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Samuel's first trip to the Zoo

It's amazing how my day is divided up into chunks of time now. Every three hours I feed my baby, burp my baby, keep my baby awake for just a little while and then try to get my baby to nap until I feed my baby, burp my baby.... and well you get the picture. Then it's a race against time to eat a meal, put a load of laundry in, fold the laundry and return emails and calls while he is sleeping and swinging. And let's be honest, we all know that I haven't mastered it yet because there are plenty of people I have yet to call back these days. Life as I knew it, has changed. But it has changed for the better as I now possess a sweet little doodlebug named Samuel. This little doodlebug smiles at me now and it just melts my heart. And even though it feels like I just had a baby, I don't feel like he is a baby anymore because he is growing so fast and I find myself looking longingly at newborns and wishing to have another baby. Am I crazy or what?! I think my hormones are still re-settling because after the labor experience I had, I need to wait at least a year before I think about getting pregnant again. And even then I don't really want to be pregnant again (because we all know how I difficult I was to deal with), I just want a little baby brother to appear out of thin air for Samuel. Oh if only it was that easy. But Steve and I have promised next go around it will all be easier. I will definitely not make so many trips to Dunkin Donuts and to the Publix Bakery because this last 30 pounds has not been easy to get off. But it's amazing how much more productive I am now that I don't have cankles and have healed relatively well from my surgery.

In case you are wondering about how Samuel is doing, well... he loves milk! We are convinced that is all he dreams about. Because when he is hungry, he attacks his bottle or my breast like a bear tearing a piece of meat. He does this side to side bob thing with his head and then aggressively latches onto whatever nipple he can find at the present time. It's actually kind of funny to watch unless you are the one that he is so aggressively latching onto - then it's pretty painful. But he is sleeping pretty well. It's a little inconsistent and we are really hoping to get him sleeping through the night on a more regular basis. We have had several nights where he did, so all the indicators are there that he can be a good sleeper. But there are also nights where he wakes up twice in the middle of the night and we can't figure out what we did differently for that to happen. So last night we gave him a real good pep talk on sleeping till at least 6:30 a.m. or later and this morning he woke up at 7 a.m. So our words do have power. :)

Samuel is extremely long, like his daddy, and is growing quickly out of his footed pajamas and long daygowns. Our bubbles fit great because it doesn't matter how long his legs get to wear those. He is smiling a lot now which is super cute and thankfully he doesn't scream anymore when we change his diaper. A lot of times when I'm changing him on the changing table he just looks up at me and smiles. I keep trying to teach him to say milk but it may be a while before all that clicks. He loves his swing and takes most naps in it because he refuses to sleep in his bed during the day which I'm working on but you have to pick your battles. A screaming child all day or a few peaceful moments here and there so you don't go insane. You would do the same believe me. :) Blueberry seems pretty unattached right now to Samuel. He pretty much just ignores him and does his own thing and I can't remember the last time I even paid attention to Blueberry poor thing. I'm just so focused on the baby and getting things done around here that I just don't have the energy to hold another big baby. And this one weights 20 pounds too where as my other one only weighs around 11 lbs and 3 oz.

I'm happy to announce that I'm actually cooking again, menu planning and couponing. We were so tired of eating out but until I was feeling better it was just easier to grab something. But this time around I'm learning how to cook very simple meals because there isn't time or energy for the complicated and elaborate recipes that I used to make. And honestly, this way it's probably healthier and cheaper since I'm not using as many ingredients. The other night I baked Lemon Pepper Chicken with some bone in chicken breasts that were in my freezer and some Lawry's Lemon Pepper seasoning and it was delicious. It doesn't get any simpler than throwing some seasoning on chicken and then putting it in the oven. We had some yummy brown rice and fresh green beans from Publix (they have been really good and cheap lately) that I sprinkled some Parmesan on and it was a yummy meal. Probably my favorite one that I have made lately.

Anyway, this chunk of time is about to expire so Au Revoir until next time - whenever that is. :)