Update

Last night David only woke up once!! It involved eating and going right back to sleep - with no pacifier (and no crying!)

Pacifiers and Vaccines

Jeff's been working hard on his proposal lately - since he's starting over and all. I am so glad that he is home right now and gets to be around when he's not writing or reading - because he's been working on his summer schedule and boy does it looks crazy. Lots of working down at the ranch. I'm not really looking forward to it, but at least I get to go home twice (once in two weeks!) and then my parent's are coming up in June.

I'm really updating this blog right now to distract myself from David's fussing. We took away the pacifier. Last night was interesting, but was ok eventually. This nap time isn't going so well. I have been going in to check on him in regular intervals - which only made him get more worked up when I came into the room. I tried rocking him, but he's tired and mad - which is always a good combo. I can hear him - he will cry for a minute, then start to fall asleep and get quiet and then realize and cry again. He usually goes right to sleep if we swaddle him and put a pacifier in his mouth, but when he gets his arms out and spits the pacifier out at night he is having a hard time putting himself back to sleep when we wakes up. So, no swaddling and no pacifier tonight - or anymore. He got used to it quickly last night and after his feeding, went back to sleep fairly well. But naps are different.

Whew- he has quieted now - it was really only about 4 minutes of crying and then 5 minutes of just fussing - I will go and check on him in a few minutes. We got a "BreathableBaby" mesh crib bumper because he kept getting his arms and legs in the crib railing and then wouldn't go back to sleep. I love it so far - it's only been on one night, but it sure served it's purpose. It's actually more cushy that I would have thought and, I doubled it over and then over again and I can still breathe through it easily, so it makes me feel better about him getting his little face shoved up against it in his tossing and turning.

We go to the Dr on Monday for two more immunizations and a check up for him. We are following a different vaccine schedule than what is typically done. My main concern with the AAP recommended schedule is the amount of alluminum given intraveneously with the 5-6 immunizations given in the first 6 months of life or so. We are getting David completely immunized - eventually. We are delaying the immunizations that are not as important for his age or circumstance. I read a bunch of books on the subject - both for an against vaccinating - and I finally decided I agree with Dr. Sears' "The Vaccine Book". The book itself is very balanced and presents a lot of info on either side of the debate. Dr. Sears himself is pretty much in favor of vaccinating, but admits that there are some things to be concerned about, so he recommends a different scheudle of vaccinating as well as recommends certain brands of each vaccine to request to alleviate some of these concerns. I don't agree with everything from Dr. Sears, but this book and schedule will work best for our family. Last time, David got the Pc (Pneumococcal) and the HIB (Influenza type A or sometimes referred to as Meningitis). This time - one month later - he will get Rotavirus and DTaP (Diptheria, Tetanus, and Pertussis). Most kids get the DTap combined with the Hepatitis B and Polio Vaccine, but David did not recieve the Hep B Vaccine at birth because we requested not to and we would like to wait on the Hep B and Polio vaccines until he finishes the series he is geting now. It does mean more injections in the long run - however they are spread out over more visits (not getting so many in one day) and keep him from getting large doses of aluminum. I still want to talk about the DTaP vaccine vs the DTaP+Polio+HepB to see what he thinks - but he is the one who recommended this alternative vaccine schedule to me as a good option.

Anyway - I'm going to go check of David - he sounds like he's fast asleep.

Whew!

I TOLD you it was the crazy season! Here's pretty much the rundown on what's up:

- Jeff has changed projects. He is no longer working on the Bison project on the American Prairie Reserve. The main reason is that to obtain useful data on bison grazing, he needs about a decade to collect data - which we don't have. Instead, he is working on a small mammal (and possibly coyotes and raptor) study down on the Matador ranch owned by the Nature Conservancy. Good news is this ranch is a little bit closer and is down the highway instead of a gravel road. Bad news is this is pretty much like starting over. Jeff has been working a ton to get a new proposal written and studying for comps, which he will take in April.

- Speaking of comps, Jeff will be headed to Missoula in late April to take them, so I get to go home! David and I will be headed to STL on April 24th and be there for two weeks until May 8th. I think this will be good as it will eliminate the major distractions for Jeff as he prepares for these comps and does other important, school related stuff.

- Jeff's mom visited last week. It was an unbelieveablly productive visit - and not much of a vacation for her! We repainted the living room, dining room, and staircase; rearranged the wall decor in the living room; tore down a lilac bush in front, trimmed bushes, tore down other small weird trees, trimmed trees, planned the garden and window box, and got a new celing fan. I'm sure there was other stuff we did too, but I can't remember. We all also got to go to Billings for a night to take her to the airport.

- Speaking of Billings - while we were there, we got a new car! Well, new to us. It's an '06 Nissan Altima and it's really cute and runs great. Most importantly, we got a good deal on it and a lot for our trade too. We'd been praying about getting a bigger car and didn't want to have a big car payment at all. We were planning on selling the Scion XA to get as much as we could towards another car. The dealership gave us almost what we wanted to sell it for towards the Nissan, so it was just perfect.

- Lastly, I finally opened my etsy site. It's a site where I sell things that I make - little kids accessories (just hair clips right now, but hopefully more to come). You can check it out at www.lilbitdesigns.etsy.com

David is getting to be so much fun now. He'll be 5 months in a few days! He's sitting up without a ton of help from us now and is using his voice all the time now!

We are very excited to see friends and family at home!

And so it begins...

the crazy season of our lives, that is. I just realized that it's about to get busy and even hard, at times, until winter comes again. Here is the upcoming events of our lives:

1. Last week: Jeff went to Helena for The Wildlife Society Meeting
2. This week: We leave for Missoula (yay) on Tuesday and get back on Saturday for Jeff's comittee meeting and time working on his proposal and studying for comps.
3. The following week: Jeff has to begin working on some stuff down south and studying for comps
4. Jeff has some stuff to work on down south and his mom comes into town for the week
5. Early April: Jeff will go to Missoula to take his comprehensive examinations
6. Later April: Jeff and David and I will head to Missoula for Jeff's proposal defense
7. May: Jeff will probably be in the field full time by now
8. Late May: My parents come into town for a week or so
9. June: Jeff may possible be doing some traveling for his project - David and I may get to go with him occasionally if it works out. He will also be in the field full time
10. July: In the field full time - possible travel
11. Late July: My mom will be flying David and I home while Jeff is in the field
12. August: In the field still
13. September: Probably in the field still
14. Late September: The National Wildlife Society Conference in Snowbird Utah - which hopefully David and I will get to go with Jeff this year. Frequent flyer miles may make this possible!
15. October: Maybe in the field still - who knows?!
16. November: David turns 1!!!
17. December: Hopefully things will be slowing down by this time and we will come home for Christmas again.

Wow- this year is going to fly by! I already can't believe David is just about 4 months old! He's doing so much now like smiling, giggling, sucking his hand/thumb, making lots of noises, rolling over from his tummy, trying to roll over from his back, grabbing toys and shaking them around, pulling things, and he loves to sit up with help from mommy or daddy.

Here are a few pictures that I took of David - more photos and videos can be found at our Picasa web album. If you would like to see our album - just e-mail me and I can give you the password to view them.

Also, I have to show you this video - his giggle is so cute!!

Don't worry, we're still alive.

Sorry we have not posted in a while. It has been a busy few months. As many know, we were back in St. Louis for 3 1/2 weeks during December/January. It was great fun getting to see everyone and introduce David. Since returning, I have been working on getting my study ready for the field season. As part of that, I had to attend a meeting in Swift Current, Saskatchewan the past few days. David and Kristin were able to go with me, so the little guy is now an international traveler. The meeting about a big grazing project that is going on in Grasslands National Park, just north of us on the US/Canada border. I got some excellent ideas for my project and may be spending a little time up there this summer. It was interesting to see how different things were even though we are spatially close by. Aside from the obvious difference between English and metric units, things were generally much more expensive and people talk and spell strangely. Their Olympic coverage on TSN was better though. It was extremely foggy the whole time, so we didn't get to see much of the prairie. I'm sure it will be better the next time we go.

We did get to spend two nights in a shady hotel. I tried to find the cheapest hotel we could and found one that was only $68/night. For $68/night, we got a window that would not close so hotel personnel had shoved a rolled up towel in and repeat, sudden power outages. It was fantastic.

Here is a photo of us at the vistor's center for GNP in Val Marie, SK. We thought about getting a photo at the border but I didn't really want to trouble the officer to take our picture.

Eventually it may warm up.

A little more Montana weather for you all:

Tonight: Flurries likely, mainly before 11pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around -29. Wind chill values as low as -38. Light and variable wind.

Monday: A chance of flurries before 11am. Partly sunny and cold, with a high near -11. Wind chill values as low as -39. South southeast wind at 8 mph becoming west northwest.

Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around -29. Wind chill values as low as -48. West wind at 7 mph becoming east.

Down right cold

Not much has been going on since our last post. David is now over a month old and is starting to do a little more. We think he discovered his tongue because he likes to repeatedly stick it out while we are holding him. Kristin also thinks he is starting to smile and has almost gotten his thumb into his mouth. Other than that, he sleeps, eats, and poops.

The weather has definitely gotten winter-like. We have been bouncing back and forth between unseasonably warm and unseasonably cold weather. Over the weekend, we were hit with more unseasonably cold temperatures. Yesterday morning was the coldest it has gotten, with a low of -26 and a wind chill between -40 and -50. Our lows have been and will continue to be in the negatives but it is supposed to start pushing into the teens and 20s next week. We did not get our vehicles prepared for the cold yet and they are showing signs of it. -26 is hard on the batteries and we need to get a block heater on the truck at least.

We are both looking forward to getting home in a week and a half. Baby David says he's excited too.