No more maternity leave :(

Yesterday was technically my last day of maternity leave, I go back to work the day after tomorrow. I couldn't have picked a better week. Rhett had a great week at daycare and by the end of the week we had gotten him up to the entire day. He loves the teachers and they really love him, too. He did his first piece of "art work" where they basically covered his hand in paint and plopped it on a piece of paper that they had already painted. Of course I thought it was terrific...such a sucker! He didn't take his naps very well but we knew that would happen. This kid is WAY too curious.

We also hit a big milestone this week! St Pat's was his 3 month mark!! I have pictures from this week - his first day of daycare, St Pats and his 3 month pic!

This week I've also locked down hard core on the paleo diet and was able to get to the gym 4 times so far! Hoping for a 5th tomorrow. I am going for 6 weeks and hope to be in decent shape by the time our April beach vacation and wedding season kick in. We'll see!

I was also able to go to the chiropractor for a postpartum adjustment and the dermatologist for a skin cancer scan and to check out all the freaky things pregnancy did to my skin. I'm happy to report that I have my first adjustment completed and I am skin cancer free!! Sadly, that was my first ever "annual" scan so I was a little nervous considering what I've done to my skin over the years. I also started a new skin care regimen to reverse some of the damage to my skin over the next 60 days... I anticipate looking like a new woman in about a month or two! Ha ha! We'll see how that goes.

So our big milestones this week were daycare for Rhett and no skin cancer for me! Plus starting the lock down to try to lose the last of the "baby weight" which should more aptly be called the "chicken finger, french fries, sweet treats weight" since that's really where it came from.

And he's off!!!

We had a huge milestone over here in the Tribuzio house today! Rhett went to daycare for his first day! I have to go back to work next week so I wanted to start to ease him into daycare. Don't be fooled - this is not at all for his benefit, but for mine. I knew I would miss him way too much and worry that he wasn't getting enough sleep for his naps if I didn't ease him in a bit. I have some appointments (dermatologist, hair - hey, don't judge unless you've seen this mop, chiropractor, etc) this week so it worked out great -- I'll have plenty to do to keep myself busy during the day while Rhett is at his new "school" and I won't miss him quite as much.

I am happy to report that it is a little after 5 and Rhett is home safe, sound and happy and he is napping right now! He actually did sleep a little at daycare. I took him at 11 or so and he took 2 short naps where he might usually have a 2 hour and a 1.5 hour nap. I figured he would be so excited and curious about everything going on around him that he might not be up for naps. Plus, for his naps, we still swaddle him at home and they don't at daycare. I held off until almost 4 before I went and picked him up. I wanted to give him his last feeding before his bedtime feeding later tonight - he's super sweet when he's eating and when I burp him, I can hug him and pretend I'm just burping him :)

I don't really have quite as much to report since I wasn't with him all day. I asked what he did all day (which is a tough question to ask without sounding accusatory I realized) and he pretty much studied the other babies and "talked" to them. He was in a swing when I picked him up and was happy as could be! I am curious to see what toys he likes since they have everything under the sun there. They were really surprised at how strong his legs are and that he (big announcement coming here) is getting a tooth soon!!! Miss Roberta, one of the teachers in his room, was apparently very smitten with Rhett. He was flirting with her hard core when I left him this morning so I wasn't surprised at all to hear that he charmed her!

He wore his onesy that Liz's family gave him that had his name on it, just for fun. It'll be fun to pick out his "school" clothes this week as he goes in each day...though I'm sure that'll get really old really fast. I had to pack some extra clothes and socks for him to keep at daycare in case he had an accident or lost a sock. I had to admit to Miss Roberta that he doesn't really wear socks all that often unless his feet are really cold, but that I had seen all the other babies with their feet covered and didn't want to be "that mom" that didn't put socks on her kid. Miss Roberta and I are going to get along just fine...to give you an idea of how funny Miss Roberta is - when she saw that Rhett had a tooth coming in she said "now that is my kind of man - he's gonna be eatin a chicken leg in no time at all!"

Of course I took pictures of this, I just need to get them on the computer so in the meantime I shall post a picture of Rhett at bath time in his Cookie Monster towel and his Fat Tuesday look... BEADS!!!!

MilkFace JellyBones the Incredible SLEEPING Baby!

He did it! We did it!! I mean he gets a lot more credit than we do, but he is out of the swaddle and sleeping all the way through the night!! Not phony baloney through the night like 11pm to 5am, but he goes down at 8pm and we get him up at 6:30am. We haven't had to get up in the middle of the night one time since we took him out of the swaddle. I also had an awesome tip that I think is very much a part of the equation. Allison told me I could put a bigger diaper on him at night and it would help keep him from waking up with a full diaper. That woman is a genius!!

I can't begin to explain how proud I am. And how much more sleep I am getting! He woke up this morning around 5:30 and just kept himself quietly occupied till I went in and got him at 6:20 or so. I still wake up and check the monitor or hear him if he's moving or grunting but he was so good - no "hey mom, come get me". Just a lot of "yum, those are my hands, they taste awesome!!"

FJ and I also had a big milestone this weekend. We left Rhett for the whole day and attended a St Patty's festival downtown with several of our friends (and took a cab home, of course). We are very lucky to have several friends who love Rhett and don't mind watching him. And even luckier to have several mom-to-be friends whom we trust who want the practice. Our friend Melanie came over and spent the whole day with Rhett. Don't worry, I didn't take total advantage of her, I paid her in baby items since she wouldn't give me an amount she would normally charge someone. I had a blast at the baby store picking up all sorts of odds and ends that I use regularly but never would have thought to register for. These things add up even though they are mostly just $3-10 items so I was happy to fill up a bag for Mel and of course got some for myself. Point being, FJ and I were able to leave for the day and enjoy some time with our friends. We came home to a sleeping baby and when I woke him up the next morning, I was excited to see him, he was excited to see us but he had gotten a good nights' sleep and Mel had sent us pics throughout the day so I knew he had a blast.

In addition to sleeping through the night and us being able to leave him for a whole day, we had another kind of cool milestone. Rhett laughed. He's laughed before, so it wasn't just that. Kate came to meet Rhett and he LOVED her. He laughed for about 3 minutes straight to the point that Kate, FJ and I were laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. I tried to get it on video but was a bit late due to the fact that I was hunched over laughing so hard. We have no idea what sparked it and he didn't do it for the rest of the day. Apparently Kate triggered the laugh factory (probably cause it's the first time someone barely bigger than him has held him - sorry Kate - you knew you weren't getting out of this without a short joke). I did get a few more cackles out of him this morning so at least I know that I don't have to kidnap Kate from Augusta to get Rhett to laugh. It's absolutely crazy how awesome the sound of our baby laughing hysterically can be. And just to emphasize that it's not just mom gushing going on, even Kate had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard with and at Rhett. It was really cool!

So, Rhett is 11+ weeks and it is crazy to see how many milestones he's passed and how much he grows and learns. It's going to be very sad when I have to take him to daycare next week and go back to work the following week. I don't mean sad for him, I mean sad for me! Ha! Rhett is going to love it. He loves other babies, he loves playing, he tolerates sleeping and he loves eating so daycare is like paradise for this kid. I am definitely going to miss him but I'm excited that he'll be able to play with other kids and with new toys and that he's going to learn a ton that I would never know how to teach him.

MilkFace JellyBones the Incredible Peeing Baby!

In case you couldn't guess by the title, Rhett has figured out that it's funny to pee outside of his diaper! Unfortunately for all involved, I think it's pretty funny, too and can't help but laugh. Since I live in PJ's these days it really doesn't offend me to jump in front of his stream and since the laundry is constantly running, I don't think anything of using the onesy I just took him out of to soak up his stream. And most importantly, because I am beyond brilliant, he has a washable waterproof pad on top of his changing table covers and on top of that is a disposable waterproof pad so it really isn't a huge deal when he does this. I use the verb in the constant and present tense because not only did he JUST do this about 5 minutes ago, but he's done it about 4 times in the past 3 days. And he just laughs and laughs (probably because I laugh and laugh). Poor FJ, though - he got the worst of it when Rhett tested outside of the diaper bathroom usage on his other end. Whoops!

As for MilkFace JellyBones, that is pretty self explanatory. He's almost 11 weeks and we've had a few big strides in the past week or two. We've moved him to medium flow nipples which means that he doesn't have to work quite as hard for his food and his feedings are much easier on us. But this also means that he enjoys himself quite a bit more and ends up smiling through the feedings and getting milk or formula all over his face. And of course I laugh at this, too, which causes more laughter on his part. JellyBones came about because this kid LOVES to stand. He really likes to lay down on my knees and have me help him pull himself up to a standing position. He'll stay standing for as long as you let him. But occasionally he'll get himself all geared up to stand up or I'll want to show someone and his bones are all of the sudden made of jelly. He just slithers back down or if he wasn't up to begin with, it looks like I'm yanking him by his arms.

So MilkFace JellyBones has had a big week or two! Here are some of the things Rhett has done over the past week or two:

1. He is now open hand swatting at things in the air which might not sound like a huge deal, but it is! He sees things and is trying to grab them and realizes that his hand needs to be open to do this!
2. He has found mirrors. This could be dangerous if he is half as vain as his mom.
3. He's started wearing his 6 month (3-6 month) clothes!! I mean he's 2.5 months so I guess that's standard, but still, a milestone of sorts!!
4. He was able to get in his jumpy swing (jumperoo?) with the help of this pillow vest type thing I bought him especially for babies who want to jump before they are the right size for the jumping toys. He jumped for almost 2 hours one day. The swing hangs from a door jam and unfortunately for him the only door jam in our house on the first floor besides the garage is the pantry. So he jumped by the liquor, dog food and other pantry items for 2 hours. He didn't seem phased, but of course I took pictures and those are logged away for yet another day when he decides he's cooler and smarter than me and I need to take him down a peg.
5. He's been sleeping through the night for a few weeks now - or rather not needing to be fed. I still have to get up and reswaddle or change him from time to time, but in the past week or two, he's also figured out how to get back to sleep without being reswaddled. Which means he either sucks his thumb or his whole hand or tucks his little hands under his head. This is huge and it leads to my next point....

Tonight is the big night!! Rhett is going naked in the bed!! Well, he'll be wearing clothes, but he is going swaddle-free!!! I'm pretty scared and nervous, but I've been waiting for weeks to get him out of this swaddle. If he can learn to sleep without it, I don't have to get up and re-do it! And it opens our world of baby sitters up to endless possibilities!!! It's supposed to take a few nights of torture (on the parents) to get him there. Every change in the routine is supposed to take a good 3 days. But we are keeping our fingers crossed that he flows into it pretty naturally. FJ is off work tomorrow and Friday so we have 3 nights where we can lose a little sleep... well, where FJ can lose a little sleep. I can't lose what I've not had in almost a year! Ha ha!

So this is a big step and milestone and I'm sure in 6 months I won't remember when we took him out of the swaddle or when he "found his hands" or when he found mirrors, so I'm just trying to document it all! Plus, I'm obviously proud of him, excited for him, amused by him and intrigued by him! It's so crazy to see these little creatures figuring these things out. He can learn to breathe, eat, go 10 hours without eating, self regulate, self soothe, etc in less than 10 weeks but it takes months to figure out long division and I before E.... crazy!