Like a Weed!

I now fully understand the saying "Growing like a weed." I decided that while Blake was napping today (he doesn't do as much of that lately) I would go through his clothes and pull out things he had outgrown. Oh my! I am going to be honest - it was a painful process. There were some things that Blake had not worn and a lot that had only been worn once or twice. I have no idea why I was suprised. My friends had warned me that their kids never wore some of their baby clothes. I guess it just reminds me how fast he is growing. All of his newborn clothes are, of course, too small and so are a lot of his 0-3 months clothes.

Speaking of clothing sizes, I think baby clothes are less uniformly sized than adult clothes. Blake had on a outfit the other day that was a 3-6 month onsie, 0-3 months pants, and newborn shoes. That is saying a lot because my kid has big feet!

Hopefully someone we know will have a baby boy so that we can let them make use of these clothes. Even after giving back the clothes loaned to us we will have enough to outfit a little one. Even IF we have another baby I imagine that a lot of these clothes may be out of style (yes, I said that) by then.

Mama Tried

What do you think? This is a picture of me & of Blake. Maybe he does have a couple of my genes, but I think they must be hiding!

Like His Daddy?

I finally have proof...like we needed any...that Blake looks like his daddy, even as a baby. There is still something that looks like me, I'm sure of it. Here are pictures of Joe and Blake. Judge for yourself.

New News, New Tricks

We got calls from two couples very close to us with the good news that babies are coming in October! (names withheld...just in case) It will be wonderful having the kids so close in age - maybe this means I won't have to have another one :) Blake is going to have plenty of playmates. In the last couple of years all of our friends who have had babies have had boys. We almost have a complete team at this point!

Also new this week - Blake's tongue! Our baby boy is totally amused by the fact that he has something in his mouth that he can move, roll, stick out, etc. If he is awake he is figuring out all of the things he can do with his tongue. He licks his headrest on his swing, licks his hand, licks anything that gets close enough. I guess I should keep the dogs away until he gets over the licking thing.

Also, he is making so many new noises. "Hooo!" is his favorite, but he is talking to his birds on his swing and has just been so much more vocal this week. It seems impossible that it is going to be several months before any of those noises sound like real words.

Blake has slept in his crib now for one full week. He is doing really well. I think he has figured out the difference between day and night. Usually he will sleep for 4-5 hours the first time I put him down and then 3 after that. I am not complaining at all. Four hours of sleep feels like a lot right now. I say that he can tell day from night because he still wants to eat every 2-3 hours during the day. Hopefully that gets better soon. We really do have a wonderful baby though. He is so well tempered and happy. We are blessed!

Crib Notes

After learning yesterday that Blake's crib was not recalled I didn't have an excuse anymore not to give the crib a try. While I don't intentionally wake Joe up at night when Blake cries, it is inevitable when he's in our room in the bassinet. After working 12 hours a day I guess the guy deserves some decent sleep on occasion. I was also getting a little concerned with how much Blake ended up just sleeping in our bed at night. Yes, I know, don't judge! It's much easier than getting wildly frustrated when he is sound asleep and immediately wakes up when put back in the bassinet. Honestly, I also didn't have much confidence in my will power not to run back and forth to the nursery every time he made a sound.

Last night I got Blake's crib all ready with the sleep positioner and sheet protector (our boy is a spit up machine) and tried to get his belly full. Please note his last nap of the day was 4.5 hours, a record for us. Long nap aside, last night still went pretty well. Just like when I put him in the bassinet, he woke up every time like it was a tub of ice water. I quickly learned that I do not have to be staring at him when he falls asleep. Yes, I walked away (monitor in hand) and let him go to sleep on his own. Between feedings I heard him stretching and do other things that babies do loudly, like fill his diaper, but restrained myself. When I heard his, "I'm hungry" cry I went and got him up. Unfortunately the first time around that was only 1.5 hours after I had put him down, but that got better. The second time we went 3 hours!

I am very proud of my little boy and a little proud of myself too.

No Recall

I had been all worked up thinking Blake's crib had been recalled. I'm sure most ofyou heard of the expanded crib recalls. For those of you with little ones: http://www.jardinecribrecall.com/press_release.php. I knew the model number matched but hadn't filed for the recall yet. I guess I was pretending I was busy, yeah, right. Blake hasn't slept in his crib yet, so I guess I wasn't in a hurry. Last night I spoke with my friend Kristen and her son's crib was recalled (now that he's grown out of it). With this reminder I got online today to fill out the form for a replacement voucher. SUPRISE! The form asked me when the crib was produced. I hadn't paid attention to that. I crawled under the crib again to check - NOT RECALLED! What a relief. Not that I was opposed to getting a free crib, but I really didn't want to have to tell Joe he had to take it apart.

That's the good news for today. Check out the press release if you think you might be affected!

Sweet n' Sour

We've all seen babies sleeping in a car seat or swing with their necks looking amazingly uncomfortable. It seems impossible that they can get their ear that close to their belly button! I had never noticed before, but Blake always assumes this position with his chin turned to the left (like he is above). I did notice, however, that he had a rather sizable knot in his neck on the right side that I was convinced was too large to be a lymph node. At his one month check up I did mention this to his doctor and she said it was probably a lymph node I was feeling. I took Blake back to the doctor today and she told me today she actually didn't feel it last time when she looked. Apparently parents freak out over slightly swollen nodes all the time. Good thing I poke and prod at the poor guy all the time! It turns out Blake has something called torticollis.

According to the one hundred websites I've read, torticollis is also called congenital muscular torticollis. It is a condition that causes a baby's head and neck to tilt to one side. It affects about 2 percent of newborns. The cause is unknown, but doctors suspect that when a baby is positioned in the uterus so that her head is tilted to the side and her neck is down, the blood supply to the neck is cut off. This results in some tightness in one of the two strap (or sternocleidomastoid) muscles that connect the breastbone, head, and neck, and allow a baby to turn their neck. The pediatrician thought that maybe it was caused by my carrying Blake so low in my belly for such a long time. Though the baby may look uncomfortable, this condition causes no pain. Blake can look to both sides really well and his neck is already very strong. Some kids with torticollis can't look to one side at all. Because his case seems so mild, the doctor is having us do some stretching and massage of the muscle at home rather than sending us to physical therapy right away. Honestly I am relieved that Blake's knot is muscular, the other explanations for such a knot are much more scary. If this is the only medical issue we have to deal with we are still very blessed. This was the SWEET part of our day.

The SOUR part of our day was an email that I received today from my boss...umm ex-boss. I had emailed her on Monday telling her I would like to try to return on Friday the 13th so Blake's first day in daycare would be a half day. Today she replied by telling me:

"Unfortunately, we have re-allocated job responsibilities here and your position no longer exists at the present time."

So...my first thought was, "Is that even legal?!?" Unfortunately for a small business with under 50 employees you do not have to adhere to FMLA (and I had not been there for one year until this month) so it is just a lousy thing to do and not illegal. No matter how much I hated my job I would have liked to have known this weeks or even months ago. She had previously sent me emails just before I had Blake underhandedly pushing me to quit, but I didn't know this was coming. One would have thought even a heartless person wouldn't have waited until the week before I was supposed to return. So, yeah, that's my SOUR afternoon.

I'm off to search careerbuilder and file for unemployment. Wish me a SWEET job search!

At least I get to stay home a little longer with my precious boy!

And the winner is...

For all of you who knew about our struggle to find childcare for Blake - the search is over! I was a nervous wreck, not wanting to send him to a daycare at 6 weeks old. I still struggle with the thought of leaving him at all, but I wanted to make sure he was going to be held and loved while we are away. Not being from this area we had a really hard time finding out what daycare facilities were good or bad and who provided childcare in their home.

Monday I struck gold! I was desperately searching Google for a list of in home providers or reviews of the local daycares. Having Blake's daycare here in Shelbyville has always been a priority. I had performed the same search a hundred times over the last several months. This time I happened upon a site that provided a list of state certified providers. Everyone I called was, of course, completely full. The last lady that I called said she was full until August, but her daughter-in-law might be interested. She put me in contact with her daughter-in-law and I took Blake to her house to meet with her yesterday. The fact that I was immediately impressed that her house was clean and had heat tells you something about the other providers I have interviewed.

Katie is very sweet. She is just a couple of years older than me and is married (hoping to have one of her own soon). She does not smoke or have any pets. After being a live in nanny she decided to stay home and watch kids when she got married. She and Blake have already bonded...he spit up on her. I feel very comfortable leaving Blake with her and I think he will be well cared for while we are at work. Speaking of, I plan to go back to work next Friday the 13th. Those who know how I feel about my job will find that fitting.

We all know she is lucky to get to spend her days with Blake, but I feel blessed to have found her as well.

Yes, I know, I will still be a mess when I go back to work no matter how I feel about Katie.