roxborough with angie

Angie and Johnathan came over today, and we went for a hike in Roxborough. We each had our baby in front and backpack in back. Great views, great company!

around the house

dayhike

a bit of a frown

licensed!

My license arrived, so now I can start looking for weekend work!

the boys

I took the car up to the dealership today for its scheduled maintenance, and then Chris and Johnathan had a playdate. Chris is now 23 inches and 11 lbs. Johnathan is the same length, but weighs 1 1/2 more pounds! We also did a craft project with hand and footprints. Chris's prints are on the left, and Johnathan's on the right.

roxborough

the pennocks visit

smiley guy!

snug

three months

Chris is three months old today. I sang him happy birthday and he seemed to like it. For many moms, this would mark the end of maternity leave. I am taking a year off, and my year is now a quarter done, making this a good time for reflection. The past three months have gone by very quickly. I miss my little newborn. Chris is small, so he is still little and cuddly. He can't hold his head up yet. I think part of that is due to the enormous size of his head (90th percentile) compared to his length and weight (20th percentile).

One thing that I did not expect about being a stay at home mom is how little free time I would have. I thought I would have lots of free time to read and keep up my medical knowledge. That has not been the case. I have a stack of unread journals from July and August. Last week I did my first MKSAP study questions. I hadn't realized how time consuming it is to care for a baby, particularly as his primary caregiver! I knew that he'd need care around the clock, but I didn't realize how few breaks I would get during the day. Then at night when he's sleeping, I just want to sleep, because I've been up at 3 and 6 am every day. Thankfully, Chris is now sleeping 5-6 hours at a stretch. He usually goes to sleep at 9pm and is up again at 3. Getting a reasonable stretch of sleep helps.

I think it's great that he is able to sleep in his own crib night and day and play in his own home. I have been visiting daycare centers to look for a spot for him when I go back to work, and the infant areas are baby barracks. The best one I saw had a hospital kind of feeling, with all of the staff wearing scrubs, and the toys sanitized daily. The Kindercare infant room was just depressing. Rows of cribs, and several babies crawling around a small stretch of vinyl floor with no good toys in sight. I am glad that we don't have to put Chris into an infant room at a daycare. I like cuddling with him during the day. I like being able to take a walk in the park in the middle of the day any day of the week. I like being able to soothe him when he's fussy.

The toddler rooms at the daycare centers I visited have been better. We liked the Highlands Ranch Learning Center. The 1 year olds are in toddler rooms which are little classrooms for little people. They have activities, singing, craft projects. They nap on mats rather than in cribs. The kids looked like they were having fun. We can't pick a daycare yet because we don't know where we will be living next year, but I'm seeing what is available.

Today I turned in what I believe is the last piece of paperwork for my Colorado physician's license application. I thought I filled everything out correctly in May, but they were missing some things and I filled out some forms wrong, and then it took them a couple of months to let me know what I was missing. Once I have my license, I can apply for some part time work. I would like to do one shift per week at the VA ER. I am starting to miss work. Before, I was working too much and not having enough time at home. Now I have too much time at home and not enough work. I miss talking to people, thinking about problems, and using my education. I did three months of research at the end of residency, so I have been out of clinical medicine for six months. I worry that I'm losing the knowledge I worked so hard to gain during residency. So, I need to get back to work. I would like to work weekends so Doug could take care of Chris.

Well, those are my thoughts at three months. I am enjoying my time with the baby. Baby calls!

bats

Chris has started batting at the hanging toys on his play gym. Here he is in full batting action:

feeding

prisoner

Chris looks like a baby prisoner wearing stripes behind bars!

dayhike

We went to Elk Meadow Park for our first dayhike with Chris. It went pretty well, other than not being prepared for the weather. We forgot to pack warm clothes for the baby. When we got up there, the clouds were threatening and it rained a little. All we had was an extra onesie. So, we wrapped the Baby Bjorn with my fleece and that kept him warm. The hike was a good length and the trails were well maintained.

little guy

Angie and Johnathan came down to visit today. Johnathan is now bigger than Chris! They are the same length, but Johnathan is definitely chubbier. And he's more than a month younger! He's going to be a big kid. Chris, on the other hand, is my little guy. That just means that he will be a cuddly little baby for longer. When I went to the grocery store a few days ago, the checkout lady asked "how old is he? Two weeks?" Nope, two months.