4 months!

Mother's Day in front of our church

Mother's Day in front of our church

"Great news for weary moms: Your little one will likely be in a sunny mood most of the day, sleep more during the night, and stay put wherever you plunk him (he's not mobile yet). He's ready for fun and conversation, with you or anyone who happens by, so be prepared for lots of laughter (his and yours!) as he tries out her new routines. By this age, your baby can raise up on his arms when placed on his tummy (thanks to all the tummy time you give him) and keep his head level when propped in a sitting position. He might even turn in the direction of your voice and complain if you take away his toy. His second round of immunizations is scheduled this month, so ask your pediatrician what's on the agenda. This is also a good time to ask about starting solids and discuss upcoming (or missed) milestones. What else is up? Maybe your baby's temper every time you strap him into her car seat. There are some pretty effective diversionary tactics to try, such as singing his favorite song and attaching plenty of car-safe toys to her seat (rotate these periodically for boredom's sake). Ultimately, he's just got to get used to it. (That means never give in and drive with your baby out of his seat.)"
--whattoexpect.com

Ummmm, wow. More than halfway to 6 months old! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN??? Haha, the days go by devastatingly fast. I feel like I barely see the little guy even though I am with him from the moment he wakes up to the moment he falls asleep for the night... crazy town.

Let's see...not too much new stuff to report... Oh so our LOVELY insurance (don't get me started on how we wound up on this insurance), is so frigging hard to deal with. THIS time, we had to choose a subdivision of the main insurance to go with so we dutifully looked up all the info about all the ones to choose from and decided. We called and had Andrew transferred to Molina Healthcare with an enrollment date of 4-1-13. On 4-4-13, we called just to double check he was enrolled and good-to-go since we had not yet received a card or anything like that. They have never heard of us and have no records showing that he is to be enrolled (we got a letter from the main division saying he would be). That evening I open up the mail and see a packet for Andrew with insurance cards and info for something called Freedom Health. I look up what they include and it looks fine so the next day I call our pediatrician and ask if they take Freedom. They do not. Sooooo Monday morning I called the main division and again asked for Andrew to be transferred to Molina. Called the pediatrician and had to reschedule his 4 month appointment for almost an entire month later. Got a letter stating they got the change request.... no cards or info yet. He is to be enrolled June 1st. If I have to go through all this bull again, I am going to scream. Hopefully in the ears of some supervisor at the main branch. Seriously.

This makes me feel better.... today he fell asleep with this in his hand....how precious is that????

Our schedule of course has adapted and we are doing partial baby-led, and partial parent-led. Our loose schedule is:

9:15am wakes up for the day, change, 7 ounce bottle. Play, cuddle, chat, read whatever until about 11:20am. Then down for a nap.

1:15pm up for another 7 ounce bottle, change, play, read, chat, cuddle, tummy time until about 3:45 down for a nap.

6pm up for a change and another 7 ounce bottle, play, chat, cuddle, swing, tummy time, bathtime... sometimes another short (like 30 min) nap in there as well.

At around 8:30-8:45pm he gets one last bottle, some more cuddle time, and then a final change and down for bed no later than 9:30pm.

Basically we do this pretty steadily each day, however, if he sleeps longer, or takes only a short nap, it gets altered a bit but that's okay. We roll with the flow, and it always works out just fine :)

This weekend is finally our St. Pete's trip! We are heading out after Andrew has breakfast on Saturday, going straight to Madeira Beach, then lunch and quick stop at the hotel to wash Andrew off. Then headed to the Dali museum, and holocaust museum. Then we plan to window shop and find a cool place for dinner before heading back to the hotel. Sunday we are gonna hit the pool, relax and then head to the Henry B. Plant museum and our favorite restaurant, Smokey Bones for a belated Mother's Day feast ;)

I knew my pack-rat tendencies would eventually be a good thing tee hee. Here is a list of what we are bringing for this ONE night trip about an hour away from home:

• Extra shirts, pants, socks and onesies
• An outfit for the day 
• Changing table attachment for the pack n' play
• Changing pad blankets and waterproof pad
• waterproof pad for sleeping, 2 blankets, his lullabye frog, sleeping hat, paci, swaddle pod and elephant
• Towels and washcloths and baby soap for a bath after the ocean and pool
• Toys and a couple small books
• Eucerin, brush, wipes, diapers (2 disposables for sleeping, rest cloth)
• 2 sets of PJs, washcloths for changing table
• Pack n' Play obviously
• All his swim gear in his swim bag (flip flops, sunglasses, hat, swim diaper, swimming suit, towel, sunscreen, life jacket)
• All his bottles, vitamins, formula
• Baby detergent and bottle soap plus brush
• Fully Stocked diaper-bag (one change of clothes, all the kinds of wipes you could imagine, washcloth, bib, burp cloth, toys and book, hand sanitizer, tylenol, spot remover, baby powder, nose bulb, petroleum jelly, bag for wet items, scented disposable dirty diaper bags, swaddle balnket, extra diapers, toy and paci on straps, changing pad, etc)

Whew! Oh!! And P.S. GET RID OF YOUR JOHNSON AND JOHNSON baby powder! They have said that their powder contains cancer causing ingredients or something really bad like that... not good!

Yes, he has reached that "I must chew on ALL the things!!!!!" stage... haha

In other news, I checked out Name Berry recently:

ANDREW KENNETH:

"Strong and Manly" Andrew is among the most appealing classic boys' names, with more character and charm than James or John, and a host of Andrew-inspired nicknames: Andy makes it friendlier, Drew adds to its sophistication. Though it has slipped a bit, it was firmly in the Top 10 for more than two recent decades, and in one Harvard research study by sociologist Stanley Liberson it was the leading boys' name chosen by highly educated parents.

In the New Testament, Andrew was one of the twelve apostles and the first disciple to be called by Jesus and, although the origins of the name are Greek, Andrew is the patron saint of both Scotland and Russia, as well as Greece. It has associations of two ofAmerica's most famous artists, Wyeth and Warhol.

Andrew also has several appealing foreign manifestations that are sometimes used in the US, including Andre (French), Andrei (Russian), Andres (Spanish), Andrea (Italian),Andreas (German, Dutch and Greek), and Anders (Norwegian and Swedish).

"Born of Fire, Handsome" Kenneth may have lost itsluster now, but Kenneth has had its moments of glory The first king of Scotland was Kenneth, and Sir Kenmneth, a Christian crusader, was the hero of the Sir Walter Scott novel The Talisman.

In this country, Kenneth was a Top 20 name from the 1920s through the 50s. And of course for many girls growing up, Ken was the name of Barbie's eternal boyfriend and ultimate dream date. These days, Kenneth Ellen (!) Parcell is the naive, perpetually smiling character on 30 Rock.
--nameberry.com

Alright well that's all for now... pictures to come from our trip soon!! I shall leave you with some NEKKID baby photos....TTFN! <3

Look at that sly grin!

What a little ham!!!

He was one HAPPY baby lol

3 month-old Andrew

"These days, your little one is likely to stay awake for longer stretches (he's got stuff to do now!) and start to engage with you in hilarious new ways (i.e., noises, giggles, and finger play). Now that your baby's more fun, you and your spouse may be tempted to roughhouse with him. Be Careful about baby safety — he's still pretty teeny and vulnerable to a host of serious injuries including shaken-baby syndrome. Hold off on the horseplay for now and focus on cuddles for a while longer. These days, you might notice fewer bowel movements (totally normal) but not necessarily fewer bouts of diaper rash."
--whattoexpect.com

Life is strange.... every day passes SO quickly, but it almost seems as though Andrew should be, like.... I don't know... turning 5 or 6 months maybe. Weird.

Anyhoo, life is also very good :) We have now discovered that using double padding in Andrew's cloth diapers works much better than a disposable at night-- huzzah! Less disposables being used :) I think we shall have to start saving for a few more cloth ones though... we have JUST enough but it would be so much nicer to have 3 to 5 more, just so that I can be slightly lazy and not have to do laundry AS often. (Now I am finally back to this blog post about 2 weeks later and we now HAVE the 3 extra cloth diapers-- HUZZAH!)

Life has been one big ol' whirlwind lately... Jesse has been working a ton, we're in a flurry of keeping track of savings for our trip to MN for Jesse's brother's wedding-- yay can't wait!!!--, catching up on bills, and trying (slash failing) at keeping house....ahem...

We've been looking at houses lately! Seriously rent is friggin expensive here. Here's the sitch: Jesse originally was hired by Bay Care in New Port Richey. This is close to an hour drive from our apartment in Tampa Palms. He is now transferring to a center in Lutz which is more like a 20 minute drive. Lutz is very near Wesley Chapel where my OBGYN is, Andrew's pediatrician is, my absolute favorite mall is and the hospital we go to is. Thus, we began looking for new places to live ... keep your fingers crossed that we SOMEHOW get approved for a home loan-- it would do wonders for us! :)

New developments: Andrew is now going to sleep for the night around 9:30pm every night and waking up between 9 and 10am in the mornings. We used to turn on a night-light for him which we stopped a few weeks ago and have been talking about stopping the lullabye music as well. Instead, tonight I did not use the swaddle-pod. First night ever without it. Scary! However, I have heard much less of a peep out of going to sleep than usual. Typically he fusses about 10 minutes or so before passing out. Not a peep out of him tonight. And he's stayed asleep as far as I can tell. Fingers crossed this continues! Then we can cut out the music so baby does not end up an insomniac like me!

Also, sounds like Jesse will be moving to 5 over-night shifts a week. Yay for him, boo for me... I need to get used to no Jesse to curl up beside... it hasn't gone well over the past week and a half of overnights.....

I have been working on finances, budgeting and....choreography for a physical art opening back in MN this autumn. I have the first piece choreographed, wrote it up for each dancer and have now videotaped it all and sent it off to be learned and rehearsed. I think I have like 8 more to go...oof. It's fun though. Also during our trip in July we will be up in Duluth so I can run rehearsals of it, and then as long some plans follow through, we will be in MN for the opening and show itself which would be fantastic! No more details though cuz we've worked hard to keep the project under wraps :)

Last but not least, I am thoroughly excited to be buying a bumbo seat this week!!! And very thankful to have heard of magnetic baby proofing for cabinets and drawers see here, as we conitue to collect baby-proofing gear :-)

Leavin' y'all with a smile! Toodles!!

updates....

Loving NO SNOW all year lol sorry friends and fam in MN/WI

Well, I think I left off at going to visit Jesse's relatives... we had a LOT of fun! It was great to see them and hang out by the pool and chat :) Baby was great as usual, allowing everyone to cuddle him and sleeping through the noisy chaos at Cici's Pizza that night. We are dang lucky with that little guy!!

Still stickin to our schedule for the most part. Seems like Andrew is waking up a bit later so every thing has been pushed back a bit. He is consistently sleeping at least 9 hours per night and then takes a late morning nap of 2-3 hours. I think that currently my favorite time of day is the late afternoon when I fold baby's laundry. Typically I have just finished changing him before going out to get the clothes out of the dryer and then begin folding everything on his changing table. He gets put in his crib (in only a diaper which I am pretty sure he ADORES lol), and I wind the mobile. The entire time, no matter how long it takes me, he lays there smiling up at the mobile spinning while wriggling and reaching for the animals. I thoroughly enjoy folding with the sun streaming in his window, the lullaby playing and his little coos coming from the other side of the little room-- best feeling ever :)

Alright, so, Monday I had my women's doctor appointment (or late 6 week follow up)-- for some reason it took us an entire HOUR to drive there so we were ten minutes late and Dr. Hudson had been called to the hospital for a delivery. We rescheduled to the Wesley Chapel location for Thursday since it is much closer. Half an hour before appointment time we were called by a nurse to say that the doctor was at the hospital and couldn't see me. So FINALLY this Monday the 18th I got in. Didn't realize so much went on at the follow-up appt but it's all over and I am done with OBGYN appointments for a year!! Woot!!! Just waiting to receive my medical records via mail and to see if any labs came back abnormal but other than that I am good to go! The office is also closing but mine and Jesse's favorite OB is moving to a new practice in Wesley Chapel so I think I may go to her for next time... it's closer to Andrew's doctor and the hospital we like, too :)

On Tuesday we had Andrew's two month check up. He is officially 26 inches long and THIRTEEN POINT SIX POUNDS!!!! In the words of Dr. Shah... "He is gonna be a GIANT." Lol.... It's just like every time I tell someone he was 9 lbs at birth and I get that open-mouth look of disbelief-- I got a "You go girl" at the obgyn by one of the nurses too haha. Andrew is doing great! He is developing well and doing everything he should be-- we were even told we are awesome at getting rid of cradle cap which baby was battling for a bit. Baby was very talkative with daddy while Dr. Shah was discussing shots with me (to which he was totally distracted with and kept pausing to listen to him coo), and then Jesse put him up on the table and Andrew "walked" across it... this received a "wow... amazing. Just amazing." from the doc... is it wrong to feel proud about that? Whatever, I will anyways ;)

He also got a full round of vaccinations. We wanted to skip the Rota Virus vaccine but they gave it to him before telling us what it was :-/ Oh well. I did great even with him crying... up until I reached for him as Jesse picked him up and comforted him. I seriously almost lost it right there. Somehow though, I made it to the car before the tears started rolling down my face. Jesse now knows I need to comfort Andrew whenever he gets shots hahahaha. He did not have any noticeable reactions thank goodness!

His poor thigh after taking the bandage off :(

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, just normal, routine business. Paying bills which is exciting! Saturday we had a full day-- went to the 2nd annual Mayor's "River-o-green" festival in downtown Tampa. It was a blast! We also went to Bok Tower Gardens which was absolutely beautiful and very educational.

And this is the only picture I took. I know! I'm so lame :(

 Jesse went on a narrated Garden tour while mom and I sprung for estate tour tickets-- I just love seeing places like that, seeing original furniture, etc and seeing the way they lived back then! It was gorgeous-- such beautiful views! On the way back we drove through Chalet Suzanne which is a gorgeous bed and breakfast that Jesse and I are hoping to book for Valentine's Day next year... they have an award winning restaurant, spa, complimentary wine and cheese in the afternoons, skydiving, it's on the edge of a lake and you get fruit and cordials upon arrival. How neat is that??

For St. Paddy's day Andrew of course rocked some green! We went to church that morning where he was unusually awake, did some grocery shopping, and then we just played all day! After he went to sleep, daddy and I slipped out for a full, fun night of ERS, green beer, a few other drinks, pool, darts, dancing and cloves. We ended the night by coming home, stuffing our faces with Doritos and pizza and playing Call of Duty lol... it was quite a night ;-P

At the festival!

Daddy and Andrew watching them dye the river green!

Tummy time after church

St. Paddy's Day morning

Saturday night

At an Irish pub near the end of the night on the 17th ;)

We are QUITE enjoying seeing Andrew learn-- he is smiling, talking, grabbing, and wriggling more EVERY day and it is honestly the most rewarding and magical thing ever <3

Baby's first time swinging!! Haha!