OOOPS!!

Spoke too soon on this sleeping thing.

Status Quo

Things are going well in the Palomba family. As you know I am back to work now and so I've been back "in the swing of things" for two weeks. It was very difficult to leave the house on the first day, and is still a little sad each morning when I leave. But there were only tears on Day 1. :) I have found that I am so busy at work that the day flies by and before I know it I am back with my little boy. And I just LOVE my evenings now. Bathtime is my favorite - Max loves taking baths and he usually just sits there, splashes around, and smiles at me the whole time. :)

Maxon has been sleeping 8-9 hours at night, usually straight through, but there are some nights when he'll wake up at 3 or 4 am and not want to go back to sleep. Those nights are tough - well, the next day is tough I should say. (Although I am so blessed - Nick helps out a lot when those nights come around).

So anyway, things are good and just status quo right now. My goal for this next week is to figure out how to work in a workout into my evening schedule. I've got to get back to being active here, and it has been very difficulty to fit something in between feedings, preparing for the next day, bathtime, putting Max to bed, dishes, laundry, etc. And I only have one child now, what will I ever do when we have more???!!! I'll give that some time I think... :)

Talking Up a Storm!

Here are some videos of Max "talking" to his mommy & daddy!



Click on these links to see the videos on you tube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGbREWprsc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEFITgp51wg

3 months

Maxon is 3 months old today and is doing great. At his last doctors appointment he had gained 1 lb 4 oz in only 3 weeks. He has started to smile a lot, he turns to look for a familiar voice (especially mommy's), he is starting to grab at objects or a blanket laid over him, and he coos and squeals all the time while playing. As you can see by the pictures, we have had a busy month: Max was baptized on March 21st and his grandma, grandpa, and Uncle Ken came from Michigan to visit that same week. He had a great time with them. While they were here we took our first trip to the beach with him, went out to eat a bunch, and he got lots of quality time with gram and gramp. And I discovered that Uncle Ken is a natural with babies - who knew? I was surprised how Ken was so comfortable holding Maxon and moving him around to different positions. You would've thought Ken had experience with babies when Max is actually the smallest baby he has ever held. Anyway, back to what has been going on this past month. Max and I went on a trip to the zoo with some families from our church, Max has been having a lot of fun playing with his cousins (they are all so great with him), and Max also went swimming in the pool with his daddy.

With the sleeping at night, we have been making very slow progress. He consistently gives us about 5-5.5 hours of sleep in one stretch, will wake up to be fed, and then goes back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. It isn't terrible, and I am at least thankful for the 5.5 hour stretch. Our biggest problem has been that he will not fall asleep in his crib. He will only fall asleep when held and then we have to lay him in his crib after he is asleep - which can be exhausting for us especially when it takes anywhere from minutes to 2 hours for him to fall asleep. And most of the time during the day, he will wake up 20 minutes after being laid in his crib and only takes catnaps. However, funny story: I talked to some friends last night who have a son 1 month older than Max. They were telling me how well their son sleeps through the night and that they let him cry a little. We have not really let Maxon cry more than 5 minutes before we go in to pick him up, per the pediatrician's recommendation. Well, I have been pretty exhausted lately, and after hearing what my friends had to say, we decided to try to let him cry a little for the first time today. I told Nick that I was giving him a 15 minute cut-off: that I would let him cry 15 minutes and if he didn't stop I would go in and get him. Well, Max cried for 14 minutes and is now sound asleep. He has been sleeping now for 40 minutes, one of the longest daytime naps he has taken in his crib. And, even more hilarious, Nick was cooking and set off the smoke alarm twice during this nap and Maxon did not wake up! Wow! Maybe we'll try this again. :)

So, all in all, things are going well. I have one more week off with him and then I return to work full time on April 12. I have been preparing myself mentally for this and think it will all be okay. I will love seeing him in the evening hours and on weekends, and will try not to feel too guilty about leaving him during the day. But I know that we all need to do what we need to do and that is that. Also, it is very helpful to know that I will be leaving him with someone who loves him - his Aunt Jen has offered to help us out and watch him for several weeks until she has her baby (her sixth). (She is definitely qualified). :) We also have some friends who are going to help us out from when Aunt Jen has her baby until I am out for the summer. Then I have the summer off with Max. We are very blessed to have all this help.

Alright that is all for now, I will post more pictures soon!

2 months

Our little boy is already 2 months old; hard to believe. And this is just the beginning! :)

We have all been doing very well and Nick and I are enjoying Maxon so very much! Maxon has grown so much in the past two months. He weighs in at 10 lbs 6 oz this week and is 22.25 inches long! He has just started smiling and cooing and interacting with us, which is a great reward for all the hard work and sleepless nights. :) And finally, finally, he lets me put him down now! For several weeks he would cry every time I tried to put him in the swing or bouncer - that was exhausting! Now he loves sitting in the bouncer or laying on his play mat, batting his arms at the hanging toys. And with a mom who is an occupational therapist, you know that he is getting plenty of "tummy-time." However, he doesn't care for that so much and tolerates about 5 minutes at a time. :)

We have gotten Maxon on a daytime schedule with eating times, and he is slowly getting into his own schedule of naps and nighttime sleep. He usually only sleeps 3-4 hours at the longest during the night, but has given us a 5 hour stretch on a couple of occasions. We are just trying to be patient with it and wait for him to sleep a little longer. Hopefully sometime soon!

I am scheduled to go back to work April 12 and am not looking forward to it. I like my job, but will be so sad to leave Maxon. I was very blessed to be able to take so much time off and am very thankful for it. But, I just can't imagine not being with Max all day long. Oh, I don't want to even think about it!

So... change of subject: Our dogs have adjusted to the new baby nicely. I should post a picture of them with him sometime soon. They don't give much attention to Maxon and act like they don't care at all. Although there have been times when Maxon starts crying and I'm not in the room. The dogs will run back and forth from him to me until I go get him as to say, "The baby needs you!" They're good like that. :)

Alright, enough for now. I will post more later on...

Surprise!

Two weeks ago on Saturday, January 2nd, my plan for the day was to sleep in for one of the last times, go out to breakfast with Nick, and then spend the day doing some "catch up" kind of things like put away Christmas decorations, update our blog with new belly pictures, and send out thank you cards. Most of you can figure out that those plans for that day did not happen ... hence the reason we just took down our Christmas decorations yesterday. :)

Two weeks ago on Saturday, January 2nd, I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to find that my water had broke. I was in shock and wasn't sure if that was exactly what happened. I woke Nick up and we were on our way to the hospital to "just get checked out." (both of us naively thinking that we would be sent home). We were sort of in shock and did not expect this to happen so early. We were scheduled to be induced January 15th (due to the blood clotting risk from my elevated antibody level), and had just made it to the 37-week mark on January 1st. Then when they told us my water had in fact broke and we needed to stay at the hospital, we were again naive thinkers and thought we would have the baby that day. :) So not on January 2nd, but on January 3rd at 8:08 a.m. Maxon Nicholas Palomba finally, yet surprisingly early, joined us!

Maxon came into the world at 6 lbs 8 oz and 18 inches long. Baby and mom both did fine in the hospital, are now home getting used to a new life. It has been quite the adjustment for all of us and we have all been learning a lot! It has been both challenging and exciting to go through this. I can say that now, since it feels now that every day gets a little easier and my body is getting used to sleep deprivation. :) For the first week, I would not have called it exciting at all, just challenging. :) Thank goodness my mom was able to be down here for the first week ... she was such a help around the house and of course was more than willing to hold the baby while I slept. And since then, we have had such wonderful support from friends and family who have brought meals to us and also offered to run to the store or whatever we need. We feel very blessed for that. And although I say that this whole thing has been a challenge and somewhat shocking, it is also so amazing! From conception, to the pregnancy, to giving birth, to bonding with the baby, to breastfeeding ... it is all so amazing and really makes us realize how amazing God is to have planned everything to work this way.

So now that I am slowly coming out of the twilight zone I have been in since the baby was born, hopefully I can update the blog more often. I suppose the blog will now focus on how the three of us are doing as a family, and of course pictures of Maxon. We know that the days ahead will continue to be challenging, but we look forward to it and will keep you posted on all the fun times (we may be updating the blog at 3:00 in the morning when we are not getting sleep). :)

33 weeks

Well there you go, for all of you who were getting anxious for some more belly pictures. As you can see, things are definitely progressing. :) We are 33 weeks at this point (these pictures are from 32 weeks), and things are going well so far. We had our OB appointment this week and the doc says everything sounds and looks good. Our next appointment is December 15th and we will have another ultrasound then to see how the baby is positioned and how things are progressing on the inside. They will measure him and make sure he is still growing. I sure hope he is, or else my belly is growing from ... holiday feasting??? :) I have been feeling good, although I am just starting to feel the effects of the extra weight. My back has a permanent "crink" in it, my legs get tired and achy, and it is getting difficult to move around in bed at night. But, it really isn't too bad.

In my last post I wrote that I am finding myself getting winded when I am walking around the schools at work. Well now, I get winded even when I talk! It is embarrassing when I am in a meeting at work giving a report and I have to take a break in the middle just to catch my breath. The baby is moving a lot now, although I feel a lot less of those crazy kicks but feel more crazy movements of body parts instead. I can feel him move his limbs and maybe push on me a little, and his dad and I are having fun playing "guess that body part" when we feel a little bump. :) Once in a while I will still feel an outright kick, but these days those kicks seem like they shake my whole body!

We have started to get the baby's room ready: we bought a crib and a glider/rocker for the room last week, thanks to Grandma/Grandpa Allen, Grandma/Grandpa Mlcek, and some after-Thanksgiving sales. :) So that is making it more exciting to see that and to think of how close his arrival is getting! We still have not come up with any names. That has been a little more difficult than we thought and we sort of just stopped talking about it. There are just too many to choose from out there, and it is a huge decision! My good friend Sarah just had triplet boys this past week and I can't imagine having to choose 3 names when we're having so much trouble with just one! Well, anyway, we have some time yet, and I'm thinking that choice may just have to happen when we finally see our baby boy. I have an extensive list of name suggestions from students I work with at work - there are some great suggestions such as: Sponge Bob, Spider Man, Austin Powers, Batman, Zorro, Merlin, ... etc. Keep in mind I work with mostly young kids in the schools. :) So obviously I am not seriously considering any of these, but I do write them down because I think the suggestions are funny and cute. Ahhh, I love the minds of children ...