Musings of a Wannabe Super Mom: And now introducing 2013

Yah! I am finally in 2013 for my updates. I guess I should get to it.
January-New Year and changes
The first week of January I noticed I had put on a few pounds. Prior to getting pregnant, I dropped 25 pounds, and I luckily only gained 29 total during the pregnancy. I lost 15 pounds within a week or so of giving birth, and all but 2 or 3 pounds came off in the subsequent months. Over Christmas time, I managed to put on 3 or 4 pounds, and my body wasn't rebounding too well. Brett had had some success with Weight Watchers before we got married so I decided to try it. The first two weeks was hard because I was starving all the time, but by the end of January, I had lost 11.8 pounds. Once you get going on the program, it is much easier. At the beginning of January, we began introducing Gray to new solid foods beyond rice cereal. We had discussed early on about making Gray's baby food. Three reasons:

Cost-making our own would save us a bunch just like breastfeeding has helped.
Many of the baby foods on the market include a lot of added preservatives that we want to try and limit.
Food allergies-since I have food allergies, Gray has a 50% chance of getting some.

We started with Avocado. Gray wasn't a huge fan at first, but he has grown to love them. Also, by January, he was sitting up most of time unassisted. He still was not a fan of tummy time, and we hadn't seen him roll from his back to his stomach. We had started putting him in the exersaucer, and once he figured out about the bouncing part, he fell in complete love. Halfway through January, he was also officially out of 3-6 month clothes and into size 3 diapers. I had to take him to another doctor visit because we thought he might have possible ear infection. When they weighed him, he weighed 2 pounds more than he did at his 6 month visit! The doctor also suspected that he possible had allergies. There was no ear infection, but they were gunky with wax. Gray was also teething like crazy without any teeth to show for it.

February-Uh.. where did go?

February is another mother that went buy in a blur. Work had been very difficult and toxic environment. Add to that is the stress of the approach to state testing. Everything going on often makes me want to choice a new career path. I want to teach high school; not relive it. February meant taking on extra time at work for tutoring. Since we were so busy during the month, we had to postpone Brett's birthday dinner to March. We also called off our plans for a Valentine's Day staycation. Beyond the not wanting to spend the money, I wasn't quite ready to have him stay away from me. We did get a chance to catch a play at Pocket Sandwich and dinner. The night was a bit of nightmare like most of our Valentine's, but it ended up turning out to be a good night. We also made a trip to celebrate Z's birthday. It was a lovely visit. Unfortunately, it was the last chance we got to see her. While we had thought my sister was doing better, apparently she wasn't. I doubt that she honestly had ever intended to become a mother at all, and she probably mostly kept the baby for my mother. I had hoped she would wait a little be longer after mom's death. Once again, we were blindsided by the situation and completely unprepared. There was a lot of discussion about what to do, and in the end, my sister opted for a open adoption. We had wanted to take Z, but we could work our finances right quick enough to take on Z. I know we both feel guilty, but it is possibly the best thing for her. I am not sure that either of us were ready for the changes and decisions it would have brought to our lives. If she had come to us, we would have had to makes sacrifices for not only us but for Gray as well. On the better side of things, Gray got to attend his first two birthday parties for his classmates. It was an interesting experience and gave me some ideas for his first birthday. I also got a chance to play around some with my new camera.

Hanging out with Poppop and Zoie

My shirt says it all

With Maga

What's up

First Valentine's Day

March-More sickness, babies, and spring is finally here
March has zoomed by as well. I can't believe that my little man is 3/4 of they way through his first year! Spring break was earlier than usual this year due to state testing. I had quite a few things planned for the break, but all was in vain. Gray has been a bit fussy over the weekend, but we went ahead and took him to day care for the first day. I got some of the cleaning I wanted to get done. I tried some new cleaning strategies I pinned on pinterest. It actually somewhat worked; there is still some gunk I need to take care of but haven't had the time as of yet. Gray's stuffiness and cough had us concerned enough that I got him an appointment to see what was up. It ended up being a good thing. Poor kiddo had an ear infection and tested positive for RSV. Since it was in the beginning stages, they didn't prescribe breathing treatments, and the nurse told me to keep an eye on his breathing. We also had to keep him home from daycare since RSV is contagious. Everything seemed okay with Gray most of the day minus him being a bit fussy and needing to be held most of the day, but it didn't last. Gray work up at 12 coughing really bad, and his breathe was definitely troubled. After a call to the doctor, we headed to the hospitable for our first ER trip. I am sure the doctors thought we were crazy to bring him since Gray was wide awake, good tempered, and curious, and then they did an chest X-ray and found a small bit of pneumonia. Thank goodness, Gray was a trooper the whole time, and we eventually got him to pass out again. So Gray and I spent the week together after all, and we had to change our plans to celebrate Brett's birthday. We ended up going to the car show and then Fogo de Chao for dinner. March also brought back an old friend. I had my first true period since I got pregnant. I had had a day of bleeding in September, but I hadn't had anything close to a normal period. One of the interesting things (awesome things in my eyes) about breastfeeding is can delay menstruation. Let's just say that the first real one after not having one in over a year sucked big ones. So spring break wasn't exactly fun with that and a sick baby. Gray had several milestones for the month. He finally stopped hating his tummy so much, and he started scooting at the beginning of the month. He also began rolling onto his stomach while sleeping. It caused us to have a few nights with less sleep because Gray gets freaked out and starts screaming each time it happens. He finally intentionally rolled over onto his stomach last weekend. He has started pulling up to stand. We lowered his crib down for the last time over spring break as well. He is also starting to cruising a bit when we out him up to furniture. It won't be long before he is up and moving around! He has also had to retire his title as the toothless wonder. His first tooth poked through at the beginning of the month, and the second one followed not too long afterward. His 9 month appointment went well. He weighed in at 17 pounds 10.5 ounces and 26 inches. This put him into the 25th percentile for weight and 5th percentile for height. While some might worry about the small percentile, he has made consistent growth since birth. Of course, these charts are based more closely on formula feed babies. For a breastfeed baby, he is off the chart. His head is huge though. He is in the 50th percentile for his head circumference! Guess he has lots of brains. His cognitive skills were very high, and he seems to be on a good social track. He is a little behind motor skills wise, but apparently, this is normal in smaller babies. The nurse practitioner explained that smaller babies' muscles are slightly less developed. After she mentioned this, I did notice that is true of his bottom half. His hemoglobin test came back fine as well, and he didn't cry a bit about it. This weekend we will celebrating his first Easter. I purchased a cute basket with a free baby friendly things. One last Saturday tutoring session tomorrow thank goodness. Time to wrap it up. Next up will be my blog about diaper cakes.