A Week of Firsts!

So this was Riley's 1st week with Ms. Emily, and so far so good! Emily is awesome with Riley! She text messaged me the 2nd day she kept him saying every Mom should be given BabyWise before the leave the hospital! I'm telling you! I'm a firm believer now too!

It was also my 1st full week back at work (without working from home or having days off for holidays), and it was good! I was totally focused and able to kick some booty and take some names! It's amazing! Now that Riley is with Emily, I don't even fret about it! I can go to work and focus, then I'm ready to unplug from work and be Mommy come 5pm! No more of these 7-8pm work days for me!

Emily had a great idea of a communication log for us to have so she could keep us informed on Riley's daily going ons and we could tell her things as well. It's awesome because she fills me in on what he's done all day with her, so I don't feel like I'm missing it all! Of course, she probably gets tired of my novels but you gotta take the good with the bad!!

This past Saturday was my & Kelly's 1st overnight trip away from Riley too! Thank goodness Riley was staying with Emily all week. That made it easier to leave on the weekend, but to be honest it wasn't hard to leave him at all. His GiGi (my Mom) came to stay with him, and she's spent so much time here with us all Riley halfway thinks she lives with us already! So when she comes to keep him, it's a seamless transition. Plus, she's a BabyWise convert now too! So I know she'll maintain and respect the schedule while we're gone! Actually, Riley pretty much does it on his own now so I don't have to worry too much! But she's the only person I could leave Riley with overnight right now and not worry while I'm gone! Like I said, she pretty much functions as if she lives here when she's here so that makes it a lot easier!

The reason for the overnight trip was to go to visit our Lubbock Family - Talana's family - for Cole's Wedding Reception. Kelly and I call Gary & Suzanne our Lubbock Parents! And man does Suzanne spoil us (especially Kelly) while we're there. Ever since our 1st trip there, she always has Snickerdoodles baked for him! It was sooooooooo funny the 1st time because Kelly called them EVERY name, but Snickerdoodle! The left a lasting impression though, so now he has the name down! We also had homemade elk chili, tamales, beans and brownies along with the staple Snickerdoodles this time for lunch when we got to Lubbock. Yummy!! We went to the reception in the evening, and it was really nice. We didn't know a lot of people there, so we sat and visited with some of Talana's college friends we usually see every year when we go for Kelly's Spring Fling volleyball tournament. We've also decide that'll be Riley's 1st airplane trip in April of this year. It's only about an hour flight, so it'll be a good 'practice' run before we take any longer flights. Plus, when he's this young it's still a lot to take on! He hasn't started solid foods, so taking and pumping breastmilk along with his supplemental poison (formula) is a lot to try to coordinate for a plane ride! And that doesn't even take into account a car seat, stroller and place to sleep! All of which Suzanne and Gary have already too!

When we got back Sunday at lunch, my Mom said Riley didn't sleep well Saturday night and that he woke up almost every hour. We figured out last night it's because he's finally going through his 1st painful teething experience. He's been teething for a while, but it hasn't bothered him. And you wouldn't really know except he's chewing on his thumb all the time and drools like a mad dog! It's so hard to see your baby in pain! :( And it's so hard to see him cry when he NEVER really cries! We finally broke down and gave him Tylenol and he went right to sleep, but he woke up every 4 hours last night as soon as the Tylenol would wear off. Bless his little heart! I'm hoping that tooth breaks through soon, or he gets over this hump and it doesn't bother him this much through the entire process of teething! They say they get better after the 1st ones because they get used to the way it feels. The thought of something breaking through my gums sounds really painful to me!

Oh yeah! Our last 1st was that Riley had his 1st picture published! It's just in the local Irving Parent magazine, but still! My favorite picture of him I posted last week was chosen to be on a page where parents send pictures of their kids in! It's really a 'Bloopers' page, so that's why I sent the crooked drool bubbles picture in! But he was chosen! He didn't win grand prize, but still!

Speaking of...I need to take some new pics of him! We've slowed down a lot on the picture taking now that I'm back at work! Plus, he's more mobile so he doesn't necessarily just lie there for you to take his picture like he used to! I'm guessing that's only going to become more and more challenging!