First Christmas

This was a wonderful first Christmas with N. I tried to resist saying I'm shocked its already over, but seriously, I want to go back and do it all over again and slow it down. Pay no attention to the orange nose we've developed.... baby loves some sweet potatoes!

Christmas Eve - So dang cute!


He LOVED the bows, but was very unimpressed with how they tasted.

On his lamb pillow pet :)

This is how we unwrap presents!

B's mom came over to our house Christmas Eve and went to our church service with us. Then we woke up and did Christmas at our house.

Taking a break for some food.

Our Christmas outfit. (That hand is only out of his mouth if the paci makes it in, everyone says its because he's teething, but he's really been like that since day 1, he loves his hand.)

After breakfast we packed up and headed to my parents for Christmas round 2 and dinner. We left Monday morning at 5am for North Carolina so B's extended family could meet the baby.

B and his grandmother. I was very impressed with how N handled himself in the car! He was his typical self, took naps, played and hung out. He probably handled the 8.5 hour drive better than me!

Everyone loved meeting N! We are enjoying a 4 day weekend at home now, recovering from a week of non-stop. N is working on his crawl. I'm sure in a few days I'll have to share a video. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Baptism

N was baptized a couple of weeks ago on Dec. 18. He held it together great and we were very thankful so we could actually listen to our pastors and consent to the questions they were asking us. :) We have such a wonderful church family and know that they will love N as long as we are there. They will help us raise him in the Lord and teach him to be a strong christian man. My parents and Ben's mom came also. (We scheduled it this day in hopes that my little brother would be in from Texas, but his flight came in the day after the baptism.)

Praise the Lord for this precious child he has blessed us with!


He did pass out just minutes after his part was over, B was not thrilled I wanted to still take pictures with a sleeping baby in his arms. :) Ha! Pictures are important!

5 Months Old!

My sweet little boy is 5 months old (I'm a few days late).



In the past month he has started eating baby food (mostly orange/yellow veggies), holding his own bottle, finding and putting his pacifier in his mouth and semi-scooting (as in actually tucking his legs under him and trying to push his head along the ground...).

He is still doing great with sleeping (6:30-6:30), waking up every few nights to find his paci, but I don't have to go in there often, if I can stand to wait it out he usually finds it and gets it back in his own mouth.

(Looks so sweet here, like he's consoling his little bear :)

He is very happy! Takes one 2-hour nap a day and a few power naps. He loves the johnny jump-up finally! Well, I should say, likes... not loves. But his feet at least touch the ground and he can actually bounce a bit.

The funniest story from the past month was when B was helping me make some squash baby food (that stuff is expensive!). I had N in the kitchen feeding him while B got out the frozen squash and the magic bullet. I'm telling him that he just use the bullet to puree the food and add water until he gets the consistency of the jar stuff. I hear the bullet starting and then B has a confused look on his face and says to me, "I think we are supposed to let this thaw out before blending it..."

HA! THAW?! I said, I'm pretty sure you are supposed to COOK it, we aren't starting him on a raw food diet yet! Glad I was around or poor baby's tummy would be very upset the next time we fed him... hah!

:)

Silly boys...

Look at that fat belly!

Merry Christmas!

N's nanny asked if I was going to take him to see Santa this year and my answer was, ....probably not. I just couldn't see standing in line for hours to give my child to a strange man, have N scream and pay $25 for the picture...

So she asked if she could. Of course! She could take him during the day so the line wouldn't be as long too.

She came back and this was the shot they got. SO CUTE! I am so thankful for her and how much she loves him.

(If I look at Santa too much I get a little creeped out about it!)

As several people on facebook noticed, this picture is MUCH better than our last holiday picture...

Things I've learned

I've learned that just when I thought I was procrastinating, God's timing is perfect and his plan is impeccable. We have been blessed with exactly what we need, when we need it during this entire journey. Praise the Lord.

I've learned Thanksgiving day is a fun day for baby to try his first food: sweet potatoes. He couldn't eat them fast enough!



I've learned to ignore that we have a baby boy and a purple Bumbo. (Look at those little toes all curled up!)

I've learned that when you think you are talented and changing a horrible diaper in the backseat as fast as you can, the baby will pee all over his own face and your car leading to horrible screams. Even if you haven't been peed on in months.

I've learned that schedules do wonders for sleeping through the night.
Bath, bottle, bed = happy baby and happy mama.

Baby loves Christmas tree lights.

I've learned leaving the house with a 4 month old takes up my entire car. How does something so tiny take so much stuff?!

The baby sense movement monitor has given me back my sleep. I've learned I cannot convince a 4 month old they need to sleep on their back.

I've learned that as long as a craft takes less than 15 minutes and has only 2 steps, I can still consider myself 'crafty'.


I LOVE sips n' strokes!




Lastly, I've learned the days go by so much faster as each one passes and I want them to slow down! I look at my mom and think about how not too long ago she was in my shoes, raising her her children, 28 years old, and then all of the sudden, her kids are grown, she has 4 grandchildren and 30 years have gone by. It feels like a blink of an eye.

4 Months Old!

Noah is 4 months old!

He weighs 13lbs 9 ounces (30th percentile), is 25.75 inches long (75th percentile) and his head is 16 inches (50th percentile).
He sleeps from 6:30pm-6:30am.
He eats 4 bottles of breastmilk a day, 28 ounces currently.
He can pick toys up and put them in his mouth, but we are still working on getting the paci in there. He LOVES his paci still.
He loves his bath. Sometimes we spend a long long time in there at night because its the only thing that can hold him together until his last bottle and bedtime.
He smiles all the time and laughs several times a day, but isn't cackling yet.
He sleeps on his tummy (no other way around that one).
He loves his feet and hands. The feet haven't made it in his mouth yet, but if there isn't a paci in there, his fingers are. I've tried to notice which fingers he is sucking on the most and it seems to be his index, middle and ring fingers on his right hand... all at the same time. :)
His hair is finally coming back! WOO!

Hello bear!

His little feet are always in this position, turned towards each other and pressed against one another. Its too funny.

We are loving life and enjoying every minute of it. We have two great friends who are coming to visit us this weekend and meet N. Before we know it Thanksgiving will be here and N will get to meet his two great-grandmothers!

Sleep is not just for the weak

16 weeks

We have a new and wonderful schedule in our household! (This post is mostly for documentation so when baby # 2 may come around and I am sleep deprived and wondering when I will ever get sleep again I can look back and remember how things went with N.)

We dropped another feeding on Saturday and are down to just 4 feedings a day - 7 ounces each. Which put him right on track to start trying the actual 12 hours by 12 weeks schedule (The Sleep Solution book). So Saturday night I laid N down at 6:30 and sure enough he slept until 6:30 the next morning! I had to go in there once and put his paci in around 4am. Well, I was wary the next night because this was giving me a whole new morning routine IF it worked. I would pump first, get ready and then wake him up and feed him before we left for work. Well he did it again! 12 hours!

So today we are officially on our fifth night of our new schedule and things are looking promising (knock on wood!). I was worried about getting into the 12 hour schedule because I had been waking him up at 5 and I did not want him going to sleep at 5 in the afternoon. I would never see him! 6:30 is as late as I can push it and still get to work on time. He just started acting so tired in the evenings waiting on that last feeding, so I thought maybe he was ready for this new schedule (even though apparently some babies are ready at 12 weeks). Our book would read 12 hours by 16 weeks :) (The book did help us get to 8 or so hours by 9 weeks too - very helpful.)

Our amazing sitter (nanny?) who watches N during the day drops him off to me at 3:15, so I feel like I have a good chunk of time with him in the evenings and then in the mornings he talks the WHOLE way to work, where he used to just sleep. It cracks me up!

I would definitely recommend the Baby Sleep Solution book, one of the very few I read because it was so small.

This picture reminds me of how much he likes to hear himself yell. :)