sleep fail!

Oiye! So, I did get the beasty to sleep for a nap 3 days in a row, but his nighttime sleep has gotten worse. He had one 3 hour cycle and then he was up every hour last night with about 45 minutes spent putting him to sleep every time... help.... I worry that it is because he is not on the boob. I gave in around 3 am because I was literally stumbling while holding him and thought it safer to co-sleep than to do this..... Oiye. I read about 10 hour sleep cycles for 3 month olds and wonder if I am doing it all wrong... or if it will ever get better.

But, it is raining now! That seems to make it all better.

Amazingly, in the mornings he wakes up all fresh-eyed and always gives me the cutest smile when he sees me... sometimes accompanied by a coo or a squeal. I love this!

naps

Tain knows how to put the Finnster to sleep!

So, it has occurred to me that little Finnegan may be sleep deprived....

In general, I let him fall asleep when he needs to but often overlook the signs of sleepiness and have not been helping him go to bed. Finn is a fighter of sleep and would rather stay up and get all of that yummy stimulation - which I love giving to him. But, he often has bags under his eyes and I think it is from lack of naps during the day. We have been good about trying to get him to bed around a certain time, but his naps are sporadic. So, today I am shooting for a 10 am nap. The only way I can get him to sleep during the day is in the swing. He is asleep now, but he fought it like crazy. His eyes will droop until he screams a little scream to wake him up... and then repeat. I think he is finally out.

The hardest part is finding an answer to my questions. The "every baby is different" dilemma can make it hard to prescribe a plan of action for the little one. There seems to be 2 schools of thought; let the baby rest when he needs to and get that kid on a schedule. I think I have been rolling with the former. Tain is better than I about getting him to sleep. He can shush him to sleep at night when he is still alert....me? I resort to the boob.

In other news, I think that NAU is going to let me teach that class online and my interview with the Art Institute went very well yesterday. The AI has alot of hoops I have to jump through and alot of mentoring, safeguards, and a little redundancy added to the teaching process but they are on top of it. The infrastructure for online teaching is super tight and I believe it will only help the process. Of course, my main concern is making time for all of FInn's needs while doing my best... I just hope they don't collide.

Adventures in poop

So sweet... but has a great aim!

So, I wanted to relay this story before I forget... the other day I was prepping the Finnster for a bath which requires me to strip him down naked (always dangerous with boys). I was holding him and walking to the bath when he let out a loud "brap". At which point yellow curry literally sprayed... yes sprayed everywhere. I tried to stop the flow of madness as I made my way back to the changing table but failed to keep it from getting between my toes ( I know, gross). So I cleaned him off and held him with one hand while I bent down to clean out the Garbage Pail Kids-like mess between my toes and sandal when I felt something hit my head. I screamed when I realized it was his pee arcing up over the table's rail and landing directly on my head... my scream from surprise scared Finn and he began to cry.......

Regardless, it was hilarious and easy to forgive once I put him in the bath and he smiled up at me.

A house?

So, we are in contract with a seller for a beautiful house! It is exciting and scary at the same time... but, we are anxious to have our own space and live in a big city again. It has been an interesting learning experience and luckily we have a friend who is an agent educating us along the way. After 2 weekends of heat filled house searching we found the beast.... It is very "white" at this point but we prefer to see it as a blank canvas. With some paint, and eventually remodeling, this will fill just like home. It will be great to raise Finn in a home... until he is a teen and he curses our suburban living!

But, now we wait.....

I forget sometimes how everything will be just a bit harder with an infant. Our trip back up to Flag was a perfect example. Finn has always been the farter and struggled with his tummy, but since his immunizations, it has been even more so (plus, I had dairy over the weekend). We stopped 3 times along the way... bouncing him and trying to get the evil out of him... in all, it took about 5 hours to get home. But, he has given us stop - free treks to Phx. multiple times... I suppose we are due for one. Oh, and we had rain!!! Lots of it!!!

These next few months will be the ultimate challenge...moving, Tain starting a job, and if I get the teaching gigs, I will have a ton of lesson planning to do one handed... I am not sure how this will all work, but I suppose it will have to. I just don't want to sacrifice Finn's development. Speaking of, the little guy is sleeping in his swing....the only way in which I can get him to nap.... correction, was sleeping... gotta go!

beginning at 9 weeks...s

Adventures With Finnegan Orion Barzso

OK, so I am a bit behind but I realized that I am not writing down these experiences and I might as well start later than never.... I might have to give an itemization to catch-up....

• water broke on Sunday night (5/3/2010)
• 2 days of pitocin-filled labor followed by a C-section.
• Finn was born 5/4/2010 at 7 lbs 4 ounces and 20 in.
• Tain and I slept about 6 hours total for the 5 days in the hospital
• He was perfect from the beginning
• T and I commented on how going through this together is totally bonding
• brought him home and had 2 days of help from Grammy (thank you Grammy)
• Ran around the house for the first 6 weeks with my boobs hanging out... still do
• I finally think that I have the breastfeeding down, though he still eats every 2 hours

Begin 2 month appt with doc.....

Finn is now 24 inches and weighs 12.2 lbs!!! He had his immunizations yesterday and it was so painful to see him go through that. He took the shots like a champ, but later that night he would cry uncontrollably until he fell asleep... as his mother, there is nothing worse than this feeling... I just wanted to hold him until all of the pain went away. It finally did in the early morning, and he was as good as new.

He is an adorable beasty. He now smiles and coos and talks to me all the time. He loves books and read to him constantly with his background commentary... his favorites are Tickle Monster and Owl Babies. He loves to "run" and "dance" while laying down... I have a feeling he is going to be a runner! He is an active little guy and prefers to stay up and look around rather than sleep or take naps. He still has to be swaddled to sleep as his own arms will wake him....

We are preparing for a big move to Phoenix, trying to buy a house, and I am trying to russle up online teaching work - which I believe will happen! We are excited to be closer to family and live in an area where housing is affordable, but I will be a little sad to leave beautiful Flagstaff... she has been good to us - she brought us Finn!

Tain got a sexy job with ASU, helping to set-up their new mutli-media, motion capture, etc. program... this will be sweet for him and I very excited. But, my plans to teach in the Fall have been a bit derailed. Luckily the Art Institute finally contacted me about teaching online (I applied a year ago), and the course I was going to teach at NAU is in discussion as to whether I can teach this online as well. Talk about timing.

I am really trying to stay the primary caregiver for little Finn... I will have some challenges with getting these courses together in time to teach while handling the little guy, but I think it can be done!

This intro blog is super choppy - just trying to catch-up and get this rolling before he wakes up! I will upload some pics and sign-off, but will try and keep this going!