Financial Aid

So after spending the last few hours trying to understand the financial aid process and filling out the bijillion forms required by the lenders and the government, I have decided that anyone who makes it through the process should automatically be granted a degree! I'm sooo glad that Beall's paid for my Bachelor degree so I didn't have to endure this process during my undergrad years. It's pretty scary putting myself in the amount of debt that law school will create. Tuition alone is 20 thousand a year! Plus I am taking out additional loans to supplement our income so I can quit my job and stay home with Alex during the day. I suppose you can't put a price on being able to raise your own kid though. It might be a financial hardship for a while but I'm sure it will be worth it in the end. I just hope I can score a cushy job once I have JD behind my name. THEN it will all be worthwhile :)

Short and Fat

I took Alex to the Doctor yesterday for his two month checkup and apparently he's short and fat!!
He weighs 13 pounds and is 22 and a half inches long. Therefore, he is in the 75th percentile for weight and the 30th percentile for height. Anyway, the Doctor came in and asked how much I feed him and I said 4-6 ounces every 2 hours and his eyes about popped out of his head. He laughed and said that I was way overfeeding him. Apparently I feed him too much which makes his belly distended and he gets fussy. The only thing he knows to do when his belly hurts is to eat so he starts giving me the hunger signs and I feed him more, which makes his belly hurt more and makes him want to eat more.........I think you can see where this is going. It seems that most of the problems we have with him stem from overfeeding. *shrug* who knew.

He also got FIVE shots :( It made me want to cry right along with him. My poor baby looks like a pin cushion. He has been sore and cranky all day. I don't blame him one bit. Shots in the leg muscles hurt and he doesn't even have the benefit of understanding why he's in pain like we do. Anyway, I'm off to give him and bath and put him to bed. Hopefully he'll feel better in the morning.

God bless the inventor of the swaddle blanket

Alex is finally starting to sleep for longer then 2 hours at at time!! We never really swaddled him after he was about a week old because I thought he hated having his arms confined. I have read many articles and books about how to get your infant to sleep better and the number one recommendation is to swaddle the baby. Yet I snubbed the advice thinking MY baby was different and wouldn't tolerate the baby straight jacket technique. Well, I read a book that explained that one the many benefits of swaddling, besides replicating the womb is that it keeps babies from waking themselves up when they startle. I started to think about how often I see Alex startle when he is asleep in his bouncy seat or his swing and decided I would give swaddling one more try. I used to laugh at the people who would buy a "special" swaddling blanket asking myself what kind of moron can't figure out how to swaddle using a regular blanket, but I realized that the swaddle blankets have Velcro to prevent babies from wiggling out. GENIUS!! I now own two swaddle blankets and they have been a life saver. Alex goes to sleep about 10 pm and sleep until 8 am, waking only once during the night to eat. As a result he is a much happier baby during the day and mommy is less like a zombie and more like a human. So, I say thank God for the person who decided to put Velcro on a blanket. My only regret is that I didn't think of it myself. I could be rich.

On different note. I sent my seat deposit for law school today. So, there's no turning back! When August rolls around I will be a law student. A broke law student, but hey.....at least I'll be able to stay home with Alex.

Out and about

Alex and I have had a busy week so far. Monday we went to Mt. Dora with my mom and Kathy for some "girl" time. We walked around the shops and had some lunch. Alex of course demanded to be held most of the time, but that's what Granny is for :) Yesterday, we toured a day care center and it made me realize how much I don't want him raised by other people. I really don't want to go back to work and leave him with strangers :( This morning we met a bunch of other mommies for a walk-and-talk meet up. I found a group of ladies that get together weekly either at a park or some kind of nature trail and we decided to join them today. We went on about a 2.5 mile walk and met some fabulous mothers and babies! Too bad it was so stinking hot!! He was Ok for the first half of the walk until he woke up and realized that 1) he was in his stroller/car seat which he hates and 2) it was really freaking hot. So he was pissed for the second half of the walk, but we had fun anyway.

A poop hat for Oliver

Warning: The story you about to hear is not for the easily queasy!

So, I was sitting on the couch this morning feeding Alex much like any other morning when he began taking a poop. So I stopped feeding him for a few minutes so he could concentrate on the task at hand and I could figure out how I was going to con Evan into changing the diaper. Well, I began to notice Oliver at my feet licking at something on the floor. I figured he was eating crumbs from last night's dinner or just licking the floor because he's a weird dog. I really didn't pay much attention until I felt something splatter on my foot. I looked down and realized that the baby's diaper had reached maximum poop capacity and was now leaking out onto the floor.......which is what Oliver was licking up!!! Yes disgusting I know, but I warned you! So I yelled for Evan who took the baby so I could clean up the mess down the front of the couch and change my clothes because not only was it on my sock, but on my pants. I was also going to clean the floor but Oliver had taken care of that task for me by LICKING IT UP. Anyway, after the baby was clean we went to put Oliver in his crate and noticed a perfectly symmetrical blob of poop on top of his head!The baby managed to poop on the dog's head and he had been walking around with poop on his head for at least 10 minutes and we failed to notice. So needless to say Oliver took a shower with Evan this morning to remove his newly acquired poop hat. It was all quite a calamity. So lessons I learned this morning are as follows: Dog's like poop. All kinds of poop. Cat poop, baby poop, bird poop. If it's poop........dogs will eat it. Also, Karma's a bitch! As I mentioned before I was trying to get out of changing the poopy diaper and ended up covered in poop myself and cleaning poop off of upholstery which is much more challenging then changing a diaper.

April Fools Day

Well, another uneventful day at the Turpin/Paulter house. Alex and I watched some TV, enjoyed many..many bottles of formula and changed a few diapers. Alex is much more alert and responsive during the day which is really fun! When I talk to him and play with him he gives me a big gummy smile. It's neat that he recognizes me and thinks I'm worthy of a smile! He doesn't nap for very long right now, maybe 20 minutes at a time which of course means no nap for mommy either. But, I think I'm actually getting used to being sleep deprived. The highlight of my day was of course going to Walgreens by myself after Evan got home from work. It was quite enjoyable until I shelled out $85 for the prescription that should only cost $25. WTF?!! Guess I'll spend tomorrow on the phone with the insurance company attempting to sort out the problem.