Today Carter turned 5 months old and he rolled over for the 1st time! I was surprised when it happened because I was not expecting him to do it at the time. He was doing "tummy time" on the nursery floor when he got angry at me for being on his belly too long and rolled over. Carter hates tummy time because he gets tired and frustrated of holding his head up and using his arms to push up. I also think that he doesn’t appreciate not being able to look around the room as easily as he can when he’s upright. However, his legs are very strong and he likes to stand up with my support. He also LOVES to bounce. He goes crazy like a wild man in the jumperoo at church and daycare.
Wilson purchased a Graco Quattro Tour Deluxe Stroller and a Graco SnugRide 32 Infant Car Seat for Carter. I LOVE them!!! They are modern looking and practical. I really like the green and brown print. Remember? This is his nursery color scheme. Very matchy-matchy, which I also like. The new car seat fits snug and secure into my car. The old one shifted back and forth too much. It didn’t matter how tight I tried to strap the base in, it still moved out of place and made me very nervous. Since this new seat is also a carrier, I can lift it out of the base without having to wake the baby up. Another very wonderful thing is that it fits into the frame of my Graco Sweetpeace Infant Sooth Swing. Therefore, when I get home all I have to do is lift out the seat to the swing, place his carrier seat in and let the swing continue to rock him while he sleeps. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this!!! He should be able to use this new car seat until he is at least 1 years old. Other carriers have to be retired long before that because they are smaller and the baby outgrows it too fast. Another thing that I like is how the car seat carrier fits right into the stroller. Again, I do not have to wake Carter up when I transfer him. Together this car seat/stroller combination is quite the set-up. The stroller is a little bit heavy, but not as heavy as the first one I had. The previous one was so big that it took two people to lift it up, shove it into the trunk of my car and drag it back out. It was horrible and so impractical. This new Graco stroller is so easy to push, lift and fit into my car. Another plus is that there is still enough room for groceries, etc… to fit in my trunk along with the stroller.
Carter is still not sleeping through night. I put him to bed sometime between 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. He usually wakes back up around 10:00 pm. for a bottle then again at 2:00 a.m. and yet again at 5:00 a.m. I’m so tired sometimes that I cannot think straight. About every 4 to 6 weeks I can convince (beg) Mom or Rachel to come over one evening and stay for several hours while I take a long nap and this helps immensely. I am so grateful when they do this for me. I also get to take a nap most Saturday’s when we visit Mom. She lets me sleep in her bed while she and Rachel watch the baby.
Carter started going to daycare on Monday, January 4, 2010. This was a very difficult thing for me to do, but I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. I cannot afford to pay for a babysitter or nanny. Mom and Rachel live to far away. The government is helping me out by giving me vouchers which are only accepted at certified daycares. I went last September to get him signed up for the vouchers, but there was a long waiting list. My social worker told me that that I could expect to be in the program by the end of October. However, there was a big snafu with my notification being mailed out which I feel was an answer to prayer. It allowed me to keep Carter at home until he was a little more than 4 months old. (Much better than sending a newborn to daycare.) Mom and Rachel had been helping me watch him, but like I previously stated they live to far away to continue doing this on a long term basis. I do thank God that he provided a way for Carter to stay at home until he was a little older, and I’m so grateful to Mom and Rachel for their help. Anyway, he seems to be slowly adjusting to this change. Carter is so tired when I pick him up in the evenings. By the time I get home he’s usually already asleep so I put on his pajamas and zipper him into his sleep sack. Then I feed him his bottle which he sometimes doesn’t finish because he’s just too tired. Most nights he sleeps in his crib, but other times I let him sleep in his swing to help sooth him. On the weekends he sleeps for hours at a time. I feel depressed about all of this because I didn’t want him to have to be placed into daycare in the first place and because I feel like he’s never awake when we are together. My little guy deserves so much better than this and I feel like I have failed him. This was not my plan. I dreamed that I would be a stay at home wife and mother – not a single mother dependent on government aid. I have to keep reminding myself to trust God…He has a plan for both me and Carter.
