Time for foodies...errr...not.

Great.... Ian is going to be picky, and I cannot stand picky people... they irritate me so much. You know the type, you have them over for dinner and you have to worry and worry about them not liking anything, then you cater the meal to their limited tastes much to your demise. And then as you are clearing plates after eating you notice that despite your efforts to make the most bland meal they have still picked around half of it and you see a pile of things on the side of the plate they clearly don't want/like. ANNOYING. honestly I just never want to be a burden or nuisance to someone especially when they are making me food so I will truly eat just about anything you put in front of me, and I expect my child to do the same. To try to avoid my kid being picky I ate anything and everything I typically would when prego and continue to do so while breast-feeding... I do spicy, I do ethnic, I do fish, I do steak, I do veggies, I do fruit, I do more sweets than I should... I do it all. I swear there isn't a thing out there I won't touch. And Ian (inadvertently consuming it) hasn't seem to be phased by it - I never noticed him kicking extra  after a spicy meal when pregnant, and he sucks down the milk regardless of what I may have eaten prior to pumping. So you can imagine my shock and horror when at 4-5 months the pediatrician told me to start trying some solids with Ian and he was less than impressed.

Case in point...

Looks like this will be a long road, but (mark my words) we will NOT be serving a bottle until he is 20, nor will hot-dogs, chicken fingers and mac-n-cheese be the staple dinner served in my house despite the fact that dad would love it. Not on my watch.  I keep on trying a little bit with him everyday; I can't say we have had success yet, but they say you have to just keep on trying. I have the fancy baby food maker and I am all excited to actually use it. Ugh. Oh well, I'm sure he will be downing my nice mixed green salad with pine nuts, goat cheese and cranberries in no time (note the salad behind him on the counter).

Happy Baby

Little serious man likes to laugh now too... I could totally watch these videos all day.  I wish he wasn't wearing his "my daddy is an arrogant bastard" onsie (he actually go two of these onsies as a gift (shocking, right?...it's a beer for those who don't know) while being so cute, but whatever. The camera work is pretty shotty but it's hard to make him laugh and video at the same time.

Mom goes to Chi-town

For the first time I left my little man behind with dad for 5 days. I had a "quick" work related trip to Chicago. Frankly, I was freaking out at the idea that I was trusting John to rock the baby to sleep, get up in the middle of the night, and keep him happy during the day.  Typically John does really well with the baby until he starts to fuss, then he hands him back over to me. And up until leaving for Chicago I was the only one (except for my mom) to put him to bed or given him a bath. So I was terrified I was going to return to a child that hadn't slept or been bathed in 5 days. I left lists of what to do all over the counter, on the bottles in the frig, etc. I had also mentioned to lots of friends in town that John would be alone with Ian for the weekend, just in case they wanted to stop by (wink, wink).  Thankfully, after 5 days in the windy city I returned to my adorbable baby who didn't totally smell like spoiled milk.

Speaking of milk.... that was a bit of a stress... I had a good stock pile in the freezer but you just never know if you are going to have enough. I had talked to some work collegues who had travelled for work and actually over-nighted their milk on dry-ice. Seriously?! What a hassle.  I had tried pumping double time the week leading up to me leaving but there is only so much prep you can do when working full time.  I mean, I am not going to sit at my desk in my open office pumping to increase my stockpile... I do draw the line somewhere. I was a bit concerned on Saturday (after I had only been gone 2 days) John posted this picture on my facebook page with the note: "Ian is going through bottles like happy hour is about end."

I mean worst case scenario I was going to have to send John out to get formula to supplement and give it to him for the first time. But we made it through! There was a little to spare when I got back. And because everyone cares (this is the stuff prior to having a kid I never thought about) I still had to make time to pump while I was in Chicago. When I was at NeoCon, this meant I'd sneak into a restroom with the battery pack and pump in the handicap stall (I swear I never thought I'd do this) in the Merchandise Mart. Thankfully due to my ties with IIDA HQ I was able to store my stash in their staff freezer (amongst their lean cuisines). However I did have a moment of "who in the hell am I?!" when pumping in the handicap stall....


Pump: (Sarah in stall pumping) swoosha...sosoo...swoosha...sosoo...  swoosha...sosoo...  
Random lady #1 in restroom: (talking to another woman at the sink) That battery charger is sorta freaking me out. It's sooooo noisy. 

Random lady #2: Shhh. (quieting her own voice) I think it's a breast pump.
Random lady #1: Oh yeah, that's what it is... ha ha ha (laughs).... I remember back when I was breast feeding people didn't even recognize it and now code requires a room for it but I guess the Mart is so old there isn't a nursing mother's room. 


As though she suddenly realized that 1. it was actually a pump and not a battery charger, and 2. she was an a-hole who recognized that I had no where to go but the handicap stall.  Believe me, I wanted to yell out... yes it's a freaking breast pump thankyouverymuch... now wash your hands and get the hell out of here. Anyway, at the end of the trip I collected all my liquid gold from the IIDA freezer (thank god IIDA is full of understanding moms too) and put it in a cooler to come home. It's not that hard to get through security... you just utter the words breast milk to TSA and they lose their edge. Aside from a quick "open your cooler and we are going to look at it" I was easily on my way home with my frozen milk to replenish the stash.


Oh but before I wrap this up, I must mention that I'm convinced John made it through the long weekend of me being away because of all the great friends that we have. THANK YOU. They were all over baby duty... On Friday night our dear friends Auntie Jess and Krystal watched Ian and allowed dad to go to the Rockies game (yeah, he has it EASY.... BS, right?). They even took babe on a walk (and texting mama a pic to know all was well)...

Auntie Jess & Ian

Then on Saturday night "the boys" came over to hang out with John and Ian.... And our friend, Sara Nakon, came with her husband Dave to check out the scene. I was pleseantly surprised when she texted me on Saturday that all was going well! On Sunday Ian and dad went to City Park Jazz with all our friends. Ian learned how to drink out of a Koozie (he's really cool)....

look at John's face... as though he is horrified

So, it is doable to be a working mama who travels. Not going to lie that it doesn't come without some stress, but YOU CAN DO IT.

4 month wrap up

Well Ian is offically 5 months (as of yesterday)... clearly I am behind. So without further ado here are his 4 month stats...

Weight: 14 lbs 0.5oz -- 30th percentile
Height/Length: 27 1/4" -- 99th percentile
Head circumference:  16 5/8"  -- 47th percentile

Yep, he's long and lean. He currently wears 3-6 month clothes, but if it's pants then it must be 6 months or they are way too short.

Other notable things....
- He coos and gabbers a lot
- Is all around much more responsive... grabbing at toys, sticking everything in his mouth.
- Lots of smiles, especially in the morning (not sure where he got that from)
- Rolls onto his side (I wouldn't call it a full roll over...see above).
- Enjoys eating his feet.
- Still has watery eyes/blocked tear ducts (I am hoping that changes soon).
- His eyes are STILL blue!
- drools like a mofo. It's insane really.
- Really good at doing tummy time.
- Has slept though the night before, but it doesn't happen every night.
- Has been to 4 Rockies games

Are we sleeping through the night?

In one word... NO.

And not to discredit Mr. Ian's efforts, it could be worse, but he does generally get up 1-2 times a night. That means if he goes down at like 10 he is up between 1 or 2 and then again at 5ish.  Every once in awhile he will surprise me and sleep for like 6-7 hours but that's not the norm. If I get a block of 4 hours of sleep (versus 3) in a row it's a miracle, but honestly I surprise myself at how well I do on such little sleep.

When he gets up at 5ish he still goes right back to bed after sucking down a bottle, and wants to keep sleeping until at least 8 so most morning I literally have to go wake him to get his dressed at over to daycare. We are still working on the whole schedule thing, and believe me when it comes to that Ian is boss.

John has somehow convinced himself that it's not his job to wake up in the middle of the night. He always justifies it by saying "Do you want me to pump for you in the night too?"  (he thinks I have to get up regardless so why should be both get up)Despite the fact that I've mentioned 20x now that I don't have to pump in the middle of the night. So, I'm really hoping we start getting through the night here soon. Mama needs her sleep, and a weekend retreat to a spa, and probably some under-eye concealer.

We're alive!

Well, it's been over a month since my last post. Coincidentally my last post was just 3 days prior to me returning to work. So I think it's pretty obvious that my "free-time" is non-existent at this point. Frankly I've always been one of those people who prefers having too much on my plate both figuratively and literally, so it's all good...I'm learning to juggle everything and settling into a nice new life as a mom and working woman. Tending to be a bit verbose, I'm not the best at the whole executive summary, but I'll do my best to quickly hit on the highlights from the past month+ in the McG household...

Daycare. This was more difficult than child birth (milk coming in was still worse though, don't get me started). So the nanny share thing never worked out. We interviewed probably close to 15 people... or at least attempted to... one day we had 2 no-shows in a row (talk about frustrating, as though I enjoy dragging my 3 month old out and spending my time waiting for some twit to show-up to Starbucks), and another day we had 3 in a row that within our introductions I could tell they weren't the right fit (snaggle teeth, tat's to the high heavens, and likely not a diploma from the 5th grade). Yes, I'm judging, but heck I'm trusting you with my baby, I am allowed to be 100% judgmental in this case. And I gotta say It's a pretty unimpressive showing out there of nanny's especially when they want to make the same salary as me. Ridiculous. Anway, we did like one gal who we offered the job to, but she fell threw because an old family friend also offered her a job which she obviously took. Then there was an old granny lady we offer it to as well, but g-ma didn't want 2 babies, so again it didn't work out. Long story short time was a ticking and it was becoming more of a point of frustration rather than solving an issue. So Adria (the other mama) and I decided to move on... on the plus side I did make a new friend (Adria) out of the process and I'm sure we'll get the boys together again soon. So, with very little time before I was due to return to my desk at work I was still without childcare, whoops. As luck may have it the gal across the street (who runs an in-home daycare) called and her daughter offered to nanny for Ian for the summer (at her house... essentially in the daycare) until she has a spot for him in August. PERFECT. Only issue is that she couldn't start until the beginning of May so I had a few weeks gap to fill. Thankfully my mom came to the rescue... she was willing to come to Denver for a few weeks and watch little man. It was a life saver and made my life and transition back to work soooooooo much easier. It was so nice to know for those first few weeks back that he was in the hands of someone I can obviously trust.  And now baby I is across the street in daycare with the daughter Aspen focusing on him until August.

So everyone always asks, how is it going? How is work? I sort of think people are expecting me to breakdown when they ask, so I almost feel bad saying "so far, so good." And honestly it's good. Don't get me wrong I could have gotten very comfortable staying home all day with Ian, but I think it's the right move to be back at work....It is not for everyone but it works for me. I like to think of myself as a good role model of work ethic and family values. Now I'm just learning how to multi-task like never before... it's amazing that you can pump, put on mascara, blow-dry your hair, answer an email on your iphone, and entertain a 4 month old simultaneously.  

What else have we missed? Well John's brother came out for Easter and was able to meet little man, so that was good. Here they are hanging out on Easter (not the best pic, but it's what we have). 

Oh, in the spirit of multi-tasking... I  am having a new love affair with my crockpot... it really helps make dinner easy. I always thought of it as tool to prepare fatty Middle America casseroles, but I was totally off base. For a multi-tasking mama to be able to make pulled chicken for tacos while gone at work it's amazing (I'll share that recipe soon).

What else, what else... well I celebrated my first mother's day which was super exciting, but more to come on that (I think that warrants it's own post, right?)

Upon returning to work (and truthfully prior to and during my maternity leave) I was also the co-chair for a huge design awards event on May 11th put on by IIDA (the International Interior Design Association) a professional organization that I will be President of come July. Feel free to check out the event pictures here. Nothing like essentially planning a wedding and having a baby and going back to work all in a couple month span. Yes, I'm insane and I like it.

I feel like the energizer bunny who will eventually crash, but I'm hoping that happens well into my 70's when I'm poolside with my best friends, cocktail in hand, large sun-hat on, and dripping in jewels... not that we've already planned this or anything. I honestly think the hardest thing about being back at work and having a baby is having to be so scheduled. John and I were the type that decided at 5:30 we were going to happy hour, or a Rockies game, or heck I'd  end up working late and then just go run errands after work... well those days are gone. Now we know who is picking up Ian before we leave the house that morning. It's a juggling act, but the moment I pick up little man and see his sweet little face nothing else seems to matter. I'm pretty sure he gets cuter every day.  He drools like crazy. His eyes are STILL blue! His hair is light brown and blonde (what?!). He started to roll over a little after 3 1/2 months. Smiles and coo's (in fact just yesterday John and I are pretty sure he was speaking in sentences we just haven't translated what he said). He's great, and here's some proof from Easter at our house....

He enjoys hanging with Auntie Jess

He watches the masters

He "allows" Dave Nakon to hold him and Cousin Eddie

He let's Cousin Eddie lick his feet

More photos to come...

Happy Easter!