Sleep Champ

It's 8:05 and Max has been down for half an hour. How nice to have this peace and quiet. I started reflecting on when he was a month or 2 old and I was at a loss with his sleep needs. Remember when he wouldn't sleep anywhere other than attached to me in the Bjorn? Oh how badly I wanted to be able to set him down and use my "free time". I sent out a plea to my mom friends asking for their advice on getting him to sleep on his own. Patti, I remember your promise that I wouldn't have to wear him to preschool in a Bjorn.

The great news is that the phase did pass and I have a champ of a sleeper right now. That's right I'm going to tempt fate and come right out and say it. In the evening when he's feeling tired he will go over to the gate, stare longingly up the stairs, and whimper. If I ask him whether he'd like a bottle, he'll run excitedly to me and leap into my arms. Up the stairs we go and he'll help me assemble his bottle. He pops it into his mouth like an addict getting a fix and it's off to bed without a peep. He sleeps through the night and is usually up between 6:30 and 7:30.

Now there is the issue during the afternoon where he won't fall asleep due to a BM but really I'm thinking it's a nice characteristic that he doesn't like to fall asleep laying in his own feces. Anyway, the point is that I'm very proud of the independent little boy he's becoming. He's quite a kid!

He Speaks!

Max recently turned 15 months and is a babbling fool. I thought I'd take the time (for my own selfish purposes) to log his vocab.

Ball
Bottle
Bye
Mama (usually expressed as mamamamamamama! with extended arms)
Dada
Hot (stove, spaceheater, running bath water)
Hi (loves the reaction he gets out of people from this one)
Hello (his phone greeting as "hi" just won't cut it)
Ssssss (this is code for Sydney)
Various animal noises (monkey oo-oo-oo, meow, owl hoo-hoo, sheep baaaa)

Let's face it, he's a genius!

Meet Baby #2

I think it must be true what they say about 2nd kids (and more) getting the shaft vs. first-born children. I've written hardly a blurb about Baby 2 in this blog and I'm 14 weeks along...more than a third of the way. So think of this entry as my mother's guilt kicking in.

As I said above, I'm 14 weeks or a bit over 3 months along. We've had 3 ultrasounds thus far. At 6 weeks Baby was an itty bitty little fetal pole and not much to write home about. By the 9 week ultrasound Baby had developed into a rotund little gummy bear with a chubby round body, huge head and itty bitty limbs. 3 weeks later, at our 12 week ultrasound, Baby's limbs had grown to a more proportionate length although his/her head still remains huge (normal I assure you even though I'm a Sample). We were lucky enough to see a heartbeat as early as the 6 week ultrasound, Baby was performing jerky movements at 9 weeks and had become a bit more graceful by 12 weeks.

Alex and I have made the choice not to find out Baby's gender until the birth. I can't imagine having done this with Max. With a 1st pregnancy everything is unexpected and you have so much to prepare for. It all feels so out of control it was nice to at least have that one known. This time around pregnancy and delivery (likely a repeat c-section) feel quite a bit less mysterious, although no less miraculous, so this is our attempt at building up the anticipation.

I haven't had any feelings one way or another re: what gender this baby might be. No crazy dreams or anything like that. I've definitely felt a bit more queasy and a million times for fatigued than with Max but that's life as a second time mother.

If anyone has name suggestions, feel free to throw them out there. We're struggling with this one. My criteria is that it has to be gender specific, not overused and is easy to both pronounce and spell.

So that is Baby 2 as we know him/her today. We're certainly thrilled to welcome him/her to our family in late April or early May. I have no doubt that he/she will demand his/her fair share of attention upon arrival!

(No that's not Baby 2 in the photo above. I pulled that off the internet.)

Do Kitties Get Motion Sickness?

We have 2 very nice kitties in our house. Cleo is our male cat (yes, male and he's Cleo...story for another day) and Lilly is our female cat. Lilly hates strangers yet loves Alex and I. She's a rabid killer yet will patiently lick her brother clean while he selfishly supervises. Cleo is...well, let's put it this way, if he were human he'd live in his parents' basement and would talk like Yoda to try and impress a girl.

Max thinks the kitties are super. Lilly clearly does not return the sentiment and avoids him at all costs. Cleo really wants to like him. He'll stand bravely as Max flails at him, aggressively patting his tail and making loud, appreciative noises. You can tell Cleo is cringing through the session and when he can't take it any more he'll turn and run.

Today Max was lucky enough to find Cleo resting quietly on the office chair. Ohhh, nice kitty! So what does he do? He begins to spin the chair. Round and round Cleo goes with Max giggling hysterically every time the confused Cleo passes by. To Max's credit he wasn't spinning him all that fast. To Cleo's credit he stayed on for about 5 rotations before he leaped for safety. Yeah, I think it will be a while before we find Cleo cuddled in Max's lap. Spin, kitty, spin!