First cold

Poor baby N has his very first cold. It's hard to watch your little baby coughing, spluttering and sneezing his way through the night. We know that he caught it from the little man at work. He adores the baby and it's been hard to stop him sharing the germs with all the kisses and hugs he gives the baby. We knew it was going to happen with the start of school for the big kids and the music class the boys now go to. I'm sure he will feel so much better tomorrow, which is good as we head back to work and music class.

Baby N loved his first music class last week. I think he liked it more than the little man who's class it's really supposed to be. He led on his blanket and kicked away as he took in everything going on around him. He loves music and is such a big people watcher. The class has lots of babies in it and mostly boys for some reason. Not that I want him to grow too fast, but I can't wait until he's a little older and can take part a little more!

J and I took baby N and my charges to a local Oktoberfest yesterday. The big kids seemed to have a great time taking pony rides, getting their faces painted, playing on slides, bounce houses and rock climbing walls. Baby N hung out in his baby carrier watching it all. I was so grateful that J was there with me too. The big girl and little man wanted to do different things so we had to divide on occasion and that would have been tougher by myself. It sure gave us a taste of things to come for our family!

I had a successful interview the other week. A local family with an 11 month old. I really liked them, they were so much more 'normal' than the family that I work for right now. But after talking it over with J and thinking it over I decided to turn down their job offer. It just didn't feel quite right, was quite long hours and is based at the mom's work place which I found kind of strange. I can understand why she wants her child at work with her (she's a vet) but I couldn't figure out how the space was going to feel good for me to work in and of course for baby N to be in. There is always lots going on there and our son really needs a quiet place to nap (their child doesn't nap during the day, unless in the car) and baby N has a hard enough time at work with me right now. He has a place to nap in the big girls room, but hates to miss out on all the action so only catnaps when we're there. So we've decided that I'm going to stay where I am for now, working the 2 days a week with a family that I've known for 10 years (before the parents were married and the kids arrived) and that I'm very attached too.

On a final note baby N has weaned himself from his pacifier! I am so happy as I always had a love hate relationship with the thing. I never wanted him to have one, but relented when he was a couple of weeks old and we needed some sleep! It certainly served it's purpose but he just started refusing it and I stopped giving it to him. Now he doesn't use it at all. He likes to put his fingers or toes in his mouth but doesn't seem to be turning into a thumb or finger sucker. Not that I would mind if he did, I'm all for self-soothing! Now he doesn't wake up when it falls out and I don't have to carry extras with me in case it gets dropped or the little man decides to try it out for himself!

My honey

Just had a great weekend with my honey. Is it possible to be in love any more?!? I mean life is great...Baby N is just making us laugh all of the time, we're looking for a new house and I get to watch the Nanny being the best Mama ever. Every time I see her in action with her "charges" and Baby N I just can't help but stare in awe. She is so great with kids. She certainly knew her calling and is the best!! Well off to do laundry and clean up..just wanted to stop for my Love infomercial! Love ya babe!

All change

We've almost survived our first week with J being back at work! It's been pretty tough for all of us and so strange for her to be away from the baby all day. She misses him so much and he is definitely missing her too. He's been a little fussy and has needed extra loving the last couple of days. Going from one to three or four bottles a day is taking some getting used too, he misses nursing and even had me worried the other day as he hardly ate anything all day. Thought for sure he'd make up for it by nursing all night, but i guess he just wasn't hungry that day!

The great news is that it's a long weekend, so we get 3 whole days at home together!

As for me, I returned to work to find that i'm being reduced to part time and they are looking for a new full time nanny. I was shocked to say the least, although i wasn't sure what was going to happen with my job in Sept i wasn't happy with the way they went about it. I felt like they should have shown me and my family more respect by being more up front about what they were thinking. It would have been nice if they had decided and let us know earlier, but that is the way they are. They've been interviewing and haven't found anyone as yet, they have a girl coming for a trial next week and i'm waiting to see how that works out. I have a couple of other possible jobs lined up and we are trying to decide what is best for our family. I have loved parts of my job for the past 3 and a half years and i'm crazy about the kids. But there are stressful parts of the job that i would be happy to leave behind. I know that they really need someone who can pick up and travel with them at a moments notice and i can't and don't want to do that anymore. I guess i/we are just trying to decide whether it's better to stick with a family that i know and will let me bring baby N with me, or move on. I'm so lucky to have such a supportive partner. She constantly tells me that i can do whatever i want and that we'll make it work any way we have to. We've figured out that i don't have to work full time, that we could get by if i only work part time and that may be an option. My current boss' are offering roughly 15 hrs a week, but i'm pretty sure it would end up being more. She said that they only want the new nanny to do 40hrs a week and i was doing closer to 60, so they have to fill that gap. I just don't want to do all evenings and weekends or i'll never see my family....anyway it'll play itself out over the next couple of weeks!

The changes in my job have led to other changes too.... I have a new car! I was driving the 'nanny car', but they used it all summer and will of course need it for the new nanny so we got a car for me. My own car for the first time in over 10 yrs - working as a nanny has had some good perks :-)

We are also looking for a house! We were planning to stay in our rental until next spring and to keep saving, but something about having a baby makes you want to settle down! So we just started the search. We're not in any great rush, so are waiting for the 'right' house for us.

Let's see, what's new with baby N?

Sleeping - we had 3 wonderful nights where he slept from 8.30pm to 7am. It was so nice and we were thinking that was it, we were patting ourselves on the back with our great parenting. It was great timing before we went back to work, etc. But it didn't last, he's not ready after all. He's back to getting up once, eating and most of the time going right back to sleep! He takes 3 good naps and sometimes 4 every day. The 3 naps are between 45 mins and 1.5hrs long. If he takes the 4th it's a cat nap to get him through till bed time. We just moved him from sleeping swaddled to a sleep sack and he's done pretty well. He loves his crib and goes to sleep by himself (one of my big things) really well. So well in fact, that he doesn't sleep easily anywhere else - not the kid that falls asleep in his car seat or stroller. But he will sleep in his pack n play at work.

Rolling - he's not rolling over yet, but is so close. he rolls from his back to his side and his side to his back. But hasn't gone all the way yet. I'm sure it won't be long tho!

Laughing - he's a pretty smiley baby. Especially for his mommies and other kids. Is a little wary of other grown-ups but once he warms up he's a real charmer! He just started laughing out loud, it is SO cute! Must try and get it on the camera!

Eating - i really haven't written too much about nursing as i'm not the one doing it. But i'm so proud of J and N so i wanted to include it. They are no longer using the breast shield for nursing! It's so cool, as we were beginning to wonder if he'd ever do it without! Guess he finally got used to having a tongue that works! He eats about every 3+hrs. Nurses and takes bottles of EBM or formula.

He's huge and is just about growing out of all his 3-6 month clothing. I've been getting together all the next size stuff. He has so many clothes, more than us i think! We feel so lucky to have this little guy in our lives and thank our lucky stars everyday!