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.