Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday Dede Weekend

Our visit in Omaha was great! My cousin, Linda, and my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Paul also came to my parents for 2 nights to meet Ian. It was great to see everyone and celebrate my mom's birthday. We shopped, we ate, we laughed, relaxed, and Ian got spoiled.  VERY spoiled...for starters, Ian doesn't like sleeping on his back, but "they" scare the crap out of you that you MUST put your child on their back or they are going to die of SIDS. The biggest problem is that when he is on his back and he flails his arms he freaks out because he feels un-secure and wakes up. And since he refuses to have his arms in the swaddle (remember he likes to raise the roof),  it's made getting down our nightly bedtime routine a real challenge. Back in the day when I was a baby you were told the complete opposite - that you needed to sleep your baby on their stomach so they didn't choke if they spit-up. Prior to my visit I was telling my mom about the struggles with getting him to stay asleep on his back. Her  response was "Well, my babies slept on their stomachs. Just put him on his stomach."  So the first afternoon we were in Omaha when Ian went down for a nap, Dede set him up in her bed... and how do you think I found him? Yep...

Me: "Mom! You have him on his stomach! He's going to die of SIDS!"
Mom: "Sar, look at him, he's sleeping like a little lamb, he's so happy, now you just leave him... I'm checking him."

*While I still sleep him on his back, I have to admit I think he was so happy and comfy here. I'm sure when Ian has children the new rule will be that you have to place them on their side or upside down or something.  He appreciated his Dede spoiling him with a comfortable nap time on his belly.

My mom also couldn't wait to get cream all over him... You know how during the acne outbreak she kept asking me "Sarah have you put the cream on him??"  She loves nothing more than the smell of baby cream on a baby. And I'll tell ya, the dry Denver air is terrible for a  baby's skin, but Dede and some Omaha humidity will do wonders...

"Now, now Ian, I'm just going to put a little more cream on you."

creaming him up!

As you will see in the pictures below I also don't think Ian was put down for more than 5 minutes the whole visit.... he was always in someone's arms. 

Aunt Barb, My mom, and Ian

Happy Birthday Dede!!

Playing peek-a-boo with cousin Linda

Naunie (as my Aunt Barb's grandchildren call her) & Dede

My cousin Linda, Ian, and Me

Ian and Linda

He LOVED his Great Aunt Barb and she's like the baby whisperer

 Now, I must admit the weekend also came with some good unplanned entertainment. On Saturday us girls (my mom, aunt, cousin, and me) decided to take Ian to the mall for some shopping on St. Patrick's day. Since I didn't bring the stroller with me, my parents bought a little stroller from Target to use. Pretty sure the stroller is for babies 9 months and up, not 2 month old's. Little Ian was hysterical in the thing... we had to prop him up with a blanket to prevent him from slouching over (see below). As I wheeled him through the mall people kept pointing and saying "Ooooh look at the baby!! Awe!" And I know it is because he looked so ridiculous - not because he looked so cute (even though he is). The looks I was getting would be the same  if I was toting a small dog in an oversized bag.  

After awhile Ian was tired of the stroller and started to fuss, so I switched to carrying him in the Baby Bjorn as we strolled through the last department store we wanted to check out. My cousin found a bathing suit to try on while my mom, aunt, and I looked through the women's dresses. As the 3.5 of us were standing there all looking at a dress Ian let it rip. "PPPPFFFFFF!!!" I mean it was MAJOR. My Aunt who is crazy about smells had to walk away. With that I could feel something wet - so now I'm ripping him out of the Bjorn and yelling at my mom "OH MY GOD! We have to go! NOW! Mom, he has crap up his entire back!" Of course the baby is now wailing as I'm yelling and holding him a foot away from me observing how he has completely shit his adorable green Saint Patrick's day polo.  I start making a mad dash to the car. My cousin is yelling out from the dressing room that she needs some coupon from my mom to buy this bathing suit and I'm yelling at my mom to hurry because poop is about to drip on the floor. Where is my aunt? Hiding in the dressing room so she doesn't have to smell anything. It was a total cluster. Somehow I am able to get him to the car and practically bathe him with wipes until he is good as new. And you better believe I washed the outfit out in the sink at the restaurant we went to for dinner afterwards. Yep, I am that person.

I'd like to be able to say that this was Ian's only blow out of the weekend, but it ain't so. The following day my dad was holding him and says "Sar, I think he needs a diaper change." As he is handing him off to me he realizes it was worse that he thought... "Oh yeah, he really needs a change, it came out of his diaper and it's also on me!" Crap (literally). Whoops, sorry pops! We had 2 more blows-outs that day (all before noon I might add). As I was cleaning up Little Man from the final one of the day he proceeded to pee all over me and my mom's oriental rug. My mom was unphased, but when I called John to tell him about it he quickly reminded me how she recently got rid of our childhood cats for the same offense. The lesson here...If you're a feline don't pee on Dede's rug, if you are her grandchild you can  do no wrong.

And the grand finale of entertainment happened when it was time for us to leave. My mom had decided she wasn't happy with the pictures we had taken of her and Ian during the weekend. If there is one thing us Hennings' girls are consistent with it is hating all photos taken of us. I cannot tell you the family fights over potential Christmas card photos in years past that ultimately ended up with my mom re-buying cards that didn't have a slot for a picture. So my mom decided to go it and glam herself up for a photo shoot the morning we were leaving town. I was in charge of packing up and getting Ian ready for this shoot. By the time I got the bags packed up and Ian dressed we should have been in the car heading to the airport - instead we were just beginning glamour shots. We were trying really hard to get one with Ian actually smiling which is nearly impossible to do with only 2 two people (one of which is in the photo as well). Those people at Olan Mills might not be so crazy after all. I'd make faces at him, he'd smile, I'd go to take the picture and he'd stop smiling or I'd cut off his head or my mom would look like an idiot... It wasn't working.  So instead of leaving for the airport, what did we do? Uploaded the pictures onto my mom's laptop and critiqued them and then decided we needed to do another round of trying to get a good picture. Midway through I panicked when I realized it was almost an hour till the flight left. With that we hurried to the car... Aren't these the best pictures you have ever seen of my mom and Ian? Just. Say. Yes.  Because these photos truly took years off my life. Honestly they sort of suck, but whatever.

Sort of cute, but slightly blurry

Hello... the camera is over here!

Mom looks great, but Ian looks pissed off

Both smiling but I cut my mom's head off trying to keep Ian happy

So now we're in the car heading to the airport which my mom still doesn't know how to get to after living in Omaha for over a year. So she starts fumbling with her stupid TomTom, which has decided to stop talking and the screen brightness isn't working either making it impossible to see anything on the screen.  Basically the TomTom is useless at this moment but my mom is still determined to get it to work - pressing buttons like a madwoman while driving. Meanwhile I'm watching the clock and I pull out my phone to google map the route to the airport; at which point I realize we are now traveling the wrong direction on the highway and we are less than an hour to departure. Thank you TomTom. Of course this is one of those stretches of highway where you have to go 2 exits to be able to turn around. An enterinity later we turn around an I am re-routing us with google on my phone. Somehow google decices to take us on road that has a stop light every 50 feet to get there. As the clock continued to move closer to departurer time I had determined I was going to miss my flight. Convinced there was still a quicker way to the airport, my mom was having an eternal struggle to call my dad and ask him but knowing he'd kill us for cutting it so close. So we just kept going on the slowest and least direct road ever. 

With 25 minutes till take off we came screeching into the airport. I told my mom to wait in the car (no sense in unloading the baby) while I ran into the ticket counter to hear my options.  I knew even if they let me on the plane there was no way they would let me check bags with less 25 minutes till take off, and I had to check bags. There wasn't a line so I was able to run right up and explain my situation. I was completely shocked when the lady behind the counter said I could still make it and check bags! Waaa?!?!! So now I'm running back out to the car to grab the stuff. My mom hops out  too and yells to the crazy police officer who is tolling the drop-off area that she will be parking her car there and she has a baby so he better not give her a ticket. Babies are like the get out of jail free card. Honestly the next 5 minutes are a total whirlwind. All I know is that as I was running back in with the bags I was trying to pull Ian's Birth Certificate out because they require you to show it at the counter, and as I was pulling it out a  bunch of family photos my mom gave me from when I was a baby also came out of the bag and went flying out everywhere (including in the automatic revolving entrance door), so now I scream back to my mom "The pictures! The pictures!" As I keep running to the ticket counter. When I got back to the counter, forked over my ID and Ian's Birth Certificate I finally took a moment to breathe and turned back to see my mom on her hands and knees in the revolving door holding Ian (all limbs dangling) while she's trying to grab pictures off the ground before the door come whipping around again. She starts yelling to someone who works at the airport "These are all memories! I have to get these up!" And thankfully they trusted she wasn't just insane and stopped the door and helped her pick them up. She made it back to the ticket counter with the photos as I was finishing up with them there. I sincerely thought she was going to kiss the Southwest woman behind the counter when she realized she had checked my bags. I don't even remember if I got to say goodbye to my mom it was such a blur. I do know that as she handed over Ian and I got him strapped in the Bjorn to sprint to security she was not only thanking all the Southwest employees but also thanking God, Mary, Joesph and any disciple who's name she could think of.  This would not have happened in the Denver airport I can promise you that, so thank you fine people of Omaha for your hospitality and small airport. It was a miracle. Next visit we will be leaving 2 hours in advance and my mom is going to know how to get to the airport without her TomTom. 

Oh boy. We always keep it interesting.

Frequent Flyer

Ian took a lot of flights in-utero... Chicago, Cincinnati (x4), Dayton, Louisville, Omaha, San Diego, & Hawaii, but he took his first "live" flight on March 14th to Omaha to visit Dede and Pops. John planned to be in Arizona for the Rockies Spring Training that weekend so it made sense for Ian and I to break away too, plus the icing on the cake is that we'd be there for my mom's birthday on March 16th!

Not going to lie, I was a little apprehensive about traveling alone and navigating the airport with all the crap you have to tote with a kid... carseat, carseat base, breast pump, etc. God bless Southwest because I knew I had to check everything if I had a chance of making it. I got advice on traveling with a newborn from a facebook group of new mom's and it definitely helped. Per their suggestions I decided to leave the stroller at home since I was going to be alone (breaking a stroller down at the end of the gate while holding an infant is just another thing to deal with) and strap the boy in the baby Bjorn to get through security and to the gate. I also ended up buying this carseat travel bag (per the suggestion of other mom's) so I could check the seat and base without worrying it was going to be destroyed.  Uncle Bacon was nice enough to take us to the airport and drop us right off at the door for curbside check-in so I was able to avoid lugging the bag and the carseat bag to check-in.

And we were off! Ian in the Bjorn we made our way through security. TSA does allow you to bring breast milk through - shocking, I know - so "Bessie" came prepared with enough to get us through a day just to make sure we had it covered. Go big or go home. Truthfully, I was preparing for the worst. He had fallen asleep in the Bjorn by the time I made it to the gate. I proceeded to grab a sandwich for lunch with him still strapped on me and for sure dropped crumbs all over him. Whoops. Minutes after finishing lunch we were boarding.  An old co-worker of mine gave me the advice that when you travel with children just make friends with the people seated around you by offering to buy them all a drink on the flight if the baby starts to wail. Genius. Thankfully, I didn't even have to go there. Little man did awesome. He continued to sleep for the first half of the flight and then when he woke up I was able to give him a bottle until we landed (another reason I think the traditional method of b'feeding not working out might be a blessing in disguise because I would not have liked being that person trying to nurse on a plane. Yeah, would have been super uncomfortable). The flight to Omaha is a quick hour... you're up and down which was perfect for our first flight. When we were getting off the plane the people in the row behind me said "Wow, I didn't even know there was a baby on this flight." Ah, I felt so successful.

My mom was able to meet us at baggage claim to get the bags. That was the hardest part - lugging all the stuff with baby in tow. Now my mom and I getting the car-seat in my mom's car was harder than the flight itself... pretty sure we would have gotten a fail from the fire department.

More to come on the visit with my parents... and our not ideal return to the airport.

2 months old!

I'm slipping, I'm slipping! He is about a week away from being 3 months and I am just getting this posted. In my defense I've had a lot going on... a trip to Omaha, I'm still doing a lot of stuff for IIDA, and then the un-going saga of child care.

So here's the deets on Ian's 2 months of progress in this world... He is a total champ at holding his head up, it's seriously impressive for as young as he is. Equally impressive is the amount of times he can explode his pants up to his neck - definitely gets this from his father. All kidding aside he did smashingly at his 2 month appointment despite the fact that the nurses came in like Edward Scissor hands, only instead of scissors they were holding multiple shots. Little man took 5 shots in the legs and yes he cried, and didn't like it but he did fine once we left the doc's office... no need for the infant Tylenol to ease any pain. What a man.

Here are his stats at 2 months...
Weighing in at 11lbs 7oz - 44 percentile
Height  24 7/8" long - 99th percentile

So he is tall. In fact it's an issue because pants aren't long enough. I can totally sympathize being a girl who has had to track down the long pants from their very unfortunate selection my entire life. Why doesn't Gap make long and leans for babies? He pretty much looks totally metro in everything he wears rocking a man capri (not by choice). The plus side is who wants a short man? So what if baby's pants are short on him the ladies love it.

Other notable things at 2 months... His eyes are STILL blue. I always pictured my child to have brown eyes and brown hair so it blows my mind every time I look at him at he looks back with baby blues. It is totally possible that they will stay blue - even though John and I both have brown peepers because my dad has blue and John's mom has blue - so that little "b" (remember genetics class?) might be dominating here. We shall see. Who doesn't love blue eyes? Wish mine were.

He has really begun to smile a lot... it's super cute. However, I swear he is an old soul because more often than not he is giving a very serious look, and he will often times furrow his brow in a disapproving way when I'm up in his business trying to get him to smile. I can't say I blame him when I'm up in his space smiling and talking ... I'd also give a dirty look if people did this to me... but yes, this ain't his first rodeo.

He has discovered his hands and his fingers. He often enjoys a fist sandwich to suck on. Hey, whatever makes you happy. I'm sure this will change some once he has teeth.

I think that is the big stuff... we've made it through 2 months successfully. He's truly a happy baby, which makes us very happy parents.

Oh, and did I mention that his acne is gone! Yep, it's time to celebrate!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We're a few days behind, but don't worry Ian Patrick lived up to his Irish roots and celebrated!

FREEZE!!

I hate to admit it, but I find myself no longer living in the moment because I'm terrified I'm going to blink and I'm going to be dropping Ian off at college and he is going to look at me and say "Mom, you can go, really, we'll figure it out." (just like my mom heard at my college drop-off... I'm sorry mom... but hey, we did figure it all out). It's seriously concerning. I mean here we are nearly 2 months later and I've hardly found time to shower on a daily basis and the days just fly on by. Truly, he is getting bigger before my eyes. In the back of my head I constantly hear a clock... tick, tock, tick, tock. I think it's the clock telling me that I have "x" days until I have to go back to work. Last week was the half-way point for my 12 week maternity leave. And honestly I'm alright with the fact that I will going back to work (despite that I know it won't be easy) it's more so the realization that when I return to work 3 months will have passed since Ian was born. The rate at which time flies is was is freaking me out. I have my moments where I feel like I'm waiting to exhale just thinking if I hold my breath long enough time won't pass.

So aside from the time induced panic attacks, what has been happening these past few weeks? 

Here are 10 things we've been doing...

1. Daycare. I have spent the past 2 weeks focused on finding daycare, it has become my full-time job (aside from watching babe). I assume I might be able to simmer a bit when I have that figured out. It's still not resolved but we're getting closer. Here's the reader's digest....I've probably called 50+ daycare providers (and only heard back from about half), toured 5 facilities, met with 3 in-home providers, and I've "unofficially" joined a nanny share and we're onto interviewing nannies.   So what is this nanny share you ask... Well, I met a very nice mom and her baby boy, Rowan,  (who is 2 months older than Ian) on craigslist and  after a meeting at Starbucks we decided to embark on looking into doing a nanny share where we will hire a nanny to watch the boys and rotate houses every other week. Yes, this all sounds crazy, but it's actually really smart... it's a 2:1 ratio versus the 5:1 you see in most daycare centers and the baby is watched in your home 1/2 the time. So that's that. We are interviewing 3 more nanny's this week and hopefully we will have it all figured out this next week.  Stay tuned... If this nanny thing doesn't pan out I have a back up plan. Bottom line, daycare is expensive. REALLY expensive. For some perspective one year of daycare is pretty much the cost of  one year tuition of college at my Mother Miami, and parents save years for that. No, I'm not lying.

2. Acne. The acne has been improving, slowly but surely. I can't say we're 100% cleared up but we have made SERIOUS progress. They tell you not to put anything on it, well... I did. I couldn't help myself. And every time I talked to my mom she would ask "Sarah, did you put cream on it? Just put some cream on it!" So we put some cream on it....  I consulted my inner hippie and went to Whole Foods for an el natural  concoction, I mean how bad could that be? I got the California Baby calendula cream... it sort of smells like lavender so John is always asking "Why does he smell like tea?" (um... mama creamed him up).

Prior to the "creaming" - Baby Acne is a sad state of affairs... chapped and not pretty

+ the cream

= much improved skin! Cream on.

3.  Postpartum Check-up.  I had my 6 week post birth check up with my obgyn last week where they check your healing, weigh you, and make sure nothing else has come up health-wise since the birth (like postpartum depression). I was "cleared" to resume life as usual... which basically means I can workout again and the who-ha doesn't have to be closed for business anymore...ahhh, yeah. So, the good news,  I am 8 lbs away from my starting weight, and my doc said that she tells people if they are 15 lbs away from their start weight at their postpartum check-up that they are doing great - where is my gold star from Wendy weight watcher? Holla. Which brings me to my next point... my normal pants fit (they could be looser, don't get me wrong)... this again gives me anxiety that work is coming because I didn't think I'd be buttoning them again until I was back at work. Anyway, let's keep the lb's dropping... more to come on that. I'm going to kick it into high gear with Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred for the last month of leave.

4. Tummy time.  We're getting really good at lifting our head and workin' it. 

5. Growing. I'm not sure how much Ian weighs now (we go for his 2 month appt next week), but it's safe to say that anything sized "newborn" does not fit.... case in point...woof.

6. Smiling.  That's right, we're learning to smile. It's still hard to catch it on camera, but it's happening more and more often, and how could it not? Mama is constantly making totally insane faces and singing.

7. Meeting Cousin Eddie.  You know, cousin Eddie...

No, no, no... not THAT cousin Eddie. THIS cousin Eddie...

Ian is a little uninterested in cousin Eds

Ian and Eddie took a walk together....Ian fell asleep and Eddie had to be carried.

That's right, my sister got a puppy and named him Eddie. It just so happen that Eddie is a few days older than Ian, and Emily & Boyfriend Todd were allowed to bring him home from the breeder's last Friday night! What is cuter than puppies and babies? Um, nothing.

8.  Trying to find sometime for mama.  They say it's important to not totally neglect yourself entirely after becoming a mother. So we've made time to get a pedi and a mani here and there. I hate to admit it but I went without Ian last weekend (dad watched him), and everyone who works there kept coming up saying "How's your baby?" Probably means I've brought him too many times, but come on any sort of beauty service is my guilty pleasure and required for my sanity. Plus my feet really needed it, they seriously used a parm cheese grater on my heels.

9. Raising the Roof.  Ian has an obsession with putting his hands up in the air. When I swaddle him he wants he hands out so he can stick them up by his head... Just a few examples.

10. Pumping.  People keep asking about the b'feeding and we actually stopped trying. Why force it when the pumping system is working for us? Plus with going back to work in such a short time it truly was not a priority for me at this point I'm happy with this path. So, the dairy bar continues. We've got the pumping thing down now and despite the fact that I feel like I am constantly doing it, I actually only have to pump 4 times a day to make WAY more than Ian needs in a day. It's really working out except for when I have to pump in the bathroom at public places that part sucks...

look at me all hands-free ... told ya I totally gave in... I'm one step away from being on the ad's

11 (had to add a bonus number). Being freaking adorable. 

Don't you just want to squeeze me?

pizza face

If I had to go on the record and pick one of my favorite physical features about myself, I would no doubt say my skin. I have been blessed with no-fuss olive toned Italian skin. I have long been loathed by my friends for not having a nightly "skin regime" and still having clear skin. I remember in college at the end of the night when everyone would drunkenly wash their face and scrub the make-up off from the night uptown, I was likely in the other room still shoveling late night food in my mouth (maybe I should have been washing my face) or already passed out. This worked really well for me because when I got up the following morning I always looked like I had a fresh face of make-up on and was ready for brunch. I can't say that much has changed since then in terms of my skin care. Sure I will get the obligatory pre-period zit from time to time, but that's the worst of it. When I go to the make-up counter they are always stunned when I tell them I pretty much do nothing to my face.

So you can only imagine how upsetting it was when 2 years ago I had to buy clearasil for the first time... only it wasn't for me... it was for my cat. Yep, that was not a typo... Boomer had in fact gotten "feline acne." If you don't believe cats can get acne, look here. I happened to be petting the little guy one night and noticed that his chin was covered in what looked like blackheads. Horrified I started googling and determined that it looked like we had a case of feline acne on our hands. The following day the blackheads started to turn red and I decided it was time to go to the vet. The vet confirmed that Boomer in fact had acne and I needed to start scrubbing his chin 2x per day with facial cleanser and finish the job with some medicated wipe she prescribed. I was now officially spending more time cleaning my cats face than my own. This. Was. Sick. It was determined that he had gotten acne from rubbing his chin around the bottom of his plastic food dish while inhaling his food. After a few weeks of this new face cleaning (which he hated, I might add), and changing his food bowl to porcelain (nothing but the best for my Boom) it cleared up. Only my cat would get acne. I mean seriously....  (I could kill myself for deleting the photos of my phone from his acne, but it wasn't attractive)

Well this little issue seems to have reared it's ugly head again, only this time it's not the cat, but the THE BABY. I decided this this God's way of punishing me for all these easy breezy years of having an acne-free life myself - he decided payback is giving acne to everyone I take care of.  Awesome, not. Seriously, my poor baby boy has acne, and not just on his chin, but on his nose, cheeks, neck, back, chest, and even under his armpits. It's heartbreaking really. Apparently this is a very common thing in baby's and is caused by the surge of hormones that baby's get during the birthing process. Who knew? . I surely did not, and would have liked little warning to be able to mentally prepare myself for this prior to waking up to a 4 week old with pizza face.  It's also twice as common in baby boys versus girls. Anyway, I spoke with the pediatrician and she assured me that it will go away on it's own... but not to touch it and just wash and dry it daily. Do you have any idea how hard it is for me to not order ProActive and start bathing him in it? Babies are supposed to have skin like budddah, and his is more like raw hide.

Here are some close up's of his face from the other day...

Honestly it doesn't look half as bad in these pictures as it does in person. I mean, it's B-A-D, bad. It actually looks decent in the pictures. Whatever, it's not. His poor neck and chest and everything! The good news is that he is completely unphased by it, it's only his mom who is freaking out. Regardless, please keep your fingers and toes crossed it goes away quickly!  "They" say it usually clears up in a few days, and is almost always gone by the time the baby is 8-10 weeks old. We're going on two weeks - please don't let it be 4 more.