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...