Friday bullets

I keep wanting to sit down to write but I simply don't seem to have the time so I'm going to have to do bullets.

*My hair has started to fall out. With Izzy it was right around the 4 month mark so it's a bit earlier but so far it's not too bad. What's funny is it is the same hair (so far) that fell out with Izzy because they are all shorter hairs that I am finding. I guess it's better than if a different part of my head decided to fall out. I'm not looking forward to the next year or so of wispies.

*Against my better judgment I got in a political conversation with the woman that does my Brazilian wax (I had a "I voted" sticker on). She is from Poland (still has an accent), as is her husband. I don't understand women that vote for Trump but realized pretty shortly into the conversation that she was going to vote for him. This is quite the generalization, but I do think that it is so weird how people who WERE immigrants are so close-minded to other immigrants coming into the country (she mentioned her worries about illegal immigrants). She was very worried about property taxes and only paying her share of what she owes. She only has one kid in the school system and thinks that she should pay less in property taxes towards schools and that her neighbor should pay more because she has three kids. I said that even though I don't have any kids in the school system, I'm okay with paying for schools with my property taxes because people are more productive when they get a good education. It's for the betterment of society. She was then complaining about people that "game" the system and get so much from the government, how she should just sit at home collecting welfare with five kids. Lastly she finished up the conversation with complaining about people with nice cars getting food at the food bank (she has a friend that volunteers). I did my best to not respond too much since we clearly have quite different opinions, but one thing that struck me was why are you so concerned about other people and what they do/do not get? Yes there are a few people that game the system but "welfare queens" are a myth. Maybe the person with a nice car just lost their job and is having a hard time making ends meet? You never know what is going on with that person. I left knowing that if politics comes up again with her I will quickly
change the subject.

*I voted early yesterday and I was excited to cast my ballot for the first female president. #nastywomenvote

*This year I asked Izzy what she wanted to be for Halloween about five times throughout the month. Every time I asked she said Superman. Not Supergirl but Superman. Okay kiddo. I would love it if you wanted to be an animal, but I'm cool with it because you are not asking to be a princess. I have no idea how she knows about Superman other than maybe some kids in her class? Wes has no choice on what to be for Halloween so I got him a caterpillar costume and it's adorable.

Izzy as Superman "flying" before daycare this morning

Mom, this is what I think of your caterpillar hat.

*I've already had to drop down to two pumps a day at work because three (this doesn't count the pump I do before I leave for work) hurts my nipples and I simply don't have enough time to get my work done and pump three times. I think that with my use of the nipple shield and Izzy's poor latch due to her lip tie affected my supply more than I thought last time. I do remember freaking out a lot about whether I was making enough milk. I am making plenty of milk for Wes and the boob that was producing more milk last time (right boob) is getting outperformed by left boob this time around.

*Things are not going well with the house reno. We did all the design work and the contractor came back with an astronomical price to rehab our house. So now we have to go out to other contractors to figure out whether our original contractor is just smoking crack or whether we need to change our design. We are both really annoyed because WHY DIDN'T THEY SAY SOMETHING A WHILE AGO? They knew that we didn't want to go above a certain price, so it would have been nice to let us know that we were probably getting out of our range. *sigh*

*I'm so pumped that the Cubs are in the World Series! I can't afford to go to a game nor do I want to battle the crowds (some bars are charging $250 as a cover charge) in Wrigleyville, but it's just all so amazing! Fingers crossed we can win the next three games and win here in Chicago!!

GO CUBBIES!!!!! FLY THE W!!!

CUBS!!

HOLY COW! THE CUBS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!

 

Rough Week

This has been a rough week. I dropped Wes off at daycare on Monday feeling terrible because we probably should have done a half day at daycare before dropping him off for an almost 11 hour day. He did fine but I had tremendous guilt despite the fact that we did the same exact thing to Izzy when she was three months old. (She was our first so how were we to know?) CP left for Colombia early Monday morning so he hasn't been able to help at all. Izzy was excited to have Wes join her at daycare but a couple of times this week as I go to leave her in her classroom she has been crying and desperately clinging to me. Hopefully it gets better next week when her best friend re-joins the class.

I have had little to no time to relax this week which hasn't helped. My schedule is essentially this:

Wake up at 5 and shower if Wes is still sleeping (if not, nurse him then shower). Wake up Wes to change him, then nurse, then pump. Head downstairs to finish making breastmilk bottles from dishwasher, let Buster out and feed him, eat a banana. Back upstairs to wake Izzy up at 6:30 to help her get dressed and into the car hopefully a few minutes before 7. Drop off Buster and kids (separate daycares of course) and catch the train putting me into work almost 3.5 hours after getting up for the day. I run to the train after work pick up Buster and then grab the kids around 5:45. We get home and I have to heat up/make dinner for me and Izzy, feed Buster, Facetime with CP, nurse Wes a few times, and hold him because he is understandably wanting cuddle time after a long day away from me. I try to get Izzy into bed by 8-8:30 and how much of a chore that becomes with screaming, hitting, and crying depends on whether she napped at daycare or not. I then work on putting Wes to bed, generally by 9pm. Then it is downstairs to clean up from dinner and get ready for the next day. My only time to "unwind" is during my two 35-40 minute train rides and between preparing for the next day and bed- but of course I can't take too long to do so because then I will be even more exhausted the next day.

The house doesn't get any cleaner, no laundry gets done, and Buster is essentially ignored. Not every week is going to be like this and I know it will get better but damn it is tough. Not to mention Izzy was up until almost 1am last night crying because her stomach hurt from a new antibiotic we are giving her to try to get her sinus infection to go away (I ended up having her sleep in my bed so that I could get some sleep).

Meanwhile at work I am trying to catch up on all of my projects while writing performance reviews for all six of my employees.

CP gets home tonight and I. Can't. Wait.

Despite all of that, I feel terrible for complaining. I still have it better than a lot of people in so many ways. *sigh*

3 months old

Wes is three months old already!

Height- Will find out next month

Weight- In a onesie and a diaper Wes weighed 17.5 lbs already. No wonder I am already having problems carrying him around in the infant car seat!

Nicknames- Chunkmasterflex, Baby Monkey Butt, Baby Wes, Buddy

Diapers- Size 3

Milestones- Wes is tracking more with his eyes and has major staring contests with people and objects. He looooves watching Izzy in whatever she is doing which is adorable! He found his hands this month which resulted in a lot of hand sucking. This month has also been all about blowing bubbles.

Staring contest with the sheep

Sleep- Longest night has been 8.5 hours. Last week after I went back to work he slept the whole night for three nights in a row! Great job buddy!

Clothes- Wes moved into 6-9 mo clothes right after his 2 mo birthday. Most fit him perfectly but some have extra room in the thigh region- I think because they are expecting a slightly older infant to be wearing them!

Repping MJ with his vaccination shots. Thankfully he took his two month shots much better than Izzy did!

Eating- Wes does a lot of drooling these days but I know that teeth are still at least two months away. His eating schedule is thankfully not as busy these days and can go longer periods of time without nursing. While he was home with CP he was eating three 4 oz bottles of pumped milk but he wasn't on any kind of schedule.

Likes- Snuggling in our arms, nursing (he will often shoot me a smile while he is nursing if I smile at him), walks in the stroller, activity bar, and the vibrating chair. He finally started to like baths this month.

Baths are fun!

Dislikes- Diaper changes (he only gets happy after you have removed the poop), not feeding him fast enough, and putting hats on him.

A friend knitted this bear cowl for him. He wasn't too excited to put it on.

Other firsts- First day of apple picking with my parents in MI. First time going up to my parents house in MI. First time to the aquarium and the Milwaukee Zoo while my inlaws were in town.

I love eating my hand

Day in the Life- Fall 2016 Day 2

As I mentioned in my DITL last week, I thought that documenting my first day back to work would be interesting as it would be quite a contrast with my DITL post on maternity leave last week. Work days are never super exciting and they don't contain as many pictures, but read on if you dare! (Not only was it my first day back to work after maternity leave but my FIL and his wife are in town to meet Wes and help CP out with the kids all week.)

If you want to join in on the fun you have until October 16th to post your DITL entry and send it to Julia. Information on how to participate can be found here.

Day in the Life- Fall 2016 Day 2

October 11, 2016

CP- 40 years old

NSC- 38 years old in two months

Izzy- 3 years old in one month

Wes- 2.5 months old

Buster- 5.5 years old

10:40- In bed and trying to fall asleep after gathering all of my stuff together for work (work bag, charge work phone, make salad for lunch, pumping bag, etc.). I start to get anxious (for instance when I realize that I was supposed to call work last week to let them know I would be pumping because we only have so many rooms- whoops) and can't fall asleep despite being exhausted so around 11 I put on some white noise.

2:20- Wes starts to cry. Damn it's going to be a bad night of sleeping on my first day back at work. Nurse him. Thankfully it is quick but he doesn't burp so I wonder if that is going to spell disaster? He either burps like he just chugged a beer or he doesn't burp at all...there is no in between.

2:45- I head back to bed. Wes starts to fuss/cry so I have CP get up to put Wes down again. He is back in our room by 3.

6- My alarm goes off and at first I am confused, then dismayed at how quickly 6am came. I change Wes then nurse him. CP comes in wanting to know if he can shower while I pump. I'm dubious that CP can shower quickly enough since he is prone to long showers but agree to it. After Wes is done nursing I burp him (again, no burp), give him a lot of kisses, then he goes into the vibrating chair while I pump. I am definitely out of pumping practice as I have to adjust a bunch. While I was on maternity leave I made the decision not to pump very often as I wanted to enjoy my time with Wes and not stress out about creating a freezer stash. He certainly nursed enough so it wasn't like I needed to pump a lot to drastically increase my supply.

6:35- I'm shocked that CP is out of the shower while I still pump. 7 ounces total.

CP hates these LulaRoe leggings and I will never wear them outdoors, but they are nice to sleep in!

6:45- I'm in the shower and 30 min later I am out and dressed. Hair down and styled! An underwire bra! Makeup! Something other than stretchy/yoga pants! It's amazing! Wes is fussing in his crib and CP is downstairs cutting meat for dinner tonight so I pick up Wes and nurse him. I wasn't going to make the train I had hoped for anyway. It's a quick snack for Wes and then I eat a banana before I walk out the door.

7:30- I'm out the door and walking to the train. My neighbor is putting out the trash and asks how I am doing. I respond that it is my first day back at work and she says "say no more. I understand." My mind races as I walk to the station thinking of all of the things that I need to get done including buying a train ticket which I should have done last night.

Once on the train I buy a ticket on my phone and sign into my work phone to see if I have any meetings scheduled today. Nothing so far but I may have some in my email that I don't know about. I've been periodically checking my work email while I have been out so that I didn't have 1500+ emails to go through like last time (although I would have likely had many more this time around now that I am a supervisor). Right now I have 259 substantive emails. Hopefully most will just be background information and not emails that I actually need to respond to. I decide to put my work phone down and mindlessly look at Facebook as I am starting to get anxious again. My train arrives at the station downtown and I decide that I will be taking the stairs inside the station instead of the escalator every day (I allowed myself the escalator while I was pregnant).

During my walk to work from the train station I pass a heavily pregnant woman and think to myself "thank god I am not pregnant and never have to be ever again." I then realize that statement is the first time I have thought that in at least six years!

8:30- I'm into my building and I get in line to buy a chai latte and some oatmeal before I realize that I don't have my wallet with me (it's in the diaper bag at home). The nice lady in front of me pays for my oatmeal as the woman behind the counter asks about the baby and tells me that I look great (such a nice thing to say to someone who just came back from maternity leave).

I head upstairs, drop my stuff off, and say hi to my boss. He is very happy that I am back at work. We talk for a few minutes before I grab some more water and talk to a few more employees. Scarf down my oatmeal and try to sign into computer. I call the help desk when it I get a weird error message and find out that because my computer hasn't been in the docking station in almost three months, the system thinks that the laptop has been lost and doesn't recognize me. Great. Now I have to wait for someone to come put my computer back on the network.

9:40- Head downstairs to pump. 5oz. Can't remember if that is good or bad.

10:10- Back upstairs where I check in with two more of my employees, make myself a Starbucks Refresher, and work through easy emails on my work phone.

11- Head downstairs to fill out some paperwork for my train subsidy and see if anyone from IT is in to get my work computer on the network (nope). This is going to be a waste of a day. I check in with my "problem employee."

12:10- I eat lunch (thank goodness I brought a salad from home today since I don't have my wallet!). CP texts that Wes has had no milk and that he is "chill" along with a picture of Wes sleeping. I freak out because it has been 5 hours since Wes had a snack of milk. CP texts back that he has been sleeping the entire time, which doesn't make me feel any better. I let CP know that Wes does take a nice morning nap, but in order to make sure that he sleeps at night, we should make sure that any naps don't last longer than 2.5 hours.

12:45- I head down to pump again and net 4.5 ounces. I come back upstairs and try to find someone in IT again. I'm told that the person that can help is traveling and to send him an email- hmmm that is information that would have been helpful HOURS ago. I head into my office and am shocked to find someone in my chair. She is working with the traveling employee to get me back on the network and thankfully at 1:30 I can finally get into my computer. So only most of the day was wasted... I start to go through my emails.

3:30- I pump again yielding 4 ounces then continue with emails upstairs until 5 when I run out the door to try to catch my train. I run into another manager who is happy that I am back. We catch up quickly but the short talk makes me miss my train by one minute so I catch the next one, reading blogs on the way home. I realize that I am running on pure adrenaline at this point, so this time to decompress is nice. I get off the train with two of my neighbors and we discuss the lack of sleeping with our kids and then our crazy dogs.

6- I get home and Buster is barking while greeting me at the front door. Izzy runs over and shouts "Mommy!" and gives me a big hug. I hear Wes crying, take him from CP, and then nurse him.

6:40- We (CP, Izzy, Wes, myself, FIL, and his wife) pile in the minivan and arrive at a nearby Mexican restaurant. We have been here only once before (for Father's Day this year) and really liked it so hopefully we have another great experience. I give Izzy a Melissa & Doug coloring book and between that, chips, and her meal Izzy stays pretty content throughout the meal. I drink a yummy strawberry mojito, all the adults share a lobster empanada, and my entree was salmon with mango and avocado. The restaurant was a little loud so conversation was hard. The manager/owner came over at the end of dinner to give us a free dessert (sweet potato bread pudding) which was awesome. Izzy took the entire scoop of ice cream off the top with her fork and ate it all to herself.

Wes sleeps through the entire dinner which was awesome.

8- Left the restaurant and dropped off my FIL and his wife at their hotel. On the way we quiz Izzy on the color of our house, our street name, our city, and the name of the city where my parents and my sister live. The only one she didn't get is the state we live in and who lives in Hawaii (trick question- CP was trying to get Izzy to say his mom since Izzy thought she lived in Hawaii after our vacation there in February). I joke that "Mommy's crazy aunt lives in Hawaii." Everyone laughs so Izzy keeps on repeating it so I'm pretty sure it's embedded in her brain. My mom will get a kick out of that (we are talking about her sister).

8:30- We are back home and Izzy heads upstairs with CP to go potty, brush her teeth, read some stories, and head to bed. She is exhausted. I change into pajamas, pick up the house a bit as there is stuff EVERYWHERE and take Wes upstairs. I change his diaper and put him into a onesie for sleeping while giving him lots of kisses. We head downstairs where he gets his medicine, I turn the Cubs game on (tied!), and then nurse him. Buster comes over for some loving but I don't have any hands to pet him. For the next hour I tickle, kiss, and try to keep Wes awake while watching the Cubs start to lose the game.

He certainly won't fit into this "My First Easter" onesie this spring so I might as well use it now!

9:30- I head upstairs with Wes. We read a board book about a train and towards the end, Wes lets out a big poop. I change his diaper and kiss his feet which makes him smile. I nurse him, then sing to him while burping him. He goes down at 9:50. I head into the bathroom to do my nighttime routine, then jump into bed to make a few notes on the day. I turn off Modern Family at 10:15 and fall asleep pretty easily.

5:50am- I wake up and realize that Wes slept the entire night!!! AND the Cubs won in an intense game? I feel bad that I didn't stay up to watch but sleeping through the night was GLORIOUS.

All Night Long

Guess who slept the entire night from 9:50pm to 5:50am this morning?

If you guessed this adorable guy....

....then you would be right!!

I thankfully turned off the light around 10:15 last night ensuring that I got about 7.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the first time since sometime in the second trimester of my pregnancy?!? I didn't even get up to go to the bathroom.

I feel so refreshed today! 

Maybe Wes knew that I was talking smack about his sleeping habits at work yesterday (i.e. how they were not as good as his big sister's habits when she was the same age) and decided to show me that he could do exactly what Izzy did when I went back to work. 

One thing that I have learned though is that usually a good night of sleep means the next night isn't so good so I should be ready to get up tonight....

Day in the Life- Fall 2016

Day in the Life- Fall 2016 edition

CP- 40 years old

NSC- 38 years old in two months

Izzy- 3 years old in one month

Wes- 2.5 months old

Buster- 5.5 years old

I picked Wednesday, October 5th to document. CP is in North Carolina for work and it is one of my last days of maternity leave with Wes. I will likely do more than one of these next week to highlight the difference between one of my last days on maternity leave and one of my first days back to work.

Get Wes to sleep around 10 after an hour. Text with CP and watch Modern Family until 10:30. Turn off the light and go to bed.

4:44- Hear Wes starting to softly cry in his room so I pee, then change his diaper. This is a third night of about a seven hour stretch which is perfect as I head back to work. Good job buddy! Nurse one side while I check my phone and keep things as quiet as possible in the hopes of getting Wes back to sleep when we are done. I read a political fight over Gary Johnson on my sister 's FB page and am happy that I have mostly stayed out of political conversations this year. Meanwhile I rock Wes and pat his back.

5:15- Put Wes down in his crib, turn on white noise sheep and turn off the night light. I do my best to sneak out of his room with squeaky floors (darn you old house!). I then run into our bed frame with my shin- that's going to leave a mark. *sigh*

6- I hear Wes again. I decide to bring him into my room and I lay down to nurse. This is something that I wasn't able to do with Izzy because I couldn't quite figure out how to do it but Wes is pretty good at it. Afterwards I try to get him to sleep next to me but he is fidgety so I lay him down on my stomach face down. He passes out quickly and so do I. I would have never done something like that with Izzy as I would have freaked out that this would create a bad habit, but as a second time parent I'm not worried about this as much (plus I just wanted some more sleep!).

7:25- I wake up with a start and can't believe I haven't heard Izzy yet. Check monitor- she is awake. I take Wes and head into her room. The first words out of her mouth- "I don't want to go to school." She keeps saying it as I try to distract her with picking out clothes. She runs out of the room and slams the door to Wes' room. I put Wes down in the vibrating chair and head to his room to talk to Izzy.

She is playing with some of his toys and reading his books, crying.

I finally get her to take off her pullup and get clothes on. We then have our daily struggle to brush her hair; I end up putting it up in a ponytail without brushing most of it. We then head downstairs while Izzy sings a song about being the first one downstairs.

Izzy lets Buster out and we grab her vitamins.

I pour her milk and we put a handful of Honey Nut Cheerios in a cup for the car.

We get her shoes on and we are out the door by 8:10. On the way to daycare we listen to NPR commentators talk about VP debate. I bring Izzy and Wes into daycare; all of her friends are happy to see her. I am home by 8:30 and make myself cheese omelette and chai tea latte while Wes sleeps in his car seat. I eat quickly once Wes starts crying.

Change Wes' diaper (yikes- almost a blowout!) and nurse. While nursing I read an article about raising kinder and less self-entitled kids. I also text a friend who has started to foster adopt (she recently came out on FB about their infertility). By the time I get downstairs at 9:25 my chai is lukewarm. I gulp it down.

9:30- Since it is supposed to be a bit hotter today I decide to walk Wes and Buster earlier than usual.

When I head outside, I see our neighbor and I am jealous of his work hours. It's 9:30 and he is just leaving for work. This is Buster's favorite time of year to walk as we see lots of squirrels. We also pass by tons of construction in our neighborhood. We end up quickly walking away from two dogs but no barking encounters so I consider it a good walk. We are home a little after 10. I quickly check our gardens.

Anyone need any jalapenos? We have a bumper crop this year.

Mmmmm shishito peppers

Hopefully a few more of these tomatoes turn...

I grab ice water as I am really thirsty and get annoyed at our expensive fridge that is falling apart. I change and nurse Wes before wasting 30 minutes playing on my phone and uploading pictures.

I run downstairs to the basement to grab Buster's vaccination records and get Wes in his car seat. We head to Verizon where I upgrade to new iPhone 7 because my iPhone 5 has been acting weird. They are out of 7s so the phone is being shipped to me. The good news is that the rep was able to change us to a better (aka more data) and less expensive plan. Score!

From there, sleepy Wes and I head to Chipotle to grab lunch (steak burrito bowl). I decide to get it to go as to not push Wes too much (he won't take a bottle from me- only boob in the presence of Mommy) and eat it at home. He is still sleeping when I load him into the car so I go for one more errand- to get Buster's dog food for the month. He basically wakes up as I am pulling him out of the car after getting home so I unload the car then change and nurse him.

1:30- I finish burping Wes and finally get to shovel lunch in my face while Wes is not so happy in the Mamaroo. I read an article on PANDAS and wonder if Izzy has undiagnosed strep since she is asymptomatic? Once done I pick Wes up and he does some tummy time on the Boppy while I distract him with a stuffed sheep. I call the ped office about trying to get Izzy in today for a strep test but will have to do walk-in hours tomorrow morning. Once Wes starts crying from tummy time I move him over to what we jokingly call the circle of neglect (but really it is still working on his core because he is constantly kicking his legs). I lay down with him and point out all of the animals on the mobile, shake the rattle, try to get him to grab onto things, etc.

The circle of neglect

After a bit of play time Wes looks like he is getting a little sleepy so I put him in his car seat and we drive over to the town hall to get Buster a pet license (something I should have done anytime after July 1st but I was a little busy being super pregnant and then with a newborn). It's a quick trip there and I stop to fill up the car on the way home.

Wes is sleeping again so I decide to put him in his crib so that I can shower. I ended up scrubbing the tub and tile in the shower to clean it first before jumping in. I am really pushing my luck today, but Wes ends up sleeping the entire time. Nice! He is still sleeping after I get dry so I take the time to try on the few shirts I bought a Kohl's the other day to make sure I still like them (I do). Wes starts to cry after I get dressed and we head downstairs for a diaper change and to nurse.

The house smells funny from the Tilex that I used on the shower (or it did something to my nose) so Buster, Wes, and I head outside for some fresh air. Wes starts to get fussy after about 30 minutes of silly faces and me poking his belly so we head inside to nurse around 4:45.

We leave to pick up Izzy around 5:15.

Buster's face when I tell him that we will be back soon.

She is excited about a birthday invite left in her cubby for one of her friends. We get home and I start to heat up dinner in the microwave before I realize that the microwave seems to be broken. *sigh* F*ck it we are eating out for dinner. I'm now in a bad mood because this is not ideal and Izzy didn't take a nap today which means she is going to be a terror. I take deep breaths in the car and try to engage Izzy in conversation on the ride to get food to bring home. I quickly decide on Boston Market because it is close, cheap, and slightly healthier than McDonalds. When we get home I am trying not to lose my sh*t after Izzy tantrums that she didn't get to use the key in the lock (she doesn't know how). Thank goodness Wes is sleeping through all of this and not crying.

Izzy sits down to eat then starts to complain about her stomach. I try to get her to go poo and she gets halfway to the bathroom, then heads back to the table on her hands and knees. We try to Facetime CP but he is still at dinner and can't talk yet. We both finish up dinner and Izzy says her stomach feels better after farting a few times.

Eating her green beans

After dinner we head into the sunroom when CP Facetimes. I start to nurse Wes and while doing so, Izzy squats. I ask her if she is pooping and she says no. She clearly is straining so I unlatch Wes and make Izzy go to the bathroom. With one hand I try to help her take off her underwear and pants but she clearly has partially pooped already. I put Wes down in the sunroom and he starts crying while I deal with Izzy. All three of us head upstairs so that Izzy can jump in the bath, Wes goes into the vibrating chair. It's a quick bath and as I am drying her off, CP Facetimes again (men have such great timing). It's a struggle to brush teeth and CP tries to talk to Izzy as I put on her pajamas.

Wes starts crying so I bring him in bed and start nursing him again while reading an article from The New Yorker to Izzy (Grandma left it at the house on Saturday and Izzy thought it would be a fun read). She quickly stops me and then has me read "Curious George and the Bunny" and "Dragons Love Tacos." We then sing the ABCs, You are my Sunshine, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star while Wes smiles at the singing. I tuck her in, telling her that we will work on pooping in the potty again tomorrow. I also tell her that I love her.

I turn off the light, turn on her white noise machine, and say "see you later alligator." She responds "in a while crocodile."

8- i head downstairs with Wes. I turn on the tv and start to watch Designated Survivor while Wes nurses. I burp him and then make funny faces to make him smile. We also coo at each other. He starts to suck on his hand, a new skill for him.

At 8:30 I give him his daily dose of Ranitidine, his new medicine for reflux. The medicine seems to be working because he is a MUCH happier baby (and sleeping for longer periods of time). He then nurses the other side and falls asleep.

9- I bring Wes upstairs, put him in his sleep sack, rock for a few minutes while singing Sunshine and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and then lay him down in his crib. I head downstairs with the monitor and start to edit this post while continuing to watch Designated Survivor.

11- Finish Designated Survivor and head upstairs to bed. I should have gone to bed earlier, but it was nice to have these past two hours for myself.