Happy Easter!

Mom and Dad came down from Ft. Smith for Easter and Dunning was really good for them, blowing bubbles and raspberries with his lips, cooing and smiling. He also wore his new rocker shoes to church. They are blue and brown leather with brown flaming guitars! God rocks! (Mikel picked these out!) Dunning and Mikel chilled out while they watched the Arkansas/North Carolina game (We lost). Dunning was tired from all the playtime with Nana and Pawpaw.

Dunning hasn't been sleeping the best the past few days. Starting Friday he broke his 10-12 hour streak with only one feeding. He has now been getting up 2-3 times a night. I try to only feed him 1-2 times though for 10-15 minutes. It may be because I have started putting him down for a morning and afternoon nap so that he is not quite so fussy at night. He still goes down easy for the evening, but waking up later. May be a growth spurt - who knows! Let's hope it's not a trend.

We went grocery shopping today and have been pretty lazy because I am so tired. I worked in the garden yesterday and got it ready for planting. I planted my seeds in the seed trays and planted my snap pea seeds in the garden. It was all a lot of hard work because the garden pretty much got abandoned when I entered my second trimester last summer. I had to clean it up, break up all the soil and distribute it throughout the garden. Needless to say I am very sore today.

Boos continued...

So today has so far not been much better than yesterday. It rained and thundered ALL NIGHT LONG. Our dog is terrified of thunder, so that means he whined and scratched on his kennel door ALL NIGHT LONG. He sleeps next to our bed, so I heard it ALL NIGHT LONG. The only thing that soothes him is being in our bed. Considering he is 50 pounds and dirty from being outside all day, that was not going to happen. Plus, he can't just lie there. He pants because he is scared (getting the bed all soggy) and tries to lay as close as he can to you (i.e., on top of you). He is as long as I am, so it's like having a third full grown person in a king sized bed.
Then Dunning decided he wasn't going to sleep and woke up 3 times last night. Needless to say, we slept in this morning and had to make a quick run to Starbucks (no milk for coffee because no groceries! and I HATE black coffee). Right now he is in a semi good mood, so I may actually be able to catch a shower before going to Wal-Mart for groceries, mopping, tackling the laundry and dishes...I will eventually get better at this time management stuff! Well, we will at least get the groceries done. Can't afford a $3.25 daily vanilla latte habit.

Boo on Birthdays

Today is my birthday and it was not the best day...I got to have lunch with my friends from my old job, which was really nice. However, we did it in a restaurant, Gusano's again, my favorite, and the place does not have a diaper changing station. And of course, Dunning had to do his business again (must be something about the place). The floor of the women's restroom was flithly, so I thought I would change him later at Aunt Stephy's office, but Aunt Stephy was busy... We then had to go to the DMV to renew my license (what every girl wants to do on her birthday) and I thought we'd just do that real quick, then go home. Well, apparently the DMV has not stepped in to the 21st Century yet, because they don't accept debit cards and I had no cash or check book on me. SOOOO, we tried to go home and I flaked out and went South on the highway instead of North. Finally, we decided to go to a friend's house real quick to change and nurse. Where he promptly threw up on her couch.

We eventually got to the DMV after a quick run to the ATM and I actually took a good picture. Dunning was really fussy when we got home, turns out he had two more nice diapers. Then he was all smiles!

He is still sleeping 10-12 hours with one feeding at night, which is super, but I can't seem to sleep very well with the crappy monitor we have that sounds like a TV on the fritz. So the past three nights have not been very great for me.

It was so hard seeing all my work friends today. Giving them up was hard, they are such a great bunch of people. But it's good to know they'll invite me to lunch, baby showers and girls nights.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. I need to go to Wal-Mart for groceries and come up with a plan to start working out 3 times a week. We have officially hit the weight loss plateau from nursing and will have to lose the last 10 pounds the good ol' fashion way - by sweating! Guess I shouldn't have had those three slices of pizza today.....

Today's Adventures

Well today we went to have lunch with Auntie Stephy. We went and had pizza at Guasano's where Dunning decided it was time to do his business. When we went back to Steph's office, fortunately a small office of 4 people, he had gotten it all over his leg and his clothes. Thankfully, I had just tossed the dirty diaper garbage bags in his diaper bag. We carefully rolled his clothes off him and used all the wipes getting it all up! Good thing I packed an extra outfit, although it was warm enough he could have gone home in just his diaper. We then stopped by Sam's Club to pick up a salad for Mikel's food day tomorrow at work.

He has gone three days now with 3 hours between feedings without much fussing. He didn't take much of a nap this morning, so I finally got him down for one this afternoon. Gotta do better at the naps, dad thinks he is always fussy because he comes home for work to find a mad little boy who hasn't napped much all day and is so tired all he wants to do is sleep and can't even finish a bottle of breastmilk sometimes because he falls asleep!

I don't feel like doing much today! We did laundry and we were out for 3 hours. I get to play Bunko tonight with my friend Kristen, so I'm saving up my energy! I don't know how to play! Unfortunately it is starting to thunder, and my fraidy dog is hiding under the table. I hope it doesn't rain!

Week 11

Dunning is 11 weeks old this week! I can't believe how the time has flown! I look at his newborn pictures as I put them together for his scrapbook and marvel at how small he was. He's not that small anymore! When we went to his 2 month check up, he was 9 weeks old and weighed in at 13 pounds 2 ounces!

Right now we are struggling with getting him to eat on a regular schedule. I am an advocate of feeding on cue, but also believe that he should not be demanding to eat every 2 hours because he has become accustomed to it. I want him to get used to eating at least every 3 hours so that he eats more complete meals and not just snacking. He is also eating more at each feeding and needs more time to digest his meals or he just ends up throwing up from being too full! I have found that when he is fussy and wants to take a nap, he wants a pacifier - the REAL pacifier - me. Now I regret not pushing the other pacifier more when he was little because he doesn't like it much now. But I guess it may make it easier to take it away from him later.

He is doing well with sleeping. The past two nights he has slept about 11 hours with one feeding at night. Let's hope it is a trend! He doesn't always go back to sleep very well after the feeding, maybe because he is too tired to burp. He'll grunt and move around and around in his crib. But very rarely cries.

Mikel recently went to Mexico and I was super sick, so my mommy came down and helped me with Dunning. They feel asleep on the couch together!

Staying at home has been fun, but hard to be able to do creative stuff like scrapbook and keep my blog updated! I hope that when he is holding his head up more, I'll be able to let him sit on the floor and play more by himself a little each day. Then maybe I can do some yoga next to him. I have 5-10 more pounds to lose, depending on who's scale you look at! The doctor's office scale says 10, mine says 5! I am going with mine because it is the scale I used to tell my pre-pregnancy weight and it is the best comparison for me. :)

Dunning is cooing and smiling. I tried to capture a smile and got this pouty lip expression instead!