ahavabp, posts by tag: joel - LiveJournal

I am so proud of my baby!! This is the fourth day in a row he has napped in his crib for his morning nap. Now I just need to start getting a bead on when he goes down for an afternoon nap (right now I am noticing it is usually about 2ish hours after he wakes up from the morning nap but we will see.) and he will begin taking that nap in the crib as well.

I tried him out today with the new crib soother we got him—my girlfriend in Guam had found us an awesome one before we left but I think I have to wait until Lance is a little older to use it. He is so very music oriented and when his mobile would stop if he was half asleep it would wake him up…so I bought a crib soother that has a remote so I can just push the button from a distance when the music stops. It plays for 25 minutes straight, gradually getting softer. He seems to like it—I put him down still awake after we did our book-swaddle-nurse-book routine, and turned it on. He immediately turned towards it and started watching the lights. (It is the little Einstein baby Neptune aquarium soother so there is a moving underwater scene with lights etc.) He was not happy at first because I accidentally left the wrong arm unswaddled—he seems to like the left arm free for his naps (I know that now anyway) so he did not go to sleep. But then I went in and swaddled the right arm and freed the left and he was out about 5 minutes later. It is truly amazing to me how easy it was to set up this routine, and how much Lance seems to enjoy it. It doesn’t seem to matter what time we do it, either. The past few days he has been letting me sleep in, so he has gone down for his nap a little later, and that doesn’t seem to matter as long as we do the same routine every time. It is good to know that he can be a little flexible with timing since he is a Navy baby and does have to be a little flexible. I think that now that we have a routine set up he will be able to nap anywhere also, as long as we do his routine.

He was in a great mood yesterday…we did some tummy time and he played on his back with some of his toys, and we took some great pictures. I also discovered his “giggle button”…I was playing around with him, making noises against his tummy and all of a sudden he giggled!! It was so cool!! He was also in a great mood this morning. For the last 2 days he has woken up before me and just laid quietly in his bassinette until I woke up. So yesterday I slept until 8:30 and today I slept until 8. When I woke up we played a little bit until it was time for his nap. He spent some more time on his tummy and he rolled over about 3 or 4 times in a row.!!

Joel came home last night with some new onesies for him. It is so cute how much he is enjoying being a father. I guess the Navy Pride section of the NEX had gotten in some new items and Joel could not resist.

I finally got my outfit for Lance’s 3 month pictures. Lance is wearing an orange and brown striped onesie and brown pants from OshKosh, and Joel is wearing a brown collared long sleeve shirt and jeans. I had been unsure about what I wanted to wear because I had been having trouble finding something I liked. I had thought I wanted to wear purple, or some other contrasting color, but then I found an orange sweater that I really liked. I think it is kind of neat that way anyway…Lance is wearing a combination of the colors Joel and I are wearing, just like he is a combination of us. It should be cute.

Tomorrow I am having coffee with our new friend and her baby girl, which should be fun. Lance is definitely at a place where he is noticing other babies, so it will be fun to watch him interact with the baby.

Today was Joel’s first day wearing the “new” Navy Working Uniform—you know, that stupid blue camouflage that all the guys are wearing now. He had avoided wearing it thus far because they wore khakis for school. He will continue to wear khakis any time he has an office type job (ie if he were to work at squadron for a shore tour or whatever) but as long as he is attached to a boat he will be wearing these blue digicams. I guess I am old school Navy, but I just plain don’t like them. Don’t get me wrong, Joel looks good in them (but then again he looks good in all the uniforms) but this is the Navy for crying out loud!! They wear khakis, whites, service dress Blue, or poopy suits (coveralls), not camouflage!! I am also amused by the fact that it is BLUE camo…because if the ship goes down we certainly don’t want our sailors to be seen in the water or anything. Lol. But, just like him going back to sea duty early, I am just going to have to suck it up and deal…its all part of being a Navy wife. And he does look darn good in the uniform, after all.

In other news, I started a morning nap routine with Lance today that I am hoping to be able to keep up because it appears to have worked. Around 8am I took him into his room and read him a book. Then I swaddled him and read him another book. Then I nursed him and he fell asleep, so I put him in his crib. That was about 815. He slept until about 9, when he woke up crying. I let him cry a little bit and then I went in and calmed him down. He was still crying that “I’m tired but I don’t want to go to sleep” cry so I unswaddled one arm so that he could suck on his fist. Most babies like to suck on a binky or their thumb…not my child. He likes his whole fist. So with his arm free he was able to soothe himself back to sleep. It is now 10am and he is still napping. I guess we will see if this becomes a consistent thing as the week progresses…but I am so proud of him for sleeping so long in his crib…and for falling back to sleep in it!!

My mother and grandmother are coming to visit on Monday!! I am very excited. It was a little sad for all of us that my Gram was not going to get to see Lance until November—and the last time she saw him was at his bris, when he was 2 weeks old—so my mother worked it out so that she and Gram could come and visit for a few days. It is so great—Gram is so excited and happy to be a great grandmother—every time she sees Lance or talks to him over video chat she just lights up, so I am really looking forward to her getting to spend some time with him in person. He is so much fun now…I am really looking forward to seeing him grow and change and display even more of his adorable personality.

I guess the biggest news here for us is that Joel is returning to sea duty next month. In some ways it is very frustrating because we had hoped to have a little more time before he went back to a hectic, unpredictable boat schedule…on the other hand, he is getting all three of his top choices (class of submarine, job, and homeport) which almost never happens. Also, this is sort of an emergency situation—one of his current classmates was supposed to fill the billet but there was a problem with his security clearance, and the guy who is going to be relieved needs to be relieved ASAP due to the fact that his 4 month old son is sick and needs to be in Virginia where his doctors are…so how can that even compare to us wanting Joel to have a little more down time, you know? Plus, we do not have to move—Joel’s first choice of homeport was here—so we are definitely going to be here for the next 3 years which is AWESOME. There are so many great things about being here. I am surrounded by friends, we get to see my mother every 8 weeks when she makes the trip to CT that she has been making for the last 10 years, I am in a familiar area, and I get to experience all 4 seasons which I love. (Ok I could live without spring and summer, but I am SO excited for my first real New England fall in over 10 years.) Also, the boat that Joel is going to is the second newest one in the fleet. She was commissioned in March of 2010, and she will be in the shipyard for some kind of post-commissioning maintenance period for at least the next year. That means that Joel will not be going out to sea for at least a year, with the exception of a 2 week period where he will ride another boat so that he can qualify as Navigator. (That is the job he will be doing.) So he will be around for both of our 30th birthdays as well as Lance’s first birthday. And even when the boat goes back to sea they will not be doing a major 6 month deployment for at least another 6 months or so since they have to test out everything that was worked on. So he will not do a 6 month deployment until at least 2012. So all things considered this is a pretty sweet deal. Plus, the sooner he gets on sea duty now the sooner he will get done with it and get on a real 3 year shore tour. Which means that Lance will be about 3 when Joel is on shore tour next…which is such a great age. Overall this is the best possible situation. It is just a little sudden, is all…so it took some mental adjustments.

The hardest thing is not being able to plan for sure on some things. Our original plans for this fall were to spend Thanksgiving with my family in Maryland--Thanksgiving is my mother's favorite holiday, and last year was the first year EVER I was not with them for it. It is also always right around my mother AND grandmothers birthdays (Gram had been 19 for three days when mom was born.) and this year is Gram's 75th which is a big deal. Originally Joel was going to be attached to Sub School which would not have been a problem to travel. But now with him being attached to a boat it might be more of a challenge. He is going to talk to them and try to take some leave around that time--especially since he never took his Daddy leave when Lance was born. I hope we can make that work out because it would be sad for me if we cant. I know my family will understand an make it work out but it would be nice if we could still make the trip...that way I can see all my friends in MD and they can meet Lance, too!!

Joel went out yesterday afternoon and met with the XO, the current Nav, and a few other officers at the O-club on base and he came home super excited. He said that the wardroom seems really great. He also said that all but 2 of the guys are married, which is awesome. On our last boat there was a large amount of single guys—I think that is because it is easier to get single guys to agree to come to Guam than married guys, So there will be a lot of wives for me to spend time with which is awesome. We have been invited to the home of the communications officer and his wife for dinner tomorrow night. They are expecting their first child in November, and they are friends with one of the guys who was on our last boat. (The guy who Joel is relieving is also friends with 2 of the department heads on our last boat as well…it’s a small Navy.) I am really looking forward to meeting everyone.

I got a new camera a few days ago and I am really loving it. It is a Canon Powershot S90…it is not a DSLR camera, but it is not a regular old point-and-shoot either. It is somewhere in between. I wanted something that had a faster shutter speed because Lance doesn’t hold still too much and I was missing some shots. This camera has a “kids and pets” setting that takes super fast pictures. I am also noticing a huge difference in the quality of the colors in the pictures, which is really great. I am very happy with my purchase.

I also got my hair cut and colored this past Thursday. I took about 3-4 inches off and I got my roots touched up and some highlights put in. I am very happy with it…my hair is hanging better now and it looks nicer. It was getting stringy and kind of listless before…I think the combination of post partum hormones and too much length were not good for it. So I cut a bunch off and am starting over. I like how easy it dried this morning after I washed it and how I was still able to make it look good without professional help.

So this has been an eventful week here…and next week should be a lot of fun as well!!

Lance is passed out in his swing…he ALMOST napped in his crib…it was so close!! But he and I both ultimately were not ready for it.

I got the beginnings of a good routine, though, and I think I am going to keep trying. Around 9am I took him into his room, and sat down in the rocking chair. We read 3 books, and he fell asleep in my arms at the end of the third one. So I decided since he was ready to nap anyway why not try the crib. He woke up as I was putting him in the crib but he was not upset. I turned on his mobile and turned on the baby monitor and walked out of the room. He was great for about 20 minutes—didn’t fall asleep but he played, kicking his legs and waving his arms and making gurgly noises. Then he got a little fussy so I came back in and calmed him down and left. 10 minutes later he got really upset so I came in and rubbed his tummy like I had done before and when that didn’t work I picked him up. He clunked his little head down on my shoulder and closed his eyes. So I put him back in the crib. He was not having anything to do with it, so I caved. I think if I did not have somewhere to go later on I would have persevered, however, I want him to get a good nap in today so we can go run our errands. So tomorrow is another day…plus he is only 10 weeks old. I still have plenty of time to build the nap habit. So I brought him downstairs and put him in his swing and he immediately fell asleep.

Things are starting to wind down at school for Joel—graduation is in about a week and a half, Today is his last evaluated trainer, and from this point on he is basically working half days or having complete full days off until he graduates on the 20th. I am definitely looking forward to getting to spend some more time with him, and I know he is looking forward to spending a little more time with Lance and I as well.

I guess that’s pretty much it for today…kinda boring, I know. But sometimes it’s ok to be boring!!

I don’t know if I make it clear enough sometimes how much I love my husband, and how wonderful he is. He is such a good father, and he cares so much about our little family and doing things that will make us all happy. It constantly blows my mind how sweet and thoughtful he is. For example, I mentioned offhand a few weeks ago that it had made me a little sad that he had not gotten me flowers when our son was born. I know it was not something he would have thought of on his own, having not had a baby before and also not being around a whole lot of new parents either. So I had not expected it, but it still made me a little sad since the only people who did send me flowers were one of my bridesmaids and her husband. (Which totally made my day—they arranged to have them delivered the day after we got out of the hospital, and they were in the cutest little yellow ducky!! We were also able to use them a decoration for the bris.)




It is such a cliché, to send a new mother flowers…but I love them. I always have, which is why I think my mother was a little surprised that I did not want to use more flowers as decoration for our wedding. Joel is always so sweet about getting me flowers—every holiday I get them, and sometimes he randomly comes home with them as well. He even arranged for flowers to be delivered about once a month both times he was underway, too!! So anyway I had totally forgotten that I had said anything to him about not getting flowers when Lance was born. Then, Friday, I noticed he was being a little twitchy when he got home, constantly checking the front door, saying that his ESP was tingling etc. Finally, around 6pm as I was working on dinner (5 days in a row!! Go me!!) the doorbell rang. Joel was holding Lance, and I heard him open the door and say “YAY!! Happy 2 months, Lance…but this is not for you, it’s for your mother!!” and he came into the kitchen carrying a box from Proflowers, his favorite flower delivery service. He had ordered me flowers to celebrate Lance’s 2 month birthday, which was that day. So sweet!!



We had also ordered flowers for my mother, who had had minor surgery that day. She came through it just fine and is doing very well now, which makes me very happy. The even better news is that it looks like she will not need any other kind of surgery, based on the findings from this surgery. I am really happy about that. She is hoping to be able to come and visit in a few weeks with my grandmother and maybe (hopefully!!) my father as well. Dad and Gram have not seen Lance since the day after his bris, and he has changed so much!! I mean we videochat with them, but it is not the same as seeing them in person. So I hope their trip is able to happen.

Lance slept for 8 hours AGAIN last night, and then when he went back to sleep he slept until about 7 which means Joel got to sleep in a little more also. THEN, Lance played with his Daddy for about another hour and a half, so I got to sleep until 830!! It was wonderful!!

Today we had breakfast at the Groton Shack, and then we went to BJ’s. I have not been to BJ;s since before Lance was born. We got a few things that we needed, and then we ran over to Babies R Us for diapers. We had planned on getting them at BJ;s but they did not have the kind I like. The Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive seem to fit Lance the best out of all the diapers we have tried so far…even better than the plain old Pampers Swaddlers. But BJ;s only had them in size 2, and Lance is wearing size 1. When we went to Babies R Us I was very pleased to see that the Swaddlers Sensitive go all the way up to size 4…I had not seen anything bigger than a size 2 prior, so it is good to know that I don’t have to worry about finding a different diaper for a while. It is interesting to me to see how differently diapers really fit babies…not just different brands, which I expected, but different styles within the brands as well. I am just glad we found one that we like. We found the sensitive ones by accident—I had sent Joel to the store for more diapers when Lance was still in newborn size, and the only swaddlers they had in newborn was the sensitive. So he got them, and now we love them.

Today begins Shark week on the discovery channel…it is my favorite week of the year. Although this year I am a little disappointed because it appears that there are only 3 or 4 new shows. There are usually more than that—most of the time its one new show per night. So its more like shark long weekend this year. However, discovery channel is still running reruns of past stuff so there will still be all sharks all week. Tonight we are having the traditional shark week sushi dinner to kick off the week. I am excited!!

Both Joel and Lance are napping right now and I feel like I should be doing something—cleaning or writing thank you notes or something. I got some stitching done yesterday for the first time in months and it felt awesome…except my vision is a little screwy, so I think I might make an appointment for my yearly optometry exam when we are at the NAC tomorrow. Poor Lance gets his shots tomorrow…I know it will be harder for us than it will be for him though!!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while--LOTS of things have been happening!!

So let me fill you in.

My trip to Hawaii was more than just a trip--it turned out to be a life changing event. While I was there I reconnected with an old boyfriend. He is in the Navy and his submarine happened to be in Hawaii while my family and I were there. We dated about 7 years ago, but have been friends pretty much ever since we broke up. There has always been a connection between us, but neither one of us has ever been in a place where we were ready to deal with it...until now. Needless to say when we reconnected that weekend we both realized that there was something happening that we needed to address. We decided to take some time to go back to real life and make sure that this was something we wanted. In October, we both came to the conclusion that it was.

The thing is, his submarine is based out of Guam. So if we were going to be together, I was going to have to move out there. And, of course, there were more complications than that. I was, after all, engaged.

Breaking my engagement was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Phil is a wonderful guy, and I will always love him. He is smart, funny, and caring. But Joel and I have something that I can't explain...and we both want to know where this thing can go. Neither one of us wants to spend the rest of our lives wondering "what if."

So the next step in the process was quitting my job. My last day was this past Friday...it was tough. I have made a lot of friends there, and I have learned skills that I can take anywhere.

On Saturday I moved back to MD. I will be staying with my parents until I leave for Guam, which, if everything goes as planned (ha bloody ha...this is, after all, the Navy we are talking about) should be shortly after the New Year.

That is the abridged version, which is all I have time for right now. I am very tired. I will try to be better about updating this journal, especially after I get to Guam. :)