Yikes! Time got a way from me!

It has been WAY too long since my last post! Tommy is now 8 months old.

He is wearing size 4 diapers and size 9 month or 9-12 month clothing (some 6-12 month from Gymboree). He still has 2 teeth and is able to go from sitting to his belly. He army crawls, pulling himself along the floor by his arms with his belly on the floor.

He says mamamama, dadadada, bababababa, and many other sounds. He can give high fives, wave bye-bye, and give kisses. He drinks 3, 6oz bottles of formula a day as well as breastfeeding 2-3 times a day.

He has recently begun to sleep through the night, like for real sleeping through, not the 5+hour straight stretches that the doctors like to tell us counts. He goes to bed at 8pm and sleeps until about 5 or 6am. He is sooooooo much fun and I'm loving this stage!

Ok, I'm feeling much better since the last post. I've decided to stop pushing the whole sleeping-in-the-Pack-N-Play thing. If Tommy will sleep in the Rock-N-Play or bouncy chair, then great.

Ok, Tommy is 5 weeks old! Let's celebrate some milestones!

1. The newborn sized diapers are too small now. We're on to size 1s!
2. Along with the diapers, newborn sized clothes are mostly too small too! On to 0-3 month size!
3. My little man is incredibly strong! He's holding his head up longer and moving it from side to side with ease while laying on our chests. He's also bearing weight on his feet. We will hold him up in front of us and he straightens his legs right out and loves when we bounce him on his feet (not too much weight though!).
4. This isn't a great milestone but we had our first "sick" visit to the doctor. Last Monday, we woke up to Tommy's eye glued shut with goop. I used a warm, wet washcloth to clean it off and checked him out. The whites of his eyes weren't pink or red so I didn't think it was pink eye but I called the pediatrician anyway. They had us come in the next day since Monday was a holiday and it turns out he has a blocked tear duct. They said to use cotton balls to keep his eye clean and to massage the tear duct several times a day. Luckily for us, it hasn't seemed to bother Tommy at all.
5. This is a big one, Tommy went from 12:30pm-6:00am last night without a feeding! Now, he did wake up twice with gas bubbles so we didn't really sleep straight through, but I have high hopes that this will come soon!
6. Tommy took a bottle of formula last night without a fight and actually seemed to like it! While Bill gave him the bottle, I pumped and got 4.5 oz! This gives me high hopes that I'll be able to get some good amounts when I go back to work and hopefully will have a big enough freezer stash that if I stop producing much milk, we'll still be able to feed him breastmilk for a while.

In other news, my maternity leave is officially up as of September 21 when I go to the doctor for my 6 week postpartum appointment. I have enough sick time accrued to get me through mid-October if the school district will approve the leave. However, this year is my tenure year and I can't get a straight answer as to whether taking more time will affect my tenure date. I've been calling, emailing, and even visiting personnel and can't get an answer. The woman who should have the answer told me she had to "research it further" and would get back to me. That was yesterday and she won't answer my calls today. So frustrating! I can't be the first teacher to go out on extended childcare leave during her tenure year.

In mommy news, I tried on a pair of my pre-pregnancy jeans today. They were the first ones I could find and are a pair of the smaller ones, but they went on and zipped! They button, but not comfortably and I have a lovely muffin top, but the fact remains that I can put them on! It gives me hope that I'll get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes soon enough!

I took this video this morning, my baby boy must have been having some sweet dreams!

Shopping at 34 weeeks

I've mentioned a couple of times about finding dresses for my shower and my mother-in-law's (Donna) wedding. The one I bought from JCPenney is perfect, it's comfortable and looks great. I'm very pleased. The one I ordered from Macy's looks like a nightgown on me. Not attractive at all. So I have to return that one. I was talking about this with my cousin Patti who happens to also be pregnant and due in September and she asked if I had something to wear to her shower yet. Crap. Nope. So I went through my calendar and figured out that I need something to wear to Donna's wedding, Patti's shower, and Donna's shower. I figure I can get away with wearing the same thing to both Patti and Donna's showers since none of the same people will be there. I just need to be careful to not get it dirty since Donna's shower is Saturday evening and Patti's is a brunch Sunday morning!

So I'm off today to Kohl's since they're having a sale and I've heard they have a good selection of maxi dresses. I'm hoping to get a dress for Donna's wedding and maybe some capri's with a long top or Bermuda shorts and a top for the showers. Wish me luck!

Body Image

Before I got pregnant, I wasn't totally happy with my body. I'm tall and have a large frame but I also eat what I want and had a few pounds to lose. When I got pregnant I really tried to keep myself under control and not just eat whatever I wanted. I've done fairly well with this so far and have gained about 25 pounds which isn't great but I'm not totally unhappy with it. I'll probably end up gaining the top of the 25-35 pounds my doctor suggested. That being said, I love my belly. It's big and covered with stretch marks but it reassures me that our baby is growing and hopefully thriving.

I haven't felt bad about my pregnant body until today. I went to Target for a couple of things and decided to try on dresses to get an idea of what I like since I'll need something to wear to my shower and my mother in law's wedding. I found two sleeveless tops that I like but noticed that my arms have gotten bigger. The dresses I tried on just weren't flattering. Then I went to Motherhood to find new bras. I knew I need to be fitted because the ones I've been wearing are very uncomfortable. I wasn't prepared for the size though. 40F. 40F?!?!?! WTF!?!?! Of course they only carry underwire free in that size and they just don't make me feel supported.

So I found one bra that came in a 40E and it fit well enough to get for now. It's more comfortable than what I have been wearing so I got it to hold me over until I can get a bra that actually fits.

Then I tried on dresses. What a disaster. I felt like they all highlighted my arms or just made me look very wide. The shorter style dresses were all above my knees which just didn't flatter me. There was one full length dress that looked ok but it was really casual. I have time since my shower isn't until July 17, but it made me a big nervous that I didn't find anything that I liked and was appropriate. It's mostly worrisome because there are very few places around here to get maternity clothes. It's basically Target, Motherhood, JCPenney, or Kohls and I've looked everywhere except for Kohls so far.

Alright, enough complaining. I'm gonna go cuddle with my puppy dog and my husband.