Biophilliac Mommy: It's about time for an update...jeeze!

Wow, October just flew right by! Mainly because we have been so busy! Currently Mattimeo is sleeping in our bed all by himself (I nursed him to sleep, then waited until he was in a deep sleep to carefully move away from him), but since I don't know how long he will stay asleep like that (he tends to get upset if he wakes up and I'm not there), I am going to use bullet points to update:

We have moved! We are now living in Waterboro with Robbie's parents. Yes, it is pretty sad that we put in so much work to make him a wonderful nursery when we only got to use it for two months. But it was a fun process, and we will be able to make him another one when we get our own place. With me no longer working, all the bills from pregnancy and childbirth, plus our high rent cost and substantial student loan payments we simply could not afford to continue living where we were. Robbie's parents are wonderful and Robbie, Meo, Pi, Theta and I all move into their house. We are forever grateful. We are happy here; there are lots of nice places to walk, a yard to play in, a toasty woodstove to keep warm through these cold winter months (we already got snow in October!), and most importantly we are able to spend a lot of time with family. I miss Portland; moving here feels like the end of an era since I'm pretty sure we won't be moving intown ever again, but change happens and it's best just to embrace it and try not to dwell too much. Mattimeo seems to like it here; he is always smiling at his grandparents, enjoys our long walks with all the beautiful foliage, and likes looking at their three birds. Plus, it's nice to have help!

Enjoying one last night in the nursery with my boys

Tummy time one of the last mornings at the apartment (10 weeks)

Mom reading Dr. Suess to Meo in the nursery

On our last walk from our apartment in the east end

Last walk to the Portland Ferry Terminal

"Heading south for winter"

Beautiful eyes!

Playing in Grandma and Grandpa's yard

Spooked!

Looking at the dog that spooked Theta

Sumo baby facing frontwards for the first time in his Moby wrap

Foliage in Lake Arrowhead

Love Island: one of the places we walk by

Pi greeting Meo and I when we got back from one of our walks

We brought Mattimeo apple picking for the first time (8 weeks old). He looked around a bit, and I put apples in front of him so he could see and smell them. Eventually he just fell asleep in the moby wrap though.

Meo and I at Doles Orchard

Mattimeo laughed for the first time! He was ten weeks old; it was the most beautiful sound I ever heard! Meo and I were waiting for Daddy to come home and I had him in his chair while I made silly noises and faces at him. He thought I was hilarious and started laughing! I was laughing so hard with him I thought I would cry, and of course that only made him laugh more! The next day he laughed for Daddy, and that that made Daddy very, very happy! He still doesn't laugh all the the time, but he certainly giggles a lot and squeals with delight. We adore our happy baby! A lot of times when he smiles at people he does this cute little bashful maneuver where he tucks his head into his shoulders and turns away a little as he grins ear to ear. He is really quite adorable!
Mattimeo saw his first deer (11 weeks old)! The young buck was in the front yard, munching on some birds seeds that were on the grass. The deer was beautiful, and so close! The cats were very excited about it too. Mattimeo and I had just got back from a nice, long walk. I had but him in his Moby wrap so he was facing out for the first time, which he loved. About halfway through the walk, he fell asleep. When we got inside, he woke up, but before I took him out of the wrap a deer appeared. Mattimeo, refreshed from his nap and fresh air, was extremely talkative. Luckily, the deer didn't seemed bothered by all his chatter and I was able to capture it on video. Note that the camera was shaky because Mattimeo was very wiggly and excited!

The first deer Mattimeo ever saw (11 weeks)

Pi checking out the deer

This week (12 weeks), Meo has made some pretty amazing developmental leaps! He has started reaching out to hold onto toys! We have a ball that is really easy for him to hold onto, and he likes to grab it and pull it up to his mouth. Then he proceeds to stick his tongue through the openings. Eventually he gets frustrated with any toy he has because he can't eat it, and he'll start to whimper a little so I'll take it away. But it is really cool to see him show an interest in an object and reach out for it. He also enjoys reaching for my clothing and pulling it down so he can get to my breast, and I now have to tie my hair back otherwise he grabs it (one fistful in each hand) and it is very hard to loose myself from his grip! Another development is he enjoys sitting in his Bobby (a little infant chair that allows him to sit upright) for short periods of time. The other day I put him in his Boppy in front of the big picture window while I made lunch, and he was content to sit there and look around outside. It is so cool seeing him take so much interest in his surroundings now. Yet another interesting developmental milestone to note is that he is really good at standing up and supporting his own weight. He has been able to do this for a long time; he has always had really strong legs so I am not actually sure when he first started doing this. But he wants to do it all the time now and he can stay up for a really long time before he needs to collapse.

Holding his ball for the first time (8 weeks)

Pulling Mommy's hair is fun! (13 weeks)

I had mastitis again, boo! This time in both breasts. I had been dealing with an oversupply issue that was causing Mattimeo to be fussy at my breast. Between that and all the heavy lifting from moving and stress of not being settled in anywhere, I got mastitis again. This time I noticed something was wrong because both of my breasts ached a lot while I was visiting my mom. By the time I picked Robbie up from work, he noticed right away that I looked drained. I went to bed early and woke up in a lot of pain and with a fever. I ended up missing my last class at Birth Roots (I'll talk more about that in another post) which I was really bummed about, and stayed home in bed nursing all day. This time the midwives said I needed to take antibiotics, so I did. I finish them up today and I feel 100 times better. I have been taking probiotics, eating yogurt and taking care to stay clean and dry to avoid getting thrush...so far so good.

Heading over to Grammy's

Socks wanted attention too

I love the pattern of Mattimeo's hair

Grammy and Grandpa

with Grandpa

Hot dogs: Sammy and Bandit enjoying the heater

Sleeping with my babe when I had mastitis

We went to a specialist to check out Mattimeo's heart murmur. He was such a good boy! The had him down to his diaper with all sorts of wires hooked up to him so they could make a a graph of his heart beat and he didn't fuss at all! The doctor listened to his heart from all sorts of places and looked over his graph and decided that he was perfectly healthy. He said, "I can usually detect at least a small heart murmur in most babies his age, but I can't hear one at all! He has a really strong heart." What a relief! He said he also doesn't have a chance of getting IHSS (the heart disease that my maternal grandfather had), which is another huge relief! I am so glad I have such a strong, healthy boy! The doctor loved him; he thought his expressions were adorable and he was such a good boy, he even asked if he could take him home.
Mattimeo, my mom and I went to visit my Aunt Darlene and her two grandchildren (Evaline and Elouise) last week. That was a lot of fun. The girls are 11 months and 2 years old...I got a taste of what I get to look forward too!

Yesterday we celebrated our nephew, Bryce's, first birthday! His actual birthday is November 2nd. I can't believe he is already a year old! Bryce is super cute and very sweet. When we were getting ready to go home, we set Meo's car seat down on the ground and Bryce crawled over to him, leaned inside and gave him a kiss! That is possibly one of the sweetest things I have ever witnessed. I bet these two cousins will grow up to pals.