5 Months!

I'm a slacker mom this month because we're almost 2 weeks away from Preston's 6 month birthday, but I do want to make sure I do his monthly posts (even if they are super late!) so I can look back on these when I'm sending him off to kindergarten and crying my eyes out.

The 5th month was a little challenging for all of us, as my previously super wonderful sleeper continued his "sleep strike" so we're all feeling the effects. (Spoiler Alert - I will be doing a post about sleep training soon, as I finally bit the bullet and we "trained" the little man to work on developing better sleep habits)

Anyways, back to month 5...

Likes: Sitting up on his own (he can sit up unassisted for about 20 minutes at a time now!), trying to crawl, watching the kids in his daycare class, putting every.single.thing. he can find in his mouth, when I sing crazy songs when he's laying on his changing table, holding his bottle by himself, gnawing on a piece of ice in his mesh feeder, his exersaucer

Dislikes: Sleeping (especially naps at daycare), Teething, when a bottle is finished, burping (seriously, will he EVER like to be burped? When he's 14 and burping up a storm at the dinner table, I will remind him of how he used to flip out when we would burp him as a baby)

Biggest Achievements: Sitting up on his own! Little boy is obsessed with sitting - he is only happy when he's on his belly or sitting. It's crazy how fast he seemed to get strong enough to keep himself up.

Challenges: SLEEP! So the 4 month wakeful period has lasted into 5 months. My sweet boy who used to sleep 12-13 hours at a time is still waking up 5-8 times a night. Putting him down at night is fine - he goes down easily typically around 7:00pm. Then he has nights where he wakes up at 1am, 2am, 3am, 4am and he likes to start his day at 5am. Umm yeah. It doesn't happen every night like that but it's making us all sleep deprived.

I know it's a combination of teething and development but it still sucks. We don't go into soothe him when he wakes up unless he really starts crying/screaming. But I always wake up as soon as I hear his little noises over the monitor and then I lay there watching on the monitor while he talks to himself and rolls around his crib. He typically does this for up to 45 minutes and then is usually able to get himself back to sleep.

However, the whole cycle starts over 10-15 minutes later! So basically from 2am on, none of us sleep. There are a few times he does actually start to cry, so then we go in and soothe him, give him a paci and help him get back to sleep. I know it could be a lot worse, but the lack of sleep is making us a bit crabby over here!

The Good Stuff: Even though we aren't feeling super rested, Preston is SO MUCH FUN during the day that it makes me forget about all that night owl stuff. He is such a curious little guy - he wants to be in the middle of everything...grabbing, staring, observing everything around him. He loves to play in his exersaucer and can now easily spin all the way around to play with every toy. He loves tummy time and scooting on his belly - he can get all the way across the room with his army crawl/scooting. It's just so crazy to watch him figure things out - you can literally see his brain working pretty much 24/7. I love it!

Stats: We went to the doctor on his 5 month birthday for a formula issue and he's weighing in at 15lbs 4oz and he's 27" long. Still looooooong and skinny just like his dad! He's also wearing 6 month clothes, but we may need to move up to 9 months for footy pj's because he's so long.

He's started with a really cute laugh and giggle when we do certain things. He loves to play "airplane" with Jake or stand up on one of our laps and bounce up and down. He also loves to touch our faces and stick his hands in our mouth. I really cannot believe he will be 6 months in about 2 weeks. I'm so excited for the holidays with baby boy!!

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween from our little fish!

Baptism

I'm super late in blogging about this, but we held Preston's baptism back in September and it was a great day. We did it at J's families church and it was so special to be able to do it there - it's the same church that Jake was baptized in over 30 years ago! We had a small luncheon at my in-law's afterwards and everything came together nicely. I was sort of nervous of how P would do with sitting through an hour and half church service but he was seriously an angel! Luckily the actual baptism was at the very beginning of the service and then he literally fell asleep in my arms for the rest of church!

Pictures from the day... 

His Baptism Gown - it was made by J's mom and both Jake and his brother wore it for their baptisms! I love that it has so much history! I added the monogrammed bib to help with the massive amounts of drool that happen now.

Close up

Waiting for the service to get started and sitting up like a big boy!

Meeting with the Pastor before the church service began

Practicing the "water dip"

The 3 of us before the service

With the Godparents and Pastor as the baptism started

Baptism prayer

After the ceremony, the Pastor walked Preston around the congregation and he LOVED it!

Presenting P as a baptized Child of God!

After the ceremony

The table set for the lunch before the party started

Cupcakes!

Close up of the cupcakes - complete with cross toppers from Etsy

God Bless Preston banner on the fireplace

Cake and Food

With my BFF K, who is Preston's godmother! And she's pregnant with a baby girl!! (aka Preston's future wife!)

I love these two boys!

J with his mini-me!

This is the best picture we could get with P's godparents - he was in the middle of a breakdown!

I love fall...

And being able to take Preston on fun fall activities makes it even better!

Hello Lover...

I was a very lucky girl and got the most amazing Birthday present this year - and my birthday isn't even for 2 more weeks! Jake surprised me with this beauty last night and I was literally speechless. He gave it to me early because he knew I wanted to take some good fall pictures of Preston - we are heading to the pumpkin patch with the little man tomorrow and you better believe this sucker will be coming to capture the cuteness!

So while I have NO idea how to use it, I look forward to playing around with it and hopefully getting better with taking good pictures. Any tips would be greatly appreciated - every single picture I took with it last night was with the flash HA! I might actually have to read the manual!

Happy Friday!

4 months!

Preston turned 4 months old on the 1st of this month - why is time flying by so fast?!?! 4 months has been the most fun month yet, but I'm sure I'll probably say that about every month/year from here on out!

Likes: Laughing, Tummy Time, his bottle, his hands, his feet, his lovey blanket, making really loud shrieking noises, talking to himself in his crib in the morning, watching the other babies in his daycare class, his exersaucer

Dislikes: his carseat unless we're moving, burping, taking naps at daycare

Milestones: Rolling over! Baby boy rolled belly to back for the first time on September 14th and has continued to do it pretty regularly during tummy time. Also, Preston is LOVING tummy time all the sudden, so when he does roll from his belly to his back, he gets pretty upset when he realizes he's on his back! I have a feeling that back to belly rolling may be right around the corner. It boggles my mind that we have a mobile baby!

He also *really* wants to sit up! And he can actually do it for a few seconds before toppling over. We are using the Bumbo quite a bit and I just ordered him a high chair, so that should make him happy since the recline on his bouncy chair is starting to frustrate him. 

Sleep: I'd say that the 4 month sleep regression has officially hit us, as baby boy abandoned his wonderful sleep habits and has had several nights recently of waking up 5-6 times. Yikes. I will say, when he wakes up, sometimes he is able to put himself back to sleep (score!) and the other times, we simply have to put his pacifier back in and hes back to sleep right away. So it's not like we're spending a ton of time awake, but getting out of bed 5 times in one night makes for a tired mama.

I think the sleep regression has really hit naps harder than night time sleep - P just does NOT want to takes naps anymore. He just hates to miss out on anything during the day while he's at school, so sometimes I pick him up from daycare and his teachers give me his nap report and there's three 15 minutes naps on it. Yeah, not good! Usually on weekends, I can get a few pretty good naps out of him - I think because it's quiet and there's not as much stimulation at home.

We also just recently ended the swaddle addiction and baby boy no longer requires being wrapped up like a burrito! He's sleeping arms free in just a sleep sack, which is awesome.

Schedule: P is eating 5 bottles a day, which are 6oz each. We have moved bedtime way up to between 6:30 and 7:00pm. If he ends up staying up any later than 7:00/7:15pm, we typically have a meltdown due to being overtired. He normally wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30am. Again, he's a fairly predictable little kiddo in terms of when he eats, which we are still really thankful for. Now if we could just get back on a nap routine, we'd be set!

Stats: At his 4 month appointment on October 1st, he weighed 14.7lbs and was 26" long. He's in the 50th percentile for weight and 95th for length. Super long skinny man, just like his dad! He's staying on the same growth curves that he has been on since birth, so he's growing exactly like he should be!

Generally, Preston is a pretty chill, happy little dude. But if he is unhappy - he will definitely let you know! He has had his fair share of meltdowns this month, generally stemming from being tired. But his happy mood outweighs his crankiness most days, which is great. He is super curious about the world around him (as evidenced by the photos from his 4 month photo shoot!) and loves to just take everything in.

It's been so much fun to watch how much he's grown and developed this month - it's crazy that he's so into everything. He can reach out and grab any toy you put in front of him, even laying on his belly, he can sort of scootch himself up to grab toys. He loves to look at books and is obsessed with anything that has a pattern, especially anything Jake and I are wearing. I love that you can see his brain working in overdrive pretty much all day. He is an amazing little boy and I'm so thankful that we get to watch him grow.

I seriously love this boy more than words can describe!

A Day in the Life...

I think it's fun to read other people's 'day in the life' posts, so I thought I would share our normal weekday!

Monday, September 24th:
5:23am - I hear P babbling in his crib. Yikes it's early. His new "thing" is to wake up early and "talk" and we gauge if he really needs/wants us or he's content to just hang out for a while. I watch him on the video monitor and he's happily talking to the canvases above his crib. I decided he's ok to stay in his crib and try to catch some more sleep.

6:20am - My alarm goes off. I must have fallen back to sleep and so did Preston because when I look at the monitor, he's fast asleep after his gab-fest this morning. Sweet.

6:25am - Jake gets out of bed and hops in the shower. I get up, throw on yoga pants and a t-shirt and put my contacts in. I am also super OCD about having our bed made, so I make it first thing on mornings that Preston is still asleep.

6:30am - I head into P's room and start to wake him up. I really hate to wake him up, but we have to get started on our morning to get everyone ready for work/daycare. He's always in a really good mood when I wake him up, so that helps. He grins at me as soon as his eyes open and I ask him how his dreams were. I unswaddle him and he stretches his arms up right away after having them tucked in all night.

6:35am - Diaper Change. He gets sort of fussy during this first diaper change because he's still semi-asleep so I normally spin the mobile over the changing table to distract him.

6:40am - We head downstairs and I grab his morning bottle out of the fridge. I gather my supplies - the boppy, a pacifier and a burp cloth. We sit on the couch, prop ourselves with the boppy and I start to feed him. Luckily, Preston takes his bottles cold right out of the fridge, which makes it so much easier for all of us.

6:47am - Time for his first burping break after about 2.5oz. I pull the bottle out and put his paci in as quickly as I can before he notices. This is our weird burping routine, but he will not burp without the paci because he gets so upset at having the bottle taken out of his mouth. He burps pretty quickly and I give him the bottle back. Happy baby.

6:53am - Bottle is now finished, so we do the final burp of the bottle and then cuddle on the couch. Jake comes downstairs after getting dressed for work and starts the coffee.

7:00am - I put P in his bouncy chair and hand him his blankey (a taggie blanket that he's completely obsessed with). He happily starts chewing on the tags and rubbing the minky fabric all over his face.

Loving on his blankey

7:05am - I make my normal breakfast...a bowl of cheerios with sliced strawberries. Jake is toasting his english muffin. He pours himself a cup of hot coffee and pours me a glass of iced coffee from the fridge. I make up a big pitcher of iced coffee on Sunday mornings to have all week.

7:15am - Breakfast is done for the adults so I move P into the kitchen in his chair and Jake gets the dog ready for her morning walk - she is lazy in the mornings so he has to drag her out of her bed and put on her collar. I clean up the kitchen, make the bottles for daycare and chat with Preston about random things while Jake walks Spencer.

7:32am - I take P and we head upstairs to change his diaper and get dressed for the day. The weather is weird (cold in the mornings but warm by afternoon) so it makes getting dressed more challenging. We decide on a short sleeve onesie and a pair of pants with feet built in because I cannot get socks to stay on his feet.

7:40am - Jake is back from walking the dog and he's feeding her breakfast. Preston and I stand in the kitchen chatting with Jake while he loads up Preston's bottles and leftovers for his lunch into a bag.

7:43am - Preston hates getting into his carseat, so as soon as we set him into it, he starts fussing. I give him his paci and he tolerates that as we buckle him in. I give him a final kiss and tell him to have a good day at school.

7:45am - Jake and Preston head off to work/school. I run upstairs to brush my teeth and grab a glass of water before heading down to my office in the basement to start working.

8:00am - Work computer is on and I answer a few emails to start my day.

8:10am - I realize it's a cloth diaper laundry day, so I start the load with a cold rinse. 

8:30am - Every Monday morning at 8:30am, I have a conference call with my team that lasts about an hour so I login to the call and put on my headset for the call. The call is pretty typical and everyone fills each other in on their schedules for the week. Working remotely, it's actually nice to have this check in to talk to my other team members since I rarely see them in person.

9:35am - Call is over and I go upstairs to fix myself a snack. I've been obsessed with Trader Joe's cookie butter, so I slice an apple and spread the cookie butter on it. Yum!

9:42am - I head back downstairs and look at my calendar. I have another conference call at 10:00am so I answer a few more emails before that call. I also do the hot wash for the cloth diapers.

10:00am - I call into my next conference call and it hasn't started yet, so I'm put on hold.

10:05am - Still on hold and listening to the muzak.

10:08am - Still on hold, so I send a quick email to the call organizer. He responds that he moved the call to 5:00pm today...thanks for the heads up! But then he tells me that I don't need to be on that call - sweet!

10:09am - Off the phone and answer yet a few more emails (sense a trend?). The diapers get their final cold rinse.

10:30am - I start my calls for the day and speak to several clients and type my notes into our shared access drive so I can have our team admin send out the thank you gifts to them - our customer appreciation week is coming up.

11:55am - I've made 9 calls and I decide it's time for a lunch break. Before going upstairs, I pull the diapers out, hang them on the drying rack and put them in the back yard to dry.

12:00pm - It's perfect running weather, so I want head out on a run before I eat. I change into my running clothes and put Spencer's harness on - she's my running partner!

12:04pm - We start our run and do our usual loop which is about 3 miles. It's so amazing outside so I'm tempted to go a little farther today, but I'm also hungry and my hunger wins out.

12:35pm - Arrive back home and Spencer and I both drink tons of water. She lays on the kitchen floor to cool off on the tile floor and I start to make myself a turkey and provolone sandwich.

12:40pm - I eat my sandwich on the couch while playing on Facebook. I get a handful of chocolate chips as dessert and a small glass of milk.

1:00pm - Back down in my basement office and I continue to make calls. I don't have any client appointments today, so I put off taking a shower for a few more minutes so I can finish up a bit early today and go get P from daycare.

3:23pm - Wrapping up my work for the day and I go upstairs to take a shower. After my shower (dressed back in yoga pants) I have a bunch of grapes and tidy up the house a little bit, mainly just putting baby items away and I Swiffer-vac the kitchen floor.

3:45pm - I head out to go pick up P from daycare. 

3:55pm - Arrive at daycare and get into P's classroom, where I find him happily eating a bottle while being held by his teacher, Ms. Regina.

4:00pm - I'm chatting with his other teacher, Ms. Terri, about how Preston's day was. She informs me that he did his normal "cat napping" that he started doing a few weeks ago, but he's been in a happy mood most of the day and loves going outside.

4:10pm - P has finished his bottle, so we get his stuff loaded up and head home.

4:25pm - Sitting in a bit of traffic to get home. Preston gets fussy because he hates his carseat if we aren't moving. I manage to toss his Lamaze Octopus toy into his carseat and it distracts him for about 5 minutes. Luckily we are close to home.

4:30pm - We arrive home, change his diaper and clothes and since he's in a pretty good mood, we do a little tummy time. Sometimes after daycare he's overstimulated and cranky but today he's tolerating the tummy time pretty well. He shows me his new trick - rolling over! OMG, mobile baby!

4:45pm - Preston starts squawking that he's had enough tummy time, so I scoop him up and take him downstairs. Spencer is giving me the "take me for a walk" eyes, so I load P up in the Beco (facing out - the only way he tolerates being worn now) put Spencer's leash on and we do a quick loop around our neighborhood. P is obsessed with being outside so he's happy to be looking around and I show him some leaves. He tries to reach out and grab them and I have to stop him from putting them in his mouth. How can I already have a baby who can do this sort of stuff???

5:10pm - We're back home. I get P out of the carrier, feed Spencer dinner and realize I need to think about what we're going to eat.

5:15pm - Preston is in his bouncy chair in the kitchen and he's giggling uncontrollably at his hands. Ahh simple pleasures! I typically put on the Jack Johnson Pandora station in the evenings and sing along, which he also thinks is quite funny. I pull out ground turkey from the freezer and thaw it out in the microwave. Since I haven't done any meal planning this week, we're having an exciting dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce. Easy and quick!

5:40pm - Jake is home! Everyone is happy to see him. I bring P upstairs while Jake is changing out of his work clothes. Preston lays on our bed and is mesmerized by the ceiling fan. We chat about our days and Jake does a game of "airplane" with P which they both love. While the boys are playing, I bring the diapers in from outside - they're dry!

6:05pm - Jake takes Preston downstairs and I gather up P's bath stuff. We do a bath every other night and tonight is a bath night. I fill up the bathtub in the kitchen sink and we get the little man naked and into the tub.

This is a common occurrence during bath time - Bubble afro!

6:15pm - Preston loves bath time, but he starts to get fussy, so we rinse him and get him wrapped up in the towel. Jake grabs his bedtime bottle and puts in his reflux medicine that he gets twice a day.

6:20pm - Upstairs we do an overnight diaper and PJ's. P is also dealing with some excema, so he gets a little lotion rub down/massage, which he actually doesn't like very much. He's definitely getting tired and hungry.

6:30pm - In the rocking chair in his room, I start his last bottle of the day and Jake asks which books Preston wants for tonight. We decide on Barnyard Dance (everyone's favorite!) and The Very Busy Spider.

6:45pm - Bottle is finished, so I cuddle P in the chair while Jake sits on the ottoman and reads both books. Preston loves looking at the pictures and reaches out to chew on the books.

7:05pm - I am still cuddling the little boy because it's my favorite part of the day. He's starting to fall asleep - we are working on getting him to go to sleep on his own, so I put him in his crib and swaddle him in the Miracle Blanet before he's all the way asleep. He gets his paci, a quick head rub and a good night kiss.

7:10pm - I grab the video monitor and we go downstairs to start cooking dinner.

7:15pm - Jake browns up the ground turkey and I grab the pasta. Dinner comes together really fast and I'm happy because I'm starving!

7:35pm - We sit down to eat in front of the TV in the living room - bad habit, but we like to watch Jeopardy while we eat! I check the monitor and P is fast asleep.

8:00pm - Kitchen is cleaned up. I work on stuffing the diapers so they're ready for tomorrow and Jake plays on the computer.

9:30pm - I'm half paying attention to what Jake is watching on TV and I check my email/read blogs/Facebook, etc. I think I should probably go to bed.

10:15pm - I make up a pitcher of formula so it's ready for tomorrow. I also make a bottle for the morning and put reflux medicine in it.

10:30pm - Face washed, teeth brushed and in bed. Jake takes the dog out for the last time.

10:40pm - Lights out and I'm pretty much asleep immediately!

Tomorrow it will start all over again!