6 months

nicknames: dax, monkey, munchkin, and tyke. matt's been calling him daxy-poo, too, which is kind of ridiculous but it's adorable that he's so cute with him.

likes: playing peek-a-boo.  yelling, squealing, and screaming.  rolling over.  splashing in the bath or baby pool.  trying to grab padfoot.

dislikes: being hungry.  getting out of the bath.

milestones: we are officially mobile - daxon is completely rolling over now.  he's been rolling front to back for several weeks, but pretty much could not care less about rolling back to front.  but just within the past week, he started completely rolling.  he is really good at lifting up his head, and recently started kind of pushing up his butt.  he really found his voice this month - yells, squeals, screams, and talks.  and he is sitting on his own for longer and longer periods of time.  but the biggest milestone is that we've started solids!  more on that below. 

clothing size: all 3-6 month or 6 month.  and a pair of old navy jean shorts that are 6-12 month.  

sleep: sleep has been weird this month.  all of a sudden he is having mid-night wakeups.  he doesn't need to eat, but he wakes up and fusses, so i go down and give him his paci and his lovey, and usually within a few minutes he falls back to sleep.  he is also waking up much earlier than usual - like 5-5:30, when it used to be that i had to wake him up at 6.  he is also a bit more difficult to put down at night, which may because of adding solids to his nighttime routine.  and really, he's not difficult, per se, but he's not falling asleep nursing consistently like he had been.  several times i've had to put him in the crib awake.  but usually i just give him his lovey and after fussing/playing for a couple minutes, he falls asleep.  once or twice we've had to go give him his paci.

naps: i am trying to be more consistent with his naptime, especially his big afternoon nap (1-3).  daycare marks that he naps from 1-3 every day, and though i doubt that he's actually sleeping that whole time, i'm sure he is at least getting quiet time, so i am making more of an effort to do the same thing.  i take him upstairs, close his blinds, turn on the white noise machine (sometimes i'll play music instead of the white noise), and close the door.  again, sometimes he'll lie awake and play for up to 20 minutes, but eventually he'll fall sleep, and then he'll pretty consistently sleep for at least an hour, and very rarely he'll go close to 2 hours.  i usually try to get him down in the mornings, too, around 10, which is what they mark that he does at daycare.  sometimes he'll also take a quick catnap after our evening nursing session (like 15-20 minutes).

eating: we started solids, you guys!  so far, he's only getting about an ounce once a day.  i'm waiting to send something to daycare until after we see the ped to really figure out exactly how to schedule adding solids to his routine.  at exactly 5.5 months, we started off with egg yolk, based on this information. i hadn't really intended to start when we did, but he was sitting at the table with me one evening when matt was working late, and he was so interested in what i was doing, so i took a hard-boiled egg, scooped out the yolk, and mushed it with some breastmilk.  it went well, so our next step was bananas, and only because we ran out of eggs and happened to have some bananas.  he didn't like the bananas so much at first, but we tried again, and he took to them on the 2nd night.  after that was sweet potatoes, then avocado.  we also tried green beans, but they didn't puree very well - the hulls didn't break down, so it was kind of chunky, and he didn't like the texture.  after doing it, i read that using frozen green beans is actually better than fresh, so we'll have to give that another try.  we try each food 3 times to monitor for reactions.  for the bananas, i just mushed them with a spoon/fork in a little ramekin.  for the avocado, i put it in the food processor.  and for the sweet potatoes and green beans, i used my baby brezza, which steams and purees all in the same bowl, which i love cuz it's less mess.  i am basically following this guideline on when to introduce what foods, minus the grains.  i'm still not sure what i'm going to do about grains and wheat.  from what i've read, a baby's guts lack the enzyme to properly break down grains until they're much older.  however, i am concerned that putting it off puts him at higher risk for developing a wheat/gluten allergy.

so our feeding schedule looks like this: i nurse him first thing in the morning (usually around 6-ish).  during the week, he is then up for the day.  he gets 3 6-oz bottles at daycare (and i pump 3 times at work).  i nurse him when we get home (right around 6).  he eats dinner with us around 7.  and then at 7:45, it's bedtime and he nurses to sleep.  i sometimes worry that he's eating too much, but then i have to remember that he's not getting a whole lot of nutrition yet from the solids - "food before 1 is just for fun!"  my plan is to start sending an ounce or so to daycare and having them give it to him before his afternoon nap.  he gets a bottle at noon and then goes down for nap from 1-3. 

we are having so much fun with him.  his little personality is definitely starting to show through.  so far, we know that he loves to smile, rarely cries (unless he's hungry...like daddy), and can entertain himself just fine.  he likes to sit back and watch what's happening around him (again, like daddy), but if you get him chatting he will talk your ear off (like mama).  he's pretty outgoing, and will flash his big smile to pretty much anyone.

mmmm....sweet potatoes

look, ma, no hands!

crazy hair day at daycare

petting mama while nursing

milk coma

playing on mama and daddy's bed

5 months

nicknames: dax, d, bubbers, munchkin, and tyke.  uncle dan calls him d-man.

likes: putting everything in sight into his mouth.  talking and yelling.  kicking his legs like he's training for a marathon.  playing peek-a-boo.

dislikes: being burped in the middle of eating.  getting into his car seat.

milestones: he is really starting to talk now.  he mostly talks with his mouth closed, using his tongue to make "sounds" inside his mouth.  it's kind of hard to explain, but it's hysterical.  he loves to shriek and yell.  he is laughing a lot more.  and of course we had our first hospital visit, which was a milestone i could have done without.  he's able to roll over back to front and front to back, but he struggles with it.  i kind of think he just doesn't care enough.  he can sit assisted, and can tripod sit for a few seconds if he's really concentrating on it.  and he's doing better with tummy time.  he loves to pull his blanket or burp cloth over his face, then pull it down - playing peek-a-boo!  he is using his exersaucer a lot, now, too.

clothing size: mostly into his 3-6 month or 6 month stuff.  we just gave a big bag of 3 month stuff to cousin quinn.  we also graduated to medium size sleep sacks.  

sleep: we are still feeding to sleep, and i kind of don't care anymore.  we attempted to change up the routine, and it didn't go so well.  the first night it actually went great, but the second night was an enormous disaster.  he started to fuss and we let him go for 3 minutes.  i went up, gave him his paci, and stayed with him till he calmed down.  a couple minutes later, he started to fuss again.  we let him go 5 minutes until matt went up.  he would not calm down.  after another 5 minutes of matt trying to comfort him, i finally gave in and nursed him to sleep.  we talked about it, and since he doesn't need to nurse (ie, he doesn't need me), we're ok with him eating to sleep (boob or bottle).  occasionally he wakes up in the night, but we just give him his paci and he's right back down.

naps: still napping pretty regularly.  if we miss a naptime, or if the schedule gets thrown off on the weekend, he doesn't meltdown.  it means we can be pretty flexible, which is really great.

eating: right before his 5-month birthday, i started increasing his bottles to 6oz.  he was finishing every bottle during the day, and sometimes on the weekends we thought he seemed hungry after finishing a 5oz bottle.  so he now gets 18oz in bottles, plus 3 nursing sessions. 

i know i keep saying this, but we really are lucky with him.  he is so good, so happy.  we are having so much fun with him.  he definitely has a little personality and we love seeing that develop. here are a few pictures from our 5-month photo shoot...

and a few other random shots from the month...

he loves to pull that blanket down over his head

saturday morning naps with daddy are the best!

exersaucer time!

first time in the pool!

piggies!

first father's day

first trip to the e.d.

yes, folks, that is a hospital bracelet with my baby's name on it.  this morning, at 6am, there we were, taking daxon to the emergency room.  not exactly the way i'd hoped we'd start off father's day weekend.

dax woke up around 5:45, so i went down to nurse him with hopes that i'd be able to get him back to sleep.  he nursed for about 4 minutes then fell asleep, so i placed him back in his crib.  as soon as i put him down, he woke up, and rather than fight with him, i picked him up to continue feeding him.  before i had the chance, though, he spit up all down my back.  i laid him down on the footrest of the glider and started to clean myself up. i looked away for a split second, and then i heard it: thud.  i looked back to see his body hit the floor and heard a second thud.  he immediately started to scream, and i ran to get him.  he was face-down on the hardwood floor.  i picked him up and started to comfort him, trying to remain calm myself...and failing miserably.  i was hysterical.  matt came running out of the bedroom, and i handed daxon over to him because i was shaking so much i was afraid to hold him.  he had already stopped crying and was smiling and laughing, but i called our pediatrician to see if we needed to take him to the emergency room.  she reassured me that he was probably fine, but said we should take him in, just to get him checked out. 

so off we went, with daxon smiling away.  he got all checked out and within 45 minutes, we were on our way back out the door.  the doctor told us that the only way to ensure that he is ok is to give him a head ct, but there is a lot of radiation exposure, so he would only do it if he was exhibiting concerning behavior, which he wasn't.  he said that if daxon starts acting strangely, we should bring him back in and they'll do the scan.  our discharge instructions were basically just to keep an eye on him.

i'm not entirely sure what happened, but i think he basically pushed himself backwards off the footrest, landing first on his head, then flipping backwards and landing on his belly.  it was absolutely terrifying, but the doctor and nurses assured us that he'll be fine.  they also all told us that their own kids have fallen on their heads and they're all fine.  but that just reinforces that you can't take your hands off them, even for just a split second.  from now on he either goes on the floor or in something secure.

he still seems fine, and in another hour we're out of the danger zone.  but it's certainly something i don't need to experience ever again.

4-month appointment

we had daxon's 4-month appointment on tuesday evening.  he's a big boy, growing like a weed!

weight - 14lb, 10oz
height - 24.5"
head circ - 16.5"

he had 5 vaccines again - 1 oral and 4 shots.  he handled it like a champ!  he barely cried and then was fine all night.  he felt a little warm before bed, so we gave him some tylenol and he was fine.

we got the green light to start solids from 5-6 months.  i am anxious to start, and he is definitely interested in food, but i think we will wait until 6 months.  we will also start with fruit and veggie purees rather than rice cereal, and i actually may wait to start any grains until closer to 12 months to help his gut develop the right enzymes to break down grains.  i am really interested in baby-led weaning, but i think with him being at daycare, that will be difficult.  so we may do a sort of modified blw and puree combination type of thing.

by his weight, his zantac dose should be increased.  he's currently getting 1.25mL 3x a day.  he's doing ok on that dose for now, so we decided to keep him there and see how he does.  the ped said that most parents see that the reflux gets much better around this age, and many wean the medication themselves.  hopefully, we'll be able to add ourselves to that group!

and since i just took this this morning and i think it's adorable, here's a funny picture of dax in his bebepod with a little bit of bedhead and my favorite toy (from my own childhood) stuck on his foot. 

4 months

excuse me?!  how did we get here so quickly?  ugh, slow down time!  we have an appointment on the 28th, so i'll update his stats after that.  i'm so anxious to find out how big he is!  he definitely looks like a monster.  we met a 10-month-old the other day and dax looked almost as big as her!  yowsa!

nicknames: dax, d, bubbers, munchkin, and tyke.

likes: grabbing at everything in sight, followed by immediately putting it in his mouth.  playing on his harry potter blanket on the floor.  laughing at his goofball parents.  sleeping on his side.

dislikes: taking zantac, being hungry, being overwhelmed.

milestones: oh, man, this month has been fun!  daxon is grabbing at everything.  if it's in front of him, he will try to grab it.  and if he gets it, he will try to put it in his mouth.  if it's too big, he will work on it to try to figure out a way to get it in his mouth.  like, he really concentrates on it!  baby boy is able to sit up, assisted, and has definitely started trying to pull himself up to sit when he's propped up on our legs or in the boppy.  i seriously think that all his "workouts" with daddy have something to do with that - his ab muscle are really strong!  he is laughing, smiling, and talking a lot!  he rolled over - once - from front to back.  and lately i'm finding him sleeping on his side when i wake him up in the morning!

clothing size: still wearing 3-month stuff pretty well.  they're starting to get a little snug, but i think we've still got a couple weeks in them.

sleep: we had a week of nighttime wake-ups, but seems like we are back on track with sleeping through (*knocks wood*).  i do think we need to move bedtime up a bit, cuz he is getting kinda cranky by around 7:30, when it used to be he could go till 8.  i think after our 4-month appointment, we will also start changing up the bedtime routine so that he is not being nursed to sleep.  nursing him to sleep works so well, but i'd really like to break that sleep association before it becomes too strong.  i'm already worried, though, because i'm noticing that when i take him upstairs for bed, as soon as i start his massage/lullaby, he starts smacking his lips.  so breaking that association could prove to be a bit difficult.  although the other night i was out with friends after work and matt had to put him down.  matt put him in his crib after a bottle and he wasn't sleeping, but he didn't cry or fuss too much, and eventually (after kicking himself around 180-degrees) he finally fell asleep on his own.  so maybe it won't be too bad?  guess we'll find out!

naps: naps are much more regular, now!  at daycare, he typically sleeps 8:30-9, 10-11, then 1-3.  those times change a bit every day, but for the most part it's fairly consistent.  we try to stick to that on the weekends, but it's hard, and so far he doesn't seem to go into full-on meltdown mode if he misses a "naptime."  hopefully that continues.  

eating: he is still eating well.  he gets 3 5oz bottles at daycare.  he nurses once in the morning, once when we get home in the evening, and once at bedtime.  he is doing this new thing now where every morning he spits up.  every.single.morning.  i've tried burping him 3 or 4 minutes in, and still - instant puke.  we are soaking a burp cloth a day from it.  i'm at the point now where i don't get him dressed until after we finish nursing, because i always had to change his clothes!  so now i wake him up, change his diaper, nurse him in just his diaper, then clean him up and get him dressed.  i think he's probably just eating too much too fast, because it doesn't happen at any other feeding, and daycare says he's not doing it for them.  i've tried hand-expressing a bit before nursing him but that doesn't really seem to help.  he definitely isn't in any distress from it.  he pukes, then looks at me and bursts into a big grin.  stinker.

in general, we have a really good baby.  he is very quiet and content.  daycare again commented that he really doesn't cry much at all, just for the "necessities," like when he's hungry.  they said he loves to just sit and watch the other kids.  i took him out for dinner the other night with a friend of mine, and he behaved so well that other diners were commenting on how good he was!  we really are super lucky.  i think the most exciting thing for this month was meeting his new cousin.  and let's be honest - that was more exciting for mommy than it was for daxon!

matt's a homebrewer, so i could not pass up this awesome "assistant brewer" onesie

from my first mother's day

bigfoot

all smiles

 if you follow me on instagram, you've seen these pictures already....

sunday morning storytime - this is our favorite book

phillies day at daycare!

mommy and daddy were being silly, recreating fear and loathing in las vegas.  with our 4-month old.

how funky is your chicken?!

  happy 4 month birthday, baby boy!!

3 months

 

our baby boy turned 3 months last week (oops i'm a little late)!  i feel like my past month updates have been a little scattered so i'm going to use a little bit of a prompting thingie (very technical term, you know) to help me organize my thoughts.

nicknames: dax, d, bubbers, and munchkin.  i also was calling him pasta fadrool one night because matt was talking about making pasta fagiole, and daxon was drooling like a maniac (like he likes to do), and mommy's a huge dork.

likes: dancing and singing with mommy, drooling, working out with daddy, practicing grabbing at things, laughing at his goober parents, bounding on the yoga ball, and baths (finally, yay!)

dislikes: the nosefrida, taking zantac, my car seat, being hungry, and tummy time.

milestones: the social smiles are coming a mile a minute, mostly because mommy and daddy are probably two of the biggest weirdos on the planet and will do anything they can think of to make him smile.  he also started grabbing things, just within the past 2 weeks, i'd say.  he loves the o'ball, especially.  daycare tells us he's starting to lift his head more during tummy time.  i know they work on it with him a lot at daycare, so i tend to not do it in the evenings (it makes him so cranky!), so i look forward to seeing how he does this weekend.

clothing size: officially out of the 0-3 month stuff.  most 3-month stuff fits well, though some of it is a little snug due to the extra bulk of the cloth diapers.  3-6 month stuff is a little big.

sleep: still sleeping like a champ.  he typically sleeps from about 8:30-6.  most mornings i have to wake him up at 6.  he goes down easily after falling asleep nursing.  part of me worries about nursing him to sleep, but then he also will go down if matt gives him a bottle.  eventually we will probably try to start putting him down without having him fall asleep eating, but for now it works, and i think that is part of why he's sleeping through the night - he goes to bed with a really full tummy!  daycare reports his naps to us, and they are still kind of sporadic.  sometimes he naps mutliple times in the mornings, then is awake all afternoon. sometimes he doesn't sleep at all in the morning then takes a 2-hour nap in the afternoon.  

now that i've been back to work for 2 weeks, we have a pretty good schedule figured out.  i get up at 5am (ok, my alarm is set for 5:07, but i snooze once and then actually get up at 5:17).  i shower, do my makeup, and dry and straighten my hair.  this usually takes me about 45 minutes.  when i finish that, i go wake up daxon.  i wake him up, change his diaper, and get him dressed for the day.  then i feed him for about 20 minutes (that's usually all he'll eat).  once he's done eating, i either put him back in his crib if he's fallen back asleep (which has only happened 2x in 2 weeks) or i bring him up to our bedroom with me.  i pump off the other side while talking to him, then matt takes him downstairs while i finish getting ready.  the one morning that i tried to let him sleep in a little and nursed him after i got dressed, he had a massive spit-up and i ended up having to change.  so now i nurse him before i get dressed!  i am out the door by 7:20 to catch my 7:28 train, and matt drops him off at daycare around 7:45.  i catch the 5:07 train home and pick him up around 5:45.  we get home and i nurse him, then hand him over to matt while i cook dinner.  daxon plays on his playmat while we eat (unless he's being fussy, then we eat in shifts so one of us can be holding/entertaining him), then matt takes him up for a bath while i get his bags and bottles ready for the next day.  after his bath, i take over the bedtime routine, and we are back to our normal thing: lotion massage, singing "lullaby," and nursing to sleep. 

we started cloth diapering 2 weeks ago (the saturday after my first day back to work).  so far, we love it.  no blowouts, and only a couple pee leaks (i think because the diaper wasn't put on correctly).  he stays comfortable enough that it's not waking him at night, so i don't feel like we need to add any inserts or use disposables at night (yet).  it probably is only about 1 extra load of laundry a week.  his bum hasn't had any issues (we never had a full diaper rash in the 'sposies, but his bum occasionally looked irritated - i would start generously applying diaper rash cream as soon as i noticed it to catch it before it got worse).  and they are so stinkin cute.  i'll do a more detailed post on it in the future.

the zantac seems to be helping his reflux issues.  eventually we'll have to increase the dose, but for now 1mg seems to be working just fine. 

i am pumping 4-5 times a day - first thing in the morning (i pump the side he doesn't nurse on), then 3 times at work (9:15, 12:15, and 3:15), then once right before bed (so that i don't wake up engorged).  my supply is great, and i usually am able to pump enough in one day to fill his bottles for daycare, plus have some extra to add to my frozen stash.  he gets 3 5oz bottles at daycare, though he doesn't always take the whole thing at each feeding.  they dump anything that's left, which freaked me out at first, but now that i know my supply can handle it, i'm not so upset about it.

he seems to be adjusting great to daycare.  he eats well while there.  and they are doing the cloth diapers with us, which i love.  we get reports at the end of every day, and they always say how smiley he is.  even though he is in the infant room,i think he's the only infant there, so he gets to hang out with the big kids a lot, and they seem to love him.  this might concern some parents, but i happen to think it's great - the more people he's around, the better his language development.  i'd be more worried about him sitting all isolated in the infant room with just him and the teacher!

and, of course, gratuitous pictures of the little stinker for you...

He is pretty much always this happy when he wakes up

plotting his next evil deed...puking all over mama!

helping mama put away the laundry

snuggles

looking like such a little man in his striped polo

sunday morning storytime - our favorite book

lovin the wubbanub (aka, wubby)

and from our 3-month photo shoot, a few silly outtakes...

i am not impressed

c'mon, mom...seriously?!

my feet are far more interesting than this stupid photo shoot

can i please get back to wubby, now?

fine...then i'll just eat my hands

first cold

hey all.  well, less than 2 weeks into daycare and daxon's got his first cold.  it's just a little case of the stuffies - no fever, and he's not completely miserable, but he's breathing like a bulldog.  over the weekend, he slept a lot, as i think his little body was trying to fight it off - saturday night he slept for almost 13 hours straight!  anyway, i'm doing my best to try to keep him unstuffy.  i have been using the nosefrida religiously.  dax is definitely not a fan of the process, but as soon as i'm done using it, he calms right back down.  that thing gets a lot of snot out of there!  it is unbelievable.  gross, but unbelievable.  i put a few drops of breastmilk in each nostril before i use it, to help loosen things up in there first, then suck away.  i think maybe tonight before his bath i will run a steamy hot shower for a few minutes to get the bathroom all steamed up - that supposedly helps, too.  they also say to nurse them in a steamy bathroom, but he always falls asleep nursing, and i wouldn't want to have to nosefrida him (what, that's totally a verb) after nursing - he'd completely wake up again.  and be pissed.

i sent some saline nasal drops and a bulb syringe with him to daycare, but sasha (who cares for him) said he didn't seem too bad yesterday.  which makes me nervous that he's allergic to something in our house (i do need to vacuum...).  i will be heartbroken if he turns out to be allergic to padfoot.  so as cruel as it seems, i really am hoping it's just a little cold and will go away soon.

for the most part, though, he seems to be handling it ok.  we were up last night from 1-2:30, partially because i was being stubborn and refused to nurse him.  i did not want to start that habit.  so initially i went down and just put the paci in his mouth and rocked him for about 25 minutes until i thought he fell back asleep.  i put him back in the crib and left the room, but 5 minutes later he was awake and crying again.  so i went back down and just put the paci in his mouth but didn't pick him up.  i was in there for about 10 minutes until he fell back asleep and i went back to bed.  that lasted 15 minutes and right when i was falling back to sleep, he was awake and crying again.  so then i checked his diaper (just a little wet) and decided to nosefrida him.  which, of course, pissed him off, so then he was really crying, but he did sound a little better.  so i attached him to the boob and he fell asleep after about 10 minutes.  i put him back to bed and he slept fine until i had to wake him up at 6.  so i know to a lot of people one wake up in the night sounds like nothing (and some people would be thrilled with that), but for us, after about 6 weeks of sleeping through the night, it was a rough night.  and a rough morning - mommy skipped the half-caf coffee and went straight to full-caf, high sugar starbucks caramel machiatto.  but lesson learned - if we wake up again tonight, don't be so stubborn - suck the snot, stick him on the boob, and get him back to sleep!

honestly, i'd anticipated our first daycare disease would be much worse and happen much sooner.  if this is all we get, then i'll be thrilled.  i'm really hoping that since he's starting daycare at the end of cold/flu season, we'll miss a lot of the biggies.  fingers crossed!

back to work

my maternity leave - and time home with daxon - officially ended on wednesday.  it was a sad day.  i cried about it starting on sunday afternoon (thanks, mom, for bringing it up at easter brunch!), and then several times all the way up through getting on the train wednesday morning.  but once i got that final cry out on the train, i was fine.  and you know what?  coming back wasn't nearly as bad as i thought it would be.  i have been told several times by almost everyone i work with that they are glad to see me back and that i was missed while i was out.  that's kind of a nice thing to hear, especially since when i'm actually at work, no one ever says, "hey, you're doing a great job and we really value you."  my floor is as busy as ever, and i jumped right in and was off and running from the minute i walked in the door.  that has probably helped with the transition, since i haven't had time to sit around and miss daxon. 

but the biggest thing?  i feel more like myself than i have in a long time.  i love daxon, obviously, and my time with him is the most important thing in the world.  but it is really nice to be back amongst adults, having real conversations.  i can only take so much one-sided talk about poopy diapers.  it's nice to be able to speak in a regular register, not all high-pitched and sing-songy. 

and daycare reports that daxon is doing great.  they said he doesn't cry much, and really just sits quietly and observes everything.  he gets that from his daddy, for sure.  he still isn't napping terribly well (3 30-minute-ish naps), but he's eating fine and is still in a pretty good mood when we get him home in the evening.  after that first morning when he was up at 4, i've actually had to wake him up at 6 to nurse him and get him ready for the day.  it pains me each time, but if i wait till he wakes up on his own, i'll be late myself. 

we've changed his bedtime routine, now.  it used to be that matt would give him a bottle around 6, then he'd play for a bit until around 8, at which point i would take him up, change his diaper, give him a massage and sing "lullaby," then nurse him to sleep.  now i nurse him when i pick him up (around 6), he plays for a bit, and then around 7:45, matt takes him up for his bath while i get his bags ready for the next day.  after his bath, i get him dressed for bed, and then we do the massage, lullaby, and nurse to sleep.  this way, matt still gets some quality one-on-one time with him while i get things ready for the next morning so we're not rushing around.  so far it seems like it's working well.  we only bathe him every other night, so on nights we don't bathe him, he just stays downstairs with us a little bit longer. 

really?!

today is my first day back to work.  today is also the first day in 2-3 weeks that daxon has woken up before 6am.  and it couldn't have been a 2 or 3am wake-up.  no, it's gotta be 4am, so that going back to bed before my alarm goes off is pointless.

thanks, universe.

easter fun

we headed back to hershey this weekend for easter with our families.  this time, we stayed at aunt callie and uncle anthony's.  they just moved back to hershey from baltimore, and they have a lot of room in their new house.  matt and i were in a bedroom with our own bathroom, and daxon got to sleep in their nursery one night, then the "bonus" room the next night, cuz anthony's cousin came to stay, too. 

we got home friday night and went out to dinner with my dad to celebrate all of our birthdays (matt and anthony's are in february, callie and mine are in march, and my dad's is in april).  we went to the warwick tavern in hummelstown.  it's an old favorite of ours.  after dinner, we all went back to callie and anthony's and had ice cream sundaes!  yummm...

on saturday, matt, daxon, and i went to meet my mom and jeff and my step-brother's family at the country club for the easter egg hunt.  i popped daxon in my sister-in-law's baby bjorn (she was giving it to callie, so i had her bring it for me to use and then i gave it to callie).  daxon's cousins, aiden and brody, participated in the egg hunt.  poor little brody didn't get any eggs, but aiden cleaned up, and then was a nice big brother and gave a few to brody.  i didn't take any pictures, unfortunately, but i wish i would have tried to get a stealth picture of the two little twin boys whose parents painted football paint under their eyes.  seriously?!  it's an easter egg hunt, not a competitive sport! 

from there, the 3 of us headed over to matt's parents.  they had a full house, with matt's brother mike, his girlfriend jody, and his 2 kids (avery, 12, and gabe, 10), matt's other brother dan, his aunt barb and uncle jack, and his cousin bobby and wife brandi and their 2 kids (addison, 1, and jack, 3).  we had dinner and then went for a short walk.  daxon got passed around quite a bit, but handled it pretty well until the end of the night when he hit his wall - i think he was tired and overstimulated. 

sunday morning, daxon was an enormous fuss-pot.  he was wailing all morning long.  i thought something was wrong, or that he was sick, but his temperature was fine.  i think he was just feeling overwhelmed still from the night before.  poor little guy.  we went to church and he did great - he got kind of fussy at one point, but he was just hungry, so i gave him a bottle and he was fine.  my friend's mom was assisting with communion, so when we went up, she got a good look at daxon, then quickly sent us on our way because she was starting to cry!  so sweet.

after church, we went back to callie and anthony's for a little before heading back to the country club for easter brunch with all of my siblings.  we were missing my step-sister heather and my niece sidnae, but all in all, there were 17 of us - 10 adults and 7 kids.  we easily had the biggest table in the place! 

daxon slept through most of brunch, much to the dismay of his aunties.  they got a little bit of time with him, though, and his cousins were excited to play with the baby!  we hit the road around 4:30, and we got home to a nice big package on our doorstep....

our cloth diapers are here!  i cannot wait to put these on daxon's cute little bum.  i am in the process of pre-washing them right now (you have to wash them 3-5 times before you can use them).  we will probably wait to start using them until this weekend, so that we can get used to it before sending him off to daycare with them. 

speaking of...i go back to work on wednesday.  i have been doing great with it up until yesterday.  and then i cried about it 3 separate times on the drive home.  ugh.  wednesday is going to be a rough one.  i will totally be that girl sitting on the train in tears.  booo....