Welcome Home, Mae!

With snow still looming over our commute home, we got on the freeway in rush hour traffic. Thankfully there was no snow and surprisingly not too much traffic either for 5pm. Mae did great in the car, Ace loved having his sister in the back seat and mom sitting in the middle... and impressive feat considering we have a simple 4-door sedan. Ace wanted to be able to touch sister, but he's not quite long enough. Mae was cozy and content in her heirloom blanket and hat made by my grandmother. The same one Ace was wrapped in when he came home, the same that I and my brother were wrapped in when we came home, and the same that my mom and uncle were wrapped in when they came home. It was nice to carry on that tradition.

We arrived home and headed inside. Ace spotted some goodies that Vanessa had left for us after feeding our kitties the day before (thanks, girlie!) some beautiful flowers and the newspaper from the day of her birth. We then proceeded to introduce Mae to our kitties. They seemed interested that there was again another little person in the room - but by no means did they bold when she squealed. The first time Ace cried when we brought him home sent the cats bolting in escape... they've since been accustomed to loud noises from smaller people. :)



We then enjoyed dinner and allowed Ace to play some for a bit before starting the bedtime routine. Little lady got to enjoy her swing for the first time (not on, just a cozy seat) while both mom and dad participated in the bed time routine. Helping to ensure that Ace still felt like a priority. He went to sleep well and aside from a few in-sleep fusses slept through the night without issue.

Loving Husband headed to bed and stayed up with Mae who was still awake a little. A little after 8 she fell asleep after nursing and we headed up to bed around 9. We slept from 9-11:30 before she woke again and was wide awake - a little mixed up I'd say - she'd dose off, but then wake back up wanting more milk... which hadn't quite come in yet. We finally got back into some solid sleep around 5:30. Loving Husband took Ace who had woken at 7:40 and took him downstairs. We woke at 9am to a good ol' fashion blowout. Through the diaper the cozy (thick) pjs and onto her waterproof pad. Impressive, little girl!

Overall a good first night. Mae didn't really fuss or cry. She wasn't a fan of diaper changes in the night - but mostly because of cold hands and wipes - and she calms right down if you talk to her. Mae's first night at home and the snow fell. 5" of snow that finally fell... which was beautiful, but by the time we woke it was windy and raining and melting away all of that snow. So while Mae's first official snow has occurred, she never saw it, so I'd say it didn't really count. Heck mom didn't even get a picture of it - so it really doesn't count. ;-)

Coned!

Yup my cat Nickolas was sentenced to 3-5 days in the cone. Gasp! What on earth did he deserve such punishment? Well, he tangled with a raccoon and lost. Siiigh. At first after hearing the scuffle we thought he had escaped unscathed... unfortunately for him and our checkbook, we were wrong.

This all started last Tuesday when I noticed Nick was losing hair around what appeared at that time to be a weird scab. Hmm. Then when Loving Husband looked at it, the scab had fallen off and it was a pretty deep flesh wound. LH thought he might have been shot with a bb gun... but I had distinctly recalled that he was the slobber on his side a few nights before. Siigh

So the vet was called, the appointment was made and on Thursday of last week we took him in. (Yes, the same day I took Ace back into the doctor due to his latest round of vomiting.) We took him in and the vet assessed that she would need to sedate him to examine the wound, ya think? Haha - this cat hates the vet - and when he's wounded? haha of course he had to be sedated. So Ace and I left Nicky there to be fixed up and to get his rabies shot while we were at it, with a quote ranging from $250-$350.

It ended up being the lesser amount, plus a 10% military discount! Neato and that included the shot, the antibiotics and the stylish new cone he got to sport for 4 days. It turned out that it was just a puncture wound, most likely from the raccoon as we suspected. However, it wasn't very deep and didn't require the drain (which would have tacked on the extra cost.) Nicky was none to happy when we picked him up. In fact that night I don't think he even laid down to sleep he was so agitated with the cone, and the whole shebang.

The next worry for me was his medication, they were tiny pills (about the size of birth control pills) but both our cats are AWFUL with pills. Last time they were attempted was in 2006 and it was AWFUL. Thankfully, Nick is our easier of the two cats to give pills to. So Ace and I headed to the pet store after his doctor's appointment and bought some pill pocket treats. We've completed 16 rounds of medication with 12 more to go and have had zero issue with the consumption of the meds.

The second day of his cone-sentence he managed to (apparently in a fluke) get his cone off. I was a tad worried he'd become a pro-escape artist in all things cone related... but apparently it was just the once. We did give him freedom during eating times to go cone free - which meant that we had to watch him eat and wait for him to finish - I was glad when the 4 days of that were over.

He did eventually learn to relax and calm down with the cone. In fact he looked pretty cute curled up on our bed sleeping with it on. The wound is healing and is much smaller and the hair has started to grow back, so our little Nick is going to be a-ok. Our cats though are forbidden to be out after dark now for a long while. In fact the night that we brought coned-Nick home, I had put Tort outside after he had finished his dinner so that Nick could finish his in peace... and I heard hissing and went outside and this giant arse raccoon was staring Tort down and would not budge as I approached it. I manged to get Tort inside who was going to 'brave' the beast and fight 'em!! (Sorry Tort, if Nick can't do it... you certainly can't. I don't mean to be a discouraging mommy - but Nick is the badass in the family.)

So we've got a wild beast of a raccoon that needs a new home (or grave) so that my cat's can be free and cheaply wander the neighborhood. We don't need any more $250 jaunts to the vet any time soon!

Alternate or Actual Reality?

The last ten days have been a new chapter in our progress toward sleep. There have been some low low moments and some very high, encouraging, and exciting moments as well. Ace by 'official' standards (6 hours+) has slept through the night four of those ten nights, three of which were the last three nights. We have eliminate night breastfeeding and that seems to have been the biggest factor in his increased slumber. He receives breast milk before he gets into bed and then again after 7am. When he wakes in the night he's offered the bottle after his first big sleep - which after the first night of our trials - the shortest stint of sleep was 4.5 hours and that was due to one of our cats jumping on that (more on that in a bit.)

Ace still has a mini tantrum in the night when he isn't allowed to get the breast milk, but it often doesn't last long and will either take the bottle or hold my hand - overall his behavior has already vastly improved from the earlier part of this past week. He was getting very agitated and spinning around and thrashing all over the bed - ticked off he couldn't have the milk. It's a process and it is getting better.

Friday night was a whole other story around here. This was behavior we had never dealt with in it's intensity stubbornness. That day he had taken a three hour nap from three until six. Again I will state this is his longest nap ever outside of the newborn phase. So when he was requesting the bottle and skipping mama milk entirely right at 8:45pm I was awestruck. Then I was struck back into reality later when after literally 30+ times of putting him back into his bed. I locked him in his room at 10:14pm. Siiigh. He of course got out of bed again and was thwarted by this evil door. He screamed, banged, screamed mamamamama (broke my heart!) and finally it was silent at 10:28pm ... not terribly bad in the grand scheme of things - I should have done it earlier than that rather than spending the 85 minutes going up and down the stairs putting him back in bed. Siigh. So finally after it being quiet for about 20 minutes I decided to go check on him....

This is what I found.... and that was as far as I could open the door.
So I put the camera in and hooked it around the door to assess the situation with the night-vision setting and I found this....

I did have to nudge him ever so slightly and of course he woke back up. I picked him up and hugged him tight and laid him in bed with his fish (Nemo) and he went back to sleep within ten minutes. No bottle, no mama-milk. And he slept from 11pm-5:45am (nearly SEVEN hours!) After that he woke one other time still seeking the mama-milk and had to wait - finally at 7:15ish he woke and was able to enjoy his mama-milk.

Were we merely living in the twilight zone on Friday night? Was it going to be required he wear himself out that much by screaming for 15 minutes in order for him to sleep that long again? That was my fear as we put him down to sleep on Saturday. He went to sleep at 8:45 and slept until 3:45am (an official SEVEN hours!) what excitement!!!! He came and found us in our room and climbed into bed. He took less than a sip of milk and went to sleep until 6:30am, when we woke and fussed for a bit wanting mama-milk. He fell back asleep with a good ol' staple of Mama singing Kokomo. He slept for another hour and then received his mama-milk.

Last night he went to bed with relative ease. Fell asleep right at 9 and then at 11 we heard his cries. Uh oh! It was more than panic in my brain when I was screaming internally NOOOOO! It turned out he was just overheated (he has a space heater in his room) and had too many covers on that night. Loving Husband adjusted his covers and he fell asleep without much fuss. And slept until 6am! (Another SEVEN hours!!) He woke again at 7am and was greeted with mama-milk! Good job, Baby Bear!!
Our goal is to eventually phase out the bottle in the middle of the night entirely and in the nearer future than not I am planning to wean him entirely from the breast milk. The next phase of that will be to remove him from that 7am feeding. I have a feeling after we do that - he won't be as eager to wake and seek it out hoping it is 7am this time. :) However, we'll move slow so as to not interrupt this delightful SEVEN hour sleep stint cycle he is in.
Now earlier I mentioned our cats jumping on Ace waking him after a solid 4.5 hours of slumber and robbing him the chance of potentially more. Perhaps that was the night he would have slept through the night... ok unlikely... but still! Our cats do NOT need to be the reason he isn't sleeping - so sorry kitties you're getting the boot! Luckily, their boot was just down to the bottom level of the house - they had the whole playroom and laundry room to wander in. One day last week I went and purchased them new beds (they previously had these 'normal' cat beds that the billowed out over) and put them down in there. While they're not thrilled with this arrangement - since previously they slept on our bed or Ace's >:-[ - they aren't protesting too loudly or revolting in bad behavior. So for now until Ace is able to kick them off, not care, or share his bed with them - they will remain in their own beds in the laundry room.

Sleep is coming to us all slowly but surely.

Flashback Friday

Before Ace was even a notion to be had, we had Tort and Nickolas. Here they are three years (and 1 day) ago relaxing in our townhouse enjoying the warm view. They were blissfully unaware that they were about to get outranked in 18 more months. They were happy, cozy kitties.

Year Two

Our second year of marriage started back in Southern California after a nice anniversary in the NW. I surprised my husband with a trip to the local mountains I grew up near, as he had never been there. I found a cute little bed and breakfast and reserved the "presidential suite" for the weekend. We celebrated his birthday and enjoyed another nice weekend away after spending several weeks apart.

I started teaching at That College in August and became the director of Forensics and Loving Husband was very helpful assisting with the debate team.

Our second year of marriage was a hard year for me in general, I lost both my grandpa and my dad within two months of each other. LH was my rock during that and was very helpful and loving through that.

At the end of 2005 Loving Husband received a job offer in the NW, however I was under contract at That College through the end of May. So my husband and I prepared and began a six month separation while he began his job in the NW and I wrapped up our lives in California. We saw each other about once a month and talked every day. While a challenge it was good. I moved to the NW in June.

For the first time in... forever I didn't have anything to do. My job at That College was done for the summer. I was planning to teach some online courses for them, but that didn't begin until August and so I found myself alone in a new state with only my husband and our two kitties. I slowly made friends and sorta (not really) studied for the bar exam again.

It was so nice to be in the same house again and to enjoy the beautiful summers that exist here in the northwest. We were reunited with our kitties and enjoyed spending time as a family together. We celebrated our second anniversary at the Space Needle for dinner. It was wonderful, we walked around the area before dinner and Loving Husband won me a prize at the carnival :) It was a nice way to celebrate another challenging by wonderful year together.

Year One

Our wedding day was beautiful. The weather was perfect, the ceremony was late enough that no one felt rushed, and my wedding started on time (that was my only brideism that I was a bit crazy about) we had a beautiful and simple ceremony, not too long. Be Thou My Vision played during the signing of the marriage license and we were surrounded by candlelight. The reception was very nice and I ate my entire dinner (some brides forget to eat, I wanted my filet - I was going to eat) we cut the cake and tossed some things and headed off for our honeymoon.

Our honeymoon was a surprise to me. Loving Husband had kept it a secret. In part our honeymoon was a several week extravaganza because one of LH's friends got married the Saturday after ours - so we had a mini honeymoon in the NW and then our real honeymoon in Jamaica! The entire time was wonderful to relax and just spend time with my new husband. I loved the warm waters of Jamaica and the resort was wonderful.

We came back to reality and my third year of law school and work at the law firm. LH went back to work. We enjoyed our first halloween as a married couple going as a bride (I wore my runaway dress) and he came as my ball and chain -- wearing a ball and chains. We enjoyed Thanskgiving in Southern California with both our our families. His parent's came down and we all went to my grandma's. It was a nice time. Our first Christmas together we began our tradition of exchanging stockings.

I graduated from law school in May and moved to the NW for three months to study for the bar exam and to live with his parents. We knew that we were moving to the NW in the near future, although at the time the date wasn't set, but I had to take A bar exam. During that time we acquired a kitty (Tort) by the end of the summer we adopted his brother (Nick) who orignally was LH's mom's cat... they couldn't be seperated. They had to stay in the NW though for a while until we moved back to the NW. At the end of July, after the exam, Loving Husband came to join me and we celebrated our first anniversary at the same spot we had enjoyed phase one of our honeymoon - at the lodge!

Sheer Excitement

Ace is in love with Nickolas. He wants to spend every moment he can with him - even with Nick is asleep and is awoken and turns Ace's leg looking like an argile sock with scratches (that was yesterday). But his excitement is just too precious for his best friend, Nicky. Listen closely on the video and you can here him say "cat" and "kiiiiiitttthheee" throughout - although never when prompted by me. :) Figures.

His Best Friend

Ace at the age of 9 months has himself a best friend and well has for quite a while now. He'd go everywhere with this best friend if he could - or if the best friend would be so obliging. Ace's best friend is our cat Nickolas. Yes, one can never separate a boy and his dog cat, even if that cat scratches. The thing of it is, for Nick, Ace is his best friend too. Even though Ace pulls hair, ears and whiskers Nick comes back for more. Tort on the other hand bolts the second Ace gets close. :) But Nick and Ace for the most part are inseparable.

Wordless Wednesday

Rough Morning

For more Wordless Wednesdays click here and here.

Eating their feelings!

Nickolas 2005

Tort 2005

Prior to our son being born our kitties were our babies. They were loved and adored like little princes. Since they were kittens they've been the center of everyone in this household's attention. We regulate their food to a half a cup each twice a day. I've taught them to sit up pretty, they "say please" before getting food, and both of our cats can "sing" the song from Lady and The Tramp... "We are Siamese If You Please MEOW..." they will sing every meow requested of them. Everything was fine until... "that baby" entered the house. (Excuse my hiiiigh whine-y voice. How embarassing.)

As of late every time they see either Loving Husband or myself move they bolt for the kitchen... for food - Nickolas is a pro at pawing at our food out of our hands (the audacity!) and their table manners (though always poor) are now appalling. Then they get started meowing, and then the baby fusses, and then the phone rings, then there's a dirty diaper.... and sadly the cats draw the short end of the attention stick and so in the interest of getting them to leave us alone we feed them. We've been neglectful kitty-mommas and daddys. It's true. I acknowledged that they're meowing for food because that's when they get the attention - so we try to pet them more. They are getting better (this is an extremely relative term) especially now that I've made the connection between neediness and food. But the truth remains: our kitties are eating their feelings.

Now they always bulk up a bit in winter simply because they don't go run around outside as much - it's cold here! So inside they stay sleeping on the back of the couch... and to be fair to these two - they are large cats to begin with. They have always weighed 13+ pounds since reaching adulthood. Tort is a maine coon - they're average is 16-17lbs. So we wouldn't ever have dainty cats. These are a man's man cat!

So allow me to introduce our kitties in all their glory (and my is there a lot of it!) For comparisons to their former selves I've posted "Pre Baby Weight*" pictures and "Post Baby Weight" pictures taken today. :) Those will be the only of their kind ever posted on this here website!

* To be fair it should be noted that the "pre baby weight" pictures were taken in the summer of 2006 and they were barely a year old. So they were still spry teenagers and not to their full adult bodied potential... but for comparison and dramatic sake :)

Tortious

So everyone - meet Tortious, Tort for short. :) That my adorable kitten, named appropriately for the time period in which he arrived into our family. It's been a great distraction from studying for the bar. Which for all of those that have inquired and I have shot down or simply not responded, I greatly appreciate all your concern and good thoughts for passing. Studying is a long tedious process which rarely shows signs of progress... but it's coming along. Loving Husband and I are doing well... he's flying up here on the night of the last day of exams, Thursday, July 28th! Yay! It's been so long... but it has gone by too fast! (too fast as far as time to study goes.) Living with Carol and Rich is going great, we all get along well together and seem to have developed a routine in our ways what has eliminated any awkwardness... yay us! Well, there isn't much else going on in life except studying, kittens, and procrastinating. Keep me posted on your lives.

This is Nick :)