One year ago today

This time a year ago I was sending David out for a pregnancy test. He went to Wal-Mart (so he could go through the self check-out ) and picked up a two pack of tests. By time he got home I had made Brendan go to bed and I started drinking water. I went into our bathroom and almost immediately the test was saying "pregnant"! I believe my reaction was something along the lines of "oh shit"! And as much as we were trying to keep it from Brendan apparently we were talking loud enough that he heard that night and just didn't say anything until we told him a week later.

I'd like to say that we were estatic from the moment we found out but I can say, at least for myself, that estatic was not the emotion I was feeling. Obviously Shane was not planned. I was less than a month away from graduation, I did not have a job lined up yet, and the last conversation David and I had about having kids was something along the lines of "we'll wait until you've been teaching at least a year." Guess someone else had different plans for us.

We've often debated in the last year what night we ended up pregnant - because there were so few opportunities. = ) I say it was the night that I ranted and raved about being stressed and getting no help before leaving for my part-time job only to come home to find he had cleaned the bedroom, made the bed and did a load of laundry. David swears it was a night that I molested him. Either way - it was my fault we ended up pregnant because I quit taking birth control.

Needless to say, even if we didn't realize it at that moment, it was the best day of our marriage and the end of the journey was well worth the initial disbelief and shock. Shane Anthony Alberico has been the pride and joy of his daddy's eye and David has admitted he didn't know what he was getting until the day he arrived. I'm not sure any of us can imagine what life would be like without him and none of us could have imagined how much fun he was going to be!

3 months

Wait ... wait ... wait ... you're posting 3 months after posting 4 months? Kimberly are you crazy? No ... just extremely behind! I found this post that I started typing at work and e-mailed to myself at home to post. This just tells you how far behind in e-mails I am!

So one of my many resourceful December mamas just “showed” us her print out of her blog. It looks amazing! And now I’m more motivated to write more on our blog. This could possibly be the only baby book that Shane will ever have because I’m just not good about keeping up with Baby books. I even bought just a First Year one this time around hoping that I’d be more diligent about keeping up … nope.

3 months. Can you believe it? Shane is 3 months old already! It makes me sad and happy all at the same time. Happy because he’s doing so well – sad because this is the last time I’ll probably ever get to experience the baby stages again (unless of course I discover that I have a rich relative somewhere!).

We’re still trudging along with breastfeeding (even if mom’s a dunce and spills bottles every now and again). Thankfully he’s had only minimal nipple confusion – which is generally corrected rather quickly. And he’s only rejected me one day. Shane generally nurses once before going to daycare, eats about 16-20 oz at daycare and then nurses several times again before bed. He certainly loves his food source and still gets excited when he sees it. = )

Shane is wearing size 2 diapers and 6 month clothing. While he can still fit into his 3 month clothing, some of them are to short – yet some of his 6 month clothing is to big. He’s just like mama … never fits perfectly into one size! I have a newborn diaper in my pump bag that I take out every once in a while just to remember how little his tush use to be.
Shane has decided he really REALLY loves to sit up. If you lay him down he gets a little upset with you. Prop him up on a pillow and he’s trying in earnest to pull himself up. I can only imagine that he’ll be doing it all on his own soon. Last night I was trying to figure out how long he could stay up without falling over … LOL … it wasn’t very long but he sure was happy trying. I bought him a Bumbo seat about a month ago and he didn’t seem to like it then but will tolerate it now. Last night daddy was able to wash dishes while mom was gone because he put Shane in his Bumbo. Yeah … freedom!

Shane still HATES tummy time at home. The gals at daycare assure me that he likes it and that they are getting tummy time in during the day. I certainly hope so because he’s not getting much at home. If I lay him on the pillow on my lap he’ll tolerate it for a few minutes but then immediately bursts into tears. Sunday we had pictures taken and the photo shoot was cut short after the photographer tried to get pictures of him on his tummy. This, of course, means he hasn’t figured out how to roll over yet. I’m placing money on the fact that he’ll roll from back to tummy first.

What else. Laughing. We get lots and lots of silent laughs but we’ve only gotten out loud laughs once on March 10. It was one night after work and I was sitting on the couch with him facing me. I was talking to him in funny voices and he just burst out laughing. We were able to get him to do it several more times that night but not since. I can’t wait for the day when I can make him laugh without even touching him!

Big bubby Brendan continues to be a big help with his little brother. He likes to pick out Shane’s outfit for the day and get him dressed in the mornings. One Saturday morning I woke up to find the two of them sitting on the couch watching cartoons. I reminded him that the day would come when he wouldn’t want to be woken up so darn early to watch cartoons! He just rolled his eyes and said he’d just lock his door (which I’m sure he probably will).

Easter and 4 month checkup

What a day! I'm sitting here listening to the rain outside and am I ever glad that Shane was a boy which means I do not have to deal with Easter dresses and bonnets. I feel so sorry for those mothers who purchased beautiful Easter dresses and then had to cover them up with jackets today.

Shane is almost 4 months old. On Friday, David and I took him in for his 4 month checkup and our little boy is growing so quickly. Shane is now up to 14 lbs 9 oz and is 25 1/8 inches long. I'm guessing we probably could have squeaked another 1/8 inch out of him but he was ticked off and wouldn't straighten his legs out. He is 50% for weight and 60% for height. Maybe one of these days he'll be as tall as Dad ... or maybe he won't ... but for now he's just our average little guy.

We still have an ear infection. He was diagnosed with the 1st one on March 20. Doc said he thought this was a new one but couldn't be sure. We go back in a month to have his ears checked again. If they are still red then we'll take him to big brother's ENT and talk about having tubes put in. Brendan was 18 months old when he had his first set ... but Shane is showing signs that he will probably be following in Brendan's footsteps just a little earlier. I know he's not been himself the last 3 weeks.

Easter - the most exciting part about Easter was for mom - not Shane. I had a basket made for Brendan when he was 3 months old. I kept saying that I needed to get a basket for Shane but couldn't find the place that made Brendan's. One night I did a search on the internet and found the place that had simply moved locations. I took some pictures of Brendan's basket and went in - only to find out they were no longer painting that type of basket. The gal working said, however, that the person who worked there had worked there 10 years ago and could probably do it for us. So I e-mailed the pictures over and sure enough - they are VERY similar! Only if you studied the two baskets for a little while would you note the differences (Brendan and I couldn't help but do this). This morning seeing those two baskets side by side really made my day. Edit: Someone asked where I bought the baskets - they are from a place called HappiNames up in Overland Park, KS. www.happinameskc.com

We spent the day over at Grandma & Grandpa Alberico's house. Shane is so close to rolling over that I was sure he was going to show off for everyone. But no ... he just wouldn't go that last few inches to completely roll over. He will get from his back to his side and today he finally got one leg almost all the way over but did make it all the way. I'm going to be devastated if he rolls over for the first time at daycare ... but I cannot wait for that moment to come! Last weekend we thought we were close and even had the video camera ready. Instead of getting the big moment we have almost 45 minutes of footage of Shane rolling from back to side. He certainly is taking his sweet time!

Grandma Linda was quite impressed today with Shane's verbal skills. At one point Shane was letting everyone know how unhappy he was. He just jibber jabbers away and sometimes it sounds like he's telling you exactly what he thinks and he's just not happy! Other times he sounds so sad when he's talking. My favorite is when he tries really hard to form his mouth around the words. We have decided that he has certainly taken after big brother and mom in the talking arena.

This weekend has been a little hard on Shane. Between an ear infection and his 3 vaccination shots on Friday, he's spent a great deal of time sleeping. Yesterday he slept for almost 5 hours - with a few 15 minute nursing periods thrown in. Today he slept for a good hour or so in mom and Grandma's arms. He let us know he wasn't to happy about us switching his sleeping position from mom to Grandma but he settled in with a little coaxing. I wish I would have had my camcorder after he woke up. He was talking away for Grandma and Grandpa.

I am going to have to remember that not every post needs pictures! I'm generally pretty good about taking lots of pictures - it's getting them from the camera to the computer that's more difficult. In fact, we found a memory card from my old camera that had pictures from 2002 that were never loaded onto the computer (or maybe they were but were lost in a hard drive crash). They were of Brendan when he was 3 years old. After seeing them it didn't seem possible that he's now 10 years old ... but then again it doesn't seem possible that Shane should be 4 months old either.

EDIT: I bought the cutest darn thing for Shane from a guy I work with - a Radio Flyer Classic Roadster - for $15.00! David was changing Shane for bed when we got hom on Easter and couldn't resist letting him try it out! I also bought the Radio Flyer tricycle for $12.00 ... we won't be trying that out anytime soon that's for sure! As you can see ... Shane is to little for the Roadster but I can only imagine it won't be long before he'll be tearing up and down the hallway on it!