Eleven Months

As of 10/2008

 

Ten Months

As of 9/2008

 

Nine Months

As of 08/2008

 

 

8 Months Old

EIGHT MONTHS

 

as of 6/30/2008

  

Lucas:

Weight – 16lbs., 13 oz.

Height – 27”

 

 

 

Charlotte: 

Weight – 12lbs., 3oz. 

Height - 24 1/2″

 

 

 

Behind, again

Things have been in a word, hectic.  Crazy-not-enough-hours-in-the-day-whirlwind-busy.  I started my post-doc last week (8/13), and am loving it and hating it.  More on that later.  I’m terribly behind in posting all the haps at our house and in life in general, so I’m dedicating the naps today to catching up.  Here’s hoping Lucas and Charlotte are on board with the napping today (yeah, that’s for another post too).

One mama, one baby

I had my first experience being the mother of a singleton last week.  It was only for a little over an hour, but what a difference a baby makes! 

Let me cut back to a couple weeks ago. Lucas has had some, ah, how can I put this delicately, “itching” in the nether regions.  At first I thought it was just random itching and scratching and curiousity about that other  appendage, but then it seemed to be rather consistent and more vigorous over the next few days.

Finally, and I probably waited a day or two longer than I should have, I called the doctor, who said to bring him in.  It turned out to be a yeast infection of all things, poor baby.  I felt terrible when I heard that, as those things are quite uncomfortable.  And I didn’t even know a boy could get them! 

Anyway, it was a workday for me, and my mother was here watching the kiddos, so I grabbed Lucas, grabbed our QT (quick trips) diaper bag, and popped him in the carseat.  It was so odd looking in the back seat and seeing only one baby!  And when I went into the doctor’s office, I carried Lucas in, I carried the QT bag in my other arm, and that’s it!  That was all, so easy peasy.  And waiting in the room at the doctor, I only had to occupy one baby, look for one pacifier, cuddle one child.  It was an interesting experience, as it was the first time I had only one baby to take care of.  How strange it was.  And even though it was much smoother to have only one baby to watch over, I’m still terribly happy with my two pumpkins.  And I’m so glad that I had two at once with my first pregnancy.  If I had known what caring for a singleton was like, I would have been stressing about twins.  Lucky for me I had no idea until last week.  Ignorance really is bliss.

Take cover

Last night we some pretty crazy weather, torrential rain, tornado warnings all over the place, a rumored funnel cloud over the Kennedy , and then, the sirens went off.  No kidding, the emergency broadcast system came on the TV, and then the sirens started going off.  Of course, Charlotte was sound asleep at this point, but Lucas was just hanging out, wide-eyed, listening to the storm in his crib. 

We watched the sky turn shades of gray-ish black, lightning that crackled, and heard thunder that actually made me scream out a couple of times.  Once the sirens started, we grabbed the babies and headed down to the basement until we got the all clear.  Of course, both babies were awake then, and it took another 30 minutes for them to settle back down and fall asleep, but they finally did.  Just in time for the next loud and scary thunderstorm to come whooshing through our neighborhood.  Scary. 

I don’t really recall ever having to take cover in the basement/lower level of my house growing up.  Maybe once.  What may have seemed somewhat scary/exciting as a kid, is completely terrifying when you are holding two babies huddling in the basement, trying to get away from any windows.  I used to be relatively fearless, but now I am turning into a bonafide ‘fraidy-cat now that I have children.  God help me if I become one of those chicken-shit mothers that never want to let their kids do anything for fear of everything.

Napping issues, revisited

We’ve got napping issues again.  Lucas and Charlotte just turned 9 months old the other day, and I think its time to transition them from 3 naps to 2.  I’ve been thinking this for a while now, but they just didn’t seem quite ready, and since they are 7 months adjusted, I thought letting them keep that third nap was okay.  But things have just been wonky with them, and that third nap just wasn’t really giving them any good sleep, and it seemed time to move on and let it go. 

Lucas definitely is ready, he’s been able to move to a 9AM and 1PM nap and isn’t completely fried by dinnertime (most days).  Charlotte doesn’t seem quite as ready to switch to 2 naps, but I don’t think she needs 3 naps anymore either.  So we are kind of in a napping limbo with her.  I don’t know quite what to do.  One day she will nap with Lucas for about 2 hours in the morning, have an equally stellar nap in the afternoon and be ready for bed and the day is declared a napping success.  Most other days, its a nightmare.  She is on strike, isn’t tired, and won’t sleep in the morning, at all, or sleeps maybe, maybe, 30 minutes. 

Its crazy-making, and it leaves her overtired and very cranky by day’s end.  Yeah, and Mom too.  Did I mention that she loves to talk and really experiment with the volume and octaves of her voice, particularly during naptime, leading to the inevitable waking of her sound asleep brother?  I try to get them to nap in their bed, but she always ends up waking him up.  I then rush in to try to snatch her away and put her in the pack ‘n play, but its usually too late.  Yeah, my learning curve on this one is steep; I have no excuses.  I need to separate from the start and just leave it at that.  At least that way Lucas will get a good nap, even if Charlotte’s is brief. 

Ah, and they are up again.

Anxious slacker

I have been terribly neglectful in my postings, and much of it has been due to some personal stressors, some of which I will be putting into separate posts. 

Firstly, I am leaving my at-home part-time job to start my fellowship next week.  As excited as I am about my fellowship, I’m quite saddened to be leaving my old company. 

Second, piggybacking on this job change, I am really starting to stress out about finances and budgeting.  I’m actually quite good at living frugally, but it became near impossible to live below my means the last couple years being on unpaid practica and then an internship which figured out to be less then minimum wage.  The post-doc will pay somewhat adequately, but it will be a lean year, for sure.  Finances have been a huge source of stress for me for the last 3-4 years, since I had to move to part-time.  Its just really starting to freak me out a bit, and I was afraid our budget would be stretched even thinner. 

Which leads me to my next anxiety-provoking issue…I had been feeling very fatigued and sleeping a lot the last week or so, and just all around out of it.  A couple of people wondered if I might be pregnant.  I really, really didn’t think it possible.  But I took a test today to be sure, and as of today, it was negative.  As much of a surprise blessing that would be, it would probably be the worst timing ever, so right now, I feel relief that it was negative.  I will probably take another one next week to be sure.     

Now back to your regular schedule.

Week ending 8/2

Easy runs, just relaxed, had to stop myself from running too much farther than this.  Ended up mixing in a little speedwork to get a little punch at the end of my runs.  Felt good, foot and knee were fine, now the last couple of days I’ve had a weird pain in my back on the right, in the middle on the side.  Hope it goes away, I think its just nerves and stress.

7/30 - training, 3 miles

8/1 - training, 3 miles

8/2 -  2.5 miles