27 Weeks

We've had some big things going on lately! We went to Reed's 6 month checkup and he did really good. He HATED the shots as usual and cried so hard, but he calmed easily again so it worked out okay. I was really pleased to find out that he doesn't get shots again until his 12 month appointment. Whew! The doctor didn't seem too concerned with his weight this time around. He's still under 5%, but he's moving up the track. She wants him back in 6 weeks instead of just his 9 month appointment and that's easy enough for me. 

The doctor also gave us the go ahead to start solids. We waited for Gramma and Grand Dude to get here and broke out the sweet potatoes. Turk loves them. So far I've been giving him about half of a jar of pureed sweet potatoes or pears twice a day and then at night we give him some finger type foods to work on his feeding himself skills. He seems to prefer the purees and it actually gets the calories in him, so I'll probably stick to those longer than I originally thought. Next on the food list is pureed peas and then I want to steam him some green beans. I give him random tastes of things from my plate too (zucchini, bell pepper, potato, banana, etc.) since he hasn't seemed to have any allergies. I'm really not following any order here. Just kinda winging it. He still nurses the same amount, so right now it's just for fun.

I love feeding him and he really likes it so far, so it's been a great addition to our routine. It makes me feel like we're moving past the "baby" stage a little, which I know is supposed to make me sad and nostalgic, but it makes me really excited. I am getting a glimpse of him as a little boy and it seems like it's going to be so much fun!

Gramma and Grand Dude's visit went really well. Reed was really into Grand Dude this time and not scared of his beard, which was a plus.

We mostly just hung around, but we did take Reed on his first trip to the zoo. He did really well and we probably would have stayed longer if it wasn't going to be nap time right when it looked like rain.

  

He did manage to squeeze in a 20 minute nap while we were debating on lunch. Apparently the turtle exhibit was just too exciting.

I am also happy to report that the Buzzband and I went on our first official date since Reed was born! We headed out to dinner one night after we put the little dude to bed. The place was empty and we ended up only being gone about an hour and a half, but it was good to get out! I think I'm brave enough to go out for a little longer next time.




**I have no idea why my pictures are blurry and all out of format, but when you only have a nap time to get a blog out, it is what it is!

Happy Mother's Day

This sure is a post that I could completely make all about me. However, I'm not going to do that. It's going to be about my mom. I thought I understood what my mom did for me when I became an adult, but now that I am a mom myself, I realize that I had no clue. Not a single clue what a mom really does for her child.

So, this is to say thank you, mom, even though you will be in town and visiting by the time this goes live. You deserve an in person thank you and a blog thank you.

I thank you for giving up buying yourself nice clothes for about 15 years. I thank you for wearing the same two dresses to work so much that I can still see them as clear as day in my mind (you know, the floral one and the blue plaid one...yeah, you know). I would say thank you for wearing that same taupe pump for like 10 solid years, but we both know that your shoe choices still can't be trusted and that pump would probably be in your closet to this day if I didn't give it to Goodwill.

I thank you for giving up your body so that I can be here on earth. I'm not just talking about pregnancy or labor either. Those are kind of a cake walk compared to the aftermath. Even though I make fun of you I thank you for breastfeeding me for over a year. I now understand what it means to literally give up your body to your child. It's hard and I appreciate that you did it.

I also now realize that when you have a child you are physically injured by said child starting on day 1. I have been kicked, punched, chewed on, smacked, and bruised on a daily basis for the last 6 months. I have been grabbed by the hair and pulled down to be simultaneously kicked in the mouth (I was scared for you, tooth). I have had ulcers in my mouth from biting my tongue as I was getting head butt-ed. My back hurts, my wrists are sore, and sometimes I even think my eyelashes hurt. I know that I laugh when you do your back exercises, but I get it now.

Speaking of giving up the body, I also thank you for suffering with the hemorrhoids, even though you'll be mad at me for talking about your hemorrhoids on the internet. Luckily those didn't last for me, but when I bend over and fart and I didn't even know a fart was even coming and I have to apologize to Jeff like 80 times a night, I appreciate you.

I'd also like to thank you for watching me do 10,000 cartwheels in the pool. When Reed wants me to play Peek-a-Boo with him again and again and again and again, I appreciate you.

Thank you for staying home with me for as long as you could. Being a stay at home mom is no easy task. I know you eventually had to go back to work so you could buy me nice things and while I'm thankful for that I'm even more thankful that you took the time you could to stay home with me. It's draining, it's exhausting, it's emotionally taxing and you did it for me, which makes me know that I can do it for Reed. 

Thank you for being fun. You played with me all the time. You played hopscotch, you jumped rope, you hid those eggs for me to find over and over and over and over. You were fun, you still are fun, and I don't think all moms are like that. I'm going to try to be like that.

Thank you for taking me skating and to eat pizza every Saturday. I'm sure you had about a million other things you wanted to do or needed to do on your weekend off, but the fact that you spent the time with me is awesome. When I get tired of hanging out with Reed and I just want a break, I think about all the time you spent with me. I'm sure there were days that you were busy, but when I look back on my childhood I don't even remember those days.

 

Thank you for waking up early on Christmas morning every year and letting us take pictures of you in that hideous purple robe. You know what picture is coming now, don't you??

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hahaha!  Just kidding! I'm not that evil!

...and now, in the current years. Thank you for loving my baby. Thank you for spending your time and money traveling back and forth to spend time with him. Thank you for helping me with him and for letting me text you constantly for advice, support, and even just to whine. You may have graduated to Gramma, but to me you're the best mom in the whole world and I love you very much.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

My 6 Month Round Up!

Someone asked me to do an update on how I was doing since I'm always talking about Reed. Oh, wait...that didn't actually happen. I made it up as a nice transition. It works though, right?

Anyway, I'm doing pretty good. I am surprised that I've made it to 6 months without many major meltdowns. I know I've had a few, but I thought I'd be giving up and looking for daycares by now.

Road Trippin it with the bub.

 

Health:  I'm happy to report that I've been pretty healthy too. I've avoided any major illness so far, thank goodness! My main issue is that I am whittling away. Breastfeeding is wrecking shop on my body. I've always had a fast metabolism and I tend to eat smaller portions, so I'm naturally thin, but this is getting a little ridiculous. I think I'm down to about 105 lbs, which I haven't weighed since high school. I definitely do not want to weigh this amount, but I'm having a really hard time keeping the weight on. I know I'll get a lot of "yeah, good problem to have" comments (or at least thoughts in your heads!), but it's not actually a good problem to have. Being unhappy with your body, regardless of the reason why is frustrating. I'd like my ass back. 

I'm also reaching the "hair falling out" stage, which is good and bad. My hair is thick, so I can stand to loose some, but it's falling out in clumps and clogging the drain daily. I know it's normal when the pregnancy hormones drop out, but I'm sure my weight loss isn't helping either. I hope I don't end up bald like the Buzzband!

Breastfeeding: Speaking of breastfeeding, it's going pretty good. I'm so proud of myself for sticking with this, especially since Reed eats so frequently (we're still at every 2 hours if he's awake). Since we live 25 minutes from everything my "baby breaks" are pretty much non-existent at this point. I must admit that I do get a little jealous when my friends that chose to formula feed are off wining and dining, but I keep reminding myself that it's only for a little while longer. My favorite feeding of the day is the middle of the night one strangely enough. He's just so cute in his snuggly state. He latches on good, eats a lot, grabs on to my shirt with his little hand. It's one of those "motherly moments". The rest of the feedings when he is awake are a little crazy. He's kind of a wild child and will latch and unlatch over and over to look around or laugh. If someone talks he'll stop to see what they are doing. He also flails around and punches me in the face and will try to pull my hair out if I have it down. It's half comical/half annoying. I don't feed him in public much anymore since he just can't be trusted to actually eat and not show my boob off to the world. Dressing rooms have become my good friend. (...or an old friend reunited for a different reason).

Clothes: One of my goals for myself as a new mom was to actually make the effort with clothes. I think I've been doing a fairly okay job. I'm not dressing up by any means and I miss all of my jewelry and cute shoes, but I do get dressed every single day. Most days I wear jeans and a shirt of some sort. I do have maybe 1 day a week where my "outfit" is leggings or yoga pants and a tshirt, but only if I know we're staying home. It's becoming a little frustrating since most of my clothes are now too big, but I'm trying to hold off on buying a lot because I'm sure I'll fit into them when I stop nursing.

I was taking pictures and participating in my fashion board to keep me accountable, but I've kind of given that up.

 

Exercise: One of my other goals was exercising, but this one is a big fail. I wasn't exercising at all and now I'm worried about burning calories, so I'll revisit this one once the boy is weaned. My mom's group is doing a trial of a mommy/baby exercise class soon, so I may go to the first one just to see how it goes.

Other Goals: While we're talking about goals, I'll touch on a few more.

I wanted to keep this blog up and have it be for me and not for baby. Yeah, that's a fail. I've kept it up, but it's all about baby. I don't know why I thought it would be about anything else because I really have nothing else going on.

I also wanted to make sure that I didn't become a "we" person. As in "We sat up today!", "We are getting a tooth". I think I'm pretty good on this one. I know I've caught myself saying it once or twice and I will actually stop myself and say, "No, HE...". I don't know why that irks me, but it does.

I've also successfully made it 6 months without posting any gross poop pictures. Trust me, I have some. They're gross.

Let's see, I wanted to make sure to keep some time for myself. Big, huge fail. So far I've gone to half of a movie, Target, Walmart, TJMaxx, the dentist and to get my hair cut. When we move I am thinking of looking into some sort of class. I miss ceramics, but I want to try something else. Maybe sewing.

I wanted to take over more of the housework since I started staying home. I'd say that one is mostly a fail, so far. I still do the tasks I was doing before (cleaning the bathrooms, dusting) and have taken over the majority of the dishes and laundry, but Jeff still does a ton. He cooks, vacuums, does the litterbox, the trash, etc., etc.  This is a work in progress and I'd still like to take over more of the duties so we can just hang out on the weekends.

Shopping less was a big goal and I'd say I've been really successful with that. Of course I buy things for Reed all the freaking time, but I have really cut down on the overall shopping. It's been way easier to live on one income than I thought it would be. When you're sitting at home with a baby all day there's not too many things you need.

One of my big goals was to join a mom's group and get active during the week. I've been really good at doing that. I am SO happy that I didn't wait to join a group until we moved. We have so much fun with the moms and babies. I'm going to be a little sad when we move away and I have to start over with that. I definitely want to find a group in MS to join.


Mom's Group Hike (...okay, walk in the woods). Can you believe I did it? Strapped baby to the front and a backpack on my back!

I think that's about it for me. Overall I've enjoyed this 6 months way more than I thought I would. I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm not completely crazy yet. I mean, sure I'm a little crazy, but not completely out to lunch, which works.

6 Month Round Up! (aka 26 Weeks)

It's here! Baby's half birthday! How crazy is that?? It's like it was so fast and so slow going all at the same time. I put together a little 6 month round up for you guys, since baby is so interesting and all.

Health: First and foremost I'm happy to report that we've had an extremely healthy boy so far. Other than a few boogers here and there and the low weight stuff Reed's been really healthy. I am so thankful for that.

 

Sleep: I'd consider the Turk to be a good sleeper so far. His nighttime sleep is definitely his strong suit. He thinks naps are lame, but I do too so I can't really blame him. He's still waking up about once a night on average to eat and I have no plans to try to break him of that yet. I am happy to get up and get some extra calories in him. He still goes down in his crib at night really easily and he'll put himself back to sleep if he wakes up in the middle of the night and it isn't for eating. Since naps were kind of a fight I'm super happy with his nighttime performance. I just hope he can stick with it, but I'm not counting my chickens before they're hatched, that's for sure!

Milestones: Reed's got the rolling thing down. He's always been great on pushing up while on his stomach and he plays like that sometimes. My favorite milestone by far that he's reaching is the laughing. I love, love, love when he laughs. He's so close to sitting, but we're still working on that.

Clothes: Currently fitting in some 3 month and some 6 month clothes, but really moving into the 6 month group in the onesies. He's so long and narrow that it's a little difficult to find things to fit. Carter's brand still works for him the best, followed by Gap/Old Navy. Any of the brands that run wide are just swimming on him. I do use the extenders to get some use out of the wider ones because they get too short before he fits in the width. He usually wears a onesie around the house and when we leave I'll just put some pants on him. He's also started wearing his little sandals which makes me smile.

Diapers: We're 100% disposable now. I tried the cloth diapers, but I can't say that I REALLY tried. I can totally see how people do them, but it wasn't for me. I didn't find them gross at all, but it just ended up being one extra step that I found myself wanting to avoid. I ended up using disposables for naps & night anyway, so I wasn't fully committed, which you need to be to get the real savings. We ended up selling the cloth diapers (almost for what we paid for them brand new), so I am glad I at least gave it a try. I'd still encourage anyone to give it a go. 

Likes: Pretty much anything. Seriously, he's such a happy baby. Some favorites include: 

- Bath Time - He LOVES his bath, so we give him one daily (soap every other day). I think everyone in the house breathes a sigh of relief when bath time rolls around. 

- Getting out of the house (running the roads as we call it). He'll go anywhere as long as he can be out and about. He especially loves going to Mom's group meet ups at other mom's houses (and so do I!).

- Music (Adele, Louis Armstrong and the Jackson Five top his list). We listen to Pandora pretty much all day long and he's always checking it out to see what song is coming on next. He loves when we dance around and sing with him.
 - Peek-A-Boo with a blanket. My mom started this with him and he thinks it's the best game ever. Throw a little blanket on his head, pull it off and make a silly noise and you can entertain him for hours.

- Ladies. Reed loves the ladies. He is such a flirt. I need to get a video of him one day.

Dislikes: It was hard for me to come up with this list, but:

- Naps
- The right "tater" (yeah, my boob). He really has a strong preference for the left one. If he's riled up or cranky when it's time to eat I can forget about offering him the right one. Poor thing is neglected and I'm beginning to get a little lopsided!

- Being stuck in the car seat when not in the car. Although he's starting to not love it in the car on occasion.
- On that note, he hates red lights. I'm not sure who hates being stuck at a light more, Reed or his daddy. 

- Reading the wrong book - He is very book sensitive. If I grab one he doesn't want to hear I'm sure to know about it really quickly. He likes reading books in general, but he wants you to read his mind and grab the book he wants to hear. It probably has something to do with the fact that we read books before his nap and he tired, irritable and knows what's coming when the book is done.

That pretty much sums up the boy. It's been a good 6 months. A tiring 6 months, but a good 6 months. Happy Half Birthday, Baby!

We've Made it 5 Years, Folks!!

That's right, today we are celebrating our 5th Anniversary! (...and by celebrating I mean, hanging out with baby and getting in bed by 9...for sleep...get your minds out of the gutter.)

If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be married with a child in 10 years I probably would have laughed in your face. I mean, sure I wanted to be married one day, but I'm not known for my lengthy relationships. To think that I have been married for 5 years and it only seems like a short time is amazing to me. The fact that I'm still madly in love with my husband and wanting to remain married to him is even more amazing to me. To know that I birthed this man's child and am now staying home playing with a baby all day every day, now that's just plain shocking. 

Isn't it strange that sometimes people come in to your life and you didn't even know until you met them that they're exactly what you needed?

Happy Anniversary, Buzzband. Here's to 5 more years!! Maybe even 10, if you're lucky. Okay, fine...if I'm lucky.

25 Weeks

 Aunt Katie came and went. We miss her already! Unfortunately it rained all weekend and Reed was kinda grouchy, so she did a lot of sitting around and hugging on baby. I don't think she minded though!

His hand in this picture looks like a claw and it cracks me up every time I see it!

While Aunt Katie was here we did venture out in the pouring rain to look for some jeans for me and left baby with Jeff. He texted me an update on baby's bodily functions, which was appreciated. However, if someone randomly picked up my phone they'd think the Buzzband was alerting me to his own bowel movements. It also appears as though I was failing at my own attempts to poop, but I was talking about the jeans. This screenshot also makes me laugh.

Baby and I have been very busy this week. I took him to a birthday party at Build-A-Bear in the mall and on the way through the mall I had to pee really, really bad. Like, no holding it for an hour, must go now type pee, but I was wearing him in the carrier. So...I peed with baby in the carrier on my lap. Probably moms do that all the time, but it was my first time. I felt like I was Super Mom or something, so I snapped a picture to document the event.

Reed chose a monkey at Build-A-Bear. I've named him Sir-Monks-A-Lot. He likes bananas, and he can not lie.

By they way, Reed is very into monkeys right now. He love the "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" songs and it's also his favorite book. I'm not really into monkeys myself, so I've been pushing the dinosaur/reptile agenda, but he seems to have other ideas. Kids, man. Kids. 

We also ventured out one evening this week to get pictures taken by a friend who was wanting to build her portfolio and requested Reed to be there. He's so cute, he even has pro photographers requesting his presence! This is just a shot from my phone while we were waiting, but I thought it was so cute.

My men.

The Turk continues to be very into toys. He's still really loving his Wee Gallery cards. He's started chewing on them which bugs me because those things are not cheap, but he's a baby, so I let it slide.

 

He also really enjoys these stacking cups. He chews on them too and bangs them together. If I stack them up he'll knock them down over and over. 

The other thing going on in Turk's land right now is some impressive crib naps. Don't get too excited, they usually average about 45 minutes, but occasionally he'll throw a 1.5 hour one in there. The other day he even did 2 hours. I was stunned. If he could do those long ones consistently he'd probably move to 2 naps soon, but right now he's still hanging in there at 3 naps. 

Big things are happening next week. Baby turns 6 months which means solid foods!! It also means 6 month shots, but we won't talk about that. Gramma and Grand Dude are coming in town and we can't wait!

24 Weeks

24 Weeks!
This week we are hanging out and waiting for Aunt Katie to come for a visit. Reed is super excited. He told me. 

We went to baby's first birthday party this week. It was at a place called Pump It Up, which has a bunch of bounce castles and blow up slides. It was kind of entertaining because everyone that showed up was under 14 months. The kids still had a good time though. Reed is a wild man and loved for me to jump in the bounce things with him. We even went down the giant slide together. It went so fast that I squealed, but Reed just sat there cool as a cucumber. I have a feeling he's going to be a daredevil. I'm in trouble.

I'm also happy to report that our last doctor weight checkup was 12 lbs 14 oz (on the 19th) and we actually just saw the nurse. The doctor said that was better and didn't need to see us until his 6 month appointment. She did say that she'd like me to increase the oatmeal to twice a day, but we're having issues with that. 

Reed was doing great on the oatmeal. Loved eating it, didn't cause him any problems and we were rocking and rolling with it. Then about 2 weeks ago he had some serious gas, which is very unlike him. I didn't really think much of it until it continued. Last week I finally put two and two together when I noticed that he was having gas pains daily and it seemed to be right after the oatmeal. Then this week he's actually woken up in the middle of the night crying with what sounds like squeezing gassy pains. He doesn't cry long and puts himself right back to sleep, but it's been kind of odd.

This picture is so sad to me for some reason I almost don't want to post it. Breaks my heart, but this was what Reed looked like one afternoon after eating his oatmeal.

So, basically I used my mom instincts and stopped the oatmeal for a few days to let it get out of his system. He's been off the oatmeal for two days now and hasn't had any gas pains at all. He also hasn't woken up fussy at night.

I'll try the oatmeal again in a few more days to see how he reacts and if it's bad I'll just stop all together since we're so close to trying solid foods. I feel bad not following the doctor's advice since we were making some progress, but he was getting miserable. I still have no idea why he was so good on it and then it started to upset him. I think it's usually the other way around. Strange. 

He also has some new favorite toys this week.

One is this Baby Einstein Lion that doesn't appear to be available anywhere. I honestly didn't think it did anything until I figured out that you pull on the top part to make the noise, not the bottom like all the others. Duh, mom!! 

He's also into this Lamaze Shape Sorter. He can't do it himself, but he always digs it out of the bin and wants to sit in my lap while we take each one out and put it back in. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

My little dude.