Baby-Free

So, everything lately has been very Shark-centered, so I thought I'd give us all a little break from the baby. I'd like to share with you all 5 things you may not know about me:

1. I'm a name-o-phile. I have an obsession with names. I love baby name websites, blogs, books, etc. I think that the names we choose for people (and things) say a lot about us.

2. I think standing ovations are over-used. I don't give a standing ovation unless a performance was incredible. Not every concert, play, or show deserves the honor of me getting to my feet.

3. I wish my house had a laundry chute. I get really tired of carrying dirty clothes down 14 steps.

4. If I feel like my world is falling apart I like to get a pedicure or my eyebrows waxed. I don't feel like myself unless these simple things are taken care of.

5. I dream of being a fiction writer. I would love to have a book published.

So, what's something I don't know about you?

The Sharkbaby

Family time in the lovesac

Mommy and the Sharkster

First pair of overalls... nothing cuter on a baby!

Sharky shirt for the Sharkbaby

Yeah, he's pretty hardcore.

2 Months

Yep, it's that time again. My little man is 2 whole months old. We went to the pediatrician today and he weighed in at 11lbs 13oz and is 24.75 inches long. Which puts him in the 97th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. So, without further ado, my monthly letter:

Dear Sharkster,

Holy cow, you are getting so big! I love getting to spend so much time with you. This past month we worked on getting you on a schedule. Like everything else I don't pick up immediately, when it didn't work as planned I got frustrated and decided we'd do more of a rhythm than a schedule. So we started a bedtime routine. Every night we feed a bottle, get you dressed for bed, read you "Guess How Much I Love You", sing "You Are My Sunshine", swaddle you up nice and tight, and then rock you to sleep. You are great night time sleeper, usually only waking up once in the night to eat. Naps, however, are another story. Sometimes you are a great napper, taking 2-3 hour naps, and other times you'll only settle in for short cat naps. I don't generally mind, though, I'll just put you in the car and let you nap while I run errands.

You are such a happy and smiley little guy. The only time you cry or get fussy is when you're hungry or tired. You love it when daddy and I talk baby talk to you, sing silly songs, and play patty-cake. You also love it when your Pops snacks on your toes. Your favorite person to take naps with is your Uncle Zig, and you love to make faces at your Uncle Mac. Your Aunt Maddie spoils you rotten, but you still won't give her a real smile. We're working on fixing this. Your Grammy Judy comes to visit you at least once a week, and you love to snuggle on her.

You still have crazy and fuzzy hair. I love to show people your baby mullet. When I sit you on my lap you do this funny thing where you stretch your neck out to get your head up as high as it will go. This has led me to nickname you either scrunch-head, turtle-head, or a combination of the two... usually Scrunchy-Turtle-Head. You love it when I tell you how handsome you are. That always makes you smile the biggest, but anytime I get out the camera to try and capture a smile you immediately stop. You're just like your daddy that way.

Well, my sweet baby boy, I look forward to another month of watching you grow and develop. You are most definitely my sunshine.

I love you to the moon and back!

Love,

Mommy

I Suck at Blogging

So, I realize that I have a very good reason for not keeping up on my blog, but I still feel a little bad about leaving all 3 of my readers hanging.

Life has been a little crazy in the Borges household lately, what with getting used to a new baby and all. I feel like we're returning to some sort of normal (although it is a different normal than it was before).

We blessed Sharkbaby on Sunday. Curious George did a great job, and both of my boys looked so handsome!

I've been working on a schedule with the baby, and so far it's going pretty well. I read the book Babywise, and I really liked the concepts, so we're doing a modified version of that plan. I didn't like how rigid the plan in the book was, so I've just been following the Eat-Awake-Sleep pattern. The rest kind of evolved itself. He's even consistently sleeping 7-8 hours at night, and I can't complain about that! He's growing like a weed, my 6 week old baby is wearing 6 month clothes, which means that all of the cute things I bought for him to wear this summer are being modified to wear right now.

Other than that, life is just trucking along here. We're staying plenty busy and having lots of fun!

1 Month

So, I just finished reading the book "it sucked and then i cried" by Heather Armstrong (she also has a website: www.dooce.com, for anyone interested). I highly recommend it for anyone who has ever had a baby, post-partum depression, or just wants a read that will alternately make you laugh and cry. Anyway, I loved it (making fun of Mormons aside). Something the author does, though, is write a letter to her baby every month. This is something I'm going to try and do for the Sharkbaby. I'll be out of town and away from the internet for his actual 1 month on Thursday, so I'm going to post it now.

Dear Sharkbaby,

Wow, one whole month old, already! What a month it has been, too. As I write this you are crashed out in your daddy's lap. This is a good thing, since earlier this week I couldn't get you to sleep during the day at all.

I don't ever want to lie to you, so I'm going to be completely honest and tell you that for the first few weeks I wasn't sure about you. We had a bit of a hard time getting to know each other. We just couldn't seem to figure each other out. There were times when I thought about sending you away to live at Pops and Nana's house. Then came the shift. I'll get to that in just a minute.

You see, kiddo, your mom has a disease called post-partum depression. That means, for whatever reason, when her body is trying to get normal after having a baby she gets sad. It has nothing to do with you, but it makes life kind of difficult sometimes. Add to that us not quite being able to figure each other out, and it made for some interesting times. We were both pretty stressed out for a little while, especially when it came to the whole eating thing. I could never be sure you were getting enough, but you never cried for more. Anyway, I was nervous about things so I took you into the doctor's office and had you weighed. As it turns out, you were losing weight... not a good thing. You were what Dr. Art (you'll love him!) called a "hibernator". That means instead of crying to tell me that you needed more food you would just go to sleep. So we stopped breastfeeding and switched to formula. I think it was the best decision we've ever made for you.

I am so happy that I get to see your little personality grow everyday. You are such a content and, for the most part, happy baby. You love music, noise, and being around people. For the first little while we didn't get much sleep. I left you for the night with Nana and Aunt Maddie one night last week, and I'll be honest, I cried a little when I came home. I couldn't believe I was leaving my baby with someone else overnight. I put you in your crib last night for your first night on your own. You did pretty well with it. We'll keep trying and see how things go from here.

Anyway, my sweet baby boy, know that your mom loves you very much. I'm so excited to see you grow and change everyday.

Love, Mommy

I am not a failure

Sometimes life doesn't go according to plan. I've mentioned on this blog before how I like plans. I like to know what's coming, I like to have lists made of things I need to get done. I like schedules. I crave structure. Anyway, back to the point:

I had a plan. A birth plan, in fact. I was going to go into labor without medical assistance. I was going to woman up and muscle through my contractions. I was going to deliver a healthy baby without the aid of medications. I was going (gasp) natural.

Well, none of that happened. I was induced. I received cytotec and pitocin to get my labor going. I muscled through my contractions for about 2 hours before I was begging for an epidural. My plan was shot from almost the word "go".

But I am not a failure. I still have a healthy, happy baby.

And then there were the other plans: I was going to bond instantly with my child. I was going to feel a love like nothing I'd ever felt before. I was going to breastfeed him for a whole year. I wasn't going to cry when he kept me up in the night.

Well, let me tell you all a little secret that no one ever shares: sometimes you don't bond instantly. Sometimes you feel like you're holding, caring for, feeding, and changing someone else's baby. You feel like you're waiting for his real mom to come pick him up. But she never comes. So you muddle through, feeling like you're not doing anything right. You don't necessarily love them right away. You worry about their welfare, you think about them constantly, and you kind of like them a little... but sometimes bonding takes time.

And breastfeeding. Oh man, breastfeeding. It's hard. And it hurts. And sometimes your baby is a hibernater and won't tell you that he's not getting enough food. So you stop. Cold turkey... and guess what: your baby thrives on formula. And every time you feed him a bottle and look into his big baby eyes you fall in love with him a little bit more.

And one day you realize that if anybody ever tried to take him away from you they wouldn't live to see another day. Because you love that little guy with everything you have. And you can't imagine your life without him.

So, if any of that makes me a failure I guess I can live with that. Because I have a healthy, happy baby that I love more than anything else in the world.

A Plea

I'm bored. Like, really bored.

Monday was my birthday, so I stayed fairly busy. Curious George and I spent some time shopping for some frames for The Aquarium. Then we had dinner, movie night, and cake with some cousins.

Yesterday I spent the day running errands. I did some shopping. I put up the vinyl on Sharky's wall. I planned my menu for the week and went to the grocery store. I cleaned out the freezer, for crying out loud! (Usually I spend the bulk of my Tuesday at work, for those who don't know)

Then today rolled around. What was on the agenda for today? Laundry. Yep, that's it. Just laundry. Now, I'm sure many of you (with much larger families than my own) could spend a whole day just doing laundry. Not so for me. I have our laundry done in about 4-5 loads. Ok, so this does take a little time because I sometimes have to run clothes through the dryer twice, but still not enough to fill a whole dang day.

I've already watched more tv than I ever have in my life. I've finished my book. I've read approximately 387,000 blogs. I've logged more hours on facebook than any one person should.

So, blogging universe, I come to you for answers. Please, give me some ideas of something to do. I'm begging you!