It's been awhile...

Yes, I know I have been lax in my posting, however, the two people who actually READ this blog were visiting me last week, so I don't feel too bad.
We had Baby Convention 2008 at my house! Cameron, Isabella, and RJ got to do some serious baby bonding, while their parents tried to have normal people conversations. We actually got much more sleep than I was anticipating, and the visit was relatively temper tantrum free!
The most adult conversation I had during this 4 day love fest was in the rear-view mirror with Jennifer on our way to the airport. Our babies and her husband had succumbed to the white noise of the car on the freeway, and we had a whole 20 minute talk!! CRAZY.
This was our first visit with all of the little ones, and it wasn't bad. One thing that helped is that our kids are all small enough that they don't need real entertainment or activities planned around them. The biggest problem we had was navigating through stores/restaurants with three babies in strollers and various types of baby carriers. You get some mean looks when you walk into a restaurant with 5 adults and 3 babies. At least none of our kids threw Cheerios on the floor! There was a little screaming, and some boobs flopped out in public, but nothing to warrant dirty looks. We're only human after all.
I think I would go so far as to say that Baby Convention should be an annual event. Especially if RJ is going to vie for Isabella's attentions. He's just now figuring out that he has hands people, he's really not into the ladies yet!

Milestones

Today is a big day for RJ. He is 3 months old! He also passed another milestone last night. He slept from 11:30 to 7 AM!! The batteries ran down on the swing at 6:15 (I was half listening from 5AM on) but he managed to stay asleep. I believe that if he hadn't pooped his pants at 7, he would have continued to sleep even longer. We had 7 1/2 hours of sleeping bliss.
RJ has a newfound skill, partial control of the "crazy" arms. He rubbed his eyes yesterday to tell me he was sleepy and has started making the ASL sign for ice cream. Everyone in our family LOVES ice cream, but this is not what he means. He is attempting to suck his thumb. However, he has not yet discovered that his thumb is opposable. He can't extend it to latch on. So, he just licks and gums his fist for now. I don't know if he is producing more saliva in preparation for teething, or if this licking/gumming action is just bringing it out of his mouth more, but the boy is getting a little drooly.

Inchworm

Inchworm is the name I have for the moves my baby does when he is laying on my chest. Even when swaddled, he manages to use his head with limited assistance from the legs to "inch" his way up my neck to my gobbler. Those of you that know me well know that I do not tolerate ANY one or thing touching my gobbler. I have a sensitive gag reflex and it is activated often by the inchworm. Why do babies do this? I place him in a nice protective cove created by my cleavage, but he feels the need to migrate north every time!

On a related note, this morning was the first time I have been truly upset with the actions of my child. He has become more difficult at night again. I moved him to several different locations with different positions and sounds in an attempt to get him to sleep. We settled on the swing, lights on, fish rotating, and hairdryer blasting at midnight. (it sounds like a game of Clue).  I managed to turn off the hairdryer and lights before retiring myself. This bliss lasted until 4:30 AM. At which time, he woke up hungry and angry. After feeding and changing and rocking him back to sleep, I placed RJ in the crib. This lasted precisely ONE HOUR.  I then kicked CJ out of bed and asked him to help calm the baby down. This worked for ONE MORE HOUR. Then CJ was leaving for work, so I asked if he would bring the boy into bed with me. I gave him more milk and we went back to sleep for ONE MORE HOUR. This process repeated itself until 10:30 AM when I gave in and said, let's get up then. 

What happened to our lovely 6 hours of sleep, followed by a 4 hour nap? I miss that baby. :( I hope he comes back before our company arrives this weekend. 

Now the little bugger is having a loud grunty nap in his co-sleeper. 20 minutes and counting......  

Bush Baby

Here's what happened to me today.

1) Bought a NEW laptop, yeah!! We're switching to MAC.

2) Saw the Bush Baby guy from American Idol Season 6 at the mall. I saw him first, then heard his voice, then overheard him talking about the AI experience, so I KNOW it was him!! And now I know where he works too...not in show business, he was at the mall for WORK.

Sleep habits-step forward and back

We have a problem. My boy does not want to sleep in his crib. Nevermind that it was the most expensive baby thing we purchased! Last night, we had a minor breakthough. Although RJ did NOT sleep through the night, as he has been doing in his swing, he DID manage to sock out 3 whole hours in the crib. He slept all day yesterday, so he was wide awake at 10 when Mom and Dad decided they had enough and stuck him in the swing. He awoke at 2, and I fed him. He fell asleep during his late night snack, so I took the risk of placing him in the crib. I swaddled for maximum warmth, and it paid off!! At 5 he was hungry again, but barely ate before nodding off. I moved him into our bed b/c I was too tired to sit up.

Now he is back in the crib on a nap marathon that started in the car, continued in the stroller at the mall, back in the car, and into the crib. He has been in the crib for 30 minutes so far-so good. This pic was just taken!

We're having house guests in just over 2 weeks, so I need him to pick a spot and stick to it! There will be 2 other babies here and they won't be wanting to play musical babies at all hours. One of our visitors will be on eastern time, which should prove interesting too.

My boy, the model

We've been to hell and back today. I had an appointment for photos at JC Penney. There were 800 other screaming children and 600 strollers parked all over the place. I had a mini panic attack upon my arrival. They were running about 1/2 hour behind on the appointments, so I had to nurse my baby in public to keep him from adding to the chaos. Once we were in the photo room, things went ok for about 5 minutes. Then RJ decided that he was NOT having fun and started to cry. I spent the rest of the shoot trying to get him to stop. Luckily, this resulted in fewer pictures for us to choose from, as the last half sucked.
After the photographer was finished, RJ was down to a diaper for the ultimate in fat cute baby pictures. I needed to change this diaper. I was informed by the JC Penney employee that "they need the room" and would have to change him in the chaotic waiting area. I was not pleased. I had a mostly naked screaming child tucked under one arm while pushing the stroller full of his clothes and my coat back into the mayhem.
We then began what should have been a 20 minute wait to view the photos. This turned into a 35 minute wait. I succeeded in partially dressing my darling, but decided to forego the pants and let him sit with a blanket over his lower body. I also had to endure another bout of public nursing to calm the livid one. Didn't care so much the second time, just wanted to calm my boy. All this for few cute photos. We'll do it all again when he's 6 months old.

Mr. Poopy Pants

Today RJ graduated to a 3 month sized onesie. Such a Big Day for my preemie boy! He made it about 2 hours in the outfit du jour before taking a ginormous dump. This dump was so big that it came out the top of the back of his diaper--not foreign ground for us, we've been there many a time. But today's plopper shot ALL THE WAY up his back. And the removal process (screaming child and mother) resulted in poop in his hair - a definite first for us.

So, my love got a special middle of the day emergency bath. He loved it, of course. And I was being paranoid about him soaking in a tub of water infused with essence of feces. I rubbed him extra dry with the towel afterwards, so hopefully this removed any residual poo flakes.

As for the new onesie, it's still soaking in bleach solution. Pray for it.

Tomorrow we go for his first real photo shoot. Hopefully we won't have a poo fest then.

He Looks Just Like Us!

Here is your chance to weigh in on the debate of the hour. Who does RJ look most like? I think he's a clone of his mother, except the sex part... My photo is the baby in the obviously old swing from the 1970's. CJ is the black and white, as he is so old they did not have color images yet. :) Give me your opinion, then I can choose to ignore it if I disagree.

Tummy Troubles

So our family has been infected with our first stomach bug. For me, it's been since Friday, just a stomachache, off and on, nothing life threatening or severe enough for medical intervention.

For CJ, it started last night. You know that men are more sensitive to pain and discomfort than women, but I thought we might end up in the ER last evening. He was doubled over in pain on the floor, then in the bathroom all evening. He spent the night in the guest room, and is home from work today.

We aren't sure if RJ is affected or not. How does one know exactly what is upsetting an infant at any particular time? I know there is a "pain cry", but we get that one a lot. What hurts? I had a mini-panic attack when my sister informed me that my child could have an ear infection with NO APPARENT SYMPTOMS! Great. Since he is not aware of having ears, he can't know if they hurt.

Here's how we are managing. If the boy is inconsolable (even refusing to nurse), we place him in the swing (BABY CRACK). If he continues to cry to the point of changing color, we being with the drugs. We start with gas drops. Not sure if they help or not, but he LOVES the way they taste, which usually stops the crying. If he starts up again with the sounds of pain, out comes the baby Tylenol. (we've only done this twice, I'm not drugging my baby, so don't get all judgmental on me!) Again, he LOVES the sugary grape-ness of baby Tylenol. This one-two punch has worked for us so far.

Evil Technology

So, I'm following the directions step by step to add a slideshow from Flickr to this page. It is not working. I have a call in to by BFF's geek husband, maybe he can lead me through it. Until then, no baby pics here, but I did manage to add a decent one of myself to my profile. Enjoy!