Alexander is One!

I'm sorry that it has taken me so long to get another post out here in blogland. I was incredibly busy with Alexander's birthday party and then the aftermath of gift opening and thank you cards. It takes time. Plus, with the 12 month mark comes new fun things, like really taking an interest in walking and eating things you find on the ground. Things that an adult would never notice in a million years.

Here is my big boy. I cannot believe that it's been a year since he was born. Amazing how time flies!

I'll be back to post about other things like work coming up, and other amazing Alexander stunts. See you then!

I've gotta get better at this...

I have become so awful about blogging, and I feel terrible about it, especially since when my favorite blogs don't post for a while I get a little pissy. Yeah, maybe I shouldn't be tossing stones around in this here glass house.

House update: My dishwasher is now hooked up. No more dishpan hands for me, no sirree! Now if I could us get my washer and drier hooked up we'd be in business.

Work Update: We thought we'd be looking at tons of cutbacks, but our districts keep sending us kids and it seems that they will be with us next year, so our budget gap is slowly closing. There will be layoffs, but our supervisor believes that he will be able to hire everyone back before the summer is over. I have seniority over 4 people, so I'm fairly sure that I will not be affected. The other major work related change is that they are taking the 4 high school programs (emotionally disturbed, psych fragile, aspergers, low IQ) and creating one large program. Over the past few years the lines of the programs have blurred so they decided to merge the programs. Should be interesting.

Alexander Update: Alexander is almost 9 months old and is awesome. His 2 bottom teeth are halfway in, and one of his top teeth is just about to break through. He can crawl, get into a sitting position on his own, and get up on his knees when he's in his crib. He is a fabulous little guy!

Hopefully I will be back soon with another post...I will try to be better!

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!

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!