On Being a Working Mom

I’m sorry that I’ve neglected the blog. It’s not that it hasn’t been on my mind, but since Peyton has gotten older, I find that I have less time. A lot of people said it gets easier (after they’re newborns) but I don’t entirely agree with that.

Peyton no longer takes long 2 hour naps. He has dropped the later afternoon one and now naps twice a day for 45 mins-1hour. Never longer. So, it’s hard to do anything productive during that short time. He’s also crawling like a fiend and hates to be confined (screams every time we put him in the high chair). I’m pretty sure he’s going to walk early, much to our dismay.

We have mixed feelings about his progress. Excitement at the new possiblities (walking = fun outside) but also feeling unprepared (walking = more energy to keep up). I also miss being able to hold him in my arms without him squirming out. He’s growing out of the baby stage and it makes me very sad. Now I truly understand why people have more than one child!

In past few months, lots of developments with the little guy. He’s still fairly big for his age and eats A LOT. He’s on to real food and usually enjoys ravioli, meat balls, cheese, and — his favorite — bread. It’s really cute watching him eat. Even though he only has his 2 bottom teeth, he does fairly well gumming everything. (He also likes to steal food from other babies at daycare.)

My life as a mother has been ever changing. I understood that motherhood would change me, but a recent experience has showed me how much.

8 months

Peyton turned eight months this week and he’s reached so many milestones.

He started crawling about two weeks ago and loves to try and pull himself up. His two bottom teeth are budding — leading to many days and nights of wailing and crankiness. (Motrin is our BFF right now.) He’s gumming Graduates Puffs and loving it. Best of all, he laughs quite easily, smiles a lot, claps his hands, loves bath time, and babbles constantly.

And amazingly, pregnancy amnesia has set in. While I remember that labor/recovery was painful and hard, the fun that I get from my son really does blur the memories of child birth. In fact, one day, as Peyton laughed and babbled, I said to the hub, “I think I can have another one.”

His jaw dropped. “Whaaaa–?” he said. “Did you hear that, Peyton? Maybe you’ll have a brother or sister!”

After the second, I’m pretty sure we’ll be done. I’m not crazy enough to have three, or EIGHT!

New Religion

Whenever I go over to my in-laws, there are more photos of Peyton tacked up in different parts of the house. Now there are so many that they’re not even in frames or taped up. Just placed around in various places: above the fireplace, the side table, the fridge,  and the bookshelf — which I call “the shrine.”

Yes, my in-laws have a new religion and its god is Peyton.

First New Year

We returned from our holiday trip intact and fairly untraumatized. We gave the little tyke some Benadryl before leaving DC and he slept for about an hour. Then we fed him and played, and he was in a very good mood. Just as we were preparing going down into Dallas, he fussed a little and fell asleep. He did have a hard time the first night sleeping at my sister’s because I suspect he didn’t know where he was. But we didn’t hold him to sleep, so he did some crying, which worked out great because he can pretty much fall asleep now on his own when we put him down to sleep. (Well, until the NEXT cold/illness.) On the return flight, we Benadryled him up again and he slept for an hour — quite soundly. He was in a pretty good mood when he woke up, but as we started to descend, he started screaming because of the pressure in the ears. I could feel it myself. Thankfully, there were three other babies on board, so we weren’t the only ones. Peyton fell asleep close to landing. That’s the good thing about letting him cry it out — he gets really tired!

The thing that traumatized us the most during our trip was the incessant whining emitted by my nephews. Not just one — but three! Man, if it wasn’t one thing, it was something else and someone always cried/fought/questioned. I asked the hub to get a vasectomy as soon as we returned home. (People always ask why it took us so long to have kids… this is why.)

I’ve never really been one to be big on New Year. I’ve never had resolutions. To me, it’s just another day.

But 2009 brings many new things. New President! (Big YAY!) Baby’s first new year. (He was in bed by 6:30 PM.) This is also first new year that the hub and I didn’t stay up to kiss each other when the clock struck midnight.  The hub wanted to try, but I said, “Sleep is so precious now.” He couldn’t argue with that. (Both in bed by 10:30 PM — even that’s a little late for us!)

And this morning, it appears that Peyton is cutting his first teeth (bottom front). He’s really growing up! (And cranky!)

Happy new year!

Six Months and Happy Holidays

Peyton turned six months yesterday.  It’s amazing how the time has passed and how he’s grown! I really can’t believe that he’s been with us half a year already.

I started giving him veggies a few weeks ago and have come to learn he doesn’t like anything green: green beans, peas, avocados.  I was surprised about the latter (I had purchased fresh ones to mash up for him) because I had heard babies love them. Nope! Every time I gave Peyton some, he’d make a face like, “Whaaaat the heeeeck is thiiiis?!” (In this respect, he’s just like Dad!) However, he loves carrots and sweet potatoes. He can eat a whole container of sweet potatoes in one sitting. He also loves oatmeal. He’ll lunge at the spoon if we’re too slow feeding him and make this grunting noise. He also voluntarily opens his mouth now when we lift the spoon to his lips.

A few weeks ago, Peyton started getting his terrible cough and fever. The dr said we had to give him breathing treatments because he was wheezing — a danger sign for babies. I wasn’t at the dr visit (as I was at home sick in bed myself) but the hub took Peyton in and they put Peyton on a nebulizer. The hub said it was a terrible experience because Peyton screamed bloody murder and the hub had to hold him down.  The dr gave us the nebulizer mask, which had a fish face on it, and the hub went and got the machine for us to use at home — 2-3 treatments a day. Yes, Peyton screamed bloody murder almost every time, but you know what — he’d get so tired from it, he’d fall asleep!

The Parenthood Diet

I did not have the fortune to lose all my baby weight like everyone says they do when they breastfeed. At first, I was very upset when at three months post-partum, I still couldn’t fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I had go buy a few bigger tops when I returned to work. Then I read it can take a year. Even more depressing.

Slowly, but surely, the weight slipped off. One week, I lost about six pounds, which I attributed to the lack of time to snack and eat, and the long stroller walks that I would take with Peyton. I certainly wasn’t working out!

Then I hit a bit of a plateau because with the cold weather I wasn’t taking as many strolls with Peyton. Just as I was lamenting this — as luck would have it — Peyton gave me a stomach virus. I lost seven pounds from that (but gained back three). I told my coworker this once I returned to work and she asked me to lick her soda can before she drank it.

Now that I’m back at work, I’m able to have a decent lunch. But then I leave around 2pm to pick up Peyton, and I pretty much don’t eat until 7pm. This is probably not very good either, but it has helped me keep my weight down.

Two weeks after the stomach virus, I got — what I think — was the flu. I was in bed for two days and barely ate. This resulted in a loss of another three pounds.

While I am still some pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight — to my sheer delight — I actually fit into one pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans.  All I need is one more illness courtesy of my son to get me to lose a few more pounds. Who needs South Beach? Just have a sick kid!

5 Months and First Cold

I love my son. I really do. He is so cute sometimes when he laughs and squeals in delight. But I thought I was going to sell him on Craigslist last week.

He got a nasty cough and was all congested, so he was extremely fussy. But he didn’t have a fever. The dr told us that we’d have to let him ride it out because he was too young to be given anything. She said it would last about a week. (Big groan.) He was only drinking 2-4 oz and would also start screaming, which we attributed to a sore throat. We would hold him in our arms and let him sleep because he seemed so miserable. He’d wail and wail whenever he threw up. It made my heart break!

Then it started to really get bad. Peyton started waking up every hour in the middle of the night. Wanting to be held. Screaming from the coughing. Wanting to be fed. It was like he was newborn again… but I think much worse. At least he would sleep 2-3 hours as a newborn. Then the hub got sick. Real sick. A stomach virus of some sort. So he was bedridden and I had to take care of Peyton, who woke up every hour that night and I barely slept. He also suddenly wouldn’t go down in bed unless he was held. Every time I tried to put him down, he’d scream bloody murder. I nearly lost it!

But it gets better. Then I got the nasty stomach virus and the hub had to get up from bed and start taking care of Peyton. I spent the night kissing the toilet and wondering if it was better to be dead than to go through this sort of pain. (The hub asked me if it was as bad as contractions and I told him contractions were worse.) We both felt better by the end of the week and could return to work, but Peyton was still coughing and being difficult, so we had to both take half-days. Finally — yes, a full week later — Peyton was almost back to normal except for the whole not sleeping thing and wanting to be held to sleep.

On Saturday, we decided to let him cry it out a bit. He cried for 2 hours straight and scratched up his head from all the thrashing. We tried the Ferber method on Sunday, but the kid is pretty stubborn — never stopped crying. I don’t think I got more than 2 hours of sleep. (I almost didn’t wake up for work! We were all so tired from the night before — including Peyton — that we slept past our normal time.)

I dread the first cold for every parent. It is not pleasant. You will think your child was put on this earth to test your limits.

Besides that, the cereal eating has been going really well. I was following directions — giving it to him once a day — but he still seemed hungry. A work acquaintance told me to trust my instincts, so I started to give it to him twice a day and he’s been really loving it. He lunges at the spoon and gobbles it all up! He’ll also drink his usual 8 oz bottle. Next week I’m thinking of starting on veggies. I can’t wait!

Happy Halloween

The hub insisted on getting Peyton a costume for Halloween. I didn’t really think of getting him one because I thought it would be a waste, but the hub said this is our only chance to dress him up in something we want.

About two weeks ago, the hub got a chili pepper costume and it looked like it would fit. This week, I washed it and then yesterday we tried to see what Peyton would look like it in. Except… It. Didn’t. Fit.

The hub was like, “It says up to 20 lbs!” But it wasn’t the width, but the length. The kid is just too long.

The hub was very upset. He really wanted Peyton to have a costume, so we ran to Target and tried to find something that would fit.

First of all, there were no good costumes left. Then the ones that were left did not fit him! All too short!

I suggested we buy some tights and make a little cape, so Peyton could be a Mexican wrestler. The hub said no son of his was going to wear tights.

Four Month Baby Check-Up

Peyton… well, he’s a big boy.

He’s been feeding every 2.5 hours recently, taking in 7-8 oz each feeding. All the other babies in his class at daycare feed every 3-4 hours, 4-6 oz. Sometimes we try and make him wait 2 hours 45 mins or 3 hours, but he gets REALLY CRANKY by then. I told the dr and she said, “Hmm, I think he needs to start on solids.” Solids! So, we’re going to add cereal to his bottle. The dr said it might help with getting him to sleep through the night too. Fingers crossed!

Our little, big guy (as we like to call him) measured in at 17.12 lbs (95 percentile), 27 1/4 inches (92 percentile). He started to sit up a bit this week, which the dr said is a 6-7 month skill. When he’s on his tummy, he pushes up and spreads his fingers — a 7-8 month skill. And on his tummy, he pushes his legs back — signs that he may crawl early. (“He’s going to be a mover and shaker!” the dr said.)

Although he’s been drooling A LOT (like, waterfalls), he’s not teething yet — thank goodness. The poor guy has Mommy’s eczema and a stuffy nose from the change in environment, not a cold like we thought.

The hub had originally been called to jury duty today, and when he told me, I said, “No, you have to come to Peyton’s check-up with me. He’s going to get vaccinations and I can’t hold him down. I don’t think I can bear seeing him in pain.” So he rescheduled it, which is a good thing because Peyton got one oral and two needles. The hub had to hold his leg down to make sure he didn’t jerk/move while he got the shots. When Peyton got the first one, he blinked and then shrieked. I thought I was going to start bawling. Then he calmed down a bit and the second one came, he shrieked like there was no tomorrow. It was terrible!

Labor Day

Now that my life has “wound down” somewhat, I want to share my labor story. I want to preface this by saying that my experience was unique because I had a large baby and no one expected this at all. (Well, no one expected him to be THAT large.)

Also, if you truly would rather remain blissfully oblivious, don’t read any further.