Yesterday we got out and did stuff, which made it a great day!

I get Isaiah up at 7 each day and nurse him.  Not for much longer though.  I'm currently in the process of weaning him.  We're down to just nursing when he wakes up and bedtime.  Honestly, I think he could easily drop the morning one and have a cup instead but it's kinda nice to just wake up and lazily have him nurse for half an hour while I read blogs on my phone.  I know if I switch to cup I will have to be "on" right away.
Anyway, so yesterday he nursed at 7, packed Markus' lunch, fed Isaiah breakfast at 8, then decided to head out the door.  We didn't have playgroup until 10:30 but that happens to be right when Isaiah wakes up from his morning nap.  Since the nap was going to be screwed up anyway I figured I might as well make the most of it.  Last weekend we stopped by Victoria's Secret since I had a $10 off coupon and a giftcard (except I forgot the giftcard at home that day). I've been looking for a nice little number like this

Now that I'm looking through the site, I'm finding a lot cuter slips than this, darn! Oh well.  I didn't get this exact one but similar.  I tried it on this past weekend, but decided to come back sometime this week to get it with my giftcard. I wasn't in love with it but Markus kept asking me every night at dinner if I had gotten to the mall that day.  I thought he would forget, but apparently he didn't. So, long story short, I decided I would go to the mall yesterday morning with my free time. Since the mall didn't open until 10 I decided to walk around the lake that's just beside the mall.  It was fun to get out and have a busy morning!  I had just enough time to do a quick loop around the lake, head inside the mall and pickup my slip (and a free panty with lace on the top, love the lace ones!), and head on downtown for playgroup at a park. Only me and another girl showed up for playgroup this week.  It was nice to get to know her better.  I think I heard once on Oprah that gaining a friend is the equivalent boost to your mood as gaining a 20k salary raise.  Something I've learned recently is how true friendships are such an impact in one's life so I've really been seeking more friends, especially moms, recently. Days are so much better spent with friends!

Hello, again!

Many, many things have changed since my last post.  The property I was referring to last we ended up buying. We put our first offer on a place in December of 2009.  We closed on our first house October of 2010. Just 2 months shy of a whole year, and living with my in-laws for a month, and living in an extended-stay hotel for 4 months later.  What did we come away with from that experience? Don't waste your time on short sales when living in a hotel with a baby. Gratitude for everything we do have now. Living in a space with multiple rooms? Luxurious.

Isaiah on his new swing in our front yard soon after closing

When moving into our new house we had to cut corners every where we could financially.  That meant not signing up for internet. From October 2010 until now I only had internet access on my phone.  I kept up with reading blogs through my phone but it's a little difficult to regularly post from there so I gave it up for a bit.  Then this past Monday I was reading a mom blog (really wish I could remember which one).  She recently had bought an android phone, which happens to be the same as mine.  She was listing her favorite top 10 apps that she found.  I was casually reading through them when she listed PDANet. After reading the description I literally ran into our computer room and hooked up my phone.  Apparently you can connect to the internet through this app.  It's ridiculous.  Too good to be true. My husband and I are still scratching our heads trying to think of how we could be sneakily charged for this but so far we can't think of anything.  So far now at least, here I am, with internet, thanks to my phone! Wee!

My boy, Isaiah, turned one last month.  We celebrated with a huge party.  I love them all, but there were way too many people.  We need to simplify it next year...
He's turning into an adorable pre-toddler with all sorts of personality. I swear he's more and more fun every day.

Trying to teach him how to eat his bday cake. He wouldn't eat it!!

I'm BACK, ya'll!!!

bye-bye property #4...probably

Our assessment came back lower than our purchasing price.  We didn't care, but we can't get a loan that way.  The seller was going to get an appraisal but we come to find out today that they actually didn't because they thought we had backed out of contract? What the?
So now they are getting their own appraisal done.  Even with that they think it should be sold at the original price, which we can't do with our mortgage lender.
So disheartened.
It's been a year of house searching/trying to buy.  We can't keep living in a hotel.  If this house falls through we'll have to get an apartment.  I really wish we could give Isaiah a house to live in.

Morning Ritual

Every week day after Isaiah wakes up and eats I change his diaper, put on his outfit for the day, and lay him on his playmat.  Then I get myself dressed and make sure my hair doesn't show evidence of just waking up.

I get out the baby bjorn, and strap my boy in.  Then we're off to the continental breakfast!  He has a fan club at the front desk.  Every morning we walk in, all the girls coo and make noises at him.  Anything to get him to smile at them, which is pretty easy at that time of day.  I grab myself a plate, and bring it back to the room with me.  Normally Isaiah doesn't have pants and a hoodie on, but it was unusually cold last week when I snapped this one morning.
I'm going to miss this once we move.  It's a great excuse to get out of the room at least once a day.  It's also nice to have a got breakfast waiting for me without any work on my part, and a smiley office staff to greet us!

Swing

Last week we went out to find a park to take a stroll in.  It was a Saturday afternoon, we were sick of our hotel room, and the weather was gorgeous.  We took a drive in the area around the house we are trying to buy.  We found a park with a great walking path around a large lake in the neighborhood across from ours.  Not sure we were technically allowed there but oh well…

After our walk we stopped at the swings and decided to try it out.  I was a little nervous about him not having a seat belt and flying out.  His daddy was a lot more brave about pushing him higher than I.  I tried to enjoy the moment and not let my anxiety get to me too much.  Isaiah loved the swing and we were able to get some great pics in the midst.  I hope to get a baby swing for our new house to put out in the front.  We have some tree limbs that would be perfect for it!

Isaiah's Update - Week 31

I’ve been thinking of posting an update on Isaiah’s patterns once a week mostly for my sake, and if it helps someone else in the process, then that would be great.  I wish I had kept a record from the beginning so that when future children come along I can remember what it was like at what age the first time around.  I think it will also help me see what changes may affect his sleep/disposition/eating patterns.

I’ve always enjoyed reading Valerie’s weekly updates at The Chronicles of A Babywise Mom, and I hope to start to do something similar here.

This update is for Week 31 (Week 22 adjusted)

Eating

I continued feeding Isaiah 4 tbsp. rice or oatmeal one time a day.  He always makes a face the first few bites, but then is fine after we get going.  He doesn’t seem to prefer rice or oatmeal over the other.  He also doesn’t seem to hate either one, nor is he eagerly excited about either.  I feed him solids after a full nursing session usually around lunch time.  This seems to work well.  I think this next week I will start to also feed him 4 tbsp. at around dinner time.

I’m concerned about how his little tummy is processing the cereal.  He only has bm about every 5 days or so, and they’re pretty thick and very smelly.  Ew.  Not sure what that means or if I should be doing something about it.  I need to call his pediatrician Monday morning and ask.

Sleeping

His days have a spread out a bit (about every 3.5 hours he eats) which has made his last feeding somewhere between 8:00 and 8:30.  With this, I dropped his dreamfeed.  It went amazingly well.  Originally I had been doing the dreamfeed at around 11.  Then I moved it to 10:30 for a few days, then 10:00, then finally dropped it.  He seemed to wake up anytime between 5 and 7 no matter what time his dreamfeed was.  He did great for about 4 nights.  Then last night he woke up at around 4 am and wasn’t going back to sleep.  I wonder if this has anything to do with him trying to pass a bm and being uncomfortable.  I don’t think it’s truly hunger because I feel confident that he can make it much longer at night.

Independent Play

I’ve been attempting to pump every morning after his breakfast.  During this time is usually when I lay him on the playmat for about 15 minutes for his independent play.  He does well, but tends to fuss if he can see me.  I usually hide on the bed so that I can peek at him every once in awhile to see what he is up to.

Our living situatuion

Back in the end of December of 2009 we found this amazing 3 bedroom townhouse in a great neighborhood. It had a private backyard, garage, end unit, fireplace, hardwood floors.  We were in love.  It was a short sale, and we put a contract on it. Three months later the property goes into foreclosure.  I don't understand real estate enough to understand why, but it happened, so we had to move on.
We then found a second property, a condo, on a lake, completely updated throughout. 2 bedroom, small, but we're big believers in living within our means, stuff is stuff, and we would make it work. It was a private sale, 30 day contract type stuff.  Somehow we got a horrible appraiser who took longer than he was supposed to. The property appraised less than our offer.

Then Isaiah was born.

Since Isaiah was born 2 months early he was staying in the NICU for awhile.  After my official hospital stay ran out we were able to room in one of the hospital rooms for a few more days.  Then we moved to a Ronald Mcdonald house for the rest of Isaiah's time in the NICU (a month total). Just a side note, we were so very thankful for the Ronald McDonald house.  Our apartment was 30 minutes away from the hospital, RMH was only 10.  That was a huge help to us.  Not only it meant being closer to our newborn, but all the "milk runs".  I was having a hard time pumping enough for each feeding but we were trying our darn hardest to not have to give him formula. Breast milk is best for babies as we know, but even more crucial for a preemie. So every 3 hours my sweet husband was having to get the milk I had pumped since the last feeding to the hospital.  The NICU was small, and all the incubators were crammed together.  Not very mother friendly so it wasn't ideal to pump there.  But more on our NICU experience later... I went on that tangent to say that we had a lot going on.

So with appraisal lower than our offer we naturally wanted to change the price.  The seller was an investment firm that didn't want to budge much on the price.  We ended up bowing out, too uncomfortable to pay the high price for the unit.

We found a third property, a condo in the same complex.  It was a short sale, a huge mistake for us looking back.  We needed a place yesterday, but our money conscious minds decided to go after it. Meantime the lease at our apartment ran out.  Originally we had thought we would have bought a place by then.  By the time we realized we needed to rent longer, they had already rented out our apartment.  We moved out at the end of May and into my husband's grandparent's guest bedroom. That will be another post for another time.  It was a nightmare.  They didn't agree with our parenting style, Isaiah was in the middle of his super fussy newborn stage, and I was not handling it well.  Fast forward months later, and this condo also went into foreclosure like the first property.

After a month and a half we decided it was best for everyone that we had our own place.  That's when we moved to an extended stay hotel.  It was small, smelled bad, window a/c that didn't work properly so it was always humid, dimly lit.  There was barely room for Isaiah's pack 'n play.  We had to put it right beside the TV and duck around when he was going to sleep because otherwise he would see us and never go to sleep. We were eating ramen every night because we really couldn't afford the cost of living there but we didn't have much of a choice. Just all around pretty depressing. Then my parents offered to help us out and give us some money so that we could move to a nicer extended stay. This is where we are at now.  It's much nicer.  The room is larger, has a great hot breakfast, and a small dinner Mon - Fri in the lobby. We are much happier, and so glad we are here vs. the first hotel.  We've been in this place and the other hotel combined for almost 3 months now.

After that condo went into foreclosure the very first property was back on the market as a foreclosure.  We put in an offer but then come to find out it had gone to auction and wasn't officially on the market yet.  After wasting about 2 weeks on that we found a house in our price range with a private company as the seller.  So far everything has gone smoothly.  Our closing date is October 29.  We will be relieved when we finally get those keys in our hands!