Gametes In Love

G tried peas for the first time this morning. It went something like this:

Bite 1: Smile

I was anticipating that first bite reaction so much. S, you see, hates peas. I mean, HATES peas! I on the other hand love peas. I was really hoping that G would take after me on this one, so that smile was so promising. I was thinking “Score!” My excitement, however, came too soon.

Bite 2: “Heh!”

Bite 3: “Maybe I had a premature reaction to this green stuff”

Bite 4: “Ok, I’ve had enough, get me out of this chair!”

And so the jury is still out. We tried again in the afternoon, with roughly the same results.

I’ll keep cheering the peas along, but as of right now Winter Squash is his favorite.

Earth’s Best is the food I’ve been giving him. It’s organic, and it contains the ingredient on the label. No more; no less. When they say “Sweet Potatoes”, they mean “Sweet Potatoes”. And it actually tastes good! Yep, I speak from personal experience. I admit that I’ve tried every food item I’ve offered to my kid. Mostly from curiosity. Some stuff is gross (breastmilk, for example – bleh) but jarred food has been really tasty.

G’s got it pretty good I tell you! Now, if he could only give the peas a chance…

Where, oh, where could they be?

Yeah, I’ve been living in supply decline city here for the last 2 weeks. I’m still stuffing myself with fenugreek & blessed thistle, enjoying my lactation cookies when possible and doing the beer thing, yet it’s as if my body has developed an immunity to the aforementioned tools. I’m coming up about a day-care bottle short now daily. And it’s not like G is eating any less. Kinda sucks! Luckily I have my freezer stash to look to, but I hate seeing (the security blanket that it is to me) go down.

I have two awesome friends who have offered to share their milk with me, and I can’t possibly tell you how fortunate I feel for that, but in a way I feel selfish: I want MY milk and to give all that I can before I go down that route.

So enter Reglan. Yes, THAT Reglan. It turns out that while you’re solving for upset stomach and nausea, you’re also getting more milk as a side effect. I met with my OB on Monday for my annual check-up and we talked about my declining boobage. I asked for a prescription, and she was nice enough to oblige.

I’m excited about taking it and hope it will get me back to where I was.

Now with that said, Reglan can come with some side effects. My primary concern was that it is passed through milk to the child. Normally, this may not be an issue, but since Reglan is prescribed to babies with reflux (which as you know G has), I don’t want it to overmedicate my little guy on top of his existing meds. So after three days of impatient waiting on a talk with our pedi, and an informative discussion, he didn’t have any issue with the meds. Check one.

Secondary concern is possible side effects on me. Depression has been listed as a possible side effect, but I’d like to think that my cheery disposition so far in life hasn’t shown me to be prone to depressive episodes. However, if you see me getting moody here call me out on it.

So we try this for about 6 weeks and then check in with the pedi.

C’mon milk!

… I’ve been chasing you for days!

Yeah, G’s on a new mission towards world domination. It goes something like this:

Step 1. catch foot

Step 2. pull off sock

Step 3. insert foot in mouth

Step 4. take over the world

He’s not completely able to catch his own feet yet, but boy is he trying! His “tries” look like he’s exercising and doing reverse crunches… baby style.

Look at that content smile when he grabs one though. It’s totally the “Ha! Got’cha!” smile.

Plus,  I love the look of determination he gets when he’s going for his toes. Man, he’s really obsessed with them toes! I’m not sure if he knows they’re his yet, but either way, they’re bound to make their way into his mouth if he has anything to say about it.

I’m afraid to rock the sleep boat, but… for the last week and a half G’s been back to his regular sleep schedule.

We did two things: 1) increased his reflux meds (per his pedi); and 2) stopped swaddling.

We had tried putting G down unswaddled previously and failed utterly each time. He’d wake himself up right away and cry. But since he was already waking up and was already crying, I thought “Well, can’t get much worse!” so we gave it a shot.

And he slept like he used to. All night long.

Now, he does get some assistance. You see, it turns out that G takes after his mommy and likes to cuddle with toys while sleeping (and no, I’m not embarrassed to admit I still do this). He sleeps best with Froggie or Munka (his Monkey) by his side. He cuddles his lovie at night and will only wake up and cry if he looses it and can’t reach it. He’s super cute about it. He’ll rub the lovie blankie on his face and cuddle with it all through the night.

At the same time, the fact that he likes to sleep with it covering his face FREAKS.ME.OUT. I’m just so paranoid about him suffocating, it just bugs me to see him do that. However, he clutches it so tight, I can’t pull it away. He get pissed off if I try take it away too. The good news, though, is that he’s proficient at pulling things away from his face (we play a peek-a-boo game) so I know if he wanted to he could easily move it away. None, the less, still a little scary.

So sleeping for the tall folk is back to being good again.

Knock on wood!

Each morning when I go get G to wake-up he gives me a big smile.

I used to think he’d see me and think “Hello, Mama!”, but now I’m starting to believe he sees me and says “Sweet! Hello, Breakfast! What’s on the menu this morning?”

I really only get about 2 minutes lead time between smiles and fussiness. I think it’s because he’s seeing food (aka boob) flaunted in front of him and it’s not in his mouth. He really only calms down after he gets to eat.

So yeah, call me “Breakfast”.

In other yummy news, G has now expanded his eating repertoire to include Sweet Potatoes and Squash. He likes them both and now refuses cereal. I don’t blame him. Squash and potatoes don’t taste like cardboard. However, they do make for some very messy eats, which is really testing S’ limits. S, you see, is not crazy about the whole baby messy mouth/hands thing, so he’s having to re-aclimate… ‘cuz G sure won’t be observing clean standards anytime soon.

Yeah, Daddy, you just wait until G starts flinging food clear accross the room.

I’m applying for life insurance. I’m covered 2x salary through my employer, which is good (as in better than not), but I’m realizing it’s insufficient for what I’d like to leave behind for G and S in case something were to happen. Additionally, I’m not completely comfortable that this is something that would change based on my employment status, and I’d prefer my own, independent coverage. Hence the applications.

The application process requires a physical exam to be conducted by the insurance’s dedicated medical staff. I was pleasantly surprised that they’ll come to me (whenever/wherever), so I requested a week-end appointment at my home. Score!

My appointment was this morning. The nurse, an older lady, arrived early (which is good given that you have to fast and I was hungry) and we set up in our living room for the exam.

We check my weight, height, go over my name and general medical history.  Then she goes down a list of questions. Pregnancy? Yes, baby boy born 8-29-08. Where was he delivered? Who’s the OB? Then she looks up at me and asks:

“Any significant weight changes in the last year?”

Insert a long pause and blink here on my end.

Not a minute prior we went over the fact that I had been pregnant in the last year. Meanwhile S is standing about 20 feet away holding G (aka the product of significant weight change). Having listened to this exchange S starts laughing… loudly.

“Ughmn, yes I was pregnant.” and then we just looked at each other.

I think it was only at this point that she realized what she was asking.

I tried to make her feel better by clarifying how much weight I had gained, and the fact that I’ve returned to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I still wanted to reach over and smack her on the forehead.

I do hope I get approved though.

G was the star of his very first faerie tale last night. It went something like this…

Once upon a time in a kingdom not too far away there lived a young prince. His name was G. He was generally a happy young lad, and when happy all the people in the kingdom said he was exceptionally cute. But when Prince G was sad, the whole kingdom was sad around him.

Prince G and the Poop Faerie were good friends. But one day the Poop Faerie came across the mean Constipation Faerie. The Constipation Faerie was jealous of the Poop Faerie’s friendship with Prince G and the locked up the Poop Faerie in the dungeon of Colon. This made Prince G very sad… and mad. Queen Mommy and King Daddy hated seeing Prince G so upset, so Queen Mommy went to the neighboring kingdom of Walgreen’s to seek out the great OTC Wizard in hopes he would help rescue the Poop Faerie. The OTC Wizard thought hard and gave Queen Mommy a potion: The Tablet of Glycerin. Queen Mommy took this magic potion to Prince G and with it Prince G quickly defeated the Constipation Faerie and rescued the Poop Faerie.

Then Prince G and the Poop Faerie were good friends again. And Prince G was happy, as was the kingdom around him. And they lived happily ever after.

The End!

Ok, this story isn’t 100% real, but it’s a good cautionary tale 🙂

Today you are 6 months old. In those 6 months you’ve taught me so much about you, and also so much about your daddy as well as myself.

I’ve learned that you…

• love music and listening to Pink is your favorite (please someday tell me why). Also songs that you heard often in my belly make you pause to listen
• love to talk, especially to Monkey or Froggie. You tell them about your day when you go to bed and about your dreams when you wake up
• have a good sense of humor and know just when to smile when your daddy or I are being silly
• have a very intent stare
• love to swing things: your Gum Drop, Monster-dude… really just about anything you can wrap your fingers around
• like to do things your way on your own schedule and if you don’t get it, our ear drums hear about it

I learned that your daddy is an even better father and husband than I ever thought he would be. We’re even closer than ever before and it’s because of you.

I’ve learned that I have far more patience than I ever thought I would; that wake-ups in the middle of the night are rough… very rough… yet still manageable; that stinky diapers aren’t nearly as bad as I had imagined (although there’s still time for that to change); and that despite the fact that we spend all this time together I can’t wait to come home to you every day and spend every minute possible with you.

Thinking about you makes me smile, and I love all the little things about you. I love…

• the smile you give me when I wake you up in the morning
• the sound of your voice when you talk
• your big toothless grin
• the way your eyes sparkle when you smile
• the little white milk stain on your tongue
• how funny you look when your eyes go cross-eyed because you’re so intently focusing on an object close by
• the way your ears stick out under your beanie, making you look like an elf
• how you rub your hands together as if you’re plotting some world domination scheme
• the way your legs bounce when you’re excited
• the fact that you giggle in your sleep
• your constantly sticking out tongue
• the way your rub your Froggie or Monkey blankets on your face when you are ready for a nap

And so in honor of your 6mo birthday, here’s a little walk down memory lane:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-y7WD-9PPs]