Pregnancy illness #546: Bronchitis

Ever hear that pregnancy decreases your immune system's effectiveness?

#proof

I thought I had a cold Wednesday and Thursday, no big deal. Then Thursday night I started coughing pretty bad and my chest started to hurt. I was up in the middle of the night coughing for like an hour and a half before I finally got out of bed and took a shower, and then was able to go back to sleep. At work Friday morning, my cough just kept getting worse and worse until I knew I wasn't going to make it through the day without losing an organ (or, lets be real, peeing my pants).

So I had to be that asshole who left everyone in the lurch. Luckily my primary care doctor had a cancellation, so I was able to get an appointment there instead of waiting all day at urgent care. It got a little scary for a second when she said they were ordering an EKG to make sure my symptoms were just a lung infection, and not something wrong with my heart. After that, I was relieved that it was only bronchitis. The doctor said to rest.

Someone else had other ideas.

I'm sure we can all agree that bronchitis isn't fun, especially with a little tiny person pushing up against your lungs (and, often, a bigger little person pushing against them from the outside while trying to climb you like a jungle gym).

When it's too cold for the actual playground, he creates his own. It's me. 

I definitely can't complain though, since the baby isn't at risk, my other baby can't catch it, my husband can't catch it (because, man flu, can't handle that), and I even got antibiotics. Most importantly, if I had to get sick, the timing could NOT have been any better.

 And of course, the real reason:

HOW does he only improve with age?

I'm only halfway through the season though, because Saturday Eric took over parenting and I spent the day pretty much like this.

I DID NOT MOVE.

I think that maybe the nesting instinct is beginning, just a little bit. We didn't have any plans this weekend, so I had a bunch of random stuff in my head I wanted to get done around the house. Obviously, none of that happened because I spent the entire weekend either sleeping or coughing. I did find my copy of "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and started to look over the section on labor and delivery, and then remembered how much contractions hurt and decided to stop. I really need to be healthy for spring break, because that's when it's on in terms of baby prep.

Unrelated - are we ever getting a Game of Thrones trailer? It's less than two months until the season 6 premier and there's only a lame teaser trailer that shows absolutely nothing. Is HBO just planning on keeping everything under wraps? The only things I've done to prepare for this birth, other than skimming what to expect, is get Dalton a cute brother shirt from Target and verify with Eric that we can stream GOT in the hospital on the tablet if we end up staying on a Sunday night. Things like pre-registering at the hospital, adding my friend who will be watching Dalton to my daycare emergency contacts...I'll get to all that. Eventually.

Thoughts on Fuller House? The first episode was epic. It brought me so much happiness. I've enjoyed the rest quite a bit, but I'm disappointed everyone (especially Uncle Jesse) were only special guests and aren't around for most of it.

Our 24 hour vacation

This one time we drove from Baltimore to North Carolina to hang out for 24 hours.

Like, we stayed in NC for literally 24 hours. 

Our good friends from college live there. We used to visit all the time, and then we all had babies.

Beautiful, photogenic babies.

It's been way too long since we visited, so I decided we were going, come hell or high water, before the baby comes and we never travel ever again. Since we have a three day weekend for President's Day, and we are getting close to the point where I'll be humongous and unable to travel, it was now or never. We were all going to have a romantic Valentine's Day weekend together.

We left Saturday morning, because I still have nightmares about the one time we tried to travel after bedtime. It was like Ramsay Bolton level of torture. We arrived about 5pm Saturday night, and immediately enjoyed a relaxing Mexican meal out with our other friend, and three kids ages two and under. Entertainment included, but was not limited to: drinks being spilled, vomiting episodes, and general chaos. 

Then we came home and put the babies right to bed. HA. Kidding. Like babies go right to bed. Is that something babies do? 

In the grand toddler tradition, Dalton isn't exactly a huge fan of sleeping in new and strange places. He will NOT go to sleep ever if I'm anywhere in his sight, because like Aerosmith, he doesn't want to miss a thing. He suffers from FOMO (fear of missing out). BAD. He was asleep in the bed cuddling with Eric, but apparently not deeply enough, because he woke up when I came in and was like YES IT'S PLAYTIME. Long story short we eventually got him to sleep at like 10:30pm with me hiding next to the bed, on the floor out of sight, and Eric pinning him to his chest. Parenting win. I'm starting to feel really bad that friends take the time to set up pack and plays when we visit because they are pretty much useless. Then this described the rest of our night.

Cosleeping = NOSLEEPING

A combination of YAY CUDDLING I LOVE THIS and being awoken from a peaceful slumber by the 13th kick in the head that hour.

In one of my short bouts of sleep, I had a dream that our friends kicked us out due to the impending snow storm (which at that point we all thought was just going to be a minor dusting). I told everyone about it in the morning and we all laughed. Then we checked the weather for real and they were like hmmm yeah actually you're going to need to leave. 

It would be utterly ridiculous to drive all day Saturday then leave Sunday morning, so we stayed, hung out, did Valentine's Day photo shoots.

I mean....I just can't. 

And just because I'm already that parent.

We moved our romantic Valentine's Day dinner up to 3pm. More of a linner, really. Coke marinated ribs and corn fritters. Amazing.

Our little Valentines

Then, since we were already facing my nightmare of driving after bedtime, we met up with my cousin and her family on our way out. And took zero pictures. Such a fail. But she has a blog, so you can look at her adorable kids and imagine them in Panera with Dalton.

Technically our moms are the cousins, but more importantly she has a 6 week old and her son will be two next month (exactly 6 months older than Dalton to the day!) so we got to see the #twoundertwo lifestyle first hand. Seems like a piece of cake! At least, for an hour, in Panera, with both parents present. I'm sure that's a completely accurate representation. Still, it was awesome to get to meet her family and spend some time together!

We left about 5:30. We originally thought we would just get a cheap hotel somewhere halfway in between, but upon closer examination of the radar (all teachers are also amateur meteorologists), it appeared that our options were either make it home Sunday night, or finish driving in a snowstorm. In the south. At rush hour. In the DC area. Which pretty much meant that no amount of toddler screaming would force us to stop, so I was braced for the worst.

I planned to drive for just an hour or two (since 6 hours of being a prego passenger is just not fun in terms of nausea/back pain) then let Eric take over. Dalton crashed not too long into the trip. And that's when I developed super human strength. I drove from 4:30-9:30 without stopping (aka two hours past my usual bedtime), then we stopped just long enough to fill the gas tank, switch places, and continue home. That's right, at 27 weeks pregnant, I made it from Panera in Durham, NC to our house, without peeing. SIX HOURS. Because parents will do literally anything to avoid waking a sleeping baby. And through some miracle, our sleeping baby slept the entire trip. AND went back to sleep in his crib without a peep when we got home, which has never once happened before. At least, we think so. We forgot the baby monitor camera in NC, so for all we know he played silently in there all night, but we didn't hear anything and he woke up happy.

It snowed all day today before switching over to freezing rain, so we were beyond glad that we decided to leave early. Plus, since Dalton slept the whole trip, I didn't feel like I missed any time with him, and Eric and I got to have hours of adult conversation.

And that was officially our last little trip as a family of three. I plan to stay put until well after this baby joins us.

Have you ever made a trip where travel time nearly exceeds your time in the actual destination? Sadly, this is not our first experience with that, but having a toddler adds a whole new level to it. Still, worth it!

Goodbye, Second Tri

Um, I'm almost in the third trimester. 27 weeks tomorrow (Friday). HOW did that happen so fast? The first trimester seems like it lasts years and then the second tri just flies. At least in my two experiences.

HOW

I finally took a bump picture this week. The last one was at 15 weeks. With Dalton, I took them weekly, religiously. This kid is already suffering from classic second kid problems.

Eric took this before my friend Lily's bridal shower. I felt like all the pictures from the shower made me look like a hippopotamus, so I'm posting this one that is flattering.

The well known "I'm pregnant not fat" pose.

I wouldn't say the second trimester has been the burst of energy everyone talks about. Maybe that's only with the first baby. I haven't felt crushing exhaustion like at the beginning, but I've been pretty tired. Maybe that's just life as an adult though.

When I don't cook dinner fast enough, he takes matters into his own hands. 

My main concern has been not being able to play/do things with Dalton, but luckily so far I've been fine. Sure, taking him to the grocery store by myself has me wishing I could lay down on the floor and nap halfway through the trip, but overall, I can still pick him up, sit with him in my lap, and chase him pretty easily.

I'm eating ALL the things and doing...not all the exercise. Last week I did actually exceed my goal of 3 workouts and did 4. This week...it's not going great. Although I did have some sort of stupid respiratory bug and was hacking up a lung for like 3 days. When I have run, the hip pain is crazy. I never really had that last time so it's annoying. I really need to just accept that I need to mix in other types of exercise for the next 13 weeks and give up on running, but it's my favorite. First world pains. I'm attempting a date with Steven Avery on the treadmill bright and early tomorrow, so we'll see.

I did the glucose test this past weekend.

Everyone's favorite way to spend a Saturday morning. Instead of breakfast and coffee, you chug this nasty sugar water (you get 5 minutes or less), sit in a lab for an hour (at least in my case, I had to go get the drink at the lab and then the receptionist made me sit in front of her and watched me drink it), and get blood drawn. Despite my horrific needle phobia, and also my fear of not being allowed to drink coffee in the morning, it wasn't bad at all. Now I just have to wait to see if I pass. Although ultrasounds are much more fun, since you get to see the baby, this test is so much less nerve wracking. It checks to see if you have gestational diabetes, so the worst case scenario (to my understanding) is that you have to be on a special diet for the rest of your pregnancy. Ultrasounds check to see if the baby is healthy, which is obviously much scarier.

The main pregnancy news is that I talked to my doctor and I am "officially" going to try for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Of course, nothing we decide is official, since the baby is the one actually calling the shots. But if the baby is in position and everything looks healthy, she was optimistic about it for me. She even said I could get induced if I go past my due date (not that I'm dying to get induced, but this would be opposed to just having another c-section). I kept trying to talk myself in to just scheduling another c-section, since it made sense - having control over the birth, being able to plan ahead of child care, etc. It just didn't feel right though, so I'm going with my gut. If I end up having another one, that's fine, but I want to at least give myself the option to try to avoid surgery. Fingers crossed! I requested to join a VBAC group on Facebook, so I feel like that will most likely seal the deal.

Just because it's adorable.

I still really have no clue what sex the baby is. I've started to picture the baby as a boy, but it's hard to say if that's an actual feeling or just because that's been my only experience with having a baby. It's weird to me because I had such a strong, positive feeling that Dalton was a boy from 8 weeks on, and even had two separate dreams that the ultrasound tech said boy the night before we found out. Maybe I'll have a dream about this baby the night before he or she is born? I can only hope I'll be getting a full night of sleep before that happens.

Two trimesters down, one to go. I can't wait/I'm terrified and not ready.

Any other moms feel like the second tri flew by?

Second Pregnancy Thoughts: what's less scary, and what's more scary

In so many ways, a second pregnancy is just so much less stressful.

Preparation: I plan to mainly just skip it.

For example, a first time prego would look at this room full of junk and think "oh my god, there is so much to do before this is an appropriate nursery for a baby".




However, as a second timer, I can zero in on things that the inexperienced eye may not see. All that needs to be done is move a bunch of crap to the basement and we're golden. (We're leaving the bed in the room since it's on the first floor, so if I have a c-section I won't have to use the stairs.)

See? Good to go. 

Learning Things: Not necessary

I don't feel the pressure to take classes or read books like I did the first time. Don't get me wrong, I don't anticipate knowing what I'm doing. I feel like I've kind of figured out how to make a baby happy, but only if that baby is EXACTLY like Dalton. Based on what I've heard from moms of 2+, odds are much more likely that this baby will be his polar opposite. But I know some basic parenting things that I was clueless about during my first pregnancy. How to swaddle, how to change a newborn's diaper, bathing, all sorts of weird terminology - meconium, bumbo, and boppy, for example - all words that got the wavy red line under them, and yet all real baby things. I know how to use a breast pump and how to store milk to ensure that I never waste a single drop. 

While I'm sure this baby will bring up all new challenges (aside from the obvious challenge of taking care of it along with a toddler), I feel a lot more confident that we will figure things out. 

Labor and Delivery: Maybe not the most terrifying thing on the planet

A healthy dose of denial is necessary for this one. The ace up my sleeve is that last time, I was basically equally frightened of having a needle shoved in my back as I was of birthing a human. Now I know that epidurals exist as proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, women of childbearing age, at least. Aside from that, just having already stayed at the hospital and being aware of the logistics takes some of the mystery out of it, not to mention I got to see first hand how well the staff was able to get things under control in an emergency. While I'm certainly not looking forward to the process of extraction, I'm able to be more excited and less fearful about meeting baby #2. 

Bonding: Not necessary. Just like learning.

No bond whatsoever here.

It's kind of daunting to be preparing to commit your life to someone you've never even met. I mean, think about how scary it can be just to decide to get married - with a baby, there's no dating period. You birth it, and it's yours. For good. I think it's natural to want to make sure you are bonded with the fetus. My first pregnancy, that dumb commercial where Jennifer Love Hewitt is declaring her undying love for her unborn child would have had me panicking. Because I so did not feel like that. I don't read to fetuses, I don't sing to them, I don't even talk directly to them (although I've been advised to discuss the importance of sleep with it once the third trimester begins, and I am not discounting ANY method that may get me more sleep). 

I'm not totally soulless, although I am a ginger. I feel very protective over the baby, I would be devastated if anything happened,I love feeling the movements, and I think all the time about how thrilled I am to meet him or her and add another member to our family. But love is kind of a complex emotion and for me, I need to meet someone face to face before I feel it. I clearly remember staring at the clock after Dalton was born, counting down the minutes until they had told me I might be able to have a drink of water. I hadn't even held my son yet, but my mouth was SO DRY and that was top priority. 

All this to say - I didn't feel bonded during pregnancy, I didn't feel bonded immediately after delivery, but obviously I did quickly develop an extremely strong bond with Dalton. So strong, in fact, that the very first thing I did when I saw the second line on the pregnancy test was snap chat a picture of it to a very close friend and mother of two, and ask her if she truly loved her second born as much as her first. (For those people not as cool and in the know as me, snapchat "chats" automatically disappear, so you can admit to things like having a favorite child and it will not be on record.) Of course, she texted her reply (on record) that she loves them both equally and all sorts of great stuff about the joys of two kids. While I truly can't imagine loving another human as much as I love Dalton, I know I will - once the baby is here. 

On the other hand, there are a few stressors with a second pregnancy that I didn't have to take into consideration with my first. They are all extremely unoriginal, but I'm going to discuss them anyway.

Leaving my firstborn

Pregnancy brain is real, and I knew I was pregnant for like 3 weeks before it occurred to me I would have to leave Dalton overnight, for several nights actually, to have the new baby. Instant tears. We've both been away from him for the night separately, but he's never once in his life gone to bed without at least one of his parents there. I'm not happy to be forcing that upon him before he can even understand it, but aside from a home birth, there's no alternative. 

I'm not concerned whatsoever about his well being. He'll be with my mom and stepfather, in our house. They love him and he'll be in great hands. I'm just concerned that he'll be confused about why his parents are suddenly gone, think we aren't coming back, etc, etc. But there's nothing I can do about it, and most adults I know have siblings and were not traumatized by their birth. 

The grandparents are even so devoted to the cause that my stepfather is coming down when I'm 36 weeks to do a trial run. We have my good friend Lily's wedding, so I booked us a hotel room, even though I could clearly be the DD. I figured it would be more fun to try out a night away at a wedding than giving birth, although granted the latter might be more of a distraction. I think knowing that Dalton won't be emotionally scarred by 24 hours without us will really help me relax about labor and delivery.

Life for my firstborn

I'm afraid he'll hate it.

Even after we are over the hump of leaving Dalton to go to the hospital, things won't exactly return to normal when we come home. Up until now, we've been able to lavish 100% of our time and attention on him. Clearly, that's about to change in a big way. I have wonderful memories of my childhood with my siblings, and great relationships with them as adults. I'm hoping he experiences the same. But that doesn't mean I'm not worried about how he will react to the initial transition. I've already complained about not getting enough time with him over and over, and now that time will be further reduced. I know I'll feel differently about the reason (spending time with my other child) when it happens (see above), but I still hate it now. 

Although he adores his father, Dalton is VERY attached to me - as in, I leave the room for two seconds to pee, and he'll follow me and yell and bang on the door until I come out. 

Example: This is how I wash dishes. 

Although the newborn period is a hazy memory, I'm pretty sure it entailed a LOT of time sitting on the couch nursing, and much less free time that could now be used to play with a toddler. Dalton is also at the age where his routines are very important to him. The obvious solution here would be to transition Eric to doing  most of his routines (bathtime, bedtime, naps, etc), since that's likely what will have to happen when the baby is born but...I'm selfish and I want my time with my first baby. It's a problem. 

My boys <3 td="">

The Selfish Stuff

We got really used to not sleeping, and then we were like we can totally just keep this up! Then I got pregnant again and suddenly Dalton started sleeping, and I was like....hold on, sleep is kind of awesome. I feel like I can barely keep up with him during the day as it is, and after being up all night with a newborn, I really have no idea how I'm going to do it. At least there will be unlimited coffee at that time (don't even try to tell me that I need to limit caffeine while nursing, I know what I'm doing). While I have no basis for comparison, Dalton seemed to be a relatively easy baby and I'm scared that the new one will be colicky/have reflux/have trouble breastfeeding/have some other common normal baby problem that makes life difficult for parents and siblings. 

I love being a mom, I love my time with my child, and I can't wait to meet the new baby, the thought of never having a second to myself scares me. I like having naptime to just chill and mess around on the internet, or do whatever I want. While I'm completely expecting daycare to get both kids on the same nap schedule, it will be a looooong time before that happens. 

And there you have it. All the complex emotions that come with pregnancy #2, as best as I can explain it in writing. 

Thoughts/comments/questions/feelings of solidarity?

Jonas and BRAT

A spring baby is perfect, they said. Being pregnant in the summer is awful, they said. I'm becoming more and more skeptical of this. Just two posts ago, I complained about being horribly sick for Christmas. This week, I also basically died. I did not have this problem while super prego with Dalton in the summer. Sure, I was hot. You know who else was hot? EVERYBODY. Summer is hot, bun in the oven or not.

Unrelated, Dalton driving a tractor at Port Discovery.

Tuesday, I was too nauseous to eat all day, but, I chalked it up to weird pregnancy stuff, stress over work, GRRM announcing that he isn't finishing book six before the show comes out, whatever. (Seriously GRRM you had ONE JOB.)

Then I got home from work and started puking. Which lasted late into the night. Eventually, it got to the point where I couldn't even keep a little sip of Gatorade or water down and I was considering going to labor and delivery to ask for an IV. Dramatic? Absolutely. But crazy pregnancy hormones do that to you, especially when sick. Finally, I was able to keep down a tsp of Gatorade every five minutes (like, I was legit drinking it out of a measuring spoon) and fell asleep.

Also unrelated, Dalton having the time of his life in the foam pit at his BFF's (seriously, he claps when she arrives at daycare) gymnastics birthday party.

The next day, I could keep liquids down, but food was still not my friend. I thought I could pull it together, but I had to call Eric to leave basketball practice and go get Dalton from daycare because I could not function. That meant I didn't even see Dalton until it was time for him to go straight to bed, and if you've been paying even a little attention to this blog, you know that's a serious illness for me.

They have to come out eventually, right?

Thursday I managed to go to work, especially since we had a two hour delay, but I was on a crackers and Gatorade diet. Luckily, winter storm Jonas has shut down schools since then, and I've done all the sleeping.

Not a fan.

Last night I finally branched out from the BRATS diet to this amazing chicken pot pie my mom made for me (homemade pie crust and all). Yup, I'm snowed in with my parents, and they cook for me. Be jealous.

She had some help cooking.

And to anyone who wants to argue with me that I just have normal pregnancy sickness and not a stomach bug (because people START throwing up at 23 weeks of their second pregnancy? ok); Dalton projectile vomited all over me Friday morning, so, there. #babysfirstvomit

However, he wasn't too sick to eat snow.

He actually hasn't really seemed sick, at all, and resumed playing after the vomit like nothing happened. Kids are so weird, but I'll take it.

Right back to being a happy little blur.

The real tragedy here is that I thought the silver lining of me being sick was that I would finally get caught up with Making a Murderer. But then I was so busy puking, and after that, I mainly was sleeping. So I only watched one episode (#3), and I'm still way behind. School is already canceled for tomorrow though, so there is hope. 

Who else is snowed in, and what are you eating (and drinking)?

Stuff that's awesome

Port Discovery (Children's Museum) Membership

Seriously, the best birthday gift (for Dalton) EVER. He was a ball of energy Saturday morning, so we hopped into the car and headed over. Every time it's so much fun. I want to go EVERY DAY on maternity leave (in my fantasies about what maternity leave with 2 kids will be like).



This cheese. 



It's truly the ONE thing I really miss while being pregnant. Sure, wine is great, that's a given, no need to mention it. But this cheese is seriously the best and I am sad every time I go to Trader Joes and I can't have it (it's made with raw milk). I'm really pretty laid back as far as food/drinks go during pregnancy. Meaning: I won't avoid something just because someone told me it's unsafe or What to Expect said I couldn't have it. I'll only skip things that have actual, research based evidence backing the claim that they're potentially harmful. I couldn't wait to buy this as soon as I took Dalton to Trader Joe's the first time and I had it in my cart a few days after I found out I was pregnant and then was like...oh yeah. So that's my pregnancy cheese sob story.

Trying to win the lottery like every other American

We got 3 Powerball tickets (one for each family member) and now there's still a chance for us to become billionaires! My #1 lottery winning fantasy right now is a third child. Obviously that's subject to change, I could bring the baby home from the hospital and be like OH HELL NO. But it would be nice if finances weren't ruling that decision. And, no offense to my job, it's great, but nothing is as great as Dalton so if I win the lottery, I will be spending a LOT more time with him. Like, every second of my life. You'll know if we win because you'll see a fancy minivan parked outside our house. And if you come in, it will be clean, because the maid will be coming daily. I dream big. 

The smoke alarm

Ok, it's not awesome, I hate seeing my child scared, naturally, but it's kind of funny. Our little daredevil, that will climb on anything, run anywhere, and fears NOTHING has a fear. The smoke detector. Ours is insanely sensitive and goes off all the time when we cook, but recently Dalton has become terrified of it. He doesn't even like walking under it. The other day he was all excited and proud of himself because he carried his tow truck out of his room and down to me after his bath. Then he sat under the smoke alarm to play and just stared it down.

This weekend had two legit workouts, like what I would consider workouts under any circumstances.

1. I RAN SIX MILES. 

If you've never been pregnant, I need you to forget about crazies who run marathons the day they give birth and psycho bloggers doing all sorts of insane pregnant exercise. For normal people, me in particular, pregnant exercise is hard as hell and six miles is equivalent to at least a 20 miler while not knocked up. To give it context, lately my "workouts" have been 15-20 minutes run - walking on the treadmill. Feel free to judge me. If you're pregnant, and have a toddler, and have a full time job, and are taking a 3 credit grad class (full disclosure, that ended this past Friday). If not, shut your face. 

My running buddy Jackie was in town for the weekend from St. Louis so I ran with her and two of her friends. I NEVER would have had the motivation to do it alone, and they were nice enough to take walk breaks with me when I was dying. At the end, I was so proud of myself, and also so sure I will not be doing that again until I can leave this baby home with its dad. My hips were freaking killing me the whole rest of the day. I didn't really have this problem much with Dalton but second pregnancy, double symptoms. Worth it to spend time with friends, not worth it otherwise. 

2. Body Pump

I lifted that.

We printed passes to a local gym and met up for a class Sunday morning and now I'm so sore I can barely type this. Jackie being in town is the single best thing that's happened to my fitness in months. It's a 7 day pass and somehow I agreed to try Barre at 5:45 am tomorrow. If I get in, apparently I need to set my alarm for 5am and register for the class immediately from my bed, and even then it might be full already. 

I really needed the motivation to "prepare" for her visit because after my sinus infection/travel last week, I hadn't exercised in nearly two weeks. I really had no inclination to start again. But this forced me to hop on board. Which brings me to my next awesome thing...

Making a Murderer

I kept hearing about it from so many people, and I finally started this week. I'm only on episode 1, and I've already had to race around turning the TV off because the Today show has tried to give me spoilers twice. Update: since I began writing this blog post, the Kane show tried to get me with another spoiler. It's my new treadmill show. At my current running duration/frequency, it will provide me entertainment until the baby is born, and maybe even when he or she arrives. I may need to start watching faster. I'm definitely addicted though! 

Serial, Season 2

I should have waited to start until all the episodes were out, like I did with season 1. I'm totally sucked in and waiting a week between episodes is torture. Any other good podcast recommendations in the mean time?

The last bag

For the first time in 15 months, there is no liquid gold in our home.

I know, I sound like one of those "mama's milk" crazies (EW) but at 15.5 months, we are officially done with breast milk. Dalton weaned in September when I got pregnant, but we've been slowly going through the freezer stash since then. He mainly gets cows milk, but usually one bag a day of breast milk. And that's what happens when you obsessively pump a million times a day and on weekends to avoid tapping in to your freezer stash at all costs. I'm really hoping I can find a happy medium next time between maintaining a healthy freezer stash, yet actually using it when needed, aka BEFORE a year, when it's actually needed. I was a little sad that it was his last cup of liquid gold, but really, knowing that I'm starting all over in four months made it much less of a big deal. Who knows, maybe I'll have an amazing supply the second time around and Dalton can share the wealth (from a cup, not the source). 

We've come a long way since newborn nursing.

That's my awesome life right now.

What's your number one lottery winning fantasy? Everyone loves playing this game.

The sweet life of winter break

Once I recovered from my Christmas plague, winter break was just as euphoric as I'd imagined it would be.



We all slept in, had lazy breakfasts, and went out and did fun stuff as a family. Perfection.

Ethiopian feast!

Eric is convinced that the reason Dalton is such a good eater is because I exposed him to all sorts of foods in the womb and while breastfeeding, and he's determined that we do the same with the new baby. Personally I think Lady Luck was behind it, but I'm not going to argue when he wants to go to a new Ethiopian restaurant.

Dalton was chowing down, as usual. This was one of many times where I've given him a food and then thought, hm, that was pretty spicy, maybe I shouldn't have. And he has no reaction, except possibly asking for more.

Glow in the dark golf

Thursday, everyone was healthy, the weather was good, so we decided, what the hell? And drove to New York. We started out in Syracuse, to meet our friends' two month old daughter. It was a big anniversary for us. Ten years ago, we spent our first New Year's Eve as grown ups all together in our first house in Baltimore (they flew in from Boston for that). It was wild. 

Welcome 2006!

Technically, Eric wasn't part of it, since I hadn't met him yet, but we all feel like he was since he's heard the stories so many times he can tell them just as well as we can.

This year, we celebrated in prime new/old/pregnant mom fashion. Talking about labor, diapers, and swaddles until around 11, then passing out.

Welcome 2016!

Dalton refused to sleep in their pack and play, so all three of us slept in bed together. I was SO HAPPY. We used to cosleep all the time, because it was the only way we could GET sleep. While I love having uninterrupted, quiet sleep where I'm not getting kicked in the face now, sometimes I really miss the middle of the night cuddles. I loved ringing in the new year by waking up next to that sweet little face.

He also fell asleep on me once before bed.

After that, we headed to my sister's house for some quality niece and nephew time.

Happiest chunkiest baby ever!

They love us.

Her house had snow! Dalton got to play in it for the first time. He was mainly completely confused.

"WHAT IS THIS?!"

Cousin time.

Harrison was really disappointed that Dalton wouldn't accept the snowball he was offering, but I think it was because he didn't know how to operate his hands in mittens.

We went to the Museum of Play in Rochester. Obligatory picture in front of the Sesame Street house.

Happiest kid ever!

We drove back Sunday and got home around 7pm Sunday night. It made going back to work Monday morning rough, but that was going to be rough anyway, so might as well enjoy ourselves during break.

Writing this is making me too eager for spring break to arrive, so I'll just leave off with this unbelievably adorable picture.

Matching pjs OMG. Ignore the M&Ms we had to bribe them with to get a picture with 0/3 crying.

Tell me about your wild New Year's Eve!