Baby's first puke

Ok now, everyone together....Awwww!

Yeah, not so much. Dude went to bed as prescribed by our bedtime routine. Albeit with a painful diaper rash, but otherwise normal. 9:45 rolls around, Kevin and I are in bed ready for a good night's slumber. We hear a strange sound coming from Colin's room. Something we haven't heard before. Then he starts crying a little bit. Kevin gets up to give Colin his nukkey (pacifier), and ends up turning on the light. There's puke everywhere. On Colin's pajamas, the sheet, the crib...

We undress him, wipe him down, put new pajamas on, take the sheet and mattress pad out of the crib, throw all the pukey stuff in the laundry, put new sheets on. Then I sat with him in the chair for a little while and he seemed to be fine. So I lay him down and start sneaking out of the room while he finds a comfortable sleeping position. I don't even get across the hallway when I hear retching. I whisk him out of the crib and get at least to the hallway where the floors are wood and easily cleanable. We go to the bathroom in case more is on its way. Poor baby is quiet, snuggly. His face says "what the hell is happening to me?" The sheets and pajamas are puked on again. Undress the baby, wipe him down, change the sheet, throw it in the laundry, put a new sheet on. Snuggle with baby without his pajamas on for awhile. This would make for easier clean up if it happens again. It doesn't. So put the clean pajamas on the exhausted baby. Sit with him in the chair. Baby goes to sleep. Put baby in crib. It is 11:00.

3:00 rolls around, and Colin's fussing. Kevin goes in to see if the pacifier will do. It won't. Colin's hungry. I tell Kevin I'm scared to nurse him in case he pukes again. We sit down, I nurse him. Some time later, he stops nursing and everything he just drank comes back up. All over him, all over me, all over. I rush him to the bathroom sink. He becomes a pro at puking over the sink. He's better. New pajamas. Change my own pajamas (luckily by this time it was just breastmilk and no food was involved). I sit with him in the chair for a little while and offer him a little bit of water from a bottle. He drinks a little, and it stays down. I put him back to bed at about 4:00.

4:30, he's crying again. Kevin's turn to sit with him.

Alarm clock goes off at 5:15. Today Kevin wanted to be out of the house at 6:00. Not happening! I pump, take a shower, and contemplate whether to keep sick dude home or send him to daycare. After Kevin takes a shower, I call my mom in a WWGD (what would grandma do?) moment. She says feed him some Puffs and give him some milk and see if it stays down. I do, and it does. To daycare we go.

We get there, and 2 of the "older" kids (they're still under 2 yrs, but they're in the same "class" and are usually on the "other" side of the "baby" room) are home sick with the pukes and the poops. And their parents are too. Hurray. Just what I need. This can NOT happen this week. While I'm there, a 3rd family calls in saying their munchkin won't be in. I fully expect a phone call later saying Colin has joined the ranks and needs to go home. In fact, I encouraged a phone call if anything was out of the ordinary. Grandma F is on stand by just in case.

I didn't get one. No pukes, no runny poops, no fever. He's a tired (read: crabby) man today, but other than that, he was fine.

I hope tonight is much more restful. And I'm glad we got pukey night #1 out of many out of the way. And even though he felt miserable and we were both exhausted, I loved the extra snuggliness of him, and I loved that he was playing with my hair while he was trying to get back to sleep.

Now everyone together....awwwww!

Well at least something good came out of it.

While Colin was busy having RSV (he's much better now), he was also busy cutting a tooth! The tooth cutting could be the reason for his ear infection, too. It's kind of nice that after a big ball of sickness, we get a little reward for it. And no "extra" fussiness, either :) I'll get a picture of the little chomper if little dude ever opens his mouth wide enough for us to see it. For now, we just have to stick our fingers in there for validation. The second tooth looks like it's close behind.

Can I also say I'm super excited to go to Target today to peruse the baby food aisle? Last weekend, I took a quick glance at the wonder of Target's selection, but didn't buy any of it. We're going back today and I'm super pumped to buy some mangoes and who knows what other kind of fruit/veggies Colin hasn't tried yet. Better yet, Target's Gerber baby food is cheaper than Wal-Mart's! I figure if he all of a sudden refuses to eat the purees, we can cook them into pancakes, waffles, etc.

And I'm also going to be making chili and goulash for freezer meals this afternoon, and possibly even some homemade applesauce.

I love Colin's long naps, and he needs them, but WAKE UP little man! Let's go shopping!

RSV (or, why I hate daycare centers)

Colin has been a sick little dude since the middle of last week. We kept him home from daycare on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday last week. I took him to the ER on Thursday night because I was worried about his breathing, and day care told me earlier that day that there had been cases of bronchiolitis (RSV), pneumonia, and ear infections there. We ruled out pneumonia with a chest x-ray, but he did get diagnosed with a double ear infection. We got some antibiotics and went home.

He seemed to be feeling better on Monday, so he went to daycare. Tuesday, too, except he got sent home because his temp was 100.5. To appease daycare, I canceled piano lessons and rescheduled his 9 month appointment to Tuesday night. Dr. R. tested him for RSV. It was positive. :( So we kept him home yesterday and today, but my mommy instinct is telling me he should be able to go back tomorrow, pending a restful night tonight. His cough is less frequent, his nose is less runny, his temperature has stayed 99* or less. His ear is still bothering him, so we started a new antibiotic tonight.

We got to try out our Dr. Mom otoscope (the tool doctors use to look in your ears) tonight. Dr. Dad confirmed Colin's ears are still a little red, and he also said one of mine looked red too. I'm going to choose to suffer through it though.

Hopefully we're on the mend now. I do have to give props to Kevin's mom for helping us out. There's no way either of us could've taken 5 days off of work to stay home (I took 1.5, Kevin took a few half days). So thanks Grandma F. for the babysitting help!! And thanks Grandma J. for the frequent check-ins and medical/been-there-done-that advice!

And the 9 month stats are as follows:
Weight: 20 lbs, 3 oz (50th %tile) Thanks for voting, 3 people! Your guesses were too high though :)
Height: 29 inches (75th %tile) *so if we had chosen to keep using the infant car seat, this is the point when we'd have to switch to the convertible. Sooo glad we switched earlier!
Head circumference: 17 3/4" (50th %tile)

Happy 9 monthday!

Dear Colin,
It seems like just yesterday I was writing about you turning 8 months old. But with all of the hustle around Christmas and New Years, that time seems to have flown by.
(The book was the only way I could get him to sit still for justonesecond).

You have proven to be quite the little explorer. You like to open cabinet doors. You even climbed and stood on a box yesterday because some cabinet doors were blocked shut and you couldn't figure out how to open them, so you figured you needed to get a closer look. You are obsessed with the vacuum cleaner. If the closet door is opened a crack and you get just a glimpse of the vacuum, you make a beeline for it and summon it out with your bouncing dance. Many times, we get it out and vacuum the rug or the bedrooms to entertain you, and, well, we can never vacuum enough, right? You also found the doorstop makes a really cool noise when you bend it. (Please excuse the horrible paint job. I painted this room 3+ years ago, and Kev said not to worry about the trim, because we'd get new trim. As you can see, that hasn't happened yet.)

You crawl very quickly, and you move from butt to crawling to standing quickly too. You love the TV remote control. We'd let you play with it, but for some stupid reason, if the batteries fall out and we don't get them back in within 30 seconds, Daddy has to reprogram it, and that's no fun. So we hide it from you and you hate that. Sorry. You love playing the piano and hitting your hand on things.

You're eating a lot of different foods now. You still eat puree baby food, but you've also ventured into pancakes, waffles, bread/toast, Grandpa J's plum jelly, peas, green beans, carrots, peaches which you seem to LOVE (frozen in your mesh feeder or diced), and frozen blueberries. You're still drinking breastmilk, and Mommy is determined to make it to your first birthday. We got you a new type of sippy cup, and we're hoping you take to this one better than you did the other. So far, you seem to understand it a little better. There are no teeth in sight yet.
You and Rocket are buddies. When he has his rope or his stuffed dog, you pull on it, and he pulls back. He's gentle with you. I think he's finally realizing that you are a playmate, not just a noisemaker and attention stealer.
You still fit into most of your 9 month clothes, but we do have the 12 month wardrobe washed and on reserve. Sometimes Daddy digs into it, even though I insist you get a few more wears out of your "little" stuff before we move on.
You still don't sleep through the night consistently. We've gotten a few tastes a couple of nights, but you've also had a cough, runny/stuffy nose, and ear infection going on, so lately you haven't been able to. Mommy knows you'll get there. Someday.

You talk a lot. Among your baby words, you say "momom." Does that mean mama? You seem to know exactly what you're saying. We'll figure it out soon.

You give slimy, wet kisses sometimes. These days, they're mixed with boogers. I love them.

You are becoming such a little boy. We can't wait to find out what new adventures this month brings!

Love,
Mommy.

I get the productivity award for the day

What I really wanted to do today was go shopping. Colin needs some bigger pants and some more calendula cream. But he's been battling a double ear infection since Wednesday, and his temperature was still high this morning, so we stayed home. And look at what I did in a 12 hr time period instead (and this goes above and beyond the normal, every day routine stuff):

1. Did 6 loads of laundry, one of which was diapers (which takes 3x longer than a normal load)
2. Made 3 loaves of bread--2 white, 1 challah, all which require yeast and rising twice.
3. Swept and mopped the kitchen floor
4. Blogged 10 random things (see post below)
5. Changed the sheets on the bed
6. Carried Colin around in the Moby because he was fussy, and it calmed him down. When he got fussy and wanted to get out of the Moby, I lay him in his crib and he felt right to sleep for an *almost* 3 hr nap. This, my friends, is fabulous news, and a trick I hope works again soon. Getting him to take a much-needed second nap is torture some days.
7. Made pancakes for supper. Plain for me, blueberry for Kevin, and Banana-Plum-Grape for Colin (I mixed pancake mix with some leftover puree). Colin has extras, so I froze them to use later.
8. Got caught up in my emails
9. Thought about selling some bread at the Farmer's Market this summer, and asking Kevin's mom if she'd be interested in selling her homegrown vegetables. It's still only a thought, since it just entered my brain about 2 hours ago. I have to decide if it's something I want to spend my Saturday mornings doing.
10. Cleaned out a bottom drawer in the kitchen and replaced the user's manuals that were once stored in it with some plastic butter tubs, a wooden spoon, and a "shaker" I made with a tupperware container filled with sprinkles.
11. Carried Colin around again in the Moby later tonight because he wouldn't go to sleep and Norwexed everything I could think of. I have a newfound respect for both my Moby and Norwex.

And now I can reward myself tomorrow by going shopping tomorrow. Kevin says I need to buy some silicone whisks to use in our ceramic mixing bowls so the metal ones don't scratch the coating. I will not object. And, of course, the pants and the calendula cream.

Honest Scrap award

Susan gave me the Honest Scrap award, which means I have to share 10 random things with you. I will attempt to do this in 10 minutes, which is the estimated time I have until Colin's nap time is over.

1. I went static line skydiving 10 years ago. It was a blast.
2. I don't see myself retiring as a teacher. I like teaching, but I don't know if I can do it until I'm 65. Kids are so corrupt these days, and I imagine it will only get worse.
3. I am getting sick of playing Farmville on Facebook. My farm is getting too big to manage without losing my mind. I have too many trees and too many animals. And I don't even have that big of a farm compared to other people! I wish they'd build more dairy barns and chicken-coops to house ALL of the animals. That would be the greatest. Those who play understand. Those who don't think I'm crazy. It's okay.
4. I have to eat chocolate every day. Before I was pregnant, I could care less if I had chocolate every day. I preferred fruity candy/desserts. Ever since, I can't live without chocolate. Good thing there's a teacher at school who has a Halloween-style candy bowl in her classroom which is always stocked with chocolate goodness that I can raid if I don't have any myself. I wonder if these cravings will go away when I'm done breastfeeding.
5. I hate scrapbooking. I made a scrapbook back in high school about my trip to Europe. This was just when scrapbooking was beginning to get big. I can only imagine how elaborate it would be if I did it today, with all the crap that's available. But I'm not going to even go there because just the thought of having to be creative in that way, for 20 pages, makes my skin crawl.
6. But I like being creative! I like to sew. I've started Colin's felt food collection. I have made a carrot, an onion, a potato, corn on the cob (still need to finish the husk), and started the tomato. And I like to knit. I guess my "crafts" involve fibers rather than paper. And I'm okay with that.
7. I wish I could afford to travel more. I love love love traveling. Someday I'd love to rent an RV and take a road trip with the family to see the good ol' US of A. Kevin did it with his grandparents when he was younger. And I love riding in airplanes, leaving cold MN/WI and arriving in some other place just like that.

And Colin's awake. I will finish later.

It's later, and I'm back. Nap #2 in progress.
8. I love to bake, and I make awesome, from-scratch yeast bread. White or cinnamon swirl, your choice. I just ran across a recipe for challah bread, too, and I think I might try that in the near future. As we speak, I have some specially requested white bread rising on the dryer.
9. I'm kind of hard of hearing. There are certain tones, especially voice-pitched ones, that I can't hear very well. I fully expect to have to wear hearing aids when I'm a granny.
10. I don't like putting any drugs into my body unless I have to. I'll go an entire day with a headache before I take anything for it. I had a med-free birth. I hate taking antibiotics.
11. Okay...I know it's only supposed to be 10, but while I was doing dishes earlier, I was thinking of what else I was going to write, and then I got back here and I forgot about it and thought of something else. Then I remembered it when I got to #10, and I like it, so you get a bonus. Ready for it? I'm cheap. This is one reason why we cloth diaper and one reason why I breastfeed. I don't buy Colin any clothes that are over $5. And even then, they have to be really cute.

Now I have to pass it on to 5 people.
Leah
Liz
Kristin
Rachel
Jen

Mommy's night out and a Food Misson for Readers

Yesterday, I met up with a group of 4 of my fabulous friends. Every year for Christmas, we forgo gifts and pick a Saturday to hang out together and sleep over night. We rotate homes in alphabetical order. This year it was Laura's turn.

We had some fun shopping at the mall. I can't remember the last time I went shopping without Colin in tow. It's a totally different experience because I could actually try on clothes! I really wanted to spend some of my birthday and Christmas money on some new work pants. It seemed like an easy task: walk into Express, pick up some Editors, try them on, marvel at their wonder, purchase, and walk out. Alas, I didn't find anything there or at 2 other stores that looked decent. I used to wear a size 6 or 8 pants. You're going to hate me for saying this, but a size 2 fit well, but didn't hung all baggy-like in the rear. So they were a no go. A size 2. I haven't fit into size 2s since...middle school? 9th grade? Somewhere around there. Thank you breastfeeding? I think. All I know is the 6s in my closet are falling off. And I need a little more junk in my trunk, and if I have to make brownies every weekend to get it back, maybe I will. But then I think...it will all catch up to me once breastfeeding is over, so I don't and just deal. Am I ridiculous for worrying? I should embrace it, right? ::sigh::

Then we went to Laura's house and made some fabulous homemade pizza (we all buy an ingredient for dinner to spread out cost), drank some wine (I had a small glass, then switched to sparkling apple cider), played Apples to Apples and sat around and chatted. This morning, I woke up at 7:30 (oh...and also 3:00 wondering if I should pump, and 5:15 to actually pump), hung out for a little while longer while my car warmed up, and left at about 8:00 am.

I had a lot of fun, and it was good to take a break from family life for a day. This was my first overnight without Colin. I survived better than expected. Don't get me wrong. I missed Colin (and Kevin!) like crazy, and there were times when I'd think to myself, "I wonder what they're doing," or "Colin's probably eating supper," or "I hope Colin sleeps well tonight."

And Kevin survived too. Colin had a typical night where he wakes up multiple times for who knows what reason. Good thing we're used to that, I guess.

In other news, I'm on this freezer meal kick. A few weeks ago, I made 2 pans of Cheesy Ham Macaroni and 2 pans of Pizza Pasta Casserole. We've decided that if I do this--make 4 freezer meals--a month, and cook them on either Mondays or Tuesdays--which are piano lesson nights, which means we don't eat until late b/c lessons are done at 6 pm--we'd get a decent meal to start off our week. Then we can eat the leftovers for part of the week instead of buying lunch food. So I'm looking for your favorite freezer meals. Post them in the comments section so that all of the readers can partake if they'd like.

Now I'm off to go scour the interwebz for recipes for my stash.

Sir Tucker Reb Tobias 1997-2010

He was dog #2 for our family (my mom, dad, brother and I). We got him 12 years ago when I was 16. It was June-ish. Buster, dog #1, was 7. We thought he might like a playmate. We saw the ad in the paper that there were springer spaniels ready for adoption just a few miles from our house. So the three of us (mom, bro, and I) begged Dad to go look at them. After hemming and hawing something about dog food being expensive and blah blah blah, he finally agreed.

I love picking out puppies. The litter surrounds your feet and every single puppy begs you to adopt them. But you connect with just one. On our 5 minute car ride home, the puppy that chose us nestled in and dozed off. We talked about what to name him. I suggested Tucker. It seemed to fit because he was "tuckered out." His AKC registered name was Sir Tucker Reb Tobias. Tucker had many nicknames. Tuck, Tucky, Tuck-Tuck, and I also called him Tucker Two Shoes or T.T.

As he grew, we found that Tucker wasn't shaped like Buster. Tucker was "round like a barrel" as my dad would say. He had short legs and his body was...just...well, it was round like a barrel. He had a big head and a big heart. Even though his legs were short, he could still run fast. Somehow.

Turns out, Buster didn't want a playmate. In fact, Buster hardly wanted anything to do with Tucker at all. He was a grump from the moment he realized that Tucker was staying. Buster was a roamer. He was always walking around the neighborhood (my parents live in the outskirts of town where dogs can roam a little more). I don't think Tucker ever left the yard. He was a homebody.

Tucker knew some tricks. "Show me your nuts!" and he'd roll over onto his back (I did not teach him that trick). He knew how to get the paper from the mailbox. When you were in a hurry to leave the house, you would find that one or both of your shoes were not at the door. Tucker took them and scattered them around the house. But if you showed him the one you wanted, he knew exactly where it was, and he would bring it to you.
Tucker sired a litter of pups a few years ago. They were the cutest puppies, and one of them looked so similar to Tuck that the "breeders" named him Tucker Jr. I'm not sure if he got adopted by someone else and if that name stuck or not.

He was always nudging you to pet him. If you didn't pet him, he'd nudge you until you did. He greeted you at the door with an invitation for you to scratch his belly. He could snore as loud as my dad. He was gentle and sweet.

He was a bit jealous of Rocket at first, but once he knew Rocket was just a visitor and he'd soon be gone, they got along just fine.
Tucker's health had been deteriorating for awhile. He had kidney failure and had been on medication for about a month. He drank water all the time and lost a lot of hair. My mom thinks he was probably diabetic. We saw him at Thanksgiving, in mid-December, and also at Christmas. Each time we saw him, he was skinnier and skinnier. He was still round like a barrel, but his hips were noticeably thinner. He had horrible cataracts. He had a hard time getting up and down stairs. At Christmas, my parents were hoping he'd make it to the spring, and then they'd put him down.

But he didn't last that long. About a week ago, he started to refuse to eat or drink anything. He had a hard time breathing. He looked sad. It was time. My parents took him to the vet and had him put to sleep. If you've ever seen Marley and Me, you know the scene I'm talking about. I can't imagine living that scene. Knowing you need to be there for your friend, but also knowing it's the end. He's being cremated and will be buried next to Buster at the family farm. I'm sure Buster is real excited about that.

My mom called me on Monday to tell me the news. Of course I was heartbroken because I wasn't expecting it. But who wants to see their pet suffering any more? There was never an angry-at-my-parents phase. I accepted it right away because I knew it had to be done. It will be sad not to see him at my parents' house any more, but we've got our Rocket Dog and my parents have their grandson to spoil now. :D

Now that you've got your spring back, go ahead and annoy Buster for a little while, Tuck. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. I know all good dogs go to Heaven. I hope to see you up there some day (not that I'm not going to Heaven, of course. I just hope we get to reunite with our pets up there).