Mr. Bright Eyes

Since I now have such a wake-y boy, I have been neglecting my blog. I am writing today with the unfortunate news that my blog is sure to be further neglected because I have to return to work tomorrow. Waaaah! Luckily, I am finishing out the year and knocking out some pd and then will return home for the rest of summer! Yay! I found out a few weeks ago that today is my 60th day of FMLA leave and after that your benefits expire. Yikes! So I am dragging myself back to work tomorrow. Honestly, I AM excited to see my kids, coworkers, and simply get out of the house. But I could do with about two days, instead of seven. And yes, if you are reading this and you had to go back to work after six weeks, please feel free to not pity me one bit. Being a SAHM is not really up my alley. I love my job and the sense of purpose it gives me. However, I wish so much that we were in a financial position that I could work part time. But we're not, so there you have it.
Back to the babe. Man, he has been SO alert! He just smiles and smiles all the time. He likes to do this thing where he is on his playmat and he makes this smug little smirk as if to say "Oh yeah, you think that's cool? Watch this." And then he smacks the crap out of the dangling animals. So then I will start carrying on "Oh wow! You're so strong!" and he just grins and grins showing off for his mama. ADORABLE! New faves are also being bounced on the bed and laying on my belly and flipping himself off onto the bed. And yes, we've videotaped it all.
Roman turned three months this past Tuesday. I wish he were going to the doctor, because I would love to see how much he weighs and his height, but not until next month. We have a new doctor by the way. Dr. Tim Corba at KidsRGr8 (I despise the name) Pediatrics. When I was pregnant I heard he was awesome, but I did not want to drive all the way to New Albany. Then when we found out our doctor sucks, I still figured we couldn't go to Dr. Corba because he has to be in network with Baptist East because of Warren's insurance. However, we found out we can and so we are. Best of all, NO required vaccinations!!!
I took three month photos of Roman yesterday and they are precious.

This is my favorite :)

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!!!

Rambling

Roman is settling into a nice little pattern. It's called sleep and lots of it. I am sure that I cannot possibly be lucky enough for this to last forever, but Roman is sleeping through the night every other night or so, getting up and sleeping another four hours. He is awake for about two hours, twice a day and then three to four hours before bed. It is magical. He is also taking up to 7 oz bottles. I feel like I could be overfeeding him, but I googled it and it seems ok. Speaking of google, thank goodness for google. What exactly did people do before it?
I had a fabulous and much needed weekend this past weekend. It was spring break for JCPS so Kerry and Nikki visited Thursday. Nikki even babysat so I could rescue my broken flash drive. Christie hung out all day Friday. Then Saturday we all, plus Ashley, had girls night at Kerrys. It was my first, as Ashley said, "kid party". Highlights of cuteness include Liam meeting Roman and saying, "Oh that's M..." looking at his sister sitting on the floor, looking back at Roman, utterly confused as to who the baby, who was NOT his sister, was. Then Liam's lullaby to Roman, "It's niiiight, and you're sleeeeepy, and the owls, hoo, hoo. And there's cornnn..." What? Even better than all the kids cuteness-all the kids ASLEEP! My darling husband was kind enough to come pick me up from Kerry's, so I could enjoy my sangria, courtesy of Nikki.
In other news, I am thinking about starting Weight Watchers. My mom has recently lost 16 lbs doing it. I have lost 23 lbs since Roman was born. I have 12 to lose from the baby, and yes I regret gaining as much as I did. I would also like to lose another 8 (well really 18, but we'll stick with 8) that I was packing before ever getting pregnant. So my grand total would be 20 lbs. I am a terrible dieter and a worse exerciser. I actually eat really healthy, very little processed foods, all whole grains, etc. I am bad at dieting because I love tortilla chips, cookies (organic and multigrain, but still a cookie), and wine. I don't really want to fork out the money, but if it works... we'll see. I also really want to go to Pure Barre, but considering it is like a million dollars, that is definitely not happening.
Roman is smiling more and more. At everyone but me. Except for when I was singing a Jay Z song the other day when he woke up during my workout. He actually will turn away to smile at someone else, just to not smile at me. I swear, it really makes me miss my other kids, who love me back. Ooooh and I get to be their teacher again next year too, I am going to third grade with them! Back to my grumpy baby, he isn't bad, he doesn't cry much, but he is just a grumpy old man little thing! I hope he gets more cheerful!
Next week Annie is coming to KY for a visit and I am so excited! More girl time!!!! I need some Warren time too. We were supposed to have a date night last week, but he worked late, I had a rough day with the baby, and Zeus got sick which prevented Dad from being able to watch Roman. Soon, hopefully!