Ears

I remember having earaches as a child. A stinging, pressurized feeling deep in the ear puncuated with an itch at times. There was usually a headache to go with it and an overall feeling of yuckiness. My poor little AJ has an ear infection. The helpless feeling I have and the sick and pathetic look my little guy has on his red and puffy face make me doubt my role as "Supreme Comforter and Miracle Soother."
On any other day I can rock him to sleep and after 3 magical minutes, he drifts off nicely. Walking around the house carried in a sling can lull him into a pleasant drowsy state. Humming nameless tunes with my cheek pressed to his head can work well, also. Except not today. Or last night. As I sat with a howling little boy in my lap at midnight, 2:00 am, 3:00 am and again at 3:45 am, I wondered why in the world God gave me this precious creature I could neither comfort nor soothe.
Then after a few hours of sleeping peacfully between Mama and Dad in the big bed and waking up to find a smiling toothless grin on a feverish face, I thought, "Yup. God did good."

Rewind

So I am farting around with pictures and trying to organize them into some order, when I thought I would write about the day AJ was born.

I felt like an old sock when I left work on Friday, November 30th, 2007. I decided not to return to work the following week. All weekend I had contractions and knew something was afoot. On Monday, December 3rd, 2007, I woke up and had breakfast of Frosted Flakes and OJ. This breakfast is so sugar loaded that AJ ususally did flips and wiggles after a few bites. Usually. But not this morning. I poked him a bit and he gave me a half hearted kick. I worried quite a bit and talked to Erin, my invisifriend from Texas, who advised me to call the OB and go in for a visit. I did that and was in the office being monitored for about 2 hours. At noonish, Dr. Gladdin came in and checked the paper on the machine and said, "Congrats, you are having your baby today! Go to the hospital right now and I will induce you."

It turned out that AJ's heart was having decelerations and Dr. Gladdin wanted him to be born before something serious happened. We went to the hospital and the Dr. broke my water and started pitocin. I thought, "Oh, I have lots of time- Mike can go get food and I can call Mom in a bit." So Mike left and I was alone when contractions the likes of which I hope to never feel again began. I thought I had a high pain tolerance, but it turns out I am really a wimp. I got my husband back, my mom came and the epidural guy arrived and all was right with the world for about an hour.

AJ's heart was still doing funny things when the pit was turned on- so they turned it off. But then nothing happened. So they turned it back on, and his heart went wonky again. And off it went. At 7:00 pm, Dr. Gladdin says enough is enough- we need to do a c-section. AJ was born at 7:52 PM on December 3rd, 2007. He weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. He had thick black hair and really long fingers.

Teeth? Food? Snow in late April?

AJ woke up last night at 1:30 am. He fought going back to bed until 3:30 am when I abandoned the rocking chair for the comfort of my bed with him tucked in my "craw" and we slept fitfully until 5:30 am. A small thought keeps creeping in my head. Could he be teething? Could my tiny newborn babe who was born a mere 4 months and 3 weeks ago be cutting a tooth? If this is the case, what do I do now?

Another thought keeping me awake at night is when to begin feeding him solids. We both are very happy nursing. (You know I always thought ladies nursing toddlers was weird, but I may be one of those moms...but I digress. ) I went to my breast feeding mother's group (boob group) and asked if I was waiting too long if I waited until 6 months. The long and short of it was no, I can wait until I'm ready, so that is what we'll do. It was nice having validation that I wouldn't starve him if I waited a bit.

On another note, I dug out my fun summer shoes last week! After all it was 80 something on Friday. It snowed this morning. Bummer.

Getting Started

I know a lot of people starting this blogging thing, so I thought I would join the fray. It's purpose is to keep my faraway sis and friends in touch with AJ while he grows, and to share my minor misteps and all out fall -down- smack -my -face- on- the- pavement mistakes I will make while raising my sweet boy from baby to man.