Smile time

Victor's recovering well from his shots. On Wednesday he had a couple of screaming incidents and he was a bit clingy, but he also had some smiles and some fun in the afternoon. He didn't even have any swelling or redness where he had his shots, just little pinprick marks where the needles went in. Yesterday, though, his tummy must have been bothering him because he spit up more yesterday than he has any other day of his short life! Most of the time instead of spitting up he will swallow it back down--it almost looks like he's chewing cud sometimes. Occasionally when I lay him down on his back he will jerk his legs around a bit like he's getting the spit up and it wakes him up and bothers him until he can swallow it back down--sometimes that takes a while, poor thing, and it wakes him up all the way! He seems to be doing better today, though. I've been trying to slow down his feeding and keep him upright longer afterwards and I think that helps.

My project right now is to try to get a good picture of one of his beautiful smiles! He's just been smiling more and more and it's so amazing the way his whole face (and sometimes his whole body) just lights up with these big toothless grins. The problem is that the camera distracts him, so I have to position the camera then move my face away from it, then get him to smile at me while holding the camera steady. It doesn't help that there's a red light that flashes beforehand (to get rid of redeye) and sometimes that snaps him out of the smile; I can't figure out how to turn it off, but I'm going to keep trying. Hopefully with practice I'll be able to get a big full on smile, but right now all I've got is sideways-half-smile-half-out-of-the-picture ones; it's a start!

Brave little boy!

Today is Victor's two month birthday, so he had to get his big boy shots today. I couldn't sleep for being nervous about it, but Victor didn't have that problem--I could barely get him to wake up and eat something before going to the doctor! He woke up in the car, though, and had fun going through all the diapers we had in his diaper bag once we got to the doctor's office. The doctor was running late, though, and he fell asleep before she got there then pretty much slept through her entire examination. Once the nurse came in, though, he was in trouble. He got an oral vaccine first, which woke him up a bit, and then he got three shots--one in the left leg, two in the right, bang bang bang. He bled and cried, but quieted down much faster than I was expecting. He still wanted his binky, though. (Have I mentioned this? He doesn't like pacifiers for the most part except for every once in a while when he is a particular type of sleepy fussy or when he needs comforting.) Even the nurse commented about what a "mellow cry" he has and said we were really lucky--yes, I know! ;) Poor baby got three bandaids and blood all over his daddy's shirt, but managed to fall asleep in the car on the way home. I think this was going to be a sleepy day for him anyways, so hopefully he'll sleep any ill effects away. The only problem is that the tylenol we had purchased in anticipation of today was recalled a couple of days ago, and the pharmacy still hasn't replaced it yet. Hopefully if he does get a fever we'll be able to find someplace that has something!

Other than that, though, he's still doing really well. Up to 12 lbs 5 oz, which means that I have begun washing his 6 month sizes because most 3 month sizes say "up to 12.5 lbs." Next checkup is at 4 months!

Gooey

Two diaper blowouts in two days means I'm over BRU generic diapers. I like the Costco ones better, even if they do feature the pot monkey from Super Troopers. Too bad we have about 150 more BRU ones to get through--should only take another day or two, right? ;)

Day One

First day all day by myself with Victor. The new definition of a successful day is being able to take a shower before Damian comes home, and by that definition, the day was successful! More by luck than planning, but apparently that is what motherhood is about, yes? We are starting with a low bar but eventually the bar will be raised. We also managed to go for a walk in the stroller, just down the street to the park for a bit, nothing fancy like driving to the beach or anything. Cleaning went right out the window, but by definition it was still a successful day. Both of us were discombobulated, though. All day Victor has been nursing strangely--falls asleep halfway through the first side, never really gets hungry enough to keep going. I'm having more trouble telling if he's actually hungry or not because when he's around me he tends to think he's hungry even if he's not--one of the downsides of nursing, apparently! Hopefully we'll get used to it sooner rather than later. Tonight we should have a quiet night--Damian has to do his homework tonight, and tomorrow it's my turn to go out and tutor for a bit. Got to go--I think he's actually hungry now that Damian's holding him!

Twinkle Toes

Poor Victor doesn't know it yet, but he's going to have a rough week this week. First (and biggest) Grammy and Grandpa left this morning. Grammy's been here since before he was born, and it has been amazing having her here all this time! Now Victor is going to get unspoiled--no Grammy to play with him and hold him while his mommy does boring stuff like take a shower. Poor Victor, and poor mommy! But she will be back soon! Until then, Victor is going to have to wait to get spoiled again!

Next on Wednesday is Victor's Big Boy visit to the pediatrician (yes he will be two months old already!) where he has to get his big vaccination shot. Poor baby! I don't know yet if it will be harder on him or harder on me, watching him get hurt but knowing it's for the best!

Once he recovers from that we're going to start moving him to sleeping in his crib in the nursery instead of sleeping in his pack 'n play in our room. That one will definitely be harder on me than on him, but we'll get used to it! At least I feel better knowing that he's already gone over 7 hours between feedings (his choice) with no ill effects. Of course, that's not surprising considering how big he's getting!

I think the only thing that hasn't grown very much is his feet. They looked huge when he was born, but now they look so small! Even so, we had to buy him some big boy socks (6-12 month size) because the cute little baby socks are just way too small for him. The heels of the socks came halfway down his feet! The new socks are just a little bit too big, but they already look and fit much better. They aren't as cute, but we did eventually find some with aliens and spaceships on them so that's ok.

Now Victor's daddy is discovering that Victor doesn't like to sleep in his crib. Oh the unspoiling that we will be working on this week.... ;)

Traveling Man

So last weekend we went to LA for an overnight trip! We were visiting my parents' good friends Linda and Steve, who live in the northern side of LA. We left only an hour late, but of course we took the wrong road up there and got stuck in traffic for quite a while, so it was a three hour drive. Victor slept the whole time. Once we finally got there, we had a great time! Victor was the star of the show, of course, but everyone had lots of food and lots of fun. We all stayed at their house, and Damian and Victor and I shared the rec room. Victor had his pack 'n play there and for the most part slept pretty well--only a little bit of crying! We were glad to get back home on Sunday, though, because we were starting to run out of diaper supplies! The LA natives told us the better way to drive through town, so the trip went much faster and much more pleasantly. We didn't have long to rest, though, because some of my dad's clients wanted to meet us, too, and they live down in La Jolla. My parents left early to go see them while I had to tutor for an hour, then Damian and Victor and I met them all in Old Town San Diego for dinner. So basically, we were driving all day! Victor handled it like a champ, but we were all tired by the end of the day!

There have been a couple of other notables this week. I had to give Victor's fingernails a trim! I've been avoiding it, but when Victor woke up with a big scratch on his cute little nose I couldn't put it off any more. I decided to use cuticle scissors because they offer a large amount of control for cutting tiny delicate little nails. It went pretty well, as long as I remember to not point the scissors at his face!

Another happy one for me--guess who slept from midnight to 7 a.m. last night--me! and Damian! and Victor!! Victor slept like the dead until about 7, when I practically started poking him to wake him up (I'm nursing, so my girls were all like "WTF oww!"). He slept longer than I did! And then he went back to sleep a little after 8! So I may take a nap, too, after I make some phone calls. Meanwhile, my parents are sleeping in until 10 every day. Oh how the worm turns!

Support Group

So today, after a month of trying to hit the Friday meetings, we finally made it to the Lactation Support Group run by Scripps Encinitas hospital (where Victor was delivered). Not that I had anything to do with it--my mom reminded me--and not that we're having big problems with nursing, but I wanted to see what it was about, get Victor weighed, and see if I could meet some friends or something. 2 out of 3 aint bad! Mister Victor weighed in at 12 pounds for his 7 week birthday! And tonight we put him in one of his 3-6 month size footie pajamas because he is starting to get too big for some of his 0-3 month pjs! Poor thing was stretching them out, and now that his new favorite activity is standing up, he needs more room! (Have I mentioned that? Victor can hold up his entire weight if he has somebody to help him balance out that big wobbly head of his. Before he would push with his feet and we would make him "jump", and now he holds them straight out and steady when he has someone to help him balance!)

So the group was an interesting mix. There were about 10 or 12 moms there (plus two grandmas), and most of the babies were about 2 weeks old or less--there was even a 5 day old! There was another baby a couple of weeks older than Victor, one that was 3 months old (and I kid you not Victor was bigger than she was!), and a gigantic 4 month old that was sitting up and smiling at everyone. I will have you know that according to two impartial judges (me and my mom), Victor was judged to be the cutest baby there by a long shot! I can't believe how tiny some of those babies were--Victor was never that small, and I'm glad for it--they looked too tiny to be real! Most of the questions there weren't relevant to me, but there was one set of advice about positioning I will try out so that maybe we can prevent some of Victor's hiccups. Sometimes he'll get them five times a day, poor baby, and sometime he won't get them for several days in a row. It's not a big deal, but Victor doesn't enjoy them very much. Between that and the farting, man, I'm surprised we haven't started a band!

Exciting weekend this weekend--Victor's first overnight trip away from home! We're going to go visit some of my parents' friends up in LA and stay with them on Saturday night. Good thing we have a pack 'n play for sleeping--now I just hope we remember to take it, along with everything else we may or may not need! Wish us luck.... :)