Losing Time

Today, there was cause for celebration. Paxton didn't wake up gagging or vomiting. He woke up peacefully and quietly. This was such a rare occasion that it deserved acknowledgement. Susanne could definitely get used to this.

Paxton was awake for just a little over an hour before he started showing signs that he was tired again. He played on his play gym and batted at some toys, but he tuckered himself out pretty quickly. He even fell asleep midway through his 9:00am feeding while playing. Susanne put him back in his crib for his first nap of the day. Susanne was caught off guard when he ended up sleeping for four hours. She wondered if he was going through a growth spurt.

Once he woke up in the afternoon, Susanne set him up so she could air him out again. This was becoming part of their daily routine. It was the only thing that consistently helped to improve his diaper rash. Paxton never complained about this because he enjoyed the freedom.

Paxton was visibly well rested. He was very engaged in playtime with his mommy. He was more interactive and playful than he was this morning. Susanne found it so interesting that he had a preference for certain toys. He absolutely loved his Mortimer the Moose. He had been his favorite for a long time. His newest obsession was the sensory balls that he got for his birthday. They were just different sized plastic balls with different textures on the outside. They didn't light up or make noise. They weren't soft and cuddly. They didn't have a lot of flash and sparkle or glitz and glam. They were just balls, but he LOVED them. This, in some weird way, reminded Susanne so much of Maverick. Maverick was known to pick out the most uninteresting, humdrum of toys as his favorites. For example, Susanne remembered buying James and Maverick a plain, plastic square toy from Petsmart because they were on sale for $0.97 a piece. They didn't do anything special, she just thought it would be something different for them because every other toy was a round ball or an elaborate stuffed toy of sorts. Susanne and Scott were amazed at how quickly he got attached to this thing. Up until Maverick's last days, he would carry the blue square toy around with him everywhere he went. He would even sleep on top of it no matter how uncomfortable it may have been. He loved the simplicity of it and he loved that it was different from all of the other toys. It was easy to see that Paxton was definitely his little apprentice in so many ways.

Moppy came over later that afternoon to watch the bug while Susanne ran a few errands and went to dinner with a couple of her good friends. Paxton was fighting his need for another nap when she arrived, but he finally went down. When Moppy went to check on him a few times, he would be half asleep. However, the second he knew she was in the room he would open his big, brown eyes, look up at her, and smile the biggest smile. It was like he knew that he was being stubborn. Moppy had no question as to where he got that trait from. There would be no way for him to escape it since both of his parents were that way at times.

The rest of the evening was uneventful for the most part. Moppy got to play with Paxton and even read him a few bedtime stories. She couldn't believe how much better he looked since the last time she saw him, which wasn't even that long ago. She could see the change that Susanne had noticed over the last week. He was more alert and talkative. He was really getting adjusted to his new mouth. The other thing that she noticed was that he was getting heavier and heavier. It was almost difficult now to pick him up because it was like lifting 19 pounds of dead weight. The one thing that was for sure was that Susanne and Moppy would not be lacking in upper body strength. People would soon start lining up for tickets to the gun show.

Susanne got home later than expected. She got so caught up in conversation with her friends that the time escaped her. Moppy called her around midnight to ask if she should set up Paxton's continuous overnight feeding. When Susanne realized how late it was, she was thrown off guard. It was after she got off the phone that Susanne and her friends realized that they were the only people left in the restaurant other than staff members. The waiters and waitresses had pretty much already cleaned up the place and reset all of the tables for the next day. Their waiter came by dropping a subtle hint that they should wrap things up. The restaurant had technically been closed since 11:30pm, but they were so kind to let the girls stay longer without saying anything. Everyone could probably see that they were having the time of their lives and didn't want to interrupt.

Susanne got home safely. She was excited to peek in on her little man and hopefully find him sleeping. When she got upstairs to see him, he was restless. Moppy had mentioned that he had some difficulties going down. Once Susanne held him to let him know she was home, he went right down. He just wanted to know his mommy was there with him before he ventured off into la-la land.

Susanne knew that the morning would come too quickly...especially since she would be losing an hour of sleep.

DON'T FORGET TO SPRING FORWARD!