My Dad sent me the link to this video. I thought it worth sharing.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

So what are YOU thankful for?

After dinner Cooper and I played and he was all smiles for awhile. It has been a good day.

Bring on the leftovers!

Got the car registered. The DMV was EASY! Walked right in. No line. Had to make one call to my insurance company to have one little thing corrected, and VOILA! $48 later I was registered. No late fees. No taxes until next year. PHEW! (The Drivers License Division was a WHOLE other story. Ridiculous lines that you had to stand in, not sit. I took Coop with me to that one, and it was awful. But hey, that worry is finally off my to do list. Hooray!)

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Left Coop with the babysitter for the first time yesterday. It was only for 2 hours while I went to the DMV and ran a few other errands. The purpose was to let them get familar with each other before I return to work tomorrow. Tomorrow will be for 4 hours, and then next week it's all day. Boo hoo hoo. I didn't cry yesterday though like I thought I would. I tried to call my sister, Camyll, for moral support as I drove away, but she didn't answer. So I mustered my strength, took a deep breath, and focused on the tasks at hand. I'm sure sometime within the next week of dropping him off I'm due for a total meltdown in the car afterward.

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From a drawing at my doctor's office, I won a free photo shoot with a professonal photographer. They waived the sitting fee and I get a free 10 x 10 print. Woohoo! Coop and I did a 2-hour photo session yesterday, and the kid thinks he's a future model. I'm excited to see the proofs, but not so excited about the cost of their packages--too expensive for my taste. How will I ever choose just one?

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During the photo shoot we had Coop entirely in his birthday suit for a few (covering up unmentionables, of course). With the diaper off, he sneezed while I was holding him and pooted all over my hand. That was an experience I'll never forget. He pooped twice more--once all over the front of my new white shirt (good thing I was able to get it out!), and once all over their white background/floor. It was gross, but comical. Then he peed all over us 4 times. They said in their disclaimer that accidents are prone to happen. I told them it was Coop's punishment to us for taking his clothes off. Coop agreed.

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With Cooper's eye infection, his eyelashes have been matted/wet a lot. I have noticed how much they've grown in the last few weeks. With a son that is the spitting image of his father (I get asked by strangers if he's mine, and say he must look like his dad--thanks a lot), it's nice to know that he inherited ONE of my features--long eyelashes. Girls, eat your hearts out.

Took Coop to the doctor today for what I thought was pink eye. Turns out it's an infection caused by his clogged tear ducts, which don't seem clogged to me at all seeing as they're pussing and watering like crazy. But whatever. At least I don't feel like a bad mom any more wondering how my 7 week old could have contracted pink eye. Phew.

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At the doctor visit they weighed Cooper. At 7 weeks and 3 days old he weighs 12 lbs. 11 oz. But that's with clothes on this time, so take a little off for that. They didn't make me strip him down this time. That'll be in 2 weeks for his 2 month. It will be fun to see how much he gains between now and then. He's really starting to develop a nice double chin, and has developed a new roll on his upper thighs. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to revel in such things as an adult? I have a few rolls of my own in various places, and they would never be considered anywhere near cute. Coop's rolls are so adorable it makes me just want to cuddle and love him even more.

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In the last several weeks of being a temporary stay-at-home mom I have been made to feel like an idiot by several insurance agencies and other such personnel for not having a copier, scanner or fax in my home. Who knew that in today's society such things are considered normal for a middle-class household? Last year we had to buy a new printer for our computer and I opted for the print-only model, not seeing much value in buying a much more expensive all-in-one machine. At the time I was working in an office, as was Nathan, and we both had access to such machines all day. But now I'm home and having to send more faxes, make more copies, and scan/email more documents to insurance people, HR people from work, doctors, etc. I think the people at the UPS store down the street know me by now. At least they know me by sight. And how in the heck does it cost $1.50 per page to send a long distance fax?! With the amount of copies/faxes and mailed documents I've had to send out in the last 3 months from home, I think I could have nearly paid for one of those all-in-one machines!! Hindsight... So if any of you need a computer printer in the near future--opt for the all-in-one.

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I need to get my car registered in GA. Maybe I shouldn't admit it, but last year I renewed in Utah since it was over $250 cheaper, we still technically were not considered residents of GA since Nathan was a FT student, and all I had to do was get online and renew. No big deal. It was great.

Well, this year is a totally different story. To renew in Utah I needed to get an emissions test done IN UTAH. Not possible. Plus, we're not students any more, so I knew I'd need to register in the state in which we reside. Well, my Utah registration expired in March of this year. I know, I know. But at the time I couldn't take time off work to go get it done. Registering a vechile in a new state is a NIGHTMARE!!! First you have to go get a new drivers license (and relinquish your old one, even if it IS the BEST drivers license picture you'll probably have in your entire life). Second...well, you get the picture. We've all had our DMV nightmares to relate to, I'm sure.

So yeah, my registration expired in March. Couldn't take time off work then. Decided to let it lapse until I could take time off, which would be some time in April. Well, then April rolled around and we were supposed to find out where we would be relocated for Nathan's job, and were told it would most likely be Charlotte, NC. Why would I want to register my car in GA and go through all that hooplah, only to have to re-register in NC 2 months later? So I decided to wait until we found out where we were going. Ha. Yeah. Ended up not being told where we were going until middle of MAY. Oh well. So by then I knew we were staying in Atlanta, but also knew we would be moving to another county the first week of June; the taxes in the new county would be cheaper. What would a few more weeks do? So I waited.

Silly me. By the time we moved and got unpacked, we were off for vacation after vacation out of state, and then I was SO uber-pregnant that I REFUSED to get my drivers license picture taken being so fat. I know, totally vain of me, but c'mon--those pictures are shown as ID for the next 5-10 years!!! No. Not happening with an extra 38 lbs on my body, at least 5 of it in my face. So I waited....

Well, now I've lost most of the baby weight, and it's fianally time to bite the bullet and get the new drivers license and car registered before I head back to work the end of this week. Only problem is...now I have an infant that I have to drag with me. It's tempting to wait.... LOL. Tomorrow I'm braving it and heading off to the DMV, infant in tow. Wish me luck. And do you think that if I tell them this same story they'll waive the late registration fees I'm sure to be socked with? ;o)

Since my last blog was such a downer, I thought I'd blog today about the happy side of Cooper and the good things that are happening. Yesterday morning and again this morning, I woke up to a happy, cooing baby. His happy time is 6:30 - 8:30 a.m. This is when I get those beloved smiles, coos, and giggles, and he's very playful. THOSE are the moments that make the night before all worth it.

I wanted to take a picture of him smiling to put up on here, but this morning he woke up with pink eye, not a cute picture (but he was still happy!). So we'll put up a picture when he gets better.

After going through all the crying the other night I was doing some contemplation about my son's needs. Yesterday morning I got up and turned on a previously recorded episode of "Supernanny" while I ate my bowl of cereal. The family had a 2-1/2 yr old that was still sleeping in the parents' bed. Supernanny said this was a huge no-no and that he needs to sleep in his own bed to learn how to self-soothe, a very important life skill that should have been learned when he was much younger.

At that moment I thought to myself that I'd rather try to teach Cooper how to soothe himself to sleep now rather than later. I think it may be easier now, but I could be wrong. Nonetheless, I decided to give it a shot. So starting with his first morning nap yesterday we started letting him cry it out, and...

We ended up having a very successful day! Hooray for another good day! Gotta love that. I only let him cry up to 10 minutes at a time. His standard is seeming to be a good 10 minute cry, a 3-5 minute soothing from his mom/dad to reassure him we have not abandoned him and do in fact still love him, another 5-10 minute cry, a quick soothe from mom/dad, put him back down, he wimpers for a minute or two, and then he's asleep. Not bad for our first day. This was consistent throughout the day until the 5 o'clock grizzlies.

But I did get him to sleep by 10:00 last night, and he slept until 2:30 this morning, and then again until 6:30. Not bad, not bad at all. Incremental improvements are great.

Another thing we did was purchase a DVD called "Dunstan's Baby Language", which was recommended by my sister. It teaches you the 5 "words" or cries that a baby 0-3 months uses to communicate. Nathan and I watched it last night while Coop was crying it out. This morning I used what I learned, and it seems to be right. Hopefully this is a turning point for our little guy. Also, in the DVD, she talks about the cry they use to tell you they need to burp, and said that babies with reflux or who are naturally windy a lot will give you this cry throughout the day, even when not being fed. It is important to burp them when they give you this cry so the air doesn't move into their intestines and cause worse pain. She mentioned that if you try to notice these cries throughout the day and burp them every time, you'll see the "5 o'clock grizzlies" diminish. Hey, I'll try that FOR SURE!

We are certainly learning a lot, and do enjoy our little guy so much. Thanks for all the responses to my previous post--the words of encouragement, sympathy, and advice.

I took this photo yesterday afternoon while Cooper slept soundly in his swing during one of my "watching my baby sleep" moments. Take a good look at this picture because it is a rarity in our house...a sleeping baby. My reason for blogging about this is not to whine or look for sympathy, but so I can document the torture our son puts us through so we can maybe someday use it as ammo for something. ;) After a 7-hour battle, Cooper is finally asleep for the night...I think. Our little guy is so difficult sometimes. He usually wakes up sometime between 2-4 a.m. for a quick snack, and then again 5:30-7:30 to eat, and then he's up again by 8:30-9 a.m. From there it is naps every 2-3 hours for anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. Some days are better than others. Yesterday he did terribly with his naps and terribly at night. Today he did amazing with his naps, so I was hoping tonight would be better.

Nope.

He napped so well on and off all day today, waking up at about 3:30 p.m., hungry. Ok, no problem. Change him, feed him, and play with him for a little while. Around 4:30 p.m. he starts showing signs of being sleepy (fussy, yawning, etc.). This is when I start to attempt to put him down for another nap. This is where the war of wills begins every night.

Every night sometime between 4-5 p.m. Cooper is supposed to take a nap. That is, according to his nap schedule, but NOT according to Cooper. Here is how the 7-hour war went down tonight...

4:30 p.m. - I attempt to put him to sleep by rocking him. He gets more and more fussy.
5:00 p.m. - I give up trying to rock him to sleep and we head out the door to get our flu shots, hoping he'll fall asleep in the car along the way. I sit in the back seat propping the pacifier in his mouth (which he repeatedly refuses), trying to get him to fall asleep. Nope.
5:15 p.m. - We arrive at the CVS store where we are getting our flu shots. Cooper refuses to fall asleep and continues to be fussy, so Nathan and I take turns walking him around the store while we wait our turns.
6:10 p.m. - We finally leave the CVS MinuteClinic, which we decide should be renamed HourClinic, and debate whether to attempt to run a few more errands or just head home. Cooper is VERY unhappy that we have put him back in his carseat.
6:15 p.m. - We decide to head home except to stop off at the grocery store for milk. All other errands needing done will have to wait another day.
6:17 p.m. - Cooper falls asleep in the car. I wait in the car with him while Nathan runs into the store. Thankfully he also grabs a rotisserie chicken and such for dinner. He can already tell how the night is going to go down, and he is gearing up for it.
6:31 p.m. - (Can you tell I was watching the clock?) We arrive at home with a sleeping baby, who immediately wakes up when we stop the car. Great. We walk into the house, and Nathan unloads the groceries and serves himself some dinner while I change Cooper and nurse him. Three hours goes by SO quickly!
7:14 p.m. - Cooper falls asleep nursing. In my attempt to burp him (if I don't, he'll inevitably wake up crying 15 minutes later with a burp), he wakes up. Lovely. I nurse him some more, and he falls asleep within a few minutes. I put him down in his bed, and bring the monitor down with me.
7:34 p.m. - Crying is heard on the monitor. Great. Nathan has finished eating, and takes his turn with Cooper while I eat my dinner and do a few quick dishes.
7:54 p.m. - I go back upstairs and relieve Nathan. I give Cooper a bath, letting him soak for 35 minutes. He LOVES the bath, and although I know babies his age don't require a bath more than once a week (according to the pediatrician), we give him a bath every night around 8 p.m. because it is sometimes the only break in crying that we get during this war of wills.
8:45 p.m. - Nathan takes Cooper, lotions, diapers, and dresses him in pjs. During this process, Cooper spews spit up all over himself, requiring a change of pjs, which upsets him since he hates being dressed. If it wasn't too cold for it, I swear I'd just leave him in his diaper. He's so happy that way. Better yet, if he wouldn't tinkle/poo everywhere, I'd leave him naked. He LOVES to be in nothing but his birthday suit.
8:52 p.m. - I take over re-dressing him, since he is being very uncooperative, and Nathan is getting frustrated. After getting him in his pjs for the 2nd time, I swaddle him, sing to him, and nurse him. He falls asleep within 10 minutes, but won't burp. I attempt to burp him until 9:24 p.m., and finally decide to just put him to bed, guessing that he has no burp to give. I come downstairs, arms raised in a victory dance, excited that I get to have an evening with my husband!
9:27 p.m. - Crying on the monitor. You've GOT to be KIDDING me! We decide to let him cry for 10 minutes to see if he will console himself and go back to sleep.
9:36 p.m. - Cooper is screaming. Nathan heads upstairs to console him and put him back down.
9:41 p.m. - Cooper is not consolable. Nathan is determined to give me a break, and sticks it out.
9:46 p.m. - (According to Nathan) Nathan looks at the clock, thinking it had been a long time that he'd been with his screaming son. "What?! 9:46?! That was only 5 minutes?! It felt like an HOUR!"
10:14 p.m. - I go upstairs to relieve Nathan. This is how we do it--in 30 minute to 1 hour increments of relief. It is the only way to keep our sanity. Occasionally I may brave an extra hour, but 2 hours is my breaking point. But today I came armed with a 2-hour nap I took this afternoon (1 pm - 3 pm) while Cooper was sleeping. Thank goodness. I also arrive equipped with an advantage arsenal that Nathan does not have--boobs. Not realizing that it had been 4 hours since I last fed him (I told you, 3 hours goes by fast), I feed him again. This time he falls asleep after a full feeding, and I burp him along the way. But that LAST burp...ugh. It will not come up. Great. Cooper wakes up from his slumber on my shoulder, fussy because he needs to burp, and starts rooting around for his thumb. In the last 2 weeks he has discovered his hands, in particular his thumb, and has started rejecting every kind of pacifier we try to offer, preferring to suck on his hand/thumb/forefinger and thumb. Wonderful--not. I do not want to have to break that habit in a few years, or pay for the braces which are sure to be needed in years to come, so I press forward trying to offer the pacifier. This just makes him even more upset.
10:47 p.m. - He FINALLY burps, but continues to refuse the pacifier and suck his hand/thumb.
10:54 p.m. - I am tired and he is winning. It is a bad habit, I know, but I nurse him again and he falls asleep within minutes. Oh, there's hope on the horizon.
11:14 p.m. - Cooper is finally asleep and I very carefully lay him in his bed. He stirs briefly, but settles back down. As relief sweeps over me, I realize that his diaper probably should have been changed when I took over from Nathan since he's probably wet. I debate for about a half second whether to wake him to change him. Nope. Let sleeping babies sleep.
11:15 p.m. - I come back downstairs, and Nathan says, "Next time he falls alseep at 9 o'clock, let's not talk about it, get excited about it, or even acknowledge it. That just jinxes it." Amen to that.

Today has been "Mommy gets to do whatever she wants to" Day. It's been great. I'm dreading going back to work one week from tomorrow. I am already in tears about leaving my little guy for 8 hours a day. Ugh. I am also F.R.E.A.K.I.N.G. O.U.T. about how in the world I am going to do all I need to and keep my sanity. I just don't see how I'll ever do all the things a wife/mom needs to do and still work full time while I have an infant. In a week I get to find out.

But in the mean time, I'm spending a day for myself. Haven't done that since before Cooper was born, and probably won't get to again for a very long time. So today I didn't shower until noon and I spent the morning cuddling with and playing with my son, enjoying nursing him and making him smile and coo, and watching him sleep. Among other things, I also finished a book I bought before Cooper was born. Firefly Lane is the first non-baby-related book I've read since I found out I was pregnant. I bought it because it was about a friendship between two girls that lasts their lifetime. It is very "Beaches"-esque. I won't spoil the ending in case any one of you ever decides to read it. The topic of friendship reminded me of my friend, Melodee. You can see a picture of us together last year for Thanksgiving.

Most of you probably don't know I have a Twin. Her name is Melodee Cooper and we met in 7th grade as 12-year olds. We had several classes together, the most memorable of which was P.E. Since her maiden name started with a "B" and mine with a "C" we were always seated near each other when the seating was alphabetical. She had just moved from another state, and I was looking for a friend after going through a very rough couple of years trying to make friends after moving to a new small town. Our friendship sprouted that year almost instantly. I remember the first time she invited me to her house. I was so nervous that we wouldn't have enough to talk about. Well, here we are 18 years later and we're still friends.

We dubbed each other Twin when we were in high school. More often than not we would arrive at school wearing nearly the same outfit without any prior planning. After awhile we just started calling each other "Twin." We have been through so much together: junior high, high school and all its drama, boys, living together as roommates, college, jobs, marriage, trying to get pregnant, and now the child-rearing years. There are SO many memories within those few words I just typed; too many to recount here.

Things that remind me of Mel are: dolphins, roses, leaves, movie quotes, Rush Limbaugh, Texas, yellow station wagons, U2 songs, teachers, and card games. Those are only the first 10 things that popped into my mind. Even though she is my Twin and we have many similarities, we are also very different. That is what melds us together, I think. Mel has always been that friend I could turn to no matter what. She will give me the brutal honest truth when I need it and sometimes when I don't want it, and I love her for it. She is always full of wisdom and good advice. I have always felt lacking in that compared to her. When she needs my support, I don't have that well of inspiration that she seems to have, and I have always hoped that I can offer the same kind of support and friendship she gives me. Our friendship is not one of those high-maintenance needy friendships. Now that we are older and have families of our own, sometimes we talk/email/blog to each other several times a week. Other times it may be several months. But no matter the amount of time that has lapsed, or the number of miles between our geographical locations, our friendship is always able to pick up as if we never missed a beat. Through the years our friendship has gone from a frienship between two young girls who shared their teenage ups and downs, to a friendship between two grown women who share bigger ups and downs with a friendship based on gratitude, faith, and unconditional love and understanding.

Thank you, Twin, for your friendship. Instead of sending you this in a private email, I wanted to blog about you. Besides, you are the one who suggested I start blogging in the first place and taught me Blogging 101. The book I finished reading today really made me think hard about our relationship, and how much I cherish our friendship. I cannot think of a better way to spend a day for myself than with my Twin, even if just through blogging--except maybe to actually spend it with you in person. :)

My other thought lately is that women need women, and thinking about friends only solidifies that thought. There is so much to be had in friendships between women. Here's to all the good friends out there (whether you are one or have one)! If you haven't said hello to yours in awhile, don't let another day go by without doing so.

This past weekend we drove down to Moreland, GA to visit Brody, our black lab that is training for hunt tests. Cooper met Brody for the first time. Brody was much more interested in the birds and chasing bumpers than looking at Cooper. We sat and enjoyed watching Nathan run Brody through several tests, and enjoyed being outside in the sunny fall weather. Here is the proud pappa with his son and his dog, and a few of Nathan starting Brody off on the training tests.

Today has been an exceptionally good day. I can't quite put my finger on what has made the difference, but I have a few theories.

THEORY #1: Nathan isn't working from home today so I am a lot less stressed about the fussy baby being too loud and disrupting his business calls. Also, the TV has not been on today since Nathan hasn't been home. Perhaps my own lower stress level has made the difference for me, and the quiet house has made it easier for Cooper to sleep.

THEORY #2: This is the bigger theory of the two. First, while I was pregnant I read several books about taking care of newborns, parenting, the best feeding method, the best sleeping method, etc. I was crazy enough at one point to temporarily buy into the theory that you don't need to give your baby a pacifier until afer 4 weeks old. I remember telling this to my younger brother (who has a young child himself) and getting a funny look and a response from him of, "Huh. Good luck." The thought from the American Pediatrics blah blah is that in giving the newborn a pacifier you are allowing nipple confusion, and the baby also doesn't learn to self soothe.

And then on the subject of self-soothing...I read the book BabyWise, which had a lot of really great info and suggestions on how to get your baby to sleep through the night at a very young age. Much of that has to do with teaching them to fall asleep on their own (not having to be rocked, fed, have a pacifier, etc.), and then also giving them a routine. To say the least, I was all gung-ho about this for a few weeks. That is, until we found out Cooper has GERD. I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't self-soothe as the book was saying he should, etc., etc.

Needless to say, after several weeks of going through the 3-hour feeding routine during the day, and stressing about whether I have fed him enough, or whether he has slept enough, or whether he has ate, had awake time, been interacted with, etc., etc., I have thrown most of it out the window. Today was different because I let Cooper eat when he wanted to eat, which is now at a 2-3 hour interval anyway during the day, but I didn't stress about the order of eating, sleeping, and awake time, or if he had been awake or asleep too long. This morning he was awake for over 2 hours, but seemed to make up for it this afternoon. And then I haven't stressed about whether he was falling asleep while eating/being burped, etc., etc.

Bottom line is--Cooper is happier and Mommy is happier. I was able to shower and get ready for the day in entirety (didn't have to give something up today), clean my house, get laundry done, clean out the garage, work on some photos, take the dog for a walk, and still have time to spend with Cooper besides feeding times, and that was all before 4 pm. Now I've had time to blog and still will have dinner ready in time.

I think all new parents have to go through this same process of reading/planning and then learning how to figure out what works and what doesn't for their child. And I'm sure that now that I feel I have it figured out, Cooper will throw me for a new loop. But at least TODAY has been a very good day.

And VERY happy!
He was almost in giggles about it.