8 Months!

Luke,

Time is flying by! You are 8 months old as of 11/25/11. You have changed so much in this last month!

• You wear size 3 Target brand diapers
• You are in 9 month Carter's clothes
• You have gotten TWO teeth on the bottom, but you refuse to let us look at them.
• You love to stand up on our ottomans, you are so proud of yourself!
• You put your paci in like it is just no big deal! Such a BIG boy!

• You were sleeping horribly... we went to Bend for Thanksgiving and you were up a lot. We did a modified cry it out (let you cry for 10 minutes, reassure you, do it again and again. Finally you put yourself to sleep and slept until 4am. I nursed you and you slept again till 7am.
• You generally take two 1.5 hour naps a day in your CRIB!! Sometimes, you will take a 45 minute nap in your swing in the late afternoon.
• You are nurse 5 times during the day and 1 time in the night. You eat 3-4 solid meals a day. You love drinking water out of a sippy cup with a straw!

• You started eating puffs! Cutest. Thing. Ever!!
• You have started to wave hi and bye!

• 

Halloween-I'm a tiger!!

First Halloween!

We ended up unexpectedly being in Bend for Halloween. It's a good thing I packed the costume! Luke was a tiger. So ferocious!

The benefit of being in Bend... is a horsey ride on Grandpa!

7 Months!

Luke-

You are 7 months old (a few weeks ago... I am a little late!)

• I think you weigh around 16.5 pounds or a little more. I am not sure how long you are, but you have grown out of your six month pants!
• We stopped using Fuzzi Bunz. The one sizes were leaking. I am watching for sales for the mediums and we may try again. You leak out of every diaper! Right now, we are using the Target brand (size 3).
• You wear 9 mo Carter's clothes, 6-12 month Gap clothes.
• You had your first round of antibiotics due to a strep infection in your hand. You poor thing!
• You eat solids 3-4 times a day and nurse every four hours. (You also eat about two times at night...)
• You are taking three naps a day, some in the swing, some in the crib. Each nap generally is 1.5 hours but some are 45 minutes.
• You have started standing while holding on to our ottoman and on the wood floors you can kind of slide backwards. You are no where near crawling, and I am really ok with that!
• You are so content!
• You have started reaching your arms up to me. It is the sweetest thing ever. (It reminds me that the wake up calls in the middle of the night are totally worth it!!)
• You like playing peek a boo.
• You now laugh at random things, sometimes at yourself!
• You are such a joy! We love you SO MUCH!

6 Months

Sweet Luke,

You are six months old! Each month gets better and better but here is what you have been up to this last month:

• You weigh 16 lbs 2.5 ounces and are 26 inches long (about the 40th percentile for both).
• You now wear a size 3 diaper and are almost too big for the size small Fuzzi Bunz.
• You wear Carter's 9 month onesies and 6 month pants.
• You eat solids 1-2 times per day and nurse about every 4 hours.
• You stayed in the church nursery for the first time when I went to my mom's group.
• You generally go to bed around 7pm and wake up around 7am (sometimes at 6am). You were sleeping awesome, but we took a trip to Bend and your great sleeping went OUT the window. In Bend, you were waking up every hour. Things are getting better... last night you nursed once and daddy rocked you once.
• Naps are all over the board. Sometimes you take awesome naps (2-2 hour naps a day!) and then some days you take 4-45 minute naps.
• You love Hannah and Charlie. You like to rub your face in their backs.
• You still love the bath. You now sit in the tub all by yourself (no more baby bath!)
• You love being outside and on the move.
• You sit up independently.
• You still only roll to the left to your tummy. You cannot roll from tummy to back yet.
• You LOVE your paci!

Fuss-It-Out

It has been quite the experience learning how to sleep with Luke. So many people advocated for crying-it-out, but it was something that I was just not comfortable with. I was, however, going in to his room at night after Luke was fussing for not very long because I was so tired and wanted him to go right back to sleep (nursing would do this for him).

I committed to letting him FIO (Fuss It Out) for five nights, giving up my precious, broken up sleep (and also kicking my husband out of the bed to go and get Luke to go back to sleep). There were two pretty long nights. One night, Luke fussed for 45 minutes (never cried) and put him back to sleep. Then he woke up thirty minutes later fussing and fussing and then crying. Erik woke up and rocked him three times in 2 hours to get him to go back to sleep.

Then, last Saturday night, he slept. He slept from 7pm-530am, then I nursed him, and he slept till 715am. I was shocked. I didn't sleep because I kept waking up thinking something was wrong (or waking up out of habit).

Sunday night, he did it again. He slept from 7pm-5am, nursed, and went back to sleep. Luckily, this night I did sleep and it felt incredible.

Monday night, he slept from 7pm and I didn't feel like pumping (so I tried a "dreamfeed" and nursed him at 10pm) He slept till SIX! He did not want to go back to sleep, but I was okay with that.

So I am finally becoming myself again. Praise God.

Retraction

Yesterday, I posted how incredible Luke's weekend was in regards to sleeping. Last night did not go so well. Hopefully it was because he was adjusting to being home. Just so I can remember the looooong nights, this was last night:

6:45pm-in crib, went to sleep on his own

11:45pm-fussing, made Erik try to pacify him

12:00am-still upset, go into nurse (of course he goes right back to sleep)

1:45am-fussing; Erik goes in again... I am exhausted.

4:00am-fussing/crying; it has been four hours so I go in and nurse him (again, he goes right back to sleep)

6:00am-really, Luke??? You are up AGAIN??? Usually if I nurse you at four, you sleep till AT LEAST SEVEN.

Obviously you would think that Luke would want to nap a lot today. But every single book I have read says: sleep begets sleep. Clearly, he did not want to nap.

This is what we looked like when Luke woke up forty five minutes into his nap, but he was soooo tired, so I held him. (I sat like this for an HOUR)

Let's be honest... I am exhausted. Last night was pretty typical of the last two months. I have not slept more than 3 hours in a stretch for months. Even though we are in a rough patch, I cannot help but to smile when I see this little cutie:
Luke, even in the exhaustion, you melt my heart!!!

5 Months!

5 Months!

August 25, 2011

Technically, you have been five months for a couple weeks now... but the charger to the computer broke, leaving me with no blogging capabilities.

Highlights:

• You wear 6 months Carter's clothes, but starting to wear 9 month onesies
• You wear size 2 Pampers diapers (only at night) you wear cloth during the day
• You found your feet in the bathtub!
• You are so ticklish, I can just barely touch your feet and you giggle!
• You now have eaten: avacados, apples, carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, green beans, prunes and now bananas. The only thing you really do not like are green beans.
• You are generally a very happy baby; you get fussy when you get tired.
• You still exclusively nurse and unfortunately stopped taking a bottle, so we are working on that.

Each month this is going to get a little harder; you are a wiggle worm!

• Sleeping at night: you have had a rough patch in this area... You wake up often after 45 minutes of going to sleep around 7. Then you started rolling over from your back to your tummy and getting stuck and frustrated. One night, I woke up NINE times to flip you over. I think you were going through a growth spurt the last couple weeks because you were waking up to eat 3 ish times a night to eat. You ate A LOT. This last weekend, we went to Bend, and you slept AWESOME! So, hopefully you just turned a new leaf.
• Napping: you usually take three naps a day. It is hard for you to get past 45 minutes (your sleep cycle), but when you do you can take a 2.5 hour nap.

This is us this last weekend in Bend:

We love you so very much! Seriously, my heart continues to melt whenever I see you!

Hair EVERYWHERE!!!!!!

I am about five months postpartum. My hair is falling out in clumps. When on earth does this stop? Please don't tell me I have to get pregnant again...

Jumpin Jumpin...

The kid loves the jumperoo! He likes to turn himself around to look at talk to the bookshelves. Those are obviously more exciting than the cool bird and frog hanging in front of him. He does pretty well for about fifteen minutes! (In fifteen minutes, I can clean the bathroom, empty the dishwasher, wipe down the kitchen... this is precious time!)

Goodbye Swing...

Dear My Little Sung-a-Bunny Fisher Price Swing,

I have deeply appreciated the long naps you have given Luke. Your warm embrace is priceless. We moved you out of Luke's room yesterday. I almost cried. Mostly, I was fearful of not having you part of our everyday life. Our first day without you was actually really rough. I was a bit edgy all day, doubting whether or not we could nap without you. The first three naps were horrible. There were lots of tears (no, we did not let Luke cry it out, but he were upset after every nap!) In the late afternoon, the heavens opened, and Luke slept for TWO HOURS in his crib. I was praising God for this milestone. So, Snug-a-Bunny, we say farewell. You will not be in the closet for too long (but don't worry, long enough), because the next little one will most likely find you just as comfortable. Except, we probably won't let our next child sleep in you several hours a day...

Love,

Becca

4 Month Update

FOUR MONTHS!!!

Luke, you are getting so big! Here are your stats from your well check up on 7/29/11:

You weigh 14 lbs 4.5 oz and are 24.5 inches long.

You still nurse exclusively (except for the occasional bottle that daddy gives you so I can sleep!) every three hours during the day. You have gone through a bit of a bump in the road in regards to sleeping. You get up twice a night to eat... although you really are not that hungry the second time I come in so we will be trying to eliminate that feeding. You sleep 7pm-7am with two night wakings.

Just this last weekend we decided it was time for you to stop napping in your swing. (ouch!) Up until this point you have only taken a 45 minute nap in your crib (you wake up in between sleep cycles). Saturday, you took an hour and 15 minute nap in your crib and today you took an hour and a half nap in it!

We got the okay from Dr. M to start solids! We started with rice cereal... you were not that big of fan.

Even though you didn't love it, we still got a smile out of you!

After two nights of rice cereal, I decided to add in some avacado. You liked this a lot better. I will stick with avacado for 4 days or so to make sure you do not have a reaction. You look a little silly being only in a diaper in your highchair!

You still wear Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers, but they are giving you diaper rash. I am trying to stick it out and continue them... We have resorted to a disposable at night.

BIG CHANGES THIS MONTH:

-you laughed for the first time... adorable!

-you are alert and notice everything around you.

-you think clapping is really funny!

-I started working from home (10 hours a week)

-I stopped napping all the time :-)

-You are now in a convertible car seat (Britax Advocate CS)

-You are working on rolling over; you get to your side pretty easily!

Honestly, as each month goes by I fall more and more in love with you. I am so grateful that God chose me to be your mama! You are such a joy!! We are in a good rhythm and I am getting back into the swing of things with working out, devotionals, cleaning, and cooking :-)

Charlie and Chicken

We have two adorable dogs, Hannah and Charlie. Hannah is quiet, sweet, well mannered, and not the brightest crayon in the box. Charlie is hyper, crazy, cuddly, and crazy. We adopted Hannah first and never needed to crate her while we were away. Charlie on the other hand, needs to be locked up every time we leave! We learned the hard way in the beginning when we came home to our laptop computer (while we were in college) and all the keys had been eaten off. Charlie has done a host of crazy things, but yesterday topped it off.

Yesterday morning, I put three frozen chicken breasts on the counter in a dish to defrost for a bit (I was trying to be super prepared and have dinner all ready when Erik came home). Usually we make sure all the food is off the counter because Charlie has the ability to JUMP on the barstools and UP on the counter. I was upstairs feeding Luke and we were on our way to run an errand. I noticed that the dish I left the chicken in was empty. I thought for a second that Erik had put them in the fridge or something (sleep deprived!) Then, I looked at Charlie, his wet beard, and his drooping tail and figured it out. HE ATE THREE FROZEN CHICKEN BREASTS!

I put the dogs in their crates and ran out the door to pick up Erik to go run an errand. As I told Erik, he suggested I called the vet, just in case. I called our vet and she said that dogs with digestive issues are prescribed a chicken diet and well... Charlie clearly had enough chicken (for a lifetime). She said to bring him in and they could induce vomiting. The $$$ in my head were flashing. Our vet is 20 minutes away... 1 tired baby during nap time + 1 sick dog=NO FUN. I called another vet (2 minutes from our house) and the receptionist was shocked that we had a 20 pound dog and not a lab! The vet she spoke with was cracking up. She said to just watch him throughout the day...

Good news is Charlie is doing much better than yesterday (view the video below), bad news is... he made a MESS in the office today from being sick.

Oh Charlie.

Am I Normal?

How much sleep do you all need? I feel a bit ridiculous... I have a three month old, who most nights only wakes up ONCE for a quick feed! Although I do have issues falling asleep (takes me a while), I go to bed at a reasonable time (Between 9 and 10) and wake up at 7. It is really hard for me to fall BACK asleep after I feed Luke. This SHOULD be enough sleep for your average person, right?? I have been taking TWO naps a day while Luke naps. Can I blame this on nursing? The interrupted sleep? Could I still just be REALLY behind from an exhausting birth experience? HELP!

How many of you mamas nap when you kids nap? I am not complaining, but it makes weekends so hard because I want to spend all my awake time with my dear hubby. I have always needed a lot of sleep... I just want to LIVE LIFE and not sleep it away!

Luke, two days old in the hospital... sleeping...

Strawberry Pizza (with NO picture!)

I am sorry, there is no picture of this... Maybe I will have to make it AGAIN just to take a picture :-) Honestly, it gets eaten so quickly there is no time for a picture!

Ingredients:

-a package of sugar cookie dough

-8 oz cream cheese

-1 cup powdered sugar

-8 oz cool whip

-1 T. vanilla

-a pint of strawberries

-strawberry glaze

Directions:

Spread out cookie dough on cookie sheet. (I like it a little thick so it is soft and NOT crunchy!) Mix together cream cheese, powdered sugar, cool whip and vanilla. Spread on cooled cookie crust. Slice up strawberries and add to a little bit of glaze. Spread the strawberries over the whipped topping evenly. YUMMY!!!

Commenting Challenge

I am doing a commenting challenge from Jenna's Journey... Link up!

I am fairly new to the blog world, so hopefully this way I can meet some fellow bloggers!

A little bit about me...

* I was born and raised in Central Oregon.

* I married my high school sweetheart in college, when I was 21. We just had our first baby, Luke, after struggling with infertility for a year.

*I am still on maternity leave; planning on dabbling in the work at home world...

*We have two sweet dogs, Charlie and Hannah.

* I LOVE Target and Starbucks.

* I have one sweet sister, Katy.

Hop on over to Jenna's Journey to participate!

Luke Laughs for the First Time!!

This is the cutest video... Ever! Blake, one of Luke's best buds was tickling his feet and Luke had his first full on laugh! This is sweet sweet music to my ears! He is 14 weeks old.

Meeting Great Grandparents

Two weeks ago we made the trek to Bend to do two things: have Luke meet his great grandparents Chan and Nancy and throw a small surprise birthday party for my sister, Katy! Chan and Nancy were here from Boise, so we took the opportunity to come see them! We left during Luke's morning nap Saturday morning (which, worked great!!! He didn't cry once!) and made it to Chuck and Debbies by 10:30am. Debbie and I whipped up a strawberry pizza for Katy's surprise party! We left Sunday during Luke's afternoon nap. He broke down as we pulled into Corvallis. We are so blessed!!

Four generations of Hammagren men!

The whole Hammagren family!

Katy is surprised at Ten Barrel!

Bath time at Grammy and Grandpas!

Loving my sweet boy!

3 Months!

This post is a little late (I am WAY behind on blogging!)

Luke, you are THREE months old!

You are starting to wear 3-6 months Old Navy Clothes, 6 months in Carters. We started using Fuzzi Bunz cloth diapers, and they are going really well! Your bum is super cute :0)

You have been sleeping great at night. You go to sleep around 7pm and wake up between 4am and 530 to eat and then back to sleep till 7-730am ish. Some nights you are rocked to sleep, some nights you nurse to sleep, and some nights we put you in your crib wide awake and you put yourself to sleep!

You are holding onto toys and batting at them while you are on your activity mat. You are doing awesome in the Bumbo.

During the day, you take great naps in your swing. I know we need to get you to nap in your crib, but you will sleep for 2.5 hours in your swing and only an hour in your crib. Hopefully you will grow out of the swing (not just physically!!)

We are seriously loving every minute with you! I cannot believe how much I love being a mama. I am exhausted but have so much joy; it is indescribable.

I had to go to some meetings for work and Grammy (Debbie) and Aunt Lisa drove ALL the way from Bend to watch you. You are a blessed little boy! It was a good introduction to go back to work. Thankfully, I will be able to do most of it from home while you nap.

You and your buddy Blake... He made you laugh for the first time... Will post on that soon!

Meeting Great Grandma and Portland Shower

Saturday was our first day trip out of the house! It went really well, but we were all exhausted by the time we got home. I am sure that will get easier as we do it more often.

Grammy and Grandpa came on Friday to hang out with Luke. I got a nap in the afternoon (YAY!) We went to Flat Tail Brewing in downtown Corvallis for dinner. We all decided we do not need to go back :-)

Saturday we left early so we could meet my Grandma Wheeler (my dad's mom). She was in love with Luke and held him for an hour! He also got to meet my cousin John and Aunt Pam. It was sweet to see her interact with him. A memory I will always remember :-)

Then, Luke pooped... and Grandma Wheeler felt it.

Cousin John holding Luke:

Then we headed out to a family shower that Erik's family had for us. His aunts, uncles and cousins were all there to welcome and meet Luke. It was so great to see everyone and for Luke to get lots of holding from friends and family.

We then took him to his most important outing... T-A-C-O H-O-U-S-E!!! We haven't been there since a week before he was born. The waiter that is always there greeted us and remembered that I was pregnant and was excited to see Luke. We must drive to Portland to go to Taco House a little too often...

Thank you to everyone who showered Luke with gifts and love!!! We are so blessed!

One Month!

Friday, April 22

Luke is one month old today, or four weeks old?! Oh. my. gosh. Where did the last four weeks go?! We are trying to settle in to life as a family of three. I am still healing and anxious to be all better so I can be 100% for Luke. I am still going to physical therapy for my silly tail bone.

Here is what you are up to Luke!

You are 9lbs 8 oz as of Wednesday, April 20.

We call you our little froggy.

You wear some Carter's newborn clothes and three month jammies. Old Navy clothes 0-3 months fit you pretty well.

You are wearing Pampers Newborn size diapers.

You have put yourself on a semi-schedule for eating. You ea

t at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, then daddy gives you a bottle between 10pm-11pm, then you wake up between 2am and 3am to eat. This gives me a nice stretch of sleep in the beginning of the night and daddy sleeps well from 10pm- 7am.

Last night you slept from 9:30pm (we put you down TOO late!! OOPS!) until 4am (with a feed from dad at 1am. His alarm didn't wake him up at 11pm)

You love your paci as you fall asleep. You are a content and sweet baby. You get fussy when you get tired or need to burp (or poop!) You LOVE the bath every night and being dried by the hairdryer :-)

Today you smiled at me for the very first time intentionally (I think!) We were in bed and you were in the Boppy and I was kissing your little hands and you looked at me with your bright eyes and let out a BIG grin!! Maybe it was gas, but I am going to pretend it was real :-) You are starting to coo a teeny bit.

Your bedtime routine is:

7 pm you eat, then get a bath with a blow dry, then some naked tummy time, then we pray with you, then we put you down and you usually fall asleep on your own with your paci.

We LOVE you SO very much! We love watching you grow!

Life at home with Luke

Luke is 3 weeks old tomorrow. THREE WEEKS! Where did the last three weeks go? Besides changing diapers, feeding, cuddling, and trying to sleep in between, I am not sure three weeks have ever gone by so fast. (Although at two o'clock in the morning it doesn't necessarily seem that fast!)

At Luke's two week appt he weighed 8 lbs 8 oz (passed up his birth weight of 8 lbs 2 oz! Go Luke!) and grew 3/4 of an inch. He is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height.

This is at his dr. appointment:

He is doing well with tummy time and LOVES his baths. Daddy loves coming home at lunch to hold him and is with him most of the evening. The last few days we have started a routine where we give him a bath around 8 and then I go to sleep around 830 and Erik brings him in to eat at 10. This helps me get a kick start on the nights...

Grammy (Debbie) left yesterday. We are so thankful for all her help! She cooked and cleaned and had lots of cuddle time with Luke.

Now we are trying to figure it out on our own, but still REALLY thankful for all the dinners that are coming the end of the week and part of next week. What an incredible blessing!!

Newborn Pictures

She caught Luke giving off a precious smile!

We had newborn pictures taken when Luke was one week old. We really wanted to capture him being so tiny and are SO glad we made the investment. Marci, the photographer, is a mama to seven kids herself, so she knew exactly how to take great pictures of Luke. She stayed with us for a few hours (I even fed Luke in the middle of the shoot!)

Seeing these pictures gives me the chills! He is so precious! If you ever need an awesome photographer, look up Marci at www.marcib.com.

We had to include the other furry family members Charlie and Hannah (by the way, they have been AWESOME with Luke!!):