Leaving on a Jet Plane

Next Tuesday afternoon I am heading off to California for a book conference and meetings in San Jose and San Francisco. I will be gone until Monday morning (my flight comes in at midnight on Sunday night). That means I will be away from my little man for five full days and six nights (since I don’t expect to wake him up when I get to the house late late late Sunday night). I’ve spent hours obsessing about getting ready for this trip. A week is a long time for a nursing mom to be away from her kiddo and it’s been quite the struggle to make sure I’ve got enough milk in the freezer for Brian. Thankfully, I’ve hit that mark (Brian’s got more than he will need) but there were times that I was afraid I wasn’t going to make it. And, there have been times when I’ve considered using this trip as a chance to wean Oliver but I couldn’t bring myself to do it two months shy of a year. I’m too close to that goal to give it up. But I’m afraid that being away from him for so long might throw a loop in our so far really successful nursing routine. I’m also afraid that he will either miss me terribly when I’m gone (and be a beast for Brian) or he will totally forget who I am. Or, that if he misses me too much while I’m gone that he will be out of control clingy when I get back. I’m also not looking forward to pumping for six days. Pumping is my least favorite part of the whole breastfeeding experience and it totally stinks that I will spend six days hooked up to the machine just two months shy of when I wanted to start weaning. Plus, there’s the whole trial of trying to come back on the plane with a bunch of breast milk. I’ve already decided not to try to bring it all back (I will pump and dump for the first couple of days) since I don’t need to build up another big freezer stash but I will be flying back with around 20 ounces. Fun. 

The one thing I’m not worried about is Oliver. Oliver and Brian will be great (although to all of our Austin friends, please keep in mind that Brian will be the sole parent on duty next week and will definitely be open to some visits or outings with other adults). As much as the trip will be a struggle for me, I’ve got it easy compared to Brian. I can’t even imagine being a single parent for a week. I don’t think I would have it in me.

Despite all of the worries and concerns about the trip I am still looking forward to it. It’s my favorite work trip of the year as it’s a chance to get together with a ton of independent booksellers from around the country and compare notes. I always learn a lot and come back inspired to throw myself into my work. I’m also, truth be told, looking forward to the six nights of being able to sleep without listening for Oliver. What a luxury. So, wish us all luck next week! I will try to convince Brian to write a blog entry about his week about his adventures as a single parent since I think his week will be much more interesting than mine!

Sundays With Oliver - Week Forty-One

Oliver has now officially been an outside baby longer than he was an inside baby. It’s a rather random milestone but I think it’s cool. 

We had a pretty good week marred only by some teething and a couple of sleep hiccups (he woke up at 4 am and was ready to start the day on Sunday... no fun). I have started yet another buying season so I haven’t had much time to blog. Sorry for the lack of updates. We had fun this weekend. We hung out with Liz Friday night and played dominoes. On Saturday we met up with Laurie and Lydia at the Children’s Museum. Oliver’s been going to museum at least twice a week since we got the membership. He loves it there and it’s a great place for him to hang out with other babies. (Unfortunately, that also means hanging out with other babies’ germs... I think we have a mild cold right now. But it’s totally worth it). Our membership also gets us into a ton of other children’s museums around the country. My mom and I checked out the one in San Antonio last weekend. It was fun.

On Saturday night, Lindsey came over and we made browned butter rice krispie treats that were really really good (despite my math goof up which resulted in us using four times as much salt as the recipe called for... good thing we love salt). Sunday morning we woke up EARLY (see above) and Oliver and Brian went for a long walk (at 5 am) while I slept in. After that, we went over to Laurie and Robin’s house and had breakfast and cheered on our friends, Aaron and Jessica as they ran a half marathon (the race route takes them really close to Laurie and Robin’s house). This was Jessica’s first half marathon and she did great! Check out their blog for more details and for a link to pictures of the day. We spent the rest of the day at the house resting and watching football. It was a great day event if it did start way too early.

Here are the pictures... once again it was a struggle but I’m determined to see it through. And thanks to everyone for the encouragement and especially to Brian’s mom, Ann, for calling and saying how much she likes the photos and looks forward to seeing them. It helps to remember that people like to see these when I’m in the process of trying to flip him over onto the dog and take his pictures. In order to get any decent pictures this week we finally just strapped him into his high chair and threw the dog onto the tray. Ha!

Sundays With Oliver - Week Forty

I know, I know... it’s Tuesday. But I swear these pictures were taken on Sunday. Oliver has been a little (okay, a lot) cranky the past couple of afternoons/evenings so I haven’t had time to put these up until today.

Here are the pictures (the few we could manage to get before he zoomed away):

Nine Month Wellness Visit

We took Oliver in for his nine month wellness check on Thursday. I can’t believe he’s nine months old already. His first birthday will be here before we know it. Time’s moving so fast.

Here are his stats:

As a refresher, at six months:

Weight: 19 pounds, 3 ounces (80th percentile)

Height: 26.5 inches (50th percentile)

Head Circumference: 17.8 inches (85th percentile)

Nine Months:

Weight:  21 pounds, 13 ounces (70th percentile)

Height: 28 1/2 inches (55th percentile)

Head Circumference: 18.5 inches (92nd percentile)

His percentiles are all over the place. And, apparently he has a giant noggin!

We had a nice visit with the pediatrician. Oliver is meeting most of his developmental milestones on time or early. The only area of concern seems to be that he doesn’t look up when we call his name. His hearing is fine (he’ll look up when we rattle a toy) but he doesn’t seem to know his name. So, we’re keeping an eye on that and will address it at his one-year check if he hasn’t figured it out. In general, Oliver has always been “slow” when it comes to verbal development, focusing instead on trying to get around so I’m not too worried about it.

Sundays With Oliver - Week Thirty-Nine

It has been so cold here this week! We got down to ten degrees on Friday night in Austin. That’s way too cold. But even with the frigid temps, we’ve managed to get out and about this week.

On Wednesday night, we met Laurie, Robin and Lydia and Aaron, Jessica and Aidan at Hyde Park Bar & Grill to celebrate Laurie’s birthday. The former waitress in me cringed when I thought about showing up at a restaurant with a party of six adults and three kids in high chairs but the kids were so well-behaved and we came really early (ah, the Early Bird Special), so it went off without a hitch. Aidan and Oliver sat next to each other in their high chairs and kept us pretty entertained passing one of Oliver’s rattles back and forth to each other. Oliver would shake it a few times and then hand it to Aidan, who would shake it a few times and hand it back to Oliver. When that got boring, they found a new game. Oliver would drop the rattle on the floor, Aidan would say “uh-oh” and I would pick up the rattle and hand it back to Oliver who would drop it again. They played this game about ten times. It was pretty cute. It was great to see everyone and dinner was delicious! Laurie’s also having a more grown-up celebration next Saturday night at Vino Vino so we’re staring our babysitter quest. Any takers among our regular readers? What’s that I hear? Complete silence? Yeah, I thought so... 

Thursday was a not so fun day. We woke up to water coming up from under the hardwood in our kitchen and discovered that our hot water heater was leaking. We called a plumber who arrived quickly and informed us that the hot water heater would have to be replaced and since he would also have to bring everything up to code, it was going to be a “costly” repair. He wasn’t kidding. But he got the work done that day and our hot water was back on just in time for the kickoff of the UT game and for the coldest snap of the season so far. 

We’ve had a pretty relaxed weekend. We stayed at the house yesterday (except for a trip to Dan’s) and spent most of the day cleaning out closets, organizing the garage, etc. We went to the Children’s Museum this afternoon and Oliver spent a couple of hours exploring and hanging out with some other babies (all of whom were a couple of months older than he is but way smaller... sometimes I forget that he is a bigger baby since he always hangs out with big babies). 

In other news, our attempts to cut out Oliver’s 4 am feeding have been going okay. He’s still waking up about 5 every morning but Brian goes in there and pats him and he goes back to sleep for another couple of hours. I’m hoping that in the next couple of days he’ll start sleeping straight through. 

Next week will be a big one as our little boy is going to be nine months old on Tuesday! Which means another trip to the doctor and more shots. Stay tuned for the nine month wellness visit update on Thursday. I can’t wait to see how much he’s grown.

Here are the pictures. Oliver loves throwing both his arms up in the air lately, so there are tons of pictures of him in this pose this week. What a goof!

Sundays With Oliver - Week Thirty-Eight

Here’s the week in super-fast rundown fashion:

My mom came up to Austin on Thursday and she and Brian took Oliver to the Austin Children’s Museum. We got a membership to the museum so we will be spending a lot more time there! Oliver really seems to like the area for babies and toddlers. He spends his time trying to climb up the slide they have there (it’s a very short slide with a gentle slope).

Oliver spent New Year’s Eve with my parents while Brian and I went to a party at Dauphin’s house. That night, Oliver slept from 7 pm to 5:45 am. His longest stretch of sleep in a long time. Which leads us to...

Our Big Project. We are currently trying to get Oliver to drop his 4 am feeding. I didn’t want to blog about it because I was afraid I would jinx myself because so far everything seems to be working out. For the past three nights Oliver has gone to bed at his normal time and I have not had to nurse him until 6 o’clock the next morning. The first two nights he woke up once in the middle of the night but quickly went back to sleep after Brian went in and laid him back down and patted him on the back for awhile (Oliver’s initial reaction any time he wakes up is still to stand up in his crib. He still can’t/won’t get back down). Last night, Oliver went to bed at 7 pm and slept straight through until 6:30 this morning. And, now that I wrote that, he will be up seven times tonight but it was amazing to get eight hours of sleep in a row with the baby in the house even if it was just for one night.

In other developments, Oliver has FINALLY figured out how to get himself into a sitting position so can now go from sitting to crawling to sitting again. Not that he will sit still for very long...

Finally, I am very grateful that there are only fourteen weeks left in my Sundays With Oliver undertaking. Oliver’s not much of a fan of being asked to lie down/sit still near the dog. The boy wants to move.

Pat-a-Cake Take Two

I love how he “talks” while he claps. Too cute! Take note also of how he tosses some Puffs to his brothers at the very beginning.