Ok Now Onto Life Stuff, Like Feeding And Teeth.

Top:before he knew what food was.. Bottom:after

 

 

I am still getting up at 5am to pump out enough for the day to supplement his feedings… and we started adding cereal to the bottle to hopefully make him full until he learns how to eat correctly. 110z last night!

Now we have added and he is getting used to babyfood 3x a day. We have tried the BabyLedWeaning Ali is fond of… and if we give him chunks of anything they end up on the floor and never in his mouth. Even if we put it to his mouth he moves it and throws it on the ground. And if we put tiny pieces in his mouth he will choke on them very loudly and dramatically. So baby food it is. He doesn’t like putting anything in his mouth but his hands and the binky. He won’t chew on toys at all. Luckily I have a babybullet… which I LOVE. We have the steaming attatchment for the foods, and it also sanitizes my pump and his binkies. Food started off really rocky… the picture is his reaction to avocado. He shuddered. Literally/involuntarily shuddered. And then cried. It was even mixed with 3 precious gold ounces of breastmilk. So we tried banana. He still cried. Then pear. This child. Attaked. The spoon. For pear. He loved it. Love love loved it. Wants it all the time. Which is uhoh because it is sweet and he won’t like things like peas. So then we mixed banana and pear. And he did well with that. Then sweet potato plain, he made faces. And only eats it mixed with banana or pear. He makes the cutest mess with baby food all over him.

He still poops only once every 2-3 weeks. We had poop Monday, and the poop before was on July4th… 18 days!

Edit* He is now pooping real-food-poop. Smeeeellllllyyyyyy, and more often, 4 days later poop.

FoodTimeLine so far:
July 20-Avocado:bust
July21-Banana: Meh, faces and turned head
July 24-Pear: He would eat the spoon whole to get everylast pear drop
July 27- Sweet Potato: It’s ok, but not a fav

Teeth! July 27th

On Friday when I was cooking the sweet potato for the next day, and put a little on my finger for him to taste, he made faces but I definitely didn’t feel teeth. The next morning when he woke up (at normal time after a normal night) he had TWO teethbuds! Little sharp nubs that he used to gnaw on my fingers with. He didn’t ever let on he was teething! His drooling has always been soooo much, and he wasn’t fussy at all or deviated from his schedule. Just BAM. Teeth.

Schedule (usually)

8am Wake up (it has bumped up earlier. boo)
8-830 Boobs and bottle
830-9 Facetime Mimi and shower
930 Feed BabyA his solids and clean and play
1015-11ish-Nap
1130 Boobs and solids
12-3-head to work with the baby
3-Boobs, bottle and nap
330-5/6 Nap
Wake up just solids
6-730 play with daddy and me
730-8 Boobs, bottle, and night nights

Start all over.



Hubby’s sister visited us food the week last week and at first I was apprehensive as to what in the world we were going to do together. Because we have never spent one on one time together before, so I was thinking “great. Hubs will be working… uggghhh” but I actually had a really good time with her! She was super helpful with BabyA and I had access to my hands more. And she was great company to talk to. BabyA loved the extra attention and getting to go out everyday for errands or browsing or walks. So now he is spoiled. We talked about a lot of stuff. Deep stuff, trivial stuff, girl stuff, you know. The basics. But I am really glad she came and gave me the chance to get to know her.


I seem to save up the updates and seldomly update 4 things at once. And I haaaate that, because I get bummed when other people do it.. ie Gretchen… COME ON BABY! I am waiting just as eagerly as your mom ;) maybe not. (But I love reading your blog and wish you wrote every day.)

6m Stats

Happy Unbirthday!

BabyA is HALF A YEAR OLD!

Weight: 15.6lbs, tiny boy
 Length: 26.5inches

Likes: Grabbing everything. My Camelback water bottle. Sitting up. Shrieking. Holding his own binky. Going out. Being in crowds. Walks. Drinking from a bottle. His Grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles. Waking up and getting rescued by an excited mommy. Drooling, everyone asks if he is teething… (no, I check every day) he just likes to drool. Bright colors and new things in public, we took him to Babies R Us and put his in half the displays and he had a ball. FaceTiming Auntie Brylee and Mimi… he smiles so big! Daddy coming home, now he gets excited when he sees hubby and bounces. His doorway jumper, he tries to bounce when we are holding him too. Pears. Pears. Pears. Biting mama with his new teeth.


Dislikes: Avacado. Spoons. Real food. Being put down when he is tired. Sitting down and cuddling. Putting anything in his mouth that is not his hand, especially food. Laying down in a lounge position. The same routine every day, he likes change, and doesn’t like being stuck while I work. Drinking from the bottle with cereal in it, it takes longer and requires more effort. Food that is not pears.

Eye Color: Grey with some blue

Hair Color: Blonde with red in certain light

New Skills: Sleeping through the night 100% of the time. Rolling back and forth and back and forth like a rolypoly. Getting the binky from the floor or crib into his hand and then his mouth. Arching in the bumbo so it looks like he will fall out. He found his thumb…boo, its his favorite finger to chew on. He makes ‘da da da’ sounds now. Complaining, he learned how to complain when there is nothing wrong and he is just bored.  Opening his mouth for the spoon, when it is pears. Or mixed with pears. Rolling back and forth all the time, and scooting around in circles like a clock. Thumb sucking…not ok. Getting his thumb stuck up the middle of the binky.

My Favorite Thing: He’s turning into a person with his own ideas about what he wants from us. Feeding him the first time was really exciting… but it was shortlived because he hated it. Once in a blue moon he will be so tired he will fall asleep being burped and I live for those snuggly sleep cuddles. I can hold him on my hip and not worry about his head strength. He gets so excited when he sees me after naps. And he will jabber at me.

Things I Call Him: Little Bear, Little Bug, BabySquare, Squatty, Squats, TinyBear, Tinybug.

Washington (State. Not DC)

 Hubbys brother and his wife are being offered a job in Arlington Washington at one of the churches up there, and so it looks like they are moving to Washington! This is really exciting for them because they have been living with hubs parents for a year after losing their job in Arizona. They have been looking and praying for a new opportunity and this looks like it’s it! So this got hubs and my wheels turning… what if we followed them? I have been itching to move for the past three years. I think it’s leftover from being an Army Brat… so I am more than ready for new horizons. Why not Washington? I mean… its completely hypothetical right now, there would be a lot to figure out.. and a timeline for making things happen. But we have been talking about it nonstop for the past week, thinking how we know we want to move somewhere and having family in the same new place would be a safe tie and still a new experience. And it would be easier for his parents to visit and kill two birds. (Sorry Bry, DC will never be on the table. Been there, done that). 

Soooooo. Washingtonians… tell me about Washington. We wouldn't go anymore than a couple hours outside where they are… Seattle areaish, so around there. Whats the weather actually look like (pleasedontsayrainallthetimepleasedontsayrainallthetime)? Each season? Snow? Traffic? What in the world do you eat if there isn’t a Chick Fil A or Cracker Barrel?! <That is my most pressing question… hubs laughed at me when I brought it up first. 

And if anyone has connections at companies looking at IT or systems admins pass those along! I think we want to get some sort of ball rolling early in the new year.

Eeee I hope it works out. 

Ps. Ali how do you even prounounce where you live. Sammamish?! Thats a made up word! Sam-amish (like the horse and buggy people?) Suh-mam-ish? Samma-mish?   "S-something?" 

I finally figured out the pronunciation of places around me... now id have to learn a whole new set of words! (or sound like an outsider) "oh... you must be new." eeeeffffff.

These Updates Are Getting Few And Far Between

I seem to only update when something happens, and mostly our days are filled with nothing happening.. Therefore nothing to report. we have a routine down and we stick to it. It’s going to get a lot worse in the next few weeks in regards to finding time to update… because family is coming to visit!! We kick it off with Hubs sister coming to visit in a week, quickly followed by MY sister (eeeeeeeee!!) then a week of rest and my mom comes out until the end of October! Agggh I am so excited to share my little man with everyone. And by that point he will be eating FOOD! We got out the babybullet last night to look at it and I think I plan on doing purees in the beginning… then mix in some puree and let him have some chunks separately. 

 

I am so excited to feed him! I know it will quickly wear off…. But for now I am eagerly anticipating the faces and experience.  And to be able to stop pumping. He will be eating what I have, and food, and if that isn't enough... some of the dreaded F word.. formula! Ive been pumping out about 9/10 oz a morning and he gets it all throughout the day after meals and I have been noticing his chunking back up. Thank goodness my poor hungry man! I am not over feeding him.. just getting him back to the percentile he was born in..50th, and out of what he shrunk to, the 25th.

We also got tickets to go to my parent’s home for Christmas! The first time in three years I will be there for Xmas and it’s BabyA’s first one! It’s going to be really strange without my brother… but at least it was already going to be strange because I was bringing one outsider (Hubs) and one half outsider (BabyA). But that is all 6 months away…I am already dreaded the flight with a baby.. 9hr travel time in total. esh. It will be the first time Grandpa Duncan will meet him... one month from his 1st birthday!

I dressed BabyA in big boy clothes one day last week (minus the shirt slogan). Cords, shoes, and a shirt, not onsie. He looked so big!! though shirts on babies are a pain. All he did alday was stuff that made the shirt ride up and expose his potbelly. 

What else what else…. We hit up Chick fil a twice last week, once was FREE CHICKEN if you dressed like a cow. So we did. Even the baby got a free meal… which we ate. Though once we were sitting he grabbed a construction paper spot and started to chew on it, unbeknownst to us. When we finally looked down his face, onsie, and hands were black. Aaaaaaaand there goes that white onsie. 

We introduced bubbles to his bath and he went crazy. He tried his hardest to eat them. And then tried to eat them at the source, by sticking his face in them and the water. I kept pulling him back but not before I got to hear him make the cutest nose bubble sounds in the water. It didn't even phase him... putting him face in the water.

Sleeping is going great (for him, I pump at 4am) except for a regression last night. I blame Hubs. He was in charge of bedtime. I told him to explain to BabyA what we wanted from him over the night, because I know he knows what we want... and whatever Hubs said translated to "its ok to cry at 5am for a binky." I think I will do tonight's talk. 

I just go through my pictures to update… and talk about the ones I see. “oh yeah, that happened.” That’s why its a random collection of disjointed blurbs. 

Photos :)

We took the baby to our Alma Mater... Future SeaLion!

Holding his own bottle.. what a big boy!

The Fourth, And Funnel Cake!

Happy 4^th!

Lets see… its been a little over a week since I have updated, but in my defense we were out of town the 4^th through yesterday. I’ll start with the 4^th. As is becoming our habit, we woke up at the crack of 4am (4 on the 4^th! Woo!)  to get ready to drive to hubs parents’ house, that way we can drive without traffic and with BabyA staying asleep for most of the 4 hour drive. We left the house at 5, after packing the car and sneaking the sleeping baby into his car seat without feeding him. The drive up was uneventful, we stopped for breakfast for us and the baby around 7, and listened to a book on tape for the drive. BabyA did a phenomenal job in the car… he only started fussing about 5 minutes away from our destination. I love driving up to hubs hometown.. we go from sea level to 6000 altitude over the 4 hours and my ears pop and every liquid we have tried to expand and I end up cleaning up spills when I open things. You’d think I’d learn. Nope. The drive is beautiful (at parts) half is desert and boring, but then we get to the mountains and windmills and the clouds start coming out and then the farms and fields and it is definitely somewhere I can imagine raising BabyA. We got to his house at 9:20am, in time for second breakfast and the baby to eat again and get passed around to eager grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles. He did so well over the weekend. So well. He loved the chaos of the other babies and kids all over the place, and 9 adults moving around and holding him in turns. I don’t know how we made a social baby, but we did. He is the youngest of 5 grandbabies, all under the age of 4. 

Rather than give a blow by blow of everything we did, I will just include the highlights. 

Thurs: For fireworks, we went into town because their football field is an annual picnic, funnel cake, live band type arena with a great view of the explosions. We left BabyA at the house because it was past his bedtime, and it was loud and we didn’t know how he’d do. One of the aunts volunteered to stay with him because she was staying with her own 7month old. This is the 3^rd out of 4 years we have been up there for the 4^th and everyyear I look forward to funnel cake and fireworks, but mostly funnel cake. I start talking about it about a month before and then am on an eager countdown until I get some. I am really a fat kid at heart. 

Friday: BabyA sleeps through the night now 99% of the time, so I had to binky at 5am, but that was it, and he slept until 8:30. Getting him used to the pack and play was such a good plan he had his naps and slept like a champ. No fussing. We got up and did the whole family breakfast thing, then the boys had work to get done. My FIL planned to pour cement for a walkway and patio he had been planning for years and so my MIL decided she was tired of waiting for the future magic date to come and pointed out all three boys would be up  for the fourth and to get it done. The cement truck (a full on truck!) came at 10, and then the next four hours were spend pouring, smoothing, and shaping the cement before it dried. The ladies and babies set up lawn chairs to watch and ate popcorn and had tea while the men labored. Subtle, we are not. Even watching cement dry got boring (shocking) so I decided it was time to put BabyA in the pool for the first time to see what he’d do. I put his little swim diaper on him and lathered on the sunblock and his grandma and aunts came to the mini pool with us to watch his first cold water experience. Long story short he hated it. So then he just lay in the sun as NakedBaby for quite a while and was happy. My son, he definitely is. The rest of the day was margaritas, games, PitchPerfect, and various baby naps. At one point they were all awake and the cement was still wet, so we trudged outside to press their feet in the wet cement in order of age, BabyA is the youngest. BabyA of course has a thing with his toes where whenever they are touched they curl up and scrunch and try and grab whatever touched them. So his footprints look like a foot/blob. 

Saturday: We headed home on Saturday to have a day to relax before the workweek started and to beat traffic. So pretty boring. We stopped at BabiesRUs to look at highchairs and got ChickFilA to tide us over for the rest of the drive. The End.

Feeding: I haven’t been able to fill up the baby when he eats, he is still hungry when I am empty and I feel terrible. So to help (without resorting to formula...which I would hate to do) I have started to get up about 4 or 5 am to pump because I get a ton since he last ate 9 hour before. I get about 9-10 ounces at that pumping and use it the rest of the day to supplement the boobs. So three times a day he gets a bottle with another 3 ounces after he eats. So yes, he sleeps through the night, but I have to get up anyway to pump. But I can tell he is happier and getting fatter so I don’t care that I am tired again. Go boobmilk! 

And lastly, BabyA is in love with my Camelback waterbottle. He goes crazy when he sees it and then grabs on and sticks the straw part in his mouth and slobbers and sucks. He isn’t strong enough to get anything from it but that doesn’t stop him. Though he gets frustrated after a while and complains that it isn’t going as planned.