Your face is kinda scratchy!

365 days to the big 3-0!

Yikes!

Support a great cause!

My friend Paul is raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association again.

Please support him!

http://www.outlandishbiscuit.com/2009/03/mda.html

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today Alex & I went up to my Alma Mater, Penn State, and spent the day showing off my sweet little baby. Of course everyone loved him!

...yes, yes you are.

Sunset on Lake Erie

So tonight we decided to try out Backyard Burgers, but first went and drove around the Peninsula. It wasn't too cold, and the wind was relatively calm, so we got Alex out of the car and enjoyed five minutes or so of the pre-sunset.

If you've never tried Backyard Burgers before, I highly recommend it. It's "fast food," but tastes like a higher quality burger. We will definitely go back.

Surreal

It's been two weeks since Alex was born, and it still doesn't seem real (maybe it's the sleep-deprivation talking).

We're still having some issues - he doesn't sleep consistently yet (but I know it can take up to 6 weeks for him to get in synch). He also sometimes has problems with latching on to feed. Sometimes he will just scream & scream until he gets hysterical. When he does this, I feel so bad for him. He will turn really red & have tears streaming down his face, and sometimes can take twenty minutes to an hour to calm down enough to decide that the boob in his mouth is actually food. Other times he latches on right away. It can be frustrating, and there's nothing I (or Justin) can do but wait it out.

We went on our first walk yesterday. It was chilly but sunny. I got him in his car seat, then hitched up the dogs and took the dogs outside to wait.

I grabbed his stroller frame, and took that downstairs. I then grabbed my camera and Alex and carried him downstairs and put him in his stroller frame. We all waited for Justin to finish messing around with his new tractor, then we went for the walk. It was nice - I just had to make sure I didn't walk too fast (I have a long stride and would trip the bar between the wheels) or hit any lips in the sidewalk (the wheels aren't great and would pitch the whole stroller forward), or run over a slow-moving dog.

New Blog

My husband started his own blog. Feel free to take a look!

Grease, Gas and Wildfire

Maybe I'm taking too many pictures...

Best. Diet. EVER

Not that I've ever dieted or anything (heck, I never even owned a scale until my husband's aunt & uncle died, and he "inherited" it).

Alex is 11 days old. In those 11 days, I've lost 30 pounds so far. Thirty freaking pounds! Last week I was able to "fit" into my regular jeans, but I had quite the muffin top going. This morning I put on my maternity pants and took the dogs for a walk. I practically walked out of my pants! I think I'm down to one actual pair of jeans that I can wear - my "shopping" maternity jeans that have the extra supportive band at the top that gives me a weird indent halfway up my stomach, but my pants stay ON dang it! I think I'm going to have to pull out my regular jeans again and see if I'm any less banana nut-like. Hopefully the weight keeps coming off, and maybe I'll even eventually be a whole size smaller! That would be nice.

First (sponge) Bath

Alex got his first bath at home on Sunday evening. Since he had just lost his stump and was circumcised just a week ago, it had to be a sponge bath. I got to use some of the Cucumber Melon body wash that I got from the baby shower.

He wasn't too happy about it.

Cord

Alex lost his umbilical cord stump today! We're one step closer to giving him an actual bath.

Alexander James

Born: Sunday, March 1, 2009 @ 2am
Weight: 7lbs 14oz
Length: 21"
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On Saturday, I woke up around 3am with minor pains. I went to sleep on the couch (Justin was snoring like usual), and woke up around 9 or 10 with more consistent pains. Justin had gone into work for a bit, and I just rested and checked my email - normal stuff. By the time he got home, I was looking for an online contraction timer, and they were erratic, but slowly getting closer together. I took a shower, and Justin made lunch. As I was eating, I was timing my contractions, and they were about 4 mins apart, and just over a minute(ish) long. I eventually got ahold of my mom & asked her to come get the dogs & change the guinea pig cages. We started gathering up what we needed for the hospital, and left about 6:30.

Once there, they checked me & saw that I was already at 5cm! They asked me if I wanted anything for the pain, but really, it wasn't that bad. Around midnight or so, I was nearly dialted the whole way, and the nurse had me lay on my side, which made my contractions feel 10x stronger (and made me throw up my lunch - hopefully I'll be able to eat rotini & meat sauce again). My body did its job though, and soon it was time to push. I won't go into details, but I pushed for an hour and then Alex was born! He ended up coming out with his hand right by his face. (ow).