Latest Happenings

I went to see Tori Amos on Tuesday with my friend Michaela. I had gotten a ticket for Marlena also, but she wasn't able to make it down. I had a really good time. It was fun to see Tori again. It was 2002 when I saw her last in Missoula. I haven't had a chance to really get into the new album, but the great thing about a Tori concert is that she plays a lot of her older songs. Her catalog is huge and she always varies her set list considerably from concert to concert. Oasis and Tori within a year...not bad at all. We also had a pretty good meal at an Italian restaurant downtown.

Sleep around here remains very interrupted. Just yesterday Bennett finally started to roll off of his tummy, however, he still isn't doing it consistently in his crib. And then yesterday I decided to remove the crib bumper (bad mother, I know). Since Bennett was born, we have been using a motion/sound monitor. I love this thing and it was especially important when he was an itty bitty guy on oxygen. It will go off if it doesn't sense any movement for 20 seconds. When he was staying in the middle of the crib, it worked well. Now that he has been moving around, he often ends up horizontal in the very top of the crib. When he is in a deep sleep the monitor has a hard time picking him up. The result is even more frequent wakings to turn the alarm off. I figured I was comfortable turning the motion monitor off at this point if I took the bumper out. Last night was the trial run and it was awful. Usually he just whines when he wakes. Instead, he was knocking his head on the railings and his limbs were hanging out. Screaming ensued. After some thought I realized that I could turn the sensitivity up from 2 to 5 on the monitor. I put the bumper back in (bad mother, I know) and turned it up. We'll see how it goes tonight.

The garden is going wild. Squash and tomatoes every day. There is so much lettuce. I don't know how a person could eat so much. We are going to take some of it to Great Falls. My newly organic mother should love it. There a couple of ears of corn almost ready and green peppers growing. We are still waiting for cucumbers, hot peppers, and broccoli. I feel pretty good about our first real foray into vegetable gardening.

We are off to Great Falls on Monday morning. I am hoping Bennett wants to be nice and not throw too many fits in the back seat. The goal will be to make it in one day if he lets us. The trip should be full again trying to see everyone. My mom is teaching swimming lessons right now. She can't wait to take Bennett to the pool. She already has him signed up for a water babies class.

The final pumping session is drawing near...stay tuned for an official announcement.

oh...the rolling

It is getting a bit out of control...especially last night. For the past few weeks, Bennett wakes 1-3 per night because he has rolled on his tummy and woken up mad. It's usually easy to get him back to sleep, just turn him over and give him his pacifier. Well last night we decided that we would leave him with a baby sitter for the first time. It was our anniversary and we had a nice time out to dinner and going for margaritas. Three hours without Bennett was strange and I did worry, but of course he was safe and sound. Our baby sitters are a couple of 13 year old girls that live in the neighborhood. They have both taken classes and know CPR etc. Anyway, I'm off track. He was asleep when we got home. At about 12:30 he woke up on his tummy. I rolled him back over and gave him what I though was his pacifier. Wrong. It was the wrong one and I could not find the right one. Well, he kept rolling over and waking up every ten or so minutes for the next couple of hours. Fun times! Bernie finally got up (had to be at work at six this morning btw) and changed his diaper and put familiar jammies on him. Nice try. Five minutes later he was on his tummy and really awake. He had somehow peed out of his diaper in that small amount of time. I changed him again, fed him (haven't done that in a long time) and finally went back to sleep after 3am. He was not in the best mood today. Good news is I found the right pacifier so hopefully tonight goes better. It will be wonderful when he either enjoys sleeping on his tummy or learns how to get himself back to his side/back.

I have cut down on pumping again. Two days ago I finally weaned down to once per day. The supply had definitley dropped off. I will likely quit by the time we go to Great Falls in 10 days. Doing my best to cope with the mommy guilt.

We are headed to GF on the 27th and will be there about a week. Not so much looking forward to seeing my dad. He really does get worse every time I see him. It's only a matter of time before I...and by that I mean we...will need to take more responsibility. Oh the fun of being a grown up. I know I'm not the only one who will be dealing with these issues.

My mom is going to have Bennett over night on the night of the wedding. How strange that will be! We'll be in Helena, 90 whole minutes away in a hotel room alone. It should be a good time.