Jessica Writes

Wishing everyone lots of treats and no tricks!

Reed is not at all interested in tummy time yet, but loves being on his back looking at his reflection. (He is sorta spacing out here, though.)

Well, I have become what I have mocked in the past.

Back in April, when I was pregnant, I made a blog post mocking a hands-free breast pump. Here is that entry. After realizing how much time it takes to pump a day and getting tired of holding each of the breast shields, I broke down and bought a hands free pumping bra. It came in the mail today.

I am using it for the first time right now. Was that too much information?! And yes, I’ll probably talk on the phone while using it, too!

Thanks for the hat, Auntie Carrie!

You might recall that Reed was showing enlarged kidneys during the ultrasound when I was pregnant with him, and that we were going to have to consult with a Pediatric Urologist once he was born. He went in for a test to see if he had reflux yesterday at Children’s Hospital.

It was almost surreal to be on the “other side” of things since I work there. But everyone was great. The test required putting a small catheter into his penis and then taking a lot of pictures of him emptying and filling up his bladder. I thought I was going to have a very hard time seeing him in pain but he actually just took a bottle during the test and only cried before I gave it to him. The procedure took less than 10 minutes and he was a true champ throughout it!

And the best part is that he has NO kidney issues — no reflux, no obstruction, nothing! Fantastic news!

He’ll go back to the Peds Urologist on Nov. 20 to be circumsized (we wanted to wait til after this test to do it) … Chris is already feeling sorry for his little “chicken wing.”

Chris goes back to work tomorrow. I am scared I can’t do this without his help. I guess I will get the hang of it eventually. Chris’ mom, Rita, came Saturday night and is staying for a few days which is very nice of her.

Last night was not good. Poor Reed cried the entire night except when we held him. Chris’ mom took him at 6 am so we could sleep but it’s just near impossible for me to get to sleep anymore.

And the poor pumpkin has what we are guessing is a bad case of baby acne. He has loads of red bumps all over his face and on his head. It appeared suddenly last night out of nowhere. But from all I am reading it appers to be baby acne. It looks painful but apparently is not for him and should clear up on its
own.

First try in the sling, he liked it a lot and even went to sleep in it (pardon the no makeup and post-pregnancy pot belly).

Here is another baby being worn, just a four-legged version. Chris saw this lady on the street today and had to take a picture because he has been threatening to put Simone in the Baby Bjorn carrier for months!

Dana, one of the fabulous staff photographers at work, stopped by on Reed’s one-week birthday (last Friday) and took some lovely pictures of us and our little man. Here’s a few of our growing family:

Thanks, Dana!

Chris and I have a silly little habit of giving tons of nicknames to our pets. Now that practice has extended to our son, poor thing.

Names he has been called so far:
Reedle
Weedle
Reed the weed
Reedle the beetle
Reedlekins
Reedle mcfetal
Mcsweetle
Little turkey
Chicken wing
Little manwich
Little buddy
Bugaboo

Our son is going to need serious therapy.

Where does the time go? I am not working and I swear I get so little done each day, and still end up going to bed late at night. Its mind boggling — it’s as if there is a black hole sucking up all my time. But, hopefully I will get it together by the time I go back to work in January. The most important thing is for me to absorb as much of this sweet babyness that I can while Reed is this tiny. I know it’s going to go by way too fast.

We went to the pediatrician today and Reed weighs 8 pounds, 1 ounce and is 21 inches. Last week, he was 7 pounds, 7 ounces and 20 inches. They said he is growing very well and doing a great job gaining weight. Still having some breastfeeding issues due to my shy boobs (they are inverted) so we have been trying all sorts of things to try to resolve that. For now, the shield is my breast friend, haha.