I took Thomas for his 4 month appointment today.  He was asleep, so I had to wake him up to get weighed.  He weighed 14 pounds, 10 ounces.  That was the 50th percentile.  His length was 27 inches, which was 90th percentile.  The doctor said he is hitting all of his milestones- rolling over, etc.  He did get one shot and an oral vaccine.  At two months, he didn’t even flinch when he had his shots.  Well, today he did NOT like getting his shot.  He screwed up his face, turned beet red and started screaming.

We had lots of questions for the doctor, especially about feeding him solids.  She gave us the go-ahead to start him on rice cereal.  I’m so excited!  I hope to start tomorrow night at dinner.  I will definitely get some photos.  After a few days, we can start adding a new food every 3-4 days.  I would really like to make my own baby food.  My mom did that for me, and I think it will be better for him than the jarred variety.  

Oh, my goodness.  This is SO difficult.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  I love my baby, and I wouldn’t trade him for anything.  I also love my job.  I just don’t know how to make it all work.  I’ve only been back for four days, and I’m already sick!  I’ve just been so overwhelmed by it all.  I felt like I did better last week when I first went back.  Maybe it was the adrenaline rush from the excitement of going back to work?  My poor husband has come home to me crying the last two days.  I really need to get it together.  Taking care of the baby seems to be the easy part.  I feed him,  change him, play with him, put him to bed.  I just can’t get the rest of it.  I started making lunches at night, because I ran out of time in the morning.  I tried to get dinner together last night, but couldn’t do it.  My husband picked up Chinese food.  I managed to make dinner tonight, but left an incredible pile of dishes.  My husband cleaned up and was curious as to how I managed to use quite so many dishes (including the Cuisinart!!).  He put the baby to bed, and is currently trying to put the Cuisinart back together.  I think he figured it out.  I still have to pump, make lunches for tomorrow and get myself to bed.   Tomorrow, Thomas goes in for his four month appointment.  I can’t wait to see what he weighs!  

Thomas turned four months old on Saturday.  We didn’t do anything special.  When he turned one month old, we had a cake.  Yesterday, he was just fussy all day.  He wasn’t nursing well, and I have a feeling that it is connected to bottle feeding at the sitter.  I finally gave him a bottle before bed, and he ate it hungrily.  He had woken up at 3:30 that morning, and I didn’t want a repeat!  It worked.  He woke up at 5:30 this morning- his “usual” wake-up time.  He nursed well this morning (same as yesterday morning) but then was fussy at lunchtime.  So I gave him another bottle.  I don’t want him to eat only formula, but pumping is a challenge for me. I just don’t produce a lot with the pump.  I’ll keep working at it.  

His new “thing” is putting everything in his mouth.  Here are a few examples:

I think I timed my return to work pretty well.  I went back on a Thursday, so I only had to work two days before getting a weekend break.  I also lucked out because Monday is a teacher work day- no kids!  I feel a pretty big sense of relief right now.  Going back wasn’t as bad as I thought.  Taking the baby to the sitter wasn’t so bad, either.  When I picked up Thomas yesterday from the “regular” sitter, he was in her Baby Bjorn with a big smile on his face.  That made me so happy!  Knowing that he was having a good time with the other kids assuaged a lot of my guilt.  I want to be the one to take care of him.   She gave me an update (I had called on my lunch break) and also told me what a happy and affectionate baby he is.  I shared that with my husband, and he thought that was a great compliment for Thomas to get.  It made us feel that we’re doing a good job raising him.  Happy and affectionate.  

As I’ve posted before, Thomas has been sleeping well.  He will go down at 7:30 pm, and get up around 5:30 am.  Well, this morning he was up at 3:30 crying!  He was wet and hungry.  He nursed for an hour!  When I took my childbirth classes at the hospital, the nurse happened to be the resident Lactation Consultant.  She shared with us the story of a mom who went back to work and had to make up a feeding schedule for her baby.  The baby had been sleeping through the night, but started waking up in the night for a feeding.  He wasn’t getting enough during the day, so she had to re-work her feeding schedule.  I think I may have the same issue here.  I have no way of knowing how much he gets when he eats, so I took a guess and made up 4 oz. bottles.  I will increase them to 5 oz. and see if that helps.  I can’t be getting up at 3:30 every morning.  I’ve got to be at work by 7:30.  I need my sleep!

I made it through my first day back at work!  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I thought I would be crying all day, but I only cried on the drive there.  We had a bit of babysitter drama.  My sitter’s kids are sick, and I didn’t want little Thomas to catch something on his first day.  A friend had offered to watch him if I ever needed her, so I called her.  She totally came through!  I had to stop at the sitter’s house to pick up the Pack N Play, then drive to school to meet my friend.  She has two kids at my school, and I taught her daughter a few years ago.  She said Thomas did great.  He took his first bottle, but wouldn’t take his first nap.  He just played in the playpen.  Then he took his second bottle, and took a HUGE nap!  He slept for 2 1/2 hours.  Then he took a third bottle right before she brought him back to meet me.  We went to the grocery store, and he fell asleep in the car.  He slept for another full hour.  What a little trooper.  I am so proud of him.  

My day started pretty early- I was up at 5 am.  I showered, made breakfast for me and hubby, made lunch for me and hubby, and managed to eat my breakfast.  All this before baby got up!  He woke up around 6am, I fed him and changed him.  We were on the road by 7am.  I thought it went pretty smoothly.  Tomorrow he’ll start at the real sitter’s.  Hopefully things will go just as smoothly.  Her kids are better, but they might still be staying home.  

As for my day, it was very busy.  That is the best kind of day.  The kids were glad to have me there, and I was lucky enough to keep my sub for a transition day.  Tomorrow I’m on my own, though.   

Yesterday was my last day of maternity leave.  I am pretty sad.  I had planned on staying home for six months, but it didn’t work out.  I work for a very large school district, and their policies weren’t clear.  I didn’t figure out how it all worked until I was eight weeks into my leave.  

It was a really great four months.  I loved every minute.  I think back to those early days when Thomas was up every few hours during the night.  I didn’t know what I was doing, but I did the best I could.  My husband was amazing.  In those first few weeks he took care of the laundry and grocery shopping.  He made all the meals, brought me breakfast in bed.   I knew that Thomas would eventually sleep through the night, and in turn I would, too.  

 Here we are, only four months in.  Thomas sleeps through the night, I’m able to go shopping and make meals.   I head to work today.  I’ll drop my baby at the sitter.  My life has already changed, but this will be an even different change.  

This week, Thomas has “shown an interest” in our food and drinks.  A few times, he kind of went for my cup of water.  I tried to let him sip from the cup, but I didn’t want to spill it all over him.  Well, today he went for Daddy’s cup of water.  It was really full, so Daddy just had to tip it a little bit and Thomas was able to drink a little.  More water ended up on Daddy’s shirt.  Plus, Thomas is so slobbery I’m sure he ended up with drool in the cup.  Regardless, it was just so cute!  

I think Thomas might be teething- he is always chewing on something.  He was chewing pretty hard on the plastic cup.  He also seemed to like the ice water. It must have been soothing on his aching gums.  I don’t plan on giving him a bottle of water- from what I know, he gets all his “liquids” from his milk and formula.  

It’s been 16 weeks since Thomas was born, and we have gone through a LOT of diapers.  Some were given to us, and some we bought.  One friend even gave us a set of cloth diapers.  

Here is my current opinion:Huggies: (2 smilies out of 5)

Pampers:  (4 smilies out of 5)

Costco/Kirkland:  (5 smilies out of 5) 

When we were in the hospital, they gave us a pack of Pampers Swaddlers.  They were the best!  They had the little notch in the front for the umbilical cord.  They also had a yellow line down the front that turned blue if the diaper was wet.  You didn’t have to open up the diaper or change a dry diaper.  That was the newborn size.  The size 1 and 2 diapers don’t have that feature, but they’re good. They fit him well,  and were very absorbant.

My sister bought us a pack of Costco/Kirkland diapers in size 1/2.  That was actually a great size.  We ended up buying a few packs ourselves.  They are less expensive than Pampers, and not quite as soft, but equally absorbent.  They are definitely my favorite diapers.

Last week a friend bought us a pack of Huggies.  They have a good reputation, and I was glad to get diapers without having to pay for them.  They are not worth it!  For the third time this week (wearing Huggies), Thomas has had poop all the way up his back.  It is so disgusting.  I don’t understand why they are leaking.  They have elastic on the back, and they seem to fit him.  I will definitely not be buying Huggies diapers. 

I managed to find a pumpkin patch near my house, but I wasn’t impressed.  I grew up in southern California, where you could pick apples in Julian, or have a really fun pumpkin picking experience at Bates’ Nut Farm.  There is nothing that authentic around here.  So, off we went to a local church that had a pretty wide variety of pumpkins.  They were big and small; orange, white, and red; oblong, round and squat.  I wasn’t too sure about the ones with bubbly flesh.  

My main goal, of course, was to snap a great shot of baby among the pumpkins.  We did get that shot, so it was a successful trip.   We picked out a pretty good looking pumpkin, with an interesting stem (Daddy’s choice).  

I really would like to find a nice pumpkin patch with a hay ride, or something.  I don’t know if there’s anything like that near us.  He was too little to appreciate this year, but it will be more fun for him when he’s older. 

… and he did a great job!  I had a workshop for school (I’m on maternity leave), and it was the first time I’d left Thomas for any length of time.  I prepped Daddy as best I could.  I informed him of the best procedures for warming the bottle (in the crock-pot for 10 minutes, hotter than you’d think),  napping (put him down when he’s tired and let him fuss for 5 or 10 minutes), and getting through the day (take him for a walk, go in the car, play in the exersaucer, sing songs).

Around noon, I had a lunch break so I emailed Daddy to check in.  Baby was down for his nap already, and he had taken his first bottle with no problem. Success!  Daddy was very proud of himself, and I felt a huge relief.  I don’t like the idea of anyone but me taking care of Thomas.  Daddy had been especially nervous about the bottle, since he had never been successful with it in the past.  I managed to perfect the bottle warming this week, thank goodness.

When I got home, they were both glad to see me.  I got to snuggle and hold my little guy.  I guess that’s what it will be like every day once I start back at work.