5/29/13 Around town.

Josiah was up a lot again last night, but all his requests to nurse seem to have helped. I think I am all unplugged and the painful lump is gone!!!

Cliff had to work again today and it is Yoshimi's day off so we hung out with Yoshimi and Elijah. I took an unexpected nap from 9-11 so we didn't get started doing anything till then. We tried to go to a sushi place that makes sushi the way subway makes sandwiches, but they were closed for a very extended holiday weekend. There was a Polynesian restaurant near by so we decided to eat there. It had a fish pond that kept Elijah so busy that he didn't want to eat. He was also just somewhat whiny probably because he needed a nap. He was laying on the couch when I came out of the room from pumping at 7:30 and he looked sleepy but got up to play with me, he probably needed to keep sleeping. 

The food was excellent. I had two different chicken breasts one marinated in a peanut sauce and one in a pineapple teriyaki sauce.   

Yo had an appointment at 2 to cut a friend's hair at a hotel salon, so we hung out at the hotel for a while. There was a Koi pond and a sheltered ocean inlet that Elijah explored. It was fun to watch him get excited about all the different creatures and then try to catch them.  

We went by Costco again this time for gas and Bryan to get a snack. Then we drove to Yoshimi's house. She gave Bryan a haircut. Now he doesn't look so shaggy anymore. ;) Yo's place is pretty nice but small. It's a little guesthouse behind her landlord's home.  It's up on the mountain so it's much cooler than Cliff's which is down on the ocean. She has a pool that she can use whenever she likes. Elijah's bed is where the dining room would be but it works. 

Smiling boy!

Velcro vana or sticky sea urchin. 

Close up 

Josiah sleeping through all 

Hermit crab. 

Sea cucumber. 

My guys! Oh how I love them. 

Sea urchins on a rock that also has a sea star. 

Tasty steak dinner down by the ocean. 

5/28/13 difficulty in paradise.

Last night Josiah woke up very frequently. I think I heard someone say that it's common for infants to do that in a new environment.  I hope that improves some in time for me to feel rested for a full day of play here. Even if it doesn't relaxing here by the ocean is better than relaxing on my couch at home. 

I noticed a large hard painful lump in my right breast last night. It felt like engorgement but just in one area. I googled the signs and symptoms of a plugged duct and i believe that's my problem, so today I have been applying heat before nursing or pumping, always nursing on the right side first and icing afterword. While nursing on the right, I have to massage the duct toward the nipple to get it to release milk. When I do this while pumping I can see milk spray forcefully from 4 places and barely drip from one. I assume the dripping one is the plugged one.  It's really uncomfortable. I can't really hold Josiah on that side due to the pain. I hope it doesn't take too long to clear up. 

Cliff and Yo both worked today, so Bryan and I got to watch Elijah. Yoshimi  brought some baby gifts when she dropped Elijah off. Josiah now has 2 more 6 month old outfits and a swim diaper and long sleeved sun protection shirt.(SPF 50) 

We put the swim outfit to use immediately. We just hung out at the apartment playing in the two different pools. One is salt water and the other chlorinated. I put on sunscreen but evidently I didn't my reapply enough because now I'm pretty burnt. First day. Ugg. Hopefully it'll heal a while before we leave. It won't be too fun bring burnt the whole time.  :( oops

We went to Denny's for dinner because we let Elijah choose the restaurant. We went grocery shopping at Costco and Target and dropped Elijah off at Yo's salon before heading back to the apartment. In spite of the difficulties it was a great day!

Swimming!

He finds swimming very thought provoking. He concentrates really hard. 

Hanging out I. The shade. 

Sleeping at Costco. 

Cliff and Elijah rough housing at Costco. 

My favorite fruit!

I waited two years for a fresh one of these! Cliff sends me dried ones and brought some frozen ones when he visited last year. It helps with the cravings but fresh is the best!

5/27/13 Happy Annaversary!

It's been a while. I have been working on my clinical ladder project for work during all my free time, so I didn't get time to write blog posts. I am finally done with it for this year and am ready to get back to my daily blog. 

Last week Cliff started posting very tempting pictures of his new condo and the ocean view. It lead me to check the prices of plane tickets to visit. I had been thinking of making a trip the last month of my maternity leave but I had been thinking of a road trip to Oklahoma City for Zak's wedding. It just seemed a long way to go with a baby in a car, so I thought about flying. That thought and Cliff's pictures lead me to check prices of flights to Kona. I found out if we left before the end of May and returned early to mid June that we could go for less than $1000! Last time we went it was $1800. Needless to say, I got excited and tried to convince Bryan it was a good idea. It took him a couple days to work though the fright of flying with a baby and the expense of a trip, but I succeeded and we bought tickets for May 27-June 7th! 

That's right I'm in Hawaii!!!! On maternity leave!!!! 

We made it to Honolulu airport and Josiah did really well. He didn't fuss any more than he does at home. The airline was great and changed our seats so we could sit together which put us in the front of the plane. We were sitting next to a family with 4 kids under 6, so we were the quiet ones! Everyone was gracious and friendly. 
Josiah did well with the assent. He nursed and he didn't fuss at all. I waited a bit on the decent to start nursing him and he did fuss a little so I let him nurse and he was fine. He finished before we landed but did pretty well. I think the pressure feeling of the final approach to the runway scared him a bit but bouncing him seemed to make it all ok. 

Josiah slept while we ate lunch I the Honolulu airport. The prices were so high! 13.95 for a whopper meal at Burger King! We split a small pizza and a drink for $18. I hate that airports are like a little monopoly and jack their prices just because you can't go anywhere else. 

As soon as we boarded the flight to Kona Josiah got really fussy, so we passed him back and forth a bunch before take off trying to calm him. Bryan worked his magic and got him to sleep somehow! Josiah slept half the flight and made the decent without fussing so I did't nurse him on that flight. Which was nice since I was sitting next to a Japanese man. 
Dad has rusty. He put his kennel in your little green house area hoping I think to cause the least amount of trauma to the new cats. I hope rusty likes it. He's usually fine wherever his kennel is. TJ has been irritated by his neighbor's wind chime, so I warned him he will now hear clang clang yap yap awhooo. ;)

Cliff meet us at the airport! We crammed a stroller, two roller bags a diaper bag a big backpack a car seat and Bryan and I in the Mini. No room for Cliff. He thought that might happen so he brought his motorcycle. 

His place is awesome. He set us up on his master and he is sleeping in Elijah's room. We grilled tuna an burgers for dinner and watched the sunset. It was lovely!

On the first plane. 

In Honolulu 

Eating pizza and talking to

Kristi. 

Sleeping on the table. 

Grilling with a view!

Watching the sunset!

5/15/13 Good Bye

We said good bye to Grammy and Grampy today. They left to drive back home at 9:30. We took some pictures before they left.

three generations of Wrights

We just had a lazy and relaxing day. We watched TV, surfed the web, did a little laundry and took a walk. I wanted to experiment with the Moby Wrap positions. Turns out I didn't break out too far from the mold. I still wrapped it around me the exact same way, but I learned how to use the same wrap to leave Josiah's feet out, and how to let him face out with feet in or out.

He's wearing a puppy hat made by a patient I took care of when I was 36 weeks pregnant.

It was nice to get out an walk around since really all we did today was finish a complete season of the Amazing Race.

 

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5/14/13 Bryan's Birthday

He wore my favorite shirt for his birthday! (he doesn't like it much, he thinks it makes him look like a picnic table.

I planned the day to do very Bryan things today. We slept in. We had smoothies for breakfast. We relaxed and messed around on the computer. We went to Gyro House for lunch. We relaxed some more and took a nap. I made angel food cake and shrimp pasta with herb cream sauce for dinner (his favorites). His parents were already here, and mine came over for dinner. I didn't pressure him to hang out with anyone, or do anything big and birthday like, and he seemed to like that. He got his present two weeks ago, when his parents came. They picked it up at Cabellas in Eugene on their way up from California. It's a compound bow for hunting. Here is Ethan modeling it. He's pretty excited about it. There is a target set up in the back yard for him to practice with and everything. Hurray for a successful but special low key birthday.

can I go hunting with you?

 

 

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5/13/13 Lazy Day

We have been gone from home so much and so busy, that we decided to just rest today. So we got out of bed around 11am (well actually I got up several times before that, I just didn't stay up until 11am). We ate a leisurely breakfast and puttered around. I got a text from Laura saying we should hang out, so I went over there for the afternoon and we talked, played with babies and sewed. It was nice. I got some more burp cloths finished for Nike, and I cut some flannel to surge the edge of for a swaddle blanket. Josiah tested out Jess's (note: Laura checked and this is grammatically correct due to the 's' making a soft sound. So, you add an apostrophe 's' to make the 'z' sound to make it possessive) activity mat. He sure got a kick out of talking to himself in the mirror.

While sewing he got a bit fussy after laying on the floor for a while, so I borrowed Laura's Moby Wrap to calm him down. It worked; he slept some in it and was happy until he got hungry. I wasn't finished with what I was working on so I decided it was time to get creative. I have heard people say that you can breast feed a baby in the Moby. Josiah has pretty consistent head control now, so I just loosened everything while he was in the newborn hold and got him down to the right level and scooted him a bit over to the left and he went to town. I thought it might be uncomfortable, but it was fine, and he was happy, so I finished my sewing project.

He's nursing in this picture

sleepy smiles before bed

 

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5/12/13 1st Mother's Day

Bryan said he wants to go to both churches today, so he hopped out of bed as soon as I told him it was 40 minutes until we needed to leave. He got himself all ready and was able to take Josiah when he was done eating, so that I could get ready. We made it mostly on time to early service at Southwest Bible.

The sermon was from Luke 10 about Mary sitting at Jesus's feet while Martha was distracted serving. Martha was so anxious about her tasks serving those at their house that she was upset that Mary was not helping her, and she was not even listening to what Jesus was teaching. This verse on the left is Psalm 94:19. It is a verse I want to memorize. I have a hard time not being distracted by things that give me anxiety and having this verse to quote to myself will help keep my mind in check. It was very fitting to be in this section on Mother's Day. It was purely coincidental, but fitting. It was the closest to a holiday sermon I have ever heard at Southwest and it was just because the next text in the series from Luke was fitting. ;)

 

Josiah slept in the pew most of the sermon. He fussed a little, but was able to be consoled without a bottle, and we didn't have to cary him out at all. I couldn't remember if BNC started service at 10:30 or 10:45, so we left early and headed there. I was able to feed Josiah in the "mother's room" before service started. It was very nicely arranged with a changing table, 3 gliders, a few toys, a bouncer, and a bumpo to keep babies entertained. It was dimly lit with mirrored windows into the sanctuary and sound so women don't have to miss the service to nurse. Once again Josiah slept though the sermon and only fussed a little during worship (He doesn't like clapping. It startles him.) The sermon was about Jesus's ascension being important to our faith. It was very Biblically sound, we were impressed and pleased.

 

 

 

 

For Mother's Day Twi and Jason came up and we took Mom and Dad and Bob and Edwina to Thai Bloom for lunch. It was very nice. We were glad we had made reservations (Twi's idea, but she made me do it.). We were in a room where a huge, and somewhat loud, extended family (maybe 12 adults and 18 children) were also seated. The wait staff handled it really well, and all the noise the large group made prevented me from being concerned about Josiah's occasional fussiness bothering anyone.

Holding the mum that I was given at BNC for Mother's Day.

After lunch we went to my parent's house for a game of crazy croquet. I don't think we'll ever play croquet normally. It's too fun to set it up like a mini golf course, and my parent's back yard holds endless obstacles. Bob didn't want to play, but he walked around with us and enjoyed the humor of it all. He only went inside once when it was raining pretty steadily. Mom had lawn chairs out under a big umbrella in the center of the yard, and we had our camp chairs and umbrellas out everywhere for comfort.

Jason broke the handle to a flimsy mallet right when he had his ball under the trampoline, so mom got him an extension handle.

Josiah wants to play!

 

 

Josiah hung out either in the Beco carrier with me or Bryan, or he laid under the big umbrella with all the chairs. We just had to make sure that while he was laying there someone stayed within his eye sight or he would cry. He didn't want to be left alone. He enjoyed looking around, whether laying there or in the carrier. Eventually he fell asleep, and Bryan used his hat to keep him dry. He fell asleep as soon as the hat was put on him, so I suspect the rain drops were keeping him awake.

Josiah sure had his share of fun. He loved being tossed up and down and all the people coming to talk to him trying to make him laugh. Mission get-Josiah-to-laugh-before-Grammy-leaves has not been successful yet, but it keeps us busy trying, and we sure get a lot of smiles!

Daredevil baby loves to be up high in the air or tossed. Bryan was using him like an umbrella for a few seconds, maybe not intentionally, but it's what it looked like.

 

This umbrella was so light weight that Josiah could move it all around. It was pretty cute to watch him mess with it.

 

Big Smiles from "flying"

 

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5/11/13 Downtown

Josiah was so tired from only short naps and all the in and put of the car and in and out of his carrier yesterday that he slept for 8 hours. He went to sleep late at 10 after we got home from my parent's house. We tried to get him to sleep there but it didn't really work. Bryan was up tinkering trying to fix his old iPhone. He stayed up till 5am messing with it because he thought surely Josiah would wake up for his bottle soon but he never did. I fed him when he woke up at 6 am. He woke up once after that but settled with a pacifier and slept till 9 for another feeding. Too bad Bryan didn't get all that sleep.

he can almost suck his thumb

We left the house around 2 and took Max downtown to Saturday Market. We had fun looking around. We are some snacks and got a couple trinkets.

at the spoon man shop

 

We walked from there to Powells Books, and looked around there for a while.

 

Josiah was pretty hungry but I couldn't find a suitable place to sit and feed him so we went to noodles and company for dinner and I nursed him there. Crazy that I could find a place at Saturday market, but not at Powells. At the market I just sat on a cement riser and put my feet up on the stroller. Powells was just full on people every isle and stool was crowded and the cafe had people at every table. It worked better to nurse him at the restaurant. After dinner we meet Laura and some frients at Cupcake Jones just a few blocks down.

diet sized cupcakes

 

We got cupcakes and took them to a near by fountain in the pearl because there was no seating at the cupcake place. It was just as nice to sit out in a park and chat with friends.

 

They continued on to the Rogue, but we decided to go home since we had been out and about for so long already. We took the street car to the max and home.

On MAX, Edwina's first time on a commuter train.

Josiah's first time too.

 

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