Anora's 2 Month Check Up

She'll be 12 weeks old next week, so I thought I'd better get around to posting her 2 month check up... you can tell she's child #3!

Her 2 month stats:

Weight: 10lb 9oz (50%)
Height: 22 1/4 inches (50%)
HC: 38cm (40%)

She's got blue eyes so far and they seem to be getting lighter, so maybe they'll stay, but we won't know for several months yet. She's eating every 3 - 3 1/2 hours during the day and going 8 - 9 hours at night time.

It's a good thing she's been sleeping so well at night because her day time naps (up until about a week ago) were not going well at all. She'd sleep for 30 minutes to an hour and then wake up screaming. I'd usually get a few burps out, but then she'd have a hard time putting herself back to sleep.

We tried everything from propping her up for 30 minutes to an hour before we laid her down. Laying her on her side for naps. Letting her nap in the swing. Letting her nap in the wrap. What finally seems to be doing the trick is a combination of me cutting back on my dairy intake (I've been drinking almond milk instead of cow's milk) and consistently giving her Gripe Water and gas drops before her feedings. I also give another dose of gas drops right before I put her down for her naps. She can usually make it the full 1 1/2 to 2 hours for her naps, but sometimes wakes up early and I have to burp her, but then she'll go right back to sleep.

This past week we have been trying to give her a bottle more consistently as well. She seemed to take to the bottle really well around 6 weeks old, but then we didn't offer it enough for her to continue to take it, so it's been a challenge. In fact, Colin and I had a date night this past week to celebrate our anniversary and decided we needed to come back in the middle of it to nurse Anora, so that the babysitter didn't have to battle it out. I've given her a bottle once a day for the past three days and so far it gets better each time. I'm hoping that if we continue she'll be able to take the bottle easily for a babysitter in the future.

We had the chance to travel with Anora when we went to Colorado for a house hunting trip. She did great except for the fact that she does not like to nap in her car seat. Honestly she hadn't spent very much time in her car seat until then because we only have one car and I hardly get to use it because goes to work so early. I'm hoping she'll out grow that with age, but we'll see I guess.

Her personality is so sweet. She smiles with her whole body and loves to "talk" to anyone who will listen when she's awake. She has yet to giggle, but smiles all the time. She's such a doll. I love her curly little eyelashes ... we're all smitten with her and lover her more and more each day.

Anora: One Month

Anora's one month check up went well. Despite the fact that plans changed at the last minute and I ended up taking all of the kids with me to the appointment. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal if it was a 10 minute drive to the office, but it's a 45 minute drive so we ended up making an afternoon of it. Anyway, that's a later post perhaps.


Stats:
9lb 5oz (50% - I'm not used to an average sized kid at this age)
21 1/2 inches (70%)
37cm HC (50%)

Dr. Macias said that everything looks great. I asked about vitamin D and iron supplements for her and he said I didn't need to start those right now. I let him know that she slept 6 hours a couple of times at night and he said that she's gaining weight just fine and to let her sleep as long as she'd like at night, but continue 3 hour feedings during the day.

Anora has been fairly easy so far. She fell into a sleep, eat, awake routine pretty naturally which is great! She prefers to sleep on her side and she likes to fall asleep with her pacifier, but spits it out when she's almost asleep most of the time.

From day one she was a great eater and I hardly had any latching issues with her. As a result, she went longer between feedings right away (2 1/2 - 3hrs during the day and 3 1/2 - 4 1/2hours at night). That was great EXCEPT it made my engorgement period more difficult and I ended up with Mastitis. NOT FUN! If you don't know what that is, it's a breast infection caused by clogged milk ducts and the symptoms are high fevers, some breast pain (some women have pain while nursing, but I didn't) and flu-like symptoms (body aches, headache, etc.) Once I was on the antibiotic for 24 hours I was 100% better.

Last night (at 5 weeks old) she slept 6 hours (this is her 3rd time doing that) between feedings. Luckily her last feeding was at 9:30pm and I pretty much went to sleep right after I fed her. Yay for a good night's sleep!

Her naps during the day were not the greatest at first, but then we figured out that dairy was making her gassy so I cut down on cheeses and switched to almond milk for awhile. In a couple of weeks I'll slowly bring it back into my diet and see what happens. We also started giving her Gripe Water at night and Mylicon gas drops during the day which seemed to help a lot.

We also figured out that she does not like to be cold. I put her in a onesie, pants, socks, night gown (with little mittens over the hands) a sleepsack AND swaddle her in a blanket at night. Part of that is because I like the room a little cold while I sleep and she still sleeps in the room with us (well, sort of ... she's in our emptied out walk-in closet).

Anora is such a sweet baby. I wouldn't say that she's laid back because she definitely has to speak up if she wants something with two other little boys in house vying for my attention. Half of the time I have to wake her up for her day time feedings and half of the time she wakes up on her own. Usually she fusses herself to sleep and/or I have to put her pacifier back in a zillion times.

She's pretty easy to console when she's upset with the exception of a few times she's woken up almost in a panic in her car seat (I hope she out grows that). Jackson has mastered the "shh-shh-shh" technique, although he thinks if he does it louder it will work better. HA. He's also a HUGE help with her in the car. Micah just thinks the car seat is a toy he can play with.

Anora is smiling more, but it's not predictable or easily coaxed yet. She's also started to make some vocal coos just this week. I LOVE that stage and can't wait for her to verbalize more. I'm sure we will since her awake time during the day is getting longer each day. She's usually awake for about an hour and a half to two hours in her 3 hour feeding schedule.


She handles the attention the boys give her very well. She lets Jackson touch her hands and head without a fuss and he does it a lot. Both boys are pretty good at helping me burp her and they can usually get one out better than I can. Overall nursing her has been easier than Micah because at the time Jackson had no one else to play with and now Micah and Jackson can go off and play with each other while I feed Anora. I LOVE the fact that they play so well together.


Emotionally going from 2 to 3 has been easier than from 1 to 2 so far. Logistically I'm able to handle the scheduling of 2 to 3 better than 1 to 2 AT HOME, but when we go places it's much more difficult going from 2 to 3 than it was 1 to 2. I TRIED to take all three kids to church by myself yesterday ... WHAT WAS I THINKING?!! Next time I need to make sure I ask church family to help me with the boys (especially if I have to feed Anora in the middle of the service).

Overall, Anora has been such a delight! I'm so excited to see what kind of little girl and woman she will become.

Transitions

We've had a few transitions in our household over the last couple of months that I wanted to take note of.

Micah Night Lights

After we returned from our vacation to the Midwest, Micah had a rough time going down for naps and bed time. He would cry and cling to me almost as if he was scared. If Colin put him down he seemed to do a little better, but he'd still wake up early or in the night and cry until we settled him down.

Out of pure desperation one night (I think Colin was out of town for work) I put a night light in Micah's room thinking perhaps he was just getting to the age where he was scared of the dark. It didn't solve the problem immediately, but after a couple of days the crying and clinging stopped.

We don't have a timer on it like Jackson's. We'll probably start doing that once he's in a big boy bed which we'll be after we move to wherever we're going next ... that's another blog for another time. However, I do turn off the night light before I get him out of bed and turn it on when it's time to get into bed just so he gets used to the idea.

Jackson Shorter Naps

Lately Jackson has been taking FOREVER to go to sleep at night and it's not without being called into his room a MILLION times for water or a shadow or just one more hug.

Jackson has been a good napper for most of his life. He's 4 and he still takes a 2 hour nap every day. About a month or so ago I tried to cut his nap by an hour and that just made him weepy, so I stuck with the 2 hour nap. UNTIL this past week when he was taking longer to fall asleep.

This week I've cut his nap by 30 minutes by setting his night light to go off that much earlier. The first day he had a playdate and slept right through the night light going off (which is really rare) and woke up at his normal time. I guess he played hard. Today he woke up with the night light. We'll see how bedtime goes tonight.

Me Exercising During Pregnancy
I'm 9 weeks pregnant as of tomorrow. Before I became pregnant I was doing circuit training 4 days a week and doing cardio 1 day a week for about 45 minutes each workout.

Since I've become pregnant I've continued to circuit train for 3 days a week and cardio for 1 day a week for about 30 minutes each workout. I've noticed that my heart rate goes up pretty quickly and I lose my breath just as easily. It's kind of annoying actually, but only in the beginning of the workout.

There have been a few days that I opted to sleep in instead of work out and although it was probably the right choice I did notice a change in my mood and energy level.

I'm still "Shredding" but have taken the intensity down a notch especially during the cardio sections. Around 12 weeks I plan on modifying any abdominal workouts that are done on my back. I'm thinking I may need to find a prenatal workout DVD, so if anyone has any good suggestions let me know.

Vacation Notes

We just got back from a lengthy vacation to the Midwest and I wanted to be sure to take note of the things that I'd do for next time.

For the first leg of our trip we flew out of Ontario (which was a lot less hecktick than LAX) and flew into Omaha and drove to Spirit Lake all in one day. We didn't actually arrive at the cabin until around midnight, but it felt like ten o'clock to us. We stayed there for one week with the rest of the Doughan families arriving about a day and a half after we arrived. We had a total of 8 adults and 6 kids (under the age of 5) in a small two bedroom cabin.

At the end of the week we drove 4 hours and stayed in a hotel and then the next morning drove another 4 hours to a cabin in Door County. We were there for only a weekend and the adults out numbered the children almost 4 to 1 which was a nice change of pace. After a short weekend we drove 3 1/4 hours to my dad's and spent about two days there.

Overall, (if you include the night we spent at my grandparents' in LA) our trip spanned 14 days and we had about 32 hours in an airplane or a car.

If you know me or spoke to me or read my facebook at all before we left you'd know that I was a little stressed about the possibility of the craziness that could have arose from the long trip we had planned. I truly tried to give my worries to the Lord and enjoy each and every moment I had with family and by God's grace the vacation was a lot less challenging than I thought it would be.

For next time I would:

1. Guard our schedules before and after the trip to make sure we get plenty of sleep and eat healthy well balanced meals. This helped us all have much happier hearts and also made sure our immune systems were in shape.

I was nervous that my boys would get sick like they usually do when traveling on airplanes, but I think it helped that we weren't traveling during cold and flu season.

Arriving at the cabin a day or so before the rest of the family helped with this too. The boys were able to get a good night's sleep and get adjusted to the two hour time change before they gained some roommates/playmates at night time.

2. Be okay with snacking while we travel and bring healthy options for snacks so we don't fill up on junk (airport security had no problems letting me bring pre-sliced apples and carrots on the plane).

The time zone changes, pressure changes in airplanes, motion sickness, being out of routine, etc. all lend to snacking. I'm okay with it the days we travel all day long, but I try to quickly get us back on regularly scheduled meals as fast as possible.

3. If we have to eat out make sure we choose healthy options because vacations tend to lend themselves to having lots of "treats" be that chocolate brownies or hot dogs and potato chips. Subway was a lifesaver for us many times on this trip.

4. Be okay with watching more DVDs than normal in order to give the kids a little down time after a long day of play and to get through long car rides. Our portable DVD player came in VERY handy.

Note: I did bring some new toys and even wrapped them so the boys could open them and play with them in the car, but they lost interest in them very quickly.

5. Drive a bigger vehicle if possible for long road trips. We ended up renting a Ford Flex (about a mini-van size) and I put Micah in the third row behind Jackson in the second row on the right side of car so that I could reach both of them easily without making myself get motion sickness (which can happen to me pretty easily).

As a result we all got a few naps in in the car (with the exception of Colin who drove), but I'll know for next time not to rely on those naps because they may or may not happen.

6. White noise is a MUST! The Spirit Lake cabin had lots of fans running and even though most of the kids were sleeping in the same room with each other I think the fans really helped them stay asleep even if someone woke up crying.

It was an adventure when we had a huge thunder storm the first night (100 mph wind) and we lost power for 24 hours. Luckily our sound spa can run off of batteries and my sister-in-law's dad was able to bring over a generator so we could run the fridge.

7. 14 days is LOOOOOOOOOONG vacation for little kids. By about day 10 Micah was having random melt downs every day and Jackson was more irritable ... to be honest, so was I.

I loved having that much time with family, but I may either have to mentally prepare myself for that again or cut the trip by about 2 - 3 days for my sanity. We may have to see my dad first next time though since he had the "burnt out end of the trip" this time around. :)

8. Make sure to give our family about 3 - 5 days AFTER our vacation to fully adjust back to our normal routines. Time zone changes are hard and Micah's been having some big issues with napping since we've been home.

However, I must say that even though it seems anal and can be a frenzy to do a good house cleaning before we left on a long trip it was a huge sigh of relief to come home to.

We had SUCH a good time on our trip!!! It was so good to see everyone especially the Fanning side in light of the past years' events. It may sound crazy to me know, but I really am hoping to make this more of an annual event.


Spirit Lake, IA


The one-year-olds! These three boys are each 4 months apart in age starting with Micah then Orin and then Tucker.




The two oldest cousins ... 4 years old and also 4 months apart in age.



Micah making "soup" with sand and lake water.






Jackson having some bonding time with Great-Grandma Heyer.




Door County, WI








Union Grove, WI


BOYS! Jackson loved to wrestle and play with his older cousins.





I think Micah's favorite part of the trip was Gomez ... my dad's dog.




Grampa Fanning giving the boys fresh blueberries and raspberries from his garden.

18 Month Old Check Up

Micah turned 18 months on April 25, 2010. His personality over the last several months has just blossomed and the paths of the two boys are now starting to diverge a little (as they should).

The Stats:
Weight: 24lbs 2oz 25%
Height: 33 1/2 inches 75%
Head Circumference: 49cm 80%

Micah's Schedule:
6:30 - some days he'll jabber in his crib and then go back to sleep
8:00 - wake up (sometimes he'll sleep till 8:30 if I'm lucky)
Noon - lunch
12:55 - small snack (we've found that he sleeps better at night and for his nap if he has a little snack (i.e. a cup of yogurt of peanut butter toast) right before he goes down).
1:00 - nap
3:30 - jabber or cry (depending on the day) in his crib until about 4pm if he doesn't just sleep until then ... more on this later.
4:00 - snack (not too much though otherwise he's not hungry for supper)
5:30 - supper
7:15 - bedtime routine including a little snack
7:30 - Bible story time, which he's gotten much better at sitting through over the last several months.
8:00 - in bed
8:30 - usually asleep

18 Month Challenges:
NAPS, NAPS, NAPS!!! Micah was sick over Easter and it took him awhile to bounce back which had a direct affect his naps.

At first he'd sleep about an hour and then wake up frantically crying. If I went in there to calm him down it only seemed to wake him up more, but if Colin went in there he'd go right back to sleep ... go figure ... it was the same if he woke up in the middle of the night, which he was doing during the time he was sick.

Eventually I tried rocking him for the rest of his nap to see if I could at least get him to take a full nap on me ... NOPE. My only choice at this point (knowing that he was perfectly healthy and perfectly capable of sleeping a full nap and through the night) was to let him cry it out. The evening cry outs were short lived, but the day time naps were not seeming to get any better UNTIL...

... one day Micah went over to a friend's house for a play date and came home after lunch, but right before nap time. I had no idea how much he had to eat for lunch, so I fed him some yogurt just in case and HE SLEPT AWESOME!!

Since then we've been giving him a snack before his nap and bedtime and he's been sleeping much better. He still has days where he wakes up early and sometimes he wakes up crying, but other days he wakes up happy (which I can handle much better), either way he stays in his crib until 4 o'clock because Mommy needs to have some down time.

18 Month Joys:
TALKING, TALKING, TALKING!!! Micah's vocabulary has taken off this past month and he's now even streaming two words together. Here are a few things you might hear him say:
"Mees!" - please
"Mee Mama!" - please Momma
"Hi,hi" - hide, hide
"Ah-min" - amen
"Da!" - yes
"No?" -no (I wish you could hear his intonation because it's so adorable)
"Moe" - more
"Up" - up
"Puppy" - puppy or any animal
"cows" - cars
"caka" - cracker
"me-mow" - Nemo and/or fruit snacks
"choo-choo" - train
"Ah-ah!" - monkey/Curious George
"Em-oh" - Elmo, but also elbow
"ni-ni daddy" - good night daddy
"da-di" - Jackson
"wee-oh" - wheel
"bi-boh" - bible
"dee-dus" - Jesus
"oots" - oops
He actually has quite a few more, but I won't bore you with a longer list than what I've given here. He's SO adorable when he "talks" and especially when he mimics his older brother ... thankfully Jackson is eating that up right now.

Micah's also showed some beginning signs of potty training readiness. The day of his 18 month check up he told me that he was poopy during lunch, but when I went to change him his diaper was empty. I asked him if he wanted to go poopy on the potty and he said, "Da!" (see above for translation) and to my surprise he went poop and pee on the potty! I've tried several times since then with no luck and it seems he has lost interest, so I'm not going to push potty training at this point, but it's a glimmer of hope for the future.

PLAY TIME! Micah and Jackson are now starting to play together ... okay well at least in the same room next to each other without me having to be present. It's been fun to watch them develop their relationship as brothers. Since this has taken place here are a few phrases you'll hear me say to both boys at various times and most likely several times during the day:

"You need to use your words if you want that toy and not just take it from him."
"He doesn't like that, you need to stop."
"Tell him 'no thank you' if you don't like what he's doing."
"Let him have a turn."
"Are you being loving?!"
"Go play in Jackson's room!"

Playing "together" at a children's museum.

Micah has caught Jackson's love of cars, but he also loves trains and puppies. He has a stuffed puppy that he sleeps with now (mostly because then he can play with it in bed after his nap until I'm ready to get him up). He'll walk around the house cuddling, kissing and talking to the puppy. He really is a cuddly little man and it is not uncommon for him to stop playing and find me just so he can cuddle for a minute or two (I LOVE THAT!).

He's starting to get more interested in reading entire books even with more than just a few words on a page, but he loves anything that he can take apart and put back together or that has multiple buttons on it. His absolute FAVORITE pass time is sitting in the parked car and playing with the steering wheel and all of the buttons and levers with Daddy. I may have to invest in a few more small motor skill toys in order to keep him busy in church and occupied on the potty once we're serious about training.

Micah's favorite thing at the children's museum.

Micah's personality is free spirited, adventurous and even at such a young age has some great comedic timing (although I'm not sure he's aware of that quite yet). He's shy around strangers, but once he warms up he can be such a HAM! He's a Momma's boy when he's out of his element, but when he's up for an adventure he runs straight to Daddy or his brother! :)

What more can I say?!

You are such a treat and a delight Micah! We love you SO much!

Nap Transitions at 15 1/2 Months

Micah transitioned from 2 naps to 1 nap this past week. He will be 16 months on the 25th.

I started to notice his need for this transition when he was taking a really long time to go down for his second nap in the afternoon. Prior to this he'd take two 2 hour naps one from 10 - 12 and the other from 2 - 4.

I tried just giving him one nap right away, but then he was crabby that evening and sometimes even into the next day. So, I made his morning nap shorter since I wanted him to eventually take his long nap in the afternoon when Jackson was sleeping (although, I think he would have naturally taken a longer nap in the morning and a shorter nap in the afternoon).

For about a week or so he was taking one 45 minute to an hour nap in the morning from 11 - 12 (I'd have to wake him up from that nap otherwise he'd sleep longer and not take an afternoon nap) and a longer 2 hour nap in the afternoon from 2 - 4. He did that until he was having a hard time falling asleep or woke up early on a regular basis from his second nap. (There were even a few nights that it disrupted his night time sleep too, but that may have also been due to sickness/teething.)

Every once in awhile I'd skip his morning nap to see how he handled it. Once he could skip a morning nap without being cranky that night and/or the next day, we tried skipping the morning nap for two or three days in a row. That naturally happened on the weekends because 1. Saturdays can be pretty busy, and 2. he has been skipping his morning nap at church for several months now, so then we'd just skip Monday's morning nap as well.

It's been one full week with only one nap in the afternoon and although for a couple of them he only slept 2 hours (again I think that was due to sickness/teething) for the most part he is sleeping 3 hours for his afternoon nap, which is exactly what I was hoping for.

15 Month Check Up

Weight: 23lbs (although he was pretty wiggly and I think he's closer to 24lbs) - 25%
Height: 32in - 75%
Head: 49cm - 90%

Mobility
Micah now walks everywhere and can get up and down the stairs with ease. He can also open and close doors and drawers. He's usually pretty persistent and determined when he wants something he can't have or do like turn on and off the T.V. or dig through my night stand drawer. As a result I have resorted to locking some doors from the outside (particularly bathroom doors) when I cannot devote my attention solely to him.

Feeding
Micah has at least 11 teeth now and handles table food very well. He has breakfast at 8am, lunch at noon, a snack at 4pm and supper at 5:30pm. Most of his meals now are finger foods with ocassional things I spoon feed him like applesauce and yogurt.

He prefers to feed himself and lets you know what his preferences are at meal time refusing to eat anything unless he gets what he wants. However, usually the old "out of sight, out of mind" trick seems to work well with him.

Sippy cups are no longer an issue and he drinks about 20 ounces or more of vitamin D milk in one day.

Sleeping
On average, Micah sleeps from 8:00pm - 7:30am. Sometimes he'll wake at 6:30am and go back to sleep and other times I have to wake him up at 8:30. Regardless, the earliest I'll get him out of his crib is 8am unless we need to be up early for a specific reason.

He's transitioning from two naps to one by taking one short nap in the morning usually at 11am that's about 45 minutes to an hour and one longer nap in the afternoon from 2 - 4pm. However, lately if he sleeps an hour in the morning he's less likely to take a long afternoon nap. There have been a couple of days that he has taken one long 3 hour nap, but then he's usually crabby the next day. My goal is to get him to take one long nap from 1 - 4pm every day.

Communicating
Micah communicates very well. He can sign: "milk," "all done," "more," "book," "nigh, nigh." He can say: "mommy," "dada," "da-din" (jackson), "cra-grr" (cracker), "nigh, nigh," "ah-me" (amen), "Bapa" (Papa), and he mimics and tries to say more and more every day.

He'll cry and or throw a mini-tantrum if he doesn't get what he wants, but it usually lasts seconds and as he gets older we will definitely begin to discipline the behavior, but right now I feel he's too young to understand when he's throwing a tantrum.

However, he gets disciplined on a pretty consistent basis when we know and MICAH knows that he is being directly disobedient. Usually that entails touching something he's not allowed to or going up the stairs when we tell him not to.

I've thought about "baby proofing" those sort of things to prevent having to battle with him. I think I would if I was convinced that he didn't understand what I expected from him, but it is SO CLEAR that he understands when he's disobedient. I've come to the conclusion that the battle is worth it now so that I don't have to fight a WAR months or years from now. Consistent boundaries bring a sense of security (especially to children) and Micah is testing those boundaries which is a good and natural thing for him to do.

Playing
Micah's favorite toys right now are anything that has buttons and makes noises and anything his big brother is playing with at the moment.


As of late he's also taken a liking to fleece blankets (which is what he sleeps with) and the other day insisted on carrying one around. I'm trying to put the kabosh on that one, but we'll see.

He also loves to hide in closets, forts, cupboards, etc. He can sit through whole books now, but Bible story time is still a struggle (especially when we're explaining the story to Jackson).

Micah ADORES his big brother and mimics him in just about everything that he does. (I'm secretly and publicly hoping that that will aid in future potty training, but we'll see).


Micah is a pretty active player and I now have to use the cry room in church (we do not have a nursery) during the sermons, but he'll sit through most of the singing.

Micah loves to play outside when we can and is very brave at the playground going up stairs and down slides without any fear or hesitation. I may have a dare devil on my hands.

Personality
Micah is quick to laugh and smile and even quicker to make someone else laugh and smile.

He's shy around strangers and will cry with a babysitter or at the doctor's office, but once he gets to know you he's a hoot. He's definitely a child that should make you worry if he's off playing by himself not making a peep (that usually means he's into something he's not supposed to). I think he's going to be my "sneaky" one. So far he's not a "people pleaser", but loves doing his own thing. He loves to cuddle unless he's really tired and then he'll insist on laying down in bed. His exictment and smile when you walk in the door makes you feel so loved.

I'm blessed to have you Micah! I love you SO much!

Catch Up

It’s been awhile since I’ve written any blogs that were notes to myself about the development of my children and I have a lot of catching up to do. Here are the topics I’ll be covering in this blog: weaning, separation anxiety, naps, sleep sacks, crawling and walking.

Weaning
4 weeks before Micah turned one year old I began to drop his nursing times and replaced it with a feeding of whole milk from a sippy cup. It was nice to ease him into drinking milk and using a sippy. However, at first Micah didn’t like the sippy cup (perhaps it is too much like a bottle which he protested for several months) and we discovered that he preferred a cup with a straw. Eventually he switched to a sippy cup without a one way valve. Now he drinks from a sippy with a one way valve all by himself).

At 11 months old he was down to 4 feedings a day (8am, 12pm, 4pm, 8pm). I dropped the 4pm first because he was least interested in that feeding and my milk supply seemed lowest. We also tend to be busy around that time of day so it was convenient to drop that one first. Then I dropped the following feedings in the following order – 12pm, 8pm and 8am.

The morning feeding took a little longer to drop since my milk supply was greater for that one and a couple of times I nursed him because I was uncomfortable and he was cranky. A little after his first birthday I lost my milk supply and Micah was content drinking whole milk.

It wasn’t that long ago that I weaned Micah, but my brain has already forgotten what it’s like having to nurse every 4 hours.

Separation Anxiety
Around the time I dropped the last nursing Micah began to show signs of separation anxiety. He’d cry when I’d leave the room, cry when he encountered strangers, cry when I put him down for naps and for bedtime. I’m not sure if the weaning triggered it, but it seems logical that it might have, but then again it could just be the age.

Of course this came right at the time that I needed to leave him with relatives for a couple of days. I felt bad for my sister-in-law, but was so grateful for her patience.

There wasn’t much I could do about this stage he was going through except reassure him of my presence when appropriate and ignore it when appropriate (I had to let him “cry it out” a couple of times during his naps… luckily it never dramatically affected his night time sleep).

Towards the end of our two week trip he finally began to warm up to people he didn’t know very well and the crying/separation anxiety seemed to wane. (whew)

Sleep Sacks
When I was on vacation my sister-in-law asked me when I was planning on not using a sleep sack anymore. I really like them for when my kids are younger because it keeps them warm at night and brings me peace of mind that they are not going to get tangled up in a blanket and suffocate.

I stopped using sleep sacks with Jackson just before his 1st birthday because the weather in the Midwest was getting warmer (he’s a June baby), but with Micah (an October baby) the weather was starting to get cooler. I also had the added challenge that Micah was chewing on the collar of his sleep sack to sooth himself at night and during naps when he had teething pain.

I was a little nervous that I’d have several nights of “crying it out” when I finally took the sleep sack away, so I decided to wait until we were back home to do it. I was really surprised that when I switched him from a sleep sack to a blanket (and I transitioned cold turkey) that there were no problems at all (although I’m pretty sure he still chews on the blanket to sooth himself from time to time).

Crawling, Walking & Naps
Micah started to really crawl around 11 months and then took his first steps between 12 and 13 months. He’s almost 14 months and is still not walking consistently, but I think he’s more comfortable crawling at this point and he can crawl pretty fast.

I want to note that when he learned to crawl and walk I noticed a change in his napping habits. He’d have a hard time going to sleep and then when he did finally go to sleep he’d wake up early from his nap. I thought that he might be ready to go down to one nap, but then he was a beast and wouldn’t take ANY naps and I was NOT going to let that happen.

I switched him back to two naps and some days he sleeps great and other days he fights them. He did this both when he learned to crawl and when he learned to walk and I’m wondering if it’s all connected. I read somewhere that when babies learn new skills like crawling or rolling over that sometimes it does affect their sleep habits.

It’s just a huge transitional period for Micah right now. He really is going from baby to toddler very quickly. I’m toughing out the naps right now, but he’ll probably need to go down to one nap in the near future anyway, so I’ll just have to take that battle one day at a time for now.

Well that pretty much covers it for Micah. I need a whole other blog for Jackson who has grown leaps and bounds developmentally these days. Stay tuned for that one!

12 Months

Okay ... I'm really behind on this post because Micah had his 12 month check up before we left for a long trip to the Midwest.

I also left his stats on a piece of paper that I left in the Midwest ... oops. I don't remember the exact measurements, but I do remember the percentiles.

Weight: 48% (about 22lbs)
Height: 75%
Head: 90%

He's been done nursing since we left for our trip (note: I plan on writing a weaning blog soon) which worked out well because we had to leave him with his Aunt Katie for a few days while Colin and I packed up our house in Omaha.

The unfortunate thing for Aunt Katie was that he started separation anxiety around the same time. It started right before we left ... he wouldn't even let me leave the room without crying (perhaps it may have been related to the weaning?).

It took him quite awhile to warm up to his relatives and by the end of the 2 week vacation he was finally becoming more comfortable being without me. Since we've been back home the separation anxiety has seemed to lessen ... go figure.

I try to get Micah to drink about 20oz of whole milk a day (about two sippy cups worth) and he drinks it best when he uses a cup with a straw, but we're working on a regular sippy cup as well (although we take the one way valve out to make it easier for him).

He eats three meals a day and gets one snack in the afternoon. I'd say he's eating about 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups worth of food ground up in the baby food grinder for meals and has about 1/2 - 1 cup of cheerios or crackers for a snack in the afternoon. We've slowly been adding more texture/chunks to his ground food (i.e. oatmeal with raisins) and offering more finger foods as well. I also want to note that we've introduced him to honey and peanut butter now and he loves them!

His hemoglobin test came back low during his 12 month check up so we've been really pushing the cheerios and the baby cereal as well as adding a vitamin supplement with iron to his diet in the evenings as well. We'll go back at the beginning of December to check his hemoglobin again.

Micah's taking two naps a day (10:00 - 12:00 and 2:00 - 4:00), but it seems like he'll sleep his whole morning nap lately and shortens his afternoon nap showing signs of being ready to go down to one nap soon. The past couple of days I've tried to wake him up early from his morning nap to see if he'll sleep longer for his afternoon nap (so that both boys are taking long afternoon naps and I can have a few more moments to myself to get things done), but that hasn't been working.

However, I can't complain because he's still sleeping wonderfully at night. There were a couple of nights when we were on vacation that he woke up in the middle of the night, but that was because he was sick and/or not used to having us sleeping in the room with him. I feel the need to dedicate a future blog to our travel adventures though.

Micah has become VERY efficient in his crawling and can get around pretty fast. He LOVES to be chased ... it makes him giggle so hard that he buckles over and can't crawl away anymore ... it's pretty adorable if you ask me. He's also cruising more and walks pretty well holding on to one hand. It won't be long until he's walking on his own. Although we are entering the season of bumps and bruises until he can master walking and running.

Due to his mobility, discipline has been coming more frequently. When Jackson was younger he'd cry even if I had a serious tone to my voice let alone give him a spanking. Not true for Micah. He will sometimes laugh after I give him a spanking (SIGH)...oh boy ... it takes a few corrections before he obeys, but he eventually obeys. He's a pretty persistent little bugger sometimes, but that will be to his advantage in the future if he learns to use it "for the greater good."

Micah is a go, go, go kind of guy. I rarely see him sitting still to examine a toy or book, but that's usually because he's trying to keep up with his older brother. He's showing signs of being a tantrum thrower, but he has yet to have a full blown tantrum yet.

As far as communicating is concerned Micah can say/sign the following words:

Dada: Dad
Mama: Mom
Da-Din: Jackson
Aye: Hi
No-no: No
Nigh-Nigh: Good Night
dant-du: Thank you
(signs) please
(signs) all done
(signs) more (sort of)
uh-oh
t-t: touch it

I've found that it's REALLY hard to keep up with his vocabulary when I have a 3 year old talking in my ear 24/7. Don't get me wrong ... I'm grateful that my 3 year old is very verbose, BUT there are times when I wish I could pay sole attention to Micah. I'm sure there more "words" he's saying, I just am not able to pay attention to them.

Micah is such a delight! He's so curious and he loves to be with his family. He loves to cuddle more than I remember Jackson cuddling. He's SO ticklish and can be such a silly goose sometimes (I'm wondering if I have a class clown on my hands here). I LOVE that his personality is really starting to shine lately.


That's about it! I'll leave you with this picture of Micah on the morning of his birthday with blueberry muffin shoved in his mouth!

10 Months Old

I can't believe Micah is 10 months old tomorrow. I don't know why 10 months seems so old to me ... maybe it's the whole double digit thing. Anyway, here's what he's up to lately:




Yup, he's started to "crawl" (more like creep like a cute little inch worm) just this week. He is SO adorable when he does this. As soon as I can figure out how to upload video from my camera to the Internet I'll have to post a video of him creeping across the floor.

Here's his typical routine:

6:30am - Wakes up and talks to himself. Sometimes he'll go back to sleep and sometimes he'll play until I feed him.

7:30am - Nurse. I've found that he nurses much better when I keep the lights off so that he's not distracted by anything (that's also why I nurse him BEFORE Jackson wakes up).

8:00am - Breakfast, usually it's applesauce (or some sort of fruit) mixed with oatmeal (he eats both infant oatmeal and regular oatmeal now).

9:30am - Nap. He still wears a sleep sack for nap time, but doesn't use a pacifier or anything else to put himself to sleep. I usually turn out the lights and turn on the humidifier (for white noise) and cuddle/pray with him for a few seconds and then lay him down while he's still awake and leave. Sometimes he'll talk or fuss a little before he goes to sleep, but most of the time he'll fall right to sleep.

11:30am - Nurse.

12:00pm - Lunch. Usually a vegetable, a fruit, grain and some sort of protein (that can be meat, fish, eggs, beans or dairy (he's had yogurt and cottage cheese so far, but they both make him a little gassy, so I have to give him gas drops afterwards)). I've still been making some pureed baby food, but I'm definitely using the baby food grinder more often and feeding him foods that the family is eating. He also gets a cup with a straw with about 1/8 or so cup of water.

1:30pm - Nap. Usually one of his naps is 2 hours and the other is 1 1/2 hours.

3:30pm - Nurse.

5:00pm - Snack (usually cheerios while I'm fixing him supper).

5:30pm - Supper. Same type of food as lunch (although I may not do a protein). Micah has a hard time making it all the way to 6pm when the rest of us eat and if he does it's hard for me to eat while feeding him, so I tend to feed him a little bit earlier on some days.

7:30pm - Bible Story. Micah LOVES Bible story time. More than any other book we have this is the book that he whines to look at and touch every time we pull it out.

7:45pm - Nurse. I do my best not to nurse him to sleep. Obviously there are some days that that is unavoidable. Most days though it's important that he stays awake enough to at least burp ... other wise I'm up with him a couple hours later when he cries because he's gassy.

NOTE: Micah still will NOT take a bottle! So, we've decided that when Colin or a babysitter has to put him to bed we just mix about 2oz of breast milk in cereal and put 2oz of breast milk into a cup with a straw and feed it to him in his high chair before bed. It seems to be working so far since he hasn't woken up in the night when we do it that way.

Micah LOVES his brother and often mimics him in his play (screams and growls, etc.). As soon as I let him he'll play cars with Jackson ALL DAY, I just know it.

Micah has started to show an understanding of the word "No!" and I now feel comfortable that he knows when he is doing something I've asked him not to ... I say "no" and he gives me "that look" and does it anyway ... you moms know what I'm talking about right?

Discipline is just around the corner and I have swatted his hands a couple of times when he's endangering himself (pulling on cords, etc.). I'm thankful for the tender heart he has when I do (he usually cries (Jackson doesn't like that)), rather than a determined defiance ... I'm praying that sticks.

He still moans and whines a lot when he wants something, but he is getting more consistent with signing "please" (although it's on his leg instead of on his chest). We're working on it.

Jackson is getting a glimpse of a brother who will soon be able to wrestle with him and he's pretty excited about it, but I have to pull back the reigns every once in awhile when Jackson is a little too rough. Those two boys are going to be such good buddies I can tell already by the way each of them light up when the other one is in the room.

Well, I think that's all for now until I hit "Publish Post" and think of a million other things I wanted to blog about. It's the same when I leave the doctor's office too ... I think of a million and one questions after I leave. Ah well.


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FEMININE INFORMATION BELOW DO NOT READ OF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW
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My cycle was 41 days this month with a spike in temp on day 35, but I was not able to take my tempurature on several days because of getting up with Micah early in the morning when he was sick, so this month's predicted ovulation date may be wrong.

Growth Spurt ... Maybe?

Micah caught a cold last week, but he'd been doing really well at night time regardless of all of the congestion he was having.

We also had friends in town from Omaha on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, so Micah was out of routine for most of those days.

On Monday morning (5:00am) Micah woke up crying. I gave him some medicine and then ended up nursing him so that I wouldn't wake up our guests and he went back to sleep until around 8am. Then he did fine the rest of the day and we even went to the beach.

Tuesday morning he woke up at 4:00am and was inconsolable. I gave him medicine, gas drops and sucked out his nose and after an hour and a half of crying I could finally rock him back to sleep(I didn't nurse him this time because I didn't want to create a habit) and he slept until around 8am. I figured he has had a cold for one week now and may be battling an ear infection. His morning nap was perfect, but I had a hard time getting him to sleep for his afternoon nap although he eventually did go to sleep and slept quite awhile. When I put him to bed that night I gave him medicine and gas drops just in case.

Wednesday morning he woke up at 4:30am and again was inconsolable. I gave him medicine and gas drops but didn't suck out his nose thinking that would wake him up too much. After an hour and a half of crying I finally gave in and nursed him. He drank it ALL! As soon as he was finished he was sound asleep.

I feel TERRIBLE that he cried for that long for nothing. I could have just nursed him and put him right back to bed and we would have all been much happier today. But, in my defense, he's sick and teething and trying new foods and out of routine and I thought all of those combined were my problem.

Looking back I'm not really sure I would have done anything differently except try nursing a little sooner, but I still would have tried everything else first. (SIGH) I still feel terrible though and that's only magnified by the fact that I'm exhausted.

Well, I'm going to try to increase Micah's calories today (mix some breast milk in his food and add an extra nursing) to see if that helps tonight.

I'm still not fully convinced that it's a growth spurt, but part of me hopes that it's only that. Poor little guy.

We'll get this all straightened out soon.

Additional Note Made 8/7/09:

The day I fed Micah more calories he did sleep through the night, BUT he had a very difficult time falling asleep and I moved him to his swing where he slept all night long. I'm now almost certain that he had some sort of ear infection that would feel progressively worse throughout the day and made night times uncomfortable for him.

Last night he went to sleep well (a little fussy due to separation anxiety) and stayed asleep ALL NIGHT!! (SIGH) Let's hope this is the end of this cold.

Additional Note Made 8/8/09:

NOPE! He was up again this morning at 5:30am! Finally fell asleep again after I nursed him and put him in the swing. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Rough Night

I'm not sure if it was the nursery on Sunday or the doctor's office on Monday, but Micah is not feeling well. He's got a cold, is teething and may have gotten bad gas after trying yogurt for the first time yesterday.

He was a little fussy on Monday, but I chalked it up teething.

Yesterday morning he was a little more fussy, but not bad. He tried plain yogurt for the first time at breakfast. He woke up during his morning nap sounding congested so I gave him Motrin (just in case he was in pain from his teeth) and had him finish his nap in his swing.

He ate great for lunch, but had a hard time going down for his afternoon nap. He ended up sleeping in his swing again after I gave him some Tylenol. At this point his nose was noticeably running.

He was happy after nap time, but by this time his nose was gushing and of course his teeth were still bothering him (made evident by the fact that he kept sucking on his upper lip).

Bedtime was a beast! He'd only fall asleep if I was holding him and when I'd put him down he'd cry. I tried the swing again, but he slept for only an hour or so and then woke up crying.

Finally, I tried putting him in his car seat in the walk in closet in our bedroom (so he wouldn't wake up Jackson), but that didn't work. I brought the rocking chair into our room, but it was too bright and Micah just wanted to play and look around then.

So, we moved the rocking chair to the walk in closet (by this time it was 11pm and he'd already had a dose of Motrin at 8pm and a dose of Tylenol at 11pm). He pretty much cried himself to sleep in my arms in the rocking chair in the closet. I carefully transferred him to his crib, but he only slept for 2 hours.

Around 4am (after battling with him for quite some time) I noticed that every time I'd pick him up when he was crying he'd either burp or pass gas. So, I gave him some gas drops and nursed him in case he was hungry.

After that the rocking chair was getting uncomfortable for me, so I moved us to my bed (Colin had moved down to the couch LOOOOONG before this). I laid him down thinking I'd have to battle him rolling all over the bed.

I was surprised that he laid perfectly still and almost fell asleep as I was rubbing his tummy. He passed a little more gas and had a few more burps and then he was his happy self again. So, I put him back into his crib wide awake and he went to sleep and stayed asleep until 8am and had a great breakfast this morning.

His nose is still gushing so I filled the humidifier, propped his mattress up and gave him Motrin before his morning nap. He's been sleeping soundly for an 1 hour and 45 minutes so far (crossing my fingers).

They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, but I think I went insane last night trying to figure out all of the different ways that I could help my little boy sleep.

I know this too shall pass.

9 Month Check Up

My Progress: (skip this if you don't care about the feminine stuff) I started my cycle this month.

Micah's 9 month stats:

20lbs 14oz (48%)
29" (75%)
47cm HC (95%)

Micah sits up without assistance and rolls as a means of getting to where he wants to go (hence the 48% for weight). He has yet to crawl, but definitely shows an interest in it, but gets easily frustrated when he tries to. He can also clap too and would clap for several minutes at a time in his crib after he woke up when he first learned that skill.

He also has begun to master his pincer fingers and can pick up cheerios and other finger foods and feed himself. He's had the following foods so far: Yams, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, chicken, black beans, salmon, beef, ground turkey, avocado, applesauce, papaya, banana, blueberries, peaches, apricots, tomatoes, oatmeal, rice, cheerios, watermelon and I'm sure there's more that I just can't remember. (I plan on trying egg yokes and yogurt some time in the next few weeks too, since I've gotten the go ahead from the pediatrician).

He's just starting to sign "please," but instead of rubbing his chest he'll frantically grab at his bib or pant leg. Overall his communication is whining when he wants something ... I'm looking forward to the next couple of months when HOPEFULLY he'll learn how to sign a few words. He's jabbering consonant sounds now like: dada, baba, adah (no mama yet).

He LOVES books, but mostly the mechanics of how the pages feel, turn and taste ... we're working on not putting everything in his mouth, but he's definitely in the oral stage right now. He's got two bottom teeth and I'm expecting the top two to pop through any time now.

His favorite thing to do is go for walks in the stroller. He also loves to be with his big brother. I will often find him mimicking Jackson at the dinner table or when they are playing together ... it's SO adorable.

Micah takes two naps during the day for about 2 hours each, but on Sundays he takes a shorter morning nap and then a longer afternoon nap because of church. I still put him in a sleep sack for naps and night time and he likes to suck on the collar (I hope that's not a bad habit that I'm letting happen there). He sleeps great at night (12 hours) even when he stayed at a different house without mom and dad for a couple of days.

While we were traveling without the boys I was able to see how much milk Micah drinks based on how much I pumped. He drinks about 10oz in the morning, then 6oz around lunch, 4oz after his afternoon nap and 4oz at bedtime for a total of 24oz a day.

His stranger anxiety has waned a little, but I think he's starting a little separation anxiety now too because he'll usually tolerate strangers as long as I'm right next to him. However, once he warms up to a person he does great. I was really glad that he got to spend some time with his Grandma Deb this weekend.

One year is just around the corner ... I'll blink and he'll be going off to college. I'm doing my best to every second!

Quick Update on Sleep

Micah has made a few changes in his sleeping habits these past couple of weeks and I wanted to be sure that I made a note to myself about them for the future:

1. I stopped putting socks on his hands because he had figured out how to pull them off by himself and because he seemed to accidentally scratch himself less and less.

2. I no longer give him a pacifier for naps or night sleep unless he's inconsolable or we're in a different sleeping environment (for example: I still give him a pacifier when I expect him to sleep in his car seat at church... but he hardly ever keeps it in).

3. As Micah has begun to eat more food during meals he's needed his third nap less and less. I'm not sure if they're related, but it's just my observation. For awhile I was putting him down for about a half an hour before dinner time so that he wouldn't be exhausted by bedtime and fall asleep nursing, but after awhile he just wouldn't fall asleep anymore. So, he's completely dropped his third nap now and is sleeping between 1 1/2 to 2 hours for his other two naps during the day. He's getting less and less cranky around bed time but I still struggle with him falling asleep nursing (I DON'T want that to become a habit).

4. A couple days before and after Micah popped his first tooth he woke up in the middle of the night and needed to be consoled. I ended up giving him Tylenol and swaddling him (which I haven't done in a LONG time) in order to get him to go back to sleep. After a couple days he's back to his normal 12 hour sleep without any interruptions (praise the Lord for that). By the way: I was unsuccessful at snapping a picture of his tooth in the picture above... ah well.

I think that's about it ... my little one is awake now and ready for breakfast, so I better bring this blog to a close.

Deviation Disaster

Okay, maybe disaster is an over statement, but I thought it was a good alliteration. Anyway, I wanted to post a blog on how deviating too far from a routine can get me into trouble with my kids as I mentioned in this blog. Yesterday was a good example ... it was only a small deviation, but it still had it's consequences.

Our family is living with one car right now. Since Colin lives so close to his work that hasn't been a problem, but lately he's been going in to work pretty early ... like 6:30am and I'm not willing to wake the kids up to take him so that I can have the car. Do you blame me?

Anyway, Colin went in to work late yesterday, so that I could have the car. Normally, I'd have already fed Micah and packed a breakfast for Jackson so that we could drop Colin off at work by 8am and then head to the grocery store and make it home before Micah's morning nap. There are so many good reasons why it's better to shop in the morning (it's not crowded, my kids are better behaved, the produce is fresher and I can check out MUCH faster).

However, I did not have my meals planned out for the week and I didn't have a grocery list, so I decided to wait until after the afternoon naps to go grocery shopping. The idea was to go at 4pm and be done around 5:30pm to pick Colin up from work and then if Micah needed a third nap we'd be home for it.

In reality we didn't really get out of the door until around 4:30pm (you know how that goes). The grocery store was very busy and I had a long list of things to buy. Around 5:15pm I realized that I was not going to make a 5:30 pick up for Colin, but didn't sweat it. Then by the time we were checking out Micah was ready for that third nap, but I was still not sweating it, not too much anyway.

I gave Colin a call when we were on our way to pick him up at 6pm and he said that he was not quite ready for us yet. GRRR ... I was TRYING not to sweat it at this point. We usually eat dinner around 6pm. Luckily I had packed some crackers and milk for Jackson to eat at the grocery store, but when we got to Colin's work I popped the trunk and also got him an apple. I was surprised at how well Micah was doing at this point.

We got home around 6:30. Colin and Jackson unloaded the groceries and Colin went back to work (yeah ... it's been that kind of week for him ... not fun). I quick got Jackson some meat (he'd already had an apple and crackers) and then made Micah's food. By this time Micah was getting a little frantic about being hungry.

So now Micah had been without his third nap and ate a half an hour after his normal time and only an hour before his bedtime. My fear was that he'd get full on solid food and not nurse well at bedtime. So, I only gave him about half to three fourths of what I would normally give him. It was enough to make him happy.

By 7:30 Micah was ready for bed ... and you moms know what I mean by "READY for bed." He fell asleep nursing. Bummer. Because he fell asleep nursing he didn't drink as much and he didn't burp well. Bummer. But he was asleep. Maybe the deviation from his routine wouldn't have that big of an affect on him.

11:30pm Micah woke up crying, not a scream, just a cry. I tried to burp him, but was unsuccessful. I finally ended up giving him gas drops and a pacifier and that seemed to do the trick. I hadn't even gone to bed yet, so it's not like I lost sleep. I went to bed hoping that that was all he needed to make it through the rest of the night.

5:30am Micah woke up crying. I put the pacifier in.

5:35am Micah woke up crying. I tried to burp him and put the pacifier in again.

5:40am Micah woke up crying. I gave him the pacifier and he spit it out immediately. He wasn't hurt and wasn't showing any signs of being sick. So, I gave in and nursed him. As soon as he drank what he needed he fell right back to sleep and I woke him up at 7:45am.

My conclusion: not having a third nap and eating a late dinner meant that Micah was extremely tired at bedtime and did not burp well and nurse well enough to make it through the night.

My solution: make a grocery list the night before and go grocery shopping in the morning.

The good news is that, now that Jackson's older, that deviation had NO affect on him at all. I look forward to the days when Micah will follow suit.

Lesson learned!

7 months

My Recovery

If you don't want to read about all of the female stuff that comes with having children, skip to the section titled Micah.

Micah will reach the 7 month mark on the 25th and I still have not started my cycle. I'm not complaining by any means, but I remember starting sooner with Jackson. However, I did start Jackson on solid foods a little bit earlier than I did Micah.

My libido is still pretty low, but I remember that with Jackson too. I don't think that it really became normal again until I was done nursing.

My hair loss seems to be slowing down finally too! (SIGH) It started to REALLY fall out when Micah was around 4 months old. I seriously thought I was going to go bald, but now it's slowing down and I desperately need a haircut.

I've been working out about twice a week doing 30 minutes of aerobics and 30 minutes of anaerobic. I'll also be starting a community class next week (Belly Dancing for Moms ... we'll see I guess). My pre-pregnancy clothes fit, but I'd have to say that the pants (particularly the jeans) are still not very comfortable to wear. Maybe I've just gotten used to loose fitting clothes?

Micah

We've spent a lot of time tweaking Micah's schedule over the past month and here's what it is now ... we'll see how long it stays this way, but we are definitely in a groove (BUT we are traveling this weekend, so we'll see what happens):

7:15am nurse
7:45am solids
9:15am nap
11:15am nurse
12:00pm solids
1:15pm nap
3:15pm nurse
5:15pm nap
6:00pm solids
7:15pm nurse and bedtime

I know it goes against Babywise to have a gap between nursing and solids, but my logic is that I want Micah's solid food intake to align with when we eat meals as a family and starting Micah's day at 8am has been difficult with the days I need to take Colin to work in the morning. We'll see if that bites me in the butt later on.

So far Micah's had rice and oatmeal cereal, acorn squash, sweet potato, yam, avocado and peas (all of which I've successfully made on my own). He's been eating about half a tea cup full or about 4 cubes of food at each feeding (less at breakfast because he drinks a lot more milk for that feeding).

It felt like nap times were hit and miss this month. There were times when I felt like we were doing great and then other days I'd be so frustrated because he'd wake up 30 minutes to an hour into his nap crying and the only way I could get him to go back to sleep was by putting him in the swing. (I have to remember that he had a TERRIBLE ... make that TWO TERRIBLE colds in a row this month).

However, this week has been much better. I'm also pleased that I haven't had to give him his pacifier much unless he's over tired. I think that's been the key for Micah ... getting him down for a nap BEFORE he gets fussy. For right now that's been about 2 hours after he wakes up from a nap.

He has been taking three naps a day, two of which are about 2 hours long and one that is about an hour long. BUT the past couple of days he's been waking up in the middle of the night (1 or 2am) wide awake (at least he's happy) for about a half an hour. He puts himself back to sleep, but then he wakes up for the day around 6:30am. SO, we decided to cut his third nap down to 30 minutes rather than a full hour. So far that seems to be working, but this is only the second night we've tried that.

Micah's sitting up and rolling over consistently. He loves sitting in his exer-saucer and under his play gym. However, his favorite activity is going on walks in the Joovy Caboose stroller we just got off of craigslist (Jackson loves the new stroller too). Micah's favorite toys right now are teething rings because I'm pretty sure he's starting to teeth.

He also started babbling a lot more in the past couple of weeks. His first babbles were "bah-vah" which sort of sounds like "brother" (of course Jackson just ate that up). It's possible that his newly discovered babbling, teething and a growth spurt may also be factors in him waking in the middle of the night.

Stranger anxiety also kicked in this month. I was surprised to see that he was fine at church last week when we were all sitting down, but as soon as the service was over and everyone was walking around he lost it. I'm also surprised that he tends to cry when young girls or young women look at him rather than men. We had a babysitter about a week ago and I guess he cried almost the whole time. BUT he took the bottle just fine! YAY!

Jackson

Jackson continues to surprise me everyday with how much he is growing up. He's taken the initiative several times now to go potty by himself. He has been playing by himself VERY well lately too, which makes it easier for me to get things done when Micah is napping.

Lately Jackson has really picked up on the concepts of phonics and it's been fun to watch him explore words and make up his own words. It's a bummer though that he's also developed motion sickness, so books in the car are no longer an option.

Jackson loves his little brother and prides himself in being a loving big brother. I couldn't have asked God for anything better than that!

Keeping Toddlers in Their Beds

When Jackson switched from a crib to a toddler bed we wanted a way for him to know when it was okay to get out of bed both in the morning and after naps. Our fear was that he'd wake up at 3am and get out of bed on his own thinking it was morning.

So, I did a google search and found a good website www.drgreene.com written by a pediatrician. I've used his website several times. He had some GREAT advice on potty training (maybe I'll write another blog about that later).

Anyway, in one article he wrote that, as adults, when we wake up in the middle of the night we look at the clock and know that it's not time to wake up yet and go back to sleep. Children obviously can't tell time (mine can't anyway), so he suggested plugging a night light into a timer (you can get them at home improvement stores like Home Depot), so that the night light will turn on and off automatically. Then if the child wakes up in the middle of the night they can see that the night light is on and go back to sleep. Then in the morning, when the night light is off, they know it's time to wake up.

Well, we tried it with Jackson and it works wonders!! We played a little game with the night light on the day we initiated it. When the night light was on he'd jump into bed and when it was off he'd jump out of bed. Now he knows that when the night light is on he needs to at LEAST be getting ready for bed (i.e. brushing teeth, going potty, etc.)or stay in bed unless he asks permission to get out.

His night light also travels with us when we go on trips. I recommend getting a timer that has a built in rechargeable battery, so that you don't have to keep reprogramming it every time you unplug it.

His night light goes off in the morning at around 7:45am. Most of the time he wakes up around 7:15am and as long as he wakes up with a "happy heart" (NOT crying), I'll go into his room and let him look at books until his night light goes off.

It's the same for his nap. The night light goes on at 1:00pm for his nap (which gives us time to go potty and read books before he actually goes to sleep around 1:30pm) and turns off again around 4:30pm (although I'm considering changing it because he's been sleeping until 3:30 on a regular basis now ... I guess I had to give up those 3 hour naps some time right?)

The night light goes on again for bed at 7:30pm (which gives us time for potty, pjs, brushing teeth, Bible stories, prayer, books ... a bedtime routine)and he's alone in his bed by 8:15pm, but doesn't fall asleep until 8:30pm or sometimes even 9pm. BUT he stays in bed thanks to the trusty night light. We used to let him look at books by himself before he fell asleep, but he's now at the age where he'd look at books all night if we'd let him.

We were probably a little too legalistic about the night light in the beginning (he was disciplined a couple of times for getting out of bed with the night light on), but if there's one thing I learned from my mom (who has been a 3rd grade teacher for over a decade) it's that "it's easier to hold the reins too tight and let them loose later on than it is to hold them too loose and rein them in later." We are a little more relaxed about the night light now, but he's also older and understands when he should stay in bed and when it's appropriate to get out.