Mish mash

This morning I woke up at it was -3 degrees outside. Yesterday it did not get any warmer than 25 degrees. I watched the weather this morning only to be dismayed at the prospect that it is not supposed to be any warmer than 35 degrees for the next 6 days. Mark it, note it, kick it off. This will be my first post in what I can only guess will be a bunch of posts about the cold weather and it's toll on my California bones. Brrr.. I am looking forward to spending 6 days in California next week.

I think I have my third case of mastitis, which is mighty unfortunate (the first two were with Delaney). I called the doc this morning and they are going to call in a prescription for me today. I woke up at 2am chilled to the bone and a high fever and have other symptoms that would be boring for most people, even other women who have breastfed. I guess I am just prone to this annoying infection.

We had a great weekend and on Saturday night I got to have a night out with friends without any children. It was our annual book club party, which is very similar to our book club meetings only this time husbands can attend. And there is a hilarious white elephant gift exchange which always brings much cheer. The only bummer was that we happened to come home with two stinker gifts... "Cleveland in a Box" board game and a Paper Voodoo kit. Even though I still had to scurry home in the middle of the party to feed Garrett and put him down I thoroughly enjoyed my 5 hours away WITHOUT any spit up on me.

Which brings me to spit up... I feel like I live in a world of spit up. I get spit up on about 5 times a day. Sometimes it's just a dribble and other times it's a half cup full. Sometimes it's on my shirt, sometimes on my pants, and my favorite is in my hair. Our son spits up a lot. Apparently most newbies grow out of this between 7-9 months. Bummer. That's 4-6 more months of doing umpteen loads of laundry because he and I are both changing our clothes at least once a day. Delaney was not a spitter upper and instead the bigger deal with her was diaper blowouts. Believe it or not we have only had about 3 blowouts with Garrett in his first 3 months. I vaguely remember having blowouts with D about every two days. I guess if it's not one orifice exploding fluids it's the other.

Garrett is doing great otherwise and most nights he is doing very well with his sleep. We regressed a while back and he still has his nights of waking twice, but by and large he only awakes once to feed. Last night I had to get out a warm compress and also do some pumping so I had to turn a small light on. Normally I keep it as quiet and dark as possible for our nighttime feeds. But given that there was a light on once he finished feeding he decided it was cooing social hour. He was smiling, cooing, gooing and generally having a party in his room at 3:30am. Even though I was tired, feverish and achy from the mastitis it was hard not to enjoy his playfulness for a few minutes. I know I get annoyed about the newborn sleeplessness but I did realize that pretty soon these moments will be gone. He seems so unbearably sweet at this time in his life. Contrast this to my willful toddler and I am reminding myself to enjoy this time with my precious little newbie.

Some things that I love about Garrett... I love that he will now pretty much smile on command. And I love that he has little to no control over his limbs. He moves his arms up and down with wild abandon and clearly has no control over where they are going. You can tell he wants to move them somewhere intentional but he can't muster the coordination just yet. It seems to me it's the ultimate little newborn move. He wants something or feels excitement and the only thing he can do is move his arms up and down in excitement. I've even seen him whack himself in the face unintentionally. Same with his legs...kick kick kick. I put him on the couch and just watch the little guy get his exercise. It's ridiculously cute.

He has also started to find his hand and fingers for sucking enjoyment. He sucks so loudly on them that you can hear it from the next room. My guess is that he will become a thumb sucker just like his sister but I suppose only time will tell.

I have started using consequences with Delaney and it seems to be working quite well. Since time outs work only moderately effectively for Delaney a few friends started suggesting removing items of hers that are important (but not too important, like a lovey). I have had to threaten twice to take a privilege away only to have her buck up and start listening. It seems to be working for now which is nice.

This week we have Kevin's Christmas party on Wednesday night and a holiday part at our friends brewery on Thursday. Then Saturday night is Lara's annual birthday fiesta at Sushi Zanmia. So we have THREE nights out scheduled this week. Look out... it's almost like we're entering the world of adulthood again.