7 Months! (A Baby and Body Update)

Whoa. How did that happen?  Has it seriously been 7 months since this little guy came flying into our lives?

Some days it's felt like it's dragged on (during those sleepless nights), but other days it feels like it has gone by in the blink of an eye.  It's been seven months of snuggles and tears and giggles and love.

Seven months and one day ago I was still worried that I couldn't possibly love another child as much as I love Andrew. Today I know that it's true that your heart expands with each child.  I look at that sweet face and can't believe I ever thought I couldn't love him as much. When I walk into his room in the morning and he pops up with this giant grin on his face my heart swells with so much love.

Elliot is still a different baby than Andrew (obviously). He is starting to settle in to more of a routine, though.  I don't want to jinx it, but he's finally starting to sleep at night (at least most nights).  The past two we got 11 hours out of him which is awesome. It would be even better if I could actually sleep.

The bottle strike is a distant memory (at least for now) and he's been sucking down milk like there's no tomorrow.  He's still being a little picky about eating, but he seems to love peas and carrots, doesn't hate sweet potatoes and isn't a fan of green beans.  I tried giving him a pickle to chew on since Andrew loved them, and all I got was a disgusted look:

He still doesn't have any teeth and I'm fine with that - less biting!  As far as his size, he is now in size 3 diapers, can fit in 6 month clothes, but is mostly in  6-9 or 6-12 month stuff.  His hair hasn't fluffed up like Andrew's did, but it's starting to fill in more.  I would estimate that he is about 18 lbs and I have no idea how long he is.  He's growing well and I have no concerns there.

We're still working on sitting unassisted. He can do it for short periods of time before he falls over. He rolls all over the place and scoots backwards, but we aren't anywhere near crawling. Andrew was 9+ months when he crawled for the first time so I'm not concerned there.  He's taken a real interest in whatever Andrew is doing.  Yesterday anytime Andrew was playing with something Elliot would try to scoot over to him and grab at whatever he had.  I have a feeling this is just the beginning of many battles for toys.

All in all he is doing very well and I'm very pleased with how far we've come.

I'm less pleased at how far I have come as far as my postpartum body.  Bathing suit season is just around the corner and I am NOT ready. I tried on every swimsuit that I own this weekend and I almost cried.  Everything makes me look and feel gross.  I am clearly going to need to go shopping before hitting the pool or the beach.  I need bigger tops to contain me and more flattering bottoms.  Here is the best of what I have currently:

I really need to start running more and get serious about my workouts (and my diet).  I still have the stomach pooch and my butt and thighs are depressingly large.  I knew it would probably be harder to bounce back this time with a couple more years on me, but I thought there would be more progress by now.  I need to rein in my sweet tooth and control my eating habits better. I'm just always so hungry. And I think that while I am still breastfeeding my body is going to hold on to some of the weight (just like with Andrew).  Being pale doesn't help...

So that's where we are at seven months.  Hopefully by 8 months I'll see some progress with my body and I KNOW we'll see some changes with Elliot.

Wordless Wednesday ~ "Enough With the Pictures Mom!"

Preschool Decisions

Holy cow.  Is it really time to start thinking making decisions about preschool?  As much as it makes me want to cry, the answer to that question is "Yes".

Andrew will be three next week ** sniffle sniffle ** and that means we will be gearing up to move him from his current small in-home daycare to a preschool environment with more kids.  We aren't doing it just yet - he'll be moving in August. Mostly because while they are both at the same daycare we get a $5/day discount on Elliot (for being the second child) and because preschool will actually be more expensive than daycare (something I was naively unaware of until I started looking at them).

Initially we planned on sending him to Coastal Christian because it is literally right down the road from our house.  The more I looked into it, though, the more I thought that it wouldn't be a good fit for him. Based on talking to other parents and what Andrea has seen with her past kids going there we have both been concerned that it would not be enough of a challenge for him and that he may begin acting out.  The three year olds there are learning colors and numbers and other things that Andrew has known for a long time.  I'm afraid he'd be bored there.  We had considered it because we thought it was cheaper, but their school day ends at 2:40 so we would have to pay for 3 hours of after care every day. And we would have to figure out what to do with him over the summer since it's not year round.  Add all that up and we wouldn't be saving any money and would be sending him somewhere that I don't think will benefit him.

The next place I looked at was Children's Discovery Center.  I took Andrew there to tour it back in December and I was very impressed.  It's a new school that just opened last August so everything is all bright and clean.  While we were walking through and I was talking to the assistant director Andrew made himself right ah home and climbed into the ball pit in the indoor play area. I discussed their teaching philosophy with the director and I love that they don't base things on age there, it's all performance based. So if Andrew is ready to move up to the next class he won't have to wait until he turns four. And he won't have to wait until the rest of his class is ready to move up.  They are very hands on there and use the  Reggio Emilia philosophy for teaching.  This will give Andrew some control over what he is learning and I think it will be more of a challenge and will hold his interest.  He is a smart little kid and I really think he will thrive there.  Plus their hours are 6:30 - 6:15 and it's year round. So we won't have to worry about after school or summers.  It's a little further from home, but since it opens earlier J can drop him off on his way to work and I can take Elliot to daycare.  It's $975/month, which isn't cheap, but in all honesty it's not much more than we are currently paying for daycare.

I also looked at Chesterbrook Academy and while I liked it, I didn't love it.  I think he would do ok there, but it's all age based and I think there is the possibility that he would be a little bored there as well.  One thing they do have going for them is that there is a pool and they do swim lessons over the summer.  It's an older school so it's not as shiny and impressive as CDC and it's further from home.  It's only about $50 less per month, so it wouldn't save us much by sending him there (and to be honest with the extra gas to get there it would work out to the same).

Our hope is that we will only need to send him wherever we send him for a year.  The elementary school next to us has a 4K program and we are really hoping we can get him in to that.  Unfortunately there are only so many spots and it is needs based and since Andrew is already such a little smarty pants he won't get priority.  Andrea just informed me this morning that he is already recognizing 85 words, he can count to 20 and recognizes numbers up to 40, knows all of his colors and shapes and I can't even remember what else.  He has really come out of his shell the last couple months and I'm so proud of everything he is learning.  As much as it pains me every month to write that check to daycare, she is doing a phenomenal job with him and has been worth every penny.

So there you have it. Before we know it this little dude will be heading off to his first school:

Be still my heart...

Birthday Party Planning... Or Not

Yes, that's right. As much as I am in denial, in less than two weeks my little munchkin is going to be three years old.(What?!?!)

Since his birthday is rapidly approaching I started to think about what we're going to do to celebrate.   His first birthday didn't really have a theme beyond having a dinosaur cake and some decorations.  For his second birthday we had somewhat of an Easter theme and had a little Easter egg hunt in the back yard and set up his jump castle for the kids.  He had a good time and it wasn't too much work (we smoked some barbecue and I made cupcakes.)

My first thought for this year was a pirate party.  He LOVES Jack & the Neverland Pirates.  I started looking all over Pinterest to find pirate cakes and decorations for his party and got a little bit excited.  Then I started thinking of the guest list.  I sent messages to my family to see if they'd be available.  My mom said "As far as I know, yes". My oldest sister responded with "It depends on the time. Both girls have soccer games that morning." And my other sister responded with "I took 11 days off for this cruise so I'm working a lot when I get back. Sorry I'm gonna miss it."  So yeah, there was less than no excitement from my family.

I thought about saying to hell with them, we'll just do a party on our own.  Then I realized that since he is in a very small in-home daycare that Andrew doesn't have a ton of little friends yet.  We have friends with kids around his age that we could invite, but the more I thought about it the more I thought maybe it wasn't necessary to go through a ton of preparation (and the expense of buying a bunch of stuff for a party) to throw a big party for kids he doesn't know that well.

So I had a brainstorm.  Instead of throwing an elaborate party that he most likely won't remember, why don't we just doing something fun as a family?  Andrew loves animals and I've been wanting to take him to the zoo for a long time and what better time than his birthday?   We'll be going to Riverbanks Zoo up in Columbia the weekend after his birthday (please let us have good weather!!).  My in-laws are going to meet us there since it's about halfway between their house and ours, so they will be celebrating with us. I still plan on making him a cake and maybe we'll even take it with us so we can do a little celebration there.  The more I think about it the more excited I get. I keep asking him if he wants to go to the zoo for his birthday. He says yes and when I say we can see lions and tigers he says "And rhinoceroses?".  I said we'll see monkeys and he started making his monkey noises

I've been looking at their website and you can feed the giraffes and walk around with kangaroos. There are pony rides and train rides, too.

So there we are. Instead of a big party with a lot of work and stress we are going to do an experience birthday for him.  I'm really looking forward to it (even if I do want to cry about the fact that my little baby is turning three!). Here's hoping he loves it as much as I think he will.

Can't believe he's turning 3!

Finally Settling In

When I was pregnant with Elliot one of my biggest fears was about how it would affect the life that we had settled into with one kid. It felt like things were finally easier. We were able to go out and do things without it being a big production. We even took a couple little vacations and it wasn't a complete disaster.

Fast forward to Elliot being born. In the first couple weeks it all came back to me just how hard it can be to get out and about with a newborn.  It took me what seemed like forever to be comfortable enough to go out by myself with both boys. The first time I took them both to the grocery store by myself felt like a huge victory.

Even going out as a family felt like a huge ordeal. I had forgotten how much stuff you need to take when you have a little baby in tow. I went back to being nervous that I had forgotten something and/or that we would have a huge meltdown in public.  Elliot isn't as easygoing as Andrew was as a little guy and I've felt like on edge at the thought of going out and doing things. Especially with the bottle strike that we dealt with for a few weeks - I almost felt trapped.

Well, after 6+ months I finally feel like we are settling into normal. That we are getting back to a routine and being able to go and do things.

This past Saturday we went downtown because I needed to get a gift for a bridal shower that evening.  Instead of just going down myself we decided to make it a family outing since it was such a beautiful day.  Elliot woke up from his 2 hour nap (yay!), I nursed him and we headed out.  We parked at J's office and walked down King Street, Andrew in the stroller and Elliot snuggled up to me in the Baby K'Tan.  I found a gift and then we strolled around town killing time while it was being wrapped.  I was pleasantly surprised that he passed back out for another snooze while we were walking back to the car:

That evening I had the tea party themed bridal shower to go to so J was on his own with both boys.  Had this been the previous weekend I would have been a huge ball of anxiety since Elliot was refusing bottles.  Instead I felt like it was ok for me to go out and have some me time with some friends that I hadn't seen in forever:

Yesterday was another beautiful day outside so we took advantage of Elliot finally settling into a nap routine and gave my car a much needed cleaning (with Andrew's help):

 I hope he is that excited about helping out when he is old enough to actually help.  After he was done washing he enjoyed sitting in the car and turning every knob and pushing every button that he could find:

After Elliot woke up I took him out for a little photo shoot since I wanted to get a couple pictures of him in this cute little outfit before he gets too big for it:

It was a really nice couple days. Not at all like last weekend when I spent the better part of Saturday in tears while we worked on breaking the bottle strike. This was a weekend that I really enjoyed.  Spending time with all my boys and getting a little time on my own. I finally feel like we are settling back in to some sort of routine and that life is getting a little bit easier.  It makes me look forward to all the things we'll get to do in the future with our boys - and maybe even getting a little more me time.

6 Month Photos

This past weekend, in the midst of bottle strike hell, we went and got Elliot's 6 month pictures done. When we did his newborn pictures we were given the option of doing her "Grow With Me" package to get 6 month and 1 year pictures done.  I'm so glad we did because OMG look at this cuteness:

Even on our worst days I look at that sweet face and absolutely melt.  He is my beautiful squishy baby and I am so beyond blessed to call him my own.

And it just kills me to see how different my two boys look from each other.  Here is a comparison of both of them at 6 months:

I've always loved Andrew's baby blues, but Elliot's big brown eyes are so sweet.  I'm interested to see if there is more of a resemblance as Elliot grows older.  Either way, it goes without saying that we have two awesome little boys. And we make some damn cute babies  ;)

A Battle of Wills

Friday I was exhausted and I had had it.  Elliot's bottle strike was taking it's toll on me mentally and emotionally.  I checked in with Andrea multiple times to see if Elliot had eaten anything. Each time I got the same response: "Not yet".

At 5:00 she sent me a text saying he had just woken up and asked if I wanted her to try to feed him.  Being that he had last eaten at 6:00 AM my answer was a resounding "Yes!".  She later informed me that he had eaten 2 oz.  So in 12 hours he had eaten 2 oz. I almost cried.

J picked the boys up from daycare and our plan was for him to (try to) feed Elliot a bottle before I got home. We thought maybe he'd have more luck if I wasn't there.  When I got home I snuck in and made sure he couldn't see me.  J was able to get 3 oz in him while I went and showered. He had heated up more, but Elliot was fussing so he laid him on the playmat.  On a whim I grabbed the bottle, picked him up and attempted to feed him. I was shocked (and thrilled!) when he sucked down the 4 oz bottle from me.  I (stupidly) thought maybe we were on the right track.

The plan that night was for me to nurse him before putting him down and he would get bottles overnight.  I gave in and nursed him when he was up at 12:30, though. He started making noises at 5:00 and J went down and made a bottle.  He was going riding that morning so at 6:45 he brought the monitor back up and left it so I'd hear Elliot if he started to fuss. At 7:15 he was shouting so I got up. I saw the bottle that he had made up still sitting in the cup of warm water.  I took that to mean that Elliot refused the bottle and my heart sank.  For the hell of it I grabbed him and the bottle and saw if he would eat.  I was again shocked when I got this:

I nursed him for a little bit to get him down for a quick nap before we went to go get his 6 month pictures done (those will be up soon).  So he ate at 9:30 and was pretty pleasant for his photo shoot.  We were going to go downtown to the children's museum that afternoon, but things quickly went downhill.  Every time we tried to get him to take a bottle it turned into a crying fit (both him and me).  At one point I put him in the crib and ran upstairs because I couldn't take it.  I was getting so upset that he wouldn't take the bottle and I found myself getting angry that he wouldn't just give in.  I knew he was hungry - why wouldn't he just eat??  I burst into tears so many times and started getting snippy with J.  It was wearing on me so much. No matter what we tried he would fight us.  Bottles, baby food or even BLW attempts. Everything just made him upset, which in turn made me upset.

At 6:00 PM - 8.5 hours after he'd last eaten - I heated up a small 2 oz bottle and gave it a shot. He took it with no fight and started sucking it down. I quickly called to J to have him heat up more. All in all he sucked down 8 oz and I was relieved.  Again that night I nursed him to bed and when he got up at 1:30 J went down and tried with a bottle. It was an hour before he came back to bed, but he had gotten Elliot to take the bottle, so I was relieved.  When he woke up at 7:45 I went and nursed him because I was about to burst.  I tried some bananas with him when Andrew was eating breakfast, but it was a no go. At 11:00 I heated up a small bottle and tried it to see if he'd fight me. I almost cried with joy when he lunged for the bottle. He sucked it down and I nursed him a little so he'd take a nap. He took an almost 3 hour nap and I was thrilled.  A while after he got up we heated up another bottle and I tried feeding him again.  Yet again he took it.

A couple hours later when it was naptime again I heated up a small bottle and J tried feeding him. He took it with little resistance and went down for a nap.  To say I was relieved was an understatement.  He'd taken 4 bottles for us, which was more than he'd taken in the past two weeks combined.

I heated up a small bottle before bed, but he didn't want it. He was tired so I gave in and nursed him. He didn't eat all that much so I think he just wanted the comfort.  He slept from 8:30  until almost 4:30 this morning. I went and nursed him quickly and had him back down within 15 minutes.    I got him up at 7:00 this morning and he was all smiles.

Yes, there is a bunch of crap in  his crib and I need to take those stuffed animals out now that he's rolling around in there.

I nursed him and got the boys ready to daycare.  I dropped them off and went over everything with Andrea to let her know how the weekend went.  I left four 3 oz bottles plus an additional 2.5 oz for him and said a little prayer that he would take some of it.  I just sent Andrea a text and got this:

To say I'm relieved is the understatement of the year.  8.5 oz is more than he had Thursday and Friday at daycare combined.  I'm not going to claim victory just yet, but maybe, just maybe we have won the battle of wills with our 6 month old and gotten him back on track with eating during the day.  Only time will tell...

Perfect(ly Frustrating)

So today we had Elliot's 6 month well check.I went in to it with the hopes that maybe we would find out there is a reason for his sudden aversion to taking bottles.  When the nurse took us back to the exam room to start everything she asked if we had any concerns. Normally I don't have anything, but this time I chimed right in with "He won't eat."  I elaborated that he nurses just fine, but he has started to refuse bottles and is not eating much during the day.

She took her notes and then went about getting all of Elliot's measurements:

Weight: 17 lbs 3.6 oz - 43rd percentile
Height: 27.5" - 84th percentile
Head - 17" - 44th percentile

So he is growing just fine and there is nothing to be concerned about there.

My rolly poly little guy

Then Dr. Graham came in to do his exam and we started to talk about my concerns with the not eating.  He felt and listened to his belly, felt and looked at his gums, looked in his ears and did some general observing.  The good news?  He's perfect and there is nothing physically wrong that he can see that's causing Elliot to refuse to eat.  The bad news?  There is nothing that he can see that's causing Elliot to refuse to eat. So he's perfect and it's perfectly frustrating.

We talked about how we've been trying some solids and Elliot is not receptive in the least. I admitted that I haven't been very consistent because it's frustrating when he refuses to even let me get the spoon to his mouth.  I have tried multiple times and he has not taken to it AT ALL.  I'm not sure if he's even swallowed one bit of food.

This wouldn't be a concern to me IF he was getting enough milk during the day, but he's not.  I know first foods are "practice" and he should be continuing to get his nutrition from breastmilk, but therein lies the problem. He's refusing to drink the milk during the day.  I'm at a loss. I just don't get how he goes from taking a bottle with no issue whatsoever to just downright refusing to even let us get it near him.  I've googled, I've talked to other moms, I've asked thoughts and opinions and advice.

On the way home from the appt we stopped at Target and I bought two different training cups/sippys and every baby food on the shelf (carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, apples, pears, and prunes).  Elliot was asleep when we got home so I let him nap, but when he woke up I nursed him (he hadn't eaten since 7:00 AM and it was 2:00 already) and then decided to try some pears with him.  He wouldn't even take one bite. I got some in his mouth and he made a face and spit them out.  I put a little water in a sippy just to see if he would take a little fluid from it and he just flung it around the tray.   I pretty much just got this look from him:

So right now I'm at a loss. I don't know how to get him to drink more milk during the day and I don't know how to get him to be receptive to food. I thought by now he'd be putting everything in sight in his mouth, but he doesn't.

I don't know, I'm just rambling. Exhaustion does that to me.

And now he's crying so I'm going to go nurse him so he at least gets some nutrition today...

6 Months!

That's right. Somehow it has been 6 months since Elliot made his dramatic  (and fast!) entrance into our lives. His 6 month well check is on Wednesday, so I won't have his stats until then, but one thing I know for certain is that we don't have to worry about him not getting enough to eat. My roly poly little guy is just that - roly poly  :)

One thing I AM worried about is his current bottle strike that he's been on. He's done this a few other times but it's normally only lasted a couple days. We are on a week of him fighting bottles and downright refusing to take one half the time.  Our normal bedtime routine has consisted of him getting a bottle of pumped milk and then nursing. This past week he has cried when he sees the bottle and I've just nursed him instead..

My mom is watching the boys today while our daycare is closed for vacation and I am beyond stressed that he is going to give her a hard time.  I made sure to top him off before I left this morning, but he'll still need to eat at some point. I haven't gotten any messages from her besides saying he went down for a nap, but I'm about to check on him to make sure  he's doing ok. That and I need to make sure Andrew isn't being too much to handle.

My mom will be helping me out tonight while J is out of town for his grandmother's funeral (more on that later) and I'm hoping he's back tomorrow night so I'll have some help Wednesday morning.

Anyway, Elliot is growing like a weed, is as sweet as ever, and is a beautiful little baby that I am so blessed to call my own.  I love this little guy:

Happy Valentine's Day

I've never been a huge fan of valentine's day since there is just way too much pressure to come up with some great romantic gesture.  Now that we have kids I find it a little more enjoyable because now I get to dress up the boys and get cute videos like this:

I dressed Elliot up in the same little outfit that I had Andrew in for his first v-day:

I didn't have the funny striped hat for Andrew, though.  :)

I got a cute little rosebush, some candies and the traditional homemade card from J and the boys:

And I got him those Valentine's cakes, the Reese's hearts and some bubble bath and champagne.  ;)

I'm guessing we'll have a nice low key night in and have our little celebration after the boys go to bed.  No fancy restaurant and high priced flowers needed.  Next weekend we'll have a date night when my mother-in-law is in town to watch the boys.  I'm kind of happy to delay it so we don't have to deal with the crowds this weekend.  Plus I'm finally getting a haircut next Saturday so at least I'll look nice.