It's been a bit of a nutty week. Last time I wrote, I was talking about how important it was that we get Lukas on a bottle-feeding schedule because he's going to start daycare on Monday (heart attack). I had posted that Lukas was refusing bottles of formula, but taking bottles of breastmilk (we had had a hard time with powdered formula, but at the time, even though he fought it a bit, he'd at least take regular breastmilk in a bottle). Well, somewhere around Thursday last week, that escalated into refusing ALL bottles ALL the time, even from Daddy. If I was going to be a stay-at-home mom, that wouldn't have freaked me out so much (though having a bottle-trained baby does give you a certain amount of freedom), but with me going to work on Monday, I was FLIPPING out. How could I leave him if he wouldn't take a bottle? Enough people told me that if he got hungry enough, he'd eat (this kid OBVIOUSLY loves to eat), but I didn't want daycare to be any more traumatic than it's already going to be, either for him or for me, since I knew I'd worry about him all day long.
Thank goodness my mom was coming in to visit. By Friday evening, I was really worrying, but Grandma Vickie came to the rescue. She insisted that Pete and I take a day trip to Asheville, NC on Saturday, just the two of us, while she worked with Lukie on the bottle issue. I was nervous to go-- we even considered only going on a date to Johnson City so that if he absolutely wouldn't eat, we'd only be 40 minutes away, but ultimately we decided that he's going to daycare on Monday anyway, so we'll have to leave him then regardless. I'm so glad we went.
I didn't take a whole lot of pictures, but Pete and I had a really nice time. First, we went to a woodworking/hardware store that Pete had heard about. It was cool even by my standards. They had lots of hardwoods for woodworkers to buy, but more importantly as far as Pete was concerned, they had a really great selection of antique planes. He had a lot of fun looking at them all.
Then we went to our favorite Indian restaurant. It's a buffet, so you get to try a really wide range of awesome foods. Last time, we went with our friend Kelly and we all went nuts over the chicken korma. This time, my favorite was definitely their vegetable meatball curry, followed closely by some awesome fried onions and a pretty killer curried chickpea soup. We stuffed ourselves. Kelly, you can be jealous. :)
We did some antiquing after that, but I was feeling pretty physically exhausted-- it's hard to do an entire day date when you're running on "new parent" sleep!
While we were gone, Mom got Lukie to take a bottle! I had worried about him all morning, but she texted me to tell me that he was taking a bottle by lunchtime, and it made it a lot easier to enjoy our meal and the rest of the day. Apparently he fought her a bit in the morning, but by the afternoon, the only time he really screamed at her was when there wasn't enough in the bottle!
Since then, we've been keeping him on a schedule much like he'll be on when we're into our daycare routine. I nurse him in the morning, then starting at 8 a.m. or so, he takes bottles of breastmilk throughout the day, and then after about 5:30 or 6, I can nurse him again and through the night. I'm going to keep up the practice now that Mom's gone until the whole bottle thing is really set in his brain. He'll even take one from me now!
(Playing with Grandma Vickie)
On Monday, Pete had to work, but Mom and I went shopping. I didn't have any jeans, since I had ripped my only other pair, and thankfully, I can wear jeans at work, but not hole-ridden ones. My old size actually fit at the store! I did size up though. There wasn't much room for shrinkage. Sigh.
(Grandma Vickie and sweet, sleepy Lukie...and yes, she's wearing a "Who Farted?" t-shirt. Don't you wish your grandma was this cool?)
Lukie was a dream on his first shopping trip. He slept the whole time we walked around the mall in a stroller I bought at a garage sale a decade ago while I was babysitting. A gentleman asked me how old he was, guessing he was 3 months. Nope, he's just huge.
I sat and rocked him in his car seat while we pigged out on calorie bombs. Eventually I had to pull him out and rock him on my lap, though.
Tuesday we went on a trip to the Kingsport Public Library, just to bring Lukie to see everybody before I head back to work. He probably won't get up there that often after that because I don't really go to Kingsport unless I'm working. We went to Grandma Rebecca's program for a few minutes until he got hungry, and then we went for a walk and got bagels. He fell asleep and let us cart him around the library a little...until he filled his pants and it was time to go.
I was able to do some cooking Tuesday evening, which felt really nice. I made hoemmade pizza for dinner, and then I actually had time to make a birthday pie for Lukie (well, for Lukie's parents and grandma). I've decided that for this first year, we're going to celebrate his month birthdays. They're congratulations to me and Pete for getting him through another month, and it's fun to look at the photos and see him (and us) change from month to month. In another couple of months, Lukie will be able to partake of at least a little pie filling. Apparently, coconut pie is the traditional monthly birthday party dessert.
We're still using that stupid "4" candle I found for the last one. I can't believe how much Lukie has grown between this birthday and the last! Here's his 1-month birthday pie picture:
And Tuesday, at two months:
Pretty crazy, huh??
Mom leaves today, and I'm so sad to see her go. She was such enormous help, and we won't see her again until November, maybe for Thanksgiving. Lukie will be 4 and a half months old at Thanksgiving, maybe even sitting in a high chair and starting on some solids. I can't imagine how much he will have changed by then!
Finally, one last comparison. Lukie has a doctor's appointment on Thursday, so we'll see how much he's grown since last month. I have to imagine it's a whole lot...he's a big, big boy!
Lukie at one month:
And Lukie on Tuesday, September 3rd, his two-month birthday:
By the way, will someone explain to me how he can sleep like this...
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