The Man Who Changed Everything

At almost 2 months old Graham has rocked our worlds. In a good way of course. And let me preface this blaaaaaag with a disclaimer: I have been thinking a lot lately. That is what you do during your last few weeks of maternity leave. Think. And bake, apparently.

The story of how Graham came to be. I had applied for three jobs, one with the EPA, one with the Dept. of Ag and one with the Forest Service. I had been shot down for all three in one week and I said to Ed, "F- it, lets have another baby." You see, we had been talking about it for a while, ever since we heard our neighbor girls (2 sisters) playing with each other in the backyard while we were trying desperately to entertain a 1 year old and get yard work done at the same time. We knew that we had better manufacture a little buddy for Ed Jr. The last of the rejection notices came in an email and I took it as a sign that it was baby time again. Everything happens for a reason, right?




Well the next day I got another email from the f.s. that they had not hired anyone for the job and to apply for the job again when it was going to be reposted sometime in the next month. No more baby, I said to Ed. Well it turns out it was too late. Once was all it took. As if Baby Gam was meant to be. In fact, I think he was.

I didn't think there was any way I could even be pregnant, and in fact one negative pregnancy test agreed. Still I was a little late. After a night of what shouldn't have been too many vodka tonics, I felt like hell and decided to take another pregnancy test. Positive?!?!? Oh come on. Magic baby.

The next step was the f.s. re advertising my *dream job* me interviewing and getting it. OH the late night crying sessions about whether or not I should take the job. Top that with a delightful surge of hormones and I wonder why Ed didn't take Jr. and steal away into the night.

Let me pause here for a quick acknowledgement of my amazing friends and life coaches who patiently listen to me agonize every decision in my life and give me fantastic support and advice. . . I call you the life coach committee.

I knew that if I stayed with my old job at the State that I would just walk away when Baby Gam was born and stay home with the boys. I knew that going to the f.s. already 3 months pregnant would be tough, I wouldn't have any leave and a great deal of my job would be held back because no one wants to take a hugely pregnant woman out in the mountains to look at soil. Plus I was making a commitment to working over staying at home. I mean who is going to pick up the boys after school? Imagine if you will the late night crying sessions Ed had to put up with. Well, right or wrong, I decided to do the best job I could as a mom and put my career back on track.

Well, the job turned out to be less than dreamy so far. I mean it could turn around and maybe it will. But here I stand again on the precipice of returning to work and again making the decision to not be a SAHM. Monday I return to work. The only consolation prize is that I get to take Baby Gam with me. Technically he could be with me for an entire year, but we will see how that pans out. Right now I am going on a month by month plan. We will see how it goes this month and then see how it goes next month.


The other thing about Graham is that he brought along with him a big ole eviction notice. We have really outgrown our house. There are a lot of things to love about this house, but the fact remains, it is small and two boys do not stack well. So we started house hunting (insert fork in eye). Our house needs grew and grew until we were looking at houses that were bigger than I ever imagined that we would need and had prices that blew out of range of what I thought we could afford. Oh and we will either live in the valley or MT City because apparently they just don't make affordable mini mansions here in town. . . So, in order to get the house we need (want) I must work so that we can afford a mortgage, shoes for Jr. and a little extra to take Selma to the vet and get her teeth pulled.

I am terrified of pulling Jr. out of "school". He is such a social creature and learns like crazy and I worry that keeping him home with me would stunt his development. Plus I can't watch that much George, Tinkerbell and Princess Frog without checking into Warm Springs.


So add to the list of things I think about every second of every day is how much I ADORE Sweet Baby Gam. Let me summarize for you. Magic baby, big busy toddler, new job, bigger house, conflicted mommy. Got all that?

I know that everything happens for a reason. Graham is meant to be, he is here to change things, make our lives better. He is as sweet as candy and as hard as it is going to be to decide to go to work every day rather than stay home and watch him sleep, we need a bigger house and Jr. needs school and his ladies. So maybe the best decision for him and our family is for me to hustle my ass to work on Monday morning and quit my bitching. Hell, I know what a lucky lady I am. So lucky on so many levels.


Okay since you were such a good reader and listened to me whine relentlessly you are rewarded with a video. We shot this to use later, blackmail if you will. Jr. freaking LOVES Tinkerbell. He is 100% ladies man. He told my mom the other night that he wanted to marry the little girl in the princess costume from the costume catalog herein referred to as "MY MAGAZINE". We just recorded Tinkerbell on the DVR last week and have already watched it at least 100 times. I invested in the other Tinkerbell video and have seen it maybe 50 times since Sunday, and already have plans for the big 9/21 release of the Tinkerbell trifecta. You may say that I am feeding his princess and fairy obsession, but no, I am just taking a little mental vacation from George. Fairies it is then.


As for Graham. Still sleepy. Still sweet. My mom and I took him on quite the little Labor Day road trip to meet his great grandmother. She and Ron were smitten and other than the sad tummy on the drive there, Graham was a champ. In fact, I think he loved the break from all of the hustle and bustle around here.




Bonus for you Cissie. So cute.

Woah

Graham is smiling! His first official smiles belong to Emily, but now pretty much everyone that smiles at him gets one back. How awesome is that?


These are the last two weeks of my maternity leave and zoom, one of them is almost in the dust. Graham and I chilled out this week barely leaving the house. Since he was born, it has been go go go and this week we snuggled a lot. I held him while he slept, I held him while I cleaned, I held him pretty much 24-7.

When I got pregnant again, I told myself and everyone else that the biggest lesson I learned with Jr. was to put the baby down to sleep and just plain old put the baby down more. Well, apparently I get an F from myself, because I just want to hold and snuggle Graham all of the time, and last night it paid off.

Graham, Ed and I were all sleeping snugly in our bed when all of a sudden Graham started choking (he is okay). He was flailing his arms, all stiff with his back bent backwards and red in the face. Bubbles were coming out of his mouth as he choked and tried to cry. It was pretty scary and lasted for at least 10 minutes. We knew he was getting oxygen because his face was red and he was crying. I know I woke up instantly and flipped him onto his tummy to clear out all of the saliva. The whole time this was going on I kept thinking - THANK GOD HE SLEEPS WITH US!

I would never prescribe co sleeping to anyone else, but for me today, I am holding this little turkey close and knowing that someday he will sleep in his crib and I am not going to rush to that day. Plus I know that someday he will grow up to think that I suck and I will have to take his car away, so I am getting all of this loving in while I can. He is only a baby once, when I think back about Jr. I don't regret one moment I spent holding him. Jr. at 5 weeks.

It is amazing how much you don't get done while holding a baby, and damn it I am going to take the rest of my maternity leave to do just that. Oh and keep up with the Kardashians. . .







MIL and FIL, thanks for a great visit. Jr. still wakes up and asks where you are. I told him that you had to go back to Florida to protect the baby sea turtles from the birds so they can swim away into the ocean.

One Month - a few days late

Graham was one month on August 19th. I am late posting because it has been a whirlwhind few days.


Friday the 20th was our 5 year anniversary. For our anniversary I bought Ed a gun. When I pulled it out and gave it to him he said - "oh you got me a little gun." Little? I got him a super cool old school .22 for killin gophers and teaching two boys to shoot guns. It is a lever action (whatever that means) which I figure allows just enough time for us to rip the gun out of Jr.'s hands if he is up to no good. Plus, it is exactally like the gun I learned to shoot with at my grandparents house. My bother and I are still alive and have no bullet wounds, so I figured it was good enough for my kids to learn. The guy at the store told me it was a nice little family gun. Yikes. Really it is the action not the gun that is a monumental 5th year anniversary gift. You see, I HATE guns. I ABHORE guns. But I married a gun nut (and I say that in the nicest possible terms). Ed has guns and shoots them when he goes hunting. Jr. is already planning to kill bears, dragons, alligators, dinosaurs and magpies (!!!) with his guns so I figured that I would show Ed just how much I loved him buy getting over my self and buy the Colemans a "family gun".


*Happy Anniversary Ed - 5 years is not enough, I want more!*

Did I mention that I am now a registered gun owner? Hello? Freak out?!?!? What is next? Moving to Wyoming? Just kidding. Love WY. I hear Laramie is nice.

Friday, MIL and FIL rolled into town. Jr. is positively THRILLED to have his GAMMAGAMPA (yes, just one word and no "R"s) to play with all day. Ed and I are positively thrilled to have two extra sets of hands to help out with the babies, toddlers, food, walks, playing outside, locking Selma out. . .



Oh and one more thing - Gross Papa (Grandpa Bill) is turning SIXTY tomorrow. Sadly he is out of town for work, but Friday we are going to rock 60 like you can't even imagine. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOO! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA BILL! HAPPY BIRTHDAY GROSS PAPA!

I know how much you love them. . .

So here is a new video for you.

Good Nights and Bad Nights

I know it has been a long time. Since Ed Jr.'s grandma Shelia left, it has been hard to get near the computer. Thanks Grandma S for taking such good care of us. We all miss you!

Everyone asks me - how is he sleeping? Since we are breastfeeding, I pretty much have to feed him at least every two to four hours, so even in the middle of the night, we are up. At almost one month (tomorrow) we have had some good nights and bad nights. I would say that for every two good nights we have, we have one bad night. When I say bad night - this is what I mean, Ed Jr. likes to hang out for a couple hours in the middle of the night. He isn't screaming, he just wants to be held, walk around and occasionally nurse. This usually happens between 2 and 4 AM. He did have two screaming nights, but since his mom gave up dairy, that hasn't happened since.

Good nights are ones where we have to wake him up to feed him in the middle of the night. He goes about 4 hours between feedings, eats a bunch and then immediately returns to sleep.

Tuesday night was the worst yet. I got mastitis. It was basically horrible and we haven't gotten out of bed since. Good news for Ed Jr. every time he is awake, I am trying to get that kid to nurse to clear out the plugged duct. I think he is actually tired of nursing right now.

This week was also dad's first week back at work. And other than the mastitis Ed Jr. and mom are coping quite well. Dad misses us a lot and has a tough job right now, so he is not so chipper.

Ed Jr.'s god mother came to visit, which was very nice. He likes her quite a bit and was extra snuggly when she was here.

We get out quite a bit, other than Mastitis days, we go for walks, go shopping, and even attended a birthday party for his two year old cousin, Faith. We had an awesome time. The whole family plus a few friends were there to celebrate. What was her favorite gift? Bubbles. But even the bubbles paled in comparison to the birthday party highlight - a beetle she found outside. She carried that poor bug around for hours. It was alive part of the time. . . Sadly I don't have any photos of the party, but I got this one the next day. Honestly, I have never seen Uncle Ian this happy in years. He LOVES his nephew.

THREE WEEKS OLD!

And life for Ed Jr. is pretty sweet. He goes for walks, sleeps and eats. His grandma Shelia and his parents hold him just about 24 hours a day.

He is "supposed" to go 4 hours between feedings in the middle of the night - but he doesn't know the difference between day and night.

He is also growing as fast as the dandelions in my flower bed. Today to celebrate his 3 week birthday, I put him in the outfit he wore home from the hospital.

It is a little short in the legs. So the kid has some flood pants on today, doesn't make us bad parents, does it?

Happy Mothers Day - Belated

Sorry this is one day late, but a day late is better than nothing - or better than the invisible flowers and invisible card I got for my mom and better than the invisible chocolates I got my step mom. Ed got his mom the same. Oopsie.

What did I get for my first mother's day? The best present I could think of. One day free of diaper duty. Ha ha - I said duty. Ed and Grandma changed diapers all day - it was magical.

Oh and a bonus for those of you that claim that Ed Jr. looks a little like me. Behold. Ed Sr.



Ed Jr.



I guess we named him appropriately.

Head

Ed Jr has a big old noggin. This should come as no surprise to any of you who are acquainted with his parents. His mom has a large head and his dad. . . well, when he was a child, was nicknamed Head by his brothers because of he was a skinny little guy with a big head. Well, that name stuck and his brothers still call him Head or "H" for short.

Today the Dr. told us that he is in the 90th percentile for length, 95th percentile for head circumference and somewhere in the 70th percentile for weight. In other words, he is a tall skinny kid with a big head.

Head Jr.?

Anyway, I shot this video last night when trying to get Ed Jr. to hit the hay. Sorry about the poor image quality, but I didn't want to turn on the overhead lights, so we were working with lamp light. Turn up the sound so you can hear his hiccups.



How hilarious is that hat? Elf or Russian Prince?

Happy Camper

Ed Jr. is almost two weeks old. Two amazing weeks if you ask me.

It hasn't been all fun and games though, yesterday he got circumcised. He was pretty pissed about the whole thing and to make up for it, nursed for almost straight hour in Dr.'s office and in the truck in the parking lot of the Dr.'s office. They said that we could stay in the exam room and nurse him as long as we needed, but it was about 5:00 PM and I am sure they wanted to go home, so we hauled a screaming kid through the halls and finished up in the truck. He then slept through Bed Bath and Beyond and Costco.

Today was much much much better. Ed Jr. is very busy perfecting the art of sleepnursing. He would like to think that he invented it. It works like this. Start nursing, fall asleep, nurse while sleeping, wake up slightly, nurse, fall back asleep, get angry when removed from the breast, return to nursing, sleep, nurse, sleep, nurse. Nanna calls it camping out. If he is camping out, he is one happy camper. And other than taking up his mom's ENTIRE day with this sleepnursing, it seems to be working, he gained almost a whole pound (15 oz to be exact) in one week.

The other thing that Ed Jr. is very good at is tearing ass. Twice he has pooped with such force, poop has cleared the edge of his changing table and made it at least 3 feet vertical distance. The last such time, he pooped on his mom's leg as she was standing in the doorway to his nursery. Not just a little bit either.

I thought you all would enjoy a little Ed Jr. live. Warning - gratuitous spit up scene in the end. Out of the three takes, he spit up each time. I am going to try not to take it as "get the camera out of my face mom!".



You were warned.

I also thought that you would enjoy the many faces of Ed Jr. While he is awake, he is pretty happy until he wants to return to sleepnursing, then he gets pretty salty.

One Week

Ed Jr. is a little over one week old. He is completely amazing. He had a couple of bad nights, but also a couple of great nights. His Nanna was here all week, which pleased him greatly, and allowed his daddy to obsess about the yard. She left today, which made Ed Jr. and his mom quite sad, but no worries, his Grandma Shelia is on her way and his Strega Nona is only a few blocks away.



I have updated the Flicker photos and placed a permanant link on the right.

I would write more if I wasn't super tired. When he sleeps, I am supposed to sleep. Right.

He's Home

Ed Jr. was born April 23, 2008. He weighed in at 8 lbs 4.75 oz and was 22 inches long. His birth was pretty amazing. More on that later.

The sad part was that he wasn't breathing very well after he was born. He was also born with a fever and had to spend 3 days in NCIU. It was the longest three days of our lives. He had to hang out under an oxygen hood, be hooked up to machines and IVs.

The GOOD NEWS is that he made it out of NICU on Saturday afternoon and is now at home doing very very very well. He is lovely and enchanting.

Here are some photos. Keep checking back, we will keep adding them as they come along.