Out Sick

It's official. Emmett has experienced his first illness. He started to vomit Wednesday morning (it's now Sunday) and proceeded to have the WORST diarrhea EVER. He gave it to me and Ben so our whole house was puking and visiting the toilet a lot. Actually, I fared pretty well since I was only sick for a night. Both Ben and Emmett have been sick for 5 days now. Ugh. And if you are wondering - the diapers are awful and a lot of laundry has been washed in this house.

On top of the sickness we lost our remote control to the TV. I am being tortured in my own home. Surrounded by sick boys with no TV to watch. Yes, I know I could just walk up to the TV and push the on button but really, it's just not the same.

Here is Emmett on Tuesday - the day before he was sick. We went to visit some friends who had a dollhouse. He decided to climb into it.

Emmett is trying to comb Ben's hair.

I don't think Ben finds it relaxing and enjoyable.

Here is the next morning. Pathetic, right?


So I started feeding him and he fell asleep in his high chair. I suppose if I had this thing called mother's intuition I would know he was sick. But I just thought he was tired.

He hasn't has any solids for 5 days now so he's really hungry. So he puts everything in his mouth. But I'm pretty sure he would be putting things in his mouth anyway regardless of his illness.

Plate

Comb

Q-tip he somehow got out of the box.

And here is trying to eat the camera.

I'm really hoping he starts to get better soon.

Blessed or Tortured?

Now that Emmett has a "to do" list we have less time to blog. Well, that's not true. I really don't have any excuses except that I'm running my own business and caring for an entire child on my own. :) So now that I'm a veteran mom (ha!) I have noticed some things. Most of these things have to do with strangers. Once you have a baby - people think it's okay to come up and talk to you and make comments (welcomed or not). So whenever Emmett and I step out the door and brave the crazy world this is the conversation that takes place at least once.

Karen & Emmett: Doo, doo, doo...I'm shopping and enjoying this lovely day.

Stranger: Why hello there! Who is this?

Karen: This is Emmett.

Stranger: Is Emmett a boy or girl?

Karen: (Thinking to myself. Um. HIS name is Emmett. And Emmett is wearing blue and brown. What do you think idiot?) But I say, "He's a boy."

Stranger: Oh my! What a cutie. How old is he?

Karen: He's almost 8 months now.

Stranger: Wow!! He's so big.

Karen: (I am thinking...do you even know what a 8 month old should look like?) Yeah. I feed him pork rinds and buttermilk daily. Okay. I don't say that. I say, "Yeah - his daddy is pretty tall."

Stranger: Proceeds to play with Emmett to get him to smile. Emmett usually indulges them with a few giggles and smiles. Then the stranger says, "Oh no! Why is he crying?"

Karen: He's not crying. (you idiot. He's obviously smiling at you). He has long eyelashes that get in his eyes. He has been blessed and cursed by his beautiful eyelashes. They are so long that they irritate his eyes and make them tear up.

Stranger: Oh. I hope it doesn't hurt him. Will he grow out of it?

Karen: No. Haven't you heard of the blind eyelash syndrome? Once he turns 3 years old his eyelashes get so long that they start attacking his cornea thus blinding him.

End Scene.

Can you tell that I am annoyed? Should I just stick a sign on him that says, "I'm not crying. My mom cursed me with these almond shape eyes and my dad blessed me with these luscious eyelashes."?

I know, I know. I just need to get over it. Or never take Emmett out to the public. Hmmm....such a tough choice.

Solid Foods

We go the okay from the Dr. last week to start solid foods. So Emmett is eating 1 tablespoon of organic brown rice cereal a day. It's not a lot of food, I know but the first month is all about teaching him how to eat from a spoon and not so much about nutrition. He still gets breast fed his usual amount and that won't change for a while. I love feeding him but it takes him 20 minutes or so to eat the ONE tablespoon of food. That's an excruciating amount of time (for me). Hopefully he gets better soon.

Where's my food?

Ben used a shot glass for his bowl. It was the only thing we had that was small enough to hold 1/2 a tablespoon of food.

This rice stuff is gross. Gimme the shot glass.

What do I do with this stuff in my mouth?

Don't make me eat anymore.

This is gross.

Emmett got the hang of it by the end of week. Next food item will be green beans! Can't wait to see how he likes those!

Mr. Social

Emmett is now a social butterfly. He prefers to talk, coo, play, and smile over sleep. And I do love it when he does all of those things but the boy needs his sleep (along with mommy!). He's throwing smiles are over the place now. He is also losing his hair. We need Rogain for babies!

During bath time he has this look on his face like, "Whoa, what the heck is going on here?"
But the good thing is that he enjoys bath time and doesn't cry.

Because he so aware of his surroundings it's harder to get him to sleep. He gets over stimulated and if he hears anything he looks around to see what it is. So I have resorted to putting him in "time out". I put him in the carseat and a blanket over him so he can rest.

He puts up a fuss for about a minute...but then he passes out. A momma has got to do what she's got to do.

Daddy Care

So before Emmett joined us in this lovely world Ben took a "How to care for a Newborn" class. Let me tell ya- it has paid off for sure. Ben is in charge of changing diapers, burping and grooming Emmett's fingernails.

Here you see Ben ready to dive in and change a most likely poopy diaper. Life is like changing a babies diaper. You never know what you are going to get.

Baby fingernails grow really fast! Emmett likes to use his nails to scratch the heck out of his face (and sometimes my boob). Well, he probably doesn't LIKE to do it. He just has no muscle control. This is how Ben "cuts" Emmett's fingernails. He bites them. We read somewhere that you can use those tiny nail clippers (which are totally useless) or just bite the nails off. Aunt Sherry tried to use the nail clippers and gave Emmett his first cut.

Ben reading Richard Scary to Emmett. If I wrote children's books I would not want my name to have the word "scary" in it. Just sayin'.

What do you think Emmett is thinking about here?

One Month Check Up

We made a trip to the Dr.'s today for Emmett's one month check up. He did a great job! Ben and I were wondering if he had some baby acid reflux going on but it turns out the spitting up, grunting and arching of the back is normal. Who knew?

Here are his stats!
Weight: 9lbs. 1 oz (from 6lbs. 4 oz.) He gained close to 3 lbs. - 25th percentile
Height: 22 inches (from 19.5 inches) - 75th percentile

Check out his chubby neck! I find all sorts of interesting stuff in those folds. Lint is the most common thing but I did find some bread crumbs. I guess I should stop eating toast while holding him.

He also got a shot today :( He did not like that but he was a trooper. I guess the visit to the dr. wore him out cause he slept for most of the day.

Which means he's gonna be up all night. Oh joy.

Mr. Houdini

Emmett is quite the wiggle worm. He can wiggle his way out of the tightest swaddle - it's amazing. So Ben and I call him Houdini. He's going to grow up and be a magician. I just know it. Check out his latest trick!

BEFORE: Nice and cozy in his swaddle

Sleeping peacefully dreaming about boobies. He looks a little stressed out here. Maybe the boobies are attacking him in this dream.

After some "wiggling" he can show off his shapely shoulders

He works himself out of his swaddle and pajamas and discovers how uncomfortable he is.

Here he is showing off his manly chest. Look out girls. He's a heart breaker.

This is his COOLEST trick. I took off his sleeper to change his diaper and this is what I found. He wiggled out of his diaper. This is not made up. I did not put his diaper on like that. He sure knows how to make a mama proud. (*tear)

Butt Care 101

Well - Ben and I don't have a name for the baby yet but we definitely have his butt covered. We pretty much have everything needed to make sure his cute little tooshie will remain in tip top shape. I think we can all agree that a baby's butt is one of the cutest things out there.

First - we have the diaper wipe warmer. Not cold wipes for this baby!
Thanks Marion for thinking of baby Burling's tush.

We have some of the best Diaper Rash Ointment out there thanks to Cousin Kris.

And we have the pee-tepee. What is this you wonder?! It's a little teepee to put over Baby Burling's pee pee so he doesn't pee on us while we change his diaper. These things are so fricken cute and I can't wait to use it! Thanks Lisa for thinking of mom and dad!

We also have the ultimate Diaper Genie for those stinky diapers. Thanks Kathy!

Ben and I are still trying to figure out what kind of diaper we will be using. I like the idea of cloth diapers but I don't like the idea of washing them. So a diaper service is an option. The only one that delivers to San Francisco is Tiny Tots. They recommend 80 diapers for the first week. WHAT?!?! EIGHTY diapers. That is fricken crazy. Since it's a diaper service it won't save much money compared to disposable diapers but at least it will help the environment.

The other option is called gdiapers. They are not cloth nor are they disposable. They are flushable! Basically it's a diaper with a pocket where you have the re-fillable pads that you toss in the toilet when the baby is done doing it's stuff. So it's kinda like a maxi-pad but you can flush it.

I'm not sure what we will end up doing. But I know that we still plan to use disposable diapers one of those two options I mentioned. Are there any other options out there?! Like toilet training the baby when he's 3 months old?