I'm. So.

Tired.

Elliot is sleeping so well at night (he was sleeping completely through the night, but now most nights he wakes up once in between 4-6 am to eat, which I'm okay with since he could stand to gain a little weight), so it's certainly not that I'm not getting enough sleep. But I seriously feel like I could sleep for days. &/or that I need a coffee IV hooked up to me, pole & everything. & I'm not one of those coffee addicts who jokes about "needing their coffee," but seriously... so tired. I was talking to a woman at church the other week about it, & she said that I need these 9 months post-partum to get back to my normal self. That my body needs that time to recover. Well, that makes sense! I have been walking around thinking I should be completely back to normal now. Heck, I thought I'd be back to my regular routine 2 weeks after delivery (psshh!! not sure where I got that idea). She had a baby 10 months ago & is just now feeling normal again. Phew, okay, so there are better days ahead!

Oh, & don't joke about how I'm going to be tired for the next 18 years, or that I'll have a messy house for the next 18 years, or that I have forever lost my brain. My mom managed to be a mom & volunteer for a million organizations when I was a kid, as well as keep our house tidy & cook dinner without seeming to go insane, so I know it can be done!

Maybe I should write a "Things You Should Not Feel Free to Ask, Say, or Advise People in Regard to Parenting" post. (For my "TYSNFFTASOAPIRT Pregnancy & Babies" post, see here.) Hmm, there's a thought....

K, baby's awake, gotta go! :-)

Welcome, month five!!

(Okay, this can be confusing, but Elliot is entering his fifth month of life, so he is just now four months old - so when I say "Welcome, month five" that means, he is in his fifth month, not that he IS five months old... k.)

I feel like Elliot has changed so much in the past week or two! Let me tell you all about it. :-)

In regard to sleep, month four was a tough one. Elliot had been sleeping 6-7 hrs, waking up to eat, then sleeping another 4 hours every night, like clockwork. Then the "four month sleep regression" hit, & predictability went out the window, as did good sleep. There was no telling when, or how many times, he would wake up. Basically, during the sleep regression period, babies are learning how to sleep like big people instead of like newborns, which includes being able to put yourself back to sleep after waking up. So for about a month, every time he woke up, he'd need his paci & perhaps some shushing to get back to sleep. There were, I think, three nights that he woke up 6-8 times. AH! Finally, about a week ago, he started waking up only two or three times, & enter this week: Sunday & Monday night, he woke up once for his paci & went all night without eating, then Tuesday & Wednesday night, slept all night without waking up at all. WOW! What a difference it makes, sleeping all night without waking up - I'm talking about me! It's been a full year since I started waking up during the night to pee, then to tend to a newborn, so it's pretty nice to be sleeping again.

Also about a week ago, he started talking more. He has been pretty non-verbal up until now, just choosing to check things out around him without contributing a lot. Now he's just a little talker! He lays in his play yard & talks, talks, talks. I'll hold him & he'll look up at me & talk, talk, talk. I'll talk back to him & he'll smile, then talk some more. If only I knew what he was saying! It's like all of a sudden, he's just a little person, part of the world, & not just a little newborn. Sigh. Soon enough, he'll get teeth & be eating real food & sitting up then CRAWLING... oh I can't take it. Slow down, little guy!!!

Aggies & sicknesses

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks! We went back to the Motherland (College Station, of course), Elliot got a staph infection, I got food poisoning at my birthday dinner... what fun! Well, I guess only one of those things was fun.

We hadn't been back to College Station in a long time, which is not okay, so we went back for a basketball game & tailgating (which was really just hanging out inside of an RV; no tailgate involved). I love driving into that town... seeing the sign off of Highway 21 - "College Station - Texas A&M University," rounding the corner to see Kyle Field & the smokestacks appear above the trees, passing Research Park (our park, where we had many dates, including our first date & the our engagement)... all the memories come flooding back. Such a good time. I love that all my memories of those four years are good ones.

Naturally, we went back to Sweet Eugene's for a java shake... twice. :-) Oreo & vanilla. The vanilla was superb, just as good as any I had while studying for hours on end in that place. Sigh.

The day before we left for CS, I noticed that the tip of one of Elliot's fingers was really red. It didn't look like an ingrown fingernail, & it was hot, so we took him to an urgent care clinic Saturday morning. Staph infection sounds scary, & it is really contagious, but we got him on some antibiotics (that turned his poop green, like he had eaten grass... gross) & they cleared it right up.

Then it was my birthday! I love my birthday, & I usually enjoy making a big deal of it & taking advantage of my birthday... & birthday week... & birthday month... but this year, baby + work kept me so occupied, my birthday almost just slipped by. What a shame. But Josh baked me a funfetti cake (my favesies) & took me out to dinner Saturday night, where I had clam chowder & fish & chips... let's just say I won't be eating clam chowder again for a while. I can't be too sure, but I'm banking on the yucks coming from those big chunks of clam. The next morning at church, my stomach started hurting, so we went home & I had some soup & went to take a nap, & woke up with chills. We thought it was the flu, but the fever was gone Monday morning & I felt significantly better. I am still getting queasy now & then, which probably means I should not eat cake & enchiladas....

So, there is our life as of late. That, plus a lot of work, that will hopefully slow down very soon. I need to clean my house!

(I am fully aware I could have just spent this time cleaning instead of blogging. But who does that??)