A little bit of this and that

- Fairbanks is once again cloaked in smoke. We've been lucky in NP, but not today. Last night when I got up for the forth time to take care of Gumba I could smell the smoke permeating the house. Ughh. The interior has had a lot of fires, and more are starting everyday. Husband had to go respond to a wildland fire in the city at midnight the other night. And, to top off his tiredness for working hard, Gumba didn't take very good naps. Poor Dad.

- Gumba was sick on Sunday, his first pucking experience. It of course came on before bedtime, so I got to worry all night long that he was dehydrated and would die, and it would be all my fault. Husband was of course at work through all of it.

- Gumba is still waking up many times a night. I am at such a loss. I'm starting to think he'll never ever sleep for longer then 3hrs and I'll be sleep deprived forever. The pediatrician told Gumba he was well on his way to having his prayers answered, he may end up being an only child. What happens if we hit the lottery more than once and get a child like this again?

- Oh, let's not forget that Sadie had the runny runny poops. I woke up three mornings in a row and had to clean her up. Ughh. Pets are wonderful, however when they're sick, it sucks.

For some much better news:

- I weighed Gumba the other day, and he is a hefty 19lbs 14oz. Now, remember that he is only 7 months old. I wonder what he'll weigh on his one year birthday.

- I bought an organic crib mattress for baby. It was very expensive, and I'm sure many will think I'm nuts, but I feel good about it. I know he's not inhaling fire retardants, and other, what may turn out to be, harmful chemicals.

- My friend Jenny had her baby!!! Hudson was born on Wednesday. Congratulations McCulloch family!

Listen to Gumba Screech!

Gumba has decided that he will only communicate through loud, variable pitched screeches. Luckily he does this only when he is happy, which is 99% of the time. I know screeching annoys most parents, but I take great joy in it. Gumba went through this faze at six months were he stopped vocalizing and it scared me, so I'd rather have deafening noises then silence any day. So, I have a video for you all, a sample if you will, of what we've been hearing at our house the last couple of weeks.

Also, Gumba has just about mastered sitting up. It was amazing how quickly he caught on. I'm sure it had a lot to do with my mother-in-law taking the time to give him practice. As it turns out, I'm the slow learner. It took me watching Gumba hit his head on the hard floor three times before I figured out putting him on the bed first would be a good idea. Luckily his head has healed and he won't have any memories of how dumb his mother is.

Cute Video

This video is one of my favorites. I hope it brings as many smiles to your face as it does to mine. In this video Gumba is almost three months old. Sorry if the quality isn't very good. We use our camera that's considered ancient in the world of technology.

Most Precious Baby Ever

So, I know that many of you will disagree, and I understand that you have to, but I have the most cutest, precious baby in the whole wide world! I don't know what it is about him, but he is just amazing. Today I brought him to the grocery store where he just sat looking around and behaved like an angel. Every time I looked at him I couldn't get over how lucky Husband and I are to have him. When he's in the car he looks out the window, very rarely do we hear anything from him. The other day we took him couch hunting, and again, he was very patient and let us try out all the couches. I have the best video of Gumba from the other morning. Once he wakes up and is fed the ritual goes like this: I remove his many layers of nighttime clothing, take off the cloth diaper to let him air/dry out, then he puts his toes in his mouth and squeaks, and screeches and talks. So, the video is of this, and I would love to post it so you all could eat up his cuteness, but it's probably considered kid porn for all those who aren't related, so it'll have to stay in the family vault. But believe me, you all would melt and go awwhhhh, and then want him for yourself.

Husband is Home :)

Husband is home, safe and sound. It turns out that he wasn't even worried that I was mad at his abandonment of me. Originally he told me he would be gone during the days only. That was the last I heard from him for eight days. There was a fire out past Ester where a company does logging. They had 120 people working on it. Evidently Husband slept by a lake making sure the water pump kept working. He even has a sunburned lip to prove how much napping he did! He had a lot of fun, and made a little extra money. With that money and the donation from my dad we went and bought a couch!!! We are really really excited. We have never owned a new piece of furniture. Our "couch" at present is a used, old futon that is extremely uncomfortable, we've had it since we got married. The couch is soft, and comfortable, and the end recline. I'll post a pic when we get it on Wednesday.

New Things for Gumba

Gumba has learned to do many new things this past month. First he found his feet, which actually brought much joy to me. Next he discovered, thanks to his cousin, that feet can be brought up to the mouth and chewed on.

Gumba has started eating real human food! I am making it all myself which brings me much satisfaction, as well as a much much lower grocery bill. I've even been making the rice cereal, which I only use as a filler. I had no idea making baby food would be so easy. So far he's had sweet potato, avocado, zucchini, and a little taste of watermelon and cantaloupe.

We've also been working pretty hard on sitting. Here he is sitting just long enough by himself for me to take a picture! This boy is making great strides! Sorry for Gumba's weird face, I didn't have much time before he was going to tip over. I threw in this other really adorable pic just for the heck of it. I can't believe how cute he is. Husband and I totally lucked out with this one.

I don't know if many of you have heard but there are several large wildland fire's that firefighter's are battling right now. Husband was sent away from Gumba and I six days ago, and we don't have a clue as to when he'll be back, it may be as long as 14 days. He is out of cell phone range so we haven't been able to touch base with him. This is actually the reason I have so many pics of Gumba, I don't have much else to do! I've found that keeping a baby occupied for three or four hours is very taxing. I'll let you all know when Husband comes home. I'll be ready for a break.

Finally, a Pedicure

I finally get my pedicure. I have been waiting to get it for seven months, not an exaggeration. My thought way back around Christmas time was that I wanted pretty toes to go along with shaved legs while I labored and delivered what turned out to be an 8lb baby. Little did I know that mentioned baby was going to be early and I was going to have ugly toes during labor and delivary, but would have smooth legs. Ever since then I've been trying to get the universe to align just perfectly so I could make the trek into town on a weekend day that both Husband and I had off. Obviously this was not as easy as one would expect, since it's now been six months. Here a few reasons why it's taken so long:

1) Baby was too early and on my appointment date I was probably exhausted, unshowered, breastfeeding, and changing mountains of dirty diapers.

2) Husband ended up working on the day I was supposed to go in.

3) Gumba laid down for a nap, so did I. I woke up ten minutes after my appointment had started.

The universe is playing a sick game this time around also, but I've found a way to fool it. Husband is out with Forestry trying to keep a forest fire at bay and I have no idea when he'll be home. My appointment is tomorrow morning and I haven't heard for him for three days. So, I found a babysitter, and am just estatic. I hope the pedicure is all I've ever wished for. Not for a lady that treats my feets as if they would a lead brick.

For Crying Out Loud

Okay, does anyone have any words of wisdom to give Husband and I, because we are, or at least I am, at our wits end. We have been blessed with a very handsome, very fun baby (during the day) who then turns into a crying, screaming beast at night. We first tired the "attachment parenting" technique, going to Gumba every time he cried or waked up, giving pacifiers, nursing him. When this failed to solve the problem of him waking up every hour or two, we finally succumbed to the holy grail method that EVERYONE boasts about, the "cry it out" (CIO) technique. We've been at it now for four weeks, and he still has nights (more then less) where we are forced to let him cry anywhere between 20-90 min at night. I asked the pediatrician why he hasn't learned yet, mind you everyone says that you'll have three difficult nights, and she couldn't come up with why he's still crying for so long. I do still nurse him during the night. I figure we either have an incredibly stubborn child, or a dumb one. At this juncture I'm not sure which is best. So, I've decided that my maximum time limit for letting him cry before we soothe him is 40 minutes. Does anyone out there have a similar experience, or have some advice to give us? We could sure use it.

Happy 4th

Happy 4th of July everybody! Ours was busy, and a lot of fun. I hosted the annual family get together that included both my parents driving up from ER and Husbands clan. His clan includes his parents, sister/BIL and their seven children. I got a little over zealous and started inviting a smattering of people I thought would like to come, mainly friends I don't get to spend nearly enough time with. Most went to the parade and watched Husband drive a firetruck while I stayed at home and listened to Gumba sleep.

Once the parade was over with gobs (a slight exaggeration) of people showed up and ate lots of yummy, and mostly unhealthy treats. My parents spent lots of time with Gumba, they hadn't seen him in a month. Between them and everyone else, I think the only time I spent with my son that day was when I was breastfeeding him! Gumba's cousin is just three weeks younger than him, and they had a great time together. Here a few picks of them having fun.

Gumba's cousin is almost crawling, whereas Gumba won't roll over. The difference is he sleeps on his back while she on her stomach. So Gumba is a little developmentally behind. Oh well, at least he's happy. The weather was nice, hot, but it kept the mosquitoes at bay. Husband treated all the cousins to 4-wheeler rides (ATV for those out of state!). They had a blast. I hope you all had as much fun!

Jumperoo kicks a$$

Here is a video of Gumba in his jumperoo. He jumps so hard in it, it's amazing. Once he moved it a foot forward. We've been putting him in it since he was ten weeks old. Gumba has always loved to stand/jump and our arms got so tired we decided to try it out, and he had good head control early on so we could. I'm not sure how parents survived without these things, they are amazing, and make good babysitters :) Enjoy watching.

So, ignore the tubes and the IV in his head. This is one of the best pics we have of Gumba after his was born. We didn't take many pics immediately after his birth, and had no idea most of our pics would be of him in intensive care. But he was still darling, and his head looked pretty normal after birth. I forgot to mention that he was 8lbs and 21.5inches when he was born, and yes, my dates were right. My in-laws grow 'em big before their born.

Here is Gumba presently, enjoying tummy time. He now weighs in at a hefty 18lbs 5oz, and is somewhere in the 27.5inch range. He's quite the monster! Not crawling yet, and doesn't care to roll over. Gumba can "tripod" which the pediatrician says is a skill above rolling over, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next month or so. I'll have to post a video of him in his jumperoo, pretty amazing how much he likes to jump and stand.

Baby Gumba's Birth Story

Here is the post that will be all about baby Gumba, but I do see a lot of these in future, so don't be thinking this will be the only one. Gumba was born in December, three and a half weeks BEFORE his due date. Husband and I are were not expecting this, since I took the very practical approach to pregnancy and imagined that my real due date was two weeks after the one the midwifes gave me. My SIL's all have gone over and I read in a book that most first pregnancies go an average of eight days past the due date. So, yeah, when my water broke at 3am I was a tad bit surprised. Husband had to get the car seat out of the box and install it, I had to figure out what I wanted to take the hospital, Didn't have that suitcase you always see in dramas/comedies ready to go. Because Gumba was so early I had to go to the hospital, in AK the midwifes are only allowed to assist in pregs that are 37-42 weeks. Husband and I waited a few hours before going to the hospital, I knew as soon as I went they would start the unofficial countdown of when they expected Gumba to come. Arrived at the hospital around 6:30am where in I was asked multiple times if my water really had broken, and just how sure I was. That was REALLY annoying, like I can't tell a bucket worth of clear liquid from a little yellow urine. Ugh, hospitals. They also were VERY insistent that I change into one of their horrible hospital gowns. I refused. I was definitely not the ideal patient following every suggestion or whim of theirs. Every hospital personnel that came into the room was given the same shpeal, there was a reason I wanted a birth center birth, don't give me anything, let me do my own thing, yadda yadda yadda. By noon the nurse kept saying, "you aren't progressing (like we want you to) are you sure you don't want anything, we have drugs for this kind of stuff." I kept declining, she kept offering. We found out later that she (who was older) had really never seen or assisted a COMPLETELY natural birth and was a bit nervous. Can you imagine, a nurse NEVER seeing a birth without drugs? Shocking I know. By 3pm I knew that the clock was ticking, I mean, imagine a woman whose water broke 12 hours ago not in active labor. So, yadda yadda yadda, I got active labor started. Had to move pretty much immediately into the shower, where I stayed for the next five hours. A midwife came to the hospital to be support, and to assist as my advocate. The midwife was amazing. I refused to give birth on my back, which the doc was completley understanding about and really worked with me. And then at 9:20pm little Gumba came into the world. I'll spare you all of the details, but pretty interesting the stuff that happens to your body, but those out that there that haven't done this yet, nothing bad.

And then the real drama came, Gumba had to be in the hospital for the next 10 days, and then we finally got to take him home. December/January were the coldest months in recent memory. While we were in the hospital it was between -45F and -50F. It was awful. But Gumba is doing well now, we've moved on from him being sick to sleep issues. So, everything is on track. I'll post pics next time, can't get it figured out.