A Breath of Fresh Air

It seems like forever since I have felt like I could breathe.  I say this because I have chosen to work full time, go to school online for my Masters in Nursing, while loving and nurturing a growing baby, trying to keep my marriage to my best friend new and fun, stay organized and keep a put together house.  This is not an easy feat, but I am working on it and it's getting better every six weeks that pass (the end of a class).  I never knew how students in my nursing program went to school with kids and all that comes along with them.  Because that was a very selfish time in my life and I needed every second I could get to study.  The response from the students would be "you just do it", and I never really understood that until NOW.  You do just do it.  Like Nike.  You figure out time to squeeze it all in.  Like they say, you never know until you have been there.  I have moments where I feel like quitting school, but I refocus and surge on. 

This past week off between classes has been fabulous. No I did not get a massage, or a mani/pedi - which I most desperately need, but I did get piles of papers put away, laundry done, thoughtful cards bought and sent, caught up on Oprah shows (which are dwindling, and I can not believe May 23rd will be the last week!) and Greys Anatomy that I've DVRd for the last month.  But I have a weight lifted and I am able to spend more time on the floor with our little man Rohan.  Just like everyone says, it goes by so fast. I did not believe the first 4 weeks - I really did not.  I was sucked down deep into the hole of sleepless days and nights of feedings and gassy crying spells.  I look at Rohan now and he is almost sitting up by himself and eating cereal (soon to start veggies this week).  He is 18.5 lbs and 28 inches long!  It keeps getting better, but it comes with challenges with every triumph.  Apparently that is the case until he is off to college?  I see emotional stories on television and I instantly become teary eyed thinking how Rohan will be that old one day.  I pull back from trying to imagine where we will be.  I did not imagine us to be where we are now. 

Rohan and I took a breath of fresh air together Thursday on a nice walk around the neighborhood.  I usually make the circle around the lake, but this time I decided to turn around before the road with construction because of all the dirt and dust in the air.  I should have kept walking.  When we turned around I eyed a black snake (hoping it was a Gardner snake) up in the air hissing with his tongue out.  I do have to say we were about 5 feet away - so it was a little startling.  I gasped and picked up my step, looking back to make sure it wasn't coming after us.  When it realized how close we were and my Pandora music blaring on my blackberry he dropped to the ground and slithered away.  Yes SLITHERED.... ewww gives me the chills just thinking about it.  So our walks might be detoured for a while. 

My week off ends Monday when we plan to have lunch with my Aunt Judy & Uncle Larry.  The last time they saw Rohan he was about 3 months, so it will be fun for them to see how Rohan is so much bigger! 

I'm ending this entry with Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. 

To Teethe or Not to Teethe.

Since Rohan has been 3 months old everyone has told me Rohan has been teething. I believe he really is finally teething.  He has always chomped on toys, but now he means business.  Monday he was fussier than usual,  not eating like he normally does and sleeping more during the day.  Veronica watched him for a couple hours so Aaron and I could run errands and have dinner together.  When we picked him up he finally took a bottle for her and she gave him teething beads to try and he loved them.  Insert it takes a village to raise a baby.  Thanks V! That night we took a good look at his gums and they are red, so tylenol and orajel will become Rohan's good friends. 

When you are sliding into first....

And your pants begin to burst...DIARRHEA!

Rohan had his first bout with diarrhea!  I'm not sure if it was forunate or unfortunate that he was at daycare when this happened. It came with a low temperature of 99.4.   He had immunizations on Wednesday and the nurse said one of the shots he got can give infants diarrhea.  Or.... it could be the oatmeal he started last week that he eats twice a day.  Who knows.  What I do know is he continues to smile through it all like it didn't phase him and it hasn't happened since (knocking on wood).  We gave him tylenol and he has been fine. I know there is only more to come!  He did sleep for 5 hours straight last night (which hasn't happened in quite a while due to his cough waking him up in the middle of the night) and that was great!

Little man weighed in at 18lbs 5 oz, 27.5 inches long! He is in the 90th percentile.  As the Pediatrician calls him "solid".  Speaking of this doctors appointment on Wednesday.  I realized I have become one with spit up when Rohan is standing on the table (with support from me) and the doctor is talking to us.  Rohan gets so excited when he's on his feet so drool just pours out.  All of a sudden I feel my tank top was wet and the doctor goes "uh oh there he goes" - spit up all over the my tanktop.  I wiped it off and kept talking like "no big deal" right? HA!  I will have to admit, mucus -sputum- puke are my downfalls as a nurse.  In the beginning spitup was with Rohan, and I became frustrated having to change all the time, now it's just second nature.  Who would have thought? 

Our game plan for Rohan's shots this time was that I would be up at the table with Rohan and Aaron would be secondary support.  Rohan didn't like his shots, but only let out a little squeal and then I picked him up and he stood up on table and smiled like nothing had even happened.  The nurse, Aaron and I looked at each other in disbelief.  We were ready to comfort and console Rohan and he showed us. We were proud of him.  He has two strikes against him with his parents being so sensitive.  (I will admit Aaron still had tears twinkling in his eyes).  My thought was that it didn't help Rohan last time seeing his Dad crying with him.  ha!  On to the next immunizations at 6 months which is right around the corner.  His 4 month shots were delayed due to coughing/wheezing.  He is 23 weeks on Wednesday!

Little Sioux Fan

It does not happen often that my Alma mater and Aaron's Alma mater play each other in sports.  Once in a while the hockey teams play each other, and this year they were up against each other in the Frozen Four! We were blessed with a little Sioux jersey from Aaron's friend Jason.  I think the size is 12-24 months, and it almost fit Rohan perfectly! 

The Michigan Wolverines won the game and disappointed Sioux fans around the world.

Rice for Rohan

Has it really been 2 weeks since I posted!  Eeek! It has been a little crazy around here.  Aaron's been working his days off, and we've been passing ships.  More on that later. 

A couple weeks ago, I got a call from daycare that Rohan wasn't going 4 hours between bottles and that we should start cereal with him.  At this point he was 4.5 months old.  I had talked to Aaron about starting cereal at 4 months because he was such a big boy and we had family recommend it to help him sleep through the night  Aaron didn't feel comfortable doing that based on other family experience and wanted to wait to talk to the Pediatrician.  Ok, that made sense we will wait for the checkup appointment.  (FYI - the 4 month appointment was at the end of Rohan's 4 months).  So I felt like this was a go ahead moment. Daycare knows more about kids than we do at this point, right?  The next day we tried rice cereal at home with Rohan, he was very confused. 

Since then he's had a week of rice cereal once a day at daycare, and a week of twice a day at daycare.  This week we start oatmeal cereal.  Oh sorry, we have seen the Pediatrician and she recommended oatmeal cereal one week, then multi grain cereal one week, then he will be close to 6 months and we can start veggies.  I am looking forward to veggies and fruit (hope I'm not going to eat my words), they just seem more fun to feed him. ha!

Needless to say we have a big 5 month old on our hands who is 18 lbs, 27.5 inches long - in the 90th percentile.  He has arm and leg rolls, but his belly is not pudgy when he is all stretched out.  He seems to just keep on going when you look at him.  Aaron is thrilled with his stats by the way - he wished that Rohan got the MacKenzie genes (Sorry Sustads).  We will see if it pans out that way. :)

We bought a highchair that was on clearance!!! Score!  And it happened to be the one on our registry!

Rohan is Rolling!

I'm sure worrying is my new hobby being a mom, but I constantly worry "what if he doesn't roll over, what if he doesn't pick his head up when he's on his tummy, what if what if??".  And then it happens and a sigh of relief comes over.  Other parents are constantly asking "has he rolled over? no, oh my son did that at 3 months"... it makes you worry even more!  I try to remind myself, self talk we can call it, that every baby develops at different times. 

I tried "tummy time" with Rohan as much as I could.  He would get frustrated very fast, as I was warned by the Pediatrician, and then I would try again the next day.  I hoped that each time he would get stronger and stronger. Then he started lifting his legs up towards his chest and move his but around a little but he did not go anywhere.  This move turned into rolling on his side!  That was an exciting day.  My mom was here visiting.  I put him on the floor to hang out, my mom was in the  kitchen and I ran into the bedroom.  My mom called in asking if I put him on his side.  No I didn't, he did it on his own! Yeah for Rohan! 

Rolling on his side was short lived.  It's like he tries something once and he knows we get excited about it so he does not want to do it again for a little while. He's playing hard to get with us. A couple days later he started rolling on his side again and this became more consistent.  Last week I put him on his tummy and he pushed his arms right up and his head and he was pretty far off the ground, and a second later he had rolled himself onto his back! 

He has now moved onto rolling from his back to his tummy!  It's really cute.  But he is still getting frustrated on his tummy.  He worked so hard today that he put his head to the side and fell asleep! It is times like this when I think back to the days when he would just lay on his back and gurgle.  Now his hands are grabbing and he is rolling.  I need to just let Rohan pave his own course of developments and let him show us what tricks he has up his sleeve (a drooly one at that). 

Yeah for Reading!

We hope this picture represents things to come for Rohan and Reading.  Aaron is reading a book Grandma Karen sent Rohan for St. Patricks Day.  He cannot sit through story time while in your lap very long, but he seems more interested when he can lay on the ground and wiggle while he listens to the story.