Isn't Motherhood Great?

I actively seek for a poopy bum, keep track of when his last big bowel movement was - and manage to dress Tuck in white onesies just about every time. My bathroom sink has had almost nonstop clothes soaking from diaper blow-outs, just to make sure they'll be usable for the next kid.

For the better part of the week, Tucker has hated life. He'll feed every half hour we're sitting at home. If I'm lucky and can distract him, we go two hours - tops. Tucker used to only be awake four to six hours a day, napping or sleeping the rest of the time. Even though he's cranky all day, he still gets a full, undisturbed twelve hours of sleep a night, from 7 pm to 7 am. Sometimes we'll even put him to sleep a bit earlier and he'll wake up a bit later, but that's the general estimate. That was up until Tuesday, the 26th. Now he'll nap less than an hour at a time and wake up cranky. I think I feel a bump on his bottom gum, right where teeth are supposed to come in, but we'll see! He's five months old and still doesn't have a tooth to his name. My estimate is he'll have two of them by the time he's six months old.

Tucker sits up for over a minute on his own, now. I've adjusted his stroller seat so that he isn't just laying down, but at more of an angle and can see some more of the world. In the last entry, I touched lightly on this baby's love of travel. Even when Tucker's extra feisty and the day is filled with naught but screaming, he'll mellow out the moment we start walking with the stroller. This week alone, we've easily surpassed trekking ten miles.

Tucker is less than enthused, but that's how he's been feeling for the past couple of days.

Zeeke loves all the walks we've been taking. He gets to swim in the canal when we go to the park. 

Tucker is smiling up at me, thrilled to be outside. Everyone comments on how pale he is and they insist I keep him inside all the time. Nope. He's just a ginger. 

He sits up! He's on my ottoman right in front of my chair, so I'm there to catch him if he starts to fall.

His exer-saucer is right beside my chair too. He'll spend a lot of his time in here, pawing at all the funny sounding items and discovering more and more hand eye coordination each day. He's at the level now where he'll pick up his binky and successfully put it in his mouth. Sometimes, he'll put his thumb in the crevice of the binky, to make sure it won't go anywhere. 

Zeeke is doing great. He will go up to Tucker on his own and start smothering him with kisses. Tucker is incredibly smitten with his dog and will always calm down if Zeeke's within arm's reach. 

Tuck's Traits

Even though he hasn't fully developed his personality, here are some traits I've noticed in Tucker.

He's easily frustrated, but persistent. Sadly, this baby has developed the "Simpson gene" where stubbornness abides in every fiber of his being. I placed a toy at the very edge of his arm's reach so that he had to roll over to get it. Though he was kicking and screeching the entire time, he HAD to have that toy. Tucker got it after ten minutes of effort. Whether feeling vengeful or curious, he shoved that toy in his mouth and began to gum at its head.

A mama's boy. Tucker does best when I'm in the room. I left him at my mom's house so I could go out and ride horses with my friend. We were just in the back yard, but Tucker didn't know that. My silly child screamed and cried the entire time. My mom informed me that he was inconsolable without his mommy. He's seen my mom before and has played well with her before, but he didn't care. He wanted me. Whenever I'm around, he's comfortable with strangers and likes to smile at them. Sometimes, he won't laugh at my faces or antics to make him happy, but he'll burst out in laughter at a stranger's attempts to simply make him giggle.
 He'll stare so intently at me when we're alone.

My little 'homie'. My child will adamantly refuse to sleep or nap anywhere but home, unless he's pampered to dreamland. One has to walk him around, rock him and hold him just right before he'll slip into unconsciousness. Even then, it never lasts loner than an hour. When we took him to Priest Lake, he slept best when he was in bed with me.

 This was the only way my mom could get him to sleep. 

 Tucker loves his exer-saucer. 

Noise sensitive. Unless there's a steady stream of white nose (like a fan) going on for nap or bedtime, he will fight adamantly before going to bed, if he falls asleep at all. Our apartment is generally a quiet, relaxed place. The only time that changes is when Zeeke barks. Every time Zeeke barks and Tucker's awake to hear it, Tucker's face will scrunch up and he'll promptly begin to sob intensely, up until he's presented with a new form of distraction.

Activity is a must! Sure, Tucker will sleep the morning away, but before or at 5:30 every day, he simply needs an adventure. Whether it's wandering the apartment complex, heading to the store or walking the neighborhoods, Tucker hates being home around this time, up until his 7:00 bath and bed.

 I blame the activity trait on David. This picture was taken right before he went to hike the Tetons. 

 He's in the car seat, ready to go see Baba (my mom). 

Tucker in his stroller for the four mile walk to see David at McDonald's.

A true fish. There's no place where he's more inquisitive than in a body of water. When I took him to Priest Lake with me, I put his life jacket on him the very first day and jumped in the lake with him. He loved it, but was so tired he almost put himself to sleep. Tucker never cries in his bath, because he's always having too much fun.

 Check out how buff he is! Baby body builder. 

Vacationing with Baby and Updates

Never vacation without your significant other. If you have a child, don't even day dream of vacationing alone. I was incredibly lucky to go to a family reunion where everyone helped with Tucker. Even though my trip wasn't as bad as it could be, I still had several moments where I wanted to be home.

While on vacation, Tucker turned four months old. We took him to the pediatrician for his check up. Tucker is 95th percentile for height and weight and still about 50th for his head. He's been following the curve since his birth and is right where he needs to be. I had heard people say that you should never use sun screen on an infant (less than six months old). My pediatrician gave me this response. "If you times anything by zero, you'll still get zero. There's a chance that your baby has zero protection from the sun. Even if you put on the most powerful lotions, he may not have any protection and might still get burnt. You can put it on him, but don't rely on it." I told him that I've been conditioning Tucker for the sun since May by taking him outside for at least ten minutes at a time. The doctor predicted that Tucker wouldn't burn, since I wasn't taking him from a dark home environment directly to the lake. 

David and I left the apartment on July 16th, since we planned to leave at 10 am on July 17th. Due to the fact that half of us weren't ready, we didn't get to leave until 11:30. Babee (pronounced bah-bee. This is Tucker's great-grandma and my mom's mom), Tucker and I rode in the truck with my dad. Shawn (my brother) and Summer (his wife) took their mini van with a pop up camper behind them. They had their children Lizzie (Elizabeth, pretty much 2 years old) and Donovan (their six month old) with my mom to help out (known as Baba to the kids). 

To put the vacation shortly...everything I wanted to do, I had to find somebody to watch Tucker first. Most of the time it was a breeze. My aunts and grandma were incredibly helpful, but my mom watched him the most. Tucker fell asleep in his backpack or somebody would rock him to sleep in their arms every day and night. My dad took over the role of putting him to bed so I could socialize with others by the campfire at the end of the day. When I finally went to bed, I slept with Tucker. It was easier than pulling him in and out of his pack n play to feed every time. 

I got to go on jetskis, boating, play with our abundance of boy-children and our tiny population of three girls. It was rare that I had to sit on the beach with Tucker. Still, I'm never going on vacation without David again. I missed him a lot and would've loved to do everything with him. 

We planned on leaving on Friday morning, but wound up leaving Wednesday afternoon. We had a thunder storm watch then a thunder storm warning. Camp hosts came around and told us to all move to the parking lot or the beach, so trees wouldn't fall on us. The forecast for Thursday was about the same. We were going to get nothing but rain with great weather on Friday. Instead of sitting through all that, Shawn and I decided it was a good time to leave. We packed up the car with a few of my things, shoved their pop up trailer down and was on the road around six that night. Overall, the kids were great. Donovan didn't cry once. Tucker screeched every time we stopped and Elizabeth was a little fussy to get to sleep and toward the end of the ride. 

Now I'm home and we've changed things around for Tucker.

He now gets his bath at 7 pm and wakes up at 7 am (for his one feeding during the twelve hours), before going back to sleep until anywhere from 9 am to 11 pm. At Priest Lake he started to sit up (on his own) for short periods of time. His record so far is fifteen seconds. He's still not rolling over, but he rolls to his side, gets bored, then rolls to his back again.

Tucker is 95th percentile for height and weight, along with the usual 50th percentile for head size. At least he doesn't have the LaPray forehead.

Tucker working on his sitting up abilities!

Tucker in a hat my sister in law, Kylie Steelman, crocheted for him. It goes perfectly with his new camo jamies. He's now in size 6-9 months! 

He's my favorite kid so far. I suppose I'll keep him. 

Negligent Parenting

I looked at my page views by country today. Understandably, people from the States are looking. But the other countries baffle me.

United States	121
Russia	9
France	1
Ukraine	1

Why does Russia keep coming back? I have no idea.

Anyway! I thought I'd do an update on Tucker's sleeping. Tucker is in his own room and I'm loving every second of it. I no longer give him his pacifier to fall asleep. If I give it to him once, he screeches and wails until I give it to him again. For over half an hour. If I don't give it to him, he falls asleep within ten minutes. We have him sleeping with the window closed, so he doesn't hear the craziness of the outside world, but the fan on, so he doesn't hear the craziness of the neighbors above us dancing around on creaking floors.

 Look at this handsome boy! He has my                                                                                                        lips and chin, but everything else is pure                                                                                                        David. 

Tucker takes three to four naps a day. He falls asleep at 8 pm and will stay asleep until 8 or 9 am, with various night time feedings. Twelve to thirteen hours far exceeds what he did before, which was 8:30 pm to 6:30 am. Ten hours seems like it was forever ago.

The only problem with this new situation is me. I don't wake up as well as I think I do. David claims that half the time he's been prodding me awake. There are times when I'll snap right up and instantly go to Tucker's crib to feed him. At other moments, I'm sluggish and David says I've let him cry fifteen minutes at a time. My poor kid. I guess it's time to hook up the baby monitor.

My recommendation to new moms? Ferberize your two and a half month olds. I miss my darling Tucker in the bedroom, but know this is going to save us in the long room. Oh, and DON'T EVER BUY BLACK OUT CURTAINS! Fellow mothers have said that their baby won't nap without black out curtains...which sucks for traveling, since not everyone has a space that's pitch black for your baby to nap in.

I used to work at Baker's Dozen in Idaho Falls. If you haven't been there, GO! They're the best doughnuts in town! My boss's daughter loves babies, but never had the opportunity to be around one so young. I whipped out my mammoth of an infant (who is weighing at least eighteen pounds) and plopped him in her arms. My boss was in the office with her daughter and they kept trying to get Tuck to look at them. He just kept staring at me. So I did the only thing that made sense. I left my baby with them and went to go sweep the bakery. Jill (my old boss) was astonished at how calm Tucker was. As were her son, daughter and Randy (her husband). Each went back and saw Tucker in turns. He didn't have his pacifier or anything. He just smiled and 'flirted' with the girls while gawking at Randy's mustache.

I got sick of Tucker constantly feeling like he needed his binky. He used to not go to sleep without it. I have his binky banned from his car seat and crib. He only gets it when he's truly inconsolable and has cried for at least five minutes. I see binkies as something that Tucker, as an individual, doesn't really need anymore. As long as I'm giving him attention, he's happy to take it. His binky gets in the way of him making happy noises, smiling and laughing. I'd rather dance or sing with him and give him attention than stick a hunk of rubber in his mug. But that's what works for me. In some ways, I'm a pretty negligent parent. In other ways, I hold and love on that sucker for hours upon hours at a time. 

The B's

David pointed out to me that Tucker won't go to sleep without his B's.

The binky, boobies, boppy and bassinet. Without these tools, we can't get Tucker to sleep during the night. When he was a month old and below, we would put Tucker to sleep at nine pm every night. At two months he moved that time up to eight thirty at night. Both times, he would wake up to feed, but wouldn't truly wake up until six thirty am. In recent days, Tucker has been getting sleepy at 7:30 pm and not wanting to wake up until 7 or 7:30 am. We're now moving bath time up to 7:30 and seeing positive changes. He still wakes up to feed in the middle of the night, but it's not so bad. Next up, we're going to try to move Tucker to his crib at night, since that's the deal I gave David.

He puts himself to sleep without a binky at nap time (which is in his crib), but it often takes about ten to fifteen minutes of crying for that to work. My neighbors are probably going to hate me.

Tucker started out as a hefty newborn of 8 pounds, 3 ounces. He had a squished face and a nose triple the size of what belonged on that tiny little face.Now look at my crazy ginger boy! He's a tummy time pro and loves to smile and show off.

The poor kid is stuck with us forever.

Apartment Follow-up

We're pretty much all unpacked from moving now. We have a few things here and there that need stowed away and I still need a dresser, but it's nice to be done! Excited to live in a 'dump', we planned on getting Direct TV. Let's be honest, the property isn't that pretty - we could put a dish up! There's even one on the manager's office. Sadly, dishes are not permitted in this less than picturesque apartment complex. Cable was a briefly considered option, but that would cost over $60 a month. We're here to save money, not spend it all on entertainment. So we went for one of the oldest methods of this century. Netflix will be snail-mailing us two disks of movies/television series once we ask for them.

Our complex is not pet friendly. I'm not saying that because they have a 'no pets' rule, but rather because Zeeke has been having allergic reactions to our new home. First his right lip was swollen. I thought it was because of a domestic dispute between him and my brother's retriever, Callie. 

Putting that aside for a moment. 

Zeeke went to the vet for his annual check up. Our vet came through the door. He looked like a nice man that just wanted to get the job done. Zeeke promptly hid under my chair and snarled viciously at the veterinarian. I was completely stunned. I asked the guy if it happened often. He sighed and admitted that his job was a pretty thankless one, in the ways of patient appreciation. He lured Zeeke to his side with treats. As soon as the stethoscope came out, Zeeke growled at the vet again and even snapped at the air. My terrible dog came running back to hide in his new 'cave' under my legs. The female vet-tech came in the room. Zeeke greeted her happily and nuzzled her like she was his best friend in the world. I guess my dog is just sexist now. They lifted Zeeke up and held him on a table for his vaccinations. As soon as the first needle grazed his skin, Zeeke leaped toward Tucker and me - clear off the table. Thinking fast, the vet-tech grabbed Zeeke's scruff and redirected his momentum (so basically she chucked him) into a corner. At once, she and the vet cornered Zeeke and proceeded to stab him. It wasn't vicious, but you would've thought Zeeke was getting his claws ripped out one-by-one. He was, by far, the loudest thing I heard that day - including the train, ambulance sirens and the symphony of car horns that comes with living in Rexburg. Once he was done getting his shots, Zeeke bolted out of the door. If I didn't have a leash on him, I wouldn't be writing this article. My dumb dog probably would've run all around town and David would've made me find him. 

We got home. Within half an hour, I notice something looks wrong with my dog. Remember how before he had swelling on his lip?

You don't have to be an expert to see his eyes are twice the size as any dog should have. It turns out...Zeeke is allergic to our apartment! His diet has stayed entirely the same. I called the vet and he confirmed it - since we had just checked Zeeke's vitals hours before.

Tucker's adjusted well. He loves his swing, is napping without his binky and is an overall good kid. He wants to go to bed earlier and earlier and wakes up later and later. He's hit a major growth spurt, since he's feeding twice as much as normal. 

Boxes Packed

Ever since mid May, David and I got into government subsidized housing. We bypassed the wait list of over 30 couples by saying we could move in right away, as opposed of waiting until December. For some reason, moving in the midst of a Rexburg winter didn't appeal to me in the slightest. So we signed the contract and just kept our new apartment on hold. We stayed at our old apartment. After several weeks of trying to find an opening, David finally got scheduled a weekend off and we were able to move.

During our last move, we had around ten eager and willing helpers. This time we had five, though only four were there at a time. We are grateful for every person. Out of our men, only Joseph Kaluba was lacking an injury. My brother, Shawn, has a bad knee. My dad has a bad back. David has a bad shoulder. The last helper was my mom. She stayed and helped me put pictures up and organize a bit. It's still a work in progress, but it's not too far away from being done.

Back in our bigger apartment, we had two couches, a love seat and a rocking chair all comfortably situated throughout the home. In this new one, we have a couch, chair and rocking chair. I love the downsizing, but David's scared of what might happen if we get company. Somebody, heaven forbid, might have to sit on the floor! So if you're in the neighborhood and want to stop by, people...be ready to feel squished.

Within five hours living here, we received one harsh note on our car. We have a parking pass...we just forgot to move it forward. We are assigned two parking stalls, since one of them is quite difficult to maneuver out of, should there be a visitor parked behind us. The note says, "Just for future referrence this is a resident Parking Stall and belongs to someone, you are allowed to Park any where labelled "visitor"." The spelling mistakes and random capitalization aside... David and I want to know who put the note there. Our neighbor told us that somebody likes to use our parking space for 'loading and unloading their vehicle'.

The first thing I said to David was, "I don't want to make trouble in this ward." In our old ward, I got in a verbal argument with somebody's mother over visiting teaching. Because I'm a bad person like that. Well...five hours in and here's my plan. I want to tape the note on the wall and label it our welcome to the neighborhood present. Then I want to invite every couple over possible and wait for the ones that keep awkwardly staring at the note. I want to know who wrote it, darn it! It's good to know that our spots are being protected by a resident with a sharpie and bits of scrap paper, though. I would be pretty pissy to come home and find somebody had parked in my spot for real.

As for Tucker and Zeeke, they don't like the new place. Tucker wouldn't nap and would much rather spend the day with Joseph, Joshua and Berhane Kaluba. He was happier there and started crying as soon as we put him in his car seat. Zeeke keeps trying to hop in the car in the hopes that we'll take him to the old apartment.

Pictures will come at a later time!