3 Months

It's been a quarter of a year with out little man!!

Favorites
What does Noah like you may ask? We think he likes the color green. Whenever we go somewhere and there's green his eyes zoom in on it. Our doctors office has a huge underwater mural and he loves the seaweed. Never mind the pink, yellow and blue fish, he wants that green seaweed! 
He's also a big fan of the Bumbo. He sits in it while we eat dinner. We plop him in the center of the table like a centerpiece and he sits and talks to us while we eat. Great conversation piece;)

His Whales

He also has taken a shine to his whale washcloth and an extremely thin burp-cloth that used to be mine. We call it his burpee. His burpee seems to keep him happy and he'll cover his face and act all kinds of silly with it. His whales are his favorite washcloth in and out of the bathtub, when it's time to take him out he takes it with. 


Not So Favorites
He's developed a habit of SCREAMING when he needs a diaper change. It could be right after he pees, or half an hour, but when he decides it needs to be done he lets us know.
He's starting to have stranger danger issues. It's not too bad yet, but he gets nervous and eventually freaks out.

When he gets sleepy he doesn't want to be held or stay in his bouncy chair, he wants to lay down. And be alone. He does not want any human contact whatsoever. I'm hoping this lasts throughout the toddler years and he will stay out of our bed!










Eating and Sleeping
He's been doing a lot of both. He catnaps during the day and eats every 3 hours. Not a whole lot has changed in this department.



Places We've Been
We went to the fair, which was quite fun. He seemed to enjoy most of it and was super chatty the rest of the day. He even experienced sunscreen for the first time. He was surprisingly okay with sunscreen although he isn't a huge fan of lotion. Odd.
He also made it to SFO and back peacefully. Not only did he make it to the airport and back, he lasted through an In n Out pit stop. He did not like the paper hats however.

Doctor Visits
He didn't have a well baby check up, but we did have to go to the doctor for some pooping problems and his first ear infection. This ear infection is killing us. It's been 3 weeks since he had it, but his ear still seems to be bothering him a bit.

Milestones
He found his voice. We love talking to him and having him talk back. He feels empowered to talk on his changing table and we'll leave him on it after we change him for 20 minutes because he just sits there and talks to himself.
On top of finding his voice he also found his hands. If he doesn't have a binky in his mouth, his hands are there. He also finds it necessary to guide one hand into his mouth with the other.
He also is responding to things we show him. He recognizes his bottle every now and then, he recognizes his burpee and he got really excited when Kira showed him her Brobee(more green!)
His morning smiles. I ask him for morning smiles right when he wakes up and we get big old grins:D

He's growing like a weed and I cannot wait to start off the holidays with him!

Blankies

Noah Patrick loves his blankies!

Well really he has discovered he has hands and he loves holding things.

When he's in his bouncy chair he loves to hold his teething ring toy that hangs in front of his face, although today he branched out and grabbed for the ones off to the sides.

He also loves his whales. His whales have been a life saver at the doctor and after bath time. His whales are a whale washcloth he loves to hold and suck/chew. Really he'll take any washcloth but the first one he did this with was a whale one, and we keep the whales out because it's the most colorful to look at.

Today he discovered he has a few blankies hanging over the edge of his Pack N Play. He originally started playing with the burp cloth I was using to clean up his endless drool, then he grabbed a green one and started loving it. He was rubbing it all over his face and had a jolly old time. Then I blew his mind and gave him another blanket for his other hand. Kid was in heaven! He was going nuts, fist pumping away blankets flying around.

Going Back to Work.

It sucks.

Last night was so bad, when I slept it was restless, but I was awake and cuddled him most of the night. I didn't want morning to come and let him go.

Even though today was only a training day, it was still horrible. Dropping him off left me in tears. I didn't want to go, I just wanted to stay and love the little man all day.

On the upside he had a good day with Auntie Trinity and his cousin Kira:)

Kira showed him her Brobee and made him go "Oooooh!"

They chillaxed on the couch and watched T.V.

He gave big smiles.

He even gave big poops and toots!

And of course, he wasn't a morning fuss-butt like he normally is.

<3

Watching TeeVee!

Oooooh Brobee!

Noah's Birth Story

So I honestly don't remember a whole lot about being at the hospital before he was born.
This isn't going to be one of those long every little detail birth stories most people have, it's going to be partly in paragraph form, partly in list/bullet point form.

Monday, May 23, Jesse comes home from work and we head out to dinner. My doctor told me eat something I really want, since it'll be the last thing I eat for awhile. I thought long and hard all Monday thinking about what I wanted. What do I come up with? Loaded Potato Bites from Arby's. Could I have had something else? Yes. Did I want something else? Nope. I saw an Arby's commercial earlier that day, and when you're pregnant and ready to pop, you have to have any food suggestion that sounds good. Those potato bites were my best and worst friend that night.

We show up to the hospital, check in and they take me to the room. I get situated in the most uncomfortable hospital gown ever. I was not thrilled. I'm not entirely sure why, but I left my tank top on underneath the gown. I was going for comfortable. They hooked me up to the monitoring machines, put that God awful IV in me and I was set.

Since I was being induced they gave me Cervidil, to help move my cervix along. They said it would be about 8 hours before they removed it, and that I would be around 4 or 5 centimeters, when they did.

Dustin and Trinity came to visit, and of course when they got there I had to pee. Those IV's made me pee like nobody's business! I get to the bathroom, and as I'm about to wash my hands and leave I puke. All over the floor. Couldn't hit the toilet. Couldn't hit the bidet. Hit the floor. I heard all talking stop out in my room, and Jesse ask if I'm okay. I started bawling and said I threw up and right after I said it, it happened again. All over the floor. At this point I've cornered myself in the bathroom, crying my eyes out and I'm trapped by a sea of vomit. The nurse came to help, cleaned it enough that I could get out and said it was probably time to remove the Cervidil.

I was worried because it had only been 3 1/2 hours and I didn't want them to send me home. The nurse told me I was super sensitive to the meds in it and it worked surprisingly fast.

The doctor wanted me to wait on the Pitocin for a little bit so I could recover from my unpleasant revisiting of the potato bites. I tried my best to get some sleep,  but that IV had me getting up and going to the bathroom every 40 minutes. Poor Jesse, he had to get up and help me every time. On top of the constant bathroom trips, something was wrong with the monitoring machines, causing them to go nuts and not stop beeping. As soon as the monitoring machines were fixed the IV machine would go off.  If I wasn't in the bathroom, a nurse was in trying to fix the equipment. Not the best sleep I've gotten.

At about 2 the nurse came in and said she was going to start the Pitocin, and I could have an epidural whenever I wanted. I decided to hold off on the epidural as long as I could, I still wanted to be mobile if I wanted to. The all night peeing kept going on and finally at around eight I gave up and decided I was up for the day. My doctor came in before she went over to her office, checked me out, and broke my water. Let the fun begin.

After my water was broken, the contractions came full force with a vengeance. This is where things stop being a paragraph and start being things I remember.

I remember crying in the shower wanting the contractions to stop.

I remember cutting off my soaking wet tank top because we couldn't get it off over the IV.

I remember sitting over the edge of the bed before getting my epidural, throwing up again.

I remember the nurse being forehead to forehead with me, rubbing my head and talking me through the epidural.

I don't remember falling asleep, but I do remember waking up and being alone in my room, terrified because I couldn't find Jesse. (He was eating in the lobby so he didn't have to eat in front of me)

I remember June coming in and falling asleep again.

I remember The Real Housewives of Orange County marathon and The Millionaire Matchmaker marathon I made Jesse and June watch.

I remember tag teaming a crossword puzzle with June.

I remember my mom and sister coming, and Dustin and Trinity, but that's the last thing.

After this all I remember is being told it's time to push. There's easily a 5 hour window where I don't remember anything.

The nurses came in and said I was going to start pushing slowly so I could stretch things out so I didn't tear when it came time to actually push with the doctor.

Ohmigoodness it was horrible. I started pushing but I could barely breathe and it hurt soo much. One of the nurses looked over at me, and asked why I was crying. I told her it hurt and I couldn't help it, and she looked me in the eye and said "Well stop, crying won't help anything." I wanted to go off on her. I was in a significant amount of pain and this bitch (sorry about the language) was telling me to stop crying. Jesse looked like he was going to hit her.

They kept having me slowly push and stop, slowly push and stop. One of the nurses all of a sudden said "Whoa! Whoa! Stop! Stop! We're going to do one more small push and wait for the doctor." Funny story, a baby slid out during that one last small push. No doctor, just nurses. It seemed like hours and hours of pushing but it turned out to be less than ten minutes. Another thing that seemed like it took forever was hearing him cry. It seemed like there was a horrible in the silence while I waited to hear that little wail.

After hearing the cry I longed to hear I don't remember anything but an oxygen mask  being placed on my face. 

After things were less hazy, I remember the doctor coming in, looking surprised and Jesse saying "We had a baby!" She laughed, did all that uncomfortable birthing the placenta and everyone came in the room to see the baby. Jesse held him and helped wash him and dressed him and then I got to hold our little man. I'm sure someone else held him before I did, but everything is still super hazy.

Noah Patrick was born May 24, 2011 at 8:37 PM at 19 1/2 inches and 7 lbs 5 oz.

PICTURE TIME!! All pictures taken by Anna Julian<3

So in love.

He made the face at me, I made it back:)

30 before 30

So I've decided I want to have a 30 before 30 list. (30 things to do before you're 30)
Jesse has agreed to do this with me, I don't know if it means we will have a list as a couple, individually or a joint list with some things for him, some for me and some together. I'm not gonna lie, I'm thoroughly excited about this endeavor. I'll make a real list soon, after Jesse and I have a chance to figure this whole thing out. So on top of Noah I'll have things on here about us, too!

(Granted I'm pretty sure those of you that read this really only read it for the baby!)

Anybody have suggestions for the list?

The Fair is Here!

We took Noah Patrick to his first fair!

Crazy Train!!

I will say it is nowhere near as fantastic as the fair was when I was little, but it was still a fun trip for us. We pulled into the parking lot and as soon as we get him situated in the stroller he decides he's hungry. An hour and a half before he should be. So we make a bottle in the parking lot, feed him, do a speedy diaper change and we're on our way! We get inside and immediately almost get run over by the crazy train. No not a group of crazy people but literally a little train that swerves all over the place and has small children (and adults) blowing on obnoxious noise makers. If it wasn't $5 a person I so would have gone and been the most obnoxious one there.

Unimpressed with the smell

We went and looked at the animals and omigoodness the smell. It wasn't too bad after a second, but it was overwhelming at first. Noah was not pleased with it at all, and it's the first time I've ever seen him react to how something smells. We went and saw Jason take pictures of cows before they turn into food, went and saw the sheepies, I stepped in a rather significant puddle of some type of urine, saw the piggies and moved on to the little animals.

On our way in to see the little animals they had those things you can stick your head in that turn you into a buff hula guy or Rudolph, except these were a cowboy and a cowboy on a horse. Of course I had to stick the baby's head into these for a photo op. It was too good to pass it up. He was surprisingly okay with being manipulated to fit in the face hole.

He liked looking at the bunnies jumping around, although most of them were pretty lethargic, just chillin, annoyed by all the people talking to them and tapping the cages(which annoyed me so much). One guy walked up to a goose, looked it square in the eye, said Aflack and walked away. Epic moment. When we got close enough to smell the turkeys we decided we were done. The turkeys smelled worse than all the big animals combined. Unpleasant.

We proceeded outside and found shaved ice. Who can turn down shaved ice? Jesse waited in line while Noah and I waited in the shade and he just smiled and talked and smiled and talked the whole time. Jesse comes back looking super excited about his shaved ice and it's three flavors, bubble gum, vanilla and root beer.

What's this?

He looks at me and asks if he could give some to the baby and get a spoonful of bubble gum ready, hoping I'll say yes. I look at the spoon and the bright blue, eat it and get some vanilla on the tip of the spoon.

Oooh yummy

I let him give him an itty bitty bit that was on the side and was more ice than flavored syrup. Oh the faces this child made. He was super excited at the little bit of flavor he got then completely freaked out when he realized how cold it was. Priceless moment. 

COLD COLD COLD!!

To make a long story short, we tried to win a fish, failed horribly, saw some puppies who needed a home and decided we want a dog in a few years, played with some international instruments, bought Jesse sunglasses and dealt with a MASSIVE poop explosion. Somehow I think the prune juice is still working on his system because we went from pooping once a day, to no poops for 5 days, to a huge solid poop, to lotsa poops every day.

When we got back to the car Noah was exhausted and falling asleep, but woke up enough to talk to us and tell us how his day went:)

Daycare Tours

We toured a daycare today. It's finally hitting me that I have to leave him behind to go back to work. I wish I could just take him with me and wear him around in his front pack or plop him in a corner and let some of my kids entertain him.

Anyway. I really really liked the daycare we visited today. It's right down the street from our house, is brand new, and has people who seem to genuinely love what they do. The infant room was incredible. Lots of sensory activities and foam play block things(the kind for climbing all over not building a mini tower) along with a GIANT stuffed dragon toy that I wanted to take home with me. As much as I can't see me leaving him behind anywhere or with anyone, this is the one place I think I could possibly leave him. Problem? I'm sure it is beyond expensive.

What's that you say? You took a tour and didn't ask about the cost? Silly me was so enamored and blown away by the facility important things like that slipped my mind. I plan on going back on Monday to ask them a few questions that I have thought of since leaving, and cost being one of them. I'm seriously hoping for a good rate, and hopefully a half day rate, so he can go here. I like the teaching methods and transition methods from age group to age group and I really do hope that when it comes time to let the little monster go I can.

Oh and this kid is figuring out how to do things for himself:)

Ear Infections and Some Other Crappy Problems

So to start all this out I will say this, Noah hasn't pooped since Friday (5 days.) He tries his best to get it out but he just could not manage by himself. We woke up this morning at about 5 to a blood curdling scream and I check his diaper just to find an itty bitty hard as a rock piece of poop stuck in his poor little bottom. I get it out and cuddle the little guy back to sleep and decide to call the doctor when we wake up again.

So I call the doctor and they want to see him as soon as possible, so we set up an appointment for an hour and a half later. About ten minutes after I got off the phone, my little trooper is trying to poop. He was successful! It was not an easy poop for the poor kid, it was a big solid poop that should not have come out of such a little body. I decide that since it was still so difficult for him I still want to take him to the doc.

We get to the doctor and I realize I had a few more questions for him about other things we've been going through. He said diluted prune juice for the constipation and asked what other questions I had. I told him that I feel like I clean his right ear every day and it is ridiculously gross every morning. He told me there's nothing we could do about earwax, and it was either mine or Jesse's fault that we passed on icky earwax, but he took a look anyway. While he was looking in he just says "Hunh, weird." He looked over at me and said he's only seen one other baby this young with an ear infection. Greaaat, an ear infection. Just what we need. This explains the constant screaming at night and the ear rubbing. So he's on antibiotics for a week and has a follow up appointment next week. I'm hoping I didn't pass on my slew of ear problems on to the babes, and this is just some fluke that will pass and not be a constant problem.

The upside of all of this? After the prune juice and tons of poop, I have a happy talkative little man. We took him to Costco and got him some nice winter PJ's, a present for his cousin Olivia's birthday, and he chit chatted the entire time we were there. I love hearing my little boy talk to me and I love when he talks to me while smiling. It's the best feeling in the world to see his little face light up and talk when he has something interesting to say!

Oh and Noah can't wait to see his Auntie June in a couple of weeks!

No More Newborns!

We're officially done with newborn clothes! I'm kinda happy and kinda sad all at the same time. Some of my favorite outfits for him were NB.

My favorite!

Funny story, we had no newborn clothes when he was born. At my last ultrasound, at 36 weeks, they told us to expect a 9-10 lb baby. Since we were expecting him to be so big we didn't buy any newborn anything. When he was born at 7 lbs 5 oz, we had to go out and buy him clothes because everything was dangerously big on him. He could wiggle out and twist himself up in what we had.  Needless to say I didn't want him to hurt himself getting wrapped up in his clothes, so we decided to go and get him something that fit.

We took a family shopping trip to Babies R Us when he was 4 days old, and got him all sorts of fun stuff, including a crib. We ended up with mostly pajamas for him because it was still so cold, even though it was almost June.  I was expecting him to outgrow everything we bought within a couple weeks, but he ended up just outgrowing the last thing this last week! I feel like it was a $100 well spent. I cringed when we spent that much on something I was expecting to only use for a few weeks, but newborns lasted us 2 months. Of course we had some things that were bigger that fit him, but we've officially moved on to 0-3 months!
We have a ton of cute outfits for him now that I can't wait for him to wear! I swear this kid has more clothes that I do!