11 Months (a little late, as usual)

I just can't keep up with life.  I'm off living it, so I guess that's good, but I still feel like I'm missing SO much.

Baby Boy turned 11 months old last Saturday (ahem...now TWO Saturdays ago...).  I did get his monthly pictures taken, so that's one thing I didn't forget to do!

This eleventh month has been a rough one for the little man.  Before he turned 10 months, he was diagnosed with an ear infection and it has lingered through the entire 11th month.  His sleep has been pretty awful, but we still don't know how much it is impacted by the ear infections and how much is just...him.  But we've been through four rounds of antibiotics now and the infection seems to be gone for now.

The biggest development in the eleventh month is that Baby Boy started walking!  The weekend of March 23rd we took him to my in-laws' house, where he continued taking just a couple of steps at a time.  He'd step, step, fall all day long.  Then Monday evening back at our house I noticed that he'd traveled between two things that he normally would've dropped to his knees to go between.  Yeah, second child syndrome.  No video camera and we weren't even really paying attention.  So then on Tuesday when we picked the kids up from daycare, he walked to us like he'd been doing it all of his life, even traversing the edge of the carpet. And he has been on the go since then!

Baby Boy also sprouted his eighth tooth, so we're finally all even again.  Now we're on the look-out for molars.  Baby Girl got her teeth so late that I have no idea when his will come in.

Baby Boy has a big personality.  He's incredibly sweet to everyone he meets.  He has started being shy and holding his head to the side when he meets someone new.  He wants to be held when meeting new people, but will still give them a big smile from the comfort of Mommy or Daddy's arms.  He's also got a bit of a temper.  If he doesn't get what he wants when he wants it, he lets out a horrific yell.  This isn't fun any time of day.  We probably hear it most while he's in his high chair.  We've found that we can't put him into his high char until we have the food completely ready to eat or he'll start yelling.

Right around 11 months, Baby Boy started doing something really cute.  When he's feeling shy or just flirting (he's done it to me when The Hubby is holding him), he'll tip his head sideways and give this really sweet smile.  If someone is holding him, he'll lay his head on their shoulder.

He's using G, B, M, and D consonants consistently.

He still loves avocado and green beans and all kinds of meat.  He's a really good eater, but a tiny bit pickier than his sister was.  I'm excited to be able to introduce more foods that we've been holding out on because of allergy concerns when he turns a year old!

Sleep...How I Miss Thee

Baby Boy's sleep is bad.  I don't even know how to explain it besides to say that it's really, really bad.

Last night, for instance, looked like this:

6:50: Nurse in his bedroom
7:05: I start walking, singing, shh-ing, bouncing, and swaying
7:20: He falls asleep.  This is a good bedtime.
7:45: He wakes up screaming.  I go to him and am able to get him back to sleep in about 5 minutes.
9:30: I go to bed.
9:35: Baby is awake.  The Hubby goes to him and tries to get him to go back to sleep, but he just turns and points to the door, which he knows leads him out of his bedroom and to ours.
9:40: I nurse Baby Boy.
9:42: He's asleep.  The Hubby and I watch him sleep laying in our bed.  He's restless.
9:50: The Hubby takes the baby back to his room and we both fall asleep.

The rest of the night was a blur, as they typically are.  I'm so exhausted that I don't know what time we're waking or what's happening.  I do know, however, that we were up at least four more times and that Baby Boy stayed in our bed for quite a bit of the night.

I honestly don't know what to do with him.  He won't stay laying in his bed for us to pat/shh him.  He screams loudly enough to wake his sister.  I'm NOT comfortable with letting him cry. We did it once and when he woke up 45 minutes later, he screamed like I'd never heard him scream, terrified.

I'm not necessarily looking for solutions--just to document this part of our life.  If not for sleep troubles, Baby Boy is a sweet, happy little man.  The problem is, during those same waking hours, his father am I are a mess.  We're short-tempered, drowsy, and can't focus on anything.  We have another child to care for and I'm starting to realize that we aren't being the best parents we can be for either of our children.  Once Baby Boy is one, I'll feel a little more ready to start being more forceful with night weaning.  I will be okay if he still wakes once (or even twice!) per night to eat, but four to five times per night is really getting old.  Until then, we roll with it...

Thank You, God

Every night The Hubby, Baby Girl, and I say a prayer before Baby Girl goes to bed.  It's pretty informal and we all trade off thanking God for things or asking for help or we even ask God for forgiveness.  Baby Girl typically says that she can't think of anything, which leads to a bit of a lecture from us about how important it is to be grateful for the things that make us happy.  We make her come up with at least one thing to thank God for and after much prodding from us, she'll say something (usually something that we've prompted her with, like, "Did it make you happy to make cookies with mommy today?").  I'm hoping someday this will all click and she will start to come up with things on her own.

This morning I realized that the things we've been saying have actually sunken in, at least a little.

We were in the car on the way to the sitter in driving, freezing rain.  I was having a hard time seeing and the car was fairly quiet.  Baby Girl had been complaining that she couldn't see out her window because it was foggy, when she realized that she could just rub the window with her hand and be able to see out of it.  She enjoyed doing that each time it would fog up.

A few minutes later, I heard her little voice: "Thank you God, for making it rain today so that I can wipe off the fog."

Such a sweet, little thing for her to say thank you for, but I love that she felt driven to say something right then, without any prompting from us.

Update on Baby Girl

Baby Girl is back at the sitter today.  I'm not exhaling yet because I have no idea what sort of incubation period we're looking at, so I don't know that it won't hit the rest of our family.  But at least she's back to (almost) normal.  She was acting out a bit yesterday, so we're going to get back to being more strict with her once she's feeling better.

Man, that was scary.  She just kept vomiting everything she took in.  I'm really lucky that she was such a trooper.  She was pretty happy for most of the time and she was such a big girl, doing most of her getting sick in the actual toilet.  I know she was tired of getting sick by the last day of it, but I can't say that I blame her.

Words can't express how happy I am that she's feeling better.  What an awful, yucky sickness.

And now I resume crossing my fingers that The Hubby, Baby Boy, and I don't get it.  If we don't, then this weekend will be consumed with a DEEP cleaning of our house.  I've already gone through and done a lot of cleaning and The Hubby has done A LOT of laundry, but I'm going to throw all linens, towels, and blankets into the washing machine, wipe down everything, clean all dishes and silverware that are sitting around....our house will be cleaner by Sunday than it has been in the 3.5 years since Baby Girl was born!

And it starts...

All winter long I've been reading on Facebook, message boards, and email about friends and their kids who have been stricken by stomach bugs.  Most of the kids at the sitter have gone down with a stomach bug of some kind.  I've said prayers.  I've been anxious, which is a major understatement.  I've gotten nauseous myself.  And we've made it most of the winter.

Baby Boy had a small stomach bug on Christmas Day--he got sick a few times within a couple of hours and then that was it.  He also had a bug almost 3 weeks ago--again, he got sick some overnight, but was fine the next day.  He continued with some diarrhea, but I think (thought?) that it was caused by the antibiotic he was on for his double ear infection.  It really wasn't a huge deal with him...in hindsight, of course.  In the moment, it felt like the end of the world.

(If you don't want a play-by-play of sickness, just skip the rest of this post.  I would if I weren't the one writing it because just reading posts by other people about stomach bugs makes me anxious and feel like I'm going to catch it via the interwebs.  You've been warned.)

However.  Now Baby Girl is sick.  She woke up vomiting overnight Friday night and came into our room.  The Hubby took her to the living room where they hung out and she threw up the rest of the night.  She tried eating some applesauce and it came right back up, which was the last time she got sick on Saturday morning at 8 a.m.  She was low-energy for the rest of the day while I entertained Baby Boy in the basement and running errands, then she ate some macaroni and cheese for dinner Saturday night and seemed to feel better....at which time, The Hubby noticed that she had a fever.

Her temperature stayed around 102 for the rest of Sunday, but besides a two-and-a-half hour nap on the couch 10:30-1, she acted relatively normally.  We went outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather for a couple of hours and you'd never know she was running a fever.  Her temp was down to a little over 100 by bedtime that night and she'd eaten a good dinner, so we figured she'd be feeling good this morning (Monday).

Baby Girl woke up feeling good.  She had no fever and ate two bowls of cereal.  Everything seemed normal until naptime.

I was downstairs enjoying a little bit of alone time.  I'd gotten Baby Boy to sleep and Baby Girl was laying quietly in her bed.  The fact that she didn't fall asleep seemed like a good sign to me.  Then I heard her pitter patter to the bathroom and heard her ask me to come wipe her tushy.  I knew immediately that she had diarrhea.  As soon as I got her back to bed, her brother woke up.  She was back in the bathroom a few minutes later, at which time I told her to just get on up.  She still seemed fine.  She and her brother played with their train table and some other toys for awhile.  She kept coughing and running to the bathroom, thinking that she was going to "spit up", but nothing happened.

And then it did happen.  She got sick again.  I called The Hubby and asked him to come home from work.  After she got sick, she wanted a hard-boiled egg, which only Daddy can make, so he cooked her one when he got home.  She seemed to be feeling fine.  However, about five minutes after eating the egg, it came right back up.  And again.

So now we wait.  We wait to see who else will get it and when.  We wait to see how long it takes Baby Girl to recover.  We wait to see how long this goes on.  We wait to see whether we can keep the baby healthy.  We wait....

My Favorite Time of Night

Every evening after dinner, we enter my favorite time of night.  The Hubby gets Baby Boy into his jammies and the four of us snuggle up on the couch together with only a couple of lamps lit.  We read a couple of books, then Baby Boy gives his daddy and sister hugs.  I pick him up and he immediately starts to wave at The Hubby and Baby Girl.  We walk to the bottom of the steps and turn around to look at them and blow them kisses.  Baby Boy currently just makes kissy faces and doesn't do the hand part, but it's still adorable.  Then he starts to wave some more and he and I head upstairs to my dark bedroom.  I sit in my bed, holding him, and he nurses in the dark.  This all started because he was so distracted when nursing downstairs with the TV on (my chosen nursing location for Baby Girl) and I was anxious about sitting in silence, with no TV, no electronics, nothing but my baby and my thoughts.

Instead, it's turned into my favorite part of the night.  I spend that time talking to God and memorizing the feeling of having my baby in my arms.  I know from experience that our nursing relationship will end all too soon and I'll miss it.  So for now I'm going to take the time to really enjoy it, to think about it and nothing else.

10 Month Update

I'm suffering from a MAJOR case of the winter-time blah.  I can't get motivated to do much of anything, but know I'll kick myself someday when I look back on this blog and don't have an update on Baby Boy's 10th month, especially because it seems like SO MUCH has happened!

It's amazing that in ten months he can go from this little snuggly blob to a cruising, stepping, waving, babbling, growling little boy with opinions all his own.

Teeth: Over a month after cutting his fifth tooth, tooth number six appeared 2/24.  And just days later (2/27), so did tooth number seven, the bottom left (2nd one over).  The kid is determined to be lopsided!

Mobility: Baby Boy is everywhere and into everything.  He's pulling up and cruising on anything that he can.  On February 20th, he took a single step after standing all by himself for awhile.  And then he promptly dropped to his knees and crawled the rest of the way.  He'll walk quickly while holding fingers, stands by himself, and on March 3rd stood up in the middle of the room without pushing up on something.  So we've got all of the pieces in place--we'll see how long it takes him to actually walk.  He *can* climb stairs, but we don't let him yet!

Clothes: Baby Boy is still pretty solidly in size 6-9/9 month clothes.  He has one pair of jammies that is size 6 months, but there are also plenty of 6-9/9 month clothes that are getting too small.  I'd guess we'll move up a size in the next month.

Communication: Baby Boy knows the signs for "more" and "all done".  He uses "more" to signal that he wants something to eat and has started to sign it while he's still eating.  He also signs "more" while he's nursing now, too, which is sort of hilarious.  He only signs "all done" when we say it.  Sometimes I think he's trying to tell us that he's done, but then he'll quickly sign more again and eat more.  And sometimes we think he's waving when he's signing or vice versa.

He is also using quite a few consonants now--g, b, and m are his most common.  He says "mom mom mom" both while pointing at me (also a new development) but also when he's getting into his high chair, as if he's saying "more" or "yum".  He also says something that sounds sort of like "all done"--it has two syllables, at least :)

Nutrition: We are still nursing here, day and night.  I don't think he would notice too much if I stopped offering during the day, but I'll keep offering until he's a year old, then we'll take it from there.  He does still NEED IT SO BAD overnight, though.  Last night, The Hubby went to Baby Boy when he woke up at 9:30 and Baby Boy put his head down on The Hubby's shoulder, then sat up straight and pointed at the door.  He knew where to go to get the good stuff, apparently.  My pumping production has decreased quite a bit and I'm struggling to keep up with him, but his demand has reduced markedly also and is easily appeased by solids.

Speaking of solids, Baby Boy is a pretty big fan of eating.  He growls and makes all sort of crazy noises when you put him in his high chair and don't have food for him RIGHT NOW.  When I'm cooking, he'll crawl into the kitchen and start smacking his lips at me.  He LOVED having hot dogs and likes it whenever he gets food off of someone else's plate.  He love carbs (pancakes, especially), avocados, pasta, and some veggies.  He'll eat any fruit you give him, so far.

Sleep: I'm honestly fairly embarrassed to even post about his sleep.  At over 10 months old, my baby is still waking about 4 times per night.  I'm exhausted.  He wants to eat almost every time he wakes up if it's been at least two hours since he last ate.  I'd thought that we'd figured out that he was going to bed too late and that was why he was waking.  We started eating super-quick meals, crock pot meals, doing anything we could to get him to bed earlier.  And he's still waking up.  It isn't the 4-8 times per night that it was, but it's still not good.  The Hubby, Baby Boy, and I are all exhausted and running on fumes every single day.  Happily, Baby Boy is still pleasant and happy almost all the time, even being short on sleep.  He sleeps best in our bed, so there are nights when I nurse him to sleep and he just stays in our bed for a few hours.  Unfortunately, The Hubby and I are then incredibly sore the following day after laying in one position all night, trying our hardest not to roll over on the baby.

Likes: Avocado, screaming, his sister, throwing things, pushing buttons, being on the go, putting things into other things, playing Godzilla and knocking down block towers, anything his sister is doing, trying to throw himself down the stairs, unrolling toilet paper, getting mommy's cookbooks, opening cabinets and playing with the contents, baths in the sink, playing in close proximity to the other daycare kids, music, peek-a-boo, looking at books

Dislikes: Staying asleep, baby gates, being confined, having to wait (especially for food), laying still for diaper changes, getting buckled into his car seat
---
Baby Boy--

For ten months, you've been providing me with happiness that I didn't know possible.  You may not sleep, but you honestly make up for it by being so happy all of the time.  The smile you give me when your daddy brings you into my bedroom makes my annoyance over being awake AGAIN dissolve.

Your favorite person in the world is your sister.  Everything she does fascinates you.  You two play together incredibly well.  She can be a little rough, but I think you like it.  It is awfully hard to scold her for being so rough with you when you're belly laughing at her.

Some days it feels like you were just born, but more days it seems like you've been a part of our family forever.  Your sister doesn't remember life without you.  I had fears of not being able to love you as much as I love your sister, but my heart has grown like The Grinch's to give me the ability to love you both an incredible amount.

I love you, my beautiful little man.
Mommy

Strong

I don't want my daughter to see my (immensely huge) insecurities, at least not for awhile.  I want to be her superhero.  I also don't want to impose them on her.  Ever.  I want her to be confident, to know that she's beautiful, both inside and out.  I don't want her to think that she needs to wear makeup, but I want her to have the confidence to do it if she wants when the time comes.  I want her to take pride in her body and to honor it as the temple that it is.  I want her to look at other people and love them, no matter what they look like.

So when she was putting on some pants and I told her that she had my thighs, I caught my breath.  I wasn't able to stop the words as they spilled out of my mouth.  The pants fit her fine everywhere but in her thighs, a problem that I've been plagued with for as long as I can remember.  Thin (for me) or heavy, I've always carried extra weight in my thighs and struggled to find pants that fit right.

Those beautiful brown eyes looked at me and asked what I'd said.  I told her that she had her mommy's thighs.  I took a deep breath and swallowed the words that were on the tip of my tongue, cursing those thighs, and instead supplied her with a word that I hoped wouldn't sound too much like a lie.  Strong.  Those thighs are strong.  They help us run fast.  They help us lift things.  They're strong, baby.  We are strong.

Mid-Month Developments

I started to record some things that Baby Boy was doing mid-month, but never got around to publishing it.  So here's my (very short) list:

1/6: Started babbling using the "g" sound.  Then mid-week (around the 9th) started babbling using the "b" sound
1/13: Started purposefully waving at his Papaw (my dad).  He still doesn't wave consistently, but will do it sometimes.  I think he just needed the right person to wave at :)

My Nine Month Old Little Man

We went to the doctor on Baby Boy's actual nine month birthday and found out that he's been decreasing in percentile both for height and weight, much like his sister did around this age.  His statistics:

Height: 27 1/4" (11th percentile)
Weight: 18 lbs 9 oz (27th percentile)
Head: 87th percentile

At nine months, Baby Boy is:

• Wearing 6-9/9 month size clothing and doesn't seem to be in a hurry to outgrow any of it
• Wearing size 3 diapers (and has been for months)
• Pulling up on EVERYTHING
• Cruising some
• Crawling VERY quickly
• Signing "more"
• Clapping
• Playing with his sister
• Babbling with lots of "g" sounds.  I actually heard him say "goo goo gah gah" the other day, which made me laugh.  "Guck" is his favorite noise right now.
• Loving most foods.  His favorite is avocado and also love beans, pancakes, whole green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, Cheerios (although not as much as his sister), Puffs, applesauce, peaches, and pears.  He's even enjoyed the bits of shredded chicken that I've given him.  He liked the bite of banana that I gave him, but then had a painful poop and I don't know if they're related, so I'm nervous about giving him more banana.
• Hating peas.  That's the only food that he's shown a true distaste for.  
• Idolizing his big sister.  He wants to be doing anything that she's doing and be anywhere that she is.  He giggles when he sees her and loves all of the attention that she gives him.
• Working on cutting tooth #6.  Tooth #5 broke through  January 19th (upper right) and we thought that the upper left would be close behind, but his teething symptoms have all but disappeared.
• Still sleeping like crap.  Last night was a really good night and he was up 4 times.  Most nights it's closer to 8--3 times before we go to bed and then up every 1 to 1 1/2 hours unless we let him sleep in our bed after nursing.  He demands to nurse each time that he wakes after about 10:00, too, so that's fun. (Yes, that was sarcasm)
• Curious about everything.  He loves to get into a basket that I keep on the bottom shelf of a bookcase that holds some loose recipes.  He starts to crawl toward it, then looks up at me, knowing he shouldn't get it.  Or he'll crawl toward it and I'll say his name and he immediately looks at me and grins.  Sometimes I can distract him, but most of the time the basket just gets moved. 
• Still nursing 4-5 times during the day and then many times overnight.  If he's distracted enough or enjoying his table food enough (which he does), he doesn't demand three daytime feedings, which used to be at 10, 1, and 4 with a morning and bedtime nursing session as well.  
• Giving KISSES.  He will grab your face and lean in with a wide open, drooly mouth and put it inside your lips.  If you cut it off too early for him, he'll lean around to try to get you again!
• Growling when he's frustrated.  It's hilarious, honestly.  If he's out of food and really wants more, he'll growl at you.  He also growls when he gets frustrated, especially because he can't move quickly enough to do what he wants to do.

I'm trying to get him more interested in looking at books, rather than just chewing on them or throwing them around.  It's hard to read to both kids when all he wants to do is chew on it and won't accept a replacement.

In general, Baby Boy is an absolute joy.  He is happy and funny already.  He is incredibly curious and wants to be involved in anything that's happening around him, but can also be pretty independent and entertain himself.  The joy that he brings to my life is more than I ever could have imagined.  I enjoy almost every moment with him (I would be lying if I said every moment...) and am actually disappointed when I have to put him to bed for the night or put him down for a nap because I miss him and his big smile.

Eight months old

Am I seriously writing a post for my eight month old baby?  This little man continues to exhaust me, but he makes me happier than I ever could have imagined.  He is funny and so full of personality.  He has a bit of a temper when he's tired or doesn't get what he wants right away, but is generally very happy.  He's independent in the sense that he will play by himself, even now that he's started to experience separation anxiety.  As I write, he's on the floor by himself and has been playing with some toys, putting small pieces of plastic and paper into his mouth cleaning my floor, and is now chewing on a book.  His big sister never played by herself when we wanted her to.

In the last week we've seen Baby Boy start to pull up on everything he can find--his sister's train table, chairs, fingers, and pants and surprisingly he can get down okay, too.  He's gotten faster and faster with his crawling and is finally playing with his sister by chasing her around.  Around seven months old he started banging together everything he grabbed and just recently that turned into clapping.  He's also started picking up things and holding his arm up in the air--this has only ended in him dropping something on his head once...so far.

We started giving Baby Boy vegetables around 6.5 months (maybe closer to 7) and he's now been through all of the veggie purees that we'll give him (sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, green beans, and peas) and is also eating finger foods.  Just today he had Cheerios after eating puffs.  He's also fed himself mashed potatoes, which was messy, but he loved it.  We've also been giving him pasta, green beans and peas whole and letting him feed himself.  It's really nice when he can feed himself parts of dinner instead of him eating solely purees so that we can eat our dinner.  The only thing that he didn't love was green bean puree, but seems to eat whole green beans just fine, so we'll stick with that.  Within the next few days we'll start him on fruit and pray that he doesn't stop eating his veggies.  I'm also going to give him some beans that we're having for dinner this week.

Baby Boy has been sporadically using consonants when he babbles, but we haven't heard it a ton yet.

He still loves Itsy Bitsy Spider and I think he's going to be our music lover.  Baby Girl knows song lyrics really well, but Baby Boy enjoys pretty much any music you play for him.

He still has just four teeth, but has been chewing on EVERYTHING over the last week or so.  I don't think I've seen a child put so much into their mouth.  When you snuggle him he'll bite on your shirt.  Whatever he's playing with goes directly into his mouth.  We can't really read him books because he just wants to eat them.

His sleep sucks.  Serious suckage.  I asked The Hubby how many times he thinks the baby was awake last night and we were both pleased to determine that it was only three times.  Let me say it again: ONLY THREE TIMES.  At 8 months old.  Obviously our standards have been sufficiently lowered.

Statistics:
6-9 or 9 month size clothes
Size 3 diapers
No shoes yet, but when I held a pair of size 5s up to his feet, they were only maybe a size too big
More hair than his sister had at a year old :)

Likes:
Chewing, remote controls, facing outward, eating finger foods, music, anything his sister is doing, brooms, nursing, sleeping in bed with mommy and daddy so he can nurse all night long, being upright, getting into everything that he shouldn't be touching, Christmas ornaments

Dislikes:
Going to sleep, being ignored, being tired, being hungry, having his diaper changed (or anything that requires him to hold still), waiting, his car seat

7 months development, cont.

So I was hanging out with my boy and realizing that there were things I'd wanted to mention that I didn't.

Right around 7 months we switched to 6-9 month size clothing and you know what? It fit really well. The 3-6 wasn't ridiculously small, but I had so much 6-9 month stuff with long sleeves that the change in seasons necessitated the shift. I'm trying to decide if the sizes are really close or if he had a growth spurt. Probably a little of both.

In the last few days we started giving Baby Boy whole canned green beans. I wanted him to start with something pretty mush-able, so even though I don't love canned veggies, that's what we decided on. He didn't like them at first, but after just 3 nights, his pincer grasp is developing nicely and he actually reaches for them. We still give him purées in the evening and are trying to figure out when to work in more food throughout the day.

Baby Boy is solidly in size 3 diapers. We made the switch a couple of months ago. I have a feeling hell be in them for a long time.

Around 6.5 months, Baby Boy became proficient at getting himself from a crawling position to sitting upright. He can now get to sitting from his back, something I don't think I can do :)

Now I'm going to save this entry as a draft to make sure I'm not forgetting something....

...and I remembered something else :)

Right around 7 months Baby Boy started to bang everything together.  He picks up blocks and bangs them together, tonight he picked up a book and tried to bang the chair with it.

And now I think I need to be done or I'm going to be logging things here that belong in an 8 month post!

7 Month Developments

At seven months old, my little man is really starting to show his personality.  He's really a happy kid almost all of the time, but will let you know when he's displeased, like when he's being put into his car seat.  He doesn't cry, but will squirm and growl at you.  He also uses his growling for when he's excited sometimes.  Baby Boy prefers to be held facing away from you so he can see the world around you and when he gets excited (like when the sitter's kitty comes into the room), his arms and legs start moving everywhere all at once!

As reported a few weeks ago, teeth #3 and #4 (top middle) came through in mid-November.  You can definitely see them both now and it's really changing the way he looks.  He's still adorable, but it makes him look more like a little boy than like a baby.  I'm not ready to lose the little baby parts of him!

Over the last month, Baby Boy has gradually been doing more crawling.  He was a proficient army crawler, but in the last few days has really started to crawl on all fours and will go all the way across the room.  He still has moments where traditional crawling isn't fast enough for him, so he'll growl, drop to his belly and kick and wiggle, then drag himself the rest of the way across the room.

Baby Boy's favorite things are: his sister, Itsy Bitsy Spider, mommy, nursing, cords (computer cords, vacuum cleaner cords, etc.), paper to eat, pureed food, splashing in the bath

Baby Boy's least favorite things are: laying still for diaper changes, getting strapped into his carseat, sleep

I mentioned the growling, but Baby Boy also expresses himself by blowing raspberries all over the place.  He can blow raspberries for the entire car ride to or from the sitter's house, which is close to 20 minutes long.  If he's not blowing raspberries, he's shrieking happy shrieks.  We call it his pterodactyl call.

Sleep is a struggle.  I still mean to do an entire blog post about how horrific his sleep is.  Let's just say that at this point he's still waking at least 4 times per night.  And not calmed without nursing.  But at least he grins at me when The Hubby brings him into our bedroom....

Lastly, just after turning 7 months old Baby Boy started trying to pull up.  The first time I saw it, I came into the room to find him with his hands on the edge of the toy box, up on his knees.  Unfortunately, our floor is laminate and I was afraid he'd slip in his jammies, so I got him down from there.  I don't think he's attempted that since then.  However, he has pulled up on The Hubby--he'll crawl over to him, crawl onto The Hubby's belly, and pull himself to standing while leaning on The Hubby's belly.  He's done it multiple times.  Just this morning I found him trying to pull up on his bathtub, only to have it topple over because it isn't very heavy.

Crazy baby...will you stop trying to grow up so fast?

Making Memories

I've gotten really bogged down in the time and energy it takes to be a parent to more than one kid.  It's been a frustrating, exhausting six months.  But the last two evenings (ahem...over a month ago...) I had experiences with my big girl that helped me remember why I enjoy being a mom.

On Wednesday night (10/17/12) after I nursed Baby Boy and put him to bed, I asked Baby Girl if she wanted to go take a walk with me.  It was only about 7:20 and she'd been heading to bed around 7:40.  She also took a nap at the sitter that day, so I knew she'd be okay staying up a bit later.  It was gorgeous outside (highs near 80 in late October in Ohio just don't happen very often).  She was really excited and got her Crocs on in record time.

We took a stroll up the sidewalk until we heard a bug chirping.  We stopped to look for it and finally found it and just stood, watching, for a couple of minutes.  I explained how the cricket made its noise and she could see its legs twitching.  We walked down the sidewalk, hand in hand, talking about mundane things.  She's getting bigger and I know soon she isn't going to want to hold mommy's hand all the time.  We got down the block and turned back, pausing at our cricket to see whether it was still there.  It was.

When we got back to our house, we sat in the driveway and looked at the stars.  She doesn't get to stay awake long enough to see nighttime very often, so she hasn't had much experience in stargazing.  We talked about the shapes up in the stars and just snuggled on the ground.  It felt so good to hold her close to me and to enjoy being outside in the crisp evening air.  I want to remember what her warm skin felt like against mine and how she felt snuggled in my lap forever.

25 Weeks

At 25 weeks (10/22), I wrote up a quick blurb about what Baby Boy was doing.  Here are the things on my list:

Sitting
Crawling
More teeth?
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Sleep Issues
Drum
---
Expounding upon the list (11/21):

Sitting: He started sitting like a champ right around this time.
Crawling: He can get around at will, but still no traditional crawling
More teeth?: We're pretty sure there are more teeth coming (they ended up poking through 11/16 and 11/19)
Itsy Bitsy Spider: This is the craziest thing.  Baby Boy is instantly calmed by The Itsy Bitsy Spider.  If he's fussy, he will stop and stare at your hands and start his wiggling and giggling.  I don't understand it, but you'd better bet that I use the hell out of it.
Sleep Issues: I think it was at this point that he started waking 4-7 times per night.  It was ugly.  He only wanted Mommy, too.  Ugh.
Drum: When Grandma and Pops visited Gatlinburg, they brought Baby Girl back a little drum like Native Americans use.  Well, my dad discovered that Baby Boy liked to put it into his mouth when he was teething. He'd put one side into his mouth and we beat the other side with the mallet to make it vibrate on his gums.  It looks hilarious and we end up with a ton of drool down the side of the drum, but it makes him happy :)

6 Months (and 3 weeks...)

Baby Boy,

I don't know if it's possible for me to write even a sentence to you without crying.  My heart swells with joy and love whenever I think of you.  When I see your beautiful smile (which you give me whenever you see me), I want to pick you up and snuggle you like crazy.  And that, of course, would make you squirm and whine because you're just not a snuggler.  Thank God for your sister because I can't imagine not having at least one kid who snuggles!

------
I wrote that first part one day after you turned 6 months old and am just now, when you're 6 months and 3 weeks old (11/21/12), getting back around to revisiting this blog post.

What I really want to say, Little Man, is that you are loved.  You are SO loved.  And I haven't been blogging because I've been soaking up the essence of YOU.  You make me happy all the time.  Your smile lights up the room and my heart.  You delight in the smallest things like playing with a sock or seeing twitching fingers, ready to get you.  You love to squeal and wiggle and I could play with you and just BE with you all day every single day.

So while I'm not writing a lot, it's because I'm spending time with you.  I love being your mommy and if I could guarantee that every baby I ever have could be just like you, I'd have another ten.

Love,
Mommy

6 Month Pediatrician Appointment

I have a sappy post to write and some updates about Baby Boy's development as well as a post about Baby Girl....but this is an easy post to write, so I'm going to knock it out while my queries are running.

Stats:

16 lbs 14 oz (38th percentile)
26 inches long (25th percentile)
44 cm (86th percentile)

My chunky monkey little man has quickly become a not-so-big little boy (except his head...which would explain the 3rd degree tear...).  The pediatrician doesn't have any concerns because both his weight and height have a downward trend (in percentile, not the actual height or weight!), but I have a hard time not worrying, especially since until last Saturday I was his only source of nourishment.  I thought he was always going to be huge, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The doctor was happy with his development and said he was head of schedule for large motor since he's already army-crawling.  He also said that he doesn't expect babies to start using consonants until about seven months, which he's started to do a bit.  It always makes me feel happy when my kids are head of schedule for developmental milestones, even though I have very little to do with it.

At the appointment, Baby Girl also was getting her flu shot.  We had talked through what would happen and were reviewing it before the nurse came in.  The following conversation ensued:


Me: They're going to give you a little pinch, then put a bandage on it to help it feel better.
Baby Girl: Why does it need to feel better?  It won't hurt.
Me: You're right.  The bandage helps keep the medicine in your body.
Baby Girl: How does the medicine get in my body?  I have skin.
Me: Yep, but the shot makes a little tiny hole to help the medicine get inside.
Baby Girl: ......(you can see the wheels turning).....Will I have to wear the bandage forever?
Me: No, the skin closes up after a little bit of time.


The nurse gave her her shot and she just watched and was happy to get her star-shaped bandage (like below):

Next it was time for Baby Boy to get his shots.  We'd talked to the doctor about what vaccinations he needed at this appointment and the pediatrician was going to give him 4 injections (Hepatitis B, flu shot, TDAP (something like that, at least), and leading cause of meningitis) plus an oral vaccination for rotovirus.  I asked if there was anything we could delay for the month until we come back for his second flu shot and he said that the Hepatitis B could be delayed, so we did 3 shots plus the oral vaccination, then at the end of November need to go back for a second flu shot and the Hepatitis B shot.  Blech.

His sister held onto his arm while I held his hands and looked at his face.  I felt awful for him when his head turned bright red and he was screaming, but he stopped crying pretty quickly after I picked him up.  He whimpered a little, but was generally okay.  I took Baby Girl for her sticker (she chose Mickey Mouse) while The Hubby got Baby Boy dressed.  I then nursed Baby Boy in the car in the parking lot of the pediatrician's office because, as expected, he passed out on the way to the sitter.  We dropped off the kids and went to work.

Mobility

Baby Boy is trying SO hard to be mobile.  He lays on his belly and alternates between pushing up on his arms and laying on his belly flailing his arms and legs.  His preferred method of communication recently has been growling, so when he gets frustrated, that's what he starts to do.  The funny part is that he'll have a toy, then push it just out of his reach and get mad that he can't play with it anymore.  In the last couple of days, though, he's been able to get his right leg bent and push off with it.  He moves a bit crooked, of course, but he's getting there.  The sitter also told us that he's been doing downward-facing dog some, forming an upside-down V with his hands and feet on the ground.  He's SO close.  Even now, we can't put him on the floor and expect him to stay there.  He's a rolling and spinning fool.  He hasn't quite figured out that he could barrel roll to move across the floor, but does it inadvertently anyway.  The place he most commonly rolls, though, is in bed.  We put him down awake and then go downstairs to look at the video monitor to watch the show.  He rolls and spins and does a few laps of his crib until he just falls asleep.  It's so fun to watch!

I guess that means it's time to start thinking about baby proofing since I have a feeling he's going to be into everything.  The bookcase that has been in the living room since before Baby Girl was born might need to be anchored and/or emptied altogether.  It houses my cookbooks, so it wouldn't be a huge deal if it got emptied, but I don't want him to pull up on it.  Baby Girl left it alone in general and I have a feeling that Baby Boy is going to be an entirely different ballgame.  Here we go...

Old Friend

You know that old friend that you've got?  The one that was your BFF, maybe in high school or maybe college.  She knew everything about you.  And then life happened and you drifted apart.  You didn't make time for each other anymore.  Maybe you moved to separate states or even countries.  You saw each other's posts on Facebook, but didn't really know much about your friend's everyday life.  And then that friend comes to town for a visit.  While you're comfortable, you aren't sure what to talk about.

Do you tell her about how your parents are doing, how your work is going?  Or do you tell her about your crazy anxiety about having two kids, a job, a husband, a house, managing your finances, and still trying to foster your own relationship with yourself?

Do you talk about people that you used to know and what they're doing now?  Or do you admit to her everything you're struggling with, from your own weight issues to focusing at work to your lack of confidence because apparently you don't make children that know how to sleep?

I tend to try to do the former.  To talk about surface things.  Easy things.  To not get into the deep stuff, even though you really need to confess it all to that person that used to be your main confidante.

And when you start talking regularly again, how do you get to the place where you talk about The Real Stuff?  You don't want to jump right in.  You want to tiptoe, sticking one toe in the water, testing the waters to see if you can still relate to each other, to see if that friend can handle your new reality.

This blog has become that old friend.  I want to foster a relationship again, but I'm not sure how.  I'm going to try, but forgive me if I can't take the plunge just yet back to the place where we once were.

Update on the kids

I can't even take the time to tell you how incredibly busy I am.  Seriously, people.  I'm writing this on work time, which I shouldn't be doing, but I really want to write down a few things that are happening with the kids.

Baby Boy:

• Yesterday (October 2nd) we discovered that he has his first tooth!  He loves to chew on our hands (always had) and so I let him chew my fingers and then I felt it.  Crazy!  Baby Girl didn't get hers until she was over 9 months old.  Yet ANOTHER thing that shows that they're different kids.
• One thing they aren't so different about is their behavior when teething--you can't tell.  At least with this one (and I hope it continues for the others), we had no idea that Baby Boy was teething.  He's always put stuff in his mouth and drooled, so it wasn't much different.  Yay!
• Another cold has hit our house.  Blech.  Baby Girl started it, shared with her brother (it has been fairly mild for him so far), and just today, 1.5 weeks after Baby Girl first got sick, I'm feeling rough.  Not horrible, but not great, either.  Yesterday I had such a sore throat that it hurt to talk or swallow for a few hours.  Today I'm just a little stuffy and a little cough-y and just feeling sort of run down.  Nothing major, though.
• Sleep improved...for one or two nights.  Seriously, baby sleep is going to drive me insane.  We got through a stretch of waking 5-6 times per night and were down to 2-3.  I don't know why, but he continues to wake up right as we're going to bed, around 10:00 or a little before.  Sunday night he woke up at that time, then slept until 3.  Woo!  Monday night he went down at his normal time (7:30ish) and didn't wake up until 2:00.  Those were both really good.  He was back to waking at 10, 2, 5 last night, though.  So incredibly inconsistent.  His normal daytime sleep is: 15-30 minute nap in the morning (this is usually 45 minutes at home) and then 1.5-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon.  He sometimes will fall asleep in the car on the way home and if he doesn't, is pretty sleepy before 7:00.  We're still trying to figure him out, though.
• He can freely roll both directions at will.  He can get his butt up in the air and can push way up on his arms, but hasn't yet figure out how to combine the two.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him crawling in the next month.

Baby Girl:

• We've been having trouble with her not napping and peeing in her Pull Up on the weekends, so I bribed her with a marshmallow on Saturday.  One if she napped and one if she kept her Pull Up dry (I'd suspected that she was peeing right before we went and got her in the morning).  She did it!  So we did it again on Sunday and it worked again.  I told her that if she kept her Pull Up dry all night long Sunday night that she could have another marshmallow and you know what?  It worked Sunday and Monday nights.  She did pee in her Pull Up last night, but it was a very small amount.  We're finally getting somewhere with her overnight potty training!
• Her behavior has gotten a lot better.  We had an incident where she slapped a one year old on the cheeks at the sitter (she still says she was trying to make him laugh, which I believe) and we've had to be a lot more careful about her being alone with her brother, but she just wants to play.  We talk a lot about how strong she is compared to the baby.  I'm not looking forward to Baby Boy being mobile, but in this instance, it'll be nice when he can run away from her if she's bugging him.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?) he typically busts into belly laughs when she plays rough with him.
• Bedtime is still rough.  She wants snuggles and we end up spending far more time with her at bedtime than we'd prefer.  She only goes without crying at bedtime about half of the nights.  So frustrating!  Why don't my babies sleep???  I LOVE SLEEP!