Developments

My baby has taken to occasionally sleeping in his crib all by himself. Previously all naps occurred on one of us, in the Bjorn, or sometimes swaddled on the couch. We had a friend over for dinner Saturday night. I swaddled him and nursed him down. He stayed asleep in his room for five hours. Kenny and I both had hands for 5 hours, and it was bizarre. We were serving corn on the cob and I was sure one of us was going to have to cut it off the cob for the other. I only checked on him about 10 times. Yes, we have a monitor. No, I do not trust it. Yes, I stand there and watch him until I can detect his chest rising and falling and I am sure he is still breathing.

Further calling into question Eli’s maternity, he is totally a morning person. He wakes up around 6:00 and begins his calisthenics. He kinds of looks like he’s marching or cheerleading—but laying down. He spends a good 10 minutes smiling and flirting with the air vents in the ceiling as they are hilarious. Eventually he will decide it is time to go walk his puppies and will pitch a fit until Kenny shows up with the Bjorn and leashes.

I’m in no way biased, but I am pretty sure my baby is way advanced. He’s got the neck strength of a wrestler. He has been successfully flipping over for a few weeks now. He can do front to back and back to front. When he does back to front he can’t quite drag one of his arms out of the way so he gets pretty upset about that. He can also stand with a little bit of support. I credit the months of preparatory kicking he did in the womb. Those legs came out strong and he hasn’t stopped kicking or flailing since.

Baby Junkie

I’m officially back at work full time. I’d say the major flaw with my workplace is that there are no babies in it. Namely, there are no Eli babies in it. I’ve found myself grasping for every Eli moment I can get outside of work. The moment 5:00 hits, I am out the door, walking quickly to the train, running to not miss a train, and then riding impatiently and counting down the stops. I get very angry if there is a train delay as it’s robbing me of baby minutes. When I get off the train I look from the platform to see if I can see Kenny, puppy and babies waiting. I speed walk to them and remove Eli from the Bjorn. He’s been falling asleep around 7:00, so I do not get much awake time with him. I’m pretty much glued to him until I wake up in the morning and talk myself into leaving him to go shower. I try to get ready as quickly as possible so that I can get him back before I leave. Then I carry him to the train and reluctantly hand him over to Kenny and the pups when we get to the station.

At work, I sit at a desk plastered in pictures of him. I wait impatiently for the Daily Eli and sometimes request additional pictures. I also call two to three times. I count down the days to the weekend. I am no help around the house. If I’m home, I want baby in my arms. I just can’t get enough.

My new holiday

Today is my first Mother's Day. Eli helped make me and his grandma eggs benedict for breakfast. I think his role was mostly supervisory. He also gave me some perfume which is quite thoughtful since because of him I lately mostly just smell like breastmilk and regurgitated breastmilk.

His father surprised me with the kind of surprise only I could really love. While I was at work last week he organized our linen closet--complete with labeled clear plastic bins. I went to find my hair dryer there the next day and found the loveliness accompanied with a sweet note. He once gave me a trash can for a birthday present. Many people tried to talk him out of that present, and I bet this present would sound similarly misguided to others. I couldn't have been more excited about the trash can and couldn't have been more excited about the closet though. He knows me so well.

If all of that wasn't enough, my dad also made a special lunch for me and the mother of his children (my mom). Today was just wonderful.

We came to Kansas City for the weekend mostly because I NEEDED to meet my friend Megan's little Milo and thought Eli should make his Kansas City rounds while he was still an itty bitty baby. Speaking of him being an itty bitty baby--he grew out of some of his 0-3 month clothes today. It's very upsetting for me seeing as how I'm still due two more weeks of him being 0-3 months old. I've decided to blame it on his big cloth diapers. During his Kansas City adventures he has proven once again that there is no scheduling this guy. He was completely content and happy when I though he'd be fussy and completely fussy when I thought he'd be happy. He likes to keep us on our toes. He's currently swaddled up and sleeping on the ottoman in front of me. He fell asleep all by himself for the second day in a row in that same location. This has not happened before and we are quite impressed with his brilliance. Also, we may need to steal this ottoman just in case the behavior is ottoman-specific.

Six things

1. I am back at work half time mostly from home--but I have to go into the office one day a week. I went in for the first full day last Wednesday. Let's just say I have one more thing to add to the very short list of things that can make me cry.

2. Pumping at work is no picnic. Until I figure out a better system, I currently have to go get a key for the storage room, sit on the floor next to the door in the storage room, assemble the various parts of the pump, look at a picture of Eli and pump for 15 minutes, disassemble the pump, get dressed, return the key, put the milk in the fridge and remember what I was doing before I dropped everything. I do this three times a day.

3. We went to St. Louis this weekend. We can add 5-hour car rides to the very long list of things that can make Eli cry.

4. It's not so hard to fit 2 puppies, 2 adults, and a baby in the car after all.

5. We saw three other babies while we were at my in-laws' house this weekend. Turns out we have a fussy baby. We had no idea until we saw how chill the other babies were. Who knew? He sure is cute though.

6. Baby runs hot like his Daddy. He got overheated three times this weekend and had to be stripped down and covered in wet wash rags.

7. It might be easier to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes if I could stop eating cake. I made a very yummy cake though.

Leroy--I mean Eli

I often confuse babies with puppies. I have to frequently remind myself that unlike Jack and Leroy, Eli will one day comprehend what we are saying and be able to talk himself. He won't always be small.

So far the puppies are still smarter than the baby. They know how to feed themselves and can easily recognize food. Eli, on the other hand was seen trying to locate some milk in his swing the other day. He will also cry for food and then push away from my body as he is trying to get to food. Leroy and Jack will respond to their names and make eye contact on command. Eli is still working on those things.

When Jack and Leroy have a suspected health problem, we usually wait a few days before calling the vet. Almost nothing is ever cured there and we usually walk away with a couple hundred dollar bill. Turns out our insurance covers Eli and baby problems are much better understood than puppy problems. Also, while dogs will generally look pathetic when they are ill, babies tend to scream. Eli's belly button had started looking suspicious last week and his eye was looking wonky this weekend. I called the doctor yesterday morning to see if we could get him in earlier than his scheduled 2-month appointment on Thursday. They had an opening in 20 minutes so we ran and got in the car--me with no makeup and wet hair.

His wonky eye is a blocked tear duct but she's going to give him until 1 year to work that out on his own. His busted belly button is an umbilical granuloma. She whipped out this stick of silver nitrate and rubbed it on the area to fix it. It's all gray and gnarly looking now, but I believe that is normal. He also got his first round of immunizations--3 shots in his thighs and some rotavirus in his mouth. He was most pissed off about the rotavirus and liquid Tylenol in his mouth.

He was 10 lb, 3 oz. and 21 and 7/8 inches. That puts him into the 20thish percentile for weight (up from 10th before), 25th percentile for length, and 50th percentile for noggin size. He's grown nearly an inch in less than 4 weeks, and I believe the growth happened on this one particular night. We put him to bed at one size and woke up to a much bigger baby in the morning. Fact.

He is feeling much better today. Is currently on a 2-mile hike with Daddy.

We decided to pierce the baby's ear.

Now he looks like Mr. Clean.

Big brothers

People often ask how our first borns are handling the new addition to the family. Jack has been a big brother for quite some time now. When Leroy came into his life, however, it didn't mean less cuddling time for him (since Leroy isn't much of an affection demander). Eli has been a huge impediment to his cuddling time. Jack has had to take drastic measures to make sure his needs are met.