Gecko feeding

Just ignore the DVD menu music in the back round.

It's Friday, Friday!

It's amazing how fast you lose track of the days when you have a baby.  I guess
 today is Saturday?  Weekends don't mean anything anymore either……the only
 thing that matters is getting Tristan to sleep so I can too!

Yesterday, Nick and I went out shopping……haha funny how those little things
 give us pleasure now.  He had some fly tying stuff he wanted to pick up and I
 still wanted to  find a cute skinny dress.  So we packed up the baby and headed
 towards Salt Lake.  Our first stop was Cabellas, but they didn't have everything
 Nick needed, so we had to go elsewhere, a place up in Holladay.  But Tristan
 was fussy and wanting to eat, so i got to try feeding him in the car.  And it's
 not that easy let me tell you!  And of course, he always poops while he eats…..
and even though I had put ip a blanket in the  window next to me, 3 cars still
came and parked around us, everyone taking a peek in through the windshield…..
sickos!  Off we went to the next place.

Nick was able to get all he needed at the Fish Tech store, so then it was my
 turn.  We went to the mall in whatever town its in…Sandy?  And walked
around, got some food, hung out.  It was quite exciting!  And we've decided
malls attract a very strange crowd.  At Dillards, we found some very cute
dresses.  Nick's favorite was a kind of Leave it to Beaver dress.  I took and
 armfull to the dressing room and proceeded to try them on.  The 3/4 didn't
fit, the 5/6 didn't fit……I couldn't even zip up the 7/8……which pretty much
 depressed the crap out of me.  I am skinny I promise!  I just have breastfeeding
 woes….nothing fits up top.  And I was far to mortified to even consider looking
 in the women's section.  They need to have a breastfeeding boutique for all
of us disproportioned mommies.

I soon heard Tristan screaming from the dressing room, and went out to tell
 Nick my sad story.  We went and found  bathroom, and luckily they had a
mother's nursing area, so Tristan and I settled down to feed him.   Of course
 he had to make a larger than life fart just as someone else walks in….how
embarrassing!  Then he has a melt down trying to poop and gets milk all
over both of us.  So I ended up walking out looking like I have bad bladder
control.  What a sweet baby.

The last stop was Kholes, where I did get a cute black and pink dress,
then we decided to call it a night.  But I wanted something to quench my
thirst, so we went to Sonics to get a slushie.  Pineapple looked good, but
when the chick handed it to me, and I took a big swig, I got a mouth full of
pineapple chunkies!  Thats like getting for a cherry snowcone and asking
them to put in cherry pits.  Or a slurpy with shredded fruit bits….bluch!
So Nick drank it and was kind enough to get me a slurpy at 7-eleven.

This is little Tristan after he's got a full tummy and is half asleep….pretty darn hilarious!

Physical Therapy

Well, as most of you can probably see, Tristan's neck is torked to one side……poor baby.  I guess that's what he gets for staying breech and smashing his head up into my ribs.

Nick and I noticed it right after he was born actually, in the hospital.  So since he has been home, we have been trying to get him to turn his head the other way, always correcting him when he is in his swing or sleeping.  But at his first doctor's appt, Shelly recommended we see a physical therapist and get him started with treatment.  He has a pretty bad case of torticollis, which is where the muscles and tendons on the one side of his neck are very tight and covered with scar tissue.  It's kinda gross, when he cranes his head back, you can see the scar tissue bulging out of his little neck.

The therapists were very nice and helpful.  They did an exam to see just how bad off he was, and then showed us some at home exercises to get us started.  He wasn't too excited about any of them…..until we offered him a bottle, then he was just fine.  So we have to do therapy probably for the next 4-6 months, maybe longer if necessary.  I feel bad for him, he really hates it when we mess with his head.  But it's better than having his head leaning on his shoulder perpetually when he is 20.

The good thing is, we wore him out so much he napped for a full two hours when we got home!  Best day ever.

A weekend out

I feel like I have been neglecting my other children!!  Poor Bastain and Sukisue have spent more time in that back room of late than I can count, so I feel kinda bad for them.  Poor dears.  So I've been trying to let them out and spend time with them.  They are scared of Tristan still, so I haven't had to worry about them eating him.  They have both discovered the geckos though, which means I have to keep a constant eye on them to make sure they aren't getting into the tank.

A couple things going on with us lately…..
On Saturday, I realized how cooped up I have been, so Nick suggested we go out and do something.  We ended up driving to the Lehi Smith's and poking around.  Tristan handled it exceptionally well, considering he was asleep and covered up the whole time!  While we were looking through the clothing section (Nick said I should look for a dress or something to celebrate my skinniness), Nick saw a rack of Real Salt Lake shirts.  The one on the dummy was really nice looking, so he went through the rack trying to find his size.  There weren't any.  So he looked on the tag on the on the dummy and it was a small.  I was like, Nick, just take it off, there's a pricetag.  Haha, so we undressed the dummy, put a different top on him, and happily went on our way.  We probably looked really funny to the people walking by…..

Then Sunday, a family from our last ward came to visit and see Tristan.  The little girl, Megan, was in the primary class Nick and I taught.  Her mom is soo awesome, she always tells us how much we meant to Megan, and what great teachers we were.  It always makes me feel really good.  We really had a fun time teaching, even though we only had the two little girls.  They brought us diapers and wipes, a very useful gift!  We told them how much we appreciated it because dear little Tristan can mess 4 in an hour……

And yesterday, we took a trip up to Tooele to visit my sister.  It was quite a fun drive……it was a torrential downpour and I probably was sliding like a maniac all over the road doing only 50 mph.  Scary?  Yeah…..and it didn't help that Nick and I had been awake since 1 AM after only getting to sleep from midnight until then.  Tristan has a bad habit of not sleeping at night.  But we made it in one piece.  We stopped in Salt Lake to go to the Smiths there.  Nick wanted to get Becky a gift, so he picked out a couple trays of Sushi to take.  I had made this awesome looking ricekrispy cake before we left because I figured her kids would love it too.  Becky was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and we wanted to go and spend some time with her before she got busy with doctors appointments and treatment.  It was a lot of fun too!  Talking to adults is always fun when you spend all your time with a screaming infant…….and Becky said he was cute and held him for a super long time, which I can't complain about either!!  It was pretty funny though when it came to feeding time, because I still haven't quite mastered using a blanket and keeping my shirt on…..so I ended up pumping and giving him a bottle instead.  Which made it super hard to feed him when we got home, little booger.  But!  We played a fun game with Becky's husband Matt while she took a nap called Forbidden Island, where you are trying to collect artifacts and get off the island before it sinks.  We all died both times we played…..haha and then we all just sat around talking.  It's sad we live so far apart from each other, they are really good company.  But I'm sure we'll be visiting again soon.  It was funny, Tristan pooed his diaper like 3 times in a row that afternoon, and Nick and I kept arguing over whose turn it was to change him.

The drive home was long…..because I almost fell asleep like 10 times…..not good…..and then smart me driving to and from Tooele 3 weeks post C-section?  Yeah, it was a heavy dose of motrin and off to bed as soon as I got home.  But Nick slept the whole way back, so I'm glad I was the one behind the wheel!

Here are a couple pictures!

Bathtime!  Naked baby 

Enjoying nice warm water

 He matches his blanket!

Sleepy kitty 

Suki after her annual furcut…..I'm not the best at it

Sleeping together

Becky's pretty cake that I made

Little boys…..

Tristan successfully soiled 3 outfits in two hours……maybe it was only an hour and a half…..at least he didn't soil the bathwater……he did get the wall, and his face, and the floor, and a couple blankets…..I'm doomed to do Tristan laundry everyday till he gets married I guess.  Ah well, good thing he's adorable.

He's a good sport too, letting us play with him.  He's such a sweet and fun baby, when he's happy!  Change his diaper and he turns into a beast.

I HATE my neighbors

I live below two very heavily footed self-centered brats and their obnoxious boyfriends.  All day long they stomp stomp stomp around the house, perpetually washing clothes or moving furniture.  THen at all hours of the night they slam door and scream profanities at each other.  Why any of them are together I have no idea.  But I really wish they would take the drama somewhere else.  I tolerated it before I had Tristan, but now that he will not sleep in our room because of it, I am about ready to put a bag of flaming cat poo on their doorstep.  No matter how many times I bang on the sealing or Nick texts them that they are being too loud, nothing changes.  And it is driving me crazy because I already don't get enough sleep having to feed and diaper a baby without them waking him up the very minute I get him down to sleep!!!!!  So I can never accomplish anything because I am constantly holding an infant either feeding him or trying to coax him to sleep.  I hate living in an apartment, I hate living in a stupid college town full of stupid college students that don't have a brain big enough to realize other people live around them.  I hate living in a mess cuz I have no time to clean it, I hate eating nothing but Boosts because I don't have time or energy to cook.  I love that I can breast feed, but my whole day revolves around feeding or pumping otherwise I feel like I will explode!

Sorry….just had to let that out.  I'm going a little crazy.  Hopefully things will start getting better sometime.

Pillow Sleeper

Poor baby Tristan…..he got his circumcision yesterday.  He slept for almost 6 hours afterwards!  I couldn't get him to wake up to eat at all.  And he has discovered he loves sleeping on a pillow.  Which is fine, he goes right to sleep on it, but we can't leave him there.  So we try to be all sneaky like and move him to his crib, but he always wakes up.  He was especially fussy and grumpy after his circ, which I guess is understandable.  And then while watching Biggest Loser tonight, he peed all over my lap. Little booger had a nice smirk on his face after that one.  But he's still as adorable as can be!  It's funny how even this small, babies exhibit very distinct personalities, and I can't wait to see how far his develops in his childhood.  I can tell he's going to have an attitude, haha just like me and Nick.

Another funny bit…..after his circ, Nick wanted to get me something for being such a  good mommy.  Isn't he sweet?  So we stopped at FYE and he was going to get me a couple disney movies, while I stayed out in the car with the booger.  Halfway through, I was starting to get a little ward, and decided to roll down the windows.  Unfortunately the car had been turned off too long to do that.  No matter, I would just open a door.  Nick had the keys, and like we usually do, had locked it walking into the store. So when I opened the door, I set off the alarm.  I became frantic, trying to get it to go off by touching every button I could find.  No luck, so I tried calling Nick, looking like a complete dork I'm sure to all the people around.  Nick came out and turned it off, and then went back to purchase the movies.  It was super funny.

The baby that talks in his sleep

Tristan chitters all day long.  He is always saying something, whether he is sleeping, eating, or just cuddling.  It's pretty dang funny.  Well, unless I'm trying to sleep then it's a little frustrating haha.  But it's still very cute.  He also has a habit of wanting to sleep places that are very unsafe.  He won't sleep in his crib or his swing, but he loves sleeping in our bed, or on our pillows, or on the couch……all not very safe places unless he is being watched.  The minute you move him from a pillow to the crib though…..he wakes right up and freaks out.  Go figure.  Silly little boy.  So we took a couple of cute sleeping pictures and got a little video of him talking.  Enjoy!

Our little monkey

around 1 AM Tristan started acting like he was starving, so he got to eat on both sides instead of just one, big first for this little guy.  When he was done I burped him and got one little belch out.  Then I started to rock him to sleep.  About 5 minutes in, he made his poop face and I was like oh great.  Little was I anticipating being showered with vomit.  Yep, all over me, all over him, all over the chair…..the little booger even got the wall.  So!  I changed, he was changed, the chair got scrubbed down, and he wasn't eating again for 3 hours…….

Silly little boy.  Now, it is 4:30 and he hasn't let me put him down since 11 this morning.  This is a problem since Nick took a breather and went fishing.  Well, I've learned how to pump and make food with just one hand…..not very easy let me tell you!  But, I did get some cute pictures for all you adoring fans…..!  Enjoy

I just finished this blanket for him last night

Breast feeding joys/woes

You just expect that it is going to happen.  Women are engineered to feed their babies.  Right? Of course right!  You don't expect it is going to be hard.

After Tristan's second morning meltdown, I had had it.  I called the lactation clinic and set up an appointment.  We were going to get this right whether he liked it or not.  In the hospital they hadn't shown me very many techniques, or even showed me how to get him to latch properly.  I had just been trying to rely on my motheryly instincts, which I hate to say it, weren't all that great.  Tristan and I were both frazzled by the end of every poorly done feeding, and I was crying all day thinking I was a bad mother.  Nick kept trying to assure me I wasn't, but its hard to feel otherwise when you think your son is starving.

We got to meet with a lactation specialist for a little bit, and she was amazing.  She showed me different ways to hold him, how to position his chin and mouth, and she got him to eat for the first time ever without the shield.  I was soo elated I can't even describe it.  I realized what I had been doing wrong, and that there was more than one way to do it, and couldn't wait to get home and try it.

Nick helped, and our first feeding was a complete success, and each one sine has been as well.  I feel soo much better, and Tristan seems to be doing a lot better too.  On the way home from the clinic, we stopped off at Target and I got to go in shopping while Nick sat in the car with the baby.  I still hobbled around holding onto my cart at the speed of snail (Nick calls it the speed of Sara now…haha) but it felt soo good to get out.  I regretted it by the time we got home and my stomach and butt were on fire.  The couch was my best friend all afternoon.  Haha. so I think I'll be a homebody a little bit longer.

Bottom line, if you want o breast feed and can't get it yourself, go see a specialist!  They know what they are talking about, and it is definitely worth it!!!

Tristan's many faces