New Perspective

When I was younger, I never wanted kids. I worked at Wal-mart for almost four years and saw plenty of misbehaved children. It reinforced the idea that I didn't want kids. That changed about five years ago, as I got a bit older and more mature.

Now that I have a child of my own, my perspective has changed a lot. I used to be slightly annoyed at screaming children in restaurants. Now I'm the one that is making sure I'm not annoying others. I see kids now and wonder how old they are and look at how cute they are.

As of this morning, my perspective has migrated into the animal kingdom. About a month ago, a Canadian goose set up nest in the pine straw next to the parking lot at work.
We have a nice pond on our company property, so it's a perfect place to raise a little gosling. The goose sat on that nest and hissed at people passing by to protect her egg(s) for nearly a month. Friday, I noticed that the nest was empty. I assumed that the egg had hatched and the goose and gosling(s) had gone on their way.

This morning I found out otherwise. Apparently the decision was made to remove the eggs from the nest. I'm not sure how they did it and what they did with the egg, but they did it. Now there are two geese walking around the campus together looking for their missing babies.

Before having a baby of my own, I would have just laughed it off. Humans mess with the circle of life all the time. I participate, as I'm a meat-eater myself. But now I can't help but to be saddened by the fact that those poor geese are yearning for their little ones and searching high and low. It breaks my heart.

Night Terror

Last night Alan went down to sleep around 8pm. He pretty much went right to sleep. He was very tired and almost fell asleep while nursing right before bed.

Around 9:30, he woke up screaming bloody murder. You would think someone was cutting his leg off or something. I tried to put the pacifier in, which usually works when he wakes up crying. But he spit it right out and cried even louder. I couldn't get him to calm down, so I picked him up to try to comfort him.

Rob came up to his room because he heard the crying on the monitor downstairs. He took him while I went downstairs to get his favorite pacifier to see if that might help. (It didn't, by the way.) When I came back up, Alan was still scream/crying. Rob was sitting with him on the floor trying to rock him and comfort him. I sat down next to Rob and we both tried to talk to him in a soothing voice. After probably twenty minutes, he finally calmed down and stopped crying uncontrollably. He sobbed quietly still for another five minutes or so while Rob rocked him and held his pacifier in his mouth. Finally Rob was able to put him back in his crib and he went back to sleep. He didn't wake back up until around 4am when I put his pacifier back in and he went right back to sleep until eating time.

What an ordeal! What can babies possibly dream about that is so bad that it scares them that much? Nothing bad has ever happened to him for him to think/dream about in his short seven month life.

Poor little guy was just pitiful, and it pained me to see him so scared. I'm just glad we hadn't gone to bed yet and that it wasn't 3am when it happened.

It's Baseball Season!

Finally, baseball has officially returned. Baseball is my favorite sport. It's really the only sport I truly enjoy. Hockey is fun. Football is okay. But Baseball is where it's at.

This year I have to brush up on my team (the New York Mets). It seems like there are new people all over the place. Carlos Beltran is playing right field?? Who is this new 2nd baseman? Who is in our pitching rotation?

I've recently added college baseball to my list of things to do also. Robby and I went to a Georgia Tech baseball game for our date night last month. I hope to go to at least two more games before the season is over.

Ahhhh Spring is in the air!

Teething Pain and Separation Anxiety

Last Thursday night, Alan was up at 1:30am and didn't really go back to sleep all night. He would cry. I would put his paci in. He would be quiet for 15 minutes. Then he would cry again. This went on all the rest of the night.

When I went in to put the paci in, I would check his gums to see if maybe a tooth was coming. I would think I felt it, and then the next time I wouldn't feel it. It was as if it was teasing us. Finally at 3:30 when I thought I felt it again, I was smart enough to give him some infant Tylenol. It didn't seem to help though, as he continued to wake up ever 15 minutes.

The tooth finally broke through for good on Friday morning.

With the tooth came some separation anxiety that had never been there before. In the past, Alan would talk himself to sleep at night and go right back to sleep if I put his pacifier in when he woke up. Now when he notices me leave the room, he starts crying. I can't just put the pacifier in without letting him cry. In the past, he had gotten to where he would sleep through the night, from when I put him down around 8 until about 5am. Now, he is waking up multiple times a night. It's like having a newborn all over again.

In addition to nighttime separation anxiety, he has a little daytime anxiety as well. He is much more clingy. I can't leave the room without him noticing and crying for me to come back. It is really difficult to get any work done when I'm working from home now.

And the sleep deprivation continues...

Mister Mom

Rob's mother usually watches Alan most days during the week. On Sunday, she took a nasty spill and had to get stitches on her forehead. The doctors said that she wasn't supposed to lift anything heavier than a gallon of milk for the next two days.

Alan is definitely heavier than a gallon of milk. I work from home on Tuesdays, so that wasn't a problem, but we had to make other arrangements for Alan on Monday. The daycare requires 24 hrs notice for drop in service to ensure they have enough staff available, so that option was out. Rob managed to rearrange the schedule at work so that he could be at home to watch Alan all day on Monday.

I am pleased to say that Rob did a fabulous job! It isn't easy staying with Alan sometimes. He can get cranky, and it's sometimes hard to figure out what exactly to do with him to keep him occupied.

Rob fed him his breakfast (cereal and yogurt), lunch (squash and cereal), and three bottles and gave him two naps. He only had to call me once to ask a question about lunch.

Sometimes I underestimate how great a dad Rob is. Alan was happy as can be when I got home from work. I'm sure he enjoyed spending time with just him and Daddy.

Daylight Savings Time Woes

Who thought it was a good idea to flip our world upside down by changing the time twice a year?? Whoever it was obviously did not have an infant to deal with.

This weekend we changed our clocks for daylight savings time. It seems like an hour wouldn't make much difference, and on Sunday I didn't think it would be much of an issue. But Sunday night, when I was trying to get Alan ready for bed at what used to be 6:30pm instead of 7:30pm, I realized that it was going to be an issue.

First of all, it is still light now when I put him to bed. I know eventually, if we hadn't changed the clocks, it would be light still at 7:30. But I think Alan thinks he was just going down for a nap.

Second of all, we had a great bedtime routine: bath, PJs, nursing, story, "dessert" (his vitamin drops, which he loves), and then bed. Well, due to the time change, he had just eaten two hours before bed, so he wasn't ready to eat yet. So we had to mess with the routine and put him to bed and then get him up again to eat his last bottle.

Thirdly, the seasons are changing at the same time that the time is changing, which is causing allergies or colds. Alan's nose is running and he's coughing up a storm, so he isn't in the best of health right now.

Because of all these things, he did not sleep well last night. He was up most of the 10 o'clock hour and most of the midnight hour. Needless to say, the great sleep mommy got on Saturday was negated by the horrible sleep (or lack there of) last night.

First Tooth!

Alan got his first tooth last Thursday. It was barely visible Thursday, but you could sure feel that it broke through the gums. Today it is pretty obvious that it's a tooth, although he likes to hide it with his tongue. It has emerged.

I haven't been bitten yet, which is definitely a good thing. I can't really tell yet when he's eating that he has it. I'm sure that will change as he gets more of them.

He is also doing a GREAT job of sitting. I don't even have to worry about him anymore. He rarely falls over, but when he does, he gets on his belly and starts scooting around. He can't crawl yet (which I'm glad about - no hurry!), but he can do a little inchworm thing and scoot around.

I'll try to get some pictures of the tooth to share, if he'll let me.