Only a few minutes

I have only a few minutes before Alexander might be waking up from his nap, but I thought I would check in.

I have a ton of things swirling through my mind and the biggest one is that I have to lose about 50 pounds. That is an incredibly daunting thought. I did rejoin WW and that's all well and good, but I actually have to *use* WW to my advantage. I have to work the program instead of waiting for it to work for me. Maybe I need to work out some kind of system of payment. A dollar for every .2 lost? That would be $5 a pound. A total of $250 once I've lost the 50 I'd like to lose...not enough for a whole new wardrobe, but enough for a couple of massages. I should also make a list of things I will do for myself as I lose...maybe when I lose my first 5 pounds, I'll treat myself to a nice pedicure....

I don't know, I'm at a loss. I want to lose this weight because I know that I will feel better about how I look in clothes (I know my other mental demons will be there, no worries) and I know that once Alexander is mobile that being more fit will make it easier on me.

Please, I need some ideas here, so if you can, please reply with some...

Couldn't leave out pics of Xander

I couldn't leave blogger without posting some pics of Alexander...especially evil monkey wrestling.

Finally moved!

Finally, finally, finally we are in the house! If you want to remember what it used to look like, here is my old post.

New living room!

New bedroom!

The best new kitchen ever!

Cloud ceiling detail!

I promise to post more pictures, but I wanted to get some posted so there wasn't a huge gap between posts..you know, like I usually do.

Can't Keep Up!

Things are out of hand these days! We still are not completely moved into the house; which reminds me that I have to have a post with pictures of "after" and a link to " before". We're still sleeping at the apartment and I am living out of a 56 gallon plastic container. I have Alexanders clothes on the left hand side of the box and mine on the right. As a result, I have been going to work with clothes that are waaaaaaaaaaaay to small. I'm joking, of course, but I have been going to work looking a bit slovenly. Eh, the weather has been pretty bad, and we don't have a dress code here for staff.

Alexander has been doing well. We've been calling him "Xan the Man" or Xander Salamander for kicks. He seems to like his name and all of his nicknames, including "little Schmoo".

Although I have been incredibly lax about Weight Watchers, I am starting all over now that they have the new Momentum program. It looks promising...only time (and my spare tire) will tell.

Too many things at once!

My head is spinning these days. Alexander is awesome, but is going through some kind of growth spurt and doesn't sleep as well as he usually does...but he still sleeps enough for me to remain sane. Alexander was christened last weekend, and we had a big shindig for him at the yacht club my parents belong to. We have 2 dinners to go to on Thanksgiving. And we are finally moving into the new house this weekend. Plus, I am totally and absolutely broke..mostly due to the party (which was worth every dime). I'm glad we're finally moving because there were a number of double expenses....insurance, rent/mortgage, etc. I will be living paycheck to paycheck until after Christmas, I think...oh well.

Okay...back to work!

Random update

Things are going well...I have to update in bullets:

• Alexander will be 3 months on Tuesday. I cannot believe how big he is getting and how animated he is. He is truly wonderful. He sleeps through the night most nights, doesn't cry when he wakes...he gurgles and coos to himself and wiggles a lot. No one could ask for a better baby.
• I took up knitting again. My grandmother taught me about a million years ago, but all I could knit were scarves. So, I took at class on knitting baby sweaters. I'm about a third done with the process, and it's taking me forever because although I want to knit all the time, I'd rather be playing with Alexander.
• I'm still trying to get WW under control. It's taking a toll on me, but I'm getting there.
• We still haven't moved into the house AND I haven't been there in more than 6 months. I have barely a clue as to what the final product is going to look like. I've seen little bits and pieces, I've pick out colors and flooring, but I don't know how it's all working together. Don't worry...I will take a million pictures!
  

Shake it, don't break it, took your mama 9 months to make it.

Jeez, I do love the subject-o-matique on Yahoo! What fun.

No pictures tonight...I have new ones on my camera, but I am too tired to upload them right now...sorry all you Alexander fans. He is doing really well, though. He laughing and smiling like a champ. He's gotten quite good at sleeping solidly most nights, sometimes for up to 7 and a half hours. He takes after his father in that respect...Chris can sleep anywhere at anytime. All he needs to do is stay quiet and motionless for about 5 minutes and he's out like a light.

Weight Watchers didn't go well for me this past week. I didn't even go to my Wednesday night meeting. We had a bit of a family crisis that involved driving back and forth from New York to Connecticut a number of times during this past week. It's all over now, and I am back at the helm, so to speak.

Oooh, and I signed up for a knitting class! It takes place this Sunday at a yarn/knitting store around the corner from Silver Tips tea room (still my favorite place). It's a class about knitting baby sweaters. How cool is that? After the class I am meeting my mom and my brother's girlfriend at the tea room for some yummy lunch. The potential for a fabulous day is incredible.

Everything is fine! I promise!

Alexander is now 8 weeks old! The doctor measured him at 14 pounds and 25 inches long. This kid is a bruiser and he's only getting bigger!

He's been trying to get his thumb in his mouth with limited success. He gets it in there about once every 25 attempts. I think he'll figure it out. His biggest issue is he doesn't realize that in order to get the thumb in his mouth he has to not enclose it within the rest of his fingers.






Alexander is also smiling now, not just for gassy reasons. It's so much fun trying to get him to smile...sometimes he giggles, too and it's extra fun! I didn't think he cold get any cuter, but it happened.

In Alanna news, Weight Watchers is going okay. Week one went well, week two is not so great. I think I have lost weight, but I haven't been tracking. It's been a bad WW week...I had to go back to work, and my favorite Aunt has been in the hospital in another state and we've been going to visit her, so eating has not been the best, but I've been trying to make the best decisions available.









This is just a picture of Alexander wearing Reuben's ear like a hat. I couldn't help it, I had to do it!

we never once talked about a blow dryer

I am resorting to using the Subject-o-Matique on yahoo to get blog titles. It works for me, so I'm going with it.

Alexander is now 6 weeks old. I can't believe that 6 weeks has flown by already! And strangely, it seems as if he's always been around. I don't know what I would do if he weren't.

Last night he went to bed at midnight, which is a little late for him, but he was a tad fussy and at this point in his life, I like to go with the flow. This morning I woke up at 6:30 and I freaked. I ran over to his bed and put my hand on his belly...and yes, he was breathing. He has never slept more than 5 hours straight before, and 6 and a half hours is quite a jump!

I had my 6 week post-partum check up yesterday and all is well. My doctor did advise me to stay home from work for another week because of the c-section, so instead of going back to school this Thursday, I go next Thursday. I'm glad that I have plenty of sick days to cover the extra time and still have some left over in case I get sick during the winter.

Tomorrow night is the big WW night. I've decided to go back to the Wednesday night meetings, even though they is a big gap between work and the meeting, but I figure I can pick up the little guy and go grocery shopping during that gap as there is an A&P down the road from the WW center.

an update in bullets

Things here are going along nicely. Alexander is taking a nap and I'm not sure how much longer I've got, so I'm going to do the bulleted list thing. Here goes:

• I'm starting to get itchy when it comes to joining Weight Watchers. I know that this itchiness/motivation will last 3 weeks and then I'll get complacent again. I know this, and I must plan for it. Perhaps I will do points, which I haven't done in years, just to keep myself honest.
• My brothers have decided that Alexanders nickname should be officially "Boom Box"
• I was told by a 6 year old that Alexander has "perfect rock and roll hair"
• Breastfeeding has gotten easier. We're doing about 50% nursing and 50% formula. I nurse first at every feeding and then most of the time he gets formula after...especially at night to help him sleep longer.
• Alexander sleeps a good four hours at a time. During our middle of the night feeding, he falls asleep while feeding, so I don't have an issues getting back to bed myself! Yay for me!
• We are still not in the new house. My new washer and dryer have been delivered and installed. I can not wait to do my own laundry in my brand new LG machines!
• I go back to work Thursday the 18th. Boo! Hiss! Waaaaaaah!!!!

A brief update

I thought about what Kelly told me in her comment from my last post "Don't push yourself too hard with the weight loss. You did just bring forth a human being, after all..." I decided not to go back to WW just yet; to wait at leasat until I get the thumbs up from my doctor at my 6 week check-up. And even then might be too soon. I'm still not producing a lot of milk, so I've been trying to eat every 3 hours while I'm awake and drink tons and tons and tons of water and skim milk. Once I get my body doing what it needs to do for Alexander and I've got it under control, then I can work on what I need to do for me. I just feel blah when I look down and see my lovely stretch marks and the glorious roll of fat around my waist that is a nice awning to my c-section scar. Strangely, I don't actually feel all that bad about it. Thank God Chris is a super nice guy and has said nothing about any of it. He just smiles a lot and scratches my back in the middle of the night when I get back into bed after feeding the baby. So there is no pressure from him.

Oooh, I also joined Facebook recently. That's a ton of fun. I didn't realize how many people I haven't seen in a thousand years are on there! I have been in contact with old high school friends, old college buddies, my friend Amazon Hillary who now lives in Hawaii. Very cool!

I am still here!

I am still kickin' it here at the apartment with the little man, the gray man, and the big man.

Of course, we have been reading to Alexander everyday even though he has not one clue what we are talking about at this point, but I figure it can't hurt. If you want a kid who enjoys reading, you gotta make it together time really early. And it's something for me to do rather than explaining each move I'm making all day long...as in "Mommy unsnapping Alexander's pajamas" or "Mommy is petting the big doggie" which I know is good for the little guy but makes me feel

like I have an IQ of 50.

I think it's almost time for me to go to weight watchers. I bought myself a real pair of jeans at Old Navy this week. Size 16, which I am really happy about. What I'm unhappy about is the nice apron of flab I have hanging down at the bottom of my belly. I understand that it'll take time for my skin to unstretch, and I wouldn't trade firm skin for my little cutie, but I think getting back to WW would be helpful. Perhaps that's a little trip Alexander and I will take this week....

Still stuck on the baby!

Yeah, I am totally stuck on Alexander. It's hard not to talk about him, or post pictures of him. I'm sorry to say that ya'll will have to deal with it for now...sorry.

The little guy is doing well. He's got pretty good sleeping habits, which I'm thankful for although I probably just jinxed myself for tonight, but that's okay. Since the last time I've written, he's had a bath during which he didn't even flinch much less cry, had an ultrasound (a minor kidney thing that in the long run means nothing but they like to monitor it regardless- and by the way, he grew out of it, which is awesome!) which he slept through, he's been to the tea room twice and slept through it. He's awesome.







Reuben seems to be adjusting well. He's interested in Alexander, but not too interested. If Alexander cries at all, no matter how faint, Reuben comes running to assess the situation...and sometimes to lick Alexander's feet...as if that will help things. So far, so good with the baby/dog relationship.

Actually, when we have company over to see the baby, Reuben will sit about 3 feet from the new person holding Alexander and he will stare until he feels that things are A-okay and then he'll go lie on his dog bed...he'll still watch to make sure that the little one is not in danger. It's pretty cool.


And finally, the house is nearly done! We had the last of the contractors in on Friday. I don't know what still needs to be done, and I'm "not allowed" to go and see as Chris wants it to be a surprise since it's been so long since I've gone there. I will be sure to take a gazillion pictures once I do get in there and post them!

Where did that week go?

Man, days are blending together recently! Could be the middle of the night feedings...I can't complain...so far I've had to wake the little guy up to eat in the middle of the night. Not a big deal. We're struggling with breastfeeding though, as the little guy is a "lazy eater" so he usually doesn't want to put the effort into breastfeeding. I'm seeing a Lactation Consultant tomorrow, and hopefully she can give me some tips.



Anyway, I think in my last post I promised some details about Alexander's delivery....





On August 3rd, my water broke at just before 2am, so I put in a phone call to the good doctor. Twenty minutes later contractions started, but no call from the doctor as of yet. I waited until 3am and called again. Still no call back. At about 4am my contractions were one minute long, five minutes apart for one hour so another phone call went in....apparently the phone operator had been paging the wrong person....he thought another doctor was on call. No wonder no one was calling me back. The right doctor did call and sent me to the hospital.



Chris and I got to the hospital around 5am. Shortly after our arrival, my mom showed up. Then a ton of people started trickling in. My father, Darth Bruce, my in-laws, a couple of my brothers (I can not remember what order they came in). They all came and went as they pleased from my labor room. It was fairly entertaining. Little did they know what they were in for....



At 8am, the doctor offered me a little something so I could get some sleep. I was about 4cm dilated and exhausted. They hooked me up to oxytocin to help me dilate and the contractions to regulate, plus a little something so I could take a nap. Whatever they gave me made me tell Chris bizarre things. I vaguely remember asking his questions about things I had been thinking about and of course he had not one clue what I was talking about. Poor guy. Doc came to check me after and I was about 7.5 cm dilated, -1 station.



At about 10 am (this is 8 hours of labor so far, mind you) I was offered the labor pool. Awesome idea. Loved it. Alexander, however, decided to start rolling around during each contraction. Fabulous. After 2 hours of that I had it. Doc came in once again to check me and I was at about 8cm dilated, 0 station. So here I am, 10 hours of contractions, no real progress, and the contractions have become incredibly painful. I decided to ask for an epi...and thank goodness I had, but I'll get to that later. Doc checked me on and off for hours and still no progress. My family was still in and out of my labor room and the waiting room...where my brother Brendan convinced them all to play Uno for money and he was cleaning up.

Hours go by...and I'm still 8cm and 0 dilation. It's now close to midnight, and the good doc comes and talks to me. She has a theory. The theory is this...my body is not going further along, and the baby is rolling during contractions because he's too big and is trying to progress but can't. It's been almost 22 hours since my water broke
and labor started. It's time to have a C-section.
Let me tell you, I am so glad that I got the epi
hours earlier. It made it much easier to focus
on what the doctor was telling me, and it make
it easier to prep for the C because I was all
hooked up already. Plus, I would have been
beside myself if I had suffered for those extra
10 hours just to wind up with the epi anyway....


So a little while later, plus 9lbs 2oz removed all at
once, we have a sweet little baby boy!

Alexander John!

I only have time for a brief post, but I wanted to let those of you who are kind enough to read this thing that Alexander John "The Ginger" joined us on 8/4/08 weighing 9 pounds, 2 oz with a length of 20 inches.

I will come back another time with more pics and the whole gory story of his birth. Good times!

Another baby related update

Nope no baby yet. The Schmoo is still chillin' on the inside, but I did have my 39 week appointment yesterday with my wonderful doctor. I'm 80% effaced and 2cm dilated, but the baby hasn't dropped. Apparently, this little one is too enamored with sticking its tush up into my ribs to drop yet. Oh, well, at least he/she is having a good time.

I also had an ultrasound done, which revealed an approximate fetal weight of 8.5 lbs. My doctor wanted to know if I would prefer to wait or "do something". I told her I might as well wait...I'm not uncomfortable other than being hot and tired, so I consider myself lucky, and I'm on vacation for another month or so (not to mention maternity leave after that)...plus, the house is getting closer to finished with each passing day.

Timber!

This morning, Chris and I heard a man's voice over a PA system saying "Doing that would not be wise, ma'am" and this is what we saw from our second floor porch.



The tree missed Chris' silver car by about an inch...some of the upper most leaves were touching his wheels.

No Baby Yet!

Yup...I've got 10 days left until my due date. I'm still hanging strong. Just maxing and relaxing because anything else makes me exhausted. Ah, the joys of pregnancy!

My last doc's appointment was on Tuesday and I'm still 50% effaced and no dilation to speak of. I have my next appointment on Tuesday and I get to go for an ultrasound to check the baby's size and weight. I figure it's an extra opportunity to see the little one, so I figure I might as well go for it. I'm hoping they'll print out a new ultrasound picture....I'm having this one done at a different place, so their answer might be "no", however, my insurance is paying for the damn thing, so I don't see why they wouldn't.

Now for some house details. The kitchen is just awaiting the counter top to be installed with our fancy recessed sink...then the last of the cabinets can go in and the kitchen is done! The major home store that we have been dealing with hired yet another crack team for us...this time it was the wood floor guys who thought it would be cool to put down the new wood floors without adhesive and thereby making our warranty void. Very nice. They were forced to rip it out and the whole thing has to be done again. My mother-in-law has been in contact with said home store and we'll see what happens. It would just be nice to have all of this out of the way before the baby comes. We have the apartment until September 1st, so we have a place to live...I just want Chris to be able to enjoy the new baby and not have to worry about what's going on at the house!

After the wood floors comes the carpeting, but that's minor in comparison to the floors, which once they are delivered have to sit for 72 hours in the house to acclimate. And there might still need to be painting done, but that's being done by my father-in-law who is a professional decorative painter, and we trust him implicitly. It doesn't hurt that he's one of the top in his field in our area to boot!

Still Here!

The Schmoo and I are still occupying the same space, which is cool because I don't have to change diapers and I only have to feed myself. My doctor doesn't think I'm going anywhere this week, so I'm cool with that. I'm not dilated at all, so I'm still floating around the pool, which is my favorite thing to do.

Today is my 35th birthday and my mom took me to one of my favorite places for lunch. Silver Tips Tea Room rocks the house! We had high tea...tea sandwiches, iced chai, a scone, and a slice of cake. Divine!

The house is still under construction and poor Chris is freaking out. He wants the house to be ready to move in to before the baby comes. He doesn't want to be moved in, necessarily before the baby comes, but he doesn't want to worry about the house. He just wants to enjoy the baby. I can't blame him. I don't know how much is left to be done. I get the feeling that his part is nearly done, and that the next few things are really up to contractors...like installing the wood floors and carpeting kinds of things. I just feel terrible for the poor stressed out guy.

July Post...finally

Yeah, so uh, Brigitte, thanks for bringing it to my attention that I haven't posted anything in just about forever. I have been busy with lazy-ass things like going to the pool and napping. Sure, I've been to Target to buy baby things....which reminds me, I should also post about my surprise baby shower...but I think I'll save that for another time...maybe later tonight.

There are no picture updates of the house to speak of. Chris, his dad and his step dad are up there just about every day getting ready for installation people to come. The masons were there last week, so now we have tile on the kitchen floor and tile in the bathroom. The floor and carpet guys are coming soon. Chris and his step dad will be installing the kitchen soon. The appliances are being delivered Thursday. Things are finally coming together. Maybe the house will be ready before the baby comes...who knows?

Next week I have to start calling around to get estimates for a fence for Reuben. Chris is not sold on the idea yet, but frankly, I'm going to feel comfortable walking Reuben during the day when Chris goes back to work and I'm alone with the baby. I'm thinking being able to let Reu out in the back yard would make life a zillion times easier.