Mother's Day

I had a lovely first Mother's Day. Warren made me pancakes for breakfast, we went on a picnic at Cherokee and snacked on my favorite cheese, Truffle Tremor, and we had a yummy mexican dinner followed by blackberry peach cobbler. I got an adorable birdie charm bracelet and a cute purse with an embroidered bird. I am one lucky mama. And the icing on the cake was that Roman rolled over for the first time Mother's Day afternoon!!! We also got the sweetest visit from our downstairs neighbors, a couple about our age with a 6 month old. They brought us cookies and me a mother's day card. How precious!!! So obviously, I must start doing baby stuff with her.

picnic

baby zen

bracelet

This weekend was also exciting because (and no I'm not going to say the Derby) our friends Lee and Tricia are selling their house. They live on the same street as we lived/will live. So Ashley caught wind of this (through an immediate phone call by yours truly) and her and Jeremiah are making an offer!!!!! To quote Ashley, "All my childhood dreams are coming true!" Lee and Tricia have an adorable house and I of course love the neighborhood.
Speaking of houses, allegedly they are going to start building ours soon. Considering it was supposed to be finished May 1, I really hope they get this show on the road. I have been selecting things at Lowes and will be very excited to take pictures when I finally have a house to take pictures of.
Annnd speaking of pictures, I recently went to pick up the photos from Roman's newborn photo session. I must say, I love Jessie Kreich-Higdon. She is a doll. When I picked the pictures up, we sat and talked forever about pediatricians, bullys, music class, and all kinds of other mama stuff. I just enjoy talking to people who are the same speed as me in regards to parenting. I think I might start going to this new mom's group at Mama's Hip for the same reason. They also have Mommy and Me yoga, hosted by Owl Tree Yoga that I might try as well. Oh and I am going to sign up for the Music Together summer session. I have GOT to get out of this condo, can you tell?
Jessie and I were talking about pediatricians because I am sorry to say, but after stringing us along, our pediatrician said that we could not been seen without the pertussis vaccine. Now, I know she has other patients who are not vaccinated so I am not quite sure what is going on with that. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that when I took Roman in for his two month checkup, our doctor, who is in practice by herself, was out and there was a substitute doctor who was NOT a fan of us skipping the DTaP and the Hep B. I am wondering if she said something to my doctor. I am working up the nerve to call them back and be assertive. I would still like to go there, mostly just because I don't feel like looking for another doctor.
My OB, now there's a good doctor. The Reglan worked great. I never made MORE milk than ever, but I consistently made daily what I had made at my best on my own. However, I have been off it for two days and have NO milk. My OB is writing a prescription for domperidone, which I have to order from a compounding pharmacy in North Carolina. It has less side effects than Reglan, which is great, but I think I am going to have to pay out of pocket for it. Which is not great.
I found out last week that I have to go back to work. So I can keep paying for all these drugs I am taking! My benefits expire May 27th. So I have to go back that day. It won't be too bad. It's a Friday and an overlap day for me and the sub. Mom will have the baby. They we are going to go to Murray for Memorial Day, see my adorable niece's dance recital, and bring Joy back here with us. I have to work with kids Tuesday-Thursday and Friday is teachers' last day. So Joy will watch Roman all week. Fred's going to come get her and help out as well. My visit at work last week went well. It was nicer than I thought to see my coworkers, and not as nice as I thought to see my kids. They were CRAZY! Thank goodness I only have to go back for a few days!
Warren is talking about going back to school. To learn, not to teach :) He is setting up to take his GRE and apply to grad school for his Masters in Public Health. Baptist East pays for his school so it sounds good to me.
Christie had a dentist appointment today and is coming to hang out the rest of the day! Yay!!!!

Easter Celebrations

We just got home from a long Easter weekend in Murray. Roman was officially introduced to the Thomas family. The entire family was there except one person, I believe 47 in all. Roman first met his cousins. Bella was so cute- she would check on Roman while he slept, she "helped" change diapers and his clothes, and the highlight for her was getting to hold and feed him. Cole, in a typical boyish manner, alternated between kissing his new cousin and poking him in the nose. Warren's sister and her fiance were in from California. It was her first time seeing the baby and our first time seeing her fiance, who was nice as can be! Bella was so funny because she was OBSESSED with my breast pump. When we got there Roman was hungry and I said I needed to feed him. She asked if I took my shirt off to feed him. I told her no, and sort of in a four year old way, explained why. She obviously remembers her mom nursing her brother, but was fascinated by this crazy boob machine. She wanted to see how it worked, assemble the pieces for me, and help me "work my boobs". When the milk would come out she would exclaim "It's milk! The milk's coming out!" At the official family get together Roman was passed from aunt to aunt, but mostly hanging out with JoAnn and Peggy. We were talking to Warren's cousin Josh about him and his wife having kids so he decided to have a go round with Roman. I gave him Roman and he was feeding him. He stopped to burp him and Roman spit up all over him. It wasn't that much spit up, but somehow it managed to splatter completely across Josh's shirt. Nice intro to parenthood! I cried when we left yesterday. The stay in Murray was great, the car ride there and back, not so much. The annoyance of crying is greatly multiplied when you are in a confined space! We survived though. I don't know how we are going to fit everything in the car to go on vacation this summer. We were packed front to back just for this trip! I have cute Easter photos that I will share soon.
So the bad thing that happened over the weekend was that I almost completely stopped making milk. Not that I was making much anyways, but still. I talked to Warren's cousin's wife, Jessica, about it and she said she took Reglan. I didn't try it before because I didn't like the side effects, but now I'm desperate. I called my OB and she called it in yesterday. I just took the first pill. So we'll see how it goes.
Speaking of side effects, Rain got me on a tear about vaccines over the weekend. She had a bad reaction to the pertussis vaccine, and never had any follow ups. Warren and Mason never had it due to her reaction. After A LOT of research, I think we are only going to do a few vaccines. Mainly we want to skip MMR, DTaP (the pertussis part), and Hep B. A few others as well. We want to follow the Dr. Sears selective schedule, minus the pertussis. We are still waiting to sort this out with our pediatrician. Fingers crossed!
Zeus is coming home tonight. Ahhhh-I'm nervous!
This Friday I have to go to school for my end of year evaluation. I'm taking Roman and going to see my kids and I am so so excited!!!

Ahhhh...quiet.

I just got the boy off to sleep. I am working this week on tracking his sleep, so I can try to start getting him on a schedule. I even made a spreadsheet on google docs that I must say makes me feel a little psycho. There are colors for eat, sleep, and awake. The schedule is really for me; he seems to do just fine. I just really need to start getting out of the house more and would like to be able to kind of plan when to do it. Plus I cannot begin to explain how the time blurs together and Warren and I can't remember when he slept, when he ate, when he needs to eat again, etc. Speaking of eating, that is about the only time my grumpy butt baby is ever happy. He doesn't cry much, but he is a fussy little thing. He fusses awake, he fusses asleep, and he even fusses towards the end of his bottle. He fusses in his swing, he fusses on his playmat. He fusses when he farts, which is alarmingly often (like I'm not quite sure it's normal!). He fusses changing clothes, he fusses changing diapers. Joy says it's the Thomas in him making him so grumpy. He won't really openly smile at you either, the best you get is a little smirk. EXCEPT he will grin it up at Warren everyday when he gets home. Me...never. We had family photos taken this past Sunday by the wonderful Jessie Kriech-Higdon (more about that later!) and she posted some teasers yesterday. There is a photo where you look and think, "Oh how cute, look at Roman smile." But I know the truth. That is no smile. A yawn, a noise, or something made him open his mouth up, but it wasn't a smile. Anyways, the photos are precious. My little man looks as handsome as can be. I will post her teasers later. So Kentucky had a good run. They were undefeated since Roman's birth, making it all the way to the Final Four, but on Saturday Roman's good luck ran out. I was just happy they made it as far as they did because I got some good use out of his newborn UK outfits :) He has now offically outgrown anything newborn size and I have a whole bag full of clothes he outgrew. It is so crazy. I am so afraid it will all go by so fast I won't be able to remember. He went to the doctor for his one month checkup last week. He was 9 lbs 6 oz. I think he seems abnormally strong still. He can roll from side to side and if he's on his belly he can scoot a little. He also is pulling at my hair. Hard. With a death grip. It's funny too when he lays on his playmat he hits the dangling animals until he gets really frustrated and starts fussing. I think he is ready for some mobility to kick it. I hate to break it to him, but he still has awhile. I am getting really excited for Easter. It will be Roman's first big holiday. (I do not count St. Patricks Day as a big holiday until you are of drinking age.) While Joy was here she and I went and I got Easter baskets for the whole family from World Market and lots of stuffers. We are going to Murray and I am so excited to see everyone and especially for Roman to meet his cousins! Not that he'll know, so I guess it would be better to say for his cousins to meet him :) Eventually I hope to have more to say than the play by play of Roman's every move, but right now we've been stuck inside due to weather and age :) So that's all I've got.