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! 

7 months under my belt.

So, here I am writing the 7 month post two weeks late. Technically JoJo (Joseph, Joe, Little Joe – we’ve yet to figure out what we’re going to call him) is 7 months and 2 weeks as of the date of this post, but I’m going to assume that Joseph at 7 months and 2 weeks is the same Joseph at exactly 7 months. 

Here’s my little man for his photo session (which was taken right around 7 months).

Looks like he’s whispering sweet nothings into the owl’s ear.

 
Temperament:

Now that Joe is becoming more mobile, I can definitely see into my future, and it’s going to be a hectic place.  He’s very strong and wild, and every little boy trait that I see in crazy little boys I’m now starting to see in my own little boy.  I didn’t have to baby proof much with Anna.  I have a feeling that I’ll have to bubble wrap my house once this little man is totally mobile. 

Despite his wildness, he’s still the sweetest baby I’ve ever been around.  He smiles and laughs and has no fear of strangers or new places.  He’s a charmer for sure. 

He rarely fusses or cries, and when he does fuss, it’s usually because he’s tired or hungry.  Even then he quiets very quickly when I pick him up or give him what he needs.  Rarely have we had a total melt-down where a little TLC didn’t fix him.

Feeding:
I started my new job this past month and was a bit worried about if I’d continue nursing.  I’ve made it work thus far and am happy to say that I’m still going strong in this department.  I just have to pump once daily at work, and I nurse Joe the rest of the time when I’m with him.  Since I don’t quite make enough milk, he’s supplemented with formula while he’s at daycare.  He does great with the transition.  My new goal is to make it to 9 months.  And then 1 year.  I’m not going to put any pressure on myself at this point because I’ve made it a lot longer than I ever thought I would.  He’s healthy, happy, and thriving regardless, so I’m content.

He loves the following solids:
Squash
Sweet potatoes

Turkey and carrots (YUCK)
Bananas
Pears
Carrots
Apples

He doesn’t like:
Green beans
Peas
Mixed vegetables

Sleeping:
Well, we’ve finally transitioned him once and for all into the Pack-N-Play.  The Rock-N-Play is not a safe sleeper once the infant can sit up and move.  Even strapped in, the baby can easily wriggle his/her way out and fall out of the sleeper.  If I were to have another child (God no), no way would I use this again.  It’s too hard to transition the baby out of the sleeper into something flat – at least it was in our case. 

So, a few nights of sleeplessness, and here we are with a baby who finally sleeps flat on his back.  However, I’d be lying if I said he sleeps through the night.  If anything, he still sleeps like a new born, and I have to admit that I’m exhausted.  Even in the Rock-N-Play, he was still up every 4 hours.  Now he’ll go to sleep early (around 7:30/8) and wake up at midnight.  Then again at 3 a.m. and every hour after until I wake up for the day.  It’s pretty miserable.  I honestly have no idea how I’m still functioning on such little sleep, but I guess I’ve adapted.  I just fear he’ll never sleep all the way through the night. 

I eventually want to transfer him to his nursery crib, but it’s on the other side of the house, and no way am I trekking across my house every hour in the night just to pop his paci back into his mouth.

Milestones:
Joe is progressing so quickly!  He can sit up on his own for a while, but I’m still not 100% comfortable leaving him since he does still topple over. 

 
While he’s  not quite crawling, he’s definitely kind of pin-wheeling his way around a room.  He’s able to turn himself 360 degrees and roll around to get to where he needs to go.  Last night Anna and I were playing with him in his room, and he lifted his butt up a few times in an effort to scoot himself.  He’s almost there.

His two bottom teeth are almost fully in, and he’s getting a top tooth which makes him look a little like a vampire.  I guess it’s the incisor tooth?  The pointy one. 

Health:
Well, as expected, starting J at a new school invited a new round of germs into our house.  Both Anna and J have a nasty cough that makes our house sound like a TB ward at night. 

We took Joe to the pedi, and she put him on antibiotics because she said he was in the beginning stages of an ear infection.  Two rounds of antibiotics later, and he still has the infection.  He also has a nasty cough and a runny nose.  No fever, though.  

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 a pumpkin patch this past month, and it was a total cluster.  My sister brought her two kids, so trying to corral four kids was nearly impossible.  We spent the majority of the time trying to tame Anna and my nephew Jackson, and the rest of the time trying to appease two crying infants who were hungry and tired.  Never again.  Until next year has erased all of these bad memories and we stupidly bring them all there again.

Siblings:
Anna is still very much mom #2 to Joe.  She loves taking care of him and is even strong enough now to pick him up for a few seconds. 

Fabulous fours.

Another lovely year has passed, and now I have a four year old.  Granted, I’m almost a month late posting this birthday post for Anna, but at least I’m posting it at some point, right?  I still get half a brownie point, I think. 

This year went by so quickly that I barely remember much of it with being pregnant, having a baby, losing a job, getting another (great) job, and just life in general.  I will say that losing my job and getting to spend nearly 5 months at home with my kids was probably the best blessing of my life.  Getting to spend that time with Anna and watch her grow into the precious little (big) girl that she is today was priceless to me. 

So, what’s new with Anna?  Well, she’s in a new school now and absolutely loves it.  She gets to spend some time with her brother there, so I think it makes her feel like the cool kid on the block. 

She’s well mannered and says “yes, ma’am” and “thank you” about 90% of the time.  The other 10% is spent on the ground screaming and crying, but that’s because she’s a moody little 4 year old with a very strong will, so I just roll with it and carry around a bible and crucifix to keep the devil away. 

She loves and adores her grandparents and cousins, and her favorite thing ever is to go to MiMi’s (my mom) house or stay for a few days at Maw Maw and Paw Paw’s (my in-laws) house. 

She’s hilarious and witty and very funny for a 4 year old.  Not cheesy, knock knock funny, but she seriously says things that will make you laugh for minutes.  Granted, I can’t remember any of them now because I fail, but just envision Jay Leno with less chin and curlier hair, and you have my daughter.

She’s very nurturing with her brother, very maternal with her baby dolls, and very loving with her dad and me.  She’s just a sweet kid.  I can’t say it enough.

Anna’s favorites:
Color: Blue
Food: Raviolis (yeah, I feed my kid from a can sometimes, sue me – I take what I can get with her because she’s a VERY picky eater) 
TV Show: Woody Woodpecker, Curious George
Movie: She’s not a big fan of movies – they don’t hold her interest long
Song: She likes whatever we listen to, so lots of old school music and electronica.  Quite an eclectic mix, I’d say.
Saying: She likes to say the word “actually” a lot.  “Well, actually, I don’t like those pants.”
Toy: She likes her brother a lot.  He’s her toy.
Person: Mom, dad, MiMi, Maw Maw and Paw Paw
Animal: Chloe although she calls her White Harley.
Snack: Chips
Drink: Milk, water, or sweet tea
Pastime: She loves jumping on her bed. 
Height/Weight: 40 1/2 (75% percentile); 36 lbs. (50th%)

So, we decided to do the low-key (we’re poor) thing this year and just have a little mini-party with just us.  We woke Anna up that morning with a showering of balloons.  She absolutely loved it! 


At this age we can get away with giving her $1 bills. 


Hey, I want in on some of that action!

I call this clutter corner.  I imagine every house with kids has this if you’re lacking a play room.  If you can find it in the midst of this chaos, her birthday present was a little scooter.

She was very excited!

 
And since I’m the world’s best mom, I was encouraging her to ride it without shoes or a helmet!

Then my brain kicked in, and I made her come inside and gear up before CPS came by to take her away.

We had a very low-key day for a very special little girl.  Happy birthday, sweet Anna Kate!  We love you so much!

6 months under my belt.

The days are flying by like seconds. It’s scary to think that 6 months ago I was laboring in a hospital when it really only feels like 6 minutes ago.  Both of my kids will be married with their own kids before I can blink. 

Here are Joseph’s 6 month photos.  He is just getting over RSV (more on that in a bit), so, once again, he was under the weather for these photos (and it really shows near his eyes).  Our photo session was very brief today!

 

Temperament:
This monthly temperament update has somewhat been skewed since Joseph has been sick pretty much the entire month.  My poor baby contracted RSV somewhere (I’m thinking when I took him to church and he stayed in the baby room), so he’s been a bit fussier and needier this month.  We’re at about two weeks of dealing with this junk right now, and prior to that he was dealing with a cold/sinus crap from the pollen in the air.  Even with all of that funk, he’s still pretty content and happy, still smiles and giggles all the time, still enjoys pretty much everything.  Loves his mama. 

Feeding:
Well, I made it to my six month breastfeeding goal, and I’m so excited that I made it this far.  I will be starting a new job on the 15th, so I’m on the fence as far as if I’ll continue pumping and nursing.  I probably will because, at this point, it kills my heart to think about stopping, but I’m not going to feel any guilt (at least I won’t let myself) if things don’t work out past this point.  I just really enjoy it now, much more than I ever thought I would.  And since Joseph is our last, I want to hold on to it as long as I can. 

Other than that, we started him on solids at exactly 6 months (Wednesday, October 3).  I put it off as long as possible because if I can be honest here, it’s kind of a pain in the butt.  A sloppy, crazy pain in the butt! 

Anna was the first to feed him, and she did a great job.  His first meal other than boob milk/formula was squash. 



Sleeping:
Well, the pack-n-play didn’t quite work out.  He hated it.  So, he’s back in his RNP sleeper and strapped in like he’s wearing a strait jacket.  I have no idea what we’re going to do to transition him to his crib.  He still refuses to nap/sleep in his crib, too.  Le sigh.  I love the RNP sleeper, but it does set a rather ridiculous precedent that no standard crib mattress will be able to live up to. 

Joseph isn’t 100% consistent with his nightly sleep ritual.  He still wakes up some nights more than once, others only once, sometimes not at all.  He’s just a mixed bag. 

Milestones:
Joseph is flipping from front to back and back to front like it’s no one’s business.  He’s also sitting up constantly in his swing and RNP.  He’s not quite ready to sit up on his own on a flat surface yet, but I know he’ll be there shortly.


Such a little creeper.

He has two teeth on the bottom (front).  Anna didn’t get teeth until well past her first birthday, so I was a bit shocked to see not one but TWO of those little suckers.  So cute, though! 

He started eating solids on Wednesday, October 3.  First on the menu: Squash.



Health:
Unfortunately, my guy has had a rough month this past month.  He was diagnosed with RSV on Monday, September 24th.  He is only the second case his pedi’s office had seen this year.  He had a weird bark cough which I initially thought was croup.  So, moms, if you’re wondering what an RSV cough sounds like, click below. 

Joseph’s RSV cough

I’ve been having to give him breathing treatments – initially every four hours around the clock.  He slept through the night ones, so that was great.  He didn’t fuss or fight the daytime ones too much.



And then Anna wanted to give her baby a treatment as well.  ATTENTION: THIS IS NOT JOSEPH, THIS IS A BABY DOLL.  A VERY REAL LOOKING BABY DOLL.  THIS BABY FREAKS ME OUT ON A DAILY BASIS.  I HATE THIS BABY. 


So, I brought Joseph in for his 6 month pedi appointment on Wednesday, October 3.  He checked out fine although his chest is still “junky” from the RSV.  One thing that did concern his pedi was his weight.  Here are his stats:

Height: 26.5 (50th percentile)
Weight: 14 lbs. 12 oz. (10th percentile)
Head: 17” (40th percentile)

While he’s gaining at each appointment, he’s still on the lower end of the chart.  She wasn’t too concerned about it since he’s so darn active all.the.time, but she did instruct me to feed him solids three times/day vs. the regular two times/day that is recommended at this age.  He may have been down a few ounces from being sick, but I’m definitely feeling a bit let down that maybe my boobs aren’t giving him the nourishment he needs.  He’s also super pale, paler than I’ve ever seen him.  Granted, Joe and I are one shade from mime paint, but Joseph is just way too pale.  I’m hoping that the solids will put some meat on that boy’s bones and help him get his color back.  He just looks so pitiful and wiped out all the time. 

Other than that, he’s meeting all of his milestones, early even, so he’s right on track with everything.  He’s just my lil’ peanut. 

Since he was still under the weather, his pedi recommended we bring him back within a week for his 6 month shots.  I was glad she decided that because my poor baby has been through enough these past few weeks.  Round the clock breathing treatments, nose running like a faucet, pale like a vampire –poor kid doesn’t need shots just yet!

Size:
He hasn’t grown much since the last time I posted.  He’s still wearing 9 months clothes (I think I’ve even put him in a 12 month outfit because he’s so long).  He’s in a size 3 diaper.  Size 2 shoe.

Activities:
We haven’t really done much this month, but we did go to an off the beaten path pumpkin patch.  It was so off the beaten path that we were the only people there which was quite nice. 

Two Joes

Anna wore this costume everywhere we went that day.  Eh, why not?

Siblings:
Anna and Joseph are little buddies.  She’s really taken a motherly approach to sisterhood with him, if that makes any sense.  She treats him like he’s her child – very gentle, kind, loving.  It’s adorable to watch.  She was so excited to be able to feed him his first solid, and he took it from her better than he does from me, actually.