Sleep Battles

Yesterday Cade was a champion napper. You can tell how good his nap was from this big stretch when he woke up.

He was not, however, a champion bedtime sleeper. This is the opposite of normal. Per the usual, he got his bedtime bottle a little after 9p last night. He ate it like a little monster. And then he fussed and fussed and fussed. I tried everything. Letting him nurse, using the pacifier, putting him in  his crib awake, putting him in his bouncer seat. EVERYTHING. Finally at 11:45p he was still awake. I took a deep breath and decided we'd just have a do-over. I made him another bedtime bottle, changed his diaper, reswaddled him and fed him. He fell asleep 1 oz into the bottle. God bless. But for all that work, he only let me have 4 hours of continuous sleep.

This morning I told his Royal Cuteness that last night's sleep battle was silly; that there was absolutely no reason to repeat it. Also that he should take advantage of these days. It's not for long in life that sleeping 5-6 hours straight warrants praise and excitement. I guess tonight we'll learn if he took our little chat to heart or not.

Either way, at least he was cute and happy this morning. So there's always that.

Post-Vacay Ritual

Whenever we come home from a vacation, I have a little ritual I enjoy. First I add a red pin to our world travel map.



Then I add a photo to our "Cheryl & Ross see the world" photo album.



My type A, list-loving, goal oriented self loves doing both. And I love then taking a minute to appreciate all the many places we've traveled together...and of course, starting to day dream about and plan for the next adventure we'll go on.

(We hope our next adventure is Vegas and after that either Connecticut for Winslow's wedding or if that doesn't work out, it will probably be Wyoming or Montana next summer per Ross' wants.)

Cade's Weekend with Nana

While Ross and I were in California, Cade spent the weekend with Nana and Grandpa Jack. Like good grandparents they sent me pictures throughout the weekend to serve as proof of (happy) life. This one was my favorite.

The best text I got about Cade's weekend was this one (on a group text after Meg asked if his new swing was pink)

No its orange and brown it has flowers but Cade said "I don't give a shit." So I said "Put on your little dinosaur slippers and lets rock!" He said "Sounds good to me Nana! You rock!"

And here is the collage of her wonderful baby weekend that Nancy just made. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that Cade was much happier with Nana than he would have been in a hotel room or busy airports.

(But just give him time. He's my child after all; he'll be a little world traveler soon.)

The Bet

A couple weeks ago I consulted the New York Times best seller list for book ideas. You would think our nation's biggest newspaper might be a relatively sound resource for book recommendations right?

Number 6 on the fiction list was The Bet, the story of a girl who while pretending to be her best friend's fiance to help him fool his family falls for his brother. Needless to say I was expecting a light, fluffy read.

What I got was TERRIBLE. The dialogue was incredibly unrealistic, as were the characters mood swings. The characters themselves were fantastical - a former CIA/actress Grandma in 6 inch heels who is having an affair with the neighbor. Seriously?

I'm just glad I only paid $0.99 for it on my Kindle.

For that dollar, you'd be better off buying a chocolate bar.

Going to the Chapel

Or in Kevin and Carly's case, the vineyard. (A much better place to get married if you ask me.)

We spent Memorial Day weekend in northern California with my family celebrating little bro's nuptials. He and Carly married on Sunday evening at Ironstone Vineyard.

I was busy enjoying the wedding so I only took a few pictures but here's what I have. Congrats Kev & Carly!

Ooo la la the garter

Ross hit it off with Carly's bro-in-law, Robert. They have a serious bromance

Flickr, My Flickr

I'm on Flickr nearly every single day. When that's your personal photosharing site and you have the cutest baby in Texas, it's pretty much a given. Well apparently I recently went 48 hours without being on the site because yesterday someone mentioned it had been redesigned and that was the first I heard about it. AND I DO SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR A LIVING. Talk about embarrassing.

Well the smarty-pants I was chatting with was right. The site has been re-done. It's more collage-like now. Almost has a Pinterest feel. But whatever the site looks like, the important thing to me is it houses all my adorable Cade pictures. Like this one from bath time last night.

Also yesterday I caught the hubs reading my blog. I forgot that he reads it and he reminded me duh, yes, he reads it all the time. So...hi honey! (He's gonna hate that I said hi to him on here. That's probably almost as bad as your mom walking into your junior high school classroom with you.)

Swimming Swimming

Swimming swimming in the swimming pool
When days are hot when days are cold
In the swimming pool
Breast stroke, side stroke
Fancy diving too
Don't you wish that you had nothing else to do but
Swimming swimming in the swimming pool

Erin, Rowan, Cade and Ross

Not pictured but present: Jane! Pics from Jane's visit to come, promise.

Thanks Aunt Meg and Uncle Stacy for offering your pool for the first baby swim date!

Best Smile Ever

How lucky am I to have gotten this gem today? Clearly I'm the luckiest mom of all.

Fly Away

As promised, when the sequel to Firefly Lane came out, I promptly purchased it and got down to business reading it on my Kindle (thanks again hubs for the great gift).

I finished it this morning, during baby boy's second nap of the day (he's on his third nap right now; it's awesome). I really liked it. It wasn't quite as good as Firefly Lane, but Fly Away was better than most sequels ever are and like so many of the review say, it really could stand alone.

The book picks up right where the first one leaves off, after the death of one of the main characters. It's the story of how the other characters do, or in a lot of cases don't, cope with the death. One sentence that really stuck out to me, and I'm paraphrasing here, is that there are support groups and books for dealing with the loss of a spouse, parent or child but never for dealing with the loss of a best friend. So true. Fortunately I've never had to cross that bridge but I certainly can see it as a void in the "acceptable grieving" list.

One of the characters, Cloud, who was more or less a background character in the first book, is more center stage in this one. As such your opinion of her softens and you even sympathize with here where in the first book you scorned her. I like how the author transformed our attitude toward her.

Long story short, it was a good read. And though it can stand alone, the first one was so good, it shouldn't. Read them both.

The Most Pathetic Little Baby Face

It starts out so happy but then at the end of this video, Cade makes his little frowny face. It is the most pathetic little frown you will ever see. Such a deep frown that Ross and I think it looks like a cartoon.

But omigod it is so cute.

2 months old!

The wee baby Cade is 2 months old today!

At 2 months old, here are the highlights

• New sleeping records! He's been setting them left and right lately. Last night he slept for 6 hours and 10 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that qualifies as sleeping through the night. He was also asleep by 10:30p which is more the time I want him in bed (v the recent 11p trend).
• No more newborn clothes. I packed them all up yesterday. He's a big boy now and only 3 month size clothes will do.
• Smiley, smiley baby. In the past 2-3 weeks the smiles have really come out. When he's well-rested he's just the happiest baby. And sometimes he's smiley when I try to put him down for a nap but he's not interested. It's like he is literally laughing. Nap time is so funny!
• Swing graduation. He's no longer into his little borrowed baby swing. And in his big swing, we removed the baby head-cradling insert thing today (kiddo has a big head...). The big space ship like swing is now much more popular. It does everything under the sun so it better be popular!

From our 2 month photo shoot, here's a funny series of Cade checking everything out (which clearly shows how smart he is; my baby is obviously a genius).

   

My Mom

My mom rocks.

She recently drove to Austin two weekends in a row to help me. Help with a new baby is always important but these two weekends bookended the napping strike so it was especially wonderful to have help.

I hope I tell her enough but because today is Mother's Day, I'll say it loud and proud here on this lil ol' blog.

Mom, you are the best mom I could ever ask for. You're fun, easy-going and understanding. I'm so glad we live close enough that I can see you often and that you can be a very present grandma for baby Cade. I love you to the moon and back.

Happy Mother's Day Me!

My first Mother's Day as a mom!

The day started lazy-like as Cade had a slumber party with his Nana on Saturday night. But at noon, I got my baby back. We all met at Meg & Stacy's where Stacy prepared us a Mother's Day feast of stuffed jalapenos, cheeseburgers and homemade fries. He really out did himself. We had all the fixin's. My burger had Swiss, grilled mushrooms and avocado. Hello heaven.

Cade, Lexi and Ross gave me a really pretty pair of James Avery earrings (I'm wearing them in the picture). They are so very pretty. Nancy and Jack helped Cade make me a handprint-in-a-frame. I know how hard they worked on that since I tried to do the same for Nancy and my mom (they ended up with frame footprints which was much easier).

After our enormous and delicious lunch, we came home and had a little family nap. Cade and I snoozed in bed together for 2 full hours while Ross and Lexi did the same on the couch. We took this picture right when we all woke up so if I look a little sleepy...well, I am.

Sleepy but very happy to have spent my first Mother's Day relaxing with my two awesome kids and my super fabulous husband.

Cade & the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

The day started out promising...

Unfortunately in this story of a Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day there are far too few Australia references.

Today was Cade's 2 month doctor's appointment. At this point in his very short life, doctor's appointments are usually no biggie. Sigh. That ended today. Today was Two Month Vaccines Day. A day that will go down in baby infamy.

It started out not so bad. Baby boy weighed in at a healthy 11 pounds, 5 ounces putting him in the 30th percentile (up from the 25th percentile at his 1 month appointment). Then Dr. DeHaro, who we like so much, came in and checked him out. We got two thumbs up! And we got the A-OK to go swimming in Aunt Meg & Uncle Stacy's pool, provided he doesn't start drinking pool water by the gallon. (That'd be silly anyways. Who does that?)

Before the baby torture began. Also, in his 3rd onsie of the day by 11a due to impressive
amounts of drool and spit up. As a result, the pants don't match. Sigh.

Then the terribleness started. One bit of medicine by mouth and then THREE shots. Oh the screams! I've heard the Cade-man cry, daily in fact, but none of his cries matched the one he let out during his first shot. Blood curdling I-hate-life type screaming.

Fortunately he was fairly consolable with some Mommy cuddling after the ordeal. Which made Mommy consolable.

Since then it's just been a little bit of a fussy, sleepy-but-only-taking-cat-naps kinda day. He's dozed off eating more than usual but poor guy hasn't slept very long during any given nap. And he had to take more medicine (baby Tylenol). And had to have a cold washcloth massaged on his shot spots to help ward off any swelling. Suffice it to say, it's been a Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day in Cade-land.

The best nap of the day occurred in bed with Mommy. Clearly shots require extra special cuddle time.

3:37a

3:37a feeding meant 7a wake up, a very civilized time to start
the day. Then we hung out in PJs waiting for Dad to get home.

Normally I do not dig 3:37 in the morning. But last night Mr. Cade slept from 11p to 3:37a. That's 4.5 hours. While I prefer he go to sleep a wee bit earlier (10:30p perhaps dear boy), I would like to request an encore performance for the 4.5 hours of sleep. Heck, make it 5 or 5.5 hours of sleep if you'd like to, Cade-man.

Modern Mommy Must-Haves

Taken on my iPhone of course

How did the moms of yesteryear do it? "Yesteryear" being anything pre...2005. I don't think I would be as happy or good of a mommy without

• My iPhone. I think my iPhone and I have become even more attached (didn't know it was possible but yes). I use that sucker to track Cade's eating, sleeping, etc; share pics with grandparents, text other mommy friends when I need to be talked off the ledge and to FaceTime video chat with the hubs. I think I would rather live without my left hand than without my iPhone (I'd like to keep my right hand as it is more text savvy).
• My Kindle. Rocking and feeding Cade are good bonding experiences. But I do both 6-8 times per day. I don't have enough hands to read a magazine or book the old fashioned page turning way but I can usually free up a leg to balance a Kindle on and a single finger to swipe to the next page. I'm a well-read mommy as a result.
• Facebook. I know I know. Sounds absurd. What in God's name am I doing on Facebook when I have a baby to care for? I'll tell you: I'm polling parent friends on sleep techniques, comparing meltdowns with kindred new mommy spirits and sharing pics with far-flung friends. Using one of the two devices mentioned above of course.

PS Not kidding. I finished this post, grabbed my phone to upload a Cade pic to Flickr to include here and the thing did nothing. NOTHING. Damn near had a panic attack. After 5 minutes of pressing the power and home button in every way imaginable, I seem to have revived it. God bless America (and Apple).

Good Morning!

Happy baby boy is going to see his Auntie Megan for the second time in as many days! Lucky boy!

Birthday Shoes

Today I'm wearing my new birthday shoes and I really like 'em.

Thanks DSW for the $5 birthday coupon. Your marketing scheme worked - I saved $5 but spent $30. But I got new shoes. So everyone wins!

And the Crib

I would like to add his crib to things the Cade-man is learning. Last night he slept in it all night (not in one continuous sleep of course but throughout three sleeps). He doesn't love it consistently but I think he's now convinced it really isn't a baby torture device.

Completely unrelated to crib success, here's a picture of him in his new super-cute whale PJs.

7 Weeks

Baby Cade has been here 7 full weeks now. He's learned a few things:

1. Days and nights. This is hands down the best thing he's learned. It's not always rainbows and sparkles getting him to bed at night but mercifully during the night time he wants to sleep, not play. Bless him.
2. Burping. You don't think about your body needing to learn this basic, relieving function but it has to. And for the first couple weeks Cade's body just didn't get it. Life is better now that he can burp (with help of course).
3. Head lifting. He still has some progress to make here but it's coming right along!

The biggest thing he's still working on learning is the awesomeness of naps. He is the most wakey baby. At his sweet tender age, sleeping 16-20 hours a day would be pretty normal. I've been tracking his sleep for about two weeks and I don't think he's broken 13 hours once. It makes him over-tired and fussy which makes Mommy fussy. We've started a bit of a routine which naturally doesn't work every time but we have to start somewhere. With any luck, whenever he does start to recognize and respond to a routine, it will be this one.

One of these days he'll take his needed 3-4 naps. God, who among us wouldn't kill to not only be allowed but encouraged to take 3-4 naps each day? You know what they say - youth is wasted on the young.

Right now the Cade-man with his Auntie Meg for the afternoon (that bit about making Mommy fussy...a fussy Mommy is no good so I'm getting un-fussy). What am I doing with my baby free time? Wild and crazy things like going to lunch, walking Lexi, emptying the dishwasher, making bedtime bottles and maybe even exercising. Wild and crazy I tell you!

And now, for a Cade photo bomb.

QT with Auntie Melissa

The first couple hours of the morning are HAPPY

Hanging out with Dad post-bottle

Naked-ish baby