for a while. 

Mama???

Ok, so maybe I'm crazy but I could SWEAR he is saying Mama!! Maybe it's just wishful thinking though, I've been waiting to hear this! Rudy sent this to me today while I am in NY for work, he's been sending me photos and videos so I don't miss my little mini man too much. Oh, how I miss him though! So, Maddox can say Dada all day long and he does, that is pretty much all he says except for an occasional ba or la. So, when I heard this video, I thought, man this sounds like mama!!! If he isn't saying it, this is the closest he has come!!! I put the same short clip in this video three times - what do YOU think?

Swing high!

We went to the park this weekend for Maddox's first (well, my first, his third) time on the swing! He seemed to like it!

Goofy grin!

Clapping AND swinging? Wow, Maddie is so talented!

Papa is so much fun!

Wheeeee!!

My two handsome guys!

Mama and Maddox...

7 months old!

I was worth the wait! That is for sure, little Maddox!

Bad hair day...

Thumbs up! This is his Orbitz hat, made by my coworker, Shalonda. Isn't it so cute? It has a little airplane on it!

Hanging out on the floor with Jackson. Is that a wig? This is a REALLY bad hair day...

My fairy goddaughter, Delaney. 

So, Maddox is already 7 months old! I am really enjoying every moment, he is still a baby, but is learning so much and is so much fun! He is not quite crawling, but he is getting around pretty good. He can go backwards and in circles, but can't go forward. He is very close to figuring it out though, so I am scared. He was waving this weekend though, which was ridiculously cute. He was sticking out his hand and squeezing it together, and we realized that he is waving! Rudy has been working on that one apparently, but I had never seen him do it until Saturday. He was doing it all day long, it was awesome! We started teaching him sign language, but he hasn't really caught on to it yet. It can take up to 2 months to learn the first sign at his age, so I will be patient. We are teaching him "more" - it seems like a tough one, but that is what the book recommends. He loves to bounce around and dance. I carry him around and dance with him, or he stands on my lap and be bops around, it is very cute. He also loves kisses and peek a boo, especially when I set him on the bed and then hide on the floor and pop up in different spots. It is guaranteed to elicit some silly giggles! I haven't weighed him lately, but I don't think I posted his weight at his 6 month check-up. He was 17lbs, 14 oz and 26 inches long. He is in the 50th percentile for height and weight, so my perfect little average baby. He is still a good little sleeper and sleeps from 8:30pm to around 6:30 am or so. I get him up earlier than that on days I have to go in to the office, but he sleeps through the night 99% of the time. His naps are mostly consistent, some days he takes 3 naps and some days 2, but he naps pretty good. He has had a runny nose for a few weeks now and sounds kind of congested, the poor little guy. His skin has been very dry for about a month now too, hence the very rosy cheeks! I have tried some lotions, but they don't seem to help and I am worried they are making it worse, so am stopping them for a few days. He is now eating 2 solid meals a day now, a 1/4 cup of cereal and a vegetable and fruit too. He loves it! He gobbles up everything and is always leaning forward with his mouth open and waving his arms and grunting for more. So, that is his sign language for "more" right now, but he will perfect the hand sign soon I am sure! 

On another note, my job is changing soon so I may have to wean him from breastfeeding. I am not looking forward to it at all. It has been so wonderful and convenient to breastfeed. I am leaving my current client in Chicago and will be assigned to a new project and it could be anywhere. So, I may have to do some traveling which will make breastfeeding interesting. I am planning to keep it up as long as I can, even if it is only a couple times a day. He started drinking one bottle of formula a day when he is in day care to get him used to it. It is no problem, he sucks it down no problemo! I am just sad to have to give up breastfeeding. It is so nice to be able to solve almost any problem by giving him my boob! I am not sure how to sooth him any other way! I was only planning to BF until 6 months, but since I am enjoying it, I was going to go to a year. But, we may not make it that long. We'll see I guess. Until then, I am going to savor every moment.

1 month old!

Here's a photo I took of Maddox today with my new camera! Mommy is going to go crazy now taking photos with her new Nikon D60!

I swear I didn't photoshop this - Maddox says "peace"!

Here's a photo my Dad took last weekend - his hair was all cute and fluffy after his bath!

Maddie's first tub bath with Mamie and Mama! I can't remember exactly what day this was, but he likes taking tub baths way better than sponge baths!

I can't believe a whole month has gone by - my leave is 1/3 over! Sniff sniff! He is sleeping longer at night now - sometimes up to 5 hours at a stretch. He is also sleeping more in his cosleeper and less with Mommy. He smiles more often now and looks around and seems to be noticing the world a lot more. His hair is also getting longer - I think he is gonna need a haircut soon. I don't think I can bear to cut it though, I love his fluffy hair! He is also getting big - I take him to the doctor this week to get the official weight, but I weighed him on our scale at home and he is now over 10 lbs! He is gonna be a bruiser! He is filling out and his face and legs definitely seem chubbier. He sleeps pretty good in the car - the louder the music and bumpier the ride, the better. We are still breastfeeding 100% - but I am going to try pumping and introducing the bottle this week so Daddy can participate in feeding him. We'll see how that goes! So far, he is a really good baby and we love him to pieces!

Sleepy smile

I caught Maddox smiling in his sleep - well, more like smirking! He is so fricking cute I can't stand it! He looks very mischievous here though, what have I gotten myself into?