My boy

I haven’t written much about Parker…what kind of mother am I?! I’ll answer that…the kind of mother that never ever dreamed of having kids. A mother who did not take the 6 months before he was born to prepare for his arrival – physically, mentally and financially. The kind of mother who is taking it one precious day at a time. One day at a time…yet, it’s still going by so fast! Parker will be 3 months old next week….THREE!! Already. I feel like I just blinked and that much time has passed.

Rob & I have been blessed with an AMAZING baby. We joked the whole time I was pregnant that we had ”ordered” a baby that didn’t cry, didn’t spit up and slept through the night. We’ve been pretty lucky on all accounts!

We heard a lot of horror stories before Parker arrived about how horrible the first 3 months would be. How tired we would be. How much our marriage would suffer in the first 3 months. None of that, thankfully, has been true. Of course Parker cries. He cries for exactly 3 reasons…hungry, poopy and ”I want to be held”. We haven’t experienced any of the unconsollable crying that we were warned about. We’re already out of the window for colic being a problem. We’ve just been really, truly lucky with him.

I was so worried before Parker was born how I would handle spit up, poop, drool – all of it made me gag before. In fact, EVERYTHING made me gag before he was born… everything from the taste of toothpaste to the feeling of having soap bubbles touch my elbows in the tub, plus all the gross stuff in between. It wasn’t just during the pregnancy, it has been my entire life. So, I was rather horrified when the NICU nurse told me it was mommy’s job to change the poopy diaper the 2nd day he was there. YIKES…here it goes, I was sure they were going to have to call housekeeping to clean up my vomit. But, before I even knew it the diaper was changed…gag free!!! He’s puked on me, drooled on me, peed on me more times than I can count, and my favorite…I’ve been hit by a flying nugget of poop, but none of it…NONE!! has made me gag. A lot of my friends were worried how my stomach and my reflex would handle all the messiniess of being a new mom and they are SHOCKED now to see me change a poopy or get barfed on without flinching! I love exceeding everyone’s expectations….including my own. Rob and I joke that I gave birth to my gag reflex at the same time I gave birth to Parker – thank God that has worked out!

Now I mentioned we ordered a baby who didn’t spit up, and up until recently that was mostly the case…just a few little spits here and there with one major projectile that I can remember. I think God lost our order a few weeks ago, becasue Parker has been a major puker lately. No change in formula, no change in routine…he just spits a lot now. We have a doctors appointment this week…I will have to remember to mention this since it is out of the ordinary. Rob doesn’t handle the spits as well as I do. In fact, he can’t believe that I clean up the baby before I wipe whatever has hit me and is rolling off my arm, chest, leg, etc… I promised my little Parkies that I would look after him before I looked after myself. And that has happened 99% of the time (I do need a coffee in the morning before his bottle is served). I’ve spent my entire life being somewhat selfish and now, I come a distant second to my baby. I never knew I had it in me. I’m so happy I did!

On the sleeping front we’ve been more than lucky…I don’t even know what word I could use that is strong enough. We were a bit more tired than usual the first few weeks he was here, but given that we packed and moved in 48 hours after he was discharged, being tired was to be expected baby or no baby. From day 1 at home he has only gotten up once a night to eat and since getting him out of the bassie and into his crib, he has slept through the night a number of times.And even if he doesn’t sleep ‘through’ – he’s still only up at 4 or 5 after sleeping from 11pm or 11:30pm. Again, knowing how much I LOVE sleep, friends and family were really concerned that I was going to lose my shit in the first 3 months from lack of sleep. Nope…not really. I’ve had moments, but that’s all they have been is moments. Fleeting thoughts that are pushed away when I think how lucky we really are. I know new parents who have gone more than 36 hours without sleep. WTF?! Yah…i would have lost my mind if that were the case, but my 17 hours per day of sleep while I was preggo has paid off…Parker seems to love sleeping too!

Parker is so beautiful. I knew that there was no way I would think he was ugly when he arrived…what mother thinks their child is ugly?! I just never knew how gorgeous I would think he is!!! We get stopped all the time when we are out – people want to look at him and tell me all the time how handsome he is. I LOVE IT!!! All babies are beautiful…all of them…mine just happens to be abnormally beautiful haha! (in my humble opinion of course!!!)

Let’s see…what have my little guy and I been up to for the past 3 months? We’ve been to 6 weeks of mommy group and met some new friends, we have been to Wal Mart a million times (I am a Super Wal Mart ADDICT!!!), we have been to Cross Iron Mills a few times, been on a few walks when the weather has been good, we have been to see some friends at work, we have been to Banff once and will go again later this week…we HAVE been busy.

He is getting amazingly strong, holding his head up for longer periods of time…its a wrestling match sometimes just changing his diaper. Hopefully all this strength he is building will mean that he will be ready for swimming lessons in July. If not lessons, then at least a trip to the pool once a week for Mommy N Me swim. I guess it will not only depend on his strength but his size…he is pretty tiny and the lil swimmers are at least 4 lbs too big for him right now.

I love my little guy and never knew how much I would love being a mommy. It is not something I ever pictured for myself and now that it is, I cant imagine it any different! Parker is THE.BEST.THING that has ever happened to me.