A Rough Few Weeks

Max has been really fussy.

And he forgot how to sleep through the night.

For the past 3 weeks he has woke up every 2-3 hours at night. I feel like I have a newborn. I tried to think of why he would all of the sudden start waking up when he used to sleep so good at night. That is when I realized he is going through a lot right now.

He just got 4 teeth at the same time. Which included lots of biting things (including my arm!), low grade fevers, and stuffy nose.

He just graduated to helmet therapy only at night. But Chris is convinced he is so used to having it off during the day now, that it bugs him at night.

The stupid time change. Even though it is only 1 hour.... it throws EVERYTHING off!

He is starting to pull himself up to standing on furniture (developmental milestones tend to cause night waking in infants), and he tries to climb all over Chris and I.

He is experiencing stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. He likes being held, and if he's not he wants me right next to him. I try to leave the room and cries of protest ensue.

I feel like I can't get anything done. I am exhausted from the lack of sleep. There are a lot of changes going on at my work right now. So I haven't felt like blogging.

I know my trials are trivial compared to some. And I try to keep life in perspective. But I have to admit, it has been a little rough.

Too top it all off....

Yesterday I had a crazy busy day at work. Chris called to tell me he was going to my cousin's house to play XBox with her husband. So if I could come pick up Max and take him home and put him to bed because that is one of my favorite things to do with Max. So I agreed, because I usually don't even get to see Max after my shift because he is already in bed.

So I got to my cousin's house and talked to her for a short time. I decided to take the car my husband drove home because it already had Max's car seat installed in it. It has automatic locks and a computerized key (that is super expensive to re-create!) for security reasons. So we hadn't yet got a spare because they have to take our only key to make a copy and it takes 3 days. So we have to go without that car for three days.

Anyway, I have this bad habit of opening the car, putting the keys on the front seat, and then putting the diaper bag on the floor of the back seat, and then putting Max in. I almost always drive my Mazda, so this has never been an issue.

Well, I did this and when I shut Max's door the car made a beep. I went over to the driver's side. LOCKED. Oh S#$%. The back door. LOCKED. Max's door. LOCKED. Passenger door. LOCKED. I panicked!! I ran into my cousins house crying. I didn't know what to do. We stood by the car for probably 5 minutes as Max is SCREAMING in the back seat.

Chris was trying to look up a lock smith's number. But I decided to call 911. I explained to them what happened, and they sent a fire truck to come our rescue. They were able to get the door open and I just cuddled Max until he calmed down. I felt like the biggest IDIOT! I knew Chris wasn't happy about what I did, but he was really great and gave me a hug, and assured me everything was alright, and sent me home. I felt like the worst mom.

But Chris said we will laugh about it one day.

And even though all of this happened. I still have a happy smiling boy:

The Not so Happy Halloween

Halloween came and went. And I have to be honest. I could probably have cared less.

I have come to a sad realization that because of my job, I have lost the spirit of celebrating holiday's. It's not just Halloween. It is all holidays. Because the hospital is open ALL THE TIME, and the field I have chosen requires you to work on weekends, nights, and holiday's, I have found myself to be less in the spirit to celebrate them.

I guess I figured, if I didn't care about holidays, maybe it would make it less painful and I would be less bitter about missing yet another holiday party, fun celebration, family dinner, and Christmas Morning. If I thought of them as just "another day" then I wouldn't be so angry that I was missing out and at work.

However, I have Max now. So I want to be able to get back into the holiday spirit. I want them to feel special to him. And as he gets older, and I gain more seniority, I am hoping that I will have more holiday's off and will be able to spend time to make them special. Even early this month I cruised different websites trying to figure out what he would be for Halloween. I even had dreams of carving pumpkins and putting him next to them in his Halloween costume and taking lots of pictures.

Alas, I had to work on Halloween. Well, and least Utah Halloween. The day most everyone in Utah celebrates it. And as the month wore on I felt I didn't have enough time to order a Halloween costume (that would be about $20-40 plus shipping), that he would wear for only an hour or two before I left for work. He is too young to trick or treat and the last thing Chris and I need is more candy. My Grandma even gave Max a pumpkin that I was going to carve. But between my 3 long shift building up to Halloween, I just didn't have the energy.

Bah-Humbug

The best I could do was dress him up in his adorable monster pajama's that my sister in law gave him. He did look so cute. And we gave him a little extra time for his helmet break.

My little monster!

He doesn't love his daddy does he?

Hopefully I will get more into the spirit for Christmas. However, having a toddler and a Christmas tree terrifies me. AND I have to work Christmas Day.

Bah-Humbug!

Teefs

 So Max has entered into a new realm of development. He's getting teeth! I had noticed about a week ago that his gums were a little red on the bottom. But he had been drooling since he was 3 months, and he has been sticking EVERYTHING in his mouth since he was about 5 months. So I wasn't sure if anything was going to happen soon.

Then, after an incredibly fussy morning, I noticed little teeth trying to break through his gums on Wednesday. I text Chris to tell him since he was at work and he text back "Teefs!". So we have been laughing that Max is getting teefs. (Trust me he wasn't this happy most of the day)

 

 Today they have completely broke through the gums and are coming in well. It hasn't been too painful of a process. He has more mood swings and irritability during the day, but has actually been sleeping BETTER at night... go figure.

Now we get to enjoy the process of getting the rest of the Teefs.

Talking

Max loves to make noises. He squeals, yells, and even does a little devil groan that sounds like it would hurt his throat. But they are always one vowel sound. Ehhh Ehhhh Ehhh. Ahhhhhhhhh. And his cute laugh Eaha Eaha Eaha Eaha.

Tonight while I was giving him a bath he just started saying Ba Ba Ba Ba. So I yelled for Chris to come and bring the camera!

He's growing up so fast!

Like Father, Like Son?

So, I have been doing a sort of "Project" recently of going through the probably hundreds of pictures of Max I have taken and trying to determine my favorites so I can get a photo book and slide show together for his 1st birthday. (Sorry future kids if this doesn't happen for you.)

The majority of people who see Max think he looks like my husband. But some people can see me or some of my side of the family in him. He has my color of eyes, my ears, and definitely my fat feet. When Max was born, the moment I laid eyes on him I thought he looked like Chris. He looks like him the very most when he smiles.

So as I was going through his pictures, I thought back to a few pictures I had scanned into my computer from our wedding video. I didn't have many of Chris's baby pictures, but I did find this one:

And I compared it to this one:

What do you think?

 Like father, like son.

(Here is one of me in case you want to compare)

Awkward Crawl

Max is starting to move. He has figured out how to awkward army crawl his way to his favorite things (like remote controls). Why are babies so enamored by remote controls?

Max the Last Month

Wow. I knew I hadn't posted for a while, but has it really been a month?

Sorry. My Laptop is on the fritz. The screen barely works. The keyboard doesn't type every letter and it moves SUPER SLOW. I've spent much of my alone/computer time trying to back up everything on my external hard drive and not much time blogging. But here is a little sum up of he past month:

Max is getting used to his helmet. Some mom's I talked to said it didn't take long for their babies to "get used" to the helmet. I'd say, for Max, it took him a good 2 weeks. Now it wasn't like he would cry all the time... he was just fussier than normal. It is still funny to watch him look up at things, because it is like he has a visor on that he always has to look over. So he tilts his head way back to look up at things. I find myself crouching down so he can see my face.

 (His shirt says hard headed... ha ha ha)

Max has definitely learned to move this month. While he is not crawling, he has figured out that when he really wants something (like papers or cords) he will steam roll his way over or maneuver his body around to get to desired item. One morning I left him like this to play:

 And I found him like this:

He has also started doing these push ups. He gets up on his hands, but as soon as he bends one leg, he flips over onto his back. He'll get it eventually. It is fun watching him try. He even army crawled a little today!

 

Max has also progressed in his solid food consumption. I think feeding him solid foods is the LEAST favorite part of my day. He gets distracted very easy and turns his head, he sucks on his fingers as I try to spoon in the food, and he blows raspberries thus splattering food EVERYWHERE. I absolutely dread doing it, but I know he just needs the practice. He is already improving and it isn't quite such a battle every time anymore.

He takes rice cereal and has tried various fruits and a few veggies. Every time I give him something knew he pulls the funniest faces... like it is the worst thing in the world. He has eventually gotten used to most foods. Here he is trying a biter biscuit. He gnawed off the end, played with it in his mouth and then gagged a bunch instead of swallowing it. In fear that he would vomit all the food that I took 15 minutes getting into him the biter biscuit was taken away. Maybe we will try those a little later.

 Here's a few of my favorites:

 (Eating a Carters Tag)

Proof he isn't always happy. His "cry face" looks exactly like it did when he was a newborn.

He LOVES strings (and cords)! It reminds me of my cats. All he needs is a shoelace and some paper (maybe a dryer sheet) and he is happy! Who said kids need all the expensive toys!

And here is his most recent head picture taken 10/12/10 after 6 weeks of helmet therapy. It is so much more round, but still a little off set (meaning his right side is more foreword than the left). But it is improving! 3 more weeks and we get to see if he can go to night time use only. But that might be wishful thinking. Cross your fingers!



Here are some video's I took as well:

The Pushup

Trying Apple Juice (mixed with water)

Eating the Biter Biscuit