Garage Sales and First Explosion...

Today we got up early (or Anthony got up early, I was already up with the boy) to go to a community garage sale of a friend of ours. It was pretty cold in the morning, so we bundled James up in a hoody and pants. He looked ready to go out and hit the town!

Of course, by the time we got there it had warmed up enough that he didn't really need his jacket. I still get to wash it though, because he spit up all over it as soon as we got it on him and all during the car ride. I swear that kid is nauseated by the smell of clean clothes!

Once the garage sale was over, we got to sit and visit with our friend Summer that we knew from Gainesville. Her husband used to be Anthony's roommate back when we all were dating and we had a lot of catching up to do. We were just sitting and chatting, when I smelled like someone needed a diaper change...I lifted him up off of my lap and there was poo everywhere!!! It was all over my leg, him, his clothes, even a little made it to the chair I was sitting on. How did he do that?? I didn't even know how to begin cleaning him up. It seemed like once I cleaned one part of him, another part would get poo on it and around and around we went. Of course he had to do this away from home and and away from the laundry room, clean clothes, his bathtub, anything that would have been helpful really. Thank goodness Summer took it all in stride!! I usually keep a clean onesie in the diaper bag for occasions such as this, but I happened to have taken it out for some reason. Luckily, we scored a gators onesie while garage saleing and although it was WAY too big and I would have preferred to wash it first, desperate times call for desperate measures. Looking back, I wish we had gotten a picture of the damage, it really was epic :)

Choking Scare and our First trip to the ER

James has definitely been keeping us on our toes! Last Saturday night he had a really scary episode where I went to go pick him up to feed him and I found him choking on really thick, cheese like spit-up! It was so scary!!! He had some of it running out of his nose, his eyes were really wide open and his face was a purpley red. I scooped him up right away, turned him on his stomach and started pounding his back. I could hear him take a tiny raspy breath every few seconds, but his breathing still definitely wasn't back to normal. My heart was pounding out of my chest!! I kept pounding his back and I tried to put my finger in his mouth to see if I could clear anything, but his jaw was clamped shut. Slowly he started to get his color back and more milk drained from his nose and he coughed more of it up. Once he started crying loudly, I felt much better. It was so scary!! What made it worse was Anthony wasn't even there, he was driving home from Port St. Lucie. I called him once he was breathing better and Anthony said that I did all of the right things. I really need to take a baby CPR class so that I can know what to do if heaven forbid anything worse happened.

So that was Saturday night. Last night, monday night, I was nursing him around 11pm and when I went to burp him, his spit up was a reddish/brown. It looked like blood! He has been fussy the last few days but we just assumed that he was going through a growth spurt. He didn't seem any more bothered or fussy than he had been for the past few days, but we wondered if maybe the fussyness was from something else that needed to be looked at. He kept spitting up every few minutes or so and it all was full of brown specks. We don't have a pediatrican yet in our new town, so we didn't have an after hours to call. It was off to the ER for us! After what happened Saturday there is no way that I was going to relax until we got him checked out. He was a perfect angel all the way to the hospital and the entire time we were there! He wasn't too fussy and he mostly slept, which is a good thing since we were there for 5 hours. We waited in the waiting room for 2 1/2 hours and I ended up nursing him again there. He spit up more brown stuff, but it seemed to have more white in it this time. Once we got to a room, we waited almost an hour to see the doctor. There was only one doctor on duty and he seemed very frazzled (but very nice!). He checked him over and said that he looked very healthy, which was good, but didn't give him very many clues as to what was going on. So he decided to have me nurse him again and see if he vomited or spit up as a test for something called pyloric stenosis (it  means that a valve in his stomach is not letting his food pass into his intestines). This still didn't really explain the brown in his spit up, but we went ahead and did. Wouldn't you know that kid didn't spit up one bit after I nursed him this time! The doc said that it pretty much ruled out pyloric stenosis and he really didn't have an explanation for the brown spit up.

Since he is so healthy looking and doesn't seem in pain or bothered by it, they sent us home. My only guess is that he had some random bleeding because of reflux that stopped or perhaps I was bleeding while nursing him and didn't realize it? Either way, I was glad to get some piece of mind that we weren't ignoring something serious by not taking him to the ER. And even though it stunk to wait 5 hours before we could go home, it only cost us a $25 copay and our time to get some peace of mind so it was totally worth it.

Here he is, sleeping in the room they put us in. Do you see that little smile? That stinker never looked healthier once we brought him to the ER :)

Shopping with the boy

I've discovered that going places with James is much easier when I can put him in the sling once we get there, instead of carrying him around in his car seat. He really doesn't like the car seat! He used to love taking car rides but he really doesn't anymore. He cries most of the time when he is in it. But he loves that sling!! And I love it too since it is hands free and much easier to carry him in. I've decided to get a few more to try out and see if there are any other types that I like.

Animal Reunion

We finally have all of our pets back home with us at the new place. The dogs have been staying with my mom since right before James was born since they are such high maintenance dogs. They seriously want attention/need something all of the time!! Especially since we were in an apartment and had to physically walk them every time they needed to go to the bathroom, it just wasn't feasible with a newborn at least not for me :)

Our cat loved having the dogs gone!! She had a completely different personality, much more relaxed and friendly. She moved with us to the new place and she has discovered that she likes hanging out on the top of our closet doors. It is so strange to walk into a room and have the cat staring down at you!

The dogs came home Sunday night and we are adjusting to having them and the baby. I got used to having things on the floor and letting James hang out on his mat, but now I have to make sure the dogs bombard him! Yesterday we found Bitsy enjoying some sun from the front door. So cute!

6 Weeks Old

My little boy is getting so big!! He looks so much more like a baby to me than the little red wrinkly thing we brought home from the hospital. He has started looking around at things and I've started putting him on this play mat for some "activity" time after I nurse him. He seems to like it for about 10 minutes and then he is done and just wants to be swaddled and held. I love watching him grow up, it is amazing that he seems to develop overnight at this age. Simply amazing.

I meant to get pictures of him in his "It's me first St. Patrick's day" onesie, but as soon as I put it on him, he spit up all over it and it had to go into the wash. Oh well, at least he wore it for 1 hour right?

Look at those juicy thighs! He is starting to get some rolls, which I love!!!

Moving On

We've been so caught up in having our little guy, that I haven't updated our blog about Anthony's job search! To sum up: Anthony took his boards exactly one week after James was born (4 days after we came home from the hospital!) and passed!!! Since he passed, he could start sending out his resumes and applying for jobs. He was looking mostly on the east coast of Florida, around the area where he grew up and got an interview with a private practice in New Smyrna Beach. The day after the interview he was offered the position and he accepted it!

So, we are moving to New Smyrna Beach on the 12th of this month so that he can start work on the 20th. He is really excited about where he will be working, he really likes the doctors he will be working with and the atmosphere is exactly what he wants it to be. There were a few other options that had better benefits, but Anthony wasn't nearly as happy about working there so we decided to follow his gut and go with a place where he would be excited and happy to go to work every day.

We looked up rental houses in the area and signed a lease on a newer 3 bedroom/2 bathroom house. We are so excited to finally have a fenced in back yard for the dogs. Since we still have a mortgage on our condo in Gainesville, we don't plan on buying a house for awhile. Got to start paying back those student loans!

1 month Update

James had his 1 month appointment with the Dr. today and he did really well! He had to get a shot :( so he is kind of fussy today, but I am so proud of my growing boy!

Weight: 7lbs, 2.5ozs
Length: 19.75 inches

He has gained a pound and grown an entire inch in two weeks!! We thought he was going through a growth spurt earlier this week since he had gone back to nursing every 2 hours (not. fun.) and we sure were right. I've been feeling frustrated with breastfeeding lately and I'm always worried that he is not getting enough, so it is nice to know that he is definitely getting what he needs to grow.

Life with a newborn is getting more manageable, if not easier. We are learning the ropes and I even went on an outing with just him and me earlier this week. I felt so accomplished that I was able to manage his carseat and stroller all by myself!

Goin' Fishing

We found an adorable fishing outfit at build-a-bear that is just James' size! He is ready to be daddy's little fishing buddy! I don't know if you can tell from his poses, but this kid loves to eat his hands :)