Atlanta

The Micah man (one of my nicknames for him) had a great day today with his Daddy (and I was just excited that I managed to pump as much as he was eating!). I think his Daddy was a bit exhausted by the end of the day, and perhaps came to a new appreciation of how hard it really is for me most days, and how impossible it is to get much work done. Apparently, from when I left around 9 am until lunchtime, Micah was mostly wide awake and playing and chatting.

My boys came and joined me for lunch, and Micah was a huge hit (as always). He was sweet and smiling and just . . . charming. His nose is still pretty leaky, and he has been sneezing, but I still do not think he is sick – no fever, everything is still running clear. It is probably allergies (even though the doctors tell you that babies do not get environmental allergies until they are two). May I digress for a second? That theory is a lot of crap to me. If babies can develop allergies to food under 1 year of age, they can certainly develop allergies to the environment. I understand the doctors do not want to diagnose or treat it that young, but let’s be honest here. His sneezing and coughing worsens when my allergies worsen – clearly there is a connection. The vet gave me the same story when Nugget was a puppy – she sneezed and coughed and itched, and I said it was allergies. She did it seasonally for 2 years, and after her 2nd birthday, they suddenly said “now she has allergies.” Let’s just hope the stuffiness doesn’t give Micah an ear infection this plane trip. He was a little unhappy with the pressure the last flight.

Okay – stepping off my soapbox, and returning to the regularly scheduled topic . . . Micah! After lunch, Micah and Daddy went on a few walks, and played with toys, and overall had a wonderful day together. After I returned from my conference, we decided to head out to dinner. We went to a little restaurant that I remembered from my days at Emory called La Fonda. We had a wonderful meal (I ordered vegetable paella) and we drank some sangria. At the end of the meal, Micah was getting tired and hungry. I nursed him and hoped he would fall asleep in his carseat so we could go visit another old “haunt” from my college years . . . Cafe Intermezzo. For those of you who have never been, it is a chichi coffee place in Buckhead. The outside heated patio was built around existing trees. They play French and Italian language lessons in the bathroom. They take you on a “tour” of the desserts. It is the kind of place that you can show up to in a fancy evening gown or in your sweats while studying for exams, and both outfits somehow “fit.”

We started the drive over to Buckhead, and Micah started to get really upset. We decided to pull into the Cafe Intermezzo parking lot, and I tried nursing Micah again while Elliot ran inside and checked out the place and picked up a slice of cake for us. Micah was really fussing, and refused to eat. I then thought he was getting hot, so I walked him around out in the fresh air, and he seemed to calm back down. When Elliot returned (with chocolate peanut butter cake!), we strapped Micah back in his carseat, and went to drive around Buckhead so I could reminisce about my college years. At this point, we were out past Micah’s normal bed time, but we expected that he would fall asleep while we drove. A few blocks into the drive . . . Micah began to fuss and cry. We turned around immediately and headed back towards the hotel. It took me another few minutes to realize why Micah was so upset – I was a bad Mommy and I forgot to give him his Zantac (we were only 20 minutes late with his dosage)! Luckily, we had some Mylanta in the car, so I gave him a bit to tide him over until we got back to the room. Not surprisingly, that did the trick, and my happy baby returned.

We brought him up to the room, got him into his pajamas, gave him his Zantac, and I tried nursing him again. He nursed to sleep, and I transferred him into the crib . . . and he woke up. I nursed him some more and sang to him – and he sat there smiling and chatting. I moved him back into the crib, and he spent the next 35 minutes playing with his feet, rolling around, and chatting very loudly. I can’t believe how much how much my little guy likes to talk! I have no idea what he was talking to, but boy did he have a lot to say! He giggled, and squawked, and made gutteral noises. I wish I knew what language he spoke. I think maybe Wookie . . . he has these gutteral growling sounds he makes that remind me of Chewbacca. Elliot insists that the language does not sound like anything from Star Trek. I’m a little worried that he can be that definitive about Star Trek languages. (Elliot is sitting here insisting that he is only certain it wasn’t Klingon, he cannot vouch for other languages). After a while, Micah just suddenly got quiet and fell asleep. My very noisy baby finally passed out around 10:00 pm.

One last note . . . Micah is officially a serious thumbsucker. I am not exactly sure how this happened – he was very happily a paci baby until a few weeks ago. He found his thumb one day, and it has been true love ever since. The nice thing is he does not need us to come in and reinsert the paci when it falls out, but the bad news is he sticks his thumb in his mouth while he is asleep – I hope he outgrows it, because that is going to be a nasty habit to break.

We fly back home tomorrow – wish us a good flight back, and let’s hope this flight is not as miserable for Micah as the trip out. We are landing around 7 pm, and we are hoping to remember to give him his Zantac, nurse him, and put him to bed in his carseat. With any luck, we’ll get him home and in bed without interrupting his sleep.

Oh, and we think Micah might actually be getting ready to cut teeth! It looks like there is a white raised patch on his lower gums – we think the 2 front teeth are not too far off!

Well, we finally made it back from LA, and Micah finally crashed at 10:30 on Saturday night. He slept until 7:00 am, and the day started off normally. I really thought that we were back on track, and I was so proud of Micah for switching back to East Coast time. Sunday afternoon, we headed back to the airport to fly to Atlanta. We got there in plenty of time, made it on the plane, and all was good.

Once again, Micah was a trooper. He napped well all morning, and he was happy and cooing on the airplane. I nursed him as we took off, and he was content the rest of the flight. We were able to bring his car seat on the plane with us, so he had some place to relax. We landed a bit early in Atlanta, and off we went to baggage claim. Our bags came out immediately, we stood in line to pick up our rental car, and the man driving the bus to the rental car facility was so nice – he helped us with our bags and getting Micah on the bus.

We arrived at the hotel a little after 5. Check-in went smoothly, and I fed Micah again while we unpacked. We then decided to head out for an early dinner. Our initial plan was to eat at a restaurant called Camille’s. My mom and I had eaten there together back in the early 90s when I was in college in Atlanta, and we were excited to return there. I called the restaurant to make sure they were open . . . only to discover that the restaurant had closed! We were disappointed, so we headed to Lettuce Souprise You instead. I spent many a day eating there during my college years. It was a nice, quick, filling meal, and we were able to drive around the Emory campus afterwards. We stopped at Publix to get some snacks and water, then came back to the hotel.

Micah was just getting sleepy as I came upstairs. He giggled and smiled as I changed him and put him in his pajamas. I gave him his medicine, and started to nurse him. About halfway through (just as he was beginning to fall asleep) there was a loud knock on the door. It was the concierge with our refrigerator. I had to pull Micah off, and he became hysterical. Unfortunately, it was downhill from there. Micah became over-tired, and we never quite recovered. I tried putting him in the pack-n-play to sleep, and he became hysterical. Every time we calmed him down, something set him off again. I finally sat down on a chair, put my legs on the ottoman, bent my knees up, and made a seat for Micah against my thighs. I moved my legs back and forth just like his swing at home . . . and about 15 minutes later, he was sound asleep. We were able to transfer him to the pack-n-play, and there he sleeps . . . snoring quietly.

Wish us luck! We have 2 days here in Atlanta before we head home on Tuesday. We will be arriving at home just in time for bed. I’m hoping we can get Micah back on a schedule. I am a bit concerned about feeding him, though. A few ounces of the milk I had packed leaked, and I had to nurse him again around 9:00, so I don’t think I’ll be able to pump as much milk as I had planned to pump before going to sleep. I just hope we have enough to get through tomorrow!