Happy Birthday to the Cow!

Three years ago on this day, several big things happened in our lives:

• We bought our first house
• I received the offer for my current job
• Cowboy was born!!

Here he is, being a "dog hazard" on Chris' makeshift putting green. He's the sweetest, most stubborn, goofiest, not-so-smartest, most patient dog ever and we are so happy that he's agreed to be part of our family.



Can you believe that on Valentine's Day three years ago, I was a puppy-less single gal, living in a cute studio apartment in lower Queen Anne, working as a consultant, dating a great guy...and now I'm married to that great guy, living in our lovely Greenlake house-with-a-fenced-yard, working "in the industry" (i.e. no longer consulting), playing with my sweet dog and enjoying being a new mother to a precious little boy? Lots of changes in 3 years! I guess, like everything else I do, I procrastinated on the whole "growing up" thing and ended up cramming last minute. And luckily it's all worked out perfectly!

Not the best night

After a miraculous night when Zachary slept for 8 hours (granted, he was in his car seat, which I put inside his crib), last night wasn't so great. Here's how it went:

7:00 PM - Give Zachary a bath
8:00 PM - Nurse Zachary until 8:30 PM, then put him to bed
9:00 PM - Zachary's finally asleep, finish laundry and watch Grammy's with Chris
11:00 PM - Go to bed
12:10 AM - Zachary's up. Nurse him until he falls asleep at 12:30 AM. Put him back to bed.
12:40 AM - Zachary's still hungry. Nurse him again (other side) until 1 AM, put him in his crib.
1:30 AM - Zachary's up and crying. Rock him to sleep. Put him in his crib.
2:00 AM - Zachary's up and crying. Rock him to sleep. Fall asleep while rocking him.
3:00 AM - Wake up in rocker. Put Zachary in his crib. He starts crying. Nurse him, then put him in his crib.
4:10 AM - Zachary's up and crying. Rock him to sleep. Put him in his crib.
5:45 AM - Zachary's up and crying. Realize that the poor little guy is cold. Bring him into our bed to warm him up.
7:30 AM - Zachary's up for the day. And hungry.

Tonight, the car seat may make another appearance in his crib.

Happy Year of the Rat

To start off this new year full of new beginnings, we moved Zachary's co-sleeper into the nursery. So this is our first night without him in our room. Hopefully it will help him sleep for longer stretches (because he won't be distracted by mama-the-food-source)...but it does mean that I have to actually get out of bed and go to another room to nurse him. Hmph.

Wonderland

There's nothing quite as wonderful as having your baby snuggle into your neck and fall asleep. And hearing his first laugh is pretty amazing too. Head over to Zachary's blog to hear him!

That's my boy!

There's nothing quite like being in a calm, serene yoga class and having your baby very audibly fill his diapers.

"Exhale and move into downward dog...
now lengthen that spine...
lower your knees...
tuck into child pose..."

BRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPP

"...reach up for the top of your mat and lighten your shoulders..."

Bless the yoga instructor for the "Mom & Baby" class. Even though I giggled, she kept right on going as if nothing happened.

Chocolate + pasta = brilliant

Ben and Carrie came over last week to continue a tradition that we all kind of regret: watching the "Saw" movies together. This time it was "Saw IV", and I seem to have a harder and harder time following the plot. Since I have the somewhat annoying talent of forgetting a movie immediately after I've seen it, the "Saw" series (which relies on familiarity with the previous installments) is a challenge for me. I can't remember who did what, and I completely miss a lot of the meaningful tie-ins. Ah well. I still cringe at the gore.

And I have to admit, the "Hostel" series disturbs me more. And yes, we share that unfortunate tradition with Ben and Carrie as well. We are planning to watch "Hostel 2" soon.

But anyway, one highlight of the evening (other than enjoying Ben and Carrie's company, of course) was finally making the Pappardelle's chocolate linguine that we bought at Christmas. I served it for dessert with stewed berries, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce on top. Yum.

I should be embarrassed

37

In my defense, I was picturing evil 5 year olds from "Children of the Corn" when I took this quiz.

It's a miracle!

Zachary has been napping in his cradle for an hour and a half! All by himself! The longest he's napped alone prior to now has been 20 minutes. Of course, now I'm worried that he's slept so long without nursing. It's been over 4 hours. And yesterday I was frustrated with him waking up every 1.5 - 2 hours throughout the night to nurse...

UPDATE 12:30pm
I couldn't just let sleeping babies lie. I finally woke him up at 11:15, after he'd been napping for 2.5 hours. It had been 5 hours since he nursed. Now he's fed and happily napping in the Babyhawk MT, so we are heading out for a walk around Greenlake.

UPDATE 5:10pm
This is unbelievable. He's napping in his cradle AGAIN! For the second time in one day! He's been there for over 30 minutes so far this time. Hallelujah!

The power of deduction

Today I had to take my follow up GTT (glucose tolerance test) to see if I'm still diabetic after the pregnancy. The lab is at my doctor's practice, Minor & James Medical. As I was on my way there, slightly frazzled because I had Zachary with me and was facing 3 hours of blood draws after 12 hours of fasting, I realized that I didn't write down the address of the lab. I panicked for a few minutes before I thought, "Hmmm....maybe it's called Minor & James for a reason?" So I drove to the intersection of Minor & James, and whaddya know? There it was!

Baby class reunion

Last night was the reunion for our baby class (the official title is "Childbirth Preparation Class"). This is a six-week course we took through Swedish Hospital before Zachary was born. We learned a lot about what to expect during labor and delivery, so that I could write a detailed and well thought out birth plan for us to promptly toss out the window once we were actually in labor. I also learned labor coping techniques, which were immensely helpful. But I think the thing we got most out of the class was the comradery. There were 15 couples in the class, and overall, it was a very good-humored and fun bunch. At first it was kind of odd to be in a room with so many pregnant women, but it was also nice to not be the only one snacking constantly and waddling to the restroom at every break. The husbands were great too, and Chris enjoyed commiserating with them about his cranky, tired, forgetful, anxious, large and in-charge wife.

All of the babies are here now, so we got together last night to share stories. Of the 15 original couples, 13 came to the reunion, so it was a fun and busy evening! It was odd yet neat to be in a room with so many newborns. Very similar to the "look at all the pregnant women" scenario I experienced while we were taking the class -- only this time, the snacking and bathroom breaks translated to nursing and diaper changes.

Zachary is the oldest of the bunch (he beat Hannah and Hieu by about 15 hours), but he still managed to be one of the smallest. We put him side-by-side with Amadea, who is both the youngest and largest. What a difference! According to Amadea's mom Jessica, Amadea is growing out of 3 month clothes already...and Zachary is just now growing INTO them.

We lined all the babies up for photos, and they were surprisingly cooperative! Unfortunately it was tough to get them all in a photo together (and Finnegan and Tor didn't make it into the photos because it was time for them to eat), but I slapped together a quick composite to try to get them all. It's almost impossible to do a neat stitch job of 11 kicking and flailing babies...their arms and legs are in different positions for every shot so it's tough to merge them together! But I tried.

Here are the stats for the group:

• 8 boys, 5 girls
• 4 of 13 were emergency c-sections (which matches the hospital's rate of 30%)
• oldest = Zachary at 11 weeks
• youngest = Amadea at 4.5 weeks
• smallest at birth = Zachary at 5lb 7oz
• largest at birth = Amadea at 9lb 9oz
• cutest = Zachary (OK, OK...that's just Mama talking)

Pictures: Baby class reunion