Let's Go to the Movies

I have always liked going to the movies. Unfortunately, it is not something that I get to do very often. Now having Josh, it is even harder to be able to go. My cousin, Jeni, is on winter break this week, so she asked if Josh and I wanted to go with her and Maya to the movies. Maya is 2 years old, so we went to see the kiddie movie, Enchanted. The key to bringing a baby to a movie is timing. My plan was to change the baby in the bathroom, and then sit down at my seat, put on my nursing cover, and feed Josh during the first part of the movie and have him nap for the second part of the move, and then change him when the movie was over. What you need to know about babies, and I have learned is that they don't really like to stick to a plan. The first part of the plan - changing his diaper - the movie theater bathroom does not have a baby changing station. OK, plan B, change him on the floor on his changing pad. Yuk. The second part of the plan - feeding Josh during the movie - Josh didn't really want to wait until we got settled in our seats, and he started to fuss a little bit. However, I did feed him, and then put him back in his car seat, and he was calm and quiet for the first half of the movie. Then, I heard the explosion. Ut oh, Josh pooped and now he is starting to fuss and wants to be changed. I walked to the back of the theater where there were no people and changed him on the floor there. This was a carpeted area, so I think it ended up being better than the bathroom floor. After, I changed his diaper, Josh was quiet and took a nap for the rest of the movie. It was a cute movie, and I would try to do that again, but being able to take Josh anywhere at any time is slowly diminishing.

Joshua's First Night in the Crib

Last night Josh spent his first night in his crib in his room. Up until now, he has been sleeping in our room in his bassinet. Joshua slept all the way through the night until 5am. He usually sleeps until about 6 or 6:30am, but since it was new surroundings for him, 5am was good. Originally, I thought that we would put him in the crib much earlier. But, we liked having him in the room with us and didn't want to let go. I know as he gets older there is going to be many more letting go. Our baby is growing up so fast....

Josh Laughs

Josh laughed today for the first time. It is a real cute laugh. I can't wait to hear it all the time. Just like his beautiful smile, it is infectious.

Joshua's First Photo Shoot

Josh had his first formal photo shoot today. I took him to JC Penney Portrait Studio for his 3 month pictures. Everyone else was there dressed in little Santa outfits for their holiday pictures. Me, on a whim with a coupon said, "Josh, you can hold your head up now. Why not?" Joshua is so handsome!!!!!!

Rolling Over

On Friday, Josh rolled over for the first time from his stomach to his back. Tummy time has finally started to not be as big of a frustration for Joshua. In the beginning, every time we started to do tummy time, Josh would let out grunting noises. Now, tummy time is a little more tolerable. He still likes to protest from time to time, but he is accepting the fact that he needs to hang out on his stomach too. On Saturday, I tried to show Keith Josh's new accomplishment. Each time I tried to show Keith, Josh wouldn't do it or Keith would walk away right before Josh rolled over. Today, Keith saw Josh on his back and could have sworn that he placed him on his stomach at first. Finally late this afternoon, Keith saw Josh roll over. We tried to get it on the video, but Josh did not want to perform.

Josh's First Hanukkah

What a wonderful Hanukkah for Joshua. He got to celebrate with both sets of grandparents and his Bubby Evelyn. He is very lucky. Joshua spent 7 nights of Hanukkah in Florida and the 8th night at his home in Maryland.

3 Months

Josh is now officially 3 months old. I keep saying it, but I can't believe how fast time is flying by. It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant. Joshua is getting bigger every day. It is amazing to see his changes. We used to say that he is a spitting image of Keith, but now there is a lot of me in there too.

The Plane Ride Home

On the plane, I met someone else who acted like a baby is similar to the Black Plague. When I got on the plane, there was a senior citizen couple sitting in the row behind me. The old man said, "oh no" referencing Joshua. I looked at him and half jokingly said, "I hope he cries the whole time". The old man replied back, "I may cry the whole time". The next thing I know, the couple are moving their seats to the back of the plane. There was a woman who was sitting behind them with a 2 year old, and she looked at me and rolled her eyes since the old couple moved. (I laughed). I did take a little offense to the situation, but then I realized that they are just miserable old people. Who knows, a few years ago, I may have been the one to move to the back of the plane. Times change, and I am happy to be where I am today.

BTW, Joshua was an angel on the plane. :)

The Black Plague

Some people are scared of babies in public and act as if they have the Black Plague. My parents, especially my mom, are not immune. One little "eh" from Josh in public, and my mom freaks out. The first night in Florida, we went to my mom's friend's house party. My mom said, "one little peep, and you're outta there". At first, my mom was afraid to go out to dinner with him. I had to plead with her that it really was ok. At the restaurant, my mom would ask for a table in the way back far away from everyone. I did feel like I had some sort of disease. It was really annoying. The trick is to take him out right after he is fed and changed. Then, he is an angel. If he fusses at all (Joshua is a baby, and babies fuss and cry), a pacifier makes a great "mute button". By the end of the trip, I do think my parents relaxed a little bit.

Cousin Ella's Baby Naming

Keith flew to Orlando for the weekend, and Josh and I drove up from my parent's house in Juno Beach to attend our niece, Ella's, baby naming. It was nice for Josh to meet his cousins and see his Uncle Jason and Aunt Robyn. His cousin Ella is exactly 2 weeks older than Joshua. Robyn bought them matching outfits from BabyGap, and we took pictures of them together. So cute.

Josh's First Long Car Ride

Josh's first long car ride was a 2 1/2 hour trip from my parent's house to Orlando for my niece's baby naming. Well, it was supposed to take 2 1/2 hours, but it took 3 1/2 hours with Josh. He wanted to stop and take a break every hour. We were doing the trip alone as Keith was meeting us in Orlando. The car ride back was not so bad. Josh slept most of the ride, and I did not have to stop at all. The ride back did only take 2 1/2 hours. There is a nice outlet mall on the route, but I didn't want to chance it. Maybe, next time.

Talking

Joshua loves to talk. It is the cutest. He has become a real conversationalist. We talk about everything from typical things that happen in the day to sports to politics. He even likes to talk on the phone. Josh has had some nice phone conversations with dad at work and enjoys leaving voicemails for Grandmom Adele on her cell.

That Winning Smile

The first time I saw Josh smile was around 4 weeks. I know it could have been gas, but I think it was a smile. It wasn't until Halloween day that his social smile seemed to be a regular occurance. (6 weeks). I was lucky enough to capture it on camera in his halloween costume. (See my post on 10/31).

Now, we get to see the smile every day, and it is amazing. When Josh wakes up in the morning, I walk over to him and say "Good morning, Joshy". He looks back at me with a big smile. (He definitely doesn't take after his mother in being a morning person). Yet, now each night that I go to bed, I look forward to waking up the next morning to see that winning smile once again.

I Found a Nanny

I thought it was going to take weeks and weeks and 50 interviews to find the right nanny. When I found myself rushing to check references and thinking "we need to grab her", I knew I found the one. It ended up that I only had to meet 6 people before I found her. She seems to have the experience, personality, and philosophy that I was looking for in a nanny. I feel pretty good about her. Nothing compares to me being able to stay home. However, I think Josh will be in good hands.

Sorry Bubby

The first night in Florida not only did Josh sleep through the night, but he didn't wake up until 8:30am. I guess Josh knows he is on vacation too. :)

My grandmom came over for our traditional Sunday brunch, which consists of lox and bagel. She was excited to see Josh again, and I gave her as much holding time as possible. Unfortunately, maybe it was a little too much holding time.

Babies poop. Anywhere at anytime. Babies poop. More times than not, it isn't much of a problem, even if the baby poops when sitting on your lap. Today, my my grandmom was not so lucky. Josh pooped on his Bubby Evelyn. When I say that Josh pooped on her, he really did. It was the biggest explosion ever. I have never seen him poop so much. It got all over him and grandmom. I am not sure much of it stayed in the diaper at all.

Sorry Bubby!

On Our Way to Grandmom and Grandpop's House

Josh and I traveled tooday to Florida to visit Grandmom and Grandpop. It will be a nice visit and we will get to see his Bubby Evelyn as well. It will be the first time that my grandmother gets to meet her Great Grandson, and I know she is really excited.

As much as I was looking forward to the trip, I was not looking forward to the flight. Lugging all the stuff plus the baby was going to be a challenge. Plus, who knew how Josh was going to behave. I had 2 big suitcases plus a carry-on, boppy, baby bjorn, and the stroller. The airline let Keith come to the gate with me. Very nice of them, especially with the added security. It was a huge help as just getting through security was a challenge. I had to take the car seat out of the stroller, fold the stroller, and put the stroller and car seat on the conveyer belt while holding Josh through security. Fun Fun Fun. I brought the BabyBjorn so I could put Josh in that to carry him on the plane. Luckily, the plane wasn't 100% full so I got to bring the car seat on the plane and give Josh his own seat.

Well, the separate seat for Josh turned out to be a car seat holder, and he spent the whole plane ride on my lap. When I sat down, I layed Josh on the Boppy, put the nursing cover over me, and started to nurse him. The notion was that he would be feeding when the plane took off and would not be bothered with his ears during take off. Well, I started feeding him too soon. By the time we did take off, he was done eating and just hanging on there "grazing". Joshua ate too much. This led to lots and lots of spit up all over him and and some on me for the first half of the flight. I felt bad for Joshua and also for the man sitting on the aisle who was witnessing all of this. Since I was prepared, I had a change of clothes for him and changed him into something dry on the plane.

Josh was pretty good though. He hardly cried or fussed for the 2 1/2 hour flight. (Minus the spit up). I managed to not have to change his diaper during the flight. (There is no way I would have been able to get out of my seat). He didn't seem to complain about that either. Hopefully the man on the aisle seat didn't seem to notice Josh's baby fresh scent was not so fresh at the end of the flight. :)

On the landing, there was no way I was giving Josh more food. So, I gave him a pacifier and that did the trick as well. Josh didn't seem to complain about his ears popping.

Grandmomand Grandpop met us at baggage claim, and they were so excited to see their new grandson. I am now "second fiddle".

I have Changed

They say that parenthood changes a person. It does. There are way too many to mention, but it hit me the other day when I was at the nail salon. (OK, so some things have not changed. ha ha. Well, I haven't had a manicure or pedicure since Joshua was born, and I can't remember the last time I went 3 months without having either. Please give me some credit). Back at the nail salon, they had a stack of magazines. I passed over Lucky, Shape, and even Vogue. I picked up.... Are you ready for this? ......................... Working Mother Magazine!
And, I even enjoyed reading it.
It made me realize that plenty of women make both raising a family and being a successful business woman work. The key is flexibility by the employer. I don't work for a company that offers anything even remotely close to what some of the other companies in the magazine offer. But, if I can have a quiet, private place to pump, a little shorter work day/week, and a little less stress in my work day - then I will be happy too.

The Nanny Search Begins

Keith and I decided that we didn't want to send Josh to daycare. Since me staying at home is not an option either, we need to turn to hiring a nanny. Keith's mom has agreed to watch Josh 2x per week, and I am going to have Fridays off, so we need to find a nanny 2x per week. Nannies are expensive. A 5 day a week nanny can cost $700-750/week. Who has that kind of money? Even for our 2 days per week need, it is still expensive.

If you want to get your child into the right day care, you need to pretty much start the search before you even conceive. By the time you are out of your first trimester, you better have deposits down at several day care centers or you are screwed. In my Mommy & Me class, everyone was talking about their day care statuses whether it was a day care center, in-home, or nanny share. It made me realize that I needed to get my butt in gear.

I started my nanny search by posting an ad on dcurbanmom and Craig's List as well as responding to a few ads. I also called a nanny agency, but they said they don't really do part time. Trying to respond to people in between taking care of Josh has been a real challenge. It also has been more difficult in getting responses to people who are available only 2 days. Plus, half of the responses I was getting were by nannies who A. wanted to bring their child B. not authorized to work in the US or C. wanted to start tomorrow and not wait until January.

I started interviewing the nannies and it was nerve-wrecking. These women all seem nice, but how do I really know if they are good enough to leave alone with my son. I went through all the basic questions with everyone, and it allowed me to get a sense of everything. I assumed for 2 days per week I would just be paying them hourly as a 1099 employee. Well, one nanny wanted vacation, sick days, 10 holidays, and her taxes done. Hello high maintenance! During the process, we interviewed one woman who really stuck out. She seemed to be what I was looking for in a nanny. I set up a second interview for Keith to meet her and we shall see...

Sleeping Through the Night - Part 3

Please don't let me jinx myself by posting this! Joshua is now sleeping through the night. (Fingers crossed). For the past week, he has slept until some time between 5am and 6:30am. What has been working for Josh is to keep him awake (sort of) until his later evening feeding. (Somewhere between 9:45pm and 11pm). After that feeding, he goes to sleep until morning. Our plan is to slowly make that feeding a little earlier until he eventually has his last feeding at an earlier infant bedtime. Fingers crossed that this plan works.

10 Weeks

When am I ever going to have 4 months off again to be with my son? I need to enjoy every second of this time, and I do. I am actually starting to enjoy being home now that I am pretty much healed from giving birth and getting into the groove of being home.
Yet,
The countdown to going back to work has begun.....
Part of me doesn't want to go back. Yet I don't exactly see myself as a stay-at-home-mom or SAHM if I want to be cool. The days where I get out of the house and get things done, I enjoy. The days where I am home all day and it seems that Josh is either eating, being changed or acting fussy where I can't put him down, I long for a demanding 9 hour work day.
The countdown has begun, and it is now 7 weeks until I go back to work. I will definitely miss my days home with Josh, so I need to continue to enjoy every second with him and be thankful that I get this time with him now.

Update: Josh is getting stronger each day in holding up his head. I guess tummy time is helping. He is continuing to bat at the things hanging from his activity mat, and he is starting to grab at things. Josh also likes to "talk" now, and his coo noises are oh so cute!

2 Months

Wow, it has been 2 months since Joshua was born. Keith keeps saying, "He is such a good baby". "He is such a cute baby". "He is much better than expected". What did Keith expect?

Joshua is now smiling at us all the time. It is so wonderful to walk over to my son, say hello, and see his face light up. I don't think I will get that in 13 years. :) Joshua is getting bigger each day. He is now up to 10 pounds. The other day, Joshua had his shots. He was so brave. I think he was braver than Mommy.

Tummy Time

Or, maybe we should call it "Tummy Torture". This is the time we spend with Josh playing on his tummy. The doctor told us to place Josh on his tummy 3 times a day for 10 minutes. The reason for tummy time is to strenghen the baby's neck muscles. Since babies sleep on their backs, they spend most of their time on their backs. Therefore, it is important to place babies on their stomachs for some play time. When we were growing up, it was common to place the babies to sleep on their stomachs, so tummy time was not as much of an issue.

Why tummy torture? Josh (as well as other babies) don't like tummy time. I guess you wouldn't either if you tried to lift a big heavy object with your weak muscles. Josh usually spends the time making grunting noises as he tries to lift his head off the ground and from side to side. Each week, he can lift it a little higher. Each week, his grunting noises get softer. The whole time, Mommy and Daddy are lying there right next to Josh cheering him on.

Joshua's Nursery

Well, Joshua's nursery is finally 100% completed. It was definitely a work in progress, and we are pleased with the results. Shortly after we closed on the townhouse, Josh's room got painted. A few days after that, Josh's empty room turned into chaos as his clothes of all sizes were spread out throughout the room. I had separated all the clothes given to us by size and the type of article of clothing. (For example, size 0-3 onesies all went into the same pile). Keith didn't really believe that the room was organized as it looked like a bomb went off in there. No furniture yet. Just a floor full of baby clothes. The first installation was the switch plate and night light. That was the easy part. A few days later, Joshua was born. When Joshua got out of the hospital, there was still no furniture. Therefore, his floor turned into his dresser drawers. 3 1/2 weeks after Josh was born, his furniture finally came. Luckily, it was nice furniture that arrived all put together and not self-assembly IKEA-type furniture. Keith had a lot of fun organizing the drawers, and it felt good to finally have furniture. However, Joshua's room was not complete. There was still a lot of work to be done.

We ordered a wall mirror that matched the furniture. Keith and his dad installed that about 2 weeks after the furniture arrived. After the mirror was installed, I walked into the room. It turned out that they placed the mirror in a position that only a 6 foot grown adult can enjoy it. Another project had to be added to the list to lower the mirror. After the mirror was installed, the next project was to build shelves in the closet. Upon completion of that, block letters were added to spell "Joshua" on the wall above his crib. Only 2 more projects to go, and then his nursury would be complete. First the valance and sheers were put up. Finally, the wall border went around the room.

By 8 weeks old, Josh finally had a completed nursery. Now, if only we can get him to start sleeping in there. One thing at a time....

Much thanks goes out to Keith's dad for a lot of the work on the room and cousin Mike for the painting.

Sleeping Through the Night - Part 2

Well, I spoke too soon. Josh's 5am wake ups have not been as consistent and he still has Mommy waking up at 3am for a middle of the night feeding. Joshua is still practically eating every 2 hours, and I thought by now he would be up to every 4 hours. Our little man likes to eat!!! He now weighs 9 1/2 pounds, and he is definitely getting bigger.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Check out Josh's amazing smile in his costume. That is the first time that we have captured his smile in a picture. It is actually the first time that we have seen him smile as a regular occurance.

Pacifiers

When I was pregnant, we said that we were not going to use pacifiers/binkys. It was more Keith than me who was against it. I was more indifferent. Keith didn't use one when he was a child, (neither did I), so our son was not going to use a pacifier either. Enter Joshua into the world. At about 4 weeks when Joshua was fussy no matter what we did, we caved. The pacifier soothed him. It quieted Josh down and made him happy again. They say that giving a pacifier to a baby during naps and at bed (in addition to sleeping on his back) helps to reduce SIDS. With that in mind, we felt a pacifier at this young age is the right thing to do for now. As he gets a little older (4-5 months), we will take the pacifier away when he starts teething and help Josh to self sooth in other ways. For now, the pacifier, binky, mute button, or whatever you want to call it is exactly what Josh needs/wants. Besides, having a device to instantly calm Josh has been extremely helpful in making some shopping and restaurant experiences more enjoyable for all.

Sleeping Through the Night

He did it! He did it! He did it! Josh slept from midnight to 5am. Josh slept through the night. Yeah!!! The funny thing is that I woke up at 4am. I guess my body is so used to waking up in the middle of the night that when I didn't hear cries from Josh, I woke up anyway automatically. Hopefully, this is the start of him truly sleeping through the night. We don't know at this point if it was a one time thing for now or if he is going to start sleeping through the night. We will see what happens in the next few days/week and keep you posted.

Bath Time

We had to wait almost a month to give Josh a bath in his bath tub. Due to his lingering umbilical cord stump, we had to give him sponge baths for so long. We were not sure how he was going to like the bath. He didn't really like sponge baths and he is usually squirmy and fussy during diaper changes, that we believe he does not like being "exposed". I guess our son is a little modest so to go full nudity for a bath, we had no idea what to expect. It turns out that he doesn't seem to mind the bath. However, Keith minded giving Josh a bath a little bit when Josh pooped on him, but besides that, bath time will probably be a nice bonding time for the 3 of us. Above are some bath time pictures. Joshua has started to grab things, so you can see him holding on to his wash cloth. Notice the strategically placed wash cloth. How many of us have been embarrased by our bath pictures, because our parents thought it was cute to expose our genitals? Josh can be proud to show his high school girlfriend these pics, because he looks so darn cute. :)

5 Weeks Today

I can't believe Joshua is 5 weeks today. He keeps growing and changing everyday. Joshua is getting big. (Although, he is still a little peanut at a bit under 8 lbs). Keith and I are loving every minute of parenthood. Even though, he wakes me up in the middle of the night - every night - it is worth it. Joshua is still feeding every 2 - 4 hours around the clock. Sometimes, I get a little longer stretch in the middle of the night, but not usually more than 4 hours. Josh and I had developed a nice morning routine where I would feed him at around 7-730ish and then we would go back to sleep until about 10-1030am. For the past 2 days, he has been wide awake after his 7am feeding, so I think my "sleeping in" is over. It seems that Joshua is starting to be awake more often. He finally fits in his bouncer chair. So, this morning I put him in his chair, and he sat still for 20 minutes while I took a shower. (Getting to take a shower with a newborn is a real luxury). Joshua just loves looking at himself in the mirror. I have also noticed that he is starting to grab at things. I also think that yesterday I saw a smile. I mean a real smile and not just gas. :) I look forward to seeing how Joshua continues to change each day. He is amazing. Well, gotta go. It is tummy time.