7 months, I think?

Somewhere in the craziness of my life I think I forgot to do a 6-month blog post. I swear I had one written in my head, but it never made it to my computer. Ah well, such is my life these days. And because things are so crazy, this is going to be bullet points—again.

• Will turned 7-months old yesterday (Really? Where the hell has the time gone?). We weighed him and measured him at home since he doesn't go back to the doctor until 9-months. He was around 18lbs. 12oz. and 27.5" long. He definitely has some chub on him now. His thighs are simply edible!

• He has 4 teeth now. The bottom two came in a while ago, but the top two poked through this past week while I was out of town (girls weekend in Costa Rica—more on that shortly). Let me tell you, these chompers are sharp! I can no longer put my finger near his mouth. With his obsession with chewing on everything and the sharp teeth, I'm in serious danger of losing a finger.

• I think we may have finally lost the swaddle for good. He's been napping unswaddled for a couple weeks, but the last 4 nights have been unswaddled as well. The key? The boy likes to sleep on his tummy. He still refuses to roll from tummy to back but has mastered the back to tummy. In the past he would roll onto his tummy and then get frustrated because he couldn't roll back which would keep him awake. I guess he finally decided to try sleeping on his tummy and decided he liked it. So we now have a tummy sleeper who goes without his swaddle!

• Will has mastered sitting up and occasionally tries to scoot backwards when he's on his tummy. I'm not ready for mobility yet. I'd prefer he stays in the sitting-up stage for a little while longer. He looks like such a big boy when he sits up!

• He's a great eater. We've tried lots of fruits and veggies and some of his favorites are sweet potatoes, butternut squash, cantaloupe, mango and zucchini. He definitely did not like peas and surprisingly wasn't a big fan of apples. I've tried to let him feed pieces of banana to himself but he isn't too interested in that, yet. He is getting better at holding his own bottle, though. Correction, he's getting better at holding the bottle and actually getting the formula out of it. He's been able to hold it for a while, but never really understood he needed to lift it up to get anything. I think he's starting to realize that now.

• Will has always been a very happy, smiley baby at home. But the minute we would walk out the door he turned into Mr. Serious. Over the last week he's starting to come out of his shell. He'll smile and flirt with the ladies in the park or in the store, but still clams up with the doormen to our building. I guess I have a ladies man on my hands.

• We took him to the park a couple weeks ago to see if he liked the swings. Like most things in his life, he was indifferent at first, but after the third time he really started to love them. So much so, he cried when I had to take him out to head home for a nap.

• I spent my first night away from Will. When I was 8-months pregnant and waddling around in 90-degree July heat, a friend asked me if I wanted to go away on a girls weekend to Costa Rica (she'd found an amazing deal!). I figured Will would be 7-months old so it would be OK. Well, I went on the trip and Will was OK, but I missed my baby so much more than I ever thought I would. I definitely needed the break and the rest (working 65+ hour weeks for the past month and starting triathlon training again has been draining) but I would have been happier at home. The trip did make me realize that I need to take/make some time for myself.

• Grandma (my mother-in-law) came to help Hubby while I was out of town. She had such a great time with Will that she suggested Hubby and I take a long weekend for our 5-year anniversary this summer and her and Grandpa would come into town and stay with Will. Hubby wasted no time and booked a long weekend to Rio de Janiero for the end of June. Because we'll only be one time zone away and we're taking overnight flights we are able to maximize our time in Rio without being away from Will for too long.

• As excited as I am for our anniversary trip, I'm also feeling guilty for leaving Will. Before Hubby and I had kids we had agreed to find a good balance between "our" time and "family" time when we did have a family. I know this is an important part of that balance, but it's so hard to leave my baby. I feel like I miss so much when I'm away from him for more than a couple hours at a time. That boy has consumed my love, my heart and my life in a way I never imagined!

It's so difficult to get a non-blurry picture because this boy just 

won't sit still!

The holiday recap

Whew, it's been a busy couple of weeks but we successfully survived the holidays...and had a very nice time too!

We ended up staying in Ohio for a couple days longer than originally anticipated because we decided to buy a car (we sold both of our cars when we moved to NYC). We'd been thinking about it since Will was born, but were going to wait until the Spring or Summer, however a possible new job situation for me (more on that in a minute) prompted us to get one sooner rather than later. So, last Thursday I turned 35 years old and got a new car. Quite the birthday present! I'm not sure how next year's birthday is going to compare because in 2010, I got a positive pregnancy test on my birthday and this year a car. 2012 has some big shoes to fill.

So, Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's was a success. Will was passed around so much and rarely had any "independent play time", but I think he enjoyed it. Hubby and I joked that he was going to be bored as soon as we got back home and he didn't have 15 people passing him around. Thankfully he's very adaptable and transitioned well. We tried not to spoil him too much but he did get a jumperoo from Santa. He's not too sure what to do with it, but I think he'll grow to love it over the next couple of weeks.

We're back to swaddling him for naps. We continued the no-swaddle naps while in Ohio, but discovered Will was having a hard time transitioning from one sleep cycle to another. He goes down for his naps fine whether he's swaddled or not, but has a hard time getting back to sleep if he wakes up after one sleep cycle. Hubby and I did a lot of research and found that a lot of babies have sleep issues (both naps and night time) between 3-5 months as their bodies adjust to different REM sleep times. It seemed that swaddling helped the babies easily transition from one sleep cycle to another, so we reverted back to it. We'll keep this up for another couple weeks until he outgrows these sleep issues. Hopefully he won't decide to roll from back to tummy in that time (that would be the only reason we would stop swaddling). I'm happy to report that his night time hasn't been disrupted (que wood knocking). He still sleeps from 8:15pm - 7:45am without disruption.

It's amazing how much he's changed and advanced in two weeks. He loves tummy time now and is soooo close to rolling onto his back. He's always reaching for his toys to put straight into his mouth and he LOVES to blow razberries. This creates so much drool I try to keep a bib on him all the time now. If he's tired in the evenings all he wants is to be held with a teether in his mouth. I think his gums are really starting to bother him, poor little guy. We start a weekly music class this Friday which I think he's really going to like. I've taken him to a couple drop-in classes and he's fascinated with the sounds. I can't wait to see how he does.

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day back at work, but since I quit I'm still home. I was hoping my company would need me for freelance work but they don't this week. I've been talking with another agency in NJ about a job share situation. I would work 3 days/week and have a counterpart that would cover the other two. I would be the primary client contact so would likely have to take some calls or possible meetings on the 2 days I'm going to be home. It will (hopefully) also allow me to do some additional freelance work. I'm meeting with the creative director for lunch on Friday to try and iron out the details.

2011 was an amazing year for the Fairytale family, and I can't wait to see what 2012 holds!

My favorite present under the tree this year!

Enjoy his present from Santa

All bundled up and ready for the cold weather

Hi ho, hi ho...it's off to Grandma's we go

It's crazy town around here. What else is new? I hate to do it, but this is going to have to be yet another bullet point post. Maybe I'll make a New Year's resolution to quit posting with bullet points!

• Will had his 4-month doc appointment yesterday. Everything went well, but we need to increase his bottle size a little. He weighed in at 13lbs. 8oz. (25th percentile) and 25" long (again, 25th percentile). We think the nurse shorted his length by at least a half inch, but oh well. Right now he takes about 28oz of formula a day, but we're going to increase that about 30oz and start him on solids at 5 months. He still spits up. All. The. Time. That makes it hard to give him larger bottles, but I want his spitting up to be a little more under control before we start the solids.

• He's still sleeping through the night (8:30pm-8am), but Hubby and I are waiting for the sleep regression. We expect it when he starts to cut his first tooth. Speaking of which, this kid drools like you wouldn't believe. His shirts are constantly wet and everything he can get his chubby little hands on goes in his mouth (yes, even though he doesn't weight a lot he has the cutest chubby hands ever). I can feel a hard spot on his lower left side, but don't see anything yet. We haven't noticed that he's in pain so I'm not too worried about it.

• Last week I started putting him down for naps unswaddled. That was a challenge. He would go down fine, but would wake after about a half hour and not be able to put himself back to sleep. There was a lot of calming, reassuring and crying last week during nap times, but we seem to be a little better this week. I'm sure things will get all off track again while we're at Grandma's, but such is life with a baby.

• Speaking of Grandma's, we're leaving tomorrow to drive to Hubby's parents in Ohio. With feeding stops, we expect it to be about a 9 hour drive. Will has never been in a car longer than 2 hours so we'll how this goes. Fortunately, he doesn't mind his car seat and he's at the age where he can look at/grab toys hanging in front of him. I'm hoping that will occupy him while he's awake.

• We have a lot planned for the week we'll be in Ohio, but I think I'm most excited to take Will to see Santa. Obviously he won't care, but it was always a tradition I loved as a child and I want to make it a tradition for Will as well.

• In non-Will related news, I quit my job last week. Officially I resigned as a full time employee, but I am still working for them as a freelance/contract employee. I'm hoping this will allow me a more flexible schedule. We'll still have the nanny full time so I can be available for work whenever they need me. The crazy thing is, an hour after I resigned they were calling me with a project, so I've been working a little bit over the past week. It's actually kind of nice to get my brain into work mode. It was starting to get a little mushy from "mommy-brain".

• That's it from Fairytale land. I hope everyone has a very happy holiday season and I'll see you in 2012 (unless I have a free minute or two while in Ohio to put up a quick post).

Will has become such a smiley baby...I love it!

Airplanes, nannies and turkeys...oh my!

Whew, I need to stop and take a breath. Life in the Fairytale household has been on overdrive lately. So, let me back up a little...

We survived the trip to Ohio, but it wasn't the easiest adventure ever. Will decided not to nap the morning we were set to leave for the airport. Of course, he finally fell asleep as we were standing in the security line and I had to wake him up to go through security. Fortunately, everyone was very helpful and tolerant of my fumbling with a baby, stroller, luggage, etc.

I was warned that most babies have trouble with take off and landing because of the pressure in their ears. Will ate just before we boarded the plane (the boy has his schedule down to the minute and there is no holding him off when he's hungry!), so feeding him during takeoff wasn't an option. I had a paci ready though. He fell asleep as soon as we started to taxi and woke up after we were in the air. I thought I was in the clear, but no. An overtired baby who isn't used to sleeping in his mommy's arms makes for a VERY LONG 45 minute flight. Again my son defied the odds and finally fell asleep as we were landing. Figures.

Remember what I said about not being able to hold him off when he's hungry. Yeah, that came to bite me in the ass once we landed. As we were taxing to the gate it was time for him to eat again. I had planned to get us off the plane, get our luggage and then feed him before we left the airport. He didn't get that memo and proceeded to let everyone in the terminal know this by screaming from the time we got off the plane until I could get our luggage and I could put a bottle in his mouth. Yes. I was that mom in the airport. You know the one. With the screaming child that people either pity or can't get away from fast enough. I just kept my head down and refused to make eye contact with anyone, the whole time cursing Hubby for not being with me.

Despite our misadventures getting to Ohio we had a great time and Will charmed everyone he met. He's very much looking forward to his return trip at Christmas. The flight back was a little bit easier, but only because Hubby was with me. Will still wasn't the happiest of travelers, but at least there wasn't any screaming.

So, I'm planning to go back to work at the beginning of January (trying to work out a flex arrangement with my company but that's a saga for another post). Hubby and I decided to get a nanny as opposed to using daycare. There really aren't a lot of daycare options on the upper east side of NY because so many people opt for nannies, so we didn't have much of a choice. It wasn't easy trying to choose the person to spend more awake hours with your child than you will, but in the end we're both very happy with our choice. She's actually starting tomorrow and going to spend the week with us to get acquainted with Will, his schedule and how I like to do things. Then she's going on vacation for a few weeks and she'll be back with us full-time in early January.

Because we were in Ohio the weekend before Thanksgiving, Hubby and I decided to spend our first Thanksgiving as a family in NYC. It was such a wonderful weekend. We walked over to the west side and watched some of the big parade until Will decided he had enough. I spent most of the afternoon cooking my first turkey and we had a couple friends over for dinner. It was definitely a day to be thankful for!

The craziness that my life has become is going to continue for the next couple of weeks so I will apologize now for a lack of postings and comments on all your blogs. Rest assured, I am reading your posts and always want to comment, but rarely have the time. I guess this is when I'm pulling my "it's the thought that counts" card!

Mommy's little turkey :)

Enjoying a gorgeous Thanksgiving morning watching the parade in NYC!

 

 

Baby shower weekend recap

WARNING: As much as I'll try to keep this short, it could get a little wordy. But I'll reward with you pictures at the end if you can make through the whole thing.

I was scheduled on a Thursday evening flight to Ohio. We had storms moving through NY that night and they caused major havoc with all the flights. I had a 3+ hour delay so I used the time to get some work done. Without my mom around anymore, I always stay with my in-laws. By the time they picked me up and we got home it was 2:30am...I was exhausted!

It was great to sleep in Friday morning, but not for too long because I had to finish up the freelance project. At 3pm my MIL and I dropped 6 months worth of work off at Fed-Ex (woohoo!). We then did some shopping and stopped by the shower venue to figure out table arrangements. I picked up Hubby at the airport Friday night (poor guy was stuck working in NY all day while I was shopping with his mom), and we called it a day.

Saturday started with wonderful pedicures with my MIL and two sisters-in-law. I treated as a thank you for all the hard work they put into the baby shower. We had lunch, ran a few more errands and then took naps (one of my sis-in-laws is also pregnant in her first trimester so she's tired all the time). Hubby and I met some of his friends from high school for dinner. When we got back home two of my aunts had arrived (both coming from out of town and staying at the in-laws overnight). I stayed up talking with them for a little while which was great since I don't get to see them often.

Sunday morning was a whirlwind of activity as we all tried to get ready and out of the house in time for the 11am shower. It was an amazing shower! I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a couple of years, some family I only get to see once a year and even a few random guys from college (the shower was at a golf course on a Sunday morning...I was bound to run into someone from college). Hubby stopped by just before it was time to open gifts so he got to help too, which I thought was really cute of him (I definitely scored myself a good man with that one!).

The Woowoo received so many wonderful gifts, both from the registry and some off the registry that were handmade. I still can't get over how generous everyone was. I said a few thank you's at the end and got chocked up (something I rarely do). I wasn't sure I wanted to have a shower at all because I knew it wouldn't be the same without my mom. In hindsight, I'm really happy I did. I made sure and let everyone know their generosity and love are the things that made the shower so worth it. Everyone in the room had known my mom so they understood just how appreciative I was. All in all, it was an amazing day!

Enjoying some family time the night before the shower.

Opening gifts at the shower. Some people had the gifts shipped to us and included an image of what they got us.

These are most of the gifts that were shipped to us (not including the ones we actually received AT the shower)!

A celebration weekend

I am very much looking forward to the weekend which, for me, starts at 5pm today. I'm taking tomorrow and Monday off work to travel home to Ohio for one last family visit and my baby shower on Sunday. I know the Woowoo is going to be spoiled rotten. He is a lucky boy to have such wonderful family and friends that he hasn't even met yet!

My other reason for a weekend of celebration is the (almost) completion of my gigantic freelance project. I haven't gone into any detail on this blog - and I won't for fear of boring you - but the project has been going on since early January. It's a 400+ catalog and I've logged well over 200 hours. It's been a mad dash to the finish the last few days, with a couple of sleepless nights, but I'm hoping to send it to the printer tomorrow. WOOHOO!!!! We are almost two weeks past our deadline, but I'm happy that it should be done before the shower. I'll be able to fully relax and enjoy the weekend without work hanging over my head.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Warp speed

I'm still going 100 miles a minute right now, but was able to take a little time out to spend the weekend with my in-laws who were in town. And, more importantly, I had my 16-week doctor's appointment yesterday and my first anatomy scan. It's amazing how much the baby has grown in 4 weeks. Everything looked great, so I'll go back in 4 weeks for the follow-up anatomy scan and my 20-week appointment.

But the biggest news (drum roll, please), is that we found out we're having a BABY BOY!!! I had a feeling it was a boy, so I was happy that my "mother's intuition" is already working:)

Now I need to get back to work and make this baby boy some money...