Fun with trampolenes

Mum and Dad have been here for a few days now and I'm just loving every moment. We've shopped, they've walked the neighbourhood with Trent, we've hung out and watched telly, made delicious dinners, and spent quality time together. Brian went to Houston a few days ahead of us so that he could spend some time with Kev and also help with some things around the house. On Friday, mum, dad and I all went and played on the trampoline. It's just so funny to think how much fun I had jumping around with my 60+ year old parents. I imagine the neighbours thought we were nut jobs. I got some pretty cute pictures, which I will post on picasa after xmas.
Today we finished up our xmas shopping, got to see Scott and Barbie for a short visit, dropped of some gifts for Ethan, and had a stop and chat with Mike and Tara. We have just finished loading up the car ready to take off early tomorrow for a very merry xmas with the whole family! how very exciting.

It's finally here!

December 20th! This date is even more important than Christmas. Why? Because my parents are arriving today! Trent will get to see his Nana and Grandad for the first time! I can barely stand to wait for their flight to land.
Brian and I have been on vacation for the past week (well, since December 10th for me) and we've been busy doing projects around the house, including cleaning out all the junk mail that has accrued in our office, cleaning out the closet under the stairs, fixing the ceiling that's been stained and crumbling from that leak we had a few months ago, painting a mural of sorts on Trent's ceiling, and Brian has taken on the 30k service on the Subaru, rather than paying $400 in labour for the Subaru dealership to do it. It's been a very busy week. Add to that the fact that our little munchkin is very sick. He has RSV, which is a virus that affects the respiratory system and is rather serious in infants. He's hanging in there with some breathing treatments and cough meds and a lot of TLC. In addition to the breathing problems, he's also got some projectile vomiting and diarrhea.

I'm so excited to see my parents! I can only imagine how they're feeling, waiting to meet their grand child.

Misadventures in tree trimming, etc.

Trent got sent home from daycare on Thursday because he threw up and with all the bugs that are going around that place they didn't want to take a chance. Of course, that meant that he couldn't go on Friday, either. So we've had a LOT of family time over the weekend.
This is the first year in many that I've actually mustered up enough holiday spirit to deck the halls... well, not really the halls, but the front yard. I wrapped both the trees in lights and also the bay window. It looks decent. Of course, nothing compared to the other houses in the land of Stepford. But it's an honorable mention at least. This isn't the tree trimming I alluded to in the title of this blog, though. The misadventure I'm referring to involves Brian's good intentions in being a good proactive and responsible home owner. The big tree in our back yard has been touching the roof since we moved in, and on a windy day you can hear it scraping if you stand in the closet.
Brian diligently set about it with the tree saw and cut away some of the branches, but managed to get the trimmer stuck in the tree about 25 feet up. Not a big deal, right? But the ladder is too short to get on the roof so we couldn't climb up there to free the trimmer, and besides, both of us are a little intimidated by heights. So Brian, problem solver that he is, decides that throwing a rope, weighted on one end, over the branch so he can pull it down, thereby releasing the trimmer, would be the next course of action. Only we don't have a rope. But we do have a 100 foot extension cord. So he enlists my help in tying a small log to one end of the cord, and he throws it into the tree. And it never came down. At this point he's getting a bit pissed off and I'm having a hard time controlling myself from laughing my arse off. He yanks on the cord and it doesn't budge. I have to go indoors so he can't hear me cracking up. When I compose myself, I assist him in getting the extension cord out of the tree, thankfully it did eventually come free. Then I watched, all the while trying to hide my amusement as he tried using numerous household items to free the trimmer. A broom that was too short, a fishing rod case, throwing logs at the branch imprisoning the trimmer. Eventually my amusement gave way to annoyance because he was becoming obsessive about it. I eventually convinced him to leave it for the evening, go out with his friends, and fuhgeddaboutit. I kind of wish I had taken a picture of the extension cord and the trimmer stuck in the tree. It was funnier to see it than I can do justice in this story.
The next day, Brian borrowed Scott's trimmer and was able to free ours from the tree. A happy ending. And a big thank you to Brian for taking such great care of our home. When I met Brian he was pretty useless around the house. He could barely do the dishes and forget about any kind of maintenance. But over the years he's become very handy, thanks in part to our great friend Mike, who is the handiest person I know.

In other news I'm off work for the rest of the year. Well, when I say off work, what I really mean is that I'll be checking in daily to ensure there are no critical issues for me deal with, and after handling any necessary crises I'll be spending my days leisurely. Today, for example, Trent is at daycare and I plan to work out, have lunch with Mike, get a pedicure, and finish up my xmas shopping. Doesn't that sound like the best relaxing day? Last night, Brian helped kick off my official vacation with a delicious trip to my favourite sushi bar while Aunt Tara spent some quality time with Trent. We're so lucky to have such great friends.

I could spend some time today sending out xmas cards... but I'm just not inclined this year. So please, nobody be offended when you don't get a card from us. It's not that I'm not thinking about you. It's just that my time has become very precious and I'd rather spend it elsewhere.

And finally, an update on Prince William. On Sunday he looked like he might not make it again, but I repeated the steps previously taken, and today he's right as rain. Prince William just keeps on ticking.

Only 9 days until mum and dad arrive... and counting. There's so much I'm looking forward to this holiday season.

Get the lysol!

Trent's been rather ill this past weekend. On Saturday night he threw up all over himself in his crib, all over me the next morning, and pretty much all over everything as Sunday progressed. When you see that much stuff gushing, your first inclination is to shove something over the hole to stop it. But you can't do that with a baby. I found myself in the line of fire a few times, as did Brian, and each time, we tried to just "aim him" at something washable. We ended up with a rather large pile of laundry on the living room floor.
The doctor told us it's a virus that's going around. It's funny that whenever a person is sick, no matter what the symptoms, it's always "that bug that's going 'round". We kept him hydrated with Pedia Sure and fed him only breast milk. He seemed to be very lethargic on Sunday and slept a lot. If it didn't break our hearts to see him like that it might have been quite pleasant. On Monday he was still vomiting and had a massive throw up while we were running an errand, completely soaking himself and his car seat. Luckily nobody but Brian and me saw it, so we escaped the accusatory stares of the know it all, more experienced parents who think I'm a bad mother for bringing my fountain of puke to the store.
Today he seems fine, though, and it turns out it was "that bug that's going 'round" because all the babies in daycare are out sick today, too. Of course, he wouldn't be sick if he didn't insist on shoving everything in his mouth! I suspect it will be many years before he learns that lesson ;-)

Long live Prince william!

It's been four days since reports came in of local Austin woman, Amanda Bauman, saved Prince William from a near fatal brush with Swim Bladder disease. William was reported to be resting comfortably at the palace over the weekend and sightings of the prince from outside the palace have been few and far between. Prince William declined to comment on his condition. His brother, Harry II, however, did grant us an audience for a few moments and explained that William was feeling much better and has resumed his normal eating and working out activities as of yesterday. William's daily activities include a well balanced morning meal, followed by a vigorous swim in the palace aquarium, and a relaxing on the rocks and in the garden his brother.
Now hailed a hero by the royal family, Amanda declined the reward offered and simply said "Anybody would have done the same. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time".

Austin woman saves Prince William!

I've had these two goldfish, William and Harry ever since I bought my first house. Named, of course, after the princes. Harry is Harry II because the first Harry died of Ick very early on, but William is the original.
Yesterday I came downstairs to feed the princes when I noticed William floating on his side on the surface. I held my breath for a moment thinking he was dead when he swam back down to the bottom. He seemed to struggle to get down and when he did he was exhausted and just floated back to the top. This continued for several hours. Periodically, William would go into his rock house and rest so that the ceiling would keep him under the water, and one time I found him wedged down the side of the rock house with one fin on it holding on upside down. I thought for sure he was a goner. But I couldn't just let him die. He's Prince William!
I called Mike, who used to work in an aquarium store, and the fish guy at PetSmart. Did some googling, and found that poor William had what seems like Swim Bladder problems. A condition that would kill him if I didn't act quickly. So I picked up some Quick Cure at PetSmart, not sure if this helped but it couldn't hurt, I hooked up an air pum and aerated the water, did a partial water change, and fed William some frozen peas. Yea, peas. Apparently that helps release whatever is causing him to retain oxygen in his swim bladder.
After a couple of hours, William started to look better. He struggled less to get to the bottom and spent less time on the surface, although he did still end up there if he stopped flapping his little fins. I crossed my fingers and left him alone for the night. When I woke up this morning, William greeted me in his usual manner. He swam to the side of the tank where I usually feed him, and wagged his tail and opened his mouth for food.
It's probably too early to celebrate at this point, I suppose he could still take a turn for the worst, but as of right now he's acting normally and I do not have a fish funeral in my immediate future.
Way to fight, Prince William! You at least live to see another day.
What's kind of cute is that the whole time while he was sick, Harry II kept hanging out very close to William, as though showing concern for his buddy. I'm probably just projecting human emotions and mannerisms onto my fish, but it sure did look that way to me.

Giving thanks

It's the holiday season. I'm usually grumpy during this time of year because I can't spend it with my family. In the past 15 years I have spent only one xmas with my family. But this year I have an unusual amount of holiday spirit. Why? because for the first time since I moved away from England, my parents are coming to visit me for xmas! I'm I'm even feeling festive enough to contemplate xmas lights. Yea, you heard right.
This past week was American Thanksgiving and as is the tradition, Brian and I packed up the car and headed to Houston. Only this year we had an extra person to pack for who takes up an entire trunk. Talk about high maintenance! This thanksgiving was particularly special because Kev and Darice came in from Indiana and spent the night with us in Austin. We hit the outlet malls the next day before making our trip to Houston. Trent was an absolute angel on the trip there, and despite some bad weather, we made it there safely and in one piece.
Thanksgiving dinner was awesome as usual. Joan went really gourmet this time and made the most awesome stuffing. It had Italian sausage in it. We did a Guinness Turkey with Rosemary and Garlic pesto under the skin that turned out amazingly well. Although we did manage to set the oven on fire. Thankfully it was contained and we did not end up a holiday statistic or go to the ER. It makes for a good story, though.
Thanksgiving day, my father in law thought he'd be a smart ass and tell me to go ahead and spit my olive pips into the fire. I figured since he was so serious I'd call him out on it. The moral of that story: Don't tell Amanda to do something unless you mean it. ;-) It was pretty funny because when I did it he was mid-sip on his beer and didn't have time to stop me. HEHEHE. That also makes for a good story.
On Friday we went to the mall to brave the holiday shopping crowds and later, as the boys watch football, Darice and I snook away for some girl time and got a pedicure. That was a really nice break. We took some Bauman family holiday pictures by the tree and that evening we went out for a nice Italian dinner. Trent, again, behaving like a perfect angel. It was really cute to watch grandpa taking him to the bar and showing him off to people. You can tell he's really proud of him.
Sadly, Kev and Darice left on Saturday but Brian and I stuck around for another day to maximize the Grandma and Grandpa time with Trent.
The drive back to Austin was much less hairy than the drive to Houston and Trent was once again a really great traveller. We're really proud of the little guy.

The new era of romantic

In my old life it used to be that a romantic evening consisted of dinner at some swanky restaurant with wine and expensive cuts of meat. When you have a kid it's really easy to let the romantic stuff slip out of the picture. You're both so focused on raising your new human that you forget to take the time for each other. But not my husband. Our alone time has become more precious and he makes every effort to spend quality time with me. Just a small example of this was Sunday evening's activities. I cooked dinner while Brian rocked Trent to sleep. We put him down for a nap and ate dinner at our new kitchen table by candle light, listening to the country music station. After our meal we just hung out and talked. I drank a glass of very cheap, but satisfying wine, and Brian danced with me around the house, which is a very common occurrence in our house these days. Having Trent, while very challenging at times, has brought us even closer together. We realize how much we truly depend on each other, and when the other is not around, how awful life would be without them.
Sometimes I miss my old life. Times like yesterday when I was so stressed out I actually had a sobbing melt down. But today all's right with the world again, and my sweet, sweet husband, knowing I had a rough day yesterday, bought me flowers to cheer me up.

Roll with it... (work related rant)

Lately I've been extremely stressed out about my job. It's Mainly because I HATE it. I used to love my job, but lately I've been feeling a lot of resentment toward my management chain because they're pushing these initiatives that don't make sense to me, and impact our customers adversely, in my opinion. I'm repeatedly told that I don't have to agree with the decisions, but I have to get the pom-poms out and get behind it with enthusiasm. WTF?

I've been assigned to multiple teams where I have to analyze, strategize, recommend, and publish information for others in my organization to use as best practices. I'm being encouraged to "think outside the box", but when I do, I get slapped down by budget constraints and resource issues.

I've been looking at other jobs, but nothing is floating my boat, and I just can't take on anything new at this point in my life. With having a major change in my home life, I just can't handle a career change as well. So today I made a decision. It's not life altering, it's not an earth-shattering revelation or anything, but I think it's going to make the difference in my stress level, so I'm going to try it out.

Starting January 1st, I'm going to just roll with whatever (seemingly stupid) initiative my management chain pushes down to me. I'll alert the stakeholders of any decisions that impact them, sit back, and let them fight it out between themselves and not get in the middle. When they come to a decision, I'll roll with it. It sounds like I'm being apathetic. And I guess I am. But so what? I've said many times, and I'll say it again, my goal in life is to be happy. That's it. It's perfectly simple. So when I'm in a situation that doesn't make me happy I need to take steps to get back to my happy place. My happy place at this point in time is to do my job to the very best of my ability, and at the end of the day forget about it, go home, and spend some quality time with my boys.

Today, as I was getting all worked up over some new policy that I don't agree with being pushed on me, it occurred to me that getting pissed off and all heated up about it isn't going to change anything at all. So why bother? Why not just do what they tell me? Why not just roll with it? Would that make my life easier? you bet your arse it would!

The truth of the matter is that I do love working for this company on many levels. I love the flexibility, I love the environment, I love my immediate team and the development team, I love the pay, I love the location, I love that I can work from home, I love the perks like discounts all over the city, I love the benefits... there are so many great reasons to work here. So I'll continue to monitor the available jobs here, and until the ideal one for me shows up, I'm going to shut up, smile, and focus on the great things about my job instead of getting worked up about the small amount of negative shit.

I am going to ROLL WITH IT!

And as I was writing this, I realized that I don't need to wait until January 1st to implement my "Get Happy" plan. I can start NOW!

Wee Man and Me

The weekend was interesting for both Brian and Me. Brian spent two days in College Station racing his car around the Texas World Speedway. This is the second time he's done it and he came home very excited at his improvement over the last time. His instructor drove the exact same car as him, and was very impressed with Brian's skills.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... Trent and I spent the weekend together, just the two of us, peppered with appearances from Aunt Barbie and Uncle Scotty. On Saturday morning he got up around 6am and didn't want to sleep anymore, so we went and played in his room for an hour. We got through all the flash cards that Aunt Renee has given him. They're really cool. Each one has a letter of the alphabet, and on the flip side an animal that begins with that letter. On each one I gave Trent a little bit of information on the animal, such as whether it's a mammal, reptile, amphibian, insect, or bird, and where that animal comes from, and any other relevant bits of trivia I could remember. It turns out I know quite a lot about animals :-). Next we had story time. A pop-up book of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit. I love Beatrix Potter stories. Then we tossed the plush soccer ball around for a bit.
On Saturday afternoon we went to Kohl's and met Aunt Barbie. I bought Trent two cute outfits for school, then we went to Costco to pick up some necessities. After Costco, Trent and I took a 2 hour nap in front of the telly, then when we woke up we went over to Aunt Barbie's house where she made us a delicious pork roast and mashed potato dinner, and Uncle Scotty hung out with Trent.
On Sunday Trent woke up around 7am and we played in his room again. We did flash cards again. There are a couple of animals I need to look up so that I can give him accurate information. Narwahl and Quetzel. We watched some Sunday morning TV, and later on did some shopping. Then we hung out until Brian got home around 8 that evening. While I enjoyed spending quality time with Trent, it was nice to have Brian home.

Fluke

Whatever it was that caused Trent to sleep for 10 hours on Monday was obviously NOT the solid food. Now I'm beginning to think he was a bit under the weather from the immunizations. The reason I think this is because for the past 2 nights he's been waking up every few hours and has been inconsolable. I try not to feed him at night if I can get away with it because I want him to sleep through the night, and he seems to eat out of habit rather than need at this point. But the last 2 nights I had to. That is if I wanted to get any sleep for myself.

To make matters worse, I've come down with some awful cold/flu. It's completely knocked me on my arse. I haven't worked out at all this week. Usually I just power through it and go for my usual runs. I've always felt that running helps flush out all the crap, but this past week I've been all week and achey to even try. Wednesday seemed to be the worst day. I feel marginally better today. It seems whatever I have might have passed on to Brian. He's been complaining of a sore throat today, which is how mine started. Speaking of which, when this thing started, it wasn't a traditional kind of sore throat, you know the one where it's kind of scratchy and sore... it felt more like someone was trying to strangle me. What an awful feeling. I kept putting my hands to my throat to try and loosen something that wasn't there.

The good news is that Trent doesn't seem to be sick. No fever and no evidence of a sore throat, though he does have a snuffly nose. And speaking of snuffly noses, because babies breathe through their noses, and because they can't blow their noses, you have to do it for them. It's gross! I have such a huge problem with snot and bogies. To the point where I almost throw up at the mere mention. Imagine my horror when I had to use a bulb syringe to suck snot out of my kid's nose! Oh. My. God! seriously. Worst thing ever.

4 month checkup and adventures with solid foods

Yesterday Trent went to the doctor for his 4 month checkup and immunizations. He's hitting all the developmental milestones as appropriate and is in the 25th percentile for height and weight. It's funny because people ask me all the time how old he is, and I say 4 months, and they say what a big boy he is... apparently he's not that big. It must be just something people say, like an automatic response. Kind of like how people always tell you your baby is cute, even if it's not ;-).
Trent was such a brave boy when he had his shots. He only cried for about 20 seconds and then cuddled into my hair and was fine. It's really hard to see your kid cry because of pain. I'm glad it was so brief.
The doctor advised us to start Trent on solid foods now. While there is evidence that waiting to introduce solids will help ensure he doesn't get food allergies, there are no food allergies in either my or Brian's family so the chances are very slim that Trent will be allergic to anything. We're starting with single grain Rice Cereal to minimize any risk of allergies.
The first feeding went surprisingly well. We waited until the last meal of the day, which was right after his bath when he was nice and relaxed. He took to it right away. Never spit it back out and seemed very eager to eat more. After he finished the tiny portion we made for him, we gave him his usual late night feeding and put him to bed.
Trent woke up at 7:30 this morning. That's 10 straight hours of sleeping for him! Imagine my surprise when I woke up and it was light outside and I hadn't gotten up in the night to feed him! This was my first full 8 hours of sleep in many, many months.
A side observation: Trent's colic seems to have subsided quite a bit. He's much easier to handle these days and a week or so ago Brian and I celebrated making it through the rough early months. We feel like we've survived and learned a lot, and can now see the light at the end of what was sometimes a very dark and scary tunnel, dotted with brilliant rays of sunshine along the way.

Trent's 1st BBQ

This weekend, Trent threw his very own Barbecue for all those people who hadn't yet met him, and of course the regulars in his life. For the first time ever, we opened up our house to children and dogs as well. It turned out to be a very fun evening. The dogs were all very well behaved and played so nicely together in the back yard, as did the kids, who spent most of their time running around outside and jumping on the trampoline.
Trent seemed to have a great evening. He hung out with all his favourite aunts and several new people throughout the evening, only briefly hanging out with his mummy while he fussed a little. And at 8:30, right on schedule, he got his bath, boobie, and put to bed. The girls all hung out upstairs with me while I fed him, then Aunt Jen rocked him to sleep.
After most of our guests left we hung out with those who stayed behind and I played superheroes on the trampoline with Ethan and Brian (Lee) while everyone chilled in the back yard and chatted. Eventually we wore Ethan out and he passed out on my lap and cuddled with me, which we haven't done in ages.
Sadly, I didn't take many pictures. I guess cause I was too busy having fun.

BFF

As is the tradition, Barbie and I left the men at home in order to have a cultural evening at the Theatre. Our play of choice: "Tuna does Las Vegas". It was pretty good, but not as funny as previous ones, though the two guys who play all the characters are really good actors. When we arrived at the theatre and found our seats, we were amused to find that we were in a section all by ourselves. We looked over to our right and the section next to us was pretty full. It kind of looked like it was on purpose. Like we've been black-listed at the theatre. Like they knew that we'd spend the entire play belching and farting. And of course, not ones to disappoint, that's exactly what we did ;-) It's funny how juvenile we still are, even in our 30's. It's also funny that Barbie and I found each other, because nobody else thinks our bodily functions are amusing, but we get so much mileage out of it. If I believed in a higher power, I'd say we were thrown together as best friends purely so that we could have someone else in our lives that made each of us not seem so damn weird, gross, and plain childish. But of course, I don't believe in a higher power, so a more sensible explanation is that we became best friends because of these things.
This year, Barbie and I are celebrating our 15 year anniversary. Over the past 15 years we've fought and bickered on occasion, and disagreed, but we always know that no matter what, we'll always be friends, we'll always get over it, move on, laugh about it in a few hours. You can't put a price on that kind of friendship. I don't even have that kind of relationship with my own sisters, as evidenced by the fact that we haven't spoken in over a year.

So the point of this post is to let the world know how much I appreciate my BFF, Biker Barb. My partner in crime, my confidant, my enabler of childish behavior, the one who laughs at all of my jokes, the one who truly knows the real me, not just the persona that I let the rest of the world see. How truly lucky I am to have her as a permanent fixture in my life.

Galactagogue

It's a funny word, Galactagogue. Probably a word most people have never heard of. Only dairy farmers and breastfeeding mothers most likely know what it is.

galactagogue

noun

agent that induces milk secretion

Producing food for another person with your own body is no small task. And I've never given it much thought. But being in this situation I've made some interesting observations:

1. I'm very tired by the end of the day. This could be partially due to waking up in the night to feed Trent, but Brian spends about the same amount of time awake as me and doesn't seem to be plagued with passing out on the couch.
   
2. Taking Fenugreek (my galactagogue of choice) makes me and Trent smell like a Indian food and maple syrup. There are worse things to smell like.
   
3. There is a definite increase in production after 24 hours of taking Fenugreek, 2 caplets 3 times a day.
   
4. Supply wanes so easily if you are not religious about pumping on schedule when you're away from your baby. Even with the Fenugreek.
   

We're almost to the 4 month point. Our pediatrician would like to start Trent on solid food at 4 months because of his acid reflux. I have mixed feelings about this because I've read several articles that state that food allergies are associated with early introduction of solid foods, and very good evidence and explanation to support it. On the other hand, I want to do what's best for Trent's comfort, and of course, it would be nice to not have him throwing up every day. Of course, breast feeding wouldn't stop completely. The solid food would just be a supplement to that, but it would ease my burden of producing so much. So as appealing as it is to start him early, I need to make sure that it's the right thing for him and not the most convenient thing for me. Is it really that big a deal for me to go 2 more months chained to my pump??

I guess I'll talk to our pediatrician about these concerns before making a decision.

---

Baby steps...

yesterday I took the day off to hang out with the two loves of my life :-) Trent and I spent time on his activity gym gazing up at all the dangling toys and feeling all the different textures. Trent discovered cause and effect yesterday with a little help from mummy. I took his feet and kicked a toy to make the bell inside tinkle. We did this for about 5 minutes then moved on to something else. Later, when Trent was playing by himself, he very deliberately kicked the tinkle toy and giggled when it made a sound!

4 months ago if someone had told me I'd be excited about something seemingly so small I'd have been like "whatever". But it just made my whole day to see him developing right before my eyes.

Since we were both taking the day off, we had lunch at a new place over by the mall called Spicy Pickle. It was delicious. Then we bought Trent some new socks because he's already outgrown the ones I just bought him only 2 weeks ago. Speaking of outgrowing things, I've had to retire quite a few of his cute little outfits that my mum sent. He's already too big for them. It's a little bit heart breaking that he's growing up so quickly. This sentiment has caught me completely by surprise. It's funny how Trent is teaching me so much about myself and he doesn't even know it.
We finally have some cool weather here so Later on, Brian and I put Trent in some fleece PJs to keep him warm and went for a run in our neighbourhood. Then the three of us spent some time cuddling on the couch, Trent napping, while we caught up on all the stuff we recorded on our DVR.

I think Brian and I have enough vacation time to take every Monday off for the rest of the year. I think we might just do that. We had such a nice day :-)

That hubby of mine

I can't believe I forgot to mention Brian's little "accident" last weekend. He went to soccer. I can't remember what day it was, but Barbie and I were hanging out with Trent when Bri returned from his game, and he opened the door and said "ok... when you see me don't say"OH MY GOD!". Then he came in. I looked at him and couldn't really see a reason why I would say that, until he turned his head to the left and I saw a HUGE egg on the right side of his forehead! to which I said "OH MY GOD!" (exactly what he told me not to say). He had gone in for a header during the game and his head connected with another player's head who was also going for the ball. I wonder what the other guy looked like. After he iced it the swelling went down and after a week it's turned into a nice yellow/green bruise. Thankfully he didn't have a concussion.

Yesterday (Sunday) Brian went to an autocross, something he hopes to do more often because he just loves it. As I understand it, it's a bunch of car enthusiasts that get together and set up a track with cones in a large parking lot, then do timed laps. There are several divisions such as stock, street, etc. Brian came in third in his division and has won his first car racing trophy! He's extremely happy with the results and thinks that he can do better. You can see the results here: https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/files/SPOKES/2007e11driveway_fin.htm

Thanks to a specialized camera mount, he set up a video camera in his car to record his laps so that he can see where he can make improvements. His next racing experience will be in mid-November when he and Nick will go to the Texas Motor Speedway. I'm looking forward to taking Trent to see his daddy race when he gets a little older.

Wellness check

Our company does a great job of providing us with the tools to live a healthy life. We have great insurance, even free insurance if you're willing to pay a little more out of pocket for your actual visits. They give us incentives to exercise by giving us money if we complete 6 weeks of physical activity, they give us money to quit smoking, or if you simply certify that you do not smoke. And every year, possibly twice a year, they bring in a bunch of medical people to the site cafeterias to take our blood pressure, measure our body fat, check our bone density, cholesterol, and blood sugar, coach us on what the results mean, and even give us a stress relieving chair massage. Who wouldn't want to work for this company?
Some days I'm really down on my job. I love my immediate team, and my development team is awesome, but I just hate all the extra bullshit that we have to do. Frequently these days I think about looking for a new job, possibly with another company, but when I weigh all the things this company does for us, in addition to very competitive pay, I realize just how good I really have it. I guess I can put up with a little bullshit if it means I get to live the way I want to when I'm not working. And besides, there's bullshit in every job... I know... it sounds like I'm trying to convince myself. Maybe I am. Whatever.
Anyway, at my wellness check, I discovered that my usually low blood pressure was rather high. High enough to be of concern. My good cholesterol was great, but the total cholesterol was way too high. High enough to be a risk factor. High enough that the wellness counselor told me to add more fiber to my diet. I checked my results from 3 years ago and discovered that my cholesterol has crept up by over 70 points! WTF?? So what's changed between then and now? I developed a sweet tooth during pregnancy... I'm sure the crap I eat is partially to blame. I also don't eat as much fish and vegetables as I'd like, so I'm sure that as some part in this. The good things I found out was that I have less body fat now than I did 3 years ago, though I weighed 2 lbs less back then. So obviously I've added some lean mass and given up some fat. The way my clothes fit confirms this, also. So it's not all bad. The blood pressure, well, I think the results are a little skewed because I had just mauled that huge breast pump bag from the south parking garage to my office along with my laptop bag and purse. I feel like a pack mule when I go into the office these days and it stresses me out. In addition to that, I'm having a hard time keeping up with the demands of breast feeding. That's stressing me out.
So what does all this mean? well, I need to take measures to correct the negatives, and use the positives as encouragement to not give up. So I'm going to add more vegetables to my diet, increase my fiber intake, and drink more water. That should help with the cholesterol. I'm not sure what to do about the stress. Deep breathing doesn't seem to do it. I exercise a lot so I can't add anything there. Massage? what I think I really need is the wisdom to know when to say "I've done my best" and just let go of something. I also need to learn to not handle my stress internally. I need to let it out. Explode. Get mad. I don't do that. I just deal.
So I guess even the negatives have a positive side... it's opened my eyes to a few minor adjustments I need to make.

Weekend Update and Baby Schedule

We had a great weekend hanging out with friends. We hosted a somewhat impromptu barbecue on Saturday evening. I made chicken and beef kebabs with Jamaican Jerk seasoning, and invented a new fried rice with only the ingredients Brian likes, which included pineapple, fresh ginger, and bamboo shoots. The recipe is, of course, a secret ;-). Everyone brought something to contribute, and Tiff made a yummy carrot cake for dessert to round it all out.

Incidentally, Saturday (Oct. 13th) also marked another important date... The date that Trent came into being as an embryo. Of course, we didn't know it yet this time last year. I still remember our "Oh shit!" moment when I took the test in early November. Of course, by this time we kind of suspected because I'd been nauseous for the tail-end of our honeymoon, so this was just confirmation.

We've been working on getting Trent settled into a new routine. It's been a little tough here and there, but we think it's starting to pay off. I got the info from the book "On Becoming Baby Wise". We have him on a relative feeding schedule now, which means we don't do the on-demand feeding, but rather we have him eat when we say so. Sometimes he gets hungry a little early and of course I feed him, and other times he doesn't want to eat, which is why it's a relative schedule, rather than a rigid one. On this new schedule, his bath time is between 8 and 8:30, and he eats and goes to bed right after his bath. Which gives Brian and I our entire evening back! We love it!
Last night he slept through the night... somewhat. We woke him up for his final feeding at midnight, and he did wake up and cry a few times in the night, seemed like every two hours or so, but we didn't feed him... Brian went in and comforted him so that he'd go back to sleep, and he made it to almost 7am without feeding! that's almost 7 hours of sleep for me. Granted it was interrupted sleep, but I tend to wake up a lot anyway, so it sort of counts as a full night's sleep for me.
Poor Brian was pretty beat this morning, though. He was the one hiking to the nursery every few hours. After Trent's 7am feeding, I snuggled with him for another hour and then took him downstairs so Brian could get some more sleep. I just couldn't resist cuddling with him this morning. He's just so happy in the mornings and looks so damn cute in his PJs that I just can't stand it!

Today was picture day at daycare. Can't wait to see them.

Horsing around

Yesterday I went out to Manor with Dana and her daughter, Meg, to take some pictures of Meg with her horse, Luca. Having been kicked by a horse once, I was a little bit intimidated when Dana's other horse, Van Helsing, came right up to me and gave me a friendly nudge. But you can't show fear. They can sense it! So I just looked him square in the eye, put my hand out, and pet him on the nose. Not so bad. He's a young horse, not ready for riding yet, but he's sooooo pretty. Here's a picture of him:
http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/Horses/photo#5120455069632342082


Meg rode Luca all around one of the practice fields and jumped him over all of the jumps. I was so impressed, especially when they put me on Luca for a ride and I realized how big he is, and how unstable you feel up there at first.

Here's a pic of me on Luca:
http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/Horses/photo#5120455095402145874

Dana and Meg are totally fearless around the horses. I suppose that comes with being around them all the time. I just made sure not to get to near to their back legs. It made for some great photo opportunities with my Nikon. You can see more pics here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/keylimeypie/Horses

Grusome!

Two old ladies were sitting in a bar having a few drinks when a Scottsman walked in wearing a kilt. Having had several totties the ladies were feeling rather bold. One said to the other "I dare you to ask him what's under his kilt". Never one to back down from a dare, the old lady marched up to the Scottsman and said "my friend dared me to come and ask you what's under your kilt". The Scottsman replied "och, lassie, I'd show ye, but are ye sure ye can handle it?". To which she replied "Young man, I'm old, I've seen some things in my time. Nothing surprises me anymore". So the Scottsman said, "I'll tell ye what... you bring your friend over here and I'll show ye!".

The two ladies gathered around the Scottsman and he lifted up his kilt to show them what was underneath.

"oooooh! look at that!" said one of them.... "It's grusome!"

To which the Scottsmand replied..............


"Look again, lassie.... It's gru-some more!"


LMAO!!!

Ass and Abs

So as most people know, breastfeeding = faster pregnancy weight loss. It's probably the one redeeming quality about it. Sure there's the "bonding" with the baby, but let me assure everyone, I would have bonded just fine without having to whip out my tits every couple of hours. Anyway, back on track... after the initial 30 pounds or so in 2 weeks I've been slowly losing weight. Nothing aggressive, not even noticeable, right. Maybe 1/2 lb a week if that. However, a couple of days ago I realized that my arse is turning into a back-crack. Oh I can hear you all now - "Poor Mandie, her ass is shrinking, booo-frikin'-hooo". But it IS a problem. All my favourite jeans and trousers don't look good. Where I used to look like "one of those rap guy's girlfriends", I now look like one of those rap guys. you know the ones, with the trouser crotch that hangs to their knees and the undies popping out the top? it's unflattering to say the least.
Some people might think that the solution is to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. And wouldn't that be nice? but I'm a new mother. Firstly, I don't have the time to shop for a new wardrobe, and secondly, I have over 30 pairs of jeans and trousers that are super cute!

So yesterday I started working on the solution. An ass and abs workout at the gym. When you work out muscles, they get firmer/bigger, right? so that logic dictates that all I need to do is work out my ass and it'll fill up the back of my trousers. I did lunges with weights, squats with weights, and some leg extensions (I think that's what they are) when you push a weight straight backward behind you and extend your leg. I threw in my usual set of ab work to the mix, too. Then I did 20 minutes on the stair stepper at level 10 and sweat like crazy. I left the gym hot, sweaty, but feeling really good.

Today I am NOT SO GOOD. Today I am walking like I have the world's largest hemorrhoid, and don't even get me started on going DOWN the stairs. OUCH! Why can't your body tell you DURING your workout that you're doing too much and should perhaps take it a little easier?

Anyway, needless to say I might have to rethink the ass and abs workout and try a gentler approach, or maybe after the pain goes away, and I do it again it won't hurt so much?

In other exercising news, Andi and I are going to start training for a half marathon. We're not sure which one we'll do yet, but we need a goal to motivate us back into our regular running routine, so this is it. 13.1 miles and not a step more. Imagine my shock when Barbie committed to joining us on our first training run on Sunday morning! not that's she's committing to a half marathon, mind you... let's just see where this goes ;-)

Breakfast in bed

Just a quick brag on my hubby. Yesterday he took Trent downstairs so I could get some more sleep, which isn't unusual, we do this for each other in the mornings depending on who is more tired looking ;-). This weekend, though, Brian not only baked us cornbread muffins for breakfast on Saturday, he also served them to me, along with a nice cup of English tea, in bed on Sunday :-)

Brian's on track to receive a #1 dad, and world's best hubby mug in the near future. hehe.

Ladies' night

What a fun night! Brian and Trent had a boys' night in while the girls and I unleashed ourselves on downtown Austin. We started off the evening at Donn's Depot, our usual starting point, where we ran into our friend and cantankerous old fart, George. I hadn't seen George in over a year so it was a real treat to see him. Next we headed to Cuba Libre for some Mojitos and appetizers and discussed our next move. We were almost convinced to go to the Yellow Rose, but we thought we'd save it for another night when Barbie could hook us up with free admission. Next we took a pedicab (which is one of those chariots attached to a bicycle). We squeezed all four of us into one and heckled the drivers as we went from the Warehouse District over to 6th street where we visited the Ivory Cat. Kenny and Matt were playing and Andi and I shook our asses on the bleachers to some Bon Jovi, which interestingly, sounds pretty good played on a piano.
Next we walked down 6th and popped into some weird bar just off of 6th and San Jacinto and it turns out we knew the bass player in the band there. Somehow we got free drinks, I think the doorman hooked us up, but they were not very good, and we soon left. We took a spin through BD Riley's and then took a stroll eastward on 6th to see if anything grabbed our attention. We eventually ended up at Coyote Ugly, where Barbie dared me and Andi to dance on the bar. Never to turn down a dare we picked out a song and up we got. It's good to get this stuff out of your system every once in a while. We ended our evening Back at Donn's Depot, of course, no evening would be complete without some T and A, so we hollered out of the car at Brian Lee who was playing at Mother Egan's. Sadly he missed the show ;-). Murphy's Inlaws were playing at Donn's. Fortunately, we arrived right when they went on break so we got some good hugs and a quick chat in with them. I hadn't seen the Inlaws since before I was pregnant so we had some catching up to do! And finally, the cherry on top of the cake... Casey Yager! What an awesome night.
On a slightly mushy note, I just wanna say I absolutely love you girls and can't imagine my life without you. You're truly better than sisters to me (though that isn't hard given the competition ;-)).

Look alike?

There are very few pictures of me from when I was a baby. Most likely my father kept them all when he and mum split up when I was 3, and now that he's gone, nobody knows where they went. Below is one of the surviving pictures of me, I was around 4 or 5 years old, I'd guess, because it's a school photo. I see so much of Brian in Trent, but I also see so much of me, too. Take a look at the pictures below and judge for yourself:

3 months of parenthood in review

Trent will be 3 months old next week. In some respects, time seems to have flown by. But it also seems like a lifetime ago that Brian and I had a "normal" life. A time when we could go out whenever we wanted and wherever, were bound by nobody's schedule but our own. When we could start a home improvement project together and finish it in one weekend. When we could drop everything and take a weekend trip. When I could eat whatever I want. That last one sounds weird, right? you'd think that having had the baby, no longer responsible for creating life, no longer affecting another human being with every bite of food, would free me of the massive responsibility of eating the right things and avoiding potentially harmful things. But that would be wrong. It's been 2 months since I've had ice cream, cheese, milk, and tomato-based foods. At first it was difficult because it seemed that everything we ate for dinner on a regular basis contained either dairy or tomato products. I've had to learn a whole new repertoire of cooking to accommodate this shift. 2 months in, and I've adjusted. I have rice milk on my cereal, and I actually prefer it to regular milk. I've discovered Tofutti, which is a tofu-based frozen dessert with a similar texture to ice cream, and Rice Dream, another frozen ice cream type dessert. Both are exellent substitutes, but obviously the variety is rather lacking. I've created new, dairy and tomato free dishes, such as lemon chicken with capers over angel hair, ginger chicken over jasmine rice, and rosemary/thyme pork chops with garlic buttered noodles. These have become regular favorites in our household now.

I think back to a time when I used to have a sleeping disorder. Where I'd spend hours at night frustrated and staring at the ceiling fan wishing for sleep. I think the sleeping disorder has actually helped me to survive these early months of parenthood because I was used to functioning on 5 hours of sleep. Since having Trent my sleeping disorder seems to have disappeared and has been replaced by a different type of "problem". Now, rather than lying awake fidgeting and enduring the random movements of my legs, I pass out at night, completely exhausted, and my mummy senses are acutely tuned in to the baby monitor on my night stand. At the slightest whimper I am yanked out of a deep REM cycle and into complete wakefulness as either I or Brian head to the nursery to retrieve our little bundle of love. This happens between 2 and 5 times a night.

Our Friday happy hours with friends have been replaced with an occasional glass of wine sipped very slowly over a 2 hour period so as to not cause Trent any adverse affects from alcohol. And instead of going out to bars, we invite our friends to come hang out at our house for dinner and a movie. It's not all bad, though. We enjoy our time spent with friends and we love how all of our friends have welcomed Trent into their lives and genuinely want to be around him.

Home improvement projects are now lone endeavors as one of us has to hang out with Trent while the other gets the job done. Over the past 2 weekends I've redecorated our master bathroom. Stripping off wallpaper, texturizing the walls, and painting it a delicious shade of blue with chocolate accessories. Meanwhile Brian has spent the past 2 weekends hanging out with The Kid, and was visibly frazzled by Sunday evening.

What used to be a fairly regular work out schedule for me has been replaced by a work out when you can schedule. If time permits, and Trent is calm, I can go for a run with the jogging stroller, or go to the gym and put him in the kids' room there for an hour. My favourite times are when Brian and I go for a run together with Trent. We run and talk about our day, our situation, our hopes for the future, our parenting philosophies, our plans for future vacations, and have fun hypothesizing about what Trent will do when he grows up.

Shopping trips where I would spend hours perusing the stores for cute outfits for me have turned into shorter trips where I spend most of my time looking at cute little outfits for Trent. I no longer get excited about shoes. The needs of my own feet have taken a back seat to the needs of my little man. I get excited when I get a Carters coupon in the mail rather than one from DSW.

Taking a shower, drying my hair, and putting on make-up, once taken for granted, are now luxuries. There used to be a time when I wouldn't dream of leaving the house without drying my hair. Now I leave the house without even looking in the mirror. I now understand why women get the "mommy hair cut". 2 reasons: it needs to be wash and wear because a morning shower isn't always possible. It might be 10 pm by the time you shower, and what's the point of doing your hair then?? ; it needs to be either short, or long enough to tie up because little fingers don't care that your hair is attached to your head, and they will grab on to it and hold on like their life depended on it.

One of the more fundamental changes that I've seen in myself recently, is that my aversion to children, while still there, isn't as strong. I noticed this yesterday when I dropped Trent off at the kids' room at my gym. A little girl came over as I was unstrapping Trent from his car seat. Ordinarily, I would have tried to ignore her, or had minimal contact. Yesterday I actually held a conversation with this 4 year old girl, showed her what to do if Trent cries, and trusted her to sit next to him. This might seem rather insignificant to anyone who doesn't know me. But those of you who do know me must realize that this is quite monumental. I actually took the time to talk to a child, and I smiled while doing so. I know this could be cause for concern from some people. I imagine Barbie is calling the FBI as we speak and reporting an alien abduction, and who could blame her, given my past history as kid-hater.

And finally, the thing I'm really enjoying, and I guess this isn't really about motherhood, but it's somewhat related. Body image. I have a whole new respect for it now. I no longer look in the mirror and see that little poochy tummy that just won't go away, or feel the fat roll lapping over the top of my jeans in the car. Sure those things might be still there, but now what I see is a body that's taken some major trauma and survived. A body that went from reasonably sized to the size of a small planet, and then back to normal again with no visible signs of wear and tear, except for a dark pink scar that is fading by the day. That not only amazes me, but makes me feel incredibly lucky because most women don't fare so well. Even my dolphin tattoo that I jokingly referred to as an anaconda because it got so stretched out during pregnancy, has gone back to normal. My belly ring looks exactly as it did before. And I've even lost a few extra pounds, mostly in the rear, which is never a bad thing.

So in all, there have been some surface changes, such as how we socialize now, and how we sleep, but most importantly, fundamental shifts in thinking. And in case you're wondering if I'd do this all over again... not on your life, mate. Ask me again in a few years when I've forgotten what a royal pain in the ass he is ;-)

Home improvement and weekend fun

This weekend was packed full of fun, hard work, and a little drama. On the fun side, Trent got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa. They popped up from Houston for an overnight visit. Brian and Gramps went out to Pluckers to watch the second half of the game while Gramma stayed home and watched Trent. And I set about stripping wallpaper from our ugly master bathroom. It was covered in hunter green faux marble wallpaper. Seriously, who's bright idea is it to put walpaper in the most damp room in the house? Not only is this wallpaper ugly, but it's also starting to peel on the edges. I had started to peel off the paper the previous weekend and was able to finish it off. It's a labour-intensive task but I hope the results will be worth it.

That evening Trent hung out with his grandparents while Brian and I went to dinner with friends, followed by drinks and Karaoke at The Water Tank. It's funny how much you appreciate a few hours of freedom from being parents. Though we do miss the little guy when we're away from him.

On Sunday, Barbie and Scott came over for a visit and while they were here we discovered that our ceiling in the upstairs game room was leaking water! ACK! Not only was it leaking, but it was leaking right onto an expensive piece of equipment! Fortunately it had only just happened and we were able to move everything before it got damaged. Then Brian and I spent most of Sunday trying to get the home warranty people to send someone out urgently. We played the "I have a newborn in the house" card, which, incidentally, comes in really handy and you get upgraded from regular service to urgent :-). Sadly, though, even their "urgent" status left us waiting until today for someone to come out. The problem was with our A/C unit in the attic. We have 2 units, one for upstairs and one for downstairs, both located in our attic. It turns out the one for upstairs had a clogged drain and it was causing it to leak onto our ceiling. We weren't able to run the A/C last night so it got a bit toasty. We had to close off all the vents in the house, close all the blinds to keep the sun from heating up our rooms, and Trent had to sleep in our room last night because it was the coolest room in the house.

Today a nice repairman from Shelton's Pride came over and fixed our problem for very little money (and it wasn't covered under our warranty after all). So we no longer have water dripping out of our ceiling, but we do have a damaged ceiling that we now need to figure out how to fix. Meanwhile, due to the drama of having our A/C out of commission for a day, I wasn't able to make much progress on my bathroom project.

My old friend, Town Lake

On Sunday morning I got up early (though every morning I get up early these days), and ran on Town Lake with Andrea. I was both dreading it and looking forward to it. Dreading it because I haven't really ran since late November last year, about the time that my boobs started to hurt too bad to actually run. (Though there was that time when I was 8 months pregnant that Barbie and I ran, but we mostly walked. I probably made it a whole mile that time.) And I figured that I'd lost my running mojo. Looking forward to it because I really miss my "girl time" with Andi. We have such great conversations during our runs and it's so therapeutic.
So we started out on the north side of the river under the Mopac bridge, and we did the 1st street bridge loop. We walked only once - across the 1st street bridge. That was our reward for kicking ass for almost 2 miles prior to reaching it.
The run was by no means easy. In fact, if Andi hadn't been there, I might have walked a whole lot more. Actually, scratch that. I probably wouldn't have made it down there in the first place. But it was enjoyable, and it felt great to push myself and know that I wasn't responsible for another life form. I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to make it all the way around. I think that's a 4 mile loop. I can't wait until Trent is old enough (and predictable enough) to go with me in his Jogger on town lake.
Now I'm thinking about training for a half marathon.

Flashback

Courtesy of Barbie, I was reminded of just how huge I got at the end of pregnancy. This is a picture of me about 2 weeks before Trent was born, taken at NXNW at a Cameron Road gig:


I can't quite believe it!

Return to sanity?

Tuesday was my first day back to work after 2 months of maternity leave. In England you get 9 months paid maternity leave. Here in the US, you get 6 weeks (if you're lucky) and 8 weeks if you had a c-section. I remember before Trent was born and I was contemplating my 6 weeks of leave. I thought I'd go crazy in the 6 weeks of not working, and perhaps be bored. I couldn't have been more wrong. People tried to tell me. But you can't quite grasp the intensity of having a new baby until it is upon you. During my 8 weeks off I barely checked in with my team and I barely checked e-mail. I mostly deleted the ones I knew wouldn't pertain to me, and ignored the rest that did pertain to me, but I have more important things to do.

A typical day was spent feeding Trent, burping him to make sure he didn't get painful gas later in the day, changing diapers, cuddling him, rocking him, trying to figure out why he's crying. Let me tell you, 8 weeks of that day in and day out will leave you actually looking forward to going back to work so you can have a break. I've been pushed to my absolute limit on patience, I've cried, I've thrown my hands up and said "I'm out!" and walked away leaving Brian to deal with him, I've sat up at 5am feeling guilty because I can't figure out why he's upset and lost my tempter with him, and now, after 8 weeks of being with him constantly, I miss the little bugger.

Trent went to daycare for the first time on Tuesday. We arrived around 9:45 and got him settled in with his teachers: Ms. Ashely, Ms. Carrye, and Ms. Michelle. You can tell they just adore him already. When I put Trent down next to Ms. Michelle, he busted out a massive smile and the girls practically fell over themselves to get the camera out! After we got him settled in, we left the daycare, and no, I did not cry. I guess people do, but I was actually relieved. I have absolute confidence in his team of teachers and I welcome the break. Brian and I had lunch together at Par's Deli that day, then headed to daycare to check on our little man. He had just started fussing when we got there so I rocked him to sleep and put him down in his crib. Then we stood and stared at him for 5 minutes while he slept, then we headed back to the office.

Getting back into the swing of things at work is a bit of a challenge. My head isn't where it needs to be, yet. Likely due to lack of sleep and the nagging feeling that all of this is unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Though what IS important is keeping the lifestyle that we have, so I must get my head back in the game. While I was gone my team got cut by 2 (contractors), leaving now only 3 people (including me) to do the work of 6. My remaining team mates did an amazing job of managing all our deliverables, though I know they didn't have an easy time of it. I chose the wrong time to leave (or the right time depending on who you ask). But now that's all behind us and we're focusing on our new deliverables.

At 5:15 Brian and I headed off to pick up our little man from daycare. When we got there he was passed out on Ms. Ashley's lap face down and looked so cute! I really missed him. They reported that he had a pretty good day, didn't cry much, napped really well, and smiled a lot. It sounds like he had a great day.

British Invasion

This past weekend was wonderful! My "adopted" family, Daz, Mel, and Louise came to visit us for a few days, then headed off to Disney World. What a lucky girl Louise is. This was Mel's (and Louise's) first time to come to America and after only one day, I have Mel convinced to move here. Their visit was packed full of fun and included quite a lot of retail therapy for me and Mel, and some much needed pool time. We hit some of Austin's best cuisine, which includes Papasitos for some Fajitas and awesome Margaritas, Salt Lick for some of the best BBQ you'll find anywhere, and The Oasis, but this one was primarily for the view, not the food, obviously. Now they're at Disney and I imagine Mel's realized her life long dream of swimming with the dolphins and Louise got to see Mickey Mouse.
I'm sad that their stay was so short, but the time we got to spend was wonderful. I'm exhausted, though. It's hard work having a 2 month old baby and trying to entertain guests.

Lost Highway

I am a huge Bon Jovi fan. Today I picked up their new album, Lost Highway. I love it! like there was ever any doubt. As I've mentioned before, I've not really gotten into country music, so I was a little apprehensive about this "Nashville inspired album" from BJ, but I'm really impressed. I really like the song with Leanne Rimes. I also picked up the remastered Bon Jovi album (from 1984!) to help round out my BJ collection. Trent seems to like Bon Jovi, also. He stopped crying when the CD started to play and just kinda kicked his legs to make his bouncy seat bounce. I also bought my very first country CD - Carrie Underwood. See?? who says a leopard can't change its spots?? What's funny is that Brian loves country, but he does not like Carrie's song "Before he cheats" which is the reason why I bought the album. Go figure! Maybe he'll like the rest of the album. And on another music related note, who would believe that Brian has never heard of Tesla?? WTF? I'm gonna slip "Bust a nut" into his car CD player while he's not looking.

I'm syncing them to my iPod so I can rock out at the gym :-)

In other news, only a few more days till Daz, Mel, and Louise get here for a quick weekend visit from England. Daz and I have been best mates for almost 25 years, and with the addition of Mel it's like having a brother and sister.

OUCH!

I've thrown my back out! :-(
It was stupid. I was wrestling Trent's car seat into the car and I kind of felt a sharp pain in my lower back. I just ignored it, which was STUPID, and when I got home I did a work out on the trampoline, which is completely idiotic when you just hurt your back, but you know how when you get whiplash you don't feel it until the next day? well I didn't really feel bad and my work out was fine... but about 5 hours later I could barely move, and then the next day (Thursday) I could barely walk!
Imagine having to take care of a baby when you can't walk and you can't pick him up because it causes you to almost pass out with pain! Thankfully, I have some good meds left over from my surgery.
I've been putting a heat pack on it, sitting in my massaging chair, and taking it easy for the last 2 days. Brian has taken time off from work to help me out with Trent, which is fortunate because if he weren't able to, the kid would likely starve.
Today (Friday) it feels marginally better, but I still can't get around too well. Hopefully it will get better by tomorrow so I can enjoy my evening down town.

Weekend review

This weekend was pretty fun. On Thursday evening, Erin gathered a group to go listen to Andi and Brian at NXNW. Trent was the perfect little baby, he wasn't phased by the loud music at all, and was so content to be passed around the group and cuddled by all his honorary aunts and uncles.

Trent and I went to the outlet mall in Round Rock on Friday, and he was so good. He endured 2 hours of me trying on clothes, though I only bought 2 tank tops from Banana Republic because it's hard to predict what my body is going to do over the next several months. Plus, now that I'm back to normal size it's like I just went shopping and bought a whole new wardrobe! I bought Trent a couple of cute outfits too. Friday evening we went to Mama Fu's to see Brian play. About an hour in, he started to fuss so we headed home.

On Saturday evening, Brian stayed home with Trent while I went to Mike's 40th birthday party. It was a backyard bbq at his parents' house, and we had so much fun. I saw a bunch of old friends from a previous lifetime. Many of them I had not seen in almost 10 years! It was so great to catch up with everyone.

On Sunday, Trent and I went to the mall. I had intended to take advantage of tax free shopping weekend and buy myself some clothes, and I found the perfect pair of shorts for me, but sadly, I didn't buy them because, again, I'm not sure what size I'm going to end up. The shorts I bought only 2 weeks ago are already falling off me.

I spent some time working out on our trampolene yesterday. Surprisingly, trampolining is really great exercise. Brian helped me come up with some new moves to work different muscle groups, and I also incorporated some kung fu moves into my trampolene work out. I am certain these moves will help me with balance and speed so that when I do return to my Kung Fu classes, I won't be too far out of shape.

Today, Monday, I took Trent to the gym with me and put him in the kids room while I worked out. It was hard to leave him with a complete stranger, and I felt a little over protective when all the other kids in the room immediately ran over to check him out. I wanted to say "DON'T TOUCH HIM!" to all the kids, but instead I just bit my tongue, took a deep breath, and walked away. I can't shield him from germs and other kids forever, so this was a big step for me. Only 2 more weeks until he goes to daycare. I am sure I'm going to be a complete mess when I drop him off and leave him for the first time.

Clean bill of health & the stretch mark fairy

Not that I had any doubts, but it's nice to hear from the doctor that you're medically cleared to resume all pre-pregnancy/birth activities. All of the hard work that I put into keeping my body in shape during pregnancy have really paid off. Today I weigh the same as I did before I got pregnant! Only 6 weeks after giving birth and a gain of 38lbs. Today also marks my return to my work out routine (YAY!).

I went to the gym this morning and did a 10 minute warm up on the cross trainer, followed by a chest/arms/abs weight work out, and then 20 more minutes on the cross trainer. I did notice a slight decrease in my cardiovascular ability, and also a slight loss of strength, which is expected given that it's been 8 weeks since I worked out. It's funny to think that I was in better shape when I was hugely pregnant than I am now. But I am certain that in a couple of weeks I will have regained my former fitness level. The ab work out was interesting. I have lost the most strength there. Not surprisingly since my abdomen has been stretched to the max over the past 10 months, then endured major surgery, but it wasn't as bad as I was anticipating.

I am absolutely convinced that my pregnancy workout routine is largely responsible for the fast return to "normal". I'm also happy to report that I do not have even one stretch mark! The Stretch Mark Fairy might have tried to find me, but I foiled her by moving house! HA! take that! Actually, I attribute the lack of stretch marks to drinking plenty of water during pregnancy, and genetics.

Anyway, all of this is very good for my state of mind. I feel great. One of my big fears was not returning back to normal, and also losing myself and becoming only "Trent's mum", but I feel just like I did before, only now I have one more person to love.

Trent's Road Trip

This weekend we took Trent to Houston to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa. This was his first road trip. We set off around 11am, right after we fed and calmed Trent down. He was a complete angel most of the way there, only crying for about 2 minutes 15 minutes away from our destination.
Grandma and Grandpa were very happy to see us, and especially Trent. Grandpa had spent many hours cleaning up Brian's old crib so that Trent would have a place to sleep at their house and it looked awesome. He'd also been to Babies R Us and picked up a few toys for Trent, as well as a hairbrush. The hairbrush amused me to no end because Grandpa kept trying to get Trent's spikes to lay down, which seemed to be an exercise in futility - though he did give him an awesome comb-over!
While we were in Houston, Grandma and Grandpa spent time with Trent while Brian and I went out for a lovely Italian dinner, complete with wine (which I've missed so much) and my favourite Italian dessert, Tiramisu. mmmmmm!
On Sunday, Brian and I got to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which I'd been dying to see, while Grandma and Grandpa watched Trent again. He was such a good baby all weekend. Very minimal amounts of crying, it seems that his medication is really helping him to feel better.
On the way home, he fussed about half way home, so I sat in the back seat with him and fed him a bottle while Brian drove, which seemed to be very successful.
All in all, we were very proud of Trent's behaviour on the trip and couldn't have asked for a better first road trip with him.

A big thank you to the Grandparents for giving us a few hours of freedom!

Colic and frayed nerves

Over the past couple of weeks, my patience has been tested to its outermost limits. There's an ambiguous condition referred to as Colic -- unexplained bouts of crying that seem to last forever and render the baby inconsolable -- this "condition" affects one in 5 babies. I guess I can't live a charmed life forever. Trent is the one in five, it seems. During the day he has mild bouts of crying but is usually consolable, but around 4pm and usually until around 8pm, he just can't be pacified. I've researched all over the Web for information on how to cope with a colicky baby. Many experts recommend that you eliminate any possible physical reasons for the baby to cry, then put him down in his crib and just let him cry. Sounds reasonable, right? but it's harder than you think! Your instinct is to try to fix the problem when your little one is crying. To employ this method goes against all of my motherly instincts. Oh stop gasping! yes, I have motherly instincts as evidenced by my extremely spoiled, yet extremely obedient cats.
Anyway, after discussing Trent's symptoms with the doctor, she prescribed an antispasmodic drug called Levsin. Bri and I were hesitant to fill the prescription because Trent's already on one prescription for acid reflux and we just don't want our kid full of chemicals, so we've been trying other methods -- gripe water, mylicon, swaddling, the swing, cuddling, etc. None of these things seemed to work. Eventually the crying would stop, but not until he'd tired himself out. Finally, Sunday evening, we came to the conclusion that our discomfort with so many prescriptions was not worth sacrificing Trent's comfort and our own sanity.
Yesterday I filled the prescription, administered it with his next feeding, and amazingly, he seemed to cry less. In fact, he barely cried at all yesterday. And when he did, it was for obvious reasons, such as dirty nappy, hungry, tired, wants cuddling. There seemed to be less crying after feedings, too and he didn't pull his legs up and scream like he has in the past. It's very early to tell if this is the medication working or just a nice coincidence, but the signs are encouraging.

The good news is that colic seems to resolve at around 3 months of age, so we only have 2 more months of this (ACK!!!)

I'm "That Lady"

You know her. The very one that I complained about not even 2 months ago while out having dinner with friends. The one who sits in a crowded restaurant with her screaming baby and doesn't take him outside or to the bathroom to figure out what's wrong so she doesn't disturb all the other diners around her.

Brian and I took The Kid down to The Grove at Southpark Meadows to see Brian Lee play. We had a great time and Trent was so well behaved. Barbie, Scott, and Michelle were there and we were all very impressed with how mellow Trent was being. After the concert we arranged to go to dinner with Mike and Tara. On the way to the restaurant Trent threw a massive wobbler in the car and nothing I could do would make him happy. He seemed to calm down by the time we got to the restaurant, though. I had lost my appetite at that point so I just ordered a water and planned to nibble off of Brian's plate. Before we could even order, Trent started wailing like someone was trying to slowly torture him. I took him to the Bathroom and tried to calm him down. Changed his nappy, sang to him, told him what a good boy he is. He seemed to calm down. So I took him back out. The minute my arse touched the booth seat, he started again. I frantically tried to pacify him, but nothing worked. I could see the looks from those around us. The same look that I gave someone else less than 2 months ago. The look that says "lady, you're disturbing everyone. Shove a sock in that screaming kid's mouth!". I was completely mortified. Completely.
I once again headed for the bathroom. This time I called Brian from the bathroom and told him to get his food to go. Thankfully, Mike and Tara are very close friends and extremely understanding. And off we went, back home with our screaming kid. I couldn't eat at all because my stomach was completely in knots.

Of course, it's not Trent's fault. He doesn't know any better. It's our fault for being over ambitious. We over stimulated him and it was foolish of us to think that he could handle it at such an early age. So lesson learned. But now I have a whole new perspective on that mom who can't stop her baby from crying in a restaurant. I'll be a little more sympathetic from now on.

1st month of motherhood in review

Tomorrow Trent will be 4 weeks old. How the time flies! Before I know it, he's going to be stealing my car keys, sneaking out while I'm asleep, and boozing with his buddies.

The past 4 weeks have been interesting to say the least. I didn't think I was cut out for motherhood, but I seem to have taken to it pretty easily. There's a resounding sigh of relief among my circle of friends, who also thought I wasn't cut out for motherhood. Now don't get me wrong, this doesn't change the fact that I don't like kids and I have no intention of becoming a "Kid person". I know this kid, and that's all I need to know.

Over the past month I've been puked on, pooped on, farted on, and peed on (no, not by Brian, get your minds out of the gutter!), and yet I'm un-fazed by all of this. I can change a nappy in 20 seconds flat, having puke on my clothes doesn't send me running to change anymore, and I've become quite adept at bathing a slippery, wriggling infant.

Having 8 weeks off seemed like a death sentence when I contemplated it pre-kid, but now I'm thinking that the remaining 4 weeks I have left are not long enough. My days are anything but dull and when The Kid isn't fussing, I really enjoy being around him. Yesterday I went to visit a few daycare centers. Initially, I wanted a nice grandma type to take care of him while I work, but now I'm starting to think that a more formal daycare would be better because they have a real curriculum where he will learn skills daily. In an in-home daycare, you can never really be guaranteed that he's getting the learning and stimulation he needs to be the genius I know he can be. Unfortunately, Austin's day care centers have very long waiting lists, which means that I might have to be a stay at home mum for a little longer than I anticipated.

During the past month, I've watched my husband become a wonderful father, and even better husband. I can't say that I'm all that surprised, though. One of the biggest factors in my decision to have a kid was because I knew Brian's potential to be an amazing father and I wanted to see that potential realized. He is extremely responsive to Trent's needs and has been an amazing support for me when my nerves become frayed from dealing with a screaming baby. And boy can this baby scream! It sounds like you'd imagine some kind of pre-historic bird sounds when he gets going.

Yesterday, for the first time, Trent and I went out with the jogging stroller (thanks Nana and Grandad for the jogger!). We started off walking, but I couldn't resist breaking into a little jog. We run/walked 6K in all and I felt great. My stomach is feeling much better these days and I hardly notice the pain anymore in my lower abdomen. Only 2 more weeks and I can go to the gym and resume my usual routine! yay!

Some of the cool things about Trent:
When he's hungry, he does this really cute head shake with his mouth open
He loves to cuddle
He can fart louder than his Grandad Fred
He smiles when he takes a poop
He spends hours just staring at me
He looks like a little angel when he's sleeping
He has the most awesome hair I've ever seen on a baby
When we're out in public, people fawn all over him
All of our friends love to be around him

In the past month we've seen a marked improvement in motor skills and he becomes more alert with every passing day. He's extremely strong and can already hold his head up, he's very close to being able to roll over, and you can also see the beginnings of crawling motions when he's on his tummy. He's aware of his hands now and can consciously remove his pacifier from his mouth. Though he can't put it back yet.

It's been a rough month, sleep-wise and body-wise, but on the good side, I've lost 34lbs (only 6 more to go) and like I said, life is anything but dull :-)

Baby's day out

On Friday, Trent went to see the doctor for a follow up. He's gained several more ounces, which indicates that his vomiting problem isn't too serious. Though he has produced several more fountains of puke since the initial one. After we left the doctor's office we went home and chilled for a while, then we went to the pharmacy to fill his diaper rash prescription and then Trent took his first trip to the grocery store. It was rather uneventful because he was passed out the whole time. Though he did attract his share of admirers, and I found myself positioning myself between him and the admirer lest they should try to touch him. I kinda felt like a momma bear protecting her young. It wasn't even a conscious reaction, it was just instinctual. Since Trent's first outing he's been to several more, including lunch with Aunt Barbie and Uncle Scott at Waterloo yesterday, and today he went to the gym to say hi to Clint and Chris, then we went to visit Aunt Barbie for an hour before the dishwasher repairman showed up at our house.
Today is Brian's second day back at work, he went back on Friday. Trent and I seem to be doing just fine on our own. We've had a lovely day so far and now that we're getting used to each other, things are getting easier.
I've been taking care of all Trent's needs at night so that Brian can get enough sleep to feel good at work. Today he said he slept really well and felt 100%, which makes me happy. Nights are pretty awful, though. I'd give anything to have a full uninterrupted 8 hours right now.

30 lbs in 13 days!

Ok, I'll admit it, I was skeptical. Burning 800 calories a day just by sitting on the couch seems too good to be true. However, after 13 days of feeding a very hungry infant, I was pleasantly surprised to be missing 30lbs of myself!

It's better than gastric bypass surgery!

It's not without its drawback's, though. I'm pretty much chained to the kid because he can't eat without me (you shouldn't introduce a bottle until breast feeding is well established), and of course it hurts like hell. Worse than labour. Though I must admit that it's getting less painful now thanks to Pure Lanolin. No nursing mother should be without this product. Trust me on this.

Trent's been very gassy lately, which probably comes as no surprise to anyone given who his mother is ;-), however, it's painful for him and he's been crying a lot after feedings. A friend at work suggested using Gripe Water, which you can buy at Whole Foods. After one day of using it, it seems to be making him feel better. Yesterday, though, he vomited a LOT after almost every feeding, so we took him to the doctor. We found out that he's got a little acid reflux problem and sitting him upright for 15 mins after meals will help. Today he seems to have puked less, but it's early in the day.

Fountain of Puke

After 10 days of being new parents, Brian and I are getting used to Trent's signals, and he's getting used to us. We're getting the breastfeeding down now and have transitioned from always using the special pillow, to being able to just pop him on wherever. I always said I wouldn't let my kid sleep in the bed with me. Not only is this unsafe for him, but it's also a bad habit that I don't want him getting used to. But I found myself cuddling him till he fell asleep and then putting him in a safe spot in the middle of the bed so I could easily reach him when he made any sounds. It made it easier for me to sleep. Last night, though, he slept in his bassinet all night and did really well. I'm getting about 3 hours of sleep between feeding him, which initially wasn't enough but I'm adapting. Things are getting easier.

Yesterday, Trent had some tummy problems and was laying on my lap snoozing, and all of a sudden I looked down and he was projectile vomiting milk all over me, all over himself, and all over our new couch! This was more puke than you can ever imagine coming out of an 8lb human. Fortunately, Trent is fine and it seemed to make him feel better afterwards. The couch, being made of that fabulous "enduro-suede" cleaned up just fine and there is no stain. The lesson learned here, though is to put an old blanket on the couch where you normally sit with the kid because it's gonna get messy.

A baby story

As most people who read my blog know, I was a reluctant pregnant woman who hated every moment of pregnancy and was completely skeptical that it would be worth the discomfort and pain. In this entry, there might be more info about childbirth, hospital stays and major surgery recovery than you ever wanted to know. So don't say I didn't warn you.

My friend, Castor Oil
On Monday, July 2nd the doctor informed me that no progress had been made regarding dilation and effacement. I was feeling discouraged by this because I really want a July 4th baby for reasons I've gone into before. On Tuesday, July 3rd I took matters into my own hands. I had heard the old wives tales about Castor Oil inducing labour, but the evidence to support a medical theory on this is sketchy at best, when I Googled it. There was a lot of anecdotal evidence, though, and I figured that it was worth a shot. So with gritted teeth and holding my nose to dull the taste, I took 2oz of Castor Oil at 4:30pm. And I waited. It didn't take long for the Castor Oil to go to work for it's intended purpose, which is a stimulant laxative. And the rest of my evening was spent very close to the toilet.
With the pooping came waves of pain, which I attributed to intestinal issues, dismissed it, and went to bed.
Around 3am I woke up in pain, and as the pain came and went I noticed a pattern. I stared at the clock and found that every 6 minutes, I was having pains, and this time it was accompanied by some bleeding. Holy crap! is this labour??? I wasn't sure, so I laid there for another hour and endured the waves of pain, wondering if it would subside. When it didn't, I got up and called the doctor, who promptly returned my call and told me to come in to the hospital.

It's go time!
I woke Brian up at that point with "babe, it's go time!" and he sprung into action. As I gathered the remaining things to pack into my hospital bag, Brian got the car seat and the diaper bag and loaded up the car. And off we went. There's not much traffic at 4:15am so the ride to the hospital was uneventful, unless you count the contractions, now 4 minutes apart, as events. Upon arrival we checked in and I was taken to my room where they assessed me, plugged me into a bunch of monitors, and confirmed that this really was labour. 4cm dilated, contractions every 4 minutes, and not mild ones, either. We called Barbie and told her to make her way to the hospital, and then the nice lady with the epidural showed up. yay!

Who farted??
The epidural lady hooked me up with some pain relief. The epidural wasn't painful, but it was not easy to sit still while having contractions, and add to that the fact that it took 2 attempts to get the thing into my spine. After about15 minutes, though, it was in and I was starting to feel better. Labour progressed relatively pain free from here on out, and every hour or so the nurse came in to check progress, monitor the baby, and hook me up to more things. An IV, an internal monitor for the baby, an internal monitor for contractions, an oxygen mask because the baby was going into distress. I laid there oblivious to any pain and joked with Brian and Barbie as we waited for the "pushing phase" to start. Periodically, I heard someone fart in the room and I'd look at Brian and Barbie with an accusatory look, then I realized that it was me! of course it was me. I had no feeling from my waist down. I was like my auntie Minnie! just tooting away, willy nilly, even once while the nurse was checking me! We cracked up quite a bit about that. As most people know, I'm highly amused by farting.

No exit!
Around 11am the nurse consulted the doctor on call and they monitored my progress. After about 15 minutes she informed me that I had a choice to make: Labour had stalled at 6cm and the baby was in distress. They could try to induce laboour with Pitosin and see if that would start the contractions again, or I could do a C-section and get him out. A tough choice. A sobering choice. I asked the doctor what was best for the baby. Of course it was the least appealing of the options, the C-section. So with as much calm as I could muster, and with a quick look over at the concerned faces of Brian and Barbie to reassure them that I would be ok, I said "let's do it".

Let's get this party started
My room became a hive of activity as people came in and out to administer things through IVs and inform me of what would happen next. Then Brian was "Suited up" and I was wheeled off to the operating room. Whatever Dr. Dave put in my IV started working immediately, and I could feel absolutely nothing below the chest. As I laid there on the operating table they prepped me, draped me, and Dr. Dave reassured me and kept me appraised of the situation. Brian came into the room and the operation began. I held Brian's hand and tried to keep myself calm by imagining being on a warm beach. The bright lights of the operating room was the sun warming my face, the floaty feeling was not from the cocktail of drugs in my IV, but from the several shots of tequila I imagined I'd just done. The voices of the doctors and nurses were those of other people on the beach, laughing and splashing in the surf. The suction machine that was probably now vacuuming up all the blood that was gushing out was providing the surf sound. And Dr. Dave said that I was the most calm person to have a C-section he'd ever seen. After what seemed like only a moment I heard the sound of a baby crying. Perhaps someone's child on the beach? and then I crashed back down to reality and realized that the baby crying was my kid! "THE kid"!

Who's your daddy?
After my realization my first question to Brian was "does it look like Jay?" - because it's been a standing joke in our circle of friends that Jay's the baby-daddy... Brian laughed and said he didn't. Then they showed him to me. He was all pink with a ton of black hair and my first comment was "ooh he's CUUUTE! he doesn't look anything like Winston Churchill!". That got a laugh from everyone in the operating room. They took the baby and Brian away and put me back together while discussing every day things like what they saw on TV last night, and the latest celebrity gossip. I heard the doctor say "let's get those abs back in place, she's worked really hard on them", and I thanked her for noticing. And the final step... replace my belly button ring, which they had taken out for the surgery. They put it back in for me while I was in the operating room! What service.

Hello world
Trent Aston came into the world on July 4th, at 11:33am, kicking and screaming, much like how his mum had gone into pregnancy. It seems like the whole world (at least MY world) was waiting with baited breath to meet him. Aunt Barbie was the first to meet him, followed by uncle Scott. I spent some time in the recovery room and they brought him to me. Here the details start to get a little sketchy. I assume because of the drugs and I recall being wheeled to my post partum room where Brian, Trent and I would spend the next 3 days. Trent's grandparents, Keith and Joan, showed up pretty soon after his grand entrance and were so excited to see the little guy. And as my epidural and drugs wore off and my visitors disappeared, the nice nurse lady came and took Trent to the nursery so that I could get some sleep.

Happily ever after
There were many unpleasant experiences that followed the birth of Trent, many of which made the labour and major surgery experience pale in comparison. The 3 days following the birth were the most challenging of our entire lives. Sleep deprivation, pain, and being cooped up in a tiny hospital room with people poking and prodding at me and Trent every few hours made those few days feel like several weeks. And I was so ready to come home on Saturday. My doctor cleared us to stay until Sunday, but I just couldn't do it. And that night, Saturday, our first night home with the baby, Brian and I didn't sleep a wink, were totally clueless, and made it up as we went along. Thank heavens for Grandpa and Grandma! Without them, this would have been so much more difficult.

It's now a week and one day since Trent's birth. I've been in more pain than I could even imagine over the past week, with the C-section recovery and pain of breast feeding, which you can't ever fully understand until you feel it. I haven't slept more than 4 hours at a time in over a week, I haven't put on make up or fixed my hair in over a week, not because I don't have time, but because it's not important.

So the question question remains: was it worth it?

You'll be surprised by the answer. It was so worth it. I'm not saying I'd do this again. But I'm happy that I did it. Nothing can prepare you for how your own baby worms his way into your heart, no matter how much kid-proofing you have done to it. Last night I spent hours just staring into Trent's eyes, even though I was dead tired, because I just couldn't take my eyes off him. Surprised? nobody's more so than I am!

Proud Aunt Barbie

I can't say she's been very patient, but she's been the most excited person about meeting Trent. Here you can see him just a day old with his favourite aunt and un-godly mother ;-)\\