First Solid Food

I REALLY wanted to wait until he was 6 months old to try solid food. At first this started happening:
At first we attributed it to him just reaching for things in general. Then he started sucking on the glasses we would drink out of. Then finally he started grabbing food out of our hands. So i pulled out the book i had been reading about what and how to feed baby Baby Super Food by Ruth Yaron. http://www.amazon.com/Super-Baby-Food-Ruth-Yaron/dp/0965260313/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229902032&sr=8-1
I would have liked to make my own rice cereal, but apparently until 6 months old he isn't ready for that. so, reluctantly at 4.5 months we tried some commercial rice cereal. He couldn't get enough of it!

Day two i pushed the envelope and made it too thick and it just wasn't happy for anyone. Two more days of cereal and we get to move on to either sweet potatoes, avocado, or bananas. hmmm.....decisions!

Bedtimes

Upon becoming a mom I discovered that I have hippie tendencies - no offense to the hippies out there at all, because i am becoming one of you. I tried to have an unmedicated birth (made it 18/21 hours), i have only breastfed Mason and hope to continue with that for a year, i prefer a baby sling instead of a baby carrier, i chose only the most important vaccines and excluded most of them, and i like to co-sleep with Mason. However, Mason and i are alike in many ways. We are not morning people, we are cranky when we wake up, and we stretch out while we sleep (and keep in mind there are often 6 of us in the bed). I know he is only 17 pounds but he stretches to take up a HUGE amount of space, and when he is next to me he wants to eat about every 2 hours. We both sleep better when he isn't in the bed. However...... it was a bit of a fight, ok a lot of a fight, to convince Mason that falling asleep in a crib is better than a bed cuddeled up to mom. (it sounds silly but i learned with dogs that what you start at a young age gets continued into adulthood where it is much harder to undo trainings aka, i decided to fight the fight now because it would only get worse when he was more mobile and had more of an opinion)

So I did what I do best, and I took to the internet to reasearch baby sleep. And i decided that i needed a routine for Mason. He needed a bedtime, a bathtime before that, and to read a book, then get fed and be put to sleep drowsy(it took three weeks of hour long bedtimes to get him ok with that). The book just got re-introduced. the first time we tried he had no attention to the book. Last night we started with the books again and he is so into it! he looks at the pictures, reaches for the pages, even turns the pages! He is a book reader!

And he now goes to sleep with little help - if you don't count the sleep sheep, twilight turtle, and rainforest music thingy. But sometimes it takes none of that.

Mason's favorist thing

Mason loves to roll over to the right. Now here in lies the problem: once you roll over you are on your tummy, which is enjoyable for a short time, but long term isn't his favorite. He can not roll back to his back once he is there. He is thus far a one way roller. Isn't this kinda his first life lessons - sometimes the action is more fun than where you end up, and it isn't always as easy to undo what has been done.

And, he rolled over to the left for the first time today too. My little baby is all growns up!

p.s. i have dogs

So.......... before the baby(and in the case of Murphy before the hubby) i was a dog lover.

Murphy (in the middle) is my perfect shelter dog from the Monterey Shelter. I went in to get a license, and walked out with him....he would hide under the car when people tried to meet him. you would not know that now, he is a perfect dog - with some minor flaws that i mostly ignore. He is probably part German Shepard, part cattle dog, and whatever else you see in him. I guess that he is 4 years old.

Then came Bentley the golden retriever. I got him when he was 6 weeks, he was born the day that i got Murphy. he is 3 and acts like he is 6 months still....to be fair he is 6 months mentally and the dumbest dog i have ever had. i love him dearly and will always have to have a golden....but he is not too smart. I think he is described best by the words oaf and goof ball.

Then came Hailey. she played flyball, and so did i for a year. i adopted her and we became the 5th home she has had. she is a border collie and crazy as all get up. she runs in circles all day, literally. i could get on my soap box and rant about people that get cute puppies without researching breeds. a dog that is bred to work 8 hours running cattle on a ranch, might not make the best back yard dog. she is 6. i love her but she gets on my last nerve. We will keep her, but some days i dream what my life would be without her crazy habits. you think i am exaggerating but i am not. she is OCD. i have had Friends cry over how sad it is - that normal neglect could turn a dog literally crazy. and of all the border collies i have met she is the mild version.

So that is my dog family. I use to be super active in dog classes, and helped train dogs at the shelter. We even bought our house where we did so i could be close to the off leash trails. They were my first kids. they sleep in our room and sometimes our bed. so yes, for those of you keeping track, that is 6 bodies in one bed or room. good thing kurt LOVES me!

He rolled over

Today we went to a cookie decorating party at our friends house (Don and Alexa)...so fun! And afterwards at home Mason rolled over to the right for the very first time all by himself. He has been doing it with some help/nudging/pushing, but this was his very first time all on his own! He is growing so so much and so quickly too!

A day in San Francisco

So because it is Christmas, and we live so close to the city we decided to go see the tress and lights and decorated windows. We also wanted a few more photos for our Christmas card. Yes, we just finished it today - so you will be getting yours a little after Christmas - but with oh such cute photos! I have to say, Mason going 3-4 hours between feedings makes my life functional. For example when we parked i fed him, and then spent probably 3 hours window shopping and having fun. and when we got back to the car i fed him again.....but he didn't ask for it. So nice to not be constantly feeding him!

We spent the day in union square. Our first stop was Macy's to see the trees and pick out an ornament. We had gotten this totally adorable and ridiculous Santa outfit for him, and i would say we got 30 comments on it. Here i am helping Mason hold his two ornaments:

In Macy*s they had a whole room of santas....so we had to add Mason to the bunch...like a where's waldo book:

Then as we continued to walk around we kept seeing photo ops.... With a huge bear with Dad,

And a nut cracker with Mom:

It is amazing how many photos are super cute with a baby - i am sure we were bugging everyone in the store who was actually shopping, as we kept stopping and parking the stroller around every cute photo appropriate object.

Then it was on to Neiman Marcus with the 1000 foot tree in the entrance. we had to go UP to get to the perfect photo spot (the rotunda - where on trips without the baby we have had LOVELY lunches before). We would be a bit passive aggressive, start taking photos of each other with Mason and then some nice passerby would offer to take a photo with all three of us.

And of course we took photos with the HUGE 80 foot tree in the center Union Square, with and without the Grinch.

We walked around and saw the windows with all of their decorations. I have to say that the windows weren't quite as grand as previous years. True, we did not go off the square proper to see gumps or some of the other normally wonderful windows. But the ones we saw were a little more quiet. Maybe it is the economy - maybe it is just my child-like remembrance of them? We did go into Tiffany's where they had a tree with tiny blue boxes. Good things did come in small packages this year!All in all it was a great day. No rain, lots of photos. I even ate my very first chestnut - verdict says: soft, mushy and not all that great all in all!

The state of my wardrobe.

So let's be brutally honest.... I gained 50 pounds with mason from start to finish. In the beginning of the pregnancy i lost weight because i was so sick. so really i gained close to 60 pounds. i don't know how it happened...i didn't eat anything but soy milk protein shakes hardly. i had lost 30 pounds by the time i got home from the hospital. i was lucky if i ate 2 meals a day while i was pregnant. but it happened none the less. More brutal honesty, at my skinniest ever i was a size 4. This happened exactly twice in my life...when i was crazy depressed after a break up and went to the gym 2 hours a day every day, and also for my wedding.

For a month after Mason was born i wore my maternity clothes. But after 4 weeks i just couldn't handle the elastic anymore - oh yes they are comfortable, but i needed to feel human again, and they were just getting TOO big. But being frugal i figured i should try on my old clothes "just to see" before i went and spent money. well here is a lesson....if you have gained 60 pounds and are in the process of loosing it...don't "just see" with your tiniest clothes first. i started with clothes i had worn on my honeymoon. i don't know what i was thinking. Kurt came in during this process and laughed at me, i couldn't get the pants up to my hips. it was funny in a sad sort of way. i was able to salvage some shirts and i think sweat pants. even the jackets and most shirts wouldn't fit over my enormous breast feeding self. So off to gap outlet to find clothes that would fit. i had no idea where to start...i think i brought in like 4 sizes to the dressing room. i knew i was not a size 4 LOL...but not much beyond that. i settled on some VERY tight size 10 pants and size LARGE tops. this was humbling. i think i got 2 pairs of pants total, and 4 t-shirts. i refused to invest in this new size.

Currently 10's didn't fit, they are too big! so i decided to weigh myself. I was back at my pre-baby weight....but my body is just not the same....i Have padding on my hips that i never had before, and the flab just seems to be everywhere. I never had a tight body - but i also never jiggled before quite like this. I am not sad about these things, they are just facts of the current state of being. So i am now in size 8 jeans - barely. it is a tight fit, and they must be air dried! Ok, and being honest - there is a bit of me hanging over the tops. but i am in them.

Today i am going through all my pre-pregnancy looking for a red turtle neck to wear to the city on Saturday. and i am finding all my cute size 4 and 6 clothes. And i am coming to the conclusion that i will probably not wear them again. I just don't have the time that it required to be a size 4....and the 6's - well....i don't have the time for those either. i know i know, it took 10 months to get this way, and it will take that long to get back to normal, and it has only been 4 months. But it isn't just the number of pounds that i am....my body truly is different than ever before. it did the task of a century in carrying and birthing a human - a think that is to be awarded. But it will be awarded in non size 6 ways. Besides, the time and effort that it would take to get to those sizes would be ruined when i have the next baby. That said i just can't bare to part with them. so we have 4 piles of sorting going on:

1. I can wear you now
2. i can't wear you and/or don't want to anyway- you are getting donated
3. Size 6 to be saved "just in case"
4. Size 4 to be saved "in case of body miracle".

you will be proud to know that i did not try on the sizes i knew would not fit -but just put them straight into their correct bin home for safe keeping - just in case.

Size update

as of 12/3 Mason was 16.6 pounds, 26 inches long.....in the 90th percentiles still!

Trial Run

SO in order to save my job after the FMLA and California bonding leave, i had to change my official status to per diem, until my return. Somewhere during my leave i had a conversation with my boss and said, if you need help let me know. Weeks later he called me on it....to help train a new manager who needed some TLC. I said sure.
The day before i was going i started feeling mad at myself for agreeing to do this. I have only a finite amount of time to be home with Mason before i must go back to work almost full time...why would i volunteer to be away during this special time? But i had agreed, and a practice run so to speak would be nice. so sunday i had to get bottles ready - defrosted out of the freezer, get the breast pump ready (yes, mason has only had breast milk so far), inform the hubby on mason's schedule - complete with instructions for the gymboree class that he was going to encounter, find clothes that i could wear to work that also fit. My current size 8 jeans weren't going to cut it, nor my pre-pregnancy clothes :(.
SO off to work i was on Monday. Leaving Mason was horrible. It isn't about not trusting my husband...i figured out what mason has needed in these past 4 months and he will be able too. It is about me not being with him. i have only ever left him before for pilates and my 6 week check up. And if i am honest, what if kurt can't figure out what the baby needs? Once at work i have to say it was a blast to be back in the work mind frame. My teaching style has changed so much - things that were once black and white (i tend to be the rule follower) seem not so important when compared to having a child whose future well being depends on me. I still know policies need to be followed, but i don't feel it in my gut like i use to. It was fun to be able to teach, and help someone - to make their life easier. it was wonderful to hear people say i looked good, as if i had never had a baby (flattery will get you places).
So after 2.5 hours at work, and 2 hours of travel time i was back home. And i was a bit hurt to know that mason didn't miss me. he had a hard time napping - but seemed to accept his dad as his caregiver as readily as me. So me going back to work will be ok on him and me. But i still don't want to. Freaking America that gives women 12 weeks off total (including pre-pregnancy time off). we are supposed to nurse our babies for a year. Countries around the world give women a year off - if not paid they at least save your job. we wonder as a civilization why our kids are failing, yet we don't value them enough to let their parents parent them. I digress. I will survive going back to work. so will mason. But it will break my heart. Not being able to be with my little baby and see every aspect of his growth, to not support his every need, to miss things is horrible! oh to be a cavewoman and be able to carry and be with my baby all the time. It just feels like as a mother i was created to feed and care for my baby and by nature of not being with him i can't do that.

I chose to have a family before we were financially free. I knew it meant i would have to go back to work. But that does not make going back any easier. It makes me sick to think about being away from him. Darn this two income society that we have created.....and the lifestyle i chose before i knew what i was choosing. i chose to buy and remodel a house, and have a lavish wedding before i met mason and knew how hard it would be to be apart from him. i figured it was the norm so i would be fine with it. I hate the norm and i am not fine with it.

Please know that i am not judging women who want to work. If that is you, i applaud you. it is important to know your strengths and what makes you and your family healthy. I don't think we all made to LOVE to stay at home.and i think that we have to be happy first before we can be good caregivers. I thought i would be someone who wanted to work, but as it turns out i am not. I just hate not having the option but having to work to survive.

Christmas time is offically here

A few days ago Kurt said to me, so are we going to go have pictures taken with Santa? It hadn't even occurred to me. But of course we had to! So this morning we showed up at the Village Mall to wait in line at 10, even though Santa didn't make it until 11. We HATE waiting in lines, and not surprisingly we weren't the first ones there. We thought that the Southern Marin Santa was bound to be better than the san rafael version...who knows?!?!

Here we are at 10am waiting in line. Mason loved playing with my furry scarf. It was actually cold enough today for him to need to wear a hat today. My little baby man bear.

Here is Mason with Santa. Because Mason is so little Santa felt ok being his non-santa self and told us he became a father at 67, 9 years ago.....hmmm. Don't worry - we have a better version for the Christmas card, still to come.

After Mason told santa what he wanted Kurt and i went over to the apple store to oogle the apple tvs.....decisions....do we ask Santa for a HD camcorder or an Apple TV? yes, there is quite a price difference. But being able to capture those moments of Mason seems priceless. And the HD, because i don't see us ever buying a non-HD tv from here on out, is probably well worth it.

Next we were off to the chirstmas tree lot. Kurt and i realized that we had never had a tree together. yes, this is our 3rd christmas together...but excuses about Dogs and being out of town etc always seemed to have gotten in the way. What started out as a search for a little first tree turned into a 6-7 foot noble fir tree. It is pretty. And putting lights on it, and picking out the perfect spot for all the ornaments....makes it seem like christmas season.

Then to complete the evening we went down to old town novato's tree lighting festival, it was advertised to start at 4:30....i didn't bother to read the schedule, which noted that santa didn't arrive until 5, and the tree wouldn't get lit until 6. so we stayed long enough to enjoy the free cider and coco, buy some baked goods to support a dance team, listen to some carols, and have Mason tucker completely out. So before santa arrived we headed home. We will plan our arrival differently next year. Having a baby makes all these Christmas time activities so much more meaningful and fun...even though he does not appreciate them yet. And i am all to aware that all this fluff is not what christmas is really about, but the festivities to support the commericalism, are so fun and make me happy!

Good things about living with the inlaws...yes there are some!

These are mason's two great grandmas above, BJ Ellis (step grandma) on the left and Jackie Ellis on the right. You can also see great uncle David on the right

Here are both sets of grandparents Carl and Bonnie Engel on the left, and Jim and Penny Slater on the Right

So....i was not the most positive about the prospect of moving in with parents, i thought it was going to be functional and horrible. I know that around the world this is how families work, and some would argue better than the western model...i however tend to be a bit independent and like my space and to do things my own way. So, in the spirit of the holidays, here are the positive aspects of living with extended family, which has actually turned out to be kind of nice:

1. Coffee in the mornings is hot and ready when i come up, with fixings close by.

2. Often on weekends if we are running late for church there is toast made for us to go.

2. If i cook dinner (since i am still home with mason i usually do) i don't have to do clean up - i get to just leave the table and get mason ready for a bath and bed

3. Sometimes dinner is made for me, and all i have to do is help with clean up!

4. The one time that kurt and i had date night, mason was able to stay with nana and stay in his own room too.....when i go back to work this will come into play again.

5. mason shifts (nana 8-11, dad 11-3, mom other times) will be much easier on mason when i go back to work.

6. In the mornings when we are trying to get ready....and really pretty much all the time, there always seems to be an extra set of arms ready to hold onto and love the little man - the time in the bouncer and swing are almost non-existent now.

7. On a selfish note, the house is bigger and so is the yard from the one we were in before....with a usable guest suite when family comes to visit.

8. My father in law Carl has an AMAZING wine collection that i am able to utilize on those teething/shot days that i need some time to unwind once the baby is in bed.

9. On the occasion that i have a baby care question, Mother in law bonnie is the baby expert!

It is really nice to have family close by! When i do go back to work, it will be the best possible situation with him being able to stay with grandma and dad - and not having to juggle his location. Not that i want to stay here until he is 3 and goes to preschool......but for the time being it is all working out well. We have quite a bit to be thankful for, that is for sure!

I am a bug person!

Let me preface this by saying i am a bug person. I am the person that captures and saves spiders and frees them to the outside. My uncle is a herpatologist. I grew up playing with newts, and snakes, and other creepy things. I am a bug person.

Until i came face to face with this:

Here is the aerial view:

This is taken from my i phone so let me point out: It is as thick as my pinkie and probably half as long, it has two huge eyes on the head, it has a mouth that you can see, the mouth has two pincers/fangs. The eyes are looking at me. And it looks hungry and mean and dangerous

I am a bug person and this one made me scream. i was cleaning, moved a blanket, and saw it - we came face to face. It was HUGE and dangerous looking, and based on size i thought it was fast. fortunatly it was not fast. But that did not negate the scariness of it.

My husband was out playing poker and this bug and i and my son were home. I almost made him come home to check out this bug and have him decide if it was deadly. It was that scary. Remember that i am the bug person in this relatioship. Instead i kept the bug in prison with frequent security checks. This bug although HUGE was not fast or strong. We sruvived us three, until my mother in law came home to declare it a harmless potato bug.

I take her word for it......but it is still scary. But should i come face to face with a huge fanged potato bug again i will take him outside. I will be the potato bug person next time - but i won't like it!

Our First Holiday

When Mason had just been born on one of our first outings we saw costunes....and with the excitment that only new parents can have about dressing kids up in stupid costumes before they have an opionon to fight otherwise, we bought this little monster costume...poor kid! He started out growing it before Halloween hit, so we had to dress him up and snap some shots of him! As he started moving his hands those little monster hands moved up, and was just too cute!

Apparanlty not only parents buy ridiculous outfits...this one is from grandma Bonnie. At 10 weeks he looks like a stuffed sausage in this halloween outfit - 100% purely breast fed huge baby. ...mini version of fat man in a little coat. The onesie has feet, and socks over it - not pictured were the shoes that came with the halloween hat that would not stay on the feet. We were laughing at the number of layers and ill fitting outfit - and our laughing never ceases to make him happy. It is amazing that our joy can become his. But, we had to take the outfit off right away because it just did not fit at all.

Here is the final version of Halloween.... Kurt obviously got to pick the theme. I am princess Leia, Kurt is Han Solo, and Mason is a tiny chewbaca! What a cute little star wars loving family we have become. This is probably our last Halloween that we get to choose his costume - in the course of this next year he will change so much. He will learn to walk, to eat, to talk. He will become more of my little man each day, and less like my baby boy.

12 weeks

12 weeks ago today i became a mother for the first time. He will be 3 months on 11/5/08. People say and it is so true that time goes by so quickly. He is going to be a baby for such a short period of time. And yet, it feels like he has been in my life forever. I can't imagine what i would be doing right now if he wasn't in my life(ok, i would be at work). i look at his baby pictures and he has already changed and grown so much. I know him so well that when he is sick or out of sorts i can tell without him being able to speak. I love how i can make him smile and laugh. I love the faces he makes when he is tired and doesn't want to wake up in the morning. I love the cuddles. I love seeing him figure how to reach for a toy, or kick in the bath water. I love watching him see things for the first time. I love his little personality and own identity - he is growing and isn't just a baby anymore, but a person! I love how much i love him. Being a mom in many ways is very healing. we all have pains from our pasts and we have all felt injustice in some way. But knowing no matter their faults that my parents must have loved me in this same way is healing. Knowing that they tried their best all the time, as i try my best, is healing. Mason is not just now a part of my life, he is my whole life now. I have loved in the past, and i love Kurt as i have never loved someone else before. But your child - that is a whole different ball of wax.

I really wish i could stay home with him full time and be his mom. But in January i must go back to work. It will break my heart! But living with the in laws and me working full time are all to get rid of the debt so that maybe i can stay home more and be more of a mom. Because really, that matters so much more to me than my career. I use to be so driven to get to the next level, to be promoted, to be the best at what i do. and i just want to be the best mom. i want Mason to know that he is loved and important and supported. I don't ever want him to doubt that his parents are there for him.

Kindermusik Outing

http://www.musicwithmelissa.com/

Today Mason and i went to Kindermusik.

I am tired of sitting in the house, or going shopping, or for a walk. These are all good things to do - but every once in a while i need something different to do. There are exercise classes where you take the baby with you - but that ends up being neither fun or mom or baby, how can you do yoga when the baby wants to be rocked? (Besides when is exercise fun? i have signed up for a pilates class all by myself - but i wouldn't call that fun - just necessary! since my body is in a state of never before seen flab) so i started googling and looking for classes. This class was geared for babies (birth -20 months) which is unusual and they offered a FREE trial class, which is great these days.

It was so much fun! there is singing and dancing and signing and instruments and flags. Most of it is done by the parents with the kids participating as they are able. But it was awesome to interact with mason differently, see him watch the other kids, to be with other moms - and just get out of the house. I am sure Kurt is glad that i will learn new songs - i have been singing the same 3 songs that i only remember half of for the past 10 weeks - often with my own words made up - a change in that department will be nice.

Of course after 4 days of no poop, in the middle of our class Mason decided to end that issue - 3 times. Murphy's Law!

So starting October 30th Mason and i are enrolling in our very first mommy and me class. And i am so excited!

4 daily tasks

Everyday there are 4 things that I attempt to do, however i think only once have i gotten all 4 done. I am not short on time, but somehow just as i start doing one task that is the moment Mason needs my undivided attention - and when that moment passes i must start again with the task.

1. Go for a walk: This means Mason must be full, clean, and dressed. I must be dressed. I need to choose which dog gets to go. (With three dogs, i can't take them all - and i don't want just one to feel like the reject so one gets to go. Depending on where we are walking, and what i expect to encounter - horses on a trail, other dogs, loose cows on a hillside, horses behind a fence - i either stick with the rotation or skip around to set myself up for success. Of course if i choose the non-dog friendly dog i will encounter dogs where i never have before!) THen mason must be strapped into the jogging stroller - much easier to push than regular stoller especially on trails! Then we walk for an hour. With my current very out of shape condition this is quite the task!

2. Shower: To decrease the chance of a screaming baby mid shampoo - mason needs to be recently changed and fed. The bouncy chair needs to brought into the bathroom. Then hopefully i will get about 30 minutes to shower and get ready.

3. Eat Lunch: I am lucky enough to have Kurt work only 5 minutes from the house with an incredibly flexible schedule. More often than not he is able to come home and either make lunch for us, or hold mason so i can make lunch. On the rare occasions that he is not here i try to make lunch for myself while mason is asleep around 11:30. ABout half the time i choose to skip lunch during a nap time and check e-mail or do one of the other 4 tasks that need to be done - or i will pay bills or check e-mail and have Hattie time. on those days i eat a yogurt or something that can be picked up easily! If i choose to actually make a sandwich, i must not only make it, but eat it and clean it up before mason wakes up.

4. House chore: I try to pick one task a day to get done: clothes laundry, change the sheets, vacum the house, sweep the hardwood floors, clean a bathroom, baby laundry, put laundry away. More often than not this does not get done. Often i say, when kurt gets home i will do the laundry. Then when kurt gets home i say, i think i will go to the bathroom, or brush my teeth - or something that has also been neglected in that day's list.

Extras: Things that must be fit in some way into this daunting list of 4 tasks include - play time for mason, tummy time for mason, bathroom time for mommy, cooking dinner - i need at least one meal a day.

Now that i am starting to go out the world more - to grocery shop, or go to babies r us, or some of the classes i have signed up for, or church - a shower is a must (darn social standards lol) - but it also means less of the necessary 4 tasks get done. Oh well. I think it is better to have a normal life than a clean house! Thank goodness i have a very patient and understanding husband who after a full and busy day at work comes home to a disaster of a house and takes no notice. He says you have been busy keeping the baby alive. Which is such a big task i do understand....but shouldn't i be able to have clean clothes too? I mean it is just one not very mobile baby. Women manage to care for multiple mobile children and get all this done - plus make their own baby food.

I use to feel successful and fufilled when i was able to make budgets, and develop programs, and help old people learn how to get dressed again, or out of bed, after an injury. Now - just being with mason, even if i don't accomplish half of those tasks makes me feel fufilled. I in some ways do want to go back to work and have that working identity again. However - i really just want to stay at home and raise mason to be a happy, healthy kid!

Vaccines and procedures

Let me preface this by saying i work in health care. I support Western Medicine. i use antibiotics, and get my shots. However....people do your research and ask questions. I don't necessarily think there is a right or wrong answer as long as you are well informed, and the decision is yours. It is the people who don't know better and just to what doctors suggest that frustrate me. They don't know any better - and it would never occur to them that one should independently research - after all, don't doctors know best? Doctors make us sign informed consent waivers - but really how informed are we?

Here is an example - after i gave birth the doctors wanted to give Mason eye antibiotics to prevent chlamydia in his eyes. Mind you i am married, and they tested me for this in the beginning of my pregnancy. They know i am negative - yet they want him to get antibiotics. And then people wonder where these super bugs who are immune to antibiotics come from.

Another example - after i gave birth the doctors wanted to give Mason a hep B shot. Hep B you get from sexual activity or IV drug use. I know kids do things SUPER early these days - but as an infant i am reasonable sure he will not be sexually active. I will bring him in to get the shot at 12, heck even 10 - before these issues come up - but when he is bigger and older and his body can better process all the toxins in the vaccine.

Now i get that it is a public health issue. That women who can't afford health care may never come back in when the child is 12 to get the shot. I get that women who say they are healthy are actually not - and you want to protect the child. I understand why they make these things mandatory. But - they are not needed for the average child. And very few people do the research. When medicine is needed it is wonderful - but when it is not, we are exposing ourselves and children to things they don't need. i had to sign waivers for 4 (as i deemed them) unnecessary vaccines/ procedures.....but the nurses all agreed with me

Mason is scheduled for his first vaccines today. I am not anti-vaccination. But i have done my research on the risks and benefits of each individual vaccine as well as the combos they want to give...how they are made, what metals and preservatives are in them, in addition to what they are meant to prevent. Some i have opted not to expose him to - the risk in my opinion is greater than the benefit. Some he will get as scheduled. Some he won't get at all. Maybe after you research you decide to follow the AAP recommended schedule - great! All i am saying is do your research, know what you are exposing yourself and your kids to. Don't leave it to the well paid doctor to decide what is right for you and your family.

8 weeks old

so, 8 weeks have passed - amost 9, and today he is 2 months old! So much has happenedand changed that i honestly can't believe that it has only been 8 weeks. He sleeps through the night about half the time (10 pm - 7am), the othr half he wakes up once. He is smiling and cooing and singing. Kurt and I feel like our life is complete now, and perfect. not that it felt empty before - - just so much more full now.

We have made the decision after much discussion and prayer to move in with kurt's parents. The past two years of real estate and the ever ellusive promise of it getting better any day now have caught up with us.We bought and remodeled a house, planned and paid for a wedding and honeymoon, and had a baby, all while thinking any day now it will have to get better and the pay day will come....so far it hasn't. We would like for me to be able to stay at home with mason and his siblings eventually, to get a bigger house, to allow Mason the ability to do all the extracirculars his little heart desires.....so we will take the next year to pay off bills and become financially more free - for the sake of our family. There were all kinds of reasons not to do this - but they were all selfish. We are keeping our house, and renting it out to our current roomate, and he will find roomates. At the end of a year we may sell this house or continue to rent it - if it makes sense. I know debt is the american way now - look at the failing banks - but it makes me feel like i can't breathe. knowing that there is a way out - even if it means living with parents - allows me to breath again!

Mason is one week old

I will spare you the birth story, when i was pregnant i saw a t-shirt that said "spare me your birth story" and i loved it! Mason was a week late. My doc wanted to induce me at 41 weeks - but i opted for the non-stress test instead. It showed that everything was fine - but it also showed that i was having contractions i couldn't feel. I started feeling them at noon, and by 11pm i was in the hospital. 18 hours out of 21 i was able to do it without medication. Meeting Mason was amazing - to realize that this human, this person had just moments before been inside of me - was now an independent part of our family.

12 hours after he was born we were able to go home and spend the first night as a family in our own room. Both sets of grandparents came to meet him on day 2, and Kurt was home this whole week. As we started feeling better this week also included Mason's first bath in the sink tub, his first outing to church, his first doctor's appointment (just a weight check), and first walk around the block.

Before Mason

Here is a highlight of the 3 years before the baby came:

Kurt and Hattie met at the Wedding of their friends, Marci and Ralph Montes on June 4 2005. It took us a few months and a few phone calls - but our first date was in September. Hattie was living in monterey in an apartment right on the beach. By January 2006 we had moved in together in Novato, CA....we knew it was quick but we knew it was right too. May 2006 we went to Mexico for a vacation and....got engaged! January 2007 we bought our first house, remodeled it and moved in Febuary 15, 2007. We got married May 12, 2007, and then found out we were pregnant November of 2007.

Hattie came to the relationship with a dog - and now we are up to a total of 3. Yes, it is a lot of dogs - but we love them. And no, we aren't planning on adding to that number, legally we are only allowed to have 3 dogs in Novato.

Kurt is in Real Estate with coldwell banker , and Hattie is an Occupational Therapist with PeopleFirst Rehab