The Drop Off

Well, I dropped Nick off at Ranger School this morning. Oh joy. Honestly, I'm doing pretty well so far. Neither of us really think he'll be in longer than a week or two with the way things have been going with overcrowding. One can only hope, right?

I'm definitely not the stress case I was a month ago about this whole situation. Part of that is because Eli is a bit more predictable. That's not to say we don't have crazy days (cough, yesterday, cough), but overall, I feel like I can handle it, and God has given me an incredible peace about everything, like one of my favorite Bible verses says:

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7

I'll definitely be surprised if he goes the whole two months (or more), but it could be 2 days (fingers crossed), two months, 6 months...who knows. Obviously I'd rather have him gone for a short period of time but, at this point, I'm just ready to be done with all this, one way or the other. And if he's in for a long time, I know I have a bunch of family who wants to visit, and some awesome friends who will help me get through it and give me some mommy breaks. I even have a dinner invitation tonight. So, I know we'll get through it. Just pray that whatever happens, Nick would either get through it all, or not be there for very long. Because I'd hate for him to get through all of this first week (which is the hardest), just to be out later.

3 Months Old!

My little man is 3 months old! I can't believe it! It seemed like just yesterday that he looked like this:

On his birthday

And, now he looks like this:

It's been a big month for Eli! He surprised us by rolling over on June 25th and now likes to do it all the time during his tummy time. I can barely get him to stay on his tummy. The other day, after not doing it for about a week, he proceeded to roll over 6 times!

Rolling over

He also looks like he really wants to crawl, but isn't quite strong enough to lift up his belly. Nick likes to say he has the mechanics down, but just doesn't have the strength yet. He's still jabbering away with baby talk and will give us a good laugh every once in awhile, or a cute little squeal. Pretty much his favorite place in the world is his changing table, and he will always give us a good smile at the very least. He absolutely loves the bath and has started splashing like crazy with his feet. Today he also started enjoying the "Where's Eli?" game, and I even got a good laugh out of him.

He has starting grabbing and holding on to toys, and his favorite are his keys, which he really enjoys shaking. He has started entertaining himself in his bassinet, especially in the morning. His favorite time of day is about 7am, and he wakes up and starts cooing and squealing with joy until we come pick him up. He can even put himself back to sleep when he wakes up too early for his liking from a nap. He just started sucking his thumb, and thoroughly enjoys munching on his hands when his binkie falls out, which helps him fall asleep on his own (yay!). He has also slept as long as 6 hours at night-last night, in fact.

Mmm, tasty hands

He has started teething a little bit, which hasn't been much fun. Thankfully, he only had a few really bad days, and is mostly just drooling and enjoying eating my fingers.

He's wearing some 3-6 month clothes, although he mostly wears 0-3 month. He also fits in a few 6-9 month shorts, which is crazy, and just moved up to size 2 diapers.

He's totally mastered holding his head up, which means we got to use his Bumbo chair:

Yay for sitting up!

I love my little family!

Working Out

In case you were wondering, I have officially stopped doing Couch to 5K for right now. I stopped when I got that infection a few weeks ago & it just got way too hot here to pick it back up.

There's just not enough time in the morning to walk the dogs and go for a run before the ridiculous humidity bears down at about 9am. It was just too stressful. And It's bad enough how gross I get just after the walk. I can't even imagine running.

The plan is to start back up running again in the fall once outside time isn't limited to a couple hours in the morning.

For now, I'm doing some 10 minute pilates and yoga workouts, mostly focusing on my abs since I had absolutely no strength left after having Eli. So far it's much more manageable with my limited schedule due to Eli and the crazy summer heat!

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Up In the Air

So, in true Army fashion, the next couple of months are completely up in the air for us.

First off, Nick did not end up going to Ranger School at the end of June. They are extremely overcrowded, and they didn't let him in- can't say I wasn't happy about that! And Nick was glad that he had a bit more time to prepare because he's set to try again at the end of this month.

That being said, he probably won't be gone more than a week (it's supposed to be a 2 month course, but the first week is when they do the PT tests and stuff and eliminate as many people as they can). They are still extremely overcrowded, and if it's anything like the last few classes, they are letting less than 10% of guys at his rank through. It's pretty ridiculous.

So, option #1 (extremely unlikely)- Nick goes to Ranger School for 2 months (or more) and then we move.

Option #2 (this is what we're hoping for)- Nick goes to Ranger School for a week, then walks on to a month-long school instead. After which, we move.

Option #3- Nick goes through the first week of Ranger School, comes home, and they make us move as soon as possible.

So, as you can see, it all depends on that first week of Ranger School. It would be an extra perk for Nick's career if he did get to graduate from Ranger School, but thankfully, it's not a deal breaker if he doesn't. Especially since it's apparently extremely unlikely that he would be able to go through the whole school and graduate.

I would obviously prefer it if he wasn't gone for 2 months or more, and I'm getting antsy to get settled in Tennessee. So, please be praying for option #2.

We know that God is ultimately in control of the situation and already knows what's going to happen. It is a little nerve-racking though with all the possible scenarios, one of which is Nick being gone for 2 months.

Whatever happens, we will be moving eventually l, and we should be able to go home to California for a couple weeks after we get somewhat settled in Tennessee. I'll try to keep everyone updated on what happens!

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4th of July

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Ours was pretty awesome and relaxing. And I guess the celebration of our wonderful country is still going because we just now realized that we have to watch Live Free or Die Hard! And, last night, we watched The Patriot, which just arrived on our Netflix. We were shocked that we made it all the way through in one night. That definitely hasn't happened for awhile in this house!

Happy Birthday America!

Seriously though, we had a great weekend and celebrated the foundation of our awesome country mostly on Saturday. Our neighbors had a BBQ that day and that was also when they shot off fireworks here on post. Eli made sure to wear his festive American flag bib.

We were lucky enough to be able to walk to where we could see the fireworks. We transferred Eli to his stroller and were just out the door when we thought we locked ourselves out of our house! Thankfully, I hadn't actually closed the back door like I thought I had, so we were able to get our keys without having to wait on maintenance to let us in. So, after all that excitement, Eli slept through the fireworks show completely. He didn't even flinch.

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July as well! I'll hopefully be updating about all the other craziness that's been going on around here soon, but things might have to slow down a bit first.

Eli- 2 months

Eli is 2 months old!

I don't know how time has gone by so quickly already. He's getting so big! I swear, he grew overnight. Seriously, all of a sudden, his diapers and clothes got smaller and his body filled up more of his bathtub.

We had his 2 month well baby visit yesterday and, although I knew he was getting big, I did not expect him to be ELEVEN pounds 2 ounces! It was definitely a nice surprise to see he's becoming a chunky monkey. It's crazy now to think that we had issues with nursing in the beginning. He's definitely gotten the hang of it now! I think it's even more surprising because babies are supposed to double in weight by 4 months...and he's almost there at 2 months (he was 6 lbs. 12 oz. at birth)!

He is also 22 inches long (was 19.5 at birth) and has a head circumference of 15 inches. He's in the 25-50th percentile for height & weight and 25th for head circumference.

He actually hated the check-up part itself more than the 3 shots he got. We were amazed at how well he did with the shots. He's a tough little guy. He cried for about a minute after he got them, then I picked him up & gave him his binkie, and he proceeded to fall asleep snuggled up to me. All of the nurses were thoroughly impressed with how good he was. He was a little fussy last night, but mostly just slept after his crazy day.

He's also totally on track as far as development:
- Smiling responsively and spontaneously
- Following moving faces
- Turns towards voices
- Raises head 45 degrees when lying on stomach
- Making cooing noises
- Tracking objects past midline
- Startles to loud noises

He's really happy, in the morning especially, and absolutely loves to smile with a big old goofy grin on his face. He's really starting to develop a great personality. It was definitely easy to get lots of adorable 2 month pictures of him!

He gurgles and coos with us all the time, and even tried to talk to our 3 month old neighbor the other day.

Such a cutie!

He loves his daily tummy time and is a pro at lifting up his head. He always gets excited when his daddy comes in the room and loves to give him a big old smile almost every time. He also has his sad face down pat and loves to stare at us and curl his lower lip when he's upset. He's pretty cute, I think we'll keep him!

Hit By a Truck

Wednesday morning at about 2:30am, I woke up to feed Eli and felt like I had been run over by a truck. Thankfully, he went right back to sleep after I fed him and I was able to get some sleep for a few hours.

Then, I fed him again a few hours later and just couldn't quite get back to sleep because my whole body was aching. Let me tell you, there is nothing more frustrating than not being able to sleep when your baby is asleep. I just tossed and turned in an attempt to get comfortable, all to no avail. 

Eli ended up finally waking up for the day around 8 (so late for him!), and by that point I didn't even feel like I could get out of bed I felt so horrible. Thankfully, Nick was able to call in to work and didn't even have to go check in. So he provided invaluable help with changing Eli and taking care of the both of us. Eli was also on his absolute best behavior that day (wish I could still say that, ha ha), which is nothing short of miracle with a 7 week old!  

Also, thankfully, the doctor's office had an appointment a few hours later, so I could get checked out. They ended up diagnosing me with a clogged milk duct and an infection (probably mastitis) and were able to get me on antibiotics and pain meds right away that are ok to take while nursing. Once I started taking those, it was like night and day. I'm definitely still not 100% healthy, but during parts of the day, I almost feel normal again.

I'm pretty sure it all came about because I wore a sports bra that was too tight. Definitely not making that mistake again! I'm just so glad I was able to get in to the doctor early and that Nick was still here to help out. As much as I wish I wasn't sick right before he heads out to Ranger School, I don't know how I would do it without him. I mean, I didn't even feel like I could drive myself to the doctor!

But, like I said, I'm on the mend again, thank goodness! I'm feeling better and better everyday.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,

Psalm 103:3-4

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