4 months

I'm behind.  So, so behind.  I'm sorry!!  The week everything happened was the week the stomach bug went through our house and the last thing I was thinking about was blogging.  So here is my attempt at catching up.

Little b turned 4 months old.  I love this age.  He's so active and engaged and just so FUN!  Don't get me wrong, I love the newborn stage, but this age is pretty wonderful too.

Length / Weight: Up to 14 lbs, 7 oz.  50th percentile.  Length is 26 inches, which jumped to the 75th percentile.  Head was 50th percentile too but I don't remember what it was.

Eating: He still is on breast milk.  Most daytime bottles are 4 oz, but sometimes he cluster eats and can do 8-10 oz in a couple hours time.  If he wakes up at night he wants between 6-8 oz.

Sleeping: More and more sleeping through the night!  LOVE that!  Swaddling is a thing of the past and now sleeps in sleep sacks, which he seems to like a lot.

Wearing:Still in 3-6 month clothes.  He's also wearing size 2 diapers now.

Miscellaneous: He smiles and smiles and smiles! And his laugh - to die for!  He's grabbing for EVERYTHING now, and bringing it straight to his mouth.  Toys, blankets, his little cool ball he has... He also grabs for the phone while I'm using it, grabs bottles when we're trying to make them, and the other day B had to keep pushing his hands away from the iPad.  True big brother moment, right there. ;)  He rolled over from belly to back!

this little piggy went to market...

... And loved the oatmeal that was bought there. Our baby is old enough to try eating cereal. I was going to wait - he isn't starving, he's most likely my last baby, and I'm in no hurry for him to grow up. But J was pretty excited when we got the ok to try it at our well-visit on the 7th, so while we were out tonight, the purchase was made.

*sigh*

And wouldn't you know, my eater loved it. No icky faces at all. Opening his mouth for more like a little bird.

I guess he was ready.

add to the list

A couple more milestones this week...  slow down, time, I can't keep up! You're taking my baby too fast!

He has discovered he has toes.  Only a few times have they interested him, but those few times, he thinks they are super interesting!

He has also discovered he has hair.  He's been slowly discovering that for a little while now, but today I noticed a few different times where he'd reach up there and play with it.

Grabbing the bottle and shoving it OUT of your mouth is apparently pretty entertaining.  Too bad it now takes forever to feed him.

I told him tonight I think he's going to be my trouble maker.  It's a good thing everything we have for him that isn't on the floor has a strap to hold him in, because he'll try to buck himself out of it.  He also spent quite a while growling at me tonight and then laughing about it.  Ornery little fellow.


***


We stayed home with the B-man today.  He woke up last night throwing up.  Luckily he keeps a garbage can on his bed already, and he was quick enough to get there before throwing up all over the bed.  He only threw up that one time but he moaned all through the night and even asked to stay home today, which 1) that's weird... he LOVES school! and 2) we were going to keep him home anyway.  J had to go to his sports scheduling meeting out of town today, so I burned another sick day to stay home.  B was pretty puny this morning but perked up this afternoon, which was a good thing so I could take the boys out with me to the polls to vote!

rolling rolling rolling

Little b has hit so many milestones in what seems to be the past week!  Let's see... he is so good at grabbing things and immediately shoving them in his mouth, he's really interested in trying to get my phone while I have it and actually tried playing some words on Words with Friends the other night, trying to knock the bottle out of my hands while I'm trying to fill it up.... 

He had his first cold last week and did not sleep more than a TOTAL of 6 hours in two nights... I was so afraid my awesome little sleeper was never going to sleep again but as soon as he felt a bit better on Thursday night, he slept through the night!  With this illness he earned his first sick trip to the doctor where they found red ears, but not red enough to be called an infection.  At the doctor, he weighed 14 lbs, 3.5 oz.

And another milestone, rolling from belly to back!  I didn't even know he was wanting to do it, until the babysitter told me Friday that he did it at her house, and then we got to witness it that night for ourselves and again yesterday a couple times.  He's *thisclose* to rolling from back to belly - if that shoulder would get out of the way, he'd be successful - I'm expecting it in the next couple days.

first snow

Little b got to experience his first snow a few days ago.  And it wasn't just a little skif...  it DUMPED!  From the time school started, to the time I walked out to go home, 7 1/2 inches had fallen and it was still snowing.  But boy, what a beautiful snow. It fell DOWN, and not sideways, which is the norm for around here.  At lunch, we all kept looking out the window and commenting on how pretty it was when it fell down so nicely. :)

Little b continues to be awesome... and B-man continues to as well.  He's the best big brother and I hope little b always looks at him with huge awe-filled eyes like he did this morning while B was talking to me about what was going on at school!  And I hope B always loves his little brother enough to call him "my sweet darling" like he has been in a version of "Rock a-bye Baby" he made up.

sleep

My little b is a sleeper.  I can't tell you how overjoyed by that I am.  B-man never slept.  Ever.  I'm not exaggerating.  His naps were AT MOST 45 minutes at a time as a newborn and that continued.  He gave up naps completely just after he turned two.  He didn't sleep through the night until this past summer, before he turned 6.  Granted, sleep issues are huge things for SPD children, but I haven't slept through the night in 7 years (because let's face it - who sleeps through the night when pregnant?!)

My little man is such a different child.  95% of the time, he's only up once at night.  And this past Friday/Saturday night, he slept through the night!  He did it again the next night.  He hasn't done it in the past couple nights, but we're still only up once. 

And, he naps in the day.

What did we do to deserve this child?!


This past weekend we went to Casper to meet my parents for the day.  We went to the pumpkin patch and did the corn maze too.  It was a good day!  My dad hadn't met little b yet, so it was a long overdue trip!

three months

Little b is 3 months old! How did that happen?

Length / Weight: I did not get him measured for length today when I dropped by the clinic, but he was weighed.  He's up to 13 lbs, 6.5 oz!  A pound in a half in a month!  Aunt Beth has some good milk! :)

Eating: We are doing breast milk 100% of the time now.  He has tolerated it very well.  He's eating 4 oz at a time for the most part, but every once in a while wants 6 oz.  He eats on average every 3 hours during the day (give or take) and nights still aren't totally consistent.  Sometimes he'll go 4 hours, sometimes he'll go 6 or more.  

Sleeping: He's getting more on a schedule as of late.  He'll take a good morning nap, a good afternoon nap, a cat nap for a short time right around dinner time, then about 7:00 will fall asleep until about 9:00, where he'll be up for a bottle and a bit of smiles, and then go to bed around 10:00.  As I said above, nights aren't totally consistent, but he is not a terrible sleeper by any means!  Just in the past couple days, he's been fighting the swaddle - gets really mad and breaks out of it immediately, if we can even get his arms down to get swaddled in the first place.  Last night we gave up and didn't swaddle him and it went OK... perhaps he weaned himself off it?  Time will tell, I suppose.

Wearing: Full time in 3-6 month clothes now.  Still in size 1 diapers, but not for long.  He wore a little pair of shoes yesterday (the shoes in the picture) that Brecken didn't wear until Easter when he was a baby, putting him at about 6 months old.

Miscellaneous: He smiles and smiles and smiles!  We call him Smiley because he does it all the time!  His laugh is the cutest little sound.  He's started grabbing things with his hands, though it's not consistent.  When he gets hold of a toy, he brings it immediately to his mouth to suck on it!  He's not one to cry a lot, either.  Very easy baby! (*knock on wood*!)

home made

We got yams in our bountiful basket last time. Neither of us are big fans, but I didn't want them to go to waste. So I made them into baby food tonight, along with a few apples that needed to be used. Little b has his stash going in the freezer!

haircut

B has come so far with his SPD and haircuts. He has grown from me having to hold him down while he screams and punches me while Josh uses the clippers, to tolerating them while I hold him, to him just needing me to stand by, to asking Josh for a haircut, to what happened yesterday. He ASKED if he could go to the salon where our friend works, for his first real cut. We were shocked.

He was so excited, until it was time to go. Then he got super nervous. When it was his turn, he freaked. Cried, hid his head, went back and forth between the chair and the wait area, sat on my lap, got off my lap... After 10 minutes of this he decided he could do it, as long as he was on my lap. He refused the cape but changed his mind after the hair was making his neck itch. He was scared out of his mind, but he did it. And by the end, he had a smile on his face and didn't need my lap.

We conquered a hurdle. I'm so proud of him. :)

perfect

B-man was staring at his little brother tonight and told me, in an awe-filled voice, "he is the perfect one for us, isn't he, mom?"

Yes, my sweet boy. You BOTH are the perfect ones.

two months

Little b turned two months old last week.  I think I've said this before: Boy, how time flies.

Length / Weight: 23 inches, and 12 lbs, 1 oz.  The scale had actually settled on 12 lbs, 1.5 oz, until he peed all over the dr's floor.  Then it re-settled at 12 lbs, 1 oz. :)  23 inches is true, also.  He laid so still for that!  His head is 40 cm, and all of those stats are exactly in the 50th percentile.  A perfectly symmetrical boy!  While we're talking about the doctor, he had his shots while there.  He did NOT like them.  I felt so bad.  We came home and he took a nap, but then cried for a good portion of the evening.  Tears and tears falling down his cheeks - I cried right along with him. :(

Eating: We had a period there where he would projectile vomit all over... the reflux meds have dramatically decreased the crying while eating, but the spit-up/vomiting didn't go away.  So we put him on Similac Sensitive and that helped a ton.  After his 2 month appointment, we started adding in breast milk to the formula.  We're up to 2 oz of breast milk, 2 oz of formula.  We'll see how it goes.  He's still eating on average every 3 hours, except for one longer stretch at night.

Sleeping: Little b is a pretty good sleeper!  While I was home on leave, he'd sleep for a good chunk of the morning, then take a shorter nap in the afternoon.  He usually eats for the last time around 9 pm and we've gotten some 5 hour stretches of sleep in there!  This morning, he was up at 3:00 and that was it until 6:30.  We can deal with that!

Wearing: Quickly moving out of 0-3 month clothes and into 3-6.  We thought the size 1 diapers were getting small too, but I've noticed lately that if he doesn't WIGGLE while getting his diaper changed, they fit much better! :)  They're not going to last long, though.

Miscellaneous: Smiles a lot now!  Josh said he laughed on Sept. 12 (yesterday), also.  I haven't heard him - I can't get him to do it!  Josh said it happened while he was blowing zerberts on b's belly.  He still LOVES to be swaddled to sleep and when he can't settle down, we put the swaddle me blanket on and he is instantly calm. His pacifier - won't take it any more.  Sucks a few times and then will spit it out.  He has found his fists though.  He had a couple days where I thought he was going to suck them completely off... that has settled down a bit but he still does suck them sometimes!  He still loves taking baths. He doesn't cry and actually gets some coos out during them! He also loves to be in his swing!  He'll talk and talk and talk and talk and talk to his fish on the swing.  He also loves to talk to his blue monkey on the floor gym!

Today was his first day at daycare.  He did great, despite having to change clothes not once, but twice because of blowouts!  Oops. 

six

He's six today.  I have no idea how that happened, since he was just born last week.  He's the light of my life, my buddy, a boy who makes me laugh every single day, my smartie, my athlete, my sensitive one, my one who cares so much about others. And I love him with everything I am.  Happy Birthday, my sweet B-man.

kindergarten

My B-man is starting his second week of kindergarten today.  What an amazing first week he had.  He LOVED it!  His favorite things from the week:

Recess
Riding the bus to the high school after school, to meet daddy there
Science experiments
Gym
Music

post placement visit 1

We had to go get Josh's windshield replaced on Friday.  Before we dropped it off, we had some time so we stopped at WCS to see if Carol was there so she could see little b.  She was gone though - she was with her son who just had his wisdom teeth out.  The lady working was named Kristy so she talked with us and said she'd let Carol know she missed seeing us!  I asked if she would also ask her about our first post-placement visit because I thought they were at 2, 4, and 6 months and I wanted to know when it would be.  Kristy said it's actually usually 1, 3 and 5 month visits so everything is ready for Court at 6 months and didn't know we hadn't had a visit.  So she would call Carol.

We dropped off the suburban and while we were doing that Kristy called back and said Carol told her that if we could do it then, Kristy could do our visit at the office.  So back we went!  That was nice of them to do it yesterday for us.  We just had to tell her how much he weighs now, about his dr appts, his favorite toys (his swing, and the blue monkey on his play gym are his all time favorites right now!), how the adjustment has been, etc.  She told us that any time Carol forwards our birthmom an emailed picture that I sent for Carol to forward, or our set of pictures we sent last month, she will call Carol and let her know she got the picture and will discuss each one one by one.  :)  She said our birthmom gets very excited every time she gets pictures and it
makes her very happy that little b is where he is.  So that's good.  :)  Our next post placement visit will be here at home.

funny monkey

Little b loves this monkey on his play gym. This monkey gets a ton of conversation and smiles out of the little guy. Wonder why the monkey is so special in the mind of an infant! We love watching the interaction.

be still, my heart

I had a "I just had a heart attack but I'm proud of you for helping!" moment today.  Josh was at practice and little b was sleeping in the swing, so I got in the shower (one less thing to do in the morning, that way...).  B was watching cartoons.  He has always come and got me if little b starts crying while I'm in the shower.

I got out of the shower and things were quiet so I thought little b was still sleeping.  I got my robe on and came out to the living room, and to my surprise, the baby was no longer in the swing.  B had him in the boppy on B's lap, feeding little b a bottle, with a burp cloth slung over B's shoulder!  He was so proud of himself!  Apparently the baby woke up crying so B got a bottle that I had put in the fridge a short time before that, got the baby out of the swing (that's where the heart attack comes in), situated them on the couch with the boppy on B's lap, and fed him.  And not only that, burped him.  Twice.

The kid was MEANT to be a big brother!!!!  (But I told him that next time, a grownup needs to pick the baby up, just in case he wiggles all of a sudden and B accidentally drops him.  B agreed.  Phew!)

reflux

Little b earned a trip to the doctor this week.  He was getting harder and harder to feed - he would squirm, kick his legs, growl at the bottle.... at first it was just when he needed to burp, but as the days went by it got worse and worse.  To the point where he was crying while he ate, and projectile vomiting all over.  We'd go through multiple outfits a day, and a burp cloth could only be used once because it was so soaked.  I'm actually quite surprised at his weight because while I know he's not throwing up his whole bottle, it sure as heck seemed like it!

Stat check since we're talking about weight: He was 10 lbs, 10 oz when he was at the dr. He gained 7 oz in 6 days.  Holy moly.

I started suspecting acid reflux, and after a quick conference with some friends who have children that had it as babies, I called the doctor.  I wrote down everything I was concerned about, and he agreed with me.  So we started him on Zantac.  That stuff is NASTY.  Oh my goodness, I don't blame him when he was spitting it back out!  I brought it back to the pharmacy and they added flavor, but it didn't help.  So we've been adding it to his bottles.

I *think*, after 48 hours of being on the meds (twice daily), he is feeling better!  We've had almost two days now without any crying while he eats!  And his burps are back to normal.  And he's managed to keep on the same outfit, for two days in a row now!  (Not the same outfit both days - two different ones - but they've lasted a whole day. :)  )

I'm so glad the little guy feels better! It was so so so sad to see his little lip stick out and his eyes meet mine with tears in them!  :(

shower

This is me and my two boys right before we left for the baby shower our friends threw for us.  I'm the luckiest mommy in the world.  Look at those two.  How in the world did I get lucky enough to be the mommy of TWO perfect, beautiful children?

lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!

We've seen our fair share of animals in the past couple weeks! As I mentioned in the last post, we took the boys camping with my aunt and uncle.  Since we had to cancel our trip to Yellowstone becasue of the birth of little b, they called and asked us if we'd like to go with them in August and stay in their camper.  B was soooooo excited he could hardly stand it.  We had a great time!  B loved every single thing about the trip.  Camping in the pop-up camper, seeing the huge waterfalls, looking at the gyesers, and seeing the animals we saw.  The first one we saw was a bear, believe it or not!  It was right across the river from us.  We also saw hundreds of bufffalo, an animal that was either a very large coyote or a small-ish wolf, a cow elk that walked right past our picnic table at the campsite and down to the lake...  B cried when we left to come home. :)

We also got to see more animals this past weekend, on our annual trek to Denver to do school shopping.  We spent the morning at the Denver Zoo.  J's brother and his wife happened to be coming the same day, so we got to eat lunch with them and their kids!  What a fun surprise!  B absolutely loved the zoo.  Little b slept through it. :)  (These pictures were taken off B's camera - he took them himself!)



We got home just in time for Josh to begin football practice bright and early Monday morning.  We start in-service stuff next week and then the week after begins actual school!  And I will be the mother of a kindergartener! 

one month

My baby turned one month old yesterday.  How in the world did that happen?!  And what a big month he had.  He spent a week with us at grandma and grandpa's house with his aunts, uncles, and cousins...  my sister and her youngest came to our house to visit, my mom came to visit, we went to Casper to stay overnight and introduce him to the game of basketball (one of J's players was playing in the state All Star game for the South team), we had a steady stream of visitors at home, and we went CAMPING in Yellowstone for a weekend!  (another blog post on that topic.)

Stats:
Length / Weight: Unsure of length, but he was 10 pounds, 3 oz when I took him to the clinic to be weighed yesterday.  Holy moly, since he was 10 days old, we totally missed the 8 and 9 pound ranges!

Eating: Fantastic eater.  We were having to stop him at 3 oz because of bad spit up, but in the past few days he has just not been satisfied with that, so we are giving him 4 oz.  He sucks that down within 20-30 minutes and it only takes that long because we have to constantly stop and burp him.  He gets sooo sad when we take the botte away from him to burp!

Sleeping: Little b is a pretty good sleeper!  He's usually awake for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours in the evening, and sleeps for the better part of the day.  At night, he'll eat about 10:30 and then only wake up once during the night, waking for the day any time between 5-6:00.

Wearing: 0-3 month, as newborn is getting quite small.  Had to move him to size 1 diapers last weekend.

Miscellaneous: Still isn't totally consistent in smiling but when he does, it melts my heart!  We have a big canvas print of J, B, and I from when B was 3 years old above our couch.  Little b loves to stare at it and has smiled at it, too.  He also LOVES to be swaddled to sleep and when he can't settle down, we put the swaddle me blanket on and he is instantly calm.  His pacifier - he could take it or leave it.  That's kind of nice! He loves taking baths. He doesn't cry and actually gets some coos out during them! He also loves to be in his swing!