Done

I'm finally done pumping and it's bittersweet.  Eight months of pumping exclusively, save for a week or two.  I am so happy to not feel like a cow anymore and to have hours of my day back, but I am sad to no longer be giving Rhys my milk.  (Well, that's not quite true as two of his four bottles a day are from the freezer stash, but you get the idea.)  I'm kind of mourning the loss/lack of breastfeeding relationship all over again and probably will yet again when the freezer stash runs out in a few weeks.

And, of course, there's the guilt.  Mommy guilt is a force unlike any other.  It's what got me up to pump in the middle of the night for months on end and it's what tells me that Rhys' constipation is all my fault.  I know it'll never go away so I'm trying to make friends with it.  Hello Guilt.  I know you will anyway, so I'm inviting you to join me on this journey called motherhood.  Sometimes you'll win, but not this time.  I did my very best for Rhys and nothing you say can change that.

We're also done feeding Rhys during the night and for the most part he now sleeps a full 12-hours with barely a peep.  Every once in awhile he squawks, but it literally lasts for less than 30 seconds and we all go back to sleep.  I've been reluctant to post about this particular topic because, as Brian put it, you don't talk about a no-hitter when you're having a no-hitter.  (For the non-baseball fans out there, you don't want to jinx it.)  I've whined and moaned so much about not sleeping, though, it feels disingenuous to not write about how AWESOME it is to once again sleep through the night.  As it turns out, motherhood hasn't turned me into a bitchy, forgetful, stupid woman.  I was just tired.  May the sleep angels continue to sprinkle their dust on our house each night.

Rhys' crawling skills improve exponentially each day, much to the dismay of Jacques and Elliott.  Jacques does his best to just steer clear of the Rhys, but Elliott's desire for a pet or some lovin' from me or Brian seems to outweigh his fear.  As soon as Rhys gets close, though, he's out.

              

Watch Out World

The day has arrived, folks.  Rhys is crawling!  Our weekend is now dedicated to installing locks on the drawers and cabinets, putting up the safety gates and watching closely as Rhys teaches us about everything in our house that seems innocuous but is actually a hazard.

The timing of this works out really well.  The cats are shedding like crazy, so we figure we'll put some rags on Rhys' hands and knees and let him do some cleaning.  He's drooling a bunch (but still no teeth) so the floors will literally be spit-shined.  It's about time for this kid to do some chores, right?

Say Cheese

Not long after I got pregnant, Brian started talking about buying a new camera.  We had a pretty good digital camera, but he wanted to invest in an upgrade.  He wanted something really high quality for documenting both my pregnancy and our child’s life.  Well, as is typical, it took quite some time for him to pull the trigger on the purchase.  "Quite some time" as in my entire pregnancy and the first few months of Rhys’ life were documented with the old camera.  (Our tendency to think and analyze saves us a lot of money).  Brian finally made the big purchase a few weeks into his paternity leave.  Even now most pictures get taken with his iPhone since it’s so convenient and a pretty decent camera, but he's used his new toy a few times and it does take awfully nice pictures.   

  

Mary Poppins

We hired ourselves a nanny.  What's particularly exciting is that she's not a stranger whom we're hoping doesn't steal our stuff and mistreat our kid.  She's our neighbor who we know and trust.  She's great with Rhys and we're psyched about the whole situation.  Rhys will be in her care four days per week and we'll cover the fifth day with our vacation time and the generous help of Gramma and Grampa Wynne.  YAY!!

Isn't it ironic...or is it?

Brian and I have an ongoing debate as to what qualifies as ironic.  I have a pretty broad definition (sufficiently unexpected does it for me) and he has a very narrow definition (I don’t know that he’s ever actually called something ironic).  So I’m sure he won’t agree that this situation was ironic, but I sure thought so.

On Friday night I forced Brian to stay at a hotel.  The months on months of sleep deprivation finally seemed to be catching up to him so I booked him a nice room.  He fought me hard (which, of course, is very nice) but I refused to take no for an answer and he finally relented.  So, the ironic part?  Yep, you guessed it… Rhys slept through the night.  He let out a couple of squawks around 2am, but other than that slept a solid 11.5 hours.  Brian got to sleep in later than he would have at home, so I’m still glad he went, but I laughed out loud when I woke up in the morning and realized what had happened.

In other news, Rhys is learning all kinds of new skills.  He’s so close to crawling, he can now push up to sitting from his belly, and can open drawers (yikes!).  Everyone says we will rue the day he becomes truly mobile, and I have no doubt they’re right, but I can’t help but to delight in each new movement and milestone.         

4th and 5th

I typically enjoy the 4th of July, but this year wasn't particularly great.  Rhys had an ear infection and pink eye and I was also feeling under the weather (thanks daycare!).  Our big adventure of the day was a quick trip to a nearby park.  

Rhys did fine with the fireworks as we had him completely ensconced in white noise.  I wasn't as lucky.  Despite going to bed early, it was a rough night being awoken several times by both the fireworks and Rhys.  

On July 5th Brian and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.  My how our lives have changed since that day.  Rhys gave us a wonderful gift by taking a long nap at daycare (I'm a nap nazi and daycare has not been living up to my standards) and sleeping well that night.  


I certainly enjoy the pomp and circumstance of celebrating our anniversary (if exchanging cards counts as pomp and circumstance), but I really like that it doesn't feel that much different than any other day since I'm married to a man who makes me feel loved and appreciated every day.  

The News

Good News:  On Friday, we thought Rhys might be reacting to the antibiotics he was on for his ear infection so we took him back to the doc.  He wasn't.

Bad News:  The infection hadn't cleared and in fact his other ear was newly infected.  Today we think he might have pink eye.  This evening after I fed him he threw up all over both of us.

Frustrating News:  Rhys only got two 25 minute naps at daycare.  ARGH! 

Work News:  No news, actually, just a musing...pumping at work is such an odd thing.  One minute I am managing my team or talking to a VP (my boss) and the next minute I am half-undressed expressing liquid from my body while hearing several other women do the same thing.  It's so, so weird.         

Cleaner News:  We fired our house cleaners.  We tried anyway.  They kept screwing up the logistics of our appointments (when to come, where the key was, etc.) so I told them they we were cancelling our service.  And, true to the reason we cancelled, the message didn't manage to get from the front office to the cleaners, so they showed up and cleaned the house anyway.  This was a Friday afternoon and I got a call from them on Monday informing me that they'd "accidentally" cleaned the house.  As if we hadn't noticed a freshly cleaned house (and already called to inform them we wouldn't be paying)?!  I laughed out loud when she asked if we'd reconsider our decision to cancel.  Um, no. 

Brian News:  He is playing softball tonight.  Let's hope he comes home injury-free.

Summer News:  Summer is here.  We can't tell from the weather, of course, but the delicious fresh strawberries in the refrigerator courtesy of our CSA (community supported agriculture) box are proof enough.  Apparently strawberries are a potentially allergenic food for babies so we shouldn't give any to Rhys.  I can't wait to enjoy this pleasure with him, but for now I'm happy to have one less person with whom to share. 

Happy News:  Our little man is such a trooper.  Despite being sick for three solid weeks, he's still a happy little baby.  I can't remember when we filmed this footage but it was fairly recently, so he was sick.  You can see for yourself that it hasn't kept him down.

The Best News:  This sweet baby is ours!