The Chunk

Sorry I have been a bad blogger this summer! Gus is now a week from being eight months old!

Things have been really busy around here. Plus there is Gus! I started teaching one day a week at the nursing school at local community college. It is only one day a week for 3 hours but it is A LOT of work. First I've never taught the class so there is a ton of prep work, and also we are having weekly tests. I have to say that I am more of a "practicing" nurse and less "academic." I'm trying to catch up with the terminology, but I think I am studying more than my students!

On top of teaching and working two nights a week, my parents have been gone since August 28th and they will be gone until September 20th. You could say that I am running the show on my own. It is overwhelming at times. I don't know how I thought I could have done this on my own in Virginia! Some days when I am completely sleep deprived from working all night (my shift is 7pm to 7:30am), my main goal is survival. If Gus is fed and clean and the animals have eaten, then I feel like I have won that day. Some days I actually getting to eating myself and if it is a REALLY good day I get to brush my teeth, too!

Gus is adapting to not having 3 people tend to his every need. He is playing by himself on the floor a lot. He loves my little cat Zach. Both Zach and Gus love attention and being touched so they are like two peas in a pod. The fawn over each other caressing and rubbing. Gus pulls on Zachs ears and Zach purrs in appreciation. I really thought Gus would start crawling now that he isn't held all the time, but he is a very stubborn child. On a good, he'll roll around and around and around and eventually will end up on the otherside of the room. Even though Gus lacks the gross motor skills, his strong suit remains sleeping and eating! In fact, we went back to see Dr. David and Gus was up to 17 pounds! And 29 inches! I swear all the food I give him goes to heighth and not weight! Dr. David was happy with Gus's accomplishment and we will go back the first week in November for his nine month.

You might be wondering who is watching Gus when I work nights and when I'm teaching. A neighbor watches him on night shift. He is an easy baby to watch at night since he goes down at 7pm and sometimes isn't even awake when I get home after my shift. But Cindy does an excellent job and I am at total peach when she has him because I know that he is well taken care of. When I teach from 1pm to 4pm, a girl from my chat group takes Gus. Jackie is wonderful! She is a really chill mom (a lot like me). She has two girls ages 3 and 1. Gus is totally in love with her 3 year old, and her 1 year old loves being the older woman in Gus's life. Of course you can guess what Gus thinks about all three girls giving him all their attention! He loves it at Jackies.

Last, I went to see my brother his wife and their kids this weekend. My hope is that Gus and his cousin Eli (2 years old) will be best buddies later on in life. There is only 1 1/2 years between them.

Happy baby with his sippy cup

First Hokie Game!

Jackie's baby Ruby (AKA Gus's older woman) taking away the pink doll he was playing with

Zach and Gus

Eli & Gus

Cousins!

Gus eating

Here are some videos of Mr. Gus. I finally figured out my computer and the videos. The first one is of Gus feeding himself. Usually once he gets the food in his mouth, he swallows. However, in this video he saw me with the camera and with the grin so he decided to perform. I just think the hand eye coordination for the little kid is awesome. Of course, when food in involved, Gus can do anything.

The second video is of Gus waving. Isn't he adorable?



.

Gus, the traveling baby.

So much has happened since my last blog. Gus and I have been moving and shaking from one side of the country to the other. We went camping twice and made a trip to Virginia for the wedding of good friends Kent and Katie. Along the way we met up with old friends and Gus had plenty of babies to learn from.

First, we went on our second camping trip but first real one. It was just my dad, me, and Gus. Grandma stayed home with the old dog. Gus went swimming. Gus went hiking. He even stayed up for the camp fire.

That is Gus asleep while I hiked

Gus and I then trekked to Virginia for a tour around the state and to meet up with old friends. I lost my camera the day of the wedding and did not get any shots :( But I had a blast at Kent and Katie's wedding. Thanks to Heather for babysitting, I was able to enjoy my time at the wedding without worrying about Gus having a good time too.

We flew into National Airport where Emily greeted us. After spending the day with her and Geoff, we rented a car and headed to ole Cville.




In Cville, Gus had the opportunity to meet his Granddaddy for the first time. From the picture, it is hard to tell who loved who more?

Thanks to Grant and Erin, Gus and I had a place to stay that was fully equipped for baby-mania. They have an awesome baby girl named Chloe. Chloe is a couple of months older than Gus, so she showed him the ropes. Of course we had to do the obligatory naked babies in the bathtub picture:

I had to also meet up with my dear friend Theresa Love. We went out to dinner and then went back to her house for some good bonding. Gus loves her husband Chuck. In general, Gus loves tall men with booming voices. Here is a picture of Gus with T Love's daughter Mckenzie.


As I said earlier, I lost my camera for awhile so there are pictures I wish I had taken. I got to hang out with my Hokie friends like Chris Geiman (Uncle Geiman!!), Dave Johnson, and of course the couple we traveled across the country for. We got to meet up with Alison and her daughter Marley. Marley is 1 year old and she had some majorly cool toys that she shared with Gus.It was nice to visit with Heather (Gus got to stay in Heather's baby's nursery. . . thanks Avery for not getting out of your mom's bed yet!). Heather and Blain hung with Gus and were impressed by how much food that boy can eat. Since my breast milk I had left from April went bad, Gus had his first taste of formula. According to Heather, it went down like he had been drinking it his whole life.

Which brings me to my next point. Gus is pretty slow at many milestones. He only started turning over at 6 months. He refuses to "creep" or try to crawl. He can sit, but that is about it. However, Gus EXCELS at eating. It is almost scary how much he can throw down. I will try to post a picture of the boy feeding himself. Yes, he feeds himself now, too. It is a good thing that I am not a neat freak because a 6 month old feeding himself is a scary sight.

Back to our camping trips. Again, Pop-pop Gus and I went camping yesterday. This time, Gus refused to sleep and kept us up all night. It might be his last trip for awhile due to sleep deprivation.




I wanted to post pictures of Gus feeding himself and his new skill -the wave. I am still having trouble with the whole video thing so look for it as a separate post!

Gus is 6 months!

My little Gus is 6 months old now! It is amazing how fast (slow) time flies by. I can't believe the achievements he has made in this short little time. When he was only a few days and weeks old, I was worried that he:

1) was blind because he would not look at me
2) that he didn't know he had hands because he wouldn't use them
3) that he was going to sleep in my bed forever because he would not sleep in his own bed
4) that he would stop breathing any minute (this worry was brought on by the incident in which he did stop breathing and had to be hospitalized so I don't feel to bad about it)
5) that he would never take a nap . . . WAIT! He still doesn't
6)that he would not rollover

I think I get the worry-gene from my dad. I am thankful that Gus finally started rolling over. I was beginning to think if he stayed on that path, I would have to come to college with him just to roll him over. He also has started to sit on his own for long period of times.

For Gus's 6 month birthday, we had a little party in the yard. Our neighbors came and we ate cake and ice cream.

I c


Gus also loves to look at himself in the mirror. I guess this is common amongst infants. To be honest, I think he doesn't understand that it is himself, but he thinks it is one great looking baby. I see him smiling and saying to himself, "That baby is GORGEOUS!"


Finally, we went to the pediatrician today for his 6 month check-up. Dr. David thinks Gus is a very happy child who is hitting all of his milestones. In fact, Dr. David was not even upset that Gus fell off his growth chart. His current stats are :

Weight: 15pounds 1.2 ounces (10-25%)
Height: 27 1/2 inches (75-90%)

If you remember, Gus was following the 50% curve for weight, and now he has dropped off the curve. I still exclusively breastfeed him along with some supplementation of solid foods. Because I feel like my milk supply is down and now in light of Gus not gaining weight at the same rate, I was ready to throw in the towel and to start using formula. Dr. David had a lengthy conversation with me about how breastfed babies don't always follow along the chart like they should. He asserts that Gus will probably even drop to the 3% for weight before finally catching up at 2 years and this is NORMAL. He recommend that I make no changes because he is happy and healthy. I found this to be a relief and will forge on as I have. The only change I will make is I will make his food fattier by adding olive oils and butter. Lucky baby. I am to report back to the pediatricians in 6 weeks for a re-weigh. I will keep you posted!

Next week: Gus is working on his beauty queen wave. I will try to perfect it for the next blog.

Recent Videos

These are recent videos of Mr. Gus. One is of his new trick of rolling over. The second is Gus eating. Look at that mouth!

Finally, Milestones to report!

What a busy couple of weeks Gus has had. First, we had a blast on the 4th of July. I worked the night before, but after 2 hours of sleep, I was up and ready to celebrate! First, I dressed Gus in his Independence Day outfit. A friend gave this to me from her child's left over clothes. I remember back in March thinking "I will dress this in Gus on 4th of July!" And I did. We went for a walk and I bought him a little patriotic wheel thing. Then we went to a picnic where a neighbor of mine fed him a cookie! The sugar high that this boy had was unbelievable! You will be happy to know that Gus is a happy drunk. He laughed and giggled until he finally fell asleep. Here we are posing in front of the old Indian. I look good for being sleep deprived.

We meant to go for a hike the next day after the 4th of July. I found a really nice secluded mountain area. Then I got him all ready, but it turns out it was too muddy to hike. But doesn't he look adorable in his Kelty backpack?

Gus still makes his way to the pool most days of the week. This is a picture our old neighbors the Kady's took. They came out to visit us and we had a great time. Gus loves the water and loves swimming. I have tried to teach him that you CANNOT swim and suck on your toes at the same time.

This past weekend, we went on Gus's first camping trip. First we went to a small town that had this beer fest. My parents have been going to this even forever. You pay $25 and they give you a glass. Then you walk around the park to the different vendors where they fill your glass as many times as you wish with their micro beers. Again, it was on a Saturday and the night before I worked. Again, on 2 hours of sleep I tried to rally as best as I could. Here is Gus with Grandma and Pop pop at the festival.

Let's just say that Gus is not ready for camping. He was awake every two hours crying. I finally got up with him at 6 am and drove him down a bumpy road just to get him to go back to sleep. It was even more rough for Momma considering how sleep deprived I was. Sadly, I could not rally the second day. While Mommy rested, Gus went swimming (you know he loves it!) with Pop pop, Mr. Bob, his Uncle, Aunt, and cousins.

Finally, Gus has had some real milestones. First of all he is cutting not one but TWO teeth! Poor baby boy. He is very stoic and hardly ever cries over it. They are the two bottom teeth. I tried to get pictures but they are so little so far and he is not very compliant with me taking the pictures. Second, and most important, I can happily report that Gus can officially roll over! Yes way! He goes from tummy to back like he's been doing it his whole life. I will try to upload the video onto this blog post when I can figure out how to do it.


Next week: Gus's 6 month doctor visit! NOT MORE SHOTS!

Gus's Nursery

I chose a farm theme. A nice lady who owns this antique shop finds us nice things for Gus's room. I love the pictures she came up with. The are from 1952 and I just think they are adorable.





Gus and I went to the park where we watched other children do the things children do. Then Gus played on the blanket Grandma made and he swung in the swing.