Milk Donation

Since we struggled so much with breast feeding in the beginning, I had to do a lot of pumping. Over that time I accumulated an entire chest freezer filled with over 1000oz of pumped breast milk. Anyone who has done any pumping knows just how much time and effort went into that... I was really crushed when we realized around 7-8 months that Josh had allergies and I would likely not be able to use the milk I had been saving. I was very busy with school, and hoping in the back of my head that Josh didn't have allergies, so I didn't try to get rid of the milk right away. Once his birthday was approaching I realized that some of the milk was getting close to one year (the latest you are supposed to keep the milk) and I needed to figure out what to do with it.

I first tried to contact some of the "official" donation websites, but since I had been taking pre-natal vitamins I did not qualify to donate milk (seriously!?!). It turns out because the milk at milk banks goes to very very premature babies they can't have any additional vitamins in the milk. I turned to a breastfeeding Mom's group that I am in on Facebook and asked for suggestions. A friend sent my contact information to a woman looking for donor milk for her son. This woman's son was born at 27 weeks and she was trying to finish his first year still on breast milk (her son was born a few weeks later than Josh). She and her family relocated to DC temporarily after her husband was injured in Afghanistan so that he could be treated at Navy Med.

I ended up having pretty much exactly as much milk as they needed while they were in the DC area, and a cooler full to take home with them. I wish I had taken a picture of my freezer filled to the brim with milk, but I'm sure that a photo couldn't really capture how much effort went into it. It felt really good to be giving my milk to someone who really needed it, and helping out a family that has already given so much.

(Stolen from Hana)

Cleaning!

Josh learned how to clean at daycare. We didn't know this, and yesterday he got a hold of some toilet paper and immediately started using it to clean. I asked them about it today, and they confirmed that he is always very helpful with cleaning up :-) Today he got ahold of some paper towels so we caught his cleaning on video :-)  Perhaps we will have to put him to work soon!

Communication

Josh has been babbling for the last few months.  He's said words although we didn't really believe the words had true meaning.  He has said mama and dada but while he looks at one of us and says it, he also looks at other things and says it.  Josh has also communicated in other ways.  He understands some commands such as "hands up" and will sometimes bring us something if we ask for it (pretty hit or miss so far).  He's also pointing a lot.  He points at things he wants (which is pretty much everything).  He does make the same type of sound when he sees Jeter but it doesn't really sound like words. He has also learned a few signs, "more" and "milk", although he has stopped using them lately.

Until now this has been mostly us talking to him and him only communicating by pointing.  But this past weekend we are ready to call it, Josh has said his first word.  He now walks over to one of us, looks at us and says, "up, up, up".  He only says this when he wants to be picked up and is only satisfied if we pick him up.  He knows that it is far too cute to resist so he has been getting picked up a lot recently.

Here is a video of Josh asking to be picked up:

It is MoCo we need to bring our own bag!

Working on some sharing

Sore from my workout!

Travel part 2!

Well after our last post, Josh unfortunately came down with a pretty high fever (103-104). He didn't have any other symptoms, but his fever was very high for 24h+ so we were considering going to an emergency clinic to make sure he was ok. Fortunately our pediatrician had Saturday hours, so we called and after talking to the pediatrician we decided to wait it out. They thought that since his fever did not suddenly go to 103 (it was a gradual increase), that we didn't need to worry just yet. Fortunately the fever went down the next day. After that he developed a very mild rash, which confirmed that he had a virus called Roseola. It is characterized by unexplained high fever for 2-3 days, and then a rash that does not itch after the fever breaks. Fortunately it made us feel better to know what he had! And our little boy was back to normal :-)

Despite the high fever, we were able to have lots of fun in Colorado. The day of my competition, Julian and Josh went to the Zoo with my cousin, his wife and their daughter. They all had a great time watching the animals. It tuckered Josh out and he took a nice long nap before Julian and Josh headed over to the arena to watch me skate. I got to say hi to them (and some other family) at the arena before I had to head off to get ready to skate. Our team skated well, and we actually won (!!!) which I wasn't expecting! It was really awesome to have so much of my family come watch me skate :-) I even made sure to bring Josh out to the ice for the medal ceremony (although he was not so pleased about it). It has been tough for me (and Julian) to balance being a mom and skating, so it was very special to have Josh to "share" the moment with.

The next day we went to Garden of the Gods in CO springs. It was 7 degrees out, so it was VERY cold. There was a dusting of snow and frost over all of the trees, and apparently it is very rare to see it like that. There were tons of photographers out to capture the moment. It was fun to see it like that, although it would have been nice to have the blue sky and mountains in the background :)

Next we headed to Keystone for some snowy fun! We rented a house that was walking distance to the ski resort, and it was awesome. Thanks to my cousin and his wife and Mark we were able to go skiing with Ellie while they watched Josh. Josh and M played together and are super cute in their matching outfits!  We also took Josh on a gondola ride up the mountain, and he seemed to enjoy the views. He still isn't sure what to think of snow, but he certainly likes ski poles! :)

The flight back was about the same as the flight out, except that it was shorter (yay for going east) and we were more mentally prepared. All in all I would say it was a fun trip!

Traveling with a Toddler

This week we are in Colorado for Margaret's skating competition and then to spend some time with her cousins.  Margaret competes on Saturday in Colorado Springs and then we are going to Keystone to hopefully go skiing.  This meant we had to fly with Josh for the first time since he was three months old.  We were supposed to fly to Curacao in December but that trip was cancelled because of the passing of Margaret's grandmother.  So this was the first time we had to take a long trip with Josh since he has really been mobile.

Margaret's parents purchased our tickets using their frequent flyer miles which meant we got to use their premiere status.  Boy was that necessary.  Not only did we bring enough stuff for a small army but we got the bulkhead row of seats which provided extra space.  We decided to carry on our new carseat which is meant to be used on an airplane and is supposed to be very portable.  Let me say, it is NOT.  It was very heavy and bulky and only because Margaret has small hands were we able to get it installed on the airplane.  If we did not have the extra space of the bulkhead it would not have fit at all.

Our flight took off at 5:50 which is nearly Josh's bedtime.  Our hope was Margaret would feed Josh during take off (so he wouldn't be bothered by the changing pressure) and then he would fall asleep and we would put him into his carseat.  It didn't quite work out that well.  Josh was not at all interested in sleeping initially.  He eventually got tired but then couldn't get comfortable in the carseat.  At night he sleeps on his stomach so going to sleep on his back was not what he had in mind.  He has slept in the carseat but only while driving.  After much crying, a bottle, some cheese and Margaret feeding him several more times he did finally fall asleep and we successfully transferred him to the carseat.  He slept for about an hour and a half which at least gave us some time to rest.  He woke up when we were close to Denver and was fussy but not too impossible to handle.

We finally landed, got our bags and got our rental car.  Fitting all of our stuff and the carseat into the car was not easy but Margaret figured that out (as she always does).  We were concerned Josh would not sleep well or the time change would be very difficult for him but after Margaret fed him he went to sleep and slept until around 7 (mountain time).  Seems he has adjusted well to the time change, we just hope it stays that way.

I find traveling stressful and doing it with a toddler certainly doesn't make it easier.  Hopefully we will come up with a better plan for the flight home and it will go a bit more smoothly.

Ready to fly

Checking out the in flight entertainment

First trip to the ER....

Today was yet another 2 hr delay for Josh for daycare, so Julian and Josh had breakfast while I showered and got ready. Then when I came down for breakfast Julian got started on his work for the day. Josh was very upset that I got to eat a bagel and he had already finished his, so I gave him another piece of bagel. He was not satisfied, and was pointing at my plate, so I gave him a plastic plate for his bagel. He is going through a phase where he loves bowls, plates, and silverware for eating--and is very grumpy if you have these things and he does not. Sadly, he was not satisfied with the plate and bagel I gave him, and instead wanted MY plate and bagel. He stood up and came racing over to try and get my food, and accidentally stepped on his plate and slipped and fell :-( It was a very banana peel-esque fall. He hit his butt first and then lightly hit his head, while the plate flew out from under his foot. He started to cry immediately, so I picked him up and he calmed down a bit. Julian came out from our office to investigate the commotion, and I told him what had happened but by then Josh calmed down so we thought everything was ok. After a minute or so, I noticed that Josh looked very unsteady on his feet and could only take 1-2 steps before falling down. Julian and I were both very concerned that Josh had hurt himself more seriously on his fall than we originally thought. Josh was getting very upset at this point, so we decided that I would feed him to calm him down and then see how he was doing after getting a bit of a rest from being held. Unfortunately after 15-20 minutes, he still could not take more than 1-2 steps and would cry when he fell (we weren't sure if he was just frustrated or in pain). I called our pediatrician and the nurse said that any time a toddler can't walk they should go to the ER to be checked out. She said that I could wait an hour to see how he was doing, but that I should probably just go get him checked out. Since it had been about 30 minutes since the fall at that point with no change, we decided to head to the ER.

We went to Suburban Hospital, which I shall rate highly for their ER services :-)  We only had to wait about 5-10 minutes to be seen by a nurse. And another 5 or so minutes before the doctor came in. Josh wouldn't try walking for the nurse, he looked very scared to (we thought maybe he was remembering how hard it had been at home to walk), but by the time the doctor came in he would take 3-4 steps, but still didn't look like himself. The doctor ordered X-rays, but told us he thought it was unlikely that there was anything broken. Both Julian and I were very relieved that Josh's walking already seemed to be improving. Josh was a VERY good boy for his X-rays, no crying at all! By the time we got back to our room Josh started investigating the room and walking around :-) We were waiting for the doctor to come back, and Josh even ventured out to the play area and then was walking around the hallways. We were so happy to have Josh walking around again! By the way Josh was acting we were pretty sure there was nothing really wrong, and the doctor came back and confirmed that there was no break. He said it might have just been a mild sprain, but that we didn't need to be concerned since it seemed like Josh was doing well. All in all we spent under 2 hrs at the ER, which is a record low time!

I think the doctor didn't think that we needed to come in, but I'd much rather have gone in when it wasn't necessary than the other way around! We knew Josh was not acting normally, and we are very lucky that nothing was really wrong. I think in the future we might wait the hour before going to the ER, but I'm glad we didn't this time! I don't think Julian and I would have made it if we had :-P

Enjoying some snacks!

Being a good boy for his X-ray!

Don't worry, Julian made sure to get digital images too ;-)

MORE snow???

So the DC area is just getting pelted with snow and ice this winter. It was fun the first few times, but now it is just getting old. Our daycare follows the government for closing, but if the public schools in Montgomery County are off or have a 2 hr delay we also have a 2 hr delay. Fortunately I just finished all my revisions and turned in my final thesis (yay!) and now I'm just cleaning out and organizing all my samples at work but will be done very soon. So at least I have the flexibility to stay home with Josh when needed, but I do have to plan my week very carefully around days when the weather might not be good. I really feel for families that don't have the job flexibility we have in dealing with backup care!

The most recent storm was almost "half a Josh" deep. Around 12-15 inches of snow! We took Josh outside for perhaps our most successful playing in the snow (not saying much...) We tried to sled down our front steps, but our "sled" was not particularly good. By the time we borrowed a sled from a neighbor, Josh was really over the whole snow thing and just wanted to go back inside. Overall, Josh really hates his coat, and mittens, and hat....so snow has less appeal to him for now. Hopefully we can change his mind for our trip to Colorado in 2 weeks!

For now, enjoy some pictures and a video of us playing in the snow :-)

Almost half a Josh high!

Family photo time

Pull faster Daddy!