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!

Vacation

We had such a great vacation and i'm actually sad to see my family leave. It was interesting watching my parents play the grandparent role to my son, and my sister loved being auntie L.

Surprisingly it actually took baby N a few days to get used to them - he cried the first few times my parents held him. Once he warmed up he gave them lots of smiles and was 'talking' non stop. Trying to work out what he's going to call my parents was funny. J's parents are Grammy and Pop Pop and my grandma is Nanny. My mum really didn't want a Grandma kind of title as it makes her feel to old. As they live in Spain now they finally settled on Abuela and Abuelo. It's weird to know that they won't see baby N that often and probably won't have the kind of relationship that i had with my grandparents.

NC was so beautiful. We rented a great house right by the beach and spent our days sitting by the ocean. Baby N has a really cool tent to keep him out of the sun and he napped and played there. Mommy was even captured napping in the tent (see pic below). It was hotter than hot so we stayed close to home most of the time, but the town of Duck was pretty cute and we had a great dinner out. The best bit about having my family along is that we had some alone time too!

The drive was pretty brutal and we're in no rush to do that again any time soon. Although after that, the other drives we've taken since then have felt like nothing! We drove down in one go and it took us around 12 hrs, with lots of stops. N really didn't appreciate that much time in his car seat. For the journey home we decided to split the trip and stopped for an over night in Baltimore. We had a great time at the Aquarium there. There was so much to see and it took longer than i thought it would. After more than 3 hrs i was done and we hadn't even seen it all. We then enjoyed lunch by the inner harbor and headed home.

Now reality is starting to set in and we're gearing up for work :-( Trying to work out the schedules and talking about what routines we need to start. N is coming to work with me on Wed for a little while. It'll be a good introduction for him and the little man, who i suspect is going to have a hard time adjusting to not being the baby any more. Think that the person it's going to be hardest for is Mommy! She's already trying to work out how she's going to keep herself busy while he's at work with me ;-)

OBX

So we are all here in beautiful Duck, NC with S's mum and dad and twin sister. We loaded up two cars, most of the packed stuff was Baby N's items. We are so lucky that we were able to fit in the car! The nine hour drive took about 12 hours! We made a bunch of stops because N didn't want to stay in the car seat as long as we hoped. Then of course we hit major traffic going near DC/Maryland and then once we hit the main drag for OBX. By that time, it was raining off and on. we all had pretty much had it. However, once we turned the corner and saw the house...wow, what a great view of the ocean! We were two houses in and could basically crawl out of bed into the ocean. The house itself is very lovely. There are three bedrooms on the lower level and one on the upper level. There are wrap around porches around the entire house! The only thing it is missing that some of the ones on the beach have is a swimming pool and a hot tub!!

So far we have hung on the beach, did some exploring and shopping and have taken tons of pictures. Very relaxing and chill. N. looks adorable in his swimming gear (even though he spends all of his time in his little tent!) As typical, he is so chill when outside and surrounded by nature. He seems to enjoy the sound of the ocean. Time is flying by. Actually it is so hard to believe it is August and summer is winding down. Before you know it, we will all be back at work and transitioning N. to a new routine.

Tongue tie

Baby N has been tongue tied since he was born. We went back and forth over what to do about it but the last time we saw our midwife she gave us the number of a dentist they recommend. Being tongue tied has made nursing painful for J and takes a really long time as baby N can't use his tongue properly so has to compensate with his lips. As he gets older it could cause problems with his speech development and as he can't stick out his tongue he wouldn't be able to lick an ice cream cone.

We headed to the dentist to have him assessed. The dentist took one look at him and said that he had a true tongue tie - one of the tighter ones he'd seen. So we decided to go ahead with the procedure to fix it. It wasn't easy to watch, but i think i was way more freaked by the whole thing than J or baby N. It was over quickly and J nursed him right away and felt a difference in his latch.

He has been so happy since we got it done and now has a new trick!!!

Lazy days of summer!

This is where we spent our 4th of July weekend! Hanging by the pool at a friend's house, which has been bliss with the rising heat here. We decided not to try and make it to see any fireworks this year as it seemed like more work than it was worth.
We gave baby N a little taste of the pool, he didn't seem too impressed. Instead he spent most of the time hanging in the shade playing, napping and nursing! I'm sure he'll spend more time in the water next year and we'll probably start him in mom and baby swim lessons next spring.

I'm so happy to be able to spend my days with my family. It has been so great to spend more time with N and J. We work so well together as a team and we're all happier and more rested for it. N is starting to get into a routine and sleeping for longer periods at night, sometimes up to 6 hours which is great. He takes his naps in his big crib and always falls asleep listening to his 'music' - the blow dryer cd i ordered him. At night he still sleeps in his bassinet next to us and probably will for a while longer. We're still swaddling him for all sleeps as he seems much happier that way. I love the muslins we got for swaddling and am glad i got so many of them - we seem to go through them pretty fast some days as the double as burp cloths, blankets and car seat/stroller cover too.

We're still working on trying to get a good pic of him smiling. As soon as i grab the camera he seems to stop smiling. But it's super cute and i'm sure we will never get bored of them!

We are heading to a friend's beach house at the end of the week for our first overnight with the baby. We're staying with a couple that don't have kids yet and we're hoping that they'll be ok with the fact that we pretty much operate on baby time these days! Leaving the house is dependant on N being fed and cleaned up and sometimes cleaned up again before we make it out the door!