I can’t believe Noah is seven months old. That sounds so much older than six months. Right now he’s sitting contentedly, playing with his star rings toy. He hasn’t changed much in the last month, and yet he’s changed so much. He says both mama and dada now. He learned a new vowel sound – E – and a couple of times he convincingly pronounced Daddy instead of dada. I know one day soon, without my realizing it, he will understand the words.

We are still nursing, and Noah is eating more and more solids. We started him on the 2nd foods since he’s big enough and had mastered the 1st pureed foods. The 2nd foods aren’t much different, other than they are a little bit thicker, a little less pureed, and they mix things together in combination now. He likes a lot of things, and it’s interesting trying the combination foods like corn + sweet potatoes. We are still following the HD diet, cutting out applesauce, bananas, and rice. He is doing really well with digesting everything. So far, so good!

He still only has those two teeth on the bottom. He still isn’t crawling or rolling around. As far as I’m concerned he can take his sweet time with that! I’m not ready to be chasing him around the house yet.

Height: 28-1/2 inches
Weight: 22 lbs, 6 oz

This month his favorite things are:
Daddy (both of their faces light up when Nate comes home from work)
sitting up
playing with the baby wipes box
being tickled
getting raspberries on his neck
chewing on everything, mostly his fingers
bath time with his rubber duckies
other children, especially his cousins Isabella and Alexis
carrots, pears, and prunes

When Nathan saw my new banner, he said to me, “Superhero? Why didn’t you tell me?” Now maybe he didn’t say it with a tone, but it made me feel the need to explain nonetheless. First of all, it is a generic word that I feel is true for all mothers. It should be enough that we carry and protect and nourish a child inside ourselves for nine months. Nine months of holding onto a precious life, feeling its swirling and rythmic thumping against our ribs, and finally, after so much long-suffering, bringing that life into the world amongst great anticipation, joy, and yes – feverish pain. It is enough for me. But should that not be enough for you – perhaps it’s too mundane since half the world’s population is capable of the same – then consider my other superhuman efforts. Amidst all kinds of stress [severe post-partum anemia, Noah's hospitalizations and surgery, sustaining a full-time job outside the home], I have done the impossible: exclusively breastfeeding Noah until he was 6 months old! And even after he began to eat solid foods, we’re still nursing [On a side note, I like to say we are nursing, instead of I am nursing him, because Noah is just as much a part of the experience as I am]. To all the mothers I know, and especially nursing mothers: You are superheroes.

This post is dedicated to the following superheroes and their sweet babies:

Sarah & baby Jacob
Amy J. & baby Emiliana
Kristin & baby Gabriel
Amy H. & baby Katelyn
Tiara & baby Aidan

And lastly, to my Noah, the heart of my heart.

For the past two days, Noah and I have stayed in our pajamas all day. I had all kinds of errands I wanted to do, like going to the library, shopping for baby food, picking up my thyroid prescription, and doing another load of laundry at mom’s house. I fought my desire to be lazy and lounge around in my bath robe all day, but lazy won. Isn’t it enough that I get up for work every night? Plus Noah is very cute in his tiger jammies!

The weekend was pretty eventful for us, so we’re taking it easy now. Friday Noah and I drove to Columbus and went shopping with Sarah and Jacob. Saturday I co-hosted a baby shower for Kristin. Sunday we went to church and then spent the rest of the day doing laundry.

Noah has been doing well with eating solids, nursing, and pooping. For solids, we stick to the diet for HD patients that I found on Cincinnati Children’s hospital website. He has been doing well with all the solids we’ve fed him. However, we had to irrigate him once last week. His stomach was looking big, and we could feel some hard loops of bowel on his belly. He hadn’t pooped all day either, so Nate and I decided he needed us to clear him out. When we did the first flush, a big glob of sweet potato-colored poop came out all at once. It looked like it had been plugging him up. The next day, he pooped really well all day. This is the first time we’ve had to irrigate him since January. I guess we can handle one irrigation a month. We’re going to test out the sweet potatoes again slowly and see if they are causing the problem. Yesterday I fed him a jar of sweet potatoes + corn, and he has been going just fine all day today.

For all non-HD parents, I’m sorry for the poop talk!

I love pictures of a new baby with his daddy. There is a magical bond between father and son.

Nicholas and Gabriel – February 18, 2009

Shane and Jacob – November 14, 2008

Nathan and Noah – September 6, 2008

I am getting a lot of practice with babies lately. Here are a few black and white conversions of baby Jacob. He’s 3 months old, and he has such bright, soulful eyes. And I absolutely cannot stay away from baby toes!

I’ve decided I hate third shift. I miss sleep so much! Noah is a wonderful baby who sleeps through the night with daddy and wants to be up all day to play with me. I’m averaging 4-5 hours per day of sleep. I’m not one of those people that handles that amount of sleep well. I hate it. I’m the grouchiest, meanest, crummiest version of myself right now. Ask anyone [especially Nate]. I asked my boss if I could go to dayshift, but there’s not a position open right now. I’m just waiting for someone to leave so I can take his or her spot.

So my new plan is to hire a nanny/babysitter for a few hours so I can rest! I’m thinking 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. Ideally the person would be there for when Nate has to go to work, around 1pm-4pm Monday through Friday, and they would have off whatever day during the week my boss lets me have off since my schedule is a random day off during the week plus every other weekend off. Nate is off on weekends and holidays, so this babysitter would never have to work weekends or holidays, she would only have to put in about 12 hours a week, and I would pay her $100 per week. I think it’s a pretty cushy job, sitting at my house, playing with my adorable baby, no weekends, and you get $8+ per hour. Now if only I knew someone who lived in town who I could trust for this job. I wouldn’t trust just anyone with my son. He has health issues, and he’s my first baby, so I couldn’t just hand him to strangers for the day. I really wish Sarah lived in town, because she would be PURRRRFECT for this job. Extra money for her, peace of mind and SLEEP for me. Nothing is ever easy… {sigh}

My fifth nephew, Gabriel, was born yesterday morning. Nate and I went to see him last night when he was just 12 hours old. Of course I brought my camera, and I played around with making a birth announcement today.

Congratulations to Nicholas and Kristin! Isn’t he just beautiful?

Please pray for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Nicholas and Kristin, as they prepare for the birth of their first child. Kristin’s water broke yesterday, and she’s still around 6 weeks away from her due date. We are praying for them and their baby.

Nicholas and Kristin, Thanksgiving 2008

Three things I can count on: death, taxes, and Nathan. My wonderful hubby and I celebrated Valentine’s Day by filing our taxes on the laptop while lying in bed with Noah. After we filled out our city tax form, we found out that we owe them one penny. There is no way I will ever write a check for one cent. I threw a penny in the envelope. Ha!

For the other taxes – federal, state, and school district – we were able to file online. After answering all the tax questions [dependents? exemptions? deductions?], our federal refund was calculated by the program as $754. I was stunned. We got more last year without a huge deduction, aka Baby. Nate asked me to hand him the laptop because he was certain I’d made some kind of mistake. A minor argument ensued. I did not make a mistake! I handed him the laptop in a huff. He went back to the confusing, ridiculous questions about our dependents. He checked one tiny box that I had missed, because I hadn’t clicked on the tiny question mark next to it and read the fine print. The question was, “Did your child live with you for all 12 months of 2008?” I said no. He was only five months old at the end of 2008. Honest. But the tiny fine print, after you clicked the question mark, said that if your child was born in 2008, select “Yes” to this question anyway. Dangit. Nate was right. But even with him being RIGHT, I still won, because if I had been right, we would have gotten a refund of $754 instead of $2000+. Thanks, hon. I owe you one. Or 1300.

sigh…

At work we like to listen to music to keep ourselves awake. We could be listening to Journey (my fave!), Foreigner, Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Bob Marley, Aerosmith, Coldplay, and the list goes on and on. My friend Amy and I have deemed a particular song our “Mommy Song.” I used to think it was about romantic love, but one night Amy told me to listen to the lyrics with my Noah in mind, and it brought tears to my eyes. Now the song speaks to me about a different kind of love. A powerful new love that I never knew could be like this. I am so grateful to be this blessed. So grateful for Noah.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my husband. He has given me everything I ever wanted. I know he loves me, fervently, honestly, deeply, forever… And I feel the same way. He created a new beautiful little person with me. So when I think about love this year, I can’t help thinking of Noah, too. How the love in my heart has grown infinitely and evolved into something more than I could ever have imagined. How, like his daddy, Noah has made my life complete. My heart has grown and is filled up with him.

–
“Mommy Song” AKA I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith

I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While you’re far away dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure

Don’t want to close my eyes
I don’t want to fall asleep
I don’t want to miss a thing

—

To Noah and Nate, the loves of my life, Happy Valentine’s Day.