Someone’s A Big Cry Baby Today

Today was my first day back to work. Today was Landon’s first day at day care. Do you hear that cracking noise? That’s my heart breaking. He’s just starting to be cool. He’s talking to us – and being happy and fun. The thing is that his good hours are in the morning, and now I have to give him to someone else for his good hours, and I only get the crap hours.

I cried all the way to drop him off; he was happy and talking to me and the lady who took him when I left. And I cried all the way to work. And when I got to work I discovered that not only are my benefits still screwy the lady who told us they could be fixed 3 weeks ago…is a big fat liar. They had to wait until my status changed from leave of absence to active – which it did today and so by Thursday I should have my dependent care FSA in order.

My module is for the most part done, the only complaining I heard was that I made my model way more detailed than anyone else (which I find odd, since they are the ones who TOLD me it needed all that stuff.)

I was just about ok, when I got my first call from the Day Care…I know you’d like to think he got in trouble for picking a fight with a bigger kid…but really – they just couldn’t get him to take the bottle I left for him and wanted to know if I had a different bottle I could bring. So on my first day back, while I’m trying to be good and not call and check on him, he managed to get me to go home and get him a different bottle. When they called they told me he was asleep, when I got there, he was awake again. So I decided to go ahead and nurse him then, just in case he wouldn’t take the new bottle and I would have to come back anyway.

He was happy to see me and nursed but when I tried to hand him back to go back to work he broke my heart again, because he certainly didn’t want to let me go.

I didn’t hear back from them for the rest of the day – so I assumed all was going well. The afternoon lady asked why I had left instructions for them to only give him 2 oz at a time, that he was hungry every hour and she gave him 2 oz almost every hour in the afternoon and the milk I had left, which I thought was more than enough, was empty. So he had tried the trick he pulled in the hospital, only instead of being able to be sent down to my room, they had a bottle and fed him.

Thanksgiving

It was a big weekend for Landon. His first family holiday and his first road trip. He met several cousins and 2nd cousins for the first time. And it was the last of my maternity leave.

On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa Wood came down. He actually was pleasant for them and cooed for them and was nice for a while. And then we went to Lynn and Kimber's to eat, that's when he decided to start up his evening antics. He got bounced around by everyone for a little while, but there was no end to the fussy, at least not until I got him to sleep for the last time that evening.

On Saturday morning we headed up to Lake Limestone. A girl (dog) on either side of his car seat in the back seat, and off we went. He fussed for a while when we first started out, and then he fussed for the last 45 minutes or so of the drive. Clint even got in the back seat and offered him a bottle to no avail. Although Scarlett enjoyed her front seat time!

He had a similar experience as he did at the other Thanksgiving, being bounced around from person to person but still pretty fussy. His cousin Joshua was a little upset about the dent in his head (soft spot), but after a little explaining about his skull not being ready yet and him still growing and that it's normal, he was ok.

He did the same thing on the way back that he did on the way there, crying for the last 45 minutes of the trip.

Growing Like A Weed

At Landon's Dr. appointment last Monday, he measured 21 1/2 inches (50th percentile - average), weighed in at 12 lbs 5 ozs (100th percentile - fatty), and 40 1/2 cm head circumference (90th percentile - big head). He's healthy - and he's gaining weight like he's supposed to.

And he seems to like lounging by the tree that HCAD gave us.

As if there was any doubt that this is Clinton's child - here's solid proof in a facial expression:

Complaints should be filed with....

Landon.

Any complaints about this blog not being updated can be directed to him personally. He has decided that I should not be allowed to do anything without him in my arms. And are you kidding? Sit down? How dare I think of doing such a thing?

I get one decent length nap a day - and I have to say - I'd rather be in the shower (or napping myself) than sitting at the computer.

We've slowed down considerably in the past 2 weeks, and not many pictures have been taken, but they will be. I promise.

Monthly Newsletter - #1

Dear Landon,

This has been quite the exciting month for you. First there was that whole being ripped from the coziness you’d been in for 9 months. And it’s been kind of weird ever since.

A lot of women on the web write birth stories and include all kinds of details that I’m sorry to say, I’m not going to be able to do for you. I remember Monday waiting and waiting and waiting for them to call us to come in to start the induction. I hadn’t eaten since noon on Monday – and they wouldn’t even let me have water or ice. They finally had us come in at 11pm.

When we got there and got settled in they finally let me have some ice chips. And I spent about 2 hours in pain when I asked the nurse (who I went to high school with) for either the sleeping pill or the pain meds. And I’m sorry to say – that that’s when it all gets fuzzy. I don’t know when a lot of stuff happened. I know both your aunts, and both sets of Grandparents showed up, as well as Shane. I know everyone came in to see me, right up until Clint decided it was too much for me and then banned everyone but your aunt Kathleen. I know that at 5:00 they decided that you weren’t coming and that they would do a C-section. I was really upset about it. I know that when they wheeled me into the OR I heard them counting sponges and instruments, and then they called for your daddy. I heard my Doctor say, “Oh, well, no wonder he wasn’t coming.” You had been head down for the last 3 months or so, but when you decided you couldn’t fit, you backed up and turned sideways. 9lbs and 9ozs. You were very blue when they showed you to me, and apparently they couldn’t get you breathing like they wanted you to. I was very sleepy but I was afraid to go to sleep or I’d miss getting to see you. They wheeled you by me and let me touch your hand. They took you off to the level II NICU. And that’s the last time I saw you until about 1am. Your Dad took each of the Grandparents in to see you.

You gave your Daddy quite a scare by not breathing like you were supposed to right out of the womb. Every time he looks at you he might as well have heart shaped pupils like in the cartoons.

I should have known you’d be a challenge when you started out by tricking the nursery nurses into bringing you to my room, saying you were hungry – but all you really wanted to do was cuddle.

Since being home you have done a lot of growing, although since I am with you 24/7 – I don’t see much of it. You’ve had a lot of visitors in the past month as well.

You had your first Dr. appointment; they examined you and pricked your heel again – which you absolutely did NOT care for. And neither did your father, so we’ll be going to those appointments by ourselves from here on out.

You had your first outing – we took you to pick up Daddy’s new car. You were unimpressed. And you don’t particularly care for the whole riding in cars thing to begin with.

You had your first bath after you FINALLY lost your umbilical cord.

You took your first bottle on Halloween night from your daddy. Up until that point I had been the one who tried to give you a bottle, and you were absolutely not having it. But for your daddy, you took it like a champ. Which is good news for me, because it means I can go back to work in a month and not having visit the Day Care a few times a day to nurse.

You refuse the pacifier. I mean, what’s the point anyway if nothing good is coming out of it? But you’ve decided to use your forearm instead and have successfully given yourself your first hickey.

You have decided that the swing is not as evil as the carrier and have allowed me to take exactly one shower and fix one dinner while you sat in it quietly. You have yet to sit in the carrier while awake quietly.

Your sisters have decided that you must be staying, and they’re tolerating you. Scarlett gets annoyed with the constant crying and leaves the room. Fiona tries to calm you by pressing her nose to your head. They both check on you constantly.

You have some kind of sensor that makes you poop within 5 minutes of a diaper change. I could probably spend my entire day changing your diaper. Everyone says you are very alert for such a young baby; you’re pretty good at holding your own head up.

And for my birthday you gave me 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep, it was probably the very best present you could have given me. So thank you very much for that.

Love,
Mom

PS - there's some kind of issue with the picture uploading - and I have placed a bunch of pictures on flickr (see sidebar for link) where I couldn't get some to upload. And then Flickr screwed up and I didn't get them all uploaded there either - but I will eventually.