sleeping in

I used to be able to sleep all morning long. I enjoy staying up at night. I feel better at night. So, if I didn't have to do anything in the morning, I'd stay up late, then sleep all morning. PM is so much better than AM.

As I've gotten older, I've lost my ability to sleep so late. When I was pregnant, I really couldn't sleep any time of day. And now Nate makes sure we get up before dawn. We had to when I was working. We'd get Nate up at 6 am so that he'd be fed and ready to go by 7. The problem was that he wanted breakfast at 6 am even on the weekends.

Since I've been home, there's been no reason to keep waking up so early. If I get a new job with a shorter commute, Nate will be able to sleep till 6:45 or 7. But, since we've got nowhere to go, we've been letting him wake up on his own. There have still been some early mornings, but for the most part, he's sleeping progressively later, but generally around 7:15ish.

This morning, he woke up at 8! I remember him talking early, but I guess he fell asleep again because the next thing I knew, there was light starting to come through the window, and it was 8. When has the room not been dark when I got up in the morning? I love when the sun is up before me!

The only problem with that is that he went down for his "afternoon" nap at 5:30. So now, it's 15 minutes to bedtime (7), and he's still working on his afternoon nap. I contemplated keeping him up so that we could stick to bedtime, but he really couldn't keep his eyes open.

working mommy wednesday

Prompt 1: What was your college major and did you end up working in that career?

I majored in Computer Graphics Design. It sounded like a fun field of study, and it was!

It turns out that I can only work in graphic design. I know they say that most people don't work in the field they studied. But, when potential employers see my graphic design degree, they don't think I can do anything else. If I didn't have a degree, maybe they'd be more open minded about my range of skills. If I had a general degree in business, maybe they'd consider that I can do different kinds of jobs. But, with a graphic design degree, I can only do graphic design jobs.

Actually, I do know multiple graphic designers who are working as bankers, but with no cash handling experience, I can't have any kind of job in a bank. I mean, I've handled cash in everyday life, but apparently that's not good enough.

So, all that to say I did end up working in the field my degree is in, and I can't get out of it unless I study something else.

I enjoy my field, but the job market being what it is, I wish I could branch out. I'd have a better chance of getting a job if I weren't trapped inside the graphic design box.

feeding my baby

I sometimes find it helpful to compare how Nate eats with the way other babies eat, as far as how often, how much, and what they are eating. It's not like a competition or anything. It's just that I can get ideas from other moms about how I might better go about feeding my baby. So, I just thought I'd put this out there.

Since Nate was 4 months old, he's been eating 30 ounces of formula per day, in 5 6-oz bottles between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm. We've gradually added solid food meals, and now he is eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When we added the third meal, he started occasionally leaving his bottles unfinished. Many days, he would total 26 oz of formula, rather than his previous usual of 30. But, he wasn't leaving the same bottles unfinished every day. Sometimes it was his second and fourth bottles that he didn't finish, sometimes his first and fifth. Sometimes he finished all of them. We tried decreasing the amount we gave him with his solids meals, but he would sometimes still be hungry. It was totally unpredictable.

If that was unpredictable, what's happening now is a complete mystery. He has 3 teeth coming in. Two of them have just peeked through the gum. I saw them yesterday morning. The third is still below the gum. (These will be teeth 3, 4, and 5 for him, as his first 2 came in 5 months ago.) His mouth hurts, and I think it's making him not want his bottles.

Typically if he has less than 20 oz of formula, he will wake up hungry in the middle of the night. If he has 24 or more, he sleeps through the night. Between 20 and 24, it's a toss-up. I feel like right now we're always trying to get him to eat, all day long, trying to reach that magic number of 24 oz.

Today he had 19. But, I was able to get him to eat more solids. This is our ultimate goal anyway - over the next few months he should eat more solids, drink less milk. I'm hoping it works.

His previous schedule: 6 am bottle, 9 am puffs or cereal and bottle, 12 pm jar of veggies and bottle, 3 pm bottle, 6 pm jar of fruit and bottle. He wouldn't take the solids and bottles right after each other. We usually had to give him a 45-60 minute break. And the bottles were all 6 oz, until recently. Naps would be between the 6 & 9, 9 & 12, and 12 & 3 meals.

His schedule today: 6:45 am 6 oz bottle, 10:15 am puffs and 4 oz bottle (he didn't finish the bottle until close to 11), 2:30 pm jar of veggies, 4 pm 6 oz bottle, 5:15 pm jar and a half of fruit and veggies, 6:30 pm 3 oz bottle. Naps 8-10:15 am and 12:45-2:20 pm. What the heck?

working mommy wednesday

Prompt 2. Things in my purse.

I really enjoyed reading other working moms' posts about what's in their purses, so I decided to go with that prompt as well.

• wallet (which contains the usual things you would find in a [big] wallet, minus cash, plus a smattering of coupons for baby items and my voter's registration card)
• packet of kleenex
• small calendar
• notepad with a list of books to get from the library, and a pen clipped onto it
• 2 DVDs that I burned for Ashlie but forgot to give to her
• a pink baby spoon in a ziploc baggie
• a Nature's Valley Chewy Trail Mix bar that has been in there so long it is flattened
• a pair of earrings
• a compact mirror
• a mini notebook that I keep usual prices of usual items on my grocery list (so I know if it's really a good sale or not)
• a nail file and 2 chapsticks (we went over this last week)
• 6 pens (besides the one clipped to my library list)
• a small hand lotion
• 3 cough drops
• 2 tubes of lipstick
• a handful of tampons
• key to the ignition of one of our cars (the ring part of the key is broken; the rest of my keys are on the keychain, which doesn't stay in my purse at home)
• a fortune from a fortune cookie that says, "Listen carefully. An upcoming important message may be subtle." When did I eat Chinese food?
• not my cell phone: I usually accidentally leave my it in there at home, and don't hear it when it rings (oops), but today I remembered to take it out! 

baby-proofing fail, future embarrassment material win

When Nate's playing on the floor, we usually have our bedroom door and the hall bathroom door closed. Our bedroom is the non-baby safe zone. The hall bathroom is generally as safe as a bathroom can be, but Nate so loves the bath that he attempts to launch himself over the side of the tub, thinking that splashy fun awaits him.

Wednesday morning, I went into the bathroom to wash my hands. Nate crawled in after me, and suddenly I heard splashing:

that trash can isn't really baby-proof either

awesome

To-do list:

• keep door and toilet lid closed
• put the trash can away
• save pictures of Nate playing in the toilet for future use

Sidenote: He's 9 months old today!

date morning

We had agreed that we wanted to go on a date once a month. Before this week, our last date was in July, so we have obviously failed to keep up with it. But, when Rod got a tentative job offer Monday (confirmed, definite job offer yesterday afternoon - and not the job that I posted about a few days ago that I didn't want him to get), he said he would take me out to celebrate. We decided to make it a date morning, since we already have daycare set up for Nate.

Tuesday morning, after breakfast tacos from a tiny taco stand and a leisurely stroll in the park with sparkling conversation, we found ourselves at Lowe's. We decided to buy a grill (which happened to be on sale!) so that Rodgers can start grilling meat more often.

Some assembly required. I wasn't prepared for the funniness, but right before I took this picture, Rod was rolling the wheels back and forth, chanting in a high-pitched voice, "It's rolling! It's rolling! It's rolling!" 

He put it to use that night, grilling these pork chops.

I told him to look like he was grilling...

They were very yummy!

Now I must work grilled meat into my menu planning.

working mommy wednesday

Prompt 2. Little things I love

I didn't do WMW last week. It was my first week as an unemployed WM, so I didn't know if I qualified. Now, I'm thinking that I do qualify, so I can participate in WMW.

1. My Starbucks tumbler from South Korea. I named it Korwen. It's not the biggest coffee tumbler I have, or the most insulated, or the best. But, it carries with it memories of lots of adventures. By the time I bought it, those adventures were almost over, but I looked for it in several other countries before finally finding The One.

2. Chapstick and nail files. You will find them stashed somewhere in every room of my apartment and every handbag I own. I really can't be without either of these.

3. The clock in Nate's room. It is awesome. I found it during my travels in Asia.

Click to enlarge. Don't mind the dust.

4. Funny signs. Need I say more?

5. Silly adventure story books. The more ridiculous, far-fetched, and unrealistic, the better.

Other things I love I would consider to be big things, such as air conditioning, my boys, family, friends, coffee, my car...

baby weight

How often have I heard "9 months on, 9 months off?" While a nice theory, it's not very realistic. Realistically speaking, I don't expect to lose all of my baby weight, even though my starting weight is less than 10 lbs away. Neither do I expect to wear most of my old clothes ever again, as my hips and pelvic bones are completely rearranged.

I wore a size 2 for many years. The year before I got pregnant, I gained a few lbs and was starting to wear more clothes that were size 4 and less size 2. My weight at my first prenatal appointment, at 6 weeks pregnant, was 113.8 lbs. I was 156.5 lbs by Nate's due date, which is a gain of just under 43 lbs. (He was born 8 days late, but I wasn't weighed after the due date.)

Nate was a big baby, and I had a lot of water weight, so by the time he was 2 weeks old, I had lost 27 lbs. My original weight loss goal was 32 lbs, but when I saw that so much came off so fast, I changed my goal to 37 lbs. I had to buy new clothes to go back to work when Nate was 6 weeks old. I got rid of all my size 2 clothes, but saved the size 4s in the top of the closet. I bought mostly size 8 and a few size 6 slacks that are generous in the hips. The tops I bought were all small or size 6. I'm still wearing all of them. My size goal is to be a solid 6, though if I happen to shrink enough to fit into my old size 4 clothes, I won't complain.

Nate will be 9 months old on Friday. My weight loss goal is within reach! I have lost 35.5 lbs. My size 8 slacks are starting to get wonderfully roomy, and I can almost always wear a 6 when I try on new clothes. I'm nearly there! :)

a day in my unemployment

You know, apart from the whole no paycheck thing, being unemployed is pretty awesome.

We went ahead and paid for this whole month of daycare. That way, I have someone to watch Nate while I look for jobs and go on interviews. This is what my day looks like today:

We slept in until 6:30. Rodgers got up with Nate while I pretended to be sleeping for 30 more minutes. We took our time getting dressed and left around 8. We dropped Nate off at daycare, then Rodgers and I went for a brisk 3 mile walk. I think he likes me being unemployed because we can exercise together in the mornings. We averaged 10 minutes per mile, which is my goal, but I never make it that fast when I have Nate in the stroller. Then, we came home and took showers. Since we have a meeting at church tonight, we decided to go ahead and do our MasterLife study together this morning. While we were doing that, Rodgers got a voicemail, which he saved until we were done.

He has an interview on Friday. I'm not sure I want him to get the job, though. I don't know how he feels. It is slightly better pay than his current job (less per hour, but more hours) and might have insurance. After he returned the phone call, I went with him for a drive-by to see where the office is. Then we went to the Post Office to get international postage stamps.

When we got home, it was time for early lunch, then Rodgers left for work. I washed and dried a load of laundry (haven't folded and put away, but they are laid out neatly on the living room chair) and started a second load in the washer. I applied for two jobs. One is an entry level design job that I don't really want, but at least it's something. The other is a marketing and communications job that requires some design experience. It might be a good job for me. Then, I went to get Nate from daycare.

He fell asleep in the car, so I put him to bed when we got home, and he's still sleeping. I put the second load of clothes in the dryer and mixed up a batch of cookies, which have just finished baking. They're going in the freezer tonight.

Last year, since I was increasingly more pregnant as the holidays approached, I decided to do my holiday baking early and freeze it. I really liked the way that worked out, so I'm doing it again this year. The only recipe I'm repeating from last year is blueberry cheesecake bars. The others weren't worth repeating when I have hundreds of cookie recipes to choose from. Last week, I made some chocolate oatmeal cookies, which are ok, but not great. Today, I made something like double double super chocolate chocolate chip cookies. I'll call them DDSC^4. (That's not the real name.) They aren't cool enough to taste test, but the dough was quite yummy deliciousness. Next on the list to bake is some kind of yummy stuff that has a graham cracker crust and melted chocolate and peanut butter chips and drizzled chocolate on top. I am now realizing that everything on the list is chocolate, with the exception of the blueberry cheesecake bars.

So, now to fold and put away laundry and wait for Nate to wake up so we can play.

obligatory cute baby picture