What’s going on?

I sure hope it’s just teething, because if it isn’t, this is definitely not a stage I want to see back. Last night it took JJ about 30 minutes to get to sleep–which means it was around 10:30. He was up at 12:30, 2:30, 3 something and 5:15. He wouldn’t go to sleep being held or rocked or with a pacifier or having his diaper changed. He had to be fed,  which means it was up to me. It didn’t seem like he NEEDED to be fed, but rather he WANTED to be fed. I say this because sometimes he only ate like 2 or 3 minutes. Poor little guy. Poor mommy and daddy. Him waking up on numerous occassions brings out the worst in me. I get frustrated and irritable.

So what do you do when….

Your babysitter is a stay at home mom and her kids get sick? It’s bound to happen and today it happened for the first time. I don’t mind taking him to another babysitter, but it’s hard to with only an hour’s notice or so. I always heard babies usually get sick more often when they go to day care. Let’s see if that holds true. Let’s hope it doesn’t.

Job Hunting

So the past week has been quite a whirlwind for me with job hunting. I got my first interview at the district level on Tuesday. This is after three months of applying. There were 35 people who interviewed for 8 positions. Seventeen people got chosen for the second level of interviewing at schools. I made the first cut. I have interviewed at 3 schools for 4 positions so far and one more position next week. It seems as if most of the schools are interviewing 8 or 9 people each. One of the principals told me that I had come highly recommended. My first interview took me by surprise as there were 8 people surrounding me in a semi-circle in a small office. Nerve wracking! The second interview went much better and I felt very comfortable. There were only 4 people interviewing. My third interview there were only 3 people. The questions are all very similar and seem to be getting easier as the interviews go on. I only got to work 1 day last week because I had interviews scheduled the other 4 days. Then of course I didn’t get called in to work at all today. Oh well. Hopefully a permanent position will come out of this. I haven’t heard anything back from any of my second interviews yet though. Fingers crossed!

August and September Pictures

He fell!

Okay okay, so yesterday I felt like a bad  mommy. He was lying on the middle of our big queen bed and I was 5 feet away from the bed on the computer. I start to change the ink cartridge on the printer and I hear this thud! I turn around and JJ is lying on his back….on the floor right next to the bed. He had rollen over 3 or so times in the 2 or 3 minutes that it took me to change the ink. He wasn’t crying though, that is, until I looked over at him with a startled look. Then he cried, but not much. It definitely wasn’t a cry of pain or hurt, just a cry of surprise. I picked him up and held him for a couple minutes until both of us felt better. I guess this means no more taking my off of him for even a second when he’s on a high surface. This kid can move! I can’t believe how big he’s getting and how much he can do. He’s growing way too fast.

Geneticist Appointment

So more than one medical professional has recommended that we get the baby to at least have a consult with a geneticist. I was recommended to see a geneticist at CHOC, so I looked up to see if any were covered by my insurance and sure enough there were. There is an appointment set for Dec. 11 unofficially. I say unofficially because even though we have Open Access Insurance, which means we are able to get into any specialist without a referral, the geneticists at CHOC all require a referral. I hope our pediatrician is willing to do that for us. If not, I’ll make an appointment with his other pediatrician. I’d just like to go to see if all of these little issues the baby is having is due to something else–like if it’s all part of a bigger picture. My little guy is so beautiful and happy and so outwardly healthy; I just want to make sure he’s healthy all the way through.

Congenital Kyphoscoliosis

What a name, huh? That’s the official diagnosis from the specialist. We went to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon. We had xrays of the baby’s back taken from a laying down position and a side laying position. He did so good. Even with all the prodding and pushing both of the doctor’s did, he didn’t have any issues for the first 1 1/2 hours we were there.

Kyphoscoliosis is a combination of kyphosis and scoliosis. Both of them are curvatures of the spine, but on different planes. Congenital means present at birth. Kyphosis is more serious than the scoliosis is. The doctor told us that 1/3 of these cases never progress or require any treatment. 1/3 of them progress really slow and generally don’t require treatment either. Then there’s the other 1/3 which progresses quicker and requires treatment, either through bracing or surgery.

The doctor said he didn’t think JJ would have issues walking, that he should probably meet or exceed his developmental milestones easily. Another thing is that he is missing 4 ribs on his left side. His current treatment is simply going to be observation. We’ll go back in 6 months or so and see if it has changed.

Our trip to Wisconsin

So our trip to Wisconsin is over. We’re back home and tired as ever. It went really well though. We woke up at 2 am Friday morning to leave at 3. We arrived at the airport at 4 am. I packed some bottles of milk because I knew that they would probably be needed for our busy Saturday. Although the TSA website says you can have ice packs for baby milk and medicine, they almost confiscated ours and they told John only for medicine. I’m thankful they didn’t take it away from us because then the milk would have been spoiled. Anyhow, the baby did great. We had two flights there. His ears didn’t seem to bother him at all. Sometimes he was sleeping at takeoff, other times he was eating, other times he took a pacifier. He didn’t make a peep and the other passengers commented on how good he was

So we arrived in Milwaukee and started our drive to the rehearsal. Wisconsin is absolutely beautiful this time of year. The trees were so many shades of colors and everything seemed so tranquil and peaceful, not like California where there’s buildings and cars everywhere you go. Anyhow, we were about 30 minutes late for the rehearsal. After the rehearsal, we went to the rehearsal dinner at a place called Adam’s ribs. It was yummy. I had a steak with mushrooms, french fries, and a salad. I got my wedding party gift there as well. It was the jewelry for the wedding, some bath and body works lotion and shower gel, bath salts, and chocolates.

The next day was crazy. I had to be at my hair appointment at 10:45 am so John was on baby duty. I got my hair put in curls. Then at 2 pm was pictures, 4:30 was the wedding and 6:30 was the grand entrance of the wedding party. I had planned to nurse after each of these events, but things didn’t go as planned. I was able to nurse after I go my hair done and then quickly at about 6:15 pm. I was so engorged I was in pain. This was the same situation as the day of the flight because the baby was too distracted to eat much at all during the day. The pictures took until 4:15 and after the ceremony, we went out on a boat overlooking the lake. The reception food was delicious. I had to give a speech and was amazed that some people actually laughed at parts. Who would’ve known I’d be a comic? Anyhow, I was so nervous during the speech, I was shaking. But the bride loved it.

We stayed at the reception til 11 pm, then made our way to Milwaukee. We go there around 1:30 am or so and found a Denny’s to eat breakfast at. We got to the airport around 4 am after returning the car and we arrived home at about 10 am. We finally stepped in the door of our house at about 1 pm after lunch. We then slept darn near all day because of how tired the weekend had made us.

Congratulations to Heather! You were a beautiful bride. I wish you a long lasting, happiness and romance filled marriage! Pictures to come soon.

Off to Wisconsin!

Well, we’re off to Wisconsin. Ready to have baby’s first airplane ride. Ready for me to give a speech in front of a hundred or so people and embarass myself. Ready to have a pretty much sleepless weekend. (And I can’t even blame the baby for that one.) I probably won’t be posting much when I’m gone, but stay tuned for lots of pictures and an update of our trip when we get back. Oh yeah, I forgot! I have an interview. I have an interview. Neener neener neener.

You have got to be kidding me!

Okay okay. I know I should be thankful. After all, my baby slept through the night for about 6 or 7 full weeks before changing his schedule to getting up once a night. Of course, I would have preferred the sleeping through the night part to happen when I went back to work, rather than during the summer, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers. Anyhow, I’ve gotten used to this waking up once thing and it hasn’t been too bad. Last night, it was 3 times. Three times! You see, normally as he’s going to sleep around 10-ish, he’ll need to be fed. Then he’s put back in his crib and then he’ll whine to be fed again about 20 minutes later and then he’s off to sleep. Well, last night he fell asleep without this happening which I thought was a good thing. Only, it happened at midnight instead of 10. He woke up, I fed him (and the little sucker was starving; seems like it took him forever to eat.) Then I put him back in the crib and told my husband the next time he wakes up, he’s taking care of him. I also seemed to pull a muscle in my upper arm. Anyhow, little did I know he was going to wake up 20 minutes later. I knew he wasn’t hungry, so my husband got him back to sleep in about 5-10  minutes. I was impressed. However, I wish I would have fed him back to sleep, because he got up again at about 4:30 to eat. Sheesh! Three times?!? I haven’t even got caught up on my lost sleep from last week yet and it’s only going to get worse this weekend. I think all moms must have an internal clock that functions on less than enough sleep. It gets set to “baby” and the body automatically knows it must adjust to not sleeping as much. I want to turn mine back to “before baby.” I was sleeping much better then.

Airport Security

So I have this little dilemma. We are flying out to Wisconsin on Friday for my best friend’s wedding. The day will be jam packed with stuff for me to do–11 am hair appointment, 2 pm pre-wedding pictures, 430 pm wedding, 630 pm reception. So I need to take some bottled milk for the baby to have during that time. So here’s my dilemma. I’ve read on the TSA website that it is okay to take breastmilk on the airplane. However, I have talked to many women and some of them have had trouble getting it past the airport security. One woman I know even had to go back and check it as regular luggage. The TSA website says that they can’t make you or your baby taste it to make sure it’s okay, but it does say they can test it for explosives. What?!? I don’t want them putting anything in the milk. If that’s what it takes to get it past security, I may as well not even take it. I really don’t want to pack it in my suitcase. What if it spills all over the place? Plus, it might melt the ice packs. I think I’m going to try and take it anyways and if I get any hassle, maybe I’ll just dump it. Who knows? I’ll let you know what happens.