Happy 6 months! (4.7.2011)

Travis,

Has it really been half a year already? I can't believe you're 6 months old! I woke up today and asked myself, "where did time go?" Time seems to have just flown by the past 6 months because it feels like I just took you home from the hospital yesterday. You were so tiny still, I remember your newborn clothes were still baggy on you because you were a tiny little prince! Now you're so big and chunky! 

Six month stats:

• 18lbs and 12oz! Triple your birth weight (well almost) of 6lbs 3oz! You are at the 75th percentile for weight. 
• 26 1/4 inches, putting you at 50th percentile for height (your pediatrician says you're a bit chunky in proportion to your height, but that's okay!).
• Eating more solids. Your favorites are: peas, carrots, sweet potato, bananas, pears, rice cereal, and oatmeal.
• Eating 2 times a day, sometimes 3.
• Still in size 3 diapers.
• Slowly growing out of your 6 month clothing and growing into your 9 month clothing.
• Drinking six ounces of breastmilk approximately 4-5 times a day.
• Enjoying tummy time a bit more when he's in the right mood.
• Able to sit unassisted for a few minutes
• You can pull yourself to a sitting position from a lying down position when I take your hands and pull you up a bit.
• You can scoot (on your tummy) a few inches forward and all the way around!
• You love sleeping on your side.
• You can almost roll over from your back to tummy if you just give it that one last push!

Even though daddy isn't here with us for now, just know that daddy and I love you very very much! You're our world. You have brought so much joy and happiness to me and your dad's life. We are thankful every single moment we spend with you. My baby Travis you are such a blessing and the best gift ever! 

Excited for our trip

So in less than a month, Travis, myself, and my mom will be on the plane en route to Manila! I'm very excited because I haven't been home since 2004! Even better this time around is that I'm bringing my little mister with me. I wish Joseph was here though, it would be much funner if he was with us.

Mixed in with my excitement is some nervousness. This will be my first time traveling with a baby. Well actually, I've traveled on a plane with my sister when she was 10 months, but that doesn't really count because I wasn't really responsible for her! Anyway, I'm nervous about flying a 16 hour flight with an infant. We didn't qualify for the bassinet anymore since Travis would have exceeded the age limit (on Philippine Airlines it's up to six months), so he's going to be sitting on my lap (well mines and my mom's) the whole time. Looking back, I really wish I would have purchased a seat for Travis.

So I've made a packing list of what to bring for Travis on the plane and to Manila. My mom and I sent a box back in February filled with diapers, baby food, and some formula (just in case I can't express enough milk). I'm bringing more diapers and some more baby food en route there. I think we'll be alright since it's two 50lb luggages for me and one 15lb luggage for him and a stroller.

What I'll be bringing on the plane (Travis):

• Adequate amount of diapers and wipes (I'm thinking about 6 diapers in the diaper bag which will double as my purse, plus 10 more in the hand carry, highly doubt that I'll use all 16 up. I'm also bring two extra travel size wipes in the hand carry).
• Diaper rash cream (The 2 oz size of Boudreaux's All Natural Butt Paste, hahaha I love the term butt paste).
• Travel size baby wash & lotion (not that I'll be giving him a bath or anything, but just to give him a quick wipe down especially if he has a massive #2)
• Baby Tylenol
• Baby hair brush
• Extra outfits (Two jogging pants, two short sleeve body suits, two long sleeve body suits, light sweater, a onesie).
• Outfit for our arrival in Manila (It's summer there right now)
• Socks, a cap, and mittens
• 3 extra bibs
• 3 burp cloths
• 2 wash cloths
• 1 thick blanket
• 1 light blanket
• 2 receiving blankets (I haven't used any since he was a newborn, but I always carry these since they can make excellent burp cloths or be used to lay baby down for diaper changes)
• Diaper changing pad
• 2 Playtex bottles and liners
• 3 bowls with lids and 3 spoons
• 3 Similac ready to feed formula, Similac powder packets, and bottles filled with water (I'm bringing these in case I don't express enough milk for him during our plane ride)
• Saline drops
• Thermometer
• The three Lamaze friends: Jacques the Peacock, Freddie the Firefly, & Captain Calamari (I love how they have hooks attached to them so I can hook them onto the diaper bag handles)
• Books (2-3)
• Rattles (good thing they're small so I can bring quite a few)
• Two new toys (to distract him when he's getting tired of the others)
• Jars of his baby food and oatmeal and rice cereal packets
• Small bags (I get them from the $1 store, it's the one for disposing dirty diapers) along with extra zip lock bags to store dirty clothes)
• Vaccination card and insurance card
• Two extra pacifiers

Now for myself:

• Ameda breast pump (very very very important)
• Lansinoh breast milk storage bags
• Medela pump wipes 
• Extra breast pump accessories
• A bag to store cool breast milk such as Munchkin's Cool Wrap Bottle Bag along with the frozen gel packs
• Extra zip lock bags (in case TSA makes me throw away the frozen gel packs - I can get ice from the plane)
• Extra batteries
• Nursing cover
• Blank labels
• Extra shirt
• Light sweater

Do you guys think I forgot anything?

Does anyone know if the flight attendants will let you store expressed breast milk in their refrigerator and will allow me to put the frozen gel packs in their freezer? 

Sale at Aeropostale!

Everything was 50% off at Aeropostale yesterday! I bought me and my sis a hoodie and a shirt. Hoodies were going for $20 and shirts were going for $7.99. Best $60 I spent so far!

I went to Babies R Us today to get some food for Travis to take while he's at mama's (my mom) house. This one has carrots, peas & brown rice, winter squash, and sweet potatoes. Usually we make his food, but he also eats jarred food when we go out!

Judge if you must

I don't even know how to begin this post, so here goes.

I just found out last week (her MD called) that my mom needs to return to San Diego for a follow up doctor's appointment and to get some diagnostic test done (just tests that are routinely done as you get older). Well as you all may know my husband is deployed and my mom is here taking care of Travis while I'm at work.

Her leaving presents the problem of who will be taking care of Travis while I'm at work. Travis doesn't go to daycare and cannot go to daycare since the daycares here in my area (including the one on base) do not match up with the times I go to work. The daycares in our area including CDC (child development center, on base) are only open from 0600-1800. I work mostly night shifts (1845-0715) and when I do work day shifts it's from 0645-1915! Either way, daycare won't be open on the shifts that I mostly work and I'll be getting off way past the time it closes when I work day shifts.

Getting out of work is basically out of the question. The schedule is set and on top of that there are three nurses on vacation right now. Also, Travis and I are going on vacation so I'll already be out of work from the last weekend of April all the way June 29th. Poor planning? Partly. If I would have known way ahead of time that my mom needed a follow up appointment prior to us leaving on vacation, I would have adjusted the time that I requested to start earlier.

So after much deliberation with Joseph, we decided that Travis will be going with my mom to San Diego for the meantime. He will be with her for about two weeks until my leave starts (last week of April). Once my leave starts, I will be going down to San Diego until we go on vacation (May 4). We're leaving from LAX so either way me, Travis, and my mom need to be down in SoCal.

Is this an ideal arrangement? Definitely not! I will miss my son so much. It's upsetting that my son has to go with my mom for a few weeks, but what can I do? Leave my son home all alone? Take him to someone who I barely know? I know he will be in good hands, but him leaving me even if only for two weeks breaks my heart and I feel like a horrible mother that it had to come to this.

I wish Joseph wasn't deployed. If Joseph wasn't deployed, it would definitely have been easier to deal with this.

A solids update

So far, Travis has enjoyed all the fruits and vegetables I've introduced. For vegetables he's had carrots, peas, squash, sweet potato, and green beans. For fruits he's had apples and bananas. I introduced mostly the vegetables first. Tomorrow he will try some pears followed by some peaches and mangoes after the 3 day wait in between each new fruit. 

I actually had to reintroduce the green beans after a few weeks. The first time I made green beans, it did not puree it to the texture he was accustomed too and he refused to eat it. When I reintroduced it again I went ahead and bought the Gerber Organics Green Beans and he loved it! I also made him some sweet potato today. I just poked holes in it, stuck it in the oven for an hour at 400, peeled the skin off and mashed it up!He loved the sweet potato as well. I should have made some more because I couldn't stop eating the sweet potato myself!

Travis's favorites so far are the peas, sweet potatoes, carrots, and bananas. We'll see in the next few weeks how he'll like the pears, peaches, and mangoes!

Found them!

So I found my old blogs. I downloaded them and I'm going to finish importing them tomorrow! I only got half of it imported the past hour.