Hey, I thought I’d let everyone out there know that Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox. Coincidentally, there is a button below the links to the left that will take you to a download point so that you can try out the new brower. Enjoy!
IMG_7577, uploaded by Jennifer Barnes
I just wanted to hop online and wish all our friends and family a happy Thanksgiving from our family.
David is planning on getting up before the rest of us tomorrow morning to drive around and find an xbox 360 since he thinks Microsoft would be stupid if they didn’t have another shipment ready for “black Friday,” the biggest shopping day of the year. I’ll make sure to remind him to post his experiences.
UPDATE: no xbox
26 inches long and two-and-a-half ounces away from 17 pounds. The pediatrican’s office weighs him in a ’sposie.
We will be starting “solids” in a little over 2 months. He will be 100% breastfed until 6 months and a week or so. I am very glad our pediatrician is in no hurry to start him on any kind of rice cereal because I am in no hurry, either. I am not looking forward to figuring out that transition. Nor am I looking forward to nasty diapers. His poopy dipes have been so tame! Messy, yes, foul-smelling, absolutely not.
Dear James,
You officially have your own room now. Doesn’t it feel great? Your first night in it was not a very sleep filled night, though. You would wake up when you realized you didn’t have that blue-green silicone sucking device in your mouth. So, I got up about 20 times to pop it back in between your lips. I ended up sleeping in the bed in your room so I didn’t have to walk so far and so I wouldn’t wake up your daddy who needs his sleep because he has to earn money so we all can eat. This binkie habit of yours is beginning to drive your mommy nuts. See? I’m even talking in the third person now… I know you didn’t get much sleep because you took a two hour long nap right after daddy left for work in the morning after that first night in your own room. You usually only nap for about 45 minutes at any given time.
You’ve started sleeping longer. Much longer. But I haven’t fully decided if this is as “good” a thing as people make it out to be because, you see, our food-to-baby relationship is off somehow. I’d rather nurse you at all hours of the night and have a great food-to-baby relationship during the day than to get all the sleep in the world at night and have you kicking, punching, pulling, squirming, and screaming at me during the day. Unless the kicking, punching, pulling, squirming, and screaming are going to happen regardless. Then you better bet I’ll take the sleep, thank you very much.
This is the month that I realized I’ve gone from working part-time teaching clarinet to full time teaching James. You learn so much every day and I just want to find the remote control to life and play it back in slo-mo so I can savor all the changes. Your giggles. Your huge social smiles, you flirty baby you! Your lengthy conversations with yourself. How you used to hate to be naked but now you love it because you know that being naked means BATHTIME. And how you have learned to splash! Just today, at the end of your 3rd month, you can sit if we bend you in the middle and your arms are touching the ground even though you are admittedly a little slow on the rolling over. That’s okay. You don’t need to roll over much as an adult. It would take too long to get anywhere if we had to roll to get there.
On your 4 month birthday you grabbed your feet. Just as if you’ve been grabbing them your whole life. It was amazing. Of course, anything you grab has to go straight into your mouth for you to chomp on but your foot was attached to your leg (still is, last I checked, too) and your leg is not yet ready to give your foot up as a living sacrifice to the slobber god that obviously already has control over your mouth.
Just tonight, I tried talking to you in the Roz from Monsters Inc. voice and you did not like that one bit. You’re already able to tell a happy voice from a not-so-happy voice and the not-so-happy voices cause your bottom lip to stick out so far, I could dive off it if I were an olympic platform diver. BUT IT IS SOOOO CUTE! We, your parents, admit it. We love your pouty face.
You know, I was thinking just last night how you’re not really ours. You don’t belong to us. Truthfully, you’re not mine and your not daddy’s, either. You’re just on loan to us for a time from God. He blessed us with you and you, ultimately, belong to Him. He is your Creator… not me, your Mom. I was just a tool God used to protect you in your tiniest stages of life. I am so thankful to God for you.
Thanks for all the memories this month, Lord! Thanks for all the smiles, James!
Love,
Mama
Kid to Kid is my new favorite store. It’s a kid’s consignment shop, yep, secondhand clothes, toys, furniture… I bought James an Evenflo Portable Ultrasaucer which retails between $67-$100 for only $40. It was in pretty good condition and just needed a good scrubbing and the seat needed a washing but … it’s practically new!
Buying kids things used for James is going to be the only way he will get a lot of his toys. At least the ones we buy him. I am so glad that I can get such nice things at such affordable prices.
UPDATE: Another recent find is the AustinFreecycle organization. Basically it is an email list of people offereing their unwanted furniture, appliances, belongings to others for free before donating them to charity. Think free and recycle and you get freecycle. I am really looking forward to getting some of my old college furniture out of our garage. (papasan chair and TV stand)
James hasn’t wanted to eat in the past week or so. At least when he is awake. I can get him to latch on briefly but he only nurses for about 3 minutes before he starts hitting me and kicking me and making those desperate, panicky noises that babies are so good at making. He’s gotten really good at sticking out his tongue and expelling all the milk he should have just swallowed, making his mommy a wet sticky mess. After those first 3 minutes, he wants nothing to do with milk but he still acts totally hungry, so I’ve kept trying. And I’ve ended up with a helluva plugged duct.
It’s hard nursing a baby that wants nothing to do with you nursing him. At times I feel like I am trying to feed an octopus with all the places he hits, scratches, kicks, and pulls at once. Yesterday, after nursing him in the nursing room at church, I had claw marks on my chest where he was digging his nails into my skin. Today, I am wearing a T-Shirt which provides much more protection than the outfit I wore to church. What has life come to that I have to wear protective clothing to prevent my own son from hurting me?
The hardest part is the mental part of it… what have I done that he is rejecting me already? Isn’t this supposed to happen in 13 years or so, not after just 4 months? I know that is reading too much into it, but it feels that way to me sometimes. Is my milk not good enough for him anymore? Why does he get so mad at me for feeding him? David mentioned that he needs a picket sign and I pictured him posting it in his crib. That’s what his nursing sessions feel like now and it sure hurts my pride. He used to be so satisfied when he nursed and I used to feel so blissful being able to provide that closeness and nutrition for him.
I have tried just about everything. Holding his head until he gives up just doesn’t work. Nope, not gonna have it. I have tried nursing standing (which only has worked twice), laying down (what a joke!), in the dark (but how do I see that he gets a good latch on again once he spits it out?), on the couch (used to be THE BEST place - now is one of the worst), removing all forms of stimulation including light, sound, and … you name it, I’ve tried it. And it seems like he’d rather just like to play.
The good news is that I can nurse him well when he is sleepy. Too bad that doesn’t happen as often as his normal amounts of eating. I guess he could be trying to tell me he doesn’t need to eat as much… but after 6 hours or so, wouldn’t he want to eat?! That’s where I’m stumped. He acts hungry but once he’s nursing, his body language tells me NO, MOM, NO!!!
This is one thing the Babywise book says NOTHING about. Nowhere in the book have I seen anything about when the baby flat out refuses to eat. I have had the most success in reversing the routine that ALL THE BOOKS tell you to stick to (Sleep, Eat, Activity) religiously. Phooey on them… when the boy refuses to eat except right as dosing off for a nap, the (Activity, Eat, Sleep) reversed routine is a blessing!
On the other end of things, he has stopped going so often. The wet is still mighty wet, but the poopy is not so much happening these days. We’re lucky if we get a good messy diaper once a day and this started about the same time he stopped eating while awake. He used to be so regular. I will definitely be bringing this up to his pediatrician on his 4 month appointment on the 21st.
UPDATE: 11/15/05, 6:30 pm
I had my annual exam today and talked to my obgyn. I have had a plugged area on my right side since 11/10/2005 but it seems to be going away and is getting smaller. She went ahead and gave me a prescription for antibiotics in case it worsens as the holidays are approaching and doctor’s appointments are harder to come by in the spur of the moment, such as you would need with an infection in your boobie. There has been no fever, no flu-like symptoms, no redness nor heat, so we’re not too worried about the plug. The plan is to take the antibiotics only if the plug or a new plug shows signs of infection.
James is eating much better. It’s not like the boy is gonna waste away. He is over 16 pounds… so I am not worried about his weight just yet.
I am going to eliminate/add/substitute things one by one over the next few days. First off, I had stopped snacking a bit ago (guess those extra calories are waaay important to this skinny girl). So, I’m adding the snacks back in. UGH. I don’t enjoy eating. Secondly, today’s change is that I will no longer take him off the side he is nursing from, even if it’s been 45 minutes and he is fast asleep. I’ve found that I’ll still have let-downs and he will still drink, probably because he doesn’t get full faster or isn’t nursing super effective at first. But, I will let him come off on his own. Eventually he will hopefully start filling up faster. Starting on Thursday, I am taking the pacifier away from him. No more sucking on the little blue-green silicone soothie. The enemy of my milk. Too bad he still has thumbs. We’ll see if those three changes bring about better nursing. Oh, and I had stopped taking the minipill for a few weeks… I’m back on it. I don’t know if it affected my supply at all. Hmph.. I guess that’s about it for now.
Checkin’ out the 360, uploaded by davejenbarnes
I just wanted an excuse to use the James and Gaming categories for the same post.
