11 months under my belt.

As I quickly approach the one year mark with Joseph/Joe/JoJo (I still have no idea what I’m going to call the kid), I honestly can’t believe how quickly the year has flown.  I know I keep saying that, but it seriously blows my mind, man.  I mean, one minute I’m in the hospital having my baby, the next minute I’m freaking the heck out because his one year birthday is right around the corner, and I’ve done nothing – NOTHING – to prepare.  And I’m not just saying that.  I’ve really done nothing.  Who wants to help me put together a party.  I will pay you. 

…with beer.

God, help me. 

First, pictures.  Now that I have a new camera battery charger, I didn’t have to use my phone to take crappy shots.  I could use my nice camera to take crappy shots.  Photographer I am not.


If you’ll notice, the photos that are blog-worthy are fewer and fewer each month.  That’s because this kid refuses to sit still for longer than 20 seconds.  As you can tell in the last shot, he’s already totally over it and ready to move on in life.  Photos with Anna?  Heck no.  He’s not havin’ it.  Oh well, I tried.

The majority of his photos look like this:
 
Here’s a monthly comparison (click to see it enlarged):
 
Temperament:

Impatient is the word of the month.  Joe wants what he wants when he wants it, and if he doesn’t get it, your ear drums will pay dearly.  He’s still a very sweet little boy, and he still gets lots of compliments from daycare and other people who watch him, but Lord have mercy the kid has melt-downs of epic proportions if he doesn’t get what he wants (usually food, sometimes attention).  I think he’s really coming into his own these days and understanding his wants and needs.  And while I welcome this assertiveness as I know it means he’s blossoming into a toddler, I do have to say that I admit the more passive days of old. 

Feeding:
Bottomless pit = Joe (my husband and my son).  There are no foods that he turns away from at this point.  Green beans?  Yes.  Peas?  Yum.  Squash, carrots, chicken and rice?  Heck yes!  He’s not quite eating table food yet although I do think he’s ready.  I’ve been giving him yogurt melts and puffs, and he’s mastered the fine art of eating those, so I do think he’s ready to move on to more substantial foods now.  I do have some concerns about his lack of weight gain and small size (more on that later) considering he eats so much yet never gets any bigger. 

Per his pediatrician’s recommendation, today I started mixing his formula with whole milk.  I’m hoping that 1) he will tolerate it well and 2) it will help him put some much needed chub on those bones.

Sleeping:
Sleeping goes well most nights. After the sleep training technique was used, he manages to stay asleep most nights all through the night.  If he wakes up and cries, I just let him cry it out for a few minutes, and he usually puts himself back to sleep.  I try to not give him a bottle in the middle of the night, but there have been a few nights here and there where he refuses to fall back asleep, and to save my sanity, I give in and give him a bottle.  We do what we have to do in the midst of sleep deprivation.

Milestones:
He’s still not walking yet, but he’s standing for longer periods of time on his own.  He will let me lead him around, and he will move his feet to walk, so I know it’s only a matter of time. 

He’s had a bit of a verbal explosion over the past month, so I’m wondering if he’s going to be a verbal child.  Here’s what he can say so far (and attribute it correctly):
- Mama
- Dada
- Ann (for Anna)
- Ca (for cat)
- Baba (bottle)
- Uh (for uh oh)

He understands certain phrases like “go ni-night” or “look at the birds” (and I point to his mobile) or “did you go poo poo?” – I say that one a lot. 

Health:
There’s always drama on this front.  It seems like my poor boy is always sick with something.  This month?  Skin lesions. Or the correct medical term is nummular eczema.  After the first lesion popped out, I was convinced he had ring-worm.  Once the lesions started popping up in different areas, I knew we were dealing with something entirely different, so I took him in to the pediatrician for a look-see.  So, he has skin allergies to something – food, environment, stress, who knows?  Needle, meet haystack.  After a horrific blood draw at the doctor, hopefully we will have some answers.  They’re going to run an allergy panel on him, check to see if he has gluten allergies or whatever else may cause the eczema.  Good times.

For now, I have to put some cream on the lesions twice/day, use fragrance free detergents, don’t try anything new food-wise, and hope and pray to baby Jesus that the environmental allergens aren’t coming from my precious cats.  That was the pediatrician’s first question – do you have any cats?  She also said that based on his swollen eyes that it’s probably for sure an allergy.  We just have to figure out from what. 

I was also concerned about Joe’s small size, so I brought it up.  When they weighed him there, he’d only gained 1 ounce since his NINE MONTH visit.  ONE OUNCE!  Granted, he’s had some really awful stomach viruses (Oh yeah, I haven’t mentioned that yet), so she said that could be a set-back for him, but he’s in the 5th percentile with weight now, and it’s definitely worrisome.  Hopefully the tests will come back with something conclusive.  I don’t know.  We shall see.

Size:
As mentioned above, my kid is small.  He’s much smaller that most of the infants in his class.  And now that it’s confirmed he’s in the 5th percentile for weight, I don’t imagine he’ll be growing out of his 9 months – 12 months clothes anytime soon.  Still in size 3 diapers.  Size 3 – 4 shoes. 

Activities:
My mom and sister came over a few weekends ago and brought the kiddos with them.  It’s always totally crazy and chaotic in my house with four kids, but we have such a great time.  Anna and my nephew Jackson had a picnic in the back yard.  Please excuse the powder puff outfit Jackson had on.  He obviously dressed himself.  Future blackmail photos?!

 
And of course the “twins” (Joe and my niece Jocelyn) were having crib wars. 
(And before you call CPS on me, yes, that outlet has been covered – I’d just taken off the bumper earlier that day.)
Joe obviously doesn’t like being woken up.  Poor kid.

’Til next month.  Or in Natalie time, two months from now.

10 months under my belt (belated).

I'm a horrible baby mama in getting these blogs written in a reasonable amount of time.  This is the amount of free time I have lately... 0.  Between work, driving to and from work (my commute is about an hour now), getting the kids from daycare, trying (operative word is trying) to get in a gym workout/run a few times/week, having the ability to actually sit down and write a blog is not within my scope of accomplishment.

But, alas, I'm here now, so let's do it.

Temperament:
Jojo is still an angel.  A squeaky, snotty angel, but an angel nonetheless.  He's a bit more impatient these days and will squeal like a large, scary bird when he doesn't get his bottle or next bite of food right away.  His teachers have even commented how he fusses when OTHER babies are eating.  Chill, boy, chill.  He's still a charmer with his big smile and sweet eyes.  He's great with other babies and other people.

Feeding:
The boy is a pig.  He's drinking about 6 - 8 ounces of formula every 90+ minutes.  He isn't too keen on the purees, so we've started introducing regular foods to his diet as well.  He's tried bananas, apples, grapes (cut up super tiny), some cheesy biscuits we got at a local restaurant, and puffs.  He does great with most of the foods although he will get a bit gaggy from time to time - especially with the grapes.  His pincer grasp function is great, so he can feed himself the bits of food.  I'm still not comfortable with the more solid types of food, so he's still eating mostly purees and just drinking his bottles. 

Sleeping:
He's still doing great sleeping through the night.  He will wake up every once in a while with a cough, but I go in his room and give him a pacifier (he only takes it when he's sleeping), and he falls right back to sleep.  He's still napping every 90 minutes or so based on the sleep cycle our pedi recommended, but he does have days where he just flat out refuses to nap still. 

Milestones:
He had a huge month last month with his milestones, but these past few weeks have been pretty quiet.  He's perfected his crawl, and he's able to pull himself and stand while holding onto something.  The other day he stood back from the coffee table and actually stood on his own for about 2 seconds, but once he realized he wasn't holding on, he quickly sat himself down. I keep trying to get him to take a few steps with me while holding his hands, but he doesn't like that too much.  He sits down and is like, "Hell naw." 

He's started blowing raspberries and will mimic you if you do it back to him.  He's also saying one syllable words like da for dada and uh for uh oh.  When I say certain words to him, I can see the little cogs going in his mind, and I know he's just so ready to blurt it all out.  One day, son.

Addendum: He’s clapping and saying dada now.  (2-23-13)

Health:
Well, he still has the snot-nose and the cough, but we have official word from the ER docs that he just has a chronic cold and nothing more than that.  After a pretty big scare one night when his temp was super high, we decided to take him to the ER to make sure he was OK.  After a chest x-ray and full exam, and another RSV test, they ruled out everything other than a common cold and instructed us to just keep suctioning that funk out.  I also got him a cool mist humidifier that I leave on in his room all night. I actually want one for my room now!  It's the perfect white noise, and it makes his room feel so cool and comfortable.  I haven't noticed much difference other than his cough sounds better.  We've taken him to multiple doctors since he's had RSV, and they've all told us that he will have this over-production of mucous until he's a bit older.  RSV is bad stuff, yo.

Size:
He hasn't really grown much lately.  We're still stalled at him being in size 3 diapers and 9 - 12 months clothes.  He's super long, so most of his pants are high-waters.  Size 3 shoes. According to the ER doctor, his 7 month old daughter could eat my son alive, so he’s definitely a peanut.

Activities:
We haven't been able to do much as a family lately - NO TIME!  Hopefully this summer we can all go to Destin for a weekend.  I think the kids would love the beach!

Siblings:
I'm still dealing with the sibling jealousy with Anna.  If I so much as look a JoJo or play with him for a few seconds, she immediately jumps in front and wants me to play with her only.  I'm trying my best to make her feel like she's loved and there's no reason for her to feel insecure, but she still seems pretty insecure about Joe.  So, now I've instituted Anna and mommy time where we go in my bed and have girl talk about her day/my day.  She tells me about her boyfriend Mason and how she's going to marry him at school, etc.  It's kind of adorable.  I hope she knows how important she is and that my love for her has not been replaced, it's just grown.  How do you deal with this as a mom of two?

To add one more checkmark to the mom-fail category, I somehow managed to misplace my camera  battery charger and didn’t realize it until I was ready to take Joe’s 10 month photos (a week late, mind you).  So, I had to use my cell phone, and of course the quality is total crap.  I figure some pictures are better than none, so here are his 10 month photos.



Watch my baby grow: 

9 months under my belt.

Happy belated 9 months, little JoJo.  First, as always, pictures. 

We are in the midst of teething hell.  This photo session went sour very quickly.


Temperament: The happiest baby on the block?  Yep, that’s Joe.  Well, except for his 9 month baby photos.  Sweet, happy, smiles easily, laughs all the time – he’s just a true joy to be around.  And I’m not the only person who thinks this.  Random strangers comment on his disposition.  His teachers love him.  Relatives, friends, checkout cashiers at Target – everyone comments on how happy he is.  I think he’s going to be just like his dad in that respect, so yay! I think he’s cutting more teeth, so he hasn’t been as happy, but even with teeth popping out all over the place, the kid is still a trooper.

Feeding:
I’m very sad to say that I’m no longer nursing.  JoJo basically made the decision on his own to stop nursing, and he self-weaned when I wasn’t really expecting it.  After starting back at work and being away from him so long during the day, he just got used to bottles and enjoyed the ease of them.  I’m glad I made it to 8.5/9 months, but I’d be lying if I said I was ready to stop.  Granted, I didn’t like having to pump in the middle of the day, but I enjoyed the bonding time with him and felt proud of myself to have made it this long. 

Oh well, now my body is truly my body, and I can drink as much caffeine as I want without having to worry about keeping him up all night.  I have to keep telling myself this so I won’t be too upset about it.  He’s thriving on formula at this point (just like Anna did), putting on weight, finally growing hair.  I just don’t think my milk had enough calories or fat for him, so at least I feel like he’s in a good place. 

He eats solids about twice/day – usually carrots, squash.  We gave him some puffs, and he’s doing a great job using his pincer grasp to put the puffs into his mouth.  Although he realized he could dump the puffs out on the floor and eat them like a dog, but that’s another story for another day. 

Sleeping:
Thanks to our wonderful, new pediatrician, my son finally sleeps through the night!  Amazing, amazing news!  At his 9 month well-baby visit, she somewhat scolded me for putting up with his sleepless shenanigans and explained, in-depth, how to sleep train.  After one night, ONE, the kid STTN.  I kid you not.  Granted, he still wakes up at least once nightly and whines, but after about 1 minute, he puts himself back to sleep.  It’s glorious.  GLORIOUS! 

I’ve moved him to his crib now, so not only does he sleep there at night, he also naps there during the day.  The kid wasn’t even napping before, but now he naps every 2 hours for an hour at a time.  The doctor explained that babies have a 90 minute cycle – wake, eat, play, sleep.  That’s it.  She says that if you watch for cues at the end of 90 minutes, you will see that your baby is tired.  So, I tried it, and she’s right.  Within 90 minutes of waking, JoJo starts rubbing his eyes, fussing more than usual, burying his head in the carpet – stuff like that. 

Edited to add:
I've had a few people contact me about how I was able to sleep train Joseph.  Here's what I wrote to a friend of mine about the methods I used per my pediatrician's instructions.

My pedi uses three different methods - the 90 minute baby sleep program, Ferber, and, um, I forgot the third. FAIL. Anyway, she says that with her own two, she was able to use different pieces of each method to find a way that works best for most.

Every 90 minutes, a baby cycles. A typical cycle would be this:

Wake
Eat
Play
Sleep

So, every 90 minutes, your child should be taking a nap. The more your child naps, the better she will sleep during the night. So, if you follow this schedule exactly, you'll notice that at the end of the 90 minutes, she will give you sleepy cues - fussy, rubbing eyes, pulling at ears, etc. Put her to bed using this method...
Turn off the lights in the room, put on a sound machine or whatever white noise machine you want, rock her and sing her favorite song or read her a book, then put her down in her crib without saying a word.
You have to make sure that you do this same exact method every time without changing anything up. Rock, sing, read, put to sleep w/o speaking.

Walk out of the room.

Give her one minute. If she fusses, go back in, rub her back or her head and walk out without saying anything. Wait three minutes. Do the same if she's still fussing. Wait 5 minutes and do the same. Wait 8 minutes, etc. Keep doing this cycle by spacing out every 3 minutes until you reach an hour. If she's not asleep within an hour, wake her up for a while more and then start it over again. Don't deviate from any of it.
You will need to give her a lovey. My pedi recommended carrying it around in your shirt for a few hours (especially if you nurse) so your smell will be on it. Once she has the lovey, she will use that in place of comfort from you.

Anyway, this is the gist of it. It worked for us in one night. Now he just goes to sleep on his own without much intervention at all. I don't even have to rock him or sing to him. He will fuss for a minute or two, but once he knows it's time to sleep, he's out. And he stays out all night. He wakes up still at 3 a.m., but he goes back to sleep within about 1 minute. And I no longer have to give him a bottle in his bed which is HUGE.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Good luck!

Milestones: - He’s gone from army crawling to full-on crawling on his hands and knees. 
- He can easily pick himself up to standing if he’s holding on to something.
- He has started semi-cruising around furniture (takes one or two steps)
- He’s saying “mama” and knows it relates to me.  He’s attempting to say other words like “baba”
- He has 6 teeth and more on the way (not sure how many are popping up at this point since every time I try to feel, he nearly bites my finger off)



Health: Health-wise, Joe has been doing fairly well.  He’s still snotty and has random coughing episodes. At his 9 month well-baby visit, the doctor said that since he had a case of RSV, he will always have reactive airway disorder (I think that’s the name) where his body will go into over-drive anytime he contracts a respiratory infection and produce excess phlegm.  It’s all in his upper chest and not cause for too much concern, but she did say to keep an eye on it and give him breathing treatments if he seems to have issues breathing (which he did last night – thank God for our nebulizer). 

Other than that, he’s been doing really well. 

Stats:
Head – 17 1/2” (25th percentile)
Length – 28 1/4 (50th percentile)
Weight – 19 (25th percentile)
He’s still long and lean, but given his activity level, it’s to be expected.  He’s always active and all over the place when he’s awake. 

Size: He’s wearing size 9 – 12 months clothes; 12 months pants for the length.  Size 3 diapers.  Size 3 shoes.

Activities: We celebrated Christmas this year with both kids, and it was such a blast watching Anna and Joseph play together.  I will post pics and a recap soon.

Siblings: Lots on this front this month.  Anna has kicked into jealous-overdrive and has somewhat turned against Joseph.  She still loves him, but she’s very protective of me and will step in anytime I’m trying to play with Joseph or take care of him.  She wants all of my time to be focused on her, and I’m just not sure how I can do this without neglecting Joseph.  It’s been a really hard balance trying to keep her feeling loved and still having bonding time with my baby.  I thought I was going to just by-pass the sibling rivalry at least for now, but Anna is more than making up for it lately.  How do you deal with sibling jealous/rivalry in your household?  I’m up for any suggestions here.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a happy New Year.  Hopefully your year has been great! 

8 months under my belt & Merry Christmas!

8 months.  2 weeks late (again), yes, but at least I’m trying, right?  Working 5 days a week in the office has really zapped all of my blogging energy, so I do what I can when I can.   

Here’s my little man for his photo session (which was taken right around 8 months). 

 

Temperament:

Happy.  That’s the one word I would use to describe Joseph.   He’s very easy going, very adaptable to new people and new situations, always smiling and laughing, rarely does he get fussy.  He started a new daycare last week, and his teacher put on his daily report that he had the best first day ever and was smiling and laughing the whole day.  Yep, that about sums him up.  They just left out the part where he’s a ball of energy and constantly into everything. 

Feeding:
I’m still nursing, but at this point it’s mainly for comfort.  Since starting work, my supply has dwindled quite a bit.  I don’t even have to pump in the middle of the day anymore.  He prefers the bottle now.  Since I’m not ready to quit nursing just yet, I’ll continue as long as he will let me.  Call me selfish, but I’m just not ready to quit yet. 

He seems to be less fond of solids these past few weeks, and I’m not really sure why.  He honestly doesn’t seem to have a preference for anything at this point.  I’ve been mixing his vitamins and probiotics with his food, so maybe he’s on to me?

Sleeping:
Nightmare.  Total nightmare.  He’s sleeping worse now than he did as a newborn.  The major problem with this?  I have to work now.  How I’m able to function is beyond me.  It’s amazing just how sleep deprived one can be.  He typically goes to bed around 8:30ish (sometimes a bit earlier) and wakes at 12.  Again at 2.  Again at 4.  Again at 6.  Yes.  No matter what I do before bed – feed him solids, formula, nurse, make him stay up longer, make him take more naps during the day, shorter naps during the day – none of it makes any difference.  So, I’m about to start using the Ferber method on him to see if I can get the boy to learn how to self-soothe.  At this point, I know that’s the problem.  He refuses a paci most days, so my options are pretty limited. 

Milestones: 
This month has been HUGE as far as milestones go.  Here’s what he’s working on currently:

- He can sit up all on his own
- He can army crawl super fast
- He’s starting to lift his butt up in the air and his legs straight in an attempt to stand
- He’s starting to rock on his knees and hands in an attempt to crawl
- He can stand with assistance and even walks a few steps
- He can stand while holding on to something
- He’s starting to pull himself up in his pack-n-play to peer over the side

      

Here’s a video of a few of those things:
 


He’s sprouting about 6 teeth (that I’ve been able to count).  It’s crazy how quickly all of his teeth are coming in. 

Health:
He still has a nasty cough, but things seem to be getting better.  Still snotty, but I guess that’s to be expected.  It seems like kids his age are always snotty.  He had a bad diaper rash for a few days, but some extra-strength Butt Paste really helped. 

Size:
He’s wearing 9 – 12 months clothes and size 3 diapers.  Size 2 shoes.  He’s super long and has out grown most of his pants. 

Activities: 
We took the kids to see Santa this year at Bass Pro Shops.  The Santa there is so nice and believable.  Now that they have a ticket system where you make an appointment and only have to wait about 10 minutes, it’s much easier to get a good shot with the kids. 



We were also able to take some family photos this year.  I absolutely LOVE the way they turned out.  Thanks to my friend Sandra at Eau Claire Photographics for doing such a fantastic job! 



From our family to yours, may you have a blessed Christmas and a very happy New Year.