In the Halloween spirit

Kathy took the kids to the pumpkin patch this past Friday 

and Daniel came home with his first pumpkin:

At Aunt Tine's playing in her leaves, 10.16.11:

 

Lucky!

Looks like Daniel got Cody's eyelashes - lucky! 

5th month of life

 

• Rolling over sporatically, maybe about 4 times total in the last month....just doesn't seem like he cares to do it all that often.  He's just like, eh - i'm pretty content not working that hard :)  I totally get it, buddy.  
• He's jabbering a lot and loves to hear his own sounds.  And he giggles a lot too, love it.  
• He's definitely in tune to voices and is very content to just observe and take everything in.
• He's grabbing at things more and more.  While he doesn't grasp his rattles much, he does like to grab his pacifier is constantly pulling it out of his mouth and trying to figure out how to get it back in.
• He's been sleeping great.  9:30 p.m. to 5:30-6a.m.  Some nights he doesn't have good nights and we're up a couple times throughout the night, but for the most part he's been sleeping really well.  
• We're almost 100% on formula now.  With work being super chaotic, my diet hasn't been great, I haven't been drinking enough water, I haven't been sleeping much, and I haven't been able to keep a regular pumping routine.  So needless to say, my milk supply is virtually gone.  Over the past couple weeks we were 50/50 on formula/my milk, but this week we'll be 100% formula. I have mixed emotions about it.  Originally I said I wanted to nurse him for a year.  Then when I came back to work and realized how difficult it was to pump at work I shortened the goal to 6 months.  So I'm a little shy of my goal, but not much I can do about it without making myself crazy.  I will definitely miss the bonding aspect of it though.  And I knew formula was expensive, but I didn't realize how fast you go through it.

Some photos from 5th month of life:

9.18.11

a much happier camper in the car seat the past couple months:

9.19.11:

9.24.11

9.26.11

We get close, but have that one arm stuck underneath and can't quite get rolled over:

10.1.11, one of my all time faves:

10.1.11, First boat ride at the Ozarks.  Did great!

10.3.11, my tired boys:

10.4.11, and again because I love the sleeping pics.  

Just so sweet and peaceful:

10.9.11:

Missing the Movies

Sure, having a baby puts a bit of a cramp in our previous style.  Usually I don’t think twice about it and it has, for the most part, been a very natural transition into parenthood.  However, I think the one thing that I wish we could do easier is go to the movies.  I don’t even crave trying fun new restaurants as much as I crave being able to go to the movies with Cody.  Never realized how much I enjoyed that til it’s hard to make those nights happen! 

I have given serious consideration and brainstorming as to whether we could bring Daniel with us to a movie and I could just feed him to keep him quiet and then hopefully he'd fall asleep (it's dark in there after all), and no one would be bothered and we could get our movie fix.  In theory it should work.  So far I haven't attempted it, but I've thought about it many times. 

The other struggle we have is finding good movies to rent from home (suggestions welcome)...if we had better luck with this, maybe I wouldn't have such a strong need to go to the movies.  Wait - no, the buttered popcorn at home can't even compete with the version at the theater. 

The good news is Grandma (RA) is going to be here this Saturday night and Grandpa D is coming the following weekend.  We will be taking full advantage and are planning to see a movie both weekends, YES!!  Ides of March and Moneyball.  Anyone seen either and care to encourage or discourage this plan? 

The things we fret over

Yesterday morning, Daniel woke up with his cheeks looking like this.  What the…????  

When Cody got him up, his first thought was that maybe he had slept on his pacifier and there was some indentations left from it (a stretch – but we were looking for some reasoning), but after 45 minutes when the redness and lines didn’t go away, we ruled that out.  Seemed to be more like some sort of rash.  However, it was nowhere else on his body.  Cody bathed him that morning and didn’t notice it anywhere else.  Hmmm.

He didn’t seem to have a temperature and was acting like he felt fine, but we still thought this looked strange.  Called the doctor’s office and the nurse said her hunch is that it will probably go away on its own soon, but if not and if it worsens of he starts acting like he doesn’t feel well, then we should bring him in.   By the time I picked him up from Kathy's, though, it was as if nothing was ever wrong.  And this morning not a trace either.  So weird.   We're thinking maybe he was reacting to the detergents Cody and I’s shirts were washed in…he spent quite a bit of Sunday evening laying on our chests.  I've also been hearing that when babies drool a lot and lay in their drool it can cause rashes.  Who knows. 

Last week the concern was how many days it had been since his last poop.  That’s all Cody, Kathy, and I talked/text about.  On days 3 and 4 of no poop, I'd text her during the day and check in to see if he'd had a dirty diaper yet, she'd reply no, I'd relay to Cody.  Repeat a few hours later.  Then when he finally did, it was in the evening after I'd picked him up, and I sent a victory text to Cody and Kathy who were equally excited.  

Funny how once children are involved, no issue is a small issue.  Or maybe because it’s our first child.  Maybe we worry less with subsequent?  For now, cheek rashes and the poop frequencies are rocking the Lewis boat!

Daniel's Hands

So Daniel has been doing this really cool thing lately that I'm really loving.  It's like whenever I'm doing something with him, he places his hand on me.  For example, I'll be snapping up his pj's and he'll place his hand on mine.  Or I'll be fiddling with his car seat straps and he'll put his hand on mine.  It's not really like it's randomly happening it either, it happens a lot and it's like he is deliberately placing his hands where he places them.  I think I love it so much because it kind of feels like him reaching out and reciprocating the bond.  I was telling Cody about this just last night and how much I loved it, and when I was at work this morning, before Cody took Daniel to Kathy's, he text me this picture:

The giggles

I could listen to this sound ALL day long, melts my heart:

Just rolling around

9.10.11

This was SO fun!  Although, he hasn't done it again since.  But I was so excited!

I saw him about to do it and by the time I could grab my phone to video it, he was halfway there:

4 months!!

9.16.11

14.5 lbs, 25"

Blog?  What is that?  Oh yeah - it's that thing I told myself not to get behind on.  Sigh.  Well, let's see if i can get caught up on all the happenings from the past month.

• For most of August and up until mid-Sept Daniel was waking up around 3:30 a.m. for a feeding and then would go right back to sleep until 6 a.m.  Well when we had our 4-month well check, Dr. Hartman told us he was a big enough boy to be sleeping all the way through, and he was probably just waking up out of habit more than being hungry.  So that very night, Sept 13th (just shy of 4 months) he slept all the way through.  I know I've gotten excited about that in the past, but it has always been a random incident and he wasn't ever consistent with it.  Well, I have to say, it is Oct 1st and he's been sleeping through the night every night since Sept 13th!! YAY!!! 
• He is doing really well at Kathy's - she said he's her second easiest baby she's ever had.  Good job, buddy :)  (When she said that, not gonna lie, at first I kind of got defensive and was thinking what did the other baby have on my baby?!)
• Last weekend in August we headed up to the ville to visit friends and family and also took Daniel to A&G for the first time.  Where it all began.....oh the memories!  Cody and I's first kiss was on the street outside A&G after getting off work, and then another time we might have kissed in the walk-in (don't tell George!).  Very romantic!

•  Labor Day weekend was spent in NE, on Saturday we watched the Husker season opener with Grandpa D.  Got Daniel all dressed up in his Husker onesie and before the game started he had a major blow out in it.  Cody was VERY amused by this - he didn't want Daniel wearing NE gear in the first place.  But luckily, I still had time to wash and dry it before kick off.  

(quick side note here.....looking good Code!)

 Later that weekend got some QT with Gramma J:

• Sept 10th weekend we headed back up to the ville for the first home NW game.  Sarah, Patrick, Cody, Daniel and I headed to the game.  It was the most gorgeous weather and Daniel did AWESOME at the game.  

We love our trips to the ville and getting to spend time with Grandma:

Figured out how to blow bubbles:

• Daniel accompanied me to cooking club on 9.15.11, and charmed all the ladies.  He was in such a good mood.  I love it when he shows off!  He's always trying to get his whole fist into his mouth.  Sometimes he even has his pacifier in and still tries to fit his fist in his mouth.

Mornings with Daniel and Daddy

Cody's first week of getting Daniel ready in the mornings and dropping him off at Kathy's wasn't without it's hitches.  Here's a day by day look at Cody's week last week: 

-Day 1: Get Daniel to Kathy's just fine, but forgets work laptop, paperwork and work keys at home.  Realizes it when he gets to work.
-Day 2: Decides the pants that matched the outfit I had laid out didn't fit him right, so he chose some different shorts that did not match.  I was very confused about what Daniel was wearing when I picked him up that evening :)
-Day 3: Cody sticks to the planned outfit, but put his shorts on backwards (Kathy didn't have the heart to tell him, so she told me when I picked Daniel up that night, lol)
-Day 4: Cody forgets to put his own shirt on!!!  I think the previous 3 days had really gotten to him, so this one topped them all, HAHAHA!
-Day 5: Cody gives up and told me I had to do drop off.  Ok, just kidding.  He didn't give up, but I really did do drop off that day b/c he had a breakfast catering.  

Here's to hoping week 2 goes a little more smoothly for Cody in the mornings :)

Back to Work

Unfortunately we did not win the lottery.  I'm going to keep trying though.  This spending 11 hours a day away from my baby stuff is for the birds.  I really can get myself pretty down about it if I let myself.  So before Daniel was born, my hours were 7:30-5:30, a 10 hour day.  Well, to be able to get Daniel picked up from the sitter in time, I've adjusted my schedule to 6:30-4:30.  Cody does drop off in the morning, and I pick up in the evening.  He has to be picked up by 5:30.  Anyway, by the time I leave the house at 6a and get to the sitter at 5p, it has been 11 hours that I've been away.  HATE THAT. 

The first week I returned to work, Aug 8th, was tough, but my mom came down to stay with Daniel as sort of a transition week, so it helped out a ton (not to mention saved a lot of $$!)  So Aug 15th was his first week at the sitter, and Cody had to drop him off that morning.  I was at work watching the clock near his 7:30 drop off time, getting more and more nervous.  I'm not sure what I nervous about.  But I was on the verge of tears.  Then Cody called me at 7:42 as he was driving away from Kathy's, and he told me wasn't able to hold back the tears, and then I just lost it.  Shoot, hate crying at work!  Went to the bathroom to try to pull myself together, but one of my coworkers wanted to know what was wrong, so I had to talk about it which made me keep crying!

Today was Day 3 at Kathy's and Daniel has been doing great.  He hasn't seemed to notice or care a bit that he's not at home, so thankful he's not fussing the whole time he's there.  He's not a fussy baby by any means, but I just kept envisioning that he'd be giving her fits for some reason.  Of course not, though.  He's been super laid back about it all.  We are so lucky!  On his first day there, I managed to hold off from checking in on him until 11:15a.  Later that afternoon, Kathy text me that Daniel gave her a its-nice-to-meet-you blow out :)  Ha!!  And then when I picked him up that evening (I couldn't get there soon enough, btw), she asked me if he normally toots like an adult.  Haha, yes I forgot to warn her of that.  She said the other kids were giggling so hard when he was blasting 'em! 

Work has been ok.  Before I had Daniel, I worked a lot more than 45 hours a week, and I was struggling then to get everything done.  So now that I only have 45 hours to get my work done in (I am taking 2 30-minute breaks each day to pump, so that leaves me at a 9 hour day), I am really concerned about being able to handle my workload.  And I'm really not all that willing to log in from home in the evenings.  So we'll see.  I'm struggling with whether I believe I can have a successful career at BMcD and still be a good mom and good wife.  Had a little breakdown at work this morning...seriously, what is up with the hormones?! I've cried like 2 times in my entire life, and ever since I got pregnant, they just seem to flow freely.  And at work, no less - ugh!  My poor boss probably wonders what the heck has gotten into me.   

Ok, better get back to my sweet baby.  He's been occupied in his swing while I did this post, but now I feel the need to scoop him up and love on him. 

3 Months already!

Well, my pumpkin turned 3 months old yesterday, doesn't seem possible!  His third month of life has definitely been the most fun so far.  Some things I want to remember:

• So, on the night of his 3 month birthday (14 weeks), just last night, he slept from 9:30 to 6!!!  The full night through.  He has gotten darn close before, but 6:00 a.m. has always been our goal.  We'll see if he can get consistent with this.  The past couple weeks he's been getting closer and closer to this, so maybe he's going to make it a habit.
• The week I went back to work (week of Aug 8th) we started him in his crib, so right at 13 weeks.  It took him about a week before he didn't need his pacifier to soothe himself back to sleep when he startled himself awake.  At first I would have to get up about 2-3 hours after he'd lain down and pop his pacifier in and he'd go right back to sleep.  Now, he doesn't seem to need that anymore.
• He LOVES his playmat.  Seriously loves.  If you lay him down on it with a full belly (full belly = happy Daniel), you're sure to see smiles left and right and he coos and gurgles and bats his hands at Mr. Octopus.   He gets his arms and legs a-going and it is so fun to watch.  When you first lay him down he studies the hang-y down guys (his "friends" I call them).  Checks em out real good.  Then he starts smiling and getting excited.  It's so fun to watch!!
• He also LOVES his crib mobile.  Same kind of excitement as the playmat. 
• Month 3 brought all the smiles.  Like bigger smiles than I've ever seen him do.  Anytime he's just eaten, it's super easy to get him to smile.  Other times, it can still happen, but best time to catch him is after he eats.  
• His gas doesn't seem to be causing him nearly as much pain as it did in months 1 & 2
• Started at the sitter during Month 3 (separate post coming on this topic!)
• Was Baptized on July 24 - just shy of 11 weeks. 

Some pics from Month 3:

Baptism at SHOJ, Sunday 7.24.11:

Baptism outfit (not sure if we like our outfit or not...daddy talked bad about it so much, that Daniel's just not sure.  Mommy's sure...it's darn cute!):

One of my favorite pics to date of my little man.  Sputnik the sock monkey was mine as a baby - made by my Aunt Jane.  My mom gifted it to Daniel and he's glad to have a new pal, 8.9.11:

Daniel playing with his friends, 8.16.11:

Not quite a repeat performance

Well, we didn't quite have a repeat performance last night, darnit, but he was close. He made it til 3:45a.m. this time. About 1:30 he started squirming and stirring so I gave him his pacifier which held him over til 3:45 (although it kept felling out, so I probably put it back in about 5 times between 1:30 and 3:45.) So, not the most restful of nights, but I'm still hopeful we're moving in the right direction. Today it's stormy and I'm thinking a perfect excuse for a nap!

He did it, he did it!!!!

Daniel slept through the night last night!! I fed him around 9 and we put him to bed and then he didn't wake up until 5 a.m.!!  That's about exactly what I need him to do when I start back to work on Monday - I need to feed him from 5:30-6:00a before I leave for work, so if we can stay on this schedule, we'll be golden.

I've been focusing on feeding him every 4 hours during the day, versus letting him sleep however long he wants.  Because a lot of times he'd sleep long enough to put him 5 hours out from his last feeding.  So I've been waking him up from his nap to feed him sometimes, but my thinking was that if he got an extra feeding in during the day then maybe he could go longer at night.  And I was also hoping that adding some structure to his day would somehow lend to longer stretches of sleep at night.  Who knows what the cause of his overnight sleep is, but I'll take it.  And praying this wasn't just a fluke.

Awhile back I blogged that he had gone 6 hours between feedings, which was true, however I'd fed him at 7 p.m., so 6 hours had him waking up in the middle of the night still.  And then he seemed to wake up every 2 hours after that. 

I mentioned going back to work.....this Monday, August 8th is the dreaded day.  Seriously have a pit in my stomach and start to get teary if I think too hard about it.  I feel like he's not only my child, but he's become my little buddy and my companion, and I'm going to miss hanging out with him as well as miss loving on him all day.  He's virtually the only person I talked to all day for the last 12 weeks, so I kind of feel like I'm losing a friend sort of.  What a bummer.  I think there is one more lottery drawing before Monday, so there's still a chance :)

2 Month Update & Pics

 

12 lb, 9 oz 

23" long

On July 16th, Daniel turned 2 months old.  Cannot believe how fast 2 months can pass a person by.  Sigh.  Month 2 was a much busier month for us, we were on the go a lot more, and I took Daniel out a lot more to run errands with me.  A quick run to target turns into a much bigger production when you have to get the car seat in and out, get it snapped onto the shopping cart just right, etc.   I don't mind lugging his car seat around though.  For one, it's more time we have together.  For two, it's a great workout! 

A couple items from this month:

• At Daniel's 2 month well check yesterday, we had to get our first set of shots.  He had one great big, red faced cry (the kind where he doesn't breathe for awhile before the scream comes out, where you just brace yourself bc you can see how big of a scream it's going to be) but then it was over and I could scoop him up and comfort him, so he calmed down right away.  Good things, b/c I was about to lose it right along with him.  He was a little fussier than normal yesterday after the shots, and the Baby Tylenol kept making him throw up, but other than that he didn't have too much of a reaction to the shots.
• Other comments from Dr. Hartman were that he has a great shaped head (yay!) that he's growing great and gaining weight like a champ - so much so that she said I need to start pushing him at night to fall back asleep instead of jumping to feed him when he starts stirring.
• He's gotten to where he does a 5 hour stretch of sleep at night, and then wakes up every 2 hours or so after that.  Problem is that he starts his 5 hour stretch at 7 or 8 p.m., we need to work on moving that back a couple hours and then I think we'd only be waking up once in the night to feed.  By 2 months of age, almost 50% of infants will sleep up to 6 hours...Daniel has done this 3 times, but usually it's more along the lines of 4-5 hours. 
• He's found his fists and he has started sucking on them, it's pretty darn cute.
• His hair is looking pretty coppery in the right light.  (Maybe all those Lewis grand babies will be red heads!) He's getting more hair, but still has the most at the back of his head, by his neck.
• We've been able to get him to smile on command within the last week or two.  Such a treat!! Love it!!  It's not always that he'll do it, but if he's content with a full belly, it's usually pretty easy to get some big smiles.  
• He LOVES watching his crib mobile.  The dang thing only lasts about 60 seconds before it needs to be cranked up again, my only complaint.  I have to admit, he hasn't slept much in his crib, but over the next couple weeks my goal is to get him transitioned.  So far he's been starting out in his pack n play bassinet in our room, then when he wakes up in the middle of the night to eat, I usually nurse him laying down and we both fall asleep that way and he usually stays in our bed til morning.  I really really love sleeping with him, it's going to be sad to keep him in his crib all night, but I know I need to do that before he gets too much older and the transition becomes harder.  Plus, we have to provide our sitter his pack n play, so we won't have that in our room any longer after I go back to work on Aug 8.

A few pics from Month 2:

On Father's Day, June 19, we got some professional pics taken, was a train themed shoot.  Here are some of my favorites:

On a fussy afternoon, we needed the drier to calm us down, 6.21.11:

Daddy's purchase for Daniel's wardrobe, 6.27.11:

Having a good dream, 6.28.11:

Meeting cousins Ava & Gavin for the first time!!! 6.29-30.11:

Snoozing with Dad, 7.1.11:

Daniel's first trip to the Ozarks, 7.2.11:

Shopping with Mommy includes diaper changes in the trunk! 7.7.11:

 Visit with Great Grandma Meyer in Beatrice, 7.10.11:

 Big boy!!  7.16.11:

Hey, these shoes aren't for me!  This is boring, I'll just go to sleep.  7.21.11:

Daniel's First Road Trip

Daniel was a total trooper for his first major road trip (to TX) on July 15-18.  We stopped twice to feed him on the way down, and only once on the way back.  I think we were going on 6 hours from the last feeding by the time we got home, wow! 

Here's a pic when we've been in the car for about 8 hours on the way there.  Hanging in there but starting to question when these people are ever going to let me out of this seat (and seriously, mom, get this rattle off my ankle):

Playing with Aunt Cristin:

Hanging out with Great Grandpa Ron:

The fam: