First Halloween

We dressed Cameron up for school yesterday because they were doing a parade at 10 AM. But Cameron decided she wanted to poop all over it an hour before the parade. Coincidence or future Halloween hater? DH and I are not big on Halloween, except the candy, of course. We both hate dressing up. But for some reason I can't wait to put Cameron in adorable costumes! Thank you to Mommy, Esq. for providing the costume.

Catching Cameron mid-sneeze
Yes, I am adorable!

Random Thursday thoughts

Adam Lambert has released the album cover for his record that is dropping one week after the winner of American Idol, Kris Allen. Apparently the cover is a throw back to the 70s. Personally I think it is a little out there, but so too is Adam so I guess it fits. Regardless, my love for American Idol doesn't translate into purchasing their music so I won't be adding this to my iPod play list.

Carolina sports teams suck this year. Last night the Charlotte Bobcats were destroyed by the Boston Celtics. How many points did they score? 59. Pathetic. On the NFL front the Panther's quarterback, Jake Delhomme has thrown 18 interceptions in the last 6 games. But apparently that isn't bad enough for him to be removed as a first string quarterback. In this economy any other industry would have fired him weeks ago.

On another sports front, the Yankees lost last night. DH handled it pretty well but I could feel that way because I was asleep for most of the game and didn't hear him shouting or cursing out the offense for not getting any more than one run. At this point I almost want the evil Yankees to win just so that my hubby will be happy. Is this how women are drawn to become sports fans against their will? Self-defense?

How is it possible that 8 days of doing the 30 Day Shred has resulted in not a single pound lost? Jillian would be so disappointed. I'm watching what I eat and sweating my ass off with zero results so far. Very frustrating. I did try to do Level 2 last night and almost passed out. I actually had to wimp out of a couple of exercises. Looks like I need to spend more time on Level 1...

Yes, I have renamed my blog. I'm not sure I'm sticking with "Conference Call On Mute" but I appreciate the suggestion from Natalie when I was first starting up my blog. Why conference call on mute? Probably because I was supposedly on vacation while she was visiting but still had to listen in on some conference calls. I multi tasked by chatting with Natalie during the parts of the call that didn't apply to me. She was freaked out and kept asking me, "are you sure that's on mute?"

Hilton Head Pictorial

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had a wonderful time in Hilton Head. It was great to do a little shopping with my mom and DH played golf for two days. I even got to sleep in one morning and had a facial! Pure bliss.

I actually managed to work out to the 30 Day Shred every day I was there. Aren't you impressed?

We had a wonderful photo shoot at the beach.
Cameron loved the water.

DH and Cameron look out over the ocean.

Cameron loved swimming in the kiddie pool.

Even better? The hot tub!

Not bothered by sand at all.

Flying through the air courtesy of Daddy.

A perfect threesome.

The Obamas welcome Cameron to the world

We had a wonderful trip to Hilton Head this past weekend to visit with my parents. I am in the process of downloading and editing the 800+ photos. We went a little crazy with the continuous shooting mode on my camera. But we got some great shots that I will be sharing over the next few days.

In the meantime, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a note from the Obamas welcoming Cameron into the world. A few months ago I sent in a letter to the White House with her birth date and our address. I had read online that you can do this within a year of your baby's birth and receive a signed note from the President and his wife.

The card reads, "Welcome to the world! Your arrival is a cause for great celebration for your proud family. We wish you a long an happy life filled with chances to learn, ideas to explore, people to love, and dreams to fulfill. Sincerely, Barack Obama / Michelle Obama"

I think I'm going to put it in a picture frame and hang it on her wall. If anyone else is interested in receiving your own congratulations, you can find directions here.

Cameron: Seven months old

Dear Cameron,

Today you are seven months old. Can Mommy and Daddy hope that this means you are old enough to stop waking up at 4 AM and 5 AM?

This month was a busy one for you developmentally. You are rolling all over the place and have managed to move yourself across the room and spin in circles. I have a feeling that crawling is in your immediate future. In the meantime I've had to watch out for my computer cords. A million toys but you go right for the dangerous stuff. Daddy is so proud.

This month you also received a lovely present: your first tooth! Mommy had no idea it was coming in and decided it was a good time to do cry it out with you. We haven't been quite successful in getting you to sleep through the whole night (see above) but now you aren't swaddled any more. I think we all kind of miss that. Daddy is convinced that your second tooth is coming in any day now but he's been saying that for two weeks. I think you are following in the tradition of your cousins and won't get the matching tooth for a few more weeks.

While you are very close to crawling you are also very close to sitting up on your own for extended periods. Right now you still wobble a lot so we have to be careful not to let your head thump on the ground. If we can't catch you in time you just laugh and roll over.

I think this month you have had more smiles and laughs than the previous months combined. You love it when we swing you around or Daddy does the "Tower of Daddy" with you. We've also moved you into your 6-9 month clothing and we love all the cute outfits you can wear. They are still a little big but we have no doubt you will grow into them quickly.

This month you also got to see your Grammy and Bumpa again. They both had fun playing with you and can't believe how much you've grown up.

This month has also seen an increased interest in Charlie. You try to twist out of my arms to get to him as soon as we get home from daycare. Charlie comes over to sniff you and you love to screech and turn your face into my leg.

As of last week your new favorite toy is the jumperoo. You love it so much that when Daddy stands you up you immediately start bouncing up and down. At this rate you might be bouncing across the room instead of walking!

It has been a wonderful month and we can't wait to see what you will do next!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Poking my nose out from a warm bed

What is it about Tuesdays? For me, they are way worse than Mondays. Apparently the weekend can carry me through Monday but come Tuesday morning the last thing I want to see is the clock ticking along towards wake up time. Today this feeling was compounded by the fact we don't have the heat working in our house. We have a little heater running in Cameron's room so she was nice and toasty warm. I was bundled up in sweats and huddled against Charlie for warmth. Getting up at 5 AM to give Cameron her bottle was torture. Too bad she didn't appreciate that Mommy and Daddy would prefer not to get out of bed.

DH has the heater company coming today. The weird thing is that it was working fine on Friday. That was the first day I turned the heat on since last winter. DH may be fine sitting in a house that is 65 degrees but I am not. Of course that is balmy weather compared to the 58 degrees it was in the house this morning. It's been getting close to freezing at night here in Charlotte. I am always cold so Florida is looking good to me right now. The warmest winter I ever spent was last winter while pregnant with Cameron. She was a little heater for me. Hmmm. Is that a good excuse for having another kid?

In other news yesterday I had my first session with the 30 Day Shred. Is anyone surprised that Jillian kicked my ass? In my defense I only have 10 pound weights and they were using 5 pound ones in the DVD. So I was getting even MORE of a workout. I'm glad that the workout is only 20 minutes. Even that long felt like torture but doable torture. I try to get the workout done before DH is done with work. I would prefer to not have him see me flopping around and jiggling in places that really shouldn't jiggle. I like that the workout doesn't require a big space to do the exercises. As I mentioned previously our TV room is small and even smaller with all the toys scattered around. Needless to say, I'm only at Level 1. And I was already out of breath while doing the warm up exercises. Good thing Jillian told me that my heart rate should be going up just as I was thinking I was a total wimp. She wasn't even breathing hard, of course.

I am trying to be committed to doing it every day. Will I cheat? Is the Pope Catholic? But yesterday it was so cute to see Cameron bouncing in her Jumperoo along with my jumping jacks. And she is the best motivation in the whole world for me to get in better shape. So wish me luck!

Long work week, short weekend

Last week I had to travel to Charlottesville for a recruiting trip and then I had a last minute whirlwind trip to NYC. I was supposed to be home by 9 PM on Thursday. But air travel and inclement weather postponed my arrival until well after 12 AM. I rolled into bed at 12:45 after hitting 15 green lights and 8 red. Yes, that's right. There are 23 lights between the airport and my house. I really need to find a better route.

Is it any wonder that I didn't go with DH to drop Cameron off at daycare on Friday? I wanted to because she appeared to be about 50/50 during the week with how well she was napping. One day she would get a hour and then hour and a half in and the next it would be a total of 40 minutes. But my precious sleep was just too important. So I took the expeditious route of calling during the day and talking with her teacher. It sounds like they have being good about putting her down for naps now and not just letting her fall asleep. Phew. One less worry.

DH and I were also visited by a nurse to complete our life insurance application process. A whole post to come on that once we get our rates back. In the meantime we do have some temporary life insurance in place. DH and I have had fun telling each other, "You are worth more dead to me than alive."

My parents stopped by for two nights on their way to Hilton Head. My mom and I managed to squeeze in manicures and a lunch out while the men folk watched Cameron. Pure bliss. DH managed to watch about 16 hours of sports on Saturday including the marathon 5+ hour Yankee game. My mom brought some old clothes of mine with her (I'm talking OLD like when I was 5 or 6 years old) ostentatiously for Cameron when she gets older. Um, first of all, that assumes I'll remember it's there in time to pull it out. Not to mention that a few of the things didn't exactly age well...She also brought two big boxes of books with her. Normally I'm very excited about when my mother decides to part with some of her books. But this time she managed to dump a few on me that I didn't really want. So now I have to get up the motivation to get rid of them. Thanks, Mom!

Cameron loves to grab for anything that we have in our hands.

Aside from those items the grandparents brought my sister's old jumperoo with them. Needless to say, Cameron loves it. But now I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with "stuff." I want to keep it in our family room because that is where we spend the most of our time but it's far from a large room. Between the jumperoo and exersaucer I'm starting to feel like toys are taking over the house. But we did finally pack up the swing so that removed one bulky item. DH asked me if I wanted to put it on Craig's List. Excuse me?!? That assumes I'm done having kids and I'm not prepared to let that go yet. Check back with me tomorrow when Cameron has another tough night because of teething and another (another!!!) cold. Then I might be ready to put a closed sign on my uterus.

Perhaps this teething cookie will help. Of course it also got all over her but hey, at least it kept her quiet!

Cameron starts to get mobile

Cameron has been a rolling fool for the past few weeks. I turn around and the next thing I know she has rolled clear off the blanket and under the coffee table. While she normally rolls right to left she has no problem rolling in whatever direction gets her closer to a toy or some other object of interest. She has also started turning herself 360 degrees while on her tummy. So her head stays in one spot and she manages to swing her whole body around. What does this mean? Crawling is soon to come, I'm sure. I have a feeling she will be doing commando style crawling first (just using her arms) but she could surprise me.

DH is convinced that her second bottom tooth is coming in. I'm not so sure but her intake of bottles is down again so he is probably right. Cameron has also decided that 5 AM is the perfect time for a bottle. She usually goes right back to sleep but it throws my whole morning off. Anyone have any suggestions for how to get her to sleep an extra hour? Or at least assure me this is just a phase?

Cameron reads her book, just like mommy.

Cameron's hair is starting to get poofy. But I am a long ways off from cutting it, unlike A.
Cameron starts a roll.

Almost back to her tummy.

Success!

Video proof of a rolling fool.

Putting my foot down about nap time

This morning DH and I shared drop off duties for Cameron. I really like this part of the week because usually it is the only time that I get to see Cameron's main teacher, Miss Tanya, who has usually left for the day when I come in to pick her up. Sometimes I send DH in with instructions for Tanya but hey, I'm a mom and I like to talk with Cameron's other primary caregiver too.

Of course Miss Tanya sees me coming and probably wants to hide because I usually do have questions or instructions related to Cameron's care. I can't help it. I know my baby best and I still have residual concerns about having her in a facility with 9 other infants and a 5:1 infant to teacher ratio.

DH and I entered the room and he went off to take Cameron out of her carrier and get her settled. I puttered around putting her bottles in the fridge and new diapers in her cubby. Miss Tanya was changing one of the other babies. We exchanged general pleasantries and then I launched into my question:

Me: Now that Cameron is six months old, do you start putting her down on a nap schedule?
Miss Tanya: Well, usually they just fall into it on their own.
Me: Obviously that isn't the case for Cameron [forced smile]. She naps on a schedule at home but doesn't here. [side note - she slept only 40 minutes at daycare on Wednesday. 40 minutes!]
Miss Tanya: What time do you put her down?
Me: It depends on when she wakes up but her first nap is within 2 hours of her waking up. She was awake at 6 AM so no later than 8:30 AM.
Miss Tanya: That's right around feeding time.
Me, in my head: So freaking what? Can't you put her in her crib for a nap while you are feeding the other kids? And what, you have a feeding schedule but not a nap schedule????
Me: Well, I guess no later than 9 AM then.

Perhaps not the most forceful of conversations but I hope I got my point across. This all came about because I had lunch with my friend Amanda and shared my concerns about Cameron's lack of napping. No other child seems to have issues. Isn't it great to have friends where you can share the details of your baby's life and get interested responses? I mentioned that they let her fall asleep first and then move her to her crib. Is it any wonder that Cameron wakes up and doesn't want to nap?

DH, of course, mentally rolled his eyes when I talked with him about this. He figures it's not a big deal. But it totally is! If she sleeps for me then she should be sleeping at daycare too. The teachers just need to do a better job of putting her down consistently. Sure she may cry for a while but 40 minutes of naps a day isn't going to cut it. So, what do you all think? Am I overreacting or do I need to stay on top of this? Have you run into this issue before and how did you address it with your daycare?

Being a baseball widow

I've mentioned many times in this blog that DH is a baseball fan. No, he deserves the un-shortened version of the word: fanatic. He is obsessed with all things baseball, but especially his beloved Yankees. Since April I have suffered along with DH as he managed his two fantasy baseball teams. Well, three but one was free so he didn't really talk about that one. I suffered because I had to hear in detail about how his team wasn't doing as well as it should because of the "stupid" things that the other team owners did. Or how luck the other teams were. Or how unlucky DH was. I heard stats and possible outcomes until my eyes glazed over. Per usual he made too many trades when he should have just left his team alone. But he did manage to eek out a second place win in one league. I had to hear about the tight race for second every night for the past two weeks as he constantly checked his line up, StatTracker and wavered on picking up new pitchers. It was torture for both of us.

So you can imagine my relief when I was told this past weekend that fantasy baseball was over. Well, until next year. The only problem? Now it is the post season and the Yankees are entering it with the best record in baseball. What does that mean for me? Y'all (yes, I live in the South now) know how much I love TV right? Usually I can tape two shows at one time while we watch a pre-recorded one. Not when the Yankees are in the post-season! DH informed me in no uncertain terms that he is watching every minute of the post season on our flat screen HDTV. I can't fault him for that. It is way better than our other TV. My only problem is that we don't have a Fios-type system so I can't watch any DVR'd shows in the other room. Thank goodness for Hulu. I was able to watch FlashForward from last week. DH stopped Glee from recording because it overlapped with Modern Family and would interfere with the live game. Fortunately Hulu carries Glee episodes.

Is it any wonder I hope that the Yankees lose quickly in the post season? Well, I am a Red Sox fan too....

Time to start saving for those braces

Apparently I picked the worst time ever to do cry it out with Cameron. She has been fighting a cold and teething. My excuse? I only knew about the cold. Yup, last night I discovered that Cameron has her first tooth! I let her suck on my finger and there it was. A teeny, tiny tooth just poking out from her gums.

I have mentioned in a few other posts about the dramatic reduction in Cameron's ounces. Turns out that part of the reason was due to teething. She had a much better day yesterday with 24 ounces. I guess once that tooth popped through she felt much better and wanted to eat again.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not that we didn't have much sign that Cameron was teething. I did suspect that something was up and gave her some Motrin for the last two nights. But she didn't chew on things more frequently or start drooling more than normal. She only woke up once a night smooshed up against her crib railing and needing a little rescue. Nothing that would indicate that my baby is now sporting a single bottom tooth.

I guess DH and I are just blessed with a happy, healthy baby who isn't bothered by little things like teething or ear infections. And here's hoping I didn't just curse us by writing that down! Cameron continues her trend of being perfectly average with her first tooth just after she passed the six month mark. I wonder how quickly it's mate will pop in?

Starting to see some success

While CIO hasn't been a raging success, it has been getting better. This weekend was a big challenge because it is the first time Cameron would go down for naps without being swaddled. Now, this isn't quite true. Daycare did a crappy job of swaddling her so basically she wasn't swaddled for her naps there. But in our house she was a baby burrito. Cameron did pretty well. She napped 60-90 minutes at a stretch three times each day. There wasn't any crying because she was definitely tired and a couple minutes of rocking later she was out like a light.

Other than naps I did have to go in and rock her back to sleep on Saturday night. She was inconsolable and I just couldn't stay away. DH did a pacifier insertion at 3 AM last night. When I scolded him and said it wasn't in the spirit of CIO he responded, "One trip to her room? That's nothing! She went 8 hours. That's great!" True, DH, true. Let's just hope it doesn't start being 2-3 times a night. Cause then we're starting all over again!

Per usual I have been remiss in posting photos. Cameron has lots of cute clothes that are much more appropriate for the cooler weather. So even though we aren't quite in her new 6-9 month clothes I've been able to dress her up in stuff that's new for us.

Cameron practices her mischievous look.

Wearing a hoodie. DH is so proud!
Cameron is always happy when she gets to spend lots of time with Mommy and Daddy.

Now I understand Mommy, Esq. a little better

We continue to make minor advances with cry it out. Cameron only fussed from 4:30 to 6:30 AM. But her latest trick is to refuse eating. Yup, my child has decided that bottles are not for her. I still have breast milk that she's eating in addition to formula and she is refusing both equally. So my guilt (damn you, mommy guilt!) over stopping breastfeeding is somewhat mitigated.

Yesterday Cameron ate only 4 ounces at daycare plus two solid feedings. For the past two weeks it has been a struggle to get her to eat her bottles in general but it was never as bad as what happened yesterday. I've been sending her in with 4 ounce bottles, down from her high of 5 ounces, with the hope that a slight reduction in amount coupled with stretching it out to 3 1/2 or 4 hours (from 3 hour increments) would get her to "clean her plate." No such luck.

If I'm lucky Cameron will take 6 ounces in the morning for me, 8 ounces at daycare and another 7 ounces (split between two bottles) at night. That's only 21 ounces! Gah. So frustrating. This is what Mommy, Esq. has been dealing with for over a year? I'm already sick of worrying about it and it's only been a couple of weeks for us!

I talked with her teacher today and said that if Cameron didn't finish her first bottle that she shouldn't be offered a solid food lunch. Perhaps that will help? My concern is that I know she should be getting the majority of nutrients from bottles, not solid food. And frankly, she should be hungry for it! It's not like she is getting a ton of solid food. 1/2 jar plus an equal amount of rice cereal. It is certainly not enough to sustain her alone.

It would be nice if I wasn't worrying about this alone but DH seems to think it's not a big deal. True, if it happened only once or twice I wouldn't be as concerned but it's been weeks. Has anyone else been down this path? I expected that Cameron would be up to 6 ounce bottles at this point, not down to 4! Please tell me that it will get better....

Staying strong with a pillow over my head

Cry it out has been challenging. Night Two was about on par with Night One except for one thing: Cameron has a cold. I gave her a bit of Benadryl to alleviate her congestion and needless to say, she slept great for the first few hours. But then between the hours of 3 AM and 6:30 AM she was up off and on. I gritted my teeth and pulled my pillow over my head. After all, it wouldn't be good if we were both exhausted by CIO, right? And that's where I'm really struggling. My poor baby is definitely tired. She used to greet me every morning wreathed in smiles. Now she cries until I can pop her bottle in. And she cries a lot more easily in the evenings. I know it's because she is a little sick and very tired but it just breaks my heart.

But I am two nights in and I refuse to back down, dammit! I've told DH that he will need to bring a second pillow into his sleeping arrangement so he can stay strong as well. I'm hopeful we will have a breakthrough by this weekend. I'm giving it a week and if she is still miserable I will reassess and consider re instituting the swaddle. So please send good, soothing thoughts our way as we tackle Night Three (with Daddy!) tonight.