The Beginning of the End.

Marek learned to roll over today. 

He's been trying for a while now, but I've been a bit lazy about tummy time (really, he screams his head off often enough for no good reason, I don't need extra screaming by forcing tummy time!) and today when I laid him down and left the room to rescue a green truck from under the radiator, I returned to a baby on his back.  While I know he was alone and no one else could have flipped him over, I wanted to actually see it for my own eyes.  Thus began the half hour of amusement, putting Marek on his belly and watching him slowly wiggle his arm under him and kick up and over on to his back.  He was quite pleased with himself.

The last few days he's been rolling from his back to his side as well, and I know it won't be long before he kicks all the way over to his belly.  I personally think his ability to roll to his side is a direct effect of my breastfeeding.  I always place him on his side to eat, so when he's looking for food, he turns his head and stretches out to get a mouthful, rolling himself onto his side. 

I feel like this is early, 12 weeks for rolling?  Chester started rolling just before 5 months and I thought that was early!  But the reality is that it doesn't matter when your child rolls.  Or crawls.  Or walks.  Or talks.  Because, for the most part, our children are normal and healthy and won't be leaving for college without the ability to roll over.  My first two boys reached their milestones within or before the "normal" range (except for talking, but we caught up quickly!) and so this time around, I'm purposely not even looking at the experts.  My kid will roll when he's ready.  Clearly, he's rolling before I'm ready and I'm fairly certain he'll crawl and walk before I'm ready too. 

It's exciting, and yet bittersweet.  I love watching all my boys discover new things and master new skills.  But this is likely the last time I'll watch my little baby learn to roll.  We're probably done having children, so the next baby I have this much vested interest in will be my grandchild. 

So this is the beginning of the end for so many reasons.  The beginning of the end because once there are three mobile children, Ryan and I are outnumbered.  The beginning of the end because my last baby is growing up.  In our house, there will be no more baby snorts, no more soft baby-scented hair, no more little baby stretches.  The little old man face of my newborn has morphed into a fat cheeked round face of an infant, and will soon quickly grown into the constantly smudged face of a toddler.     

Slow down, little man.  Slow down.

They're all different. No, really, now I actually believe it!

Everyone kept telling me each pregnancy is different (mine were all pretty similar and miserable, though this last one did kick my butt a little more than the first two- I figure I'm just getting older!) and that each child is different.  I smiled and nodded because the first two boys were very similar.

But now I can really believe it. 

Pete and Chester both had trouble breastfeeding.  Marek has been a dream.  He followed all of my research about how a breastfeeding relationship is supposed to go.  From the slightly sore nipples, to the six week growth spurt, it's like he actually read the books too!  I stopped by the LC office this week, and of course the LC recognized me immediately (I spent enough time in her office, she probably went through withdrawal when I stopped going after Chester started solids).  The LC, my NP, PCM, midwife, ENT and breast surgeon never could figure out why Chester mangled me so badly.  We never had a definitive answer, and so I just assumed this would be another year or more of screaming pain.  But Marek has excelled from day one.  He's well on his way to becoming my favorite!  (Just kidding.  A little)

Pete and Chester both wake up screaming angry.  They always have, from day one.  Regardless of if they're sleeping in my arms, in my bed or in their own bed, swaddled or unswaddled, day or night.  The eyes open and they squeal.  I envied mothers whose children "fussed" or "talked to themselves" when they wake up.  I nearly smacked the mom who said she waits to hear her baby on the monitor (we never needed a monitor, they wail loudly and immediately, so why amplify the cries?) then gets up and takes a shower, gets dressed and only then, 30 minutes later, does she go get her child from his crib.  I was always woken up by a shrill scream, and the crying doesn't stop.  Marek has started waking up and babbling in his crib!  Seriously.  I've showered twice this week, even put on make up and dried my hair too.  The older boys?  Both still wake up from nap screaming like someone is stabbing them. 

Not much time these days to blog, but I just wanted to put a little updatte out, and record my glee at how well we're doing.  Busy, but doing well!  I'm sending out hope for all of you Moms (like my pal JC, happy birthday!) who had difficult first babies and might be a little cautious about a second...   They really can be different!

The third one has to get his share somehow, right?

Clearly Pete and Chester demand my attention.  They can both physically demand my attention by doing crazy things around the house, and verbally demand my attention calling for me, "Mooooommy!".  Marek, on the other hand, just sleeps, eats, cries and poops.  Usually in that order.  If I put him in the cradle, he's still there when I return from the shower.  He may cry, but he can't actually create havoc and mayhem yet.

Instead, Marek has resorted to other methods of monopolizing my attention, and at first I fought it, but now I've just decided to accept 2am for what it really is.  Our very special quiet bonding time.  Marek gives me a relatively good stretch of sleep at night, from about 8pm to 1am or maybe 2am.  He eats and gets a new diaper when he wakes up.  Then he wants to play.  He's not crying (unless I put him back down) and he's done eating.  He just wants to hang out, typically for about two hours.  At just over a month old, he's alert and strong enough to hold up his head while he coos and giggles.  He makes googley eyes and waves his arms and legs around.  Eventually he tires and begins to yawn and that's my cue to swaddle him and rock him back to sleep.

He's the littlest brother, and he'll always have to fight Pete and Chester for his share of the ice cream, the legos and the 4-wheeler.  But we'll always have 2am. 

Sleep, or lack therof.

I've written about being tired, but the topic needs to be revisited now that Marek has arrived.

Ryan and I are both so exhausted some days that hilarity ensues.  For example, last night, Ryan was reading his book while I fed the baby.  We were talking, and he just suddenly stopped responding.  He had fallen asleep, with his light on, and his head in the book.  I considered being offended, but since I can't remember what we were talking about, I guess it wasn't that important anyway.

Marek doesn't have a sleep pattern yet.  Some nights he's asleep at 7pm, some nights it's 9pm.  Some nights he's awake twice for food, some nights it's just once, and some nights he's just up once but it's for three or four hours!  Mostly I pick him up from the cradle, feed him and if he's fussy after eating, I keep him in bed with me.  The other morning I woke up in a total panic, tossing blankets everywhere, horrified that I might have fallen asleep with Marek eating and smothered him.  I couldn't find him, and the seconds ticked by as I tore apart the bed and pillows looking for him.  Then I looked in the cradle, where he was sleeping peacefully, totally oblivious to my sleep-deprived flip out. 

Clink.  Clinkety-clink.  Scuffle scuffle.  Clink.  What is that noise?  It's the sound of my nearly two year old scaring me into an early grave.  I awoke to a strange clinking sound one night last week, and in a panic, sent Ryan out to the kitchen to find the source.  Ryan found Chester, standing on the chair he had pushed over to the counter, and chopping a pear with my butcher's knife.  I used to think I'd hear anything these guys did in the night, but now I'm not so sure.  So we're back to baby-gating them out of the kitchen and living room, and in addition, we've added alarms to the exterior doors and added locks at the top of the stairs.  We used to have baby-proof door knobs for the doors, but my kids can outsmart those silly door knob covers so we've moved to more secure pre-schooler proofing. 

Speaking of Chester trying to scare me into an early grave, he tripped over his own two feet in the living room this week, and put his bottom teeth through his lip.  At this point, I've given up (see previous blogs of Chester's injuries) and after we stopped the bleeding, I determined that it wasn't worth stitches as the cut on the outside was small, and the local ER here doesn't stitch inside the mouth.  (Is that a policy across the country, or just the ER here?)  He looks fabulous with a huge fat lip and a bruise on his forehead.  I'm still taking his pictures this weekend for his second birthday.  It's nearly healed now, and even if he still had a swollen lip, I think it's important to document these things to embarrass him in front of his future girlfriends.

What does 2 + 1 = ?????

A whole lot less time than before!

I'm not sure what's been taking so much time recently.  Though the obvious answer is "that pesky newborn" I don't think that's the whole answer!  We've had family visiting pretty much non-stop since Marek was born, so even when he's sleeping, we're catching up on all the family and hometown news from the last six months.

I know you're reading this blog solely for the gratuitous pictures of the new baby, so here's one:



Notice Chester wrestling Ryan in the background?  It's like Battle Royale around here most days!

 Marek is now three weeks old and he's much more alert already.  He's such a great eater, I couldn't be happier with his nursing.  He also had his first bottle this week, and though I went back to work teaching just one night a week, he still needs to eat while I'm in class!  Marek is still learning to like his binky, but the Wubanub is helping a lot.  It doesn't keep the binky from falling out of his mouth, but it certainly makes it easier for me to find and put back in his mouth while I'm driving. 

Ryan and I also took a trip to San Diego last week.  Crazy, I know, but he was being honored by the AFCEA US Naval Institute with the Copernicus Award, and we don't get to choose the date of the awards ceremony it was now or never. 

Here we are at the awards ceremony- Marek was totally content to snuggle up in the Moby wrap and sleep through most of the trip.  I also used the wrap to sneak him into the convention center even though it was supposed to be ages 16+, you can barely see him peeking out of the wrap!   

Here's Marek's first trip to the Beach.  He's snuggled up in the Moby, but I managed to dip my toes in the ocean.  So now I'm up to the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Alaska, Caribbean Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean.  I'm taking suggestions for my toes' next adventure!

 We also took a few side trips while we were in San Diego.  I'd never been to California before, and it was nice to have a little extra time to explore.  This was taken at the Mt. Soledad Vetrans' Memorial.  It's so weird to be at the beach and then up in the mountains ten minutes later!  As we drove up the steep and winding neighborhood streets, I kept thinking how crazy it must be to plow them in the winter.  Then I realized this is winter and clearly there's no snow.  If we ever get stationed in San Diego, it will be a completely different experience than New England, and even Virginia!

Speaking of totally different.  Let's compare last winter to this winter.   First is a picture from this winter, with the two inches of snow we've had.  The boys played outside the one morning that we had snow.  It melted later that day.  Second is a picture from last winter.  We had so much snow that we were running out of room to put the snow after Ryan shoveled it off the driveway!

January 2012

January 2011

 Finally, we've been taking advantage of Free Friday bowling over at Hanscom Air Force Base.  The first time we went when Marek was 5 days old and I needed some activity for the boys while Ryan enrolled Marek in DEERS.  I wasn't sure how they would do, if they would be able to hold the ball, or understand the concept, but I shouldn't have worried at all.  Both Pete and Chester now love "Rolling Balls".  

First, they find EVERY six pound ball in the entire alley.

Whoever invented this thing is genius.  We also use the bumpers and they hit pins every time!

There's Pete's strike! 

So there are the updates.  I can't promise I'll be back soon, but I'll try to keep up!