Day Two Hundred and Forty-Seven

Bad Sleep

Milo’s sleep has been really fractured since our trip, and it’s taking a toll on me. I have stopped counting how many times she wakes during the night. I often can’t get back to sleep after her first nursing, so I have been getting very little sleep. It’s very frustrating, but I try not to let that come through when I’m holding her.

Today, Chase took control and let me sleep a bit longer in the morning. I was crabby, but he was very sweet to me. And I do feel like I made up for some of the lost hours, so that felt good.

After Milo’s first nap, we went out to Costco to get my contact lens prescription. Milo LOVES to get her hands on my glasses; she has begun doing a distract-and-grab technique wherein she gives me big kisses and grabs my glasses at the same time. I can’t tell if it’s planned, but she does it quite often. and she laughs and laughs while she does it.

The contacts feel good, but they make my eyes tired. Milo didn’t have a major reaction to me without glasses, so that’s good. I want to put my face on her all the time now. She lets me.

While at Costco, I took the opportunity to get Milo a few bigger sets of pajamas. I no longer want to put her in the one-piece pajamas that zip or snap. They’re too much work during bed time routine. Also, the 6-9mo sets we had were getting pretty small for her. So we got a couple of 12mo and a couple of 18mo. They’re all very cute.

Notes:

• I guess I haven’t mentioned Milo’s kisses before, or not in any detail yet. She gives big kisses now. The wide-open-mouth kind of kisses that babies give, where it almost feels like she’s trying to bite my face. It’s adorable, and we encourage it a lot.

Day Two Hundred and Forty-Six

Staying Home

I decided not to go to sign language class because I don’t want to get the other babies or parents sick. It was a hard decision because we missed last week due to the extended Austin stay, and missing today also meant missing the final class in the series. So we didn’t get to say goodbye to all of the other kiddos. But it’s better than getting everyone else sick, I guess.

Milo and I stayed home all day again; it’s hard to get myself to go out of the apartment after getting home from a trip, but hopefully I won’t be tempted to stay in the whole weekend, too.

Milo wants to walk all the time now, and everyone says that she’s going to be walking on her own very soon. I’m bad at predicting, so I can’t say when, but I agree that I think she’ll be an early walker. She does crawl, and she’s getting really fast at it.

Notes:

• Milo has super quick reflexes: she grabs at things and gets them before we have a chance to move them away.

• Milo always manages to get to Sophie before we can get there to rescue her. Sophie’s reflexes aren’t great, and I’m not sure she’s learning to move out of the way when she sees Milo. It’s incredibly frustrating, and I think one of them is going to learn a hard lesson soon enough.

Day Two Hundred and Forty-Five

This girl is EIGHT months old today!!!

Sick Again

I’m fully sick now, so today was kind of hard. Milo napped pretty well, but I didn’t take advantage of it well enough. It’s always hard to take care of Milo when I’m not at 100%. I need a village.

Milo’s still a bit sick, too, so I used the nose frieda again to help get her snot out. Milo still hates it, and now that she’s stronger, it’s harder to hold her while I’m doing it. Challenges. I can’t wait until she can blow her own nose.

Despite our sickness, we played a lot. Milo loves to climb all over me still, and I like it a lot most of the time, especially when I can just lay down and let her crawl on me.

Milo climbed on top of the backpack and grabbed for stuff on the table, which is the first time she’s done this. I think it was accidental, but she seemed pleased with the added height.

She also got stuck under the table by the sofa and managed to get herself out by crawling out the other side. I tried to get a picture, but only caught her coming out the other side.

Notes:

• I made an appointment for contact lens fitting so that I can stop wearing glasses while Milo is in her glasses-grabbing phase. She thinks it’s hilarious, and her cuteness makes me smile, so there’s really no way to stop the grabbing yet.

Day Two Hundred and Forty-Four

Music

Notes:

Tuesday - Milo was very clingy and fussy. At the end of the day, I asked Chase for a little break because it was a little hard to deal with the fussiness all day. I know it’s probably because of the slight sickness and teething, and I handled it fine during the day. But in the evening, I just needed a little break. Chase came through and was great with her while I just took some time for myself. It was mostly just an internet break, but I needed it.

Wed -

• Milo’s still teething and pretty fussy, so I gave her a frozen food cube in the mesh bag thing, and she ate it up! She made a little mess with it, but it eased her gum pain.

• We had our first music class today, which was a lot of fun. Milo didn’t know what to make of it, really, and it’s not as “free” an environment as our sign language classes have been. There was lots of singing and bouncing babies around, and some of the bouncing was exhausting for me; Milo’s no lightweight. The babies were able to have some fun with instruments, we also played with colorful nylon scarves, and overall it was just lots of exercise for mommies (and nannies). Oh, and the songs were cute.

• at home, we played a bit, and Chase got home pretty early, so I was able to get dinner done easily.

Day Two Hundred and Forty-Three

Day Two Hundred and Forty-Two

Teething

Today was a pretty good day, actually. Milo woke at her usual time, so maybe she’s already adjusted to the time change again. Her sleep was not the greatest but not awful either, so that was good. I fed her a lot during the night and Chase comforted her some to get her back to sleep. Hopefully this trend will end soon.

We played a lot around the house, and Milo seemed to enjoy being back in her home environment. She had great naps and good play time, not much fussing overall. She had a slight fever, so I gave her some tylenol. I’m still hesitant to give tylenol, so I always give her less than the recommended dosage, but it still does the job.

Milo is definitely teething now - there’s lots of saliva and active chewing on me (not so much her toys) whenever she gets the chance. I can’t wait to see that tooth pop through! Though I’m not sure how breastfeeding will go after that.

Notes:

• She speeds around when walking and holding on. It’s crazy, she’s so fast.

• I think she may be down to 2 naps per day very soon; she seems to be able to stay awake for longer periods of time now.

Day Two Hundred and Forty-One

Back to Cali

Another travel day - we were up at 6am, in the plane from 10-2, home at noon pst.

Last night was not good. Milo slept with us again and was awake a lot of the night, and because I’m still not used to her being in bed with us, I was awake for much of the night, too. For the second night in a row. Not awesome. At one point there was a funny moment, and I had the hardest time hiding my laughter. Milo was so tired, and she was moving around and around. I had breast fed her while laying down, and she reared up, crying and then face planted on the bed and fell asleep instantly. It was hilarious.

The plane ride was fine; Milo slept a lot of the time, and Chase and I watched a movie on the iPad, sharing earbuds. When she was awake, Milo played on the floorboard, the same way she did on the way to Austin, and she was pretty happy. We got home early enough that Milo had time for a couple of naps, and she slept well in her crib in the afternoon.

As usual, it feels good to be home, but it’s also bittersweet. I always miss Texas so much when I’ve just returned from there, but the comforts of our apartment are also good.

We’re all a bit sick, which might be why Milo wasn’t sleeping well last night. Who knows. Her sleep troubles are also possibly just because she’s been in so many different houses over the past week. We’ll see if it gets better now that we’re home.

Milo got to bed just a bit early tonight. Fingers crossed.

Day Two Hundred and Forty

Bastrop

Notes:

• We Slept with Milo in the bed with us last night because I was convinced that she was too cold in her bed. So basically I got no sleep last night. It was terrible. She does not know how to sleep in our bed with us anymore.

• We got up at around 8, visited with Mom, Matthew, Stacy, and Dad for a while. We had no real plans for when we should head back to Austin, so we were pretty lazy in the morning.

• John came over because we hadn’t gotten to see him yet. He drove himself. It still freaks me out that John can drive places on his own without any supervision. The boy is 16 already, and I have no idea where the time went. It was nice to see him with the baby. He’s such a good boy.

• We also visited Steven and Blanca & the kids for just a bit. Milo was wild and played with everything, got into everything at their house. The kids were great with her, though, and they made sure she didn’t get into anything that could harm her.

• We went back to Mom’s for lunch and packed sloppily. We ended up leaving Rockport at around 2pm. Milo slept from about 2:30-3, then she was awake until bedtime.

• We got a rental in Bastrop, and we arrived there at around 5pm. Then we decided to walk to dinner, stopping in some shops along the way. Tonight is the first time we let Milo have some avocado on a plate, and she got it everywhere except her mouth. In retrospect, it was not a great idea to let her feed herself for the first time at a restaurant. We tipped well.

• We gave our girl her first bath in a week when we got back to the rental, and then she seemed rejuvenated, despite having been awake so long. I decided to feed her one last time and then let her play until she was tired, but she fell asleep at the breast, which was pleasant surprise.

• Chase and I tried to watch some Star Wars, but Milo woke a lot after we put her down. So we went to bed early.

Day Two Hundred and Thirty-Nine

Busy

Busy Day with family:

• Breakfast with Dad and Matthew at a little diner, which was pretty good. Gave Milo scrambled eggs and a little bit of biscuit. She wasn’t very interested in either.

• Walmart to look for a new phone for Dad, since his hasn’t been working for a few days. Milo was very tired by the time we got back to Mom’s, so she got a nap. We sat around her place and watched The Hateful Eight (which is the longest movie ever) while Milo napped. Mom got in at around noon. Milo was up after ~1 hour, and we ordered pizza for lunch. Chase is so tickled every time we order a lot of food for the family because it’s so cheap compared to SF prices.

• Stacy got home from work after lunch, Lynn came over to visit, Olivia and Milo played a little bit. Then we were off to see Alyssa’s softball game.

• Softball game - Milo seemed a little put off by the loud shouts and clapping, so Chase and later Steven walked around with her. Alyssa’s team lost, but the ump was terrible, so whatever. I sort of insulted the visiting team’s pitcher, and her father was sitting in front of us. Oops!

• After the game, we made a quick trip to the grocery store, then picked up chicken for everyone and went back to Mom’s.

• Everyone came over and it was a mad house. Milo had another nap somewhere during the day, but she got really over stimulated during everyone’s visit. She went to bed a little bit late (kept her up a little bit so that Matt could see her). She woke up a lot before we went to bed, and I think it was because she was cold.

Day Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight

Rockport

We decided that since things went well with the inspections, we would be able to travel to Rockport for a quick visit with family. Today was the drive. Milo woke up at 8am, and we let her play for a while before we left. We ate breakfast, packed up, and were out on the road by around 10am. We planned it this way so that Milo would (hopefully) nap as soon as we hit the road.

Milo napped from 10:30-11, and then she refused to go to sleep until 3:30, for some reason. Even then, she only slept an hour even though she was desperately tired. Overall, she was really good in the car until she got tired.

On the way to Rockport, we stopped at Whataburger and I finally got the burger I’ve been craving. Chase made good use of our time in the car and made some phone calls about the house. Milo was pretty good, and Chase was able to talk without having to deal with much fussing.

We made it to Dad’s at ~2:45. Milo loved playing at the toy box that dad has had in the living room forever. We were afraid that she would put all the toys in her mouth (they’ve been in there at least 16 years and never once washed) but she just had fun taking the toys out of the box. She got them everywhere! She was also very interested in climbing the fan, but we couldn’t let her do that.

After her nap, we all went out for supper at Charlotte Plummer’s. Milo had a feast: new baby food (spinach, zucchini, and peas), some baked potatoes, shredded cheese, and a taste of ketchup (Dad insisted on those final two items).

Today might have been her worst performance at a restaurant. She’s becoming adamant about eating what we’re eating, so she got fussed pretty early, despite giving her baby food. The baked potato calmed her pretty well. We also gave her water in her little cup, which she always loves.

After dinner, we went to Mom’s and visited with Matthew and Stacy for a few minutes. Then we headed over to Steven and Blanca’s for a quick hello before Milo’s bed time. They were all happy to see her and amazed at how big she’s gotten. There were lots of comments on her healthy thighs.

Milo went to sleep at 8:30, and then we spent some time hanging out and relaxing. Not a bad day.

Day Two Hundred and Thirty-Seven

Inspection

Today was inspection day, which we expected to take several hours. So, we made sure that Milo got a good nap in early. She was up at around 8am, then napped at 10:30 and was up again at around 11, which meant she should have been ready for another nap at around 1pm, right when the inspection was scheduled.

We sped through getting ready - made lunch, scarfed it down, got Milo diapered and her bag packed, made sure we had everything we needed, and headed out the door just in time to be about 10 minutes early. We got there 10 minutes early and the inspectors were already there. They’re more punctual than we are, apparently.

Milo was very interested in looking at all of the men and the cat and just everything around us. She sat in the grass for a bit, then we went inside and she looked around the living room. I managed to get her to nurse for a bit, but it was obvious that she was not going to sleep while all of the commotion was going on. So, we roamed around and looked at everything, Milo in the ergo part of the time. Chase followed the inspector around and asked questions, and I tried to stay out of the way with the baby.

When we all sat down in the living room to talk shop, I let Milo out of the ergo, and she sat with me for a while. After the main inspector left (but while the other guys were still poking around), I let her crawl around. She loved it. She kept walking around and around an ottoman in the living room. For a while, Vickie held her and Milo finally got to tug on some jewelry.

All told, Milo was awake until around 3pm, when we left the property. She fell asleep when we were about 1 minute down the road. We drove around for a while so that she could sleep, but she woke up after only 30 minutes. So we headed to the grocery store and back to the casita. She did get in another, slightly longer nap in the evening before bed. We made dinner and watched Star Wars. Milo was a wild animal, crawling all over us on the sofa while we watched the movie. We felt good.

Her bed time was at around 9pm since she had a late nap, and Chase and I were in bed by 11.

Notes:

• For some reason, the smoke alarm sounded off in the middle of the night, and we never figured out what it was for. Somehow, Milo didn’t wake up at all.

• Tonight, as we made dinner, we let Milo chew on a raw carrot. She liked it, probably because it was all wet and she was able to suck all of the moisture out if it. Also, it probably felt good on her gums.

Day Two Hundred and Thirty-Six

Mortgage Research

Notes:

• We spent the day at the rental while Chase researched mortgages. I didn’t realize how much work it took to find a good lender, but I’m glad that Chase has taken on the responsibility. He has been reading and researching and talking to a lot of people. But it sure did make for a boring day around the casita.

• Milo was great, and she played and occupied herself with crawling around and trying to get into every space she could find. Some of her explorations today: side table in the living room, kitchen table and chairs (she pushed the chairs around like walkers), coffee table (which scared me every time because it looked like she was going to bump her head, but she always managed not to, somehow), tv stand (she never managed to open the cabinet doors or pull out the drawers), and the remote control (managed to turn on the tv once, and she was very interested in that).

• We did take a break from the mortgage research and went out for lunch at Opie’s, which was great. Vickie, our realtor, recommended it. We tried to go yesterday, but they were out of food by the time we got there. While at the restaurant, Milo ate sweet potatoes and had mixed reactions (she gagged a bit, but I’m not sure why because she’s had them before, and there were no chunks in this batch, either). The food was great, and we took home our leftovers for dinner.

• There were no long drives today, so Milo had good naps at home and got plenty of play time in.

• In the evening, bed time was easy and we got to spend a bit of time together after a long, stressful day.

Day Two Hundred and Thirty-Five

Errands

Notes:

• We looked at two more houses today. The first is one that we fell in love with instantly when we saw it online. We actually attempted to put an offer on it sight unseen, but we were edged out by another buyer. We put a backup offer on it, which was accepted, so we thought it was a good idea to see the place since we’re in town. It’s gorgeous and majestic and what dreams are made of, and it stung a bit to see it in person. That house is just about perfect, and there’s no way we’re ever going to own it. That said, we’re still pretty excited about the house we have under contract (as of this morning!!), and we feel very lucky to get that one.

• After looking at the houses (the second was nothing to write home about), we decided to replace my lost phone. We went to the Apple store, where Chase had reserved a phone for me. Then, we went to Verizon to get it activated with my old phone number. Then, of course, we went and got tacos. All of these errands took quite a while, and Milo was pooped out by the time we got back to the rental.

• Pretty good naps today, despite the errands. Sleep was better last night, too. Hopefully this means that she’s adjusted to the rental. She’s actually self-adjusting to the time change, which is fine because it looks like we’re going to be here for a little longer than planned.

• Chase took care of changing our itinerary (flight, car, lodging), and he was busy making appointments and finding out next steps in our house-buying quest. We’re still super excited, but it’s definitely just the start of a long process.

• It feels good to have a phone again.