We went to Belleview park with my friend Amy and her kids. I used to go there all the time when I was a kid, so it's fun to bring Hunter now. However, Ii wasn't as fun because Hunter had to stay out of the sun, but it was nice to get out. I can't wait until I can put some sunscreen on him at six months and he can be out and about. Of course, it'll be winter then, but oh well. This summer has kind of been a bust with not being able to do too much, but we have a lot of fun summers ahead of us!
Boy oh boy! I feel like there's not that much to talk about this week...except that he's finally using his voice so much and he's imitating sounds. It's adorable. I took a really long video of it and posted it on Lifecake. It's so great to watch his little mouth and mind working as he tries to make the sounds I'm making. I'm also trying to have "conversations" with him so he can see how that goes. I'll ask him a question, wait for him to reply, and then say something else. It truly is adorable to watch him in this stage. And it's a relief to hear this cute little voice instead of the fussy angry one. We went to Belleview park with my friend Amy and her kids. I used to go there all the time when I was a kid, so it's fun to bring Hunter now. However, Ii wasn't as fun because Hunter had to stay out of the sun, but it was nice to get out. I can't wait until I can put some sunscreen on him at six months and he can be out and about. Of course, it'll be winter then, but oh well. This summer has kind of been a bust with not being able to do too much, but we have a lot of fun summers ahead of us! He's grabbing onto things a lot more. I got out some rattles and the blankies with the little stuffed animal on them. His grip isn't very big, but he likes to hold onto things like blankets, clothes, etc. He's also starting to put his hands in his mouth a lot more, which means we need to be more diligent about washing his hands. I still haven't seen him staring at his hands to discover them though. Sleep is still hit or miss. He had one great night of a 6 hour stretch and then another 3 hour stretch after eating. Six hours is definitely the most he's ever gone! But then the next night he was up to eat twice. So you really don't know what you're going to get when you lay down at night. I just pray that it's longer than two hours! And even on the nights where it is only two hours at a time, at least he's super cute. That definitely makes up for it!
0 Comments
We finally have a baby who doesn't just use his fussy voice. Thank goodness! He's finally started to coo and make happier sounds. The doctor asked if he was starting to do this about 6 weeks ago, so it's been a long time coming! It's pretty fantastic to sit there and "talk" with him and listen to his responsive noises. Who would have thought we would have been entertained by that. I'm trying to talk to him a lot and ask him a lot of questions so he can hear words and how conversations go. Another fun thing is that generally if he starts to get grumpy or fuss, I can look at him, talk in a happy voice and smile at him, and he will stop the grump and smile back at me. Although if he's too far into being grumpy, it definitely doesn't work. He's still eating like a champ...every two hours and still for about 40-60 minutes each time. I decided that I'm not ready yet to give up that time with him by pumping and giving him bottles. So I'm still going to nurse him for awhile. He still hasn't discovered his hands, but he is sucking on them a lot more frequently, especially when he's hungry. I think he'll figure out that his hands are his hands soon. I think once he does that, he'll start being a lot more grabby. He has started to grab onto my hair sometimes and the burp cloth. So he's definitely getting more grabby, and he's got quite the grip. Thankfully he didn't have those two bad nights of sleeping like he had in the previous weeks. In fact, Monday night (after not napping all day), he slept a solid five hours, then I fed him, and then he slept another three hours straight. It was awesome. If only we could have more nights like that instead of him waking up every couple of hours. He's officially three months old, and according to our measurements, he's 12.8 pound and 24 inches long. He's getting so big! It's funny to look back at pictures when he was a newborn. He was a beanpole with a huge head!
This week my hair has started to fall out, which is supposed to happen after pregnancy. It's pretty annoying as I'm always feeling like there's hair everywhere. I'm still bruised, too, after 3 months. Ugh. I'm not sure it will ever go away! This week started out rough, just like last week. Hunter barely slept Sunday and Monday night, and by Tuesday we were ready to drop. Sunday he slept three hours, then I fed him, then he slept one hour and woke up and then one more hour. It was brutal. When I went to bed Monday, I thought well at least I'll get a three hour stretch. Oh no. He slept one hour, woke up, one hour, woke up, then I fed him, then he finally slept two hours and then was done. It was so incredibly brutal. I could not figure out what the heck was going on with him. Thankfully Tuesday night he slept a five hour stretch and then slept a few more hours (although not straight through). After he gets fed in the middle of the night, he'll only sleep for about an hour or two and then wakes up. I have found the fastest way to get him to go back to sleep is to quickly hold him, pat his back, and he'll fall right back asleep. I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't be doing this as I'm setting him up to expect being held in the middle of the night, but I'm so tired that I have a hard time caring in the moment. So I think I will continue to do it because I'm desperate for sleep, and I'm trying to keep Shamus from waking up as well. I did wonder if he slept so bad because he was getting hot, so I starting dressing him in a onesie at night with his sleep sack over it. Not sure if that makes a difference, but he doesn't feel as hot when I pick him up. Going to bed around 10 has been really nice too. I feed him sometime between 9-9:30, and then we head up when he's done. It was interesting that this week and last week he slept bad Sunday and Monday nights. We'll see if it happens again this week (please no!). He is growing like a weed! I weighed him last night because he came home feeling so heavy! He's 12 pounds now on our scale. He's really starting to be able to hold his head up, and he really doesn't like to be held like a baby as much anymore. He's starting to get rolls, which are adorable. I love the chunk factor. I was looking back at one-week photos, and he was so skinny! And he had a huge head, which he still has. Ha! He has pretty much grown out of the 0-3 month clothes, mainly because he's too long for the onesies. I'm packing them up and moving him into either 3 month onesies or 3-9 month onesies, depending on the brand. It's so crazy how fast it moves. I think he'll be out of the size one diapers soon, too. With the exception of overnight, he still demands to be fed pretty much every two hours. I know eventually that will stretch out, but it sure doesn't seem like it will happen anytime soon. I considered switching him over to bottle feeding breast milk more exclusively because he nurses for 40-60 minutes every time. But the more I considered it, the more I realized that I really can't get this time back. So if I'm taking more time out of my day to feed him, it's ok for now. Sometimes it's really frustrating because I can't do anything else but watch tv, but it is good time to spend with the little monster. Plus I have three days each week where he is bottle fed at daycare, so I do have somewhat of a break.
He's really getting more interactive. He loves to look in the mirror at his little face, and he's starting to mimic my face. If I smile at him, then he will smile back (if he's not upset). I can tell that his eyesight is developing more and more every day as he loves to look around at the world. That's why he loves being held facing out or over your shoulder. It's fun to watch him grow! Generally speaking, every week we seem to have a happier baby! Thank goodness. I think he's happiest though on his daycare days. He loves it there! Kathleen says he loves watching the other kids, and they love him, especially the girls. I guess they always say his name and want to touch him. He naps and eats well there, too. Well, he eats well everywhere. That kid is certainly not going on a hunger strike anytime soon! I asked Kathleen what her trick is to get him to nap, and she said she feeds him and then puts him in the crib and then usually he fusses for a few minutes but then falls asleep. We are going to try that this weekend and see how it goes. He definitely needs those naps! He's a much happier baby when he's not sleep deprived. He still sleeps pretty good at night although he had two pretty terrible nights early in the week. It was brutal. Finally on Tuesday night he slept well and has been going for some 5 or 5.5 hour stretches! On Wednesday night, he slept from 11:15-4:45, which was great. However, I had to give him his medicine at that point and then wait 30 minutes for him to eat. That was really hard because he's used to having a quick feeding after he wakes up from his long stretch. But if I would have given him his medicine after eating from 4:45-5:30, then sleeping for 3 hours, then waiting for 30 minutes to feed him, it would have been 9 until he could have eaten. So my cure for that was to put him to bed an hour earlier, which worked last night. He was up at 3:45 instead, and that was easier on the schedule. I'll be happier when I don't have to think about the medicine, but the doctor said most babies grow out of the reflux between 6-12 months. So we still have a ways to go. I think he's still going through a growth spurt, too. It's turning out to be more than a spurt. He's almost out of his 0-3 month clothes and into the 3 month clothes! Mainly he's getting too long for them, and it's getting tricky to get his arms out of the sleeves. He's growing like a weed! Hunter has been making more eye contact this week, and he even mimics facial expressions sometimes. It's pretty adorable. On Saturday evening, I had to make an emergency trip to Babies R Us to get a new nipple shield because Jack ate mine. Good ol' Jack. So I bought Hunter a couple of toys that he could look at while he was laying on the floor. He's pretty uninterested in them right now. I also put him in his Bumbo seat for the first time this week since his neck is getting stronger. I only had him in it for a few minutes, but he seemed to be ok with it for a bit. It's nice because it helps them sit up before they're really ready to do it on their own. It helps get them used to that position. Plus, he's pretty cute in it. My milk supply seemed to go down a bit this week and I wasn't pumping as much as I normally do. That really worried me, but it seems to be back up today. Let's hope that it stays up because we cannot afford for this kid to eat formula exclusively! He eats like a champ! I'm still eating dairy every three days, and it's awesome. I love real butter and cheese. Would you look at this kid's hair?! I love that it's starting to stick up in the back. So cute! Also, baby jeans are the best! My cousin told me about a great app called Lifecake this week too. I can put all of my pictures of Hunter on there, and it tracks how old he is based on birthdate. It's invite only, so I don't have strangers looking and commenting on the photos (although that doesn't really bother me). I love that I have a place to put all of his photos but I'm not bombarding Facebook or Instagram with them. It's fun! If you want an invite, let me know!
Hooray! I'm in the double digits! Man has this kid been both really fussy and barely fussy this week! I think he went through a growth spurt at the beginning part of the week. On Sunday he ate every other hour for an hour. It was totally brutal. Somehow we managed to get the house clean, but I'm not really sure how because there wasn't a lot of in between nursing time. I felt like a milk maid. On Monday he slept for much of the day, which was awesome. But when he wasn't sleeping or eating, he seemed pretty fussy. But then the second half of the week, he wasn't really fussy at all. I think he likes going to daycare and watching all the other kiddos. He seems to sleep better there, and he usually takes a couple of naps in the evening. Maybe it's more exciting that hanging out with mom at home. It's already starting! I got to eat pizza! I called the doctor last Friday and she said that I could try to eat dairy, so on Sunday for lunch we had pizza. He really seemed to do ok with it. He wasn't acting like he was in pain (like he has before). His biggest symptom was crying when he farted. Ha! So I called her again, and she said that I could eat dairy every three days and monitor how he does. On Wednesday, I finished my pizza for lunch. It was delicious.
He's really growing a lot. He prefers to be held upright more often than being cradled like a baby. He loves to look around and is starting to see more. I need to buy some toys that he can look at while he's on the floor. He is starting to grab more but I think any toys that he can grab are still a ways away. But all of his clothes are wrinkled from where he grabs them and holds on tight! This growth spurt is crazy. The other night we both looked at him in the swing and noticed how big he is in it now. We are going to have to start strapping him in! Where'd my tiny baby go?! |
Me and Him
We have been trying to conceive (TTC) since July 2012, and it's been a long road. After 4 unsuccessful IUIs (artificial inseminations) and countless heartache, we have decided to move forward with in vitro fertilization (IVF). Even though it's insanely expensive, it has the highest chance for success (75%) and it's our best hope. One of the most frustrating things about our infertility is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with either of us (that they can test). Oftentimes IVF also is diagnostic, so along with hoping for a happy, healthy baby, we are hoping for some answers. This is our journey, and we appreciate any prayers along they way. Archives
June 2017
|