Modern Day June Cleaver

Emmett is 13 weeks or 3 months old, depending on how you want to count it.  This is about the time that most working mothers begin to return to the office, give or take a couple of weeks.  Simply put, I do NOT know how women balance having a career and having an infant.  Adding something as complicated as getting to the office by 8 am and concentrating for 8+ hours a day on something other than my baby is unfathomable to me.  The sort of efficiency, dedication and organization that this must require is incredible and I have unmeasurable amounts of respect for those who make it work.  I am grateful every morning that we have made the decision that I am going to stay home with our children.

I always had a picture in my head of what the life of a stay at home mother was like, and what she would do on a daily basis.  The reality is far from the vision I had in my head. I am not a domestic goddess, who is perfectly coiffed and has an elaborate meal prepared for my husband when he gets home from work.  Half the time I haven't even managed to make myself breakfast or lunch, but the baby is always fed and happy. Our house is rarely spotless.  When it is, it's thanks to the housekeeper, not me. It is always neat and organized and I always know what needs to be done when I can find the time.  I don't greet my husband at the door every day to find out how his day was. Generally when Todd gets home from work, Emmett and I are laying on the floor somewhere playing, with a bunch of toys and burp clothes leading a trail to our location like breadcrumbs. I have three goals every day, and in my opinion anything else I achieve before 1 pm when Todd gets home is gravy:

1) Have the bed made. Even if that's where we are hanging out and playing.
2) Kitchen cleaned, dishes done. At least from the night before.
3) Baby and Mom dressed.  Please note being "dressed" is subjective.  Yoga pants and a sweatshirt are fine, as long as it wasn't the outfit that Todd saw me in when he left for the office.  Having showered is ideal but not required.


If someone had told me 10 years ago that I was going to be a "housewife" or stay at home mom, I would have laughed at them.  I always anticipated that I would be bored staying at home with a baby, and would not want to forfeit everything that I had worked so hard to achieve.  I didn't think it would be challenging enough for me to be at home.  WOW- I honestly don't think I have ever been so wrong!  Staying at home is a different kind of challenge than having a career, but if it is one thing, it is filled with constant, new challenges and is so different than I envisioned it being.


Our challenge for the last week has been trying to begin establishing a sleep schedule and routine.  The first part of this was moving Emmett from our room to his nursery at night.  This was really, really tough for me.  Emmett has seemed completely unphased by it...in fact, he seems to be sleeping better than ever.  Maybe he was looking for a little space?   We are still on the same schedule during the day- he naps every hour to hour and half for varying lengths of time.  At night, however, we made some changes since he moved to his room and been able to establish a very promising pattern for the last week.

Everything that I have read says that part of creating good sleep habits for your infant involves establishing a set sleep time routine that he will recognize. So now, every night between 6 and 7 pm Todd and I read Emmett a book, feed him, kiss him goodnight, rock him for a little bit and put him to bed.  So far, it has been working out pretty well.  There have been a few nights where he fights going to sleep- he is, after all, mine and Todd's child. That stubborn streak runs deep in him!  And he woke up wanting food a couple of nights around 9:30 pm but went back to sleep while he was eating.  The result has been him sleeping until 4-6:30 am every morning.  At 13 weeks, I am MORE than happy with these results.  Of course, this doesn't mean that I am getting a ton of sleep.  Since he is now downstairs and sleeping so well, I get nervous and end up checking on him multiple times during the night just to make sure that he is ok.  Hopefully I will get over this and we will be a well rested family!

Emmett being cute...and showing off his developing neck control.

Now that he can roll over, using the Boppy is the only way we get tummy time in!

A wonderful Saturday afternoon out and about.

It's fall in Portland.  Time for cute hats!

The one problem Todd and I are having with the rocker- we put ourselves to sleep along with the baby :)

The power of a good mobile!  Yes, Emmett had the twins in his crib.

And as usual, Emmett and Milena ended up holding hands.  Isn't that sweet!?

Family of Sickos

I have never been a huge fan of souvenirs from trips or vacations.  Although, I understand that they can help with sentimental reflections, I've always preferred relying on photos and memories. This is particularly true with the latest trip that we took to California.  It was Emmett's first flight and time being away from home.  My brother married a wonderful woman who my entire family adores.  Despite all of the wonderful memories created by this trip I HATE the souvenir we brought back with us- a cold/flu bug that Emmett and I had a really hard time shaking!

I started feeling ill the day of my brothers wedding, a sore throat that was on fire and horrible congestion. While I was getting ready for the wedding, I sent Todd to Whole Foods to get me some lozenges and medicine.  By the end of the night, I was hitting my Dad up for Sudafed which he miraculously had a stash of in his suit pocket.  The next day, I headed to the regular pharmacy to ask the pharmacist which medicine was safe for a nursing mother to take, she recommended Advil Cold & Sinus.  By the time we left California the following morning, I had the full blown flu and felt horrible.  Unknowingly, I had also created a serious problem for myself on top of being sick- I took multiple decongestants and menthol lozenges, all of which are known to dry up a nursing mother's milk supply.  Our first day home, I noticed a significant reduction in my milk supply.  For the first time since he was born, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to provide enough food for my baby.  This coupled with Emmett being much more needy than normal and wanting to eat non-stop lead to complete  panic about my diminished capacity to feed my baby.

I have to say, that being sick and not being able to take any medication is really awful.  But do you know what is worse?  Having a sick 10 week old that you know is feeling as poorly as you do, who can't tell you how he is feeling or what is bothering him.  It was a horrible experience.  Luckily, Todd pretty much just stayed away from the two of us so he didn't get sick.  This enabled him to do crucial things for Emmett and I, like go and get me a nursing supplement so that my milk supply increased back to normal production and get food for me so that neither of us starved.  I also researched a few things that I could and did do for Emmett to speed up his recovery:

• Aspirate his nose with salt water so that it was clear and not congested. (VERY unpleasant for both of us.)
• Place him in a steam filled room for 10+ minutes to help him breathe easier.  (He liked this one.)
• Keep nursing him no matter how poorly I felt.  When a mother is ill the antibodies her body is creating pass to the child so that he recovers quicker than if his developing immune system had to create them on his own.
• Colostrum- the initial milk that a mother produces if filled with immune boosting agents and anti-bodies.  At the suggestion of our doula, I froze two feedings of this for an occasion just like this.

At this point, Emmett is feeling better- the gummy grin that greets me each morning and through out the day is what I am basing this on.  I am still mildly congested, but beyond that I seem to be finally recuperating.   The only real lingering issue is that either the cold or the traveling seems to have thrown Emmett's wonderful sleep schedule all out of whack!  He is still sleeping 7+ hours through the night, but for some reason he thinks that his night starts around 11 pm.  His napping is still great during the day, but come 8 pm he just wants to hang out with Mom and Dad and not sleep like he used to.  One day, he will understand that anything after 7 pm is supposed to be Mom and Dad ONLY time.  

On a more positive note, our little buddy has started rolling over!  Todd laid him down for tummy time one night while I was making dinner and BAM.  He just started going...and he hasn't stopped since!  Right now it is just tummy to back rolling (thank god!)  Check out the video below of our little guy rollin'.

    

Also, we received our DVD of Emmett's newborn photo session from Kristen Honeycutt.  I can't believe how little he was!  Or how big he has gotten!!  Below are a few additional photos from the session and a link to the album on Snapfish for those of you who would like to order photos:

Emmett's Newborn Photo Session with Kristen