It's been a while

I've just realized how long it's been since I've updated this so I have a lot of recaping to do. Last Friday (the 28th) we went to see Dr. Wojick the pediatric urologist. I was a wreck about this appointment because we were going to see him because he had some concerns about the vcug (x-ray) that was done to diagnose the baby with reflux of the bladder. Thankfully he reviewed the x-rays and told us that everything looked fine. Our pediatrician had told us that in a year we would go to children's hospital to get a nuclear vcug but Dr. Wojick did not feel that that was necessary. Instead, every 6 months we have to go get something done. In March he gets an ultrasound and then 6 months from that he'll get the vcug again etc etc. After each test we go right up to Dr. Wojick's office and he reviews them and lets us know how things look. This sounds much better to me than going to Children's. Apparently we have to go every six months for 2 years and as long as things look good and the reflux is getting better, after that it's every year and a half. We'll have to do these tests until he is 5. That seems so far away but he'll be boarding a bus to kindergarten before we know it!

On another topic.. when we originally moved into our apartment Eric and I both had good jobs and we were doing well financially. Since we've both been laid off for a while it just doesn't seem practical to stay here since our rent is astronaumical. Although we've been able to pay our bills, any extra bills that get thrown our way we just can't pay. So we've decided to move once again. I absolutely hate moving and at this current moment in time we don't know where we are going. We have until Nov. 7th to figure it all out. So I'll keep you posted!

Last Saturday, the 29th, we went to my friend Erin's wedding. I've known Erin since first grade. It was a very nice wedding and it's always good to see the old high school clan. We have our 10 year class reunion next month but I haven't decided whether I want to go or not.

So that's pretty much it for now. We used the new camera at Erin's wedding. We had messed around with it a lot so the settings were all messed up so half the pictures didn't come out because Eric didn't figure out how to get it on the right settings until half way through the wedding. Here are some random pictures:

Us before the wedding. I'm not a big fan of my dress because it looks like I'm still pregnant but I bought it the day before the wedding so there were slim pickins and it's comfortable!


Erin, myself, and Derek. I'm not sure what that is on my dress. There must have been some dust on the camera.



cutting the cake


Nearly everytime I do laundry lately Pokey feels that it is necessary to jump in the dryer. My feeling is if he's going to jump in the dryer, the least he could do is fold some laundry!

When the baby first wakes up most of the time we don't hear a peep out of him. He just lies there sucking his thumb until he wakes up enough to start talking. This is him first thing in the morning. SOOOO cute! (by the way he's been a nakey boy lately because it's warm enough out and he just spits up a decent amount so it's not even worth putting clothes on him unless we leave the house).

7 years

7 years ago today Heaven got the paperwork for my Pepe. I had just moved back to Boston for my senior year of college. I had barely gotten settled when I got the phone call that I would be heading back home. He was one of the best men I knew. He was kind and caring and gentle. He was so funny. All I used to do was laugh when I was around him. He was also a really good artist. When I was younger and we used to go visit my grandparents on the Cape, he would always get up really early in the morning and make coffee. The smell would wake me up and I would go out into the kitchen and he would get me a bowl of cheerios and I would get to have some special alone time with him before everyone woke up.

Here's him and I when I was a baby at my grandparent's house on the cape:

Happy Birthday to me

Monday was my birthday and we had my parents, my gramma and Ted, my sister and brother-in-law and my nephews Dylan and Elijah over. It was quite a lot of people to stuff into this apartment! My parents brought Harry's pizza over and Eric made me a delicious cake :). So my parents got my a new camera that we have been playing with. It has some really neat features. The best one is the smile feature. You point the camera on someone's face and when they smile it automatically takes the picture. This makes it pretty easy to get smiley pictures of the baby. We decided to test this feature out on each on of us:

Baby Thumb Sucker:

Don't you just want to eat him up! And yes he is this happy ALL the time!

A game of kickball:

Smile Eric!

Smile Sarah! (check out the new hair cut!)

The baby has been teething the past couple of days. Of course we have known that these teeth were coming in for over a month now. What is the hold up??? He is very drooly with a little fever and he is chewing on his fingers like crazy. He's happy though for the most part thankfully. This morning I woke up at 7:15am and thought it was odd that he hadn't made a noise to indicate that he was awake. I went into his room to find him just patiently lying there sucking his thumb. It was so cute :) I need to take a video one of these days of how cute he is when he first wakes up in the morning.

And speaking of videos... This morning I did my usual of putting the baby on his activity mat and going into the kitchen to get my breakfast. When I came out of the kitchen I found him on his tummy. He's been rolling over constantly. He is also trying to crawl but only gets up on his knees and hasn't lifted himself up on his arms yet. Here is a video of him trying to "crawl":



This is the first video I took to test out my camera:

Veggie tales

This week we started veggies. We started off with carrots. We gave Eric his cereal around lunch time and then carrots at his late afternoon bottle. Daddy got to give him veggies first because I was working but I came home just in time on Tuesday to see him take his first bites of carrots. He enjoyed them. Unfortunately his belly didn't enjoy them too much because he became constipated and I had to give him prunes on Friday and Saturday. They worked though and he's doing better now! My friend Heather came up on Friday and took some really good pictures (as usual!). I don't have them on the computer though :( That's about the excitement for the week. Here's some random pictures and a video of him eating carrots:

This is from the previous week. Dylan is very excited that Eric plays with toys now so he played with him!




Eric just loves his big cousin


Sunday mornings were always our lazy days before baby came along. So we decided to have a lazy sunday morning with the baby today. Eric likes to put on cartoons for the baby to watch. This morning we watched Curious George but I think the baby was more interested in snuggling and sucking his thumb.

awww :)

One night at dinner Daddy decided to play dress up. Shhh don't tell Eric that he's not in the picture even though he's smiling!

So much to post, so little time!

This has been a crazy week. So I'm going to make a list of things to talk about so hopefully I don't forget anything:
-cereal update
-crib update
-urologist
-swimming
-back to work
-rolling over
-5 months old

Cereal Update:
The baby is doing great with the cereal. He prefers it being pretty thick like oatmeal but he gobbles it up. We will be starting him on veggies soon because I know his bottles are just not satisfying him anymore. Plus I've been taking my sweet old time starting him on cereal and veggies, it's time to pick up the pace!

Crib Update:
He continues to do ok sleeping his crib. Some nights he doesn't move at all and other nights he is all over the crib and wakes up a few times during the night. Tonight I brought him home around 10pm and he was wide awake the whole car ride. I thought for sure he would fall asleep, happy to be in his carseat. It was almost as if he knew he was tired but that he's a big boy and sleeps in his crib. The minute I put him in his crib he crashed. He even takes long naps during the day in his crib. I'm very happy that that battle wasn't too hard to tackle. I just feel bad that he doesn't get as solid of a sleep at night because there's so much space for him to wiggle around.

Urologist:
Last week out of the blue the pediatrician called to tell us that she had the pediatric urologist that we had seen previously take a look at Eric's x-rays a month after he had them done and was diagnosed with reflux of the bladder. The urologist apparently saw some other concerning things but the doctor gave me no details. All she said was that it was nothing big and he wouldn't need surgery or anything. I nearly had a heart attack. So of course I called the urologist to hear straight from the source. I talked to the nurse and she again told me it didn't look like anything overly concerning. We were supposed to have a follow up appointment in October for his hydroseal that he has in his testicle so I asked if we should see him sooner and she said she'd call back. So on Monday I get a call that the urologist wants to see us this month. So Eric has an appointment on August 28th. Hopefully everything will turn out fine and I can relax.

Swimming:
On monday I took the baby swimming for the first time at my friend Marissa's house. He loved it. He didn't even shiver and the water was so cold! He kicked his feet and everything (pictures and a video to follow!). Eric felt bummed out that he wasn't there so he came today and was able to take the baby swimming. The baby's face accidently went into the water twice for a few seconds and it was like he knew just what to do. He didn't swallow a mouthful of water. He just acted like it was no big deal and that he's been swimming underwater forever (maybe he is still used to being in my belly so he's not out of practice yet!).

Back to Work:
This week I started doing some private therapy with a little girl that I used to work with. It is definitely nice to be able to contribute some money to this family but it is so much harder to work when I have to either find someone to watch the baby or bring him with me! On Tuesday Marissa watched him and he was fussy but then crashed for 2 1/2 hours. It was a lot of work to get the baby and myself packed up and ready to go. Thankfully I'm only working 2 1/2 hours three days a week but it is a lot of work and I'm travelling all the way to Gardner so it really takes up a good portion of my day. It's worth it and I'm glad to be working with this particular child again. I just need to get into a routine of getting him and myself out of the house. It also makes me a little sad because I feel like he didn't get a lot of time with me on those days this week. Next week I'll probably be bringing him with me two of the days so I at least don't have to leave him. On Wednesday I took him with me. The little girl's grammy was going to keep an eye on him for me but he didn't really know her so I ended up keeping him with me the whole time which was not the ideal situation. I feel bad because I want to make sure that the mom of this child feels like she's getting her money's worth and it's a little difficult with a baby on my arm. Thursday my mom took him and he did really well. He went to story hour at the library with his cousin Dylan and enjoyed that. He went in his excersaucer and Dylan entertained him while my mom made lunch (mom, pictures please!). I was so happy when Thursday was over, it was such a long week.
Eric went back to work as well. He worked two days and then he's not going back to that particular job site for a few weeks. However he may start either next week or the week after with another union company at the same place (the DCU center). So it seems like things are starting to look up. At least we both have some work. Neither of our jobs are permanent but they're getting us ahead so we can get some bills paid off which is nice.

Rolling Over:
On Wednesday night the baby rolled over from his back to his stomach 3 times. When I brought out the camera he stopped. He's much more interested in rolling around these days but not when I have the camera rolling.

5 months old:
Not a lot to say about this but he is getting so big! Pictures to follow...

Ok so now for the pictures. I apologize to everyone seeing me in a bathing suit but hey, I had a baby and you can't find a good bathing suit at the store this late in the summer so cut me some slack! And Marissa, I'm posting the pictures of you because you're pregnant, you have an excuse for a tummy!
(Again, ignore the dates on these pictures, my camera is about to kick the bucket but I'm hoping to get a new one for my birthday, hint hint!)


Marissa had this tube that she had blown up for him but he was not a fan.

This was today (friday) swimming with Daddy

Man do I need a haircut! That comes on monday!

Chillaxin:

My friends Lindsay and Becky bought Eric some really cute clothes. We put these really cute jammies on that she had gotten. I didn't realize that the feet say "scoop me up" I thought that was so cute so I took a picture! (In the meantime Eric is trying to grab his foot to eat it!)

Oh here comes Mr. Silly 5 Month Old:

Oops the flash got him with his eyes closed!

Happy baby!

Ok so I missed a little on this one because we were taking these at night and the lighting was bad and the camera was just showing a blank screen so I did my best!

Eyes closed but happy!

such a big boy!

This is a video of him swimming. He was automatically kicking his feet like he knew how to swim! This is what I felt through the end of my pregnancy!

What schedule??

Tonight I went out to dinner (at Harry's pizza of course!) with some friends from high school. That meant Eric was in charge of the bed time routine. I've always been the one to put the baby to bed. Eric helps get him ready for bed and stays in the room for part of his bottle and then leaves the room. Well the baby must have thought it was party time tonight with Dad because when I came home at 10:30 at night he was wide awake and raring to go. I went in to say goodnight to him and I turned on his little musical light thing that he has in his crib. It is now 11:20 PM. He is still awake. Do you want to know why he is still awake? Because he has figured out how to turn on his musical light thing all by himself (he's been trying for days and has finally succeeded). So he keeps turning it on and laughing and playing with his silkie while enjoying the music and the lights. Oh man! I tried to take a video but it's too dark in his room. It's hard not to laugh even though I'm worried as to what tomorrow will bring. He's been so sleepy during the day lately that his schedule is all off. He hasn't been getting his last bottle until around 9pm. He normally gets up at 7:30am but this morning he didn't wake up until 8:30am. Eric reported that he crashed tonight at 8pm and woke up at 9:30pm for a bottle. Hopefully tomorrow we'll somehow get him more on track and get him to bed a little earlier! He's such a night owl! We are in trouble when he's a teenager!

Cereal take 2

I plugged away at getting the baby to sleep in his crib and he's doing pretty well now. He will fall asleep on his own without a binky or without falling asleep on me first so it's progress. He does not sleep through the whole night. He wakes up a couple of times during the night but falls back asleep quickly. I normally just let him cry it out. He doesn't need to be held or anything.

All week I was dreading trying cereal again. I don't know why, it just seems like such a task. Bottles are so easy! So finally today I took the plunge. Daddy let me get like 2 spoonfuls into him and then he took over. I gave the baby another spoon to hold to keep his hands occupied so he wouldn't keep swiping at the cereal spoon. It didn't really work well because he kept putting it in the way. He was trying so hard to get his own spoon in his mouth but kept missing. It was pretty cute so we took a video of course! Everything goes into his mouth these days since he is teething. Watch your fingers because he gnaws hard!

Some times he sleeps on his side in his crib which is so cute. Especially when he is holding onto his silkie and sucking his thumb. Here's him napping today:



Here's the video of the cereal adventure. He didn't do too bad!