I think it's worth getting up for

I have been trying to get a copy of my medical records from BAM's birth since the end of July. It's now the end of August and I'm feeling a bit neglected and very frustrated! I need them to apply for short term disability, so I can still get a little $$ since my Paid Annual Leave has now run out. I was informed that the doctors have 30 days from discharge to get the records finished and submitted to medical records. I was discharged on the 20th of July...It's now the 31st of August. Either someone can't count, or there is no reaction for not submitting medical records in a timely fashion. I have called and called the records department. Each time I'm told "No, we don't have them yet." First I was told that they'd have them by the 15th of August. I called the 16th. I was told then that it would be following Monday "for sure." I called Tuesday. I was told "they have 30 days to submit it, but we'll call you when they do." I called after 30-some days. Still wasn't in. Now it's been a month and a half and still nothing! I'm half tempted to call the doctor's office myself and see if I can add a little push from that direction. I'm going to call again in the morning, and see what excuse they give this time. Maybe they've had it all this time and just don't care to go looking cause it's not where they think it *should* be. I've had that happen to me before. Then, surprise surprise, look, it's been here for 3 weeks!

Like my bridesmaid's dress for my friend's wedding. I ordered it the end of July, and was told it would be in before the 19th of September. I hadn't gotten around to calling them yet, cause my phone allowance has been used up on calling MIH for my records... Anyways, she's on the ball and calling to see if they're in. Guess what? My dress has been in since August 19th. Did I get a call? nope, nothing, nada, zip, zilch...etc. I guess I have to go try it on and get it hemmed...even with heels. The dresses are made for the tall people, people who are like 6'2" so they don't have to add fabric. But that means that average people like me at 5'3" need a bazillion inches hemmed off. I'd skip it if I could, but really, when there's 6 inches of fabric pooling on the floor AFTER I have my heels on...something is off...

Phone etiquette these days just isn't what it used to be. The lifeguard at the pool resorted to texting the office manager to let her know he wouldn't be in the next day due to a football game. There goes our pool time! I was looking forward to spending more time in the pool with the bambino, but the hours have been cut back to 5pm-8pm. Who wants to go swimming at that time of night in August?! I'm sure some places it's still very hot at that time of day, but here it's starting to cool off and the sun is behind the trees.

Speaking of the bambino, Brendon is already wearing some 3 month clothes! He can fit into some newborn outfits still, but for the most of them he is too long. I was looking at the tags of some of the clothes, and they say "3 months: 8-12 lbs." According to the label, my son should have been wearing 3 month clothes at birth?! and he should be out of them?! I think the labels are a bit off. Maybe they're more guidelines than actual rules.

This weekend, we are embarking on a first time journey: traveling out of town with a newborn. Traveling on an airplane out of town with a newborn. I'm excited to go, because I'm eager to see the family, but at the same time I know what it will do to Brendon's schedule. *not looking forward to that* We're staying afloat, doing much better this Monday than last Monday. Last Monday, I was pulling my hair out, ready to try anything to get him to sleep between feedings and to last longer than 2 hours between them. I read this book On Becoming Babywise, and I think it's helping. At least, I know when he'll be ready to nap. I don't have to guess if he's going to nap this time or not. I'm not too strict on the scheduling part, like the book says too. But for the most part, it's going well. He's got his feedings to about every 2 1/2-3 hours during the day, and at night from 3-4 1/2 hours. I'm not sure what it is that gets him to last longer, else I'd be doing it! I guess I could make him wait, so he'll be more hungry to eat, so he'll eat more, so he'll go longer. But you try to just not feeding a starving frantic baby and we'll see how long you last! It's hard. Especially when you try to soothe him and he starts rooting and pulling and whimpering cause he knows there somewhere. And I'm not about to just ignore him in his crib. The few times I've done that, let him cry for a while, was because I was tied up-showering or driving or something where I just couldn't help him. And those few times he had tears streaming down his cheeks-very heart yanking!

I think my favorite time of day is now the mornings. Let me explain that statement lest you think I have converted to a morning person. I still wish the mornings came at like 1pm, that waking up wasn't so stinking hard, that we could have afternoons first; but my mornings have just been so...lovely since I've been able to spend it with Brendon. He normally wakes up and eats anywhere from 7am-8am. I try for 7:30, but a half hour either way is my leeway. So he'll eat, then snooze for like a minute while he recovers from the soothing flavor. Then we spend about a hour or so on the bed playing and talking. This is the time when he smiles and talks the most. Maybe it's just cause I don't have anything else that I'm doing, so I can devote all my time to him. Maybe it's because he's so happy that I'm still her. I don't know. All I know is that I look forward to those times and I'm going to miss it when I go back to work. After he's been up for a while and goes down for his morning nap, I start my day. That's not too far off from before he was born, but a far cry from the 9:30-10am mornings I had enjoyed. But it's worth getting up early for, so worth it!

What big teeth you have!

Today was BamBam's one month check-up. I knew he was huge, this appointment confirmed it. He's 12 pounds, 8 ounces, 23 inches long/tall, and his head is 15 inches around. His weight has him passed the 100-percentile, and his length in the 95 percentile. Which means (I'll admit it, I still have to think about it this way). He weighs more than 100% of babies his age, and he's taller/longer than 95% of them. I guess all that spitting up he's doing isn't harming his growth. He didn't get any shots today, they come next month. I hope he doesn't scream bloody murder, the way he does when I pull something over his head to dress him.

*rabbit trail* I just got a whiff of my shirt...yuck...BamBam spit up on me. Suppose it comes with the territory. I was going to change it, but I fell prey to the But-First Syndrome. I was going to change my shirt, but first I should do the laundry so I have clean clothes, but first I should nap while the bambino naps, but first I need to update my blog so my husband doesn't do it for me, but first I should find something to make for dinner, but first I should read my emails and blog readers...and on it could go. So, I found something for dinner (I think, if I'm adventurous to make it), I read my emails, my shirt still smells like spit up, the laundry is sitting in the basket staring at me, and I'll be falling asleep about 8pm tonight. Don'tcha love it?

Blondie has gone off to a real live college this fall. Last year, she stayed at home and went to a community college and worked. This year, she's out in the hills?...mountains?...lands! of Tennessee. I clicked through her pictures on facebook, and was surprised to see that she's already made quite a few friends-several guys too! She had her arms around one, she and another girl were kissing another guy's cheeks...and this is a "Christian" college? I mean, I'm not all for the BJU style "absolutely no touching, don't even think about touching to push him out of the way of a falling piano" strict, but I think this college is waaay over on the liberal side. Know what they told her about clothes? Her shorts have to have at least a 6 inch inseam. AT LEAST 6 INCHES?! That's like, what, just enough to cover your butt cheeks? I just had to get that off my chest. I'm good now.

Back to family news. Thing One is headed up to NY with Dad to check out a merchant marine academy. He's been trying to get someone to go since I went off to college! I'm not sure what the merchant marines are/do/is, but I've always imagined that they all work on mast ships selling and traded wool and stuff like that. I mean, the name is very dis-leading. Merchant-why not say clerk or cashier or something else that gives that impression? Merchant--like, Hello, I'm a shopkeeper from the 1700's. Nice to meet you. Then there's Marines. I think of tough, dirty, buff soldiers, don't you? No hair, thick muscles, decked out in BDU's or something. Those two words just don't mix, like Microsoft Works. No it doesn't. Heh, I made a funny!

Forget what I said about falling asleep at 8, I'm propping my eyelids up with toothpicks right now. So I'm gonna go take a little snooze while the bambino is sleeping, maybe he'll sleep for longer that 45 mins. That's been his going rate these days. Crying is good for the lungs, right?

Wordless Wednesday

We, meaning mom-in-law, Melinda, the bambino and I, headed out to the NEW! Target. It was a nice experience. The store still had the new, clean smell. All the racks were nicely organized. Everything was fully stocked.

This one, we hadn't gone anywhere, except to send a letter and check the mail. I put him in the sling in the first place because he wouldn't sleep for more than 20 mins by himself. He slept in the sling for about an hour and a half. Enough time to go visit the office people who were dying to see him again, and to put BamBam's clothes away, and to make some cookies. But as usual, the cookies cooked a little too long...oh well. Maybe one day, I'll be a good cookie maker.

I have a wrap too. I even got a picture with BamBam in it, but I'm not sure where that picture is. It might be on my camera, but my memory card reader went kaput the other day, so it'll just have to sit there until I can find another reader. While the bambino is sleeping, I think I shall take a nap too. It's time.

Mike, Emily, this is especially for you. Leah and Cory named their baby girl Corah Reagan. I wasn't sure if you saw it on facebook but wanted to make sure you knew.

new belly button and babies

MCM's mom left today. The bambino and I took her to the airport. It's just us again. I'm kinda hesitant to see how we'll do. I haven't cooked or cleaned or done laundry since she arrived two weeks ago. I tried to make dinner last night, french toast, but Brendon decided it was time to eat before I could finish. I think we can do this though. I mean, we aren't the first, and won't be the last. Our friends, Cory and Leah just had their baby last night. Miss Baby Girl was born at 11:51pm, weighing 9lbs and 9 oz, and 21 1/2 inches long. She's as big as Brendon is NOW. BamBam was a week and a half late, and Miss Baby Girl was two weeks early. I just realized, of our three babies, Bee, BamBam, and Miss Baby Girl, they've just gotten bigger and bigger: 7.2, 8.4, and now 9.9....I think Devon, who's due in January had better watch out!! Leah's blood pressure was super high, so they induced her labor. I'm planning on headed over to see her this evening. I have to wait till MCM gets home to watch BamBam, cause hospitals don't let outside babies on L&D floors. Cory and Leah hadn't decided on a name for their little girl yet, but I'm excited to meet her anyways!

Here's a cute picture of BamBam sleeping in his moses basket that Aunt Shannon sent for him. I don't have to worry about him flinging himself off the couch. He's go

tten good at scooting himself around in bed or on the couch.

When I lay him down, I put his feet by the back, and in about 15 mins, he'll have wiggled so that his head is where his feet were and he's practically smooshed his face into the back crack of the couch. Silly boy!

Saturday, my baby boy's cord stump fell off. It was looking pretty nasty, and it was bleeding every now and then, not much, but enough to be gross. Then Saturday morning, I took his PJ's off and there it was! It was sitting on his diaper just staring at me. And there was his precious belly button...well, it will be precious when it heals up. It's almost there. So Saturday night we gave him his bath. I think he tolerated it well. He didn't cry. It looked like he might have once or twice, but he didn't. The look on his face when I

lowered him

into the water was priceless. Kinda like, "What the--?!" MCM took the pictures, and he did a good job. Then we swapped; he got the baby and I took pictures of them. He's so good with BamBam.

That monkey and this giraffe are from the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. We went Saturday morning. It was kinda boring. Definitely geared to the younger population. Half of the exhibits were closed :( and it was super hot and humid. BamBam did good though, until his tummy said he can't wait any longer to be filled. Then we came home and we all crashed on the couches/beds in the house.

Well, I gotta go make something for lunch and go meet MCM at work.