What are you thankful for?

People tend to talk about their blessings in November as Thanksgiving approaches. I don't want to wait another five months - I'm thankful now! 

It's easy to dwell on annoyances and tiny imperfections in our day to day lives. Dwelling only magnifies them but if you think about them in the grand scheme of things, they're nothing. 

Inevitably I'll forget some things due to Momma brain and lack of sleep, but here are a few things I'm thankful for right now:

• We don't have to worry about a leaky roof. The rain came down hard for a while today and I was just so thankful we had a good roof over our heads. 

• The transition from one baby to Irish Twins has been so much better than I imagined. I didn't know what we were getting into and have nothing to compare it to, but I think we're doing pretty dang good!

• Lincoln is young enough that we didn't have to deal with jealousy when we brought Liliana home. He loved giving her kissies from the very beginning. When she's not in the room he gets very concerned and says "Where's Sis?" 

• My children's mutual love for each other. In the mornings when I get him out of bed I'll say "Let's go get Sis" and he gets so excited. As soon as we walk in her room he points and yells "Sis!" and she screeches in excitement. 

• The kids have been able to stay home instead of ever going to a day care. (Not going anti-day care, just what works for us.)

• Lincoln sleeps through the night (averaging 12 hours). 

• My job offers great insurance. 

• My job and coworkers are flexible, allowing me to NEVER miss a kids' doctor appointment. 

• Happy children. 

• Turbo. 

• My husband. 

• Two reliable vehicles. 

• A garage. 

• Netflix - I barely even miss cable. Netflix is 1/10 of the price and really has a lot to offer!!

• Speaking of price, Stuff, Etc. Amazing. I buy 90% of the kids' clothes there and rarely pay more than $1.50/item. You can't even tell they're from a consignment shop - probably because at their age, children don't stay in one size long at all!!

Ok, there's so much more, but I'll stop here. I just felt compelled to spread some positivity. 

I Don't Want To Forget {5/10/14}

These are little things I don't want to forget or take for granted. 

[Lincoln: 18 months; Liliana: 7 months]

*Liliana plays with my face while I give her a bottle - usually putting her fingers in my mouth. 

*While finishing her last ounce of her bedtime bottle she puts her whole arm over her eyes, surrendering to the drowsiness. 

*Every night I read Goodnight Moon to Lincoln. When I read "And a picture offfffffffff..." building suspense as I turn the page and then say "THE COW!! jumping over the moon." Every time Lincoln squeals and has a huge smile. 

*After Goodnight Moon is over Lincoln gives me a kiss then lays his head on my shoulder and cuddles. No coercing, no fighting, just cuddles. 

*When Liliana cries, almost always Lincoln will find a book or toy to hand to her. He just wants to help her feel better. 

*I love love love how he randomly walks over and gives her kissies. 

Winter and Ped Appts

This winter just will not give up. Here in Iowa we keep getting one snow storm after the other, always accompanied with crazy wind and windchills. For weeks on end our windchill was -25 or lower. Today Mother Nature got even more bipolar on us. At noon we had a thunderstorm complete with hail, thunder, and and pouring rain. It's now, four hours later, snowing and we're in a blizzard warning for the rest of the night. 

With all that being said, out household has been hit with a stomach bug. Because it wasn't enough that we ALL had a cold a few months ago. So yesterday and today I've stayed home. Yesterday I didn't do much other than lay around but today I'm feeling a little more human. I've got to tell ya, today has been one of the best days with my kiddos. They've been pretty well behaved and such happy babies. I know I haven't done anything remotely regular as far as monthly updates on either kiddo, but I've got to say...

I think this is my favorite age of Lincoln's so far!! It's mostly because he's so happy and expressive. He loves his sister and shows her by giving her kissies roughly every 15 minutes. He helps burp her, wipes her face off (tries anyway) with her burp cloth, and rocks her in her swing and rock chair. 

He laughs constantly. He knows where his nose and mouth are when asked. He LOVES to dance. He knows how to run my iPhone. I put the Guided Access on while he's in an app so he can't get out if it. To get out of Guided Access you have to hit the home key 3 times in a row which brings up the screen for the password. He can already make it bring up the password screen. Yikes. I'm in trouble. Haha

At Lincoln's 15 month checkup he measured in at 32" long and 26.5lb. Unfortunately the Ped also found double ear infection. 

At Liliana's 4 month checkup she measured in at 26" long and 15.5lb. She's in the 95% for head, 90% for length, and I think 75% for weight. Long and skinny with a big brain!! ;)

And I'll leave you with a the best. picture. ever. 

Update on 2 under 1

Wow. It's been 7 months since I last posted. Life has been a little hectic as you can imagine. I don't think I have any followers on here that I'm not also friends with on Facebook or Instagram, but just in case, here's a brief update. 

Liliana Rose was born September 25, 2013 at 11:20pm. She was 8lb 3oz and 21" long. My levels were increasing and leading me into HELLP Syndrome so they induced me at 38 weeks. That didn't go well, though, so we switched to another emergency c-section. 

Lincoln was smitten with his little sister from their very first meeting!!

We had our work cut out for us that first month. Our hands were always full and recovering from a second c-section (10.5 months after my first) was more challenging than the first. I couldn't lift Lincoln for the first six weeks - over the weight limit. It was so hard not to be able to pick up my baby boy!!

Lincoln gives Liliana hundreds of kissies a day. He truly loves that little girl! I post tons of pictures of these kissies and all, but when my cousin was over and saw him randomly give her a kiss he realized how true and unprovoked the act is! None of the pictures are staged. Yes, we will sometimes ask him to give her kissies, especially at bedtime, but 98% of those kissies occur when he doesn't even know we're watching. Such a lover. 

To finish off this update, here is Liliana's growth:

Lincoln loves food . . .

Lincoln loves sitting in his high chair and loves eating like a big boy. He also loves washing it all down with a swig of water from his sippy cup.

The first couple times he tried carrots and peas he was less than impressed, so we had to mix each with pears to get him on board.

I'm proud to report that he now eats all of the following WITHOUT ANY MIXING NECESSARY (in order of preference): 

Pears

Bananas

Carrots

Sweet potatoes

Peas

He has had puréed apples mixed in with his peas a few times but not on their own yet. 

He eats three times a day. A whole banana, mashed, or pears for breakfast. He rotates between the veggies for lunch and supper.

I want to maybe add green beans into the mix soon. 

Any other suggestions?

15//A Day In The Life

" A Day in the life (include photos from throughout your typical day - this could be "a photo an hour" if you'd like)"
If I would have been real cool organized, I would have taken the pictures yesterday to document my day so that I could have posted this before 8pm. Oops.
My alarm was set for 6:45am, but it rarely goes off, because Lincoln is awake before then.
5:50am...After letting him fuss for a few minutes, I give up and go in Lincoln's room. I turn his lamp on and give him his monkey blanket/toy. That entertains him while I go take a shower. After getting dress I come check on him. This picture has both my babies. Awww!  
This is where my shoes sat most of the day. I have wide feet, so squeezing them into these was rather painful. I have since put a text into my niece that she can have them. Not worth the pain. [How old am I that my niece can fit in my shoes...?!]

11:30am...I stayed in for lunch today since I had to leave early for Lincoln's 6 month well child appointment. As I was warming up my Healthy Choice Four Cheese Marinara Ziti, I realized that I, of course, was wearing a white shirt. Ugh! I have exactly 2 white shirts to my name because I am so paranoid that I am going to stain them. So, I grabbed a paper towel and tucked it into the neckline of my shirt. Problem solved. I made it through lunch spill free! [...until I picked Lincoln up to comfort him after his shots and the blood from the pokes got on my shirt. Doh!]
Lincoln is all dressed up and happy...little does he know where he's going...
Such a happy baby! Heading into the doctor's office!


























[Left] Waiting for the nurse to come in to give him the shots. Still oblivious to the pain coming. [Right] After the shots. He cried as they happened and for the first 30 seconds I was holding him, and then was good to go. He's such a trooper.
6pm...Silly shots can't get Lincoln down!! We gave him a dose of Tylenol just to be safe; he took it so well! Putting him to bed was a little more challenging than usual.  Shots + Teething [she spotted 4 teeth he's working on] = Bad Mood Bear! I'm not going to lie. After about 10 minutes of him crying while I tried rocking him and walking/bouncing him around his room, I laid him in his crib, walked out, and shut the door. He was so tired and just wouldn't give in. I changed out of my work clothes and then went back in, refreshed, to give it another go. We sat back in the rocker and he was still crying. After holding him tight for a minute his cries became more spread out and then he gave in. His face was so peaceful and his hands were clasped together under his chin. It was a precious look and moment and looking at him made up for the grump he had been for the 15 minutes prior. He's a trooper.
6 month well child stats: Height: 28.5" (97.32%) Weight: 18lb 8oz (60.76%) Head Circumference: 17.24" (54.89%)
These numbers are compared to a term baby, too. Not even preemie stats. Preemie, my ass. He's a growing thriving boy!!

13//Sorry, Not Sorry

   

Sorry, not sorry...You're going to see this picture again on this week's Photo Dump Friday.

  I'm not going to be serious today with an apology. Instead, I'm doing a "sorry, not sorry" apology.   I'm [not] sorry my Facebook and Instagram flood your news feed with pictures of my adorable son.   I'm [not] sorry that it's only going in get worse once there's two of them.   I'm [not] sorry that my blog posts always talk about Lincoln.   I'm [not] sorry that my life revolves around this happy little boy.   I'm [not] sorry I ate [a little more than] half of a cheesecake yesterday. It was Mother's Day, damnit.     What are you [not] sorry for today?

Photo Dump Friday [05.10]

I've come to realize that I take tons of pictures on my phone. It's so much handier [read: quicker] to pull out the cell phone which is never more than a room away...rather than find the camera, turn it on, etc. Often times, with a 6 month old, the moment is then lost. I post many of these on Instagram [jennajoybeck if you want to follow me], but thought I'd start doing a Photo Dump Friday!!

05.09.13 ~ I am amazed at how well my phone captured the beauty of this tulip after the rain.

05.08.13 ~ Lincoln fell asleep on my shoulder while I was trying to burp him. Isn't he precious? Maybe I'm biased...

05.08.13 ~ I finally bought a new vacuum since our 9 year old one gave out on us. I splurged on a $40 one from Walmart. Hey, we only have one room with carpet! I'm not spending $100+ to clean one room!

Notice Lincoln in the background being a good boy in his exersaucer? ;)

Most mornings Lincoln wakes up about the same time as I do [6:30am], so I turn on his lamp and give him this monkey blanket to play with. He's hiding [aka trying to eat it].

05.09.13 ~ Lincoln got up on his knees and started rocking back and forth. I suppose we better start the real baby proofing, huh?! Won't be long now!

05.06.13 ~ Your guess is as good as mine how he got stuck under the pack 'n play!

05.07.13 ~ It was such a beautiful day so we took him to the park  to swing. This is his first time with toes in the sand.

05.06.13 ~ We tried avocado. Lincoln wasn't impressed. He wanted his nana. He didn't mind if I snuck a couple pieces of avocado in with his nana, though. Sneaky Momma!

05.06.13 ~ We're starting the tripod version of sitting up like a big boy! He's pretty proud of himself. He loooooves it when I clap and say "Yay!"

05.07.13 ~ Lincoln fell asleep on the walk home from the park. It was too nice to go inside, so I let him continue his nap in the yard while I listened to Pandora.

05.07.13 ~ He'd much rather be swinging on his own!

05.06.13 ~ "I'm not impressed with this green stuff, Momma. I never see you eat green stuff...so why do I have to?!"

05.05.13 ~ My first attempt at homemade bread. Heck, my first experience with yeast. I have to say, it's a lot easier than I always made it out to be!

05.05.13 ~ We had a major case of the grumps. The only way I could get him to stop groaning was to sing to him. I ran out of songs, so I enlisted YouTube on the iPad...my fave: "Just Give Me A Reason."

9//[Best] Moment in My Day

     

   

Parenting. . .

Over the past few weeks I've seen some bloggers posting about their parenting style. I've been a mom for 6 months now (as of Thursday...How is that possible?!), but I have no idea what my "parenting style" is. I know I've already gone against some of the beliefs I held before having Lincoln (breast feeding vs formula and rocking to sleep vs letting him learn to soothe himself, for example). I also know that I don't beat myself up over those things because at the end of the day I have a healthy, happy, adorable, perfect son whom I love with everything I am and would do anything for.

Do you know what I wasn't warned about nor remember reading in all the Mommy blogs I stalked? The worry (or guilt...?) I would constantly have; the fear. The worry that I'm not doing enough or doing well enough. If I'm not worrying about if I'm doing enough to help Lincoln grow and learn I'm feeling like a failure of a wife (as I look around the messy house with all I should do but continue to sit on my behind). I know Lincoln is a preemie and is expected to still be catching up, but I still worry that I'm not doing enough.

I also can't stand people making comments that make me sound like I'm not a good enough mom or telling me what I should do. Maybe I'm overly sensitive (on this subject - my son - I probably am) and they're truly just making innocent comments, but I don't think that's always the case. It'd be easy for me to blame this sensitivity on being pregnant, but I'm pretty sure that's not it. I'm female. Plus I'm a mom now, which amplifies that sensitivity greatly. I've always been pretty sensitive, but now when it comes to my son I'm crazy sensitive. I know I'm not perfect, I make mistakes, but I hate to think anyone would think for a second that I would do anything to put my son in danger...to not do the very best possible for him.

I know that the main reason the comments bother me so much is because it triggers that worry/guilt/fear I talked about. Believe me, anything anyone says...I've already worried about it myself, most likely. I question myself enough that it just hits a nerve when other people make me do it more.

This was basically a vent, sorry, but that's what this space is here for: anything I want.

I will leave you with a picture of my punkin...waking up from a cat nap and hiding himself.

I've Created A Monster. . .

Where to start? It all comes down to three things: sleep, swaddling, and milk. I guess it arguably has to do with Momma being a softie and not doing a good enough job of enforcing the weaning of nighttime milk and swaddling as well. After all, you can't really blame a baby, right? They only know what they're taught.

The week before Lincoln's 4 month check-up (shots...I'm going to go ahead and blame those, mmmk?) he started sleeping through the night. I remember the first night. It scared me. Lincoln has been a noisy sleeper from the day he got home. Not that he cried...he just always squeaked and breathed loudly. So I had become accustomed to hearing signs of life any time I woke up in the middle of the night. I didn't find it annoying, but rather reassuring. After the first night of worry and fear, I was ecstatic! Sleeping through the night. Sweet! I had JUST learned I was pregnant around that time, too, so it was perfect timing. I was more tired than ever and feeling that much more successful. A step in the right direction, if you will. Happiness.

After his shots he started waking up once a night, around 3 or 4am. I was aware of something called the "4 month sleep regression," so I looked more into it. It was a growth spurt time and completely normal for him to be waking up again. Most places said it lasted one month on average. There are always the exceptions, though. Evidently, Lincoln is the exception. He then started waking up twice a night.

Though Lincoln had been rolling over, he hadn't rolled over in his crib yet or while swaddled, so I procrastinated weaning him from the swaddle [regret #1]. Naturally he started rolling over while swaddled [or after breaking out one or both arms], which woke him up. As I mentioned in my letter Friday, I've always rocked Lincoln to sleep [regret #2]. I knew I should let him learn how to fall asleep on his own, and really he used to. I selfishly just really enjoyed watching him fall asleep in my arms, though. So after months of being rocked to sleep, he couldn't self soothe himself when he woke up in the middle of the night.

Also, in true [insert my Mom's maiden name] fashion, he is unable to calm down to fall asleep even if I'm holding and/or rocking him without FOOD. At first I thought "no big deal [regret #3], it's just a regression time; this will all work itself out and in the meantime I'll just give him the milk to help him."

As you've noticed from my "So What Wednesday" posts, I still haven't worked up the nerve to wean him from his swaddle. Our system is to go to bed swaddled and when he wakes up for the first time he gets unswaddled. The problem is once he is unswaddled he wakes up every 2-3 hours. I can only assume the two are related: being unswaddled and waking up constantly.

Fast forward to last night for a perfect example.

7pm: Goes to bed swaddled.

1:30am: Wakes up [one arm broken free] on tummy angry. I pick him up, bounce him lightly while shhhh-ing him. He just cried harder. I sit in rocking chair to give him his 4oz bottle [this is the point where I unswaddle him]. After about 3oz I take it away and burp him. After fussing and burping he calms and falls asleep on my shoulder. I put him in crib, he squirms, but falls asleep in a minute.

2am: Wakes up on stomach angry. I roll him over, put my hand on his chest and try shhh-ing him. No luck. I pick him up as before and after several minutes of crying gives in.

4am: Wakes up on stomach angry. I may or may not tell him "Well stop rolling over! Duh!" [Side note: he knows how to roll BACK over and has the room...just refuses.] I can't calm him down so he takes 1oz of milk and after fighting it, goes down.

4:30am: Wakes up on stomach angry. [Have you noticed a pattern?] At this point I blindly shove a pacifier in his mouth [no lights on] hoping it'll satisfy his need to suck. He's never liked pacifiers and that has made me very happy. I don't want him to have that addiction [just another thing to wean him from and you see how awesome I am at weaning...]. After about 3 sucks he's unimpressed and starts crying. Half relieved, half frustrated [ok, at this point the frustrated partway winning; more than half] I resign to giving him milk. After all, I can't wean him for. The swaddle AND milk at the same time. Right?

5am: Wakes up on stomach angry. You get the point....

5:30am: Repeat.

6:30am: Cooing in bed...happy and ready to greet the day!

Ok, so last night was worse than our usual. Our usual is twice a night [1 and 4]. You can imagine what kind of mood I was in by the end of it.

So where does that leave us? Well, I don't know. I'm turning to you in hopes that fellow Momma's have answers! I think I need to bite the bullet and put him to bed unswaddled. I keep putting it off, though, because I'm afraid he'll just wake up every 2-3 hours the whole flippin' night. I couldn't do it tonight. Momma needs to catch up on some sleep - which honest is probably going to happen as soon as I publish this.

So I'm at your mercy. Tips? Advice? Words of encouragement?

He's such a good boy. This is not me complaining, because I couldn't ask for better. I just need answers! I'm at my wit's end. Help a Momma out!

Letters to Lincoln . . .

When I was pregnant with Lincoln, before we even knew he was a boy, I saw this ad when I was watching something on YouTube. A dad creates an email address for his daughter and emails her throughout her life. I'm going to go ahead and blame the pregnancy hormones (then and now...sigh), but I definitely teared up. Before we knew the sex, we were 99% set on a name. After we knew we were having a boy, it didn't take me long to set up an email address for him. I emailed him right away expressing our excitement and love for him. On his due date, when he was five and a half weeks old, I emailed him a condensed version of his birth and the trials we all went through. I emailed him again about his first Christmas. My latest email to him, April 3rd, went as follows:

 

Hi sweet baby boy,

I just wanted to take a second to send a quick note telling you what my two favorite parts of my day are...every single day.
Every morning when I walk into your room, as soon as you can see me, you squeal and get the biggest smile on your face. It melts my heart, punkin.
The other favorite part of my day is watching you fall asleep in my arms while we rock in your room. I know I should lay you down awake so you learn to put yourself to sleep, and I used to, but I cherish that time too much to stop now. Your eyes slowly get heavy and you fight it. You keep trying to look around and take everything in, but eventually sleep wins. When that happens I simply stare at you for a minute before I kiss you three times on your left cheek, say "Momma loves you times infinity", and lay you down.

You are the sweetest and most perfect baby boy we could have asked for.

Xoxo,
Momma

 

It is not my intention to share all of the letters I write to my son here, as that is personal, but I just wanted to make mention of this tradition. I think writing letters to your children, in one way or another, is a great habit. I hope to keep it up with Lincoln and our future children as well. I can't wait to sit them down one day, log into their gmail (assuming it'll still exist...), and let them read what I wrote to them when they were a tiny baby. I hope it will mean as much to them as it does to me. I plan on waiting until they're at least out of high school, maybe college, in hopes that they'll better understand and appreciate the concept and words they read from me.

Hickies. . .

My 5 month old son gives himself hickies...on his forearm. The first time I thought it was a bruise, but Wes informed me that Lincoln indeed caused it by sucking on his arm.

I've thought he has been teething for a couple months, but still no teethers to be seen! I guess it's common for teething symptoms to last for months before actual teeth appear. He drools buckets and constantly has his fingers...er, fist...in his mouth. Today there has been two occasions where I thought he was chewing on something but after digging around in his mouth found nothing. After further observation I do believe he's "chewing on" his tongue. I can see him kind of curling it around in his mouth while he's chewing.

Which leads us to food. He's currently exclusively formula-fed. His pediatrician said she'd like to see him introduced to cereal (she recommended oatmeal over the mainstream rice, which after some research, I agree). He has been continuing to show more and more signs that he's interested. For quite a while now he will watch me while I eat. Not just a little, but intensely watch me. Nothing else takes his attention away, even me talking to him. He is interested in this "stuff" I'm putting in my mouth. There have been a handful of times in the last week that he has needed 13oz of formula to satisfy him. This is crazy to me. Haha

Last night while I was eating supper I had him sitting next to me and his eyes followed my fork from my plate up to my mouth. With each bite. Now he's even chewing on his tongue!

We have some rice cereal we received as a gift, but I think I'm going to wait and get some oatmeal next Monday when we're out of town for my next baby appointment. I know they say six months (or older), but I think he's showing signs. I don't plan on weaning him from the bottle AT ALL. Oatmeal will not replace formula by any means. Oatmeal is "just for fun" and for him to get familiar with other textures and start to understand what the concept of a spoon is. I'm not going to lie, I'm excited to capture that first moment when something on a spoon enters his mouth. They always give the funniest faces. A week or so ago I put an empty spoon in his mouth and his face seemed to say, "WHY is there nothing ON this spoon?!"

I will leave you with a (boring) picture of a playard with a newborn napper that is currently being shipped to our house. I anticipate Lincoln using this in the living room until baby comes and then it will be used as his/her basinette in our bedroom.

Ok, I'll include a picture of my lil punkin too! :)

2 under 1. . .

I hate that when I publish posts from my iPad the pictures post at the bottom and there's no controlling that. I'll make this post short, as most people who read this are friends with me on Facebook and already know our big news.

We're expecting baby #2!! Yes, Lincoln is just over 5 months old and I am just over 14 weeks pregnant. Crazy, right?! As my good friend likes to point out (or rather she just likes to make fun of me...) I returned from maternity leave pregnant. Only in technical terms, but she still sticks with that humorous comment.

So I used to think 2 under 2 sounded a little exhausting but something that was a possibility. Side note: My only sibling (brother) is 10.5 years older than me...so I basically know the feeling of being an only child. It wasn't all bad, but after I saw the bonds my husband has with his siblings, it quickly made me realize I wanted those bonds for my children.

If I thought 2 under 2 sounded exhausting, I sure am going to be in for a surprise, huh?! I'm already exhausted. The nausea has been much more manageable this time around (I think a lot of that is due to knowing what to expect and how to handle it now), but the fatigue. Oh, the fatigue. It takes everything in me to stay up until 9. I try to stay downstairs until 9 each night (Lincoln goes to bed at 7), but I can't always promise I won't fall asleep for a little 'nap' on the couch before that... Actually, last night I gave up and went to bed at 8:30pm. It's a good thing too because Lincoln was a hand full starting at 2am. Trying to wean him from being swaddled and from needing a bottle in the middle of the night is proving to be a lot of change for the little guy. Too much change. I think Momma needs to focus on one at a time. I'm starting with swaddling. That's another post, though (that I should just write and save tonight while I'm on a roll since I've been doing so poorly in blog land).

Sooooo...back to the original subject of this post. I'm due October 8th... I'll try so blog a little more often but I'm not promising any frequency because, well, I know better. ;)

So now I leave you with a (poor quality) picture of the cutest baby boy ever!

4 Month Well-Baby. . .

Lincoln had his 4 month well-baby appointment today and he did so well! He impressed the doctor with his rolling, babbling, happiness, and growth. He's such a trooper. He had one oral medication to take and 4 shots (two in each thigh). They bled so much and the "mean ol nurse" (just kidding, she's nice) didn't get them done, cleaned up, and covered quickly. Which only meant longer before Dad & I could sweep our lil punkin up and dry his tears. :(

As I said, though, he's doing great with his growth. They're not even charting him on the graphs with preemies cuz he's topping those charts (except head circumference). On the charts with the big boys he is:

Head Circumference: 16.26" (25th percentile; 13.75" at birth)
Height: 25.5" (75th percentile; 18.5" at birth)
Weight: 15lb 2oz (50th percentile; 5lb 5.5oz at birth)

See?! I meant it when I said bay boy is catching up! He has TRIPLED his weight since birth (in 4 months)!!!! :)

And because I can't have a post without my beautiful baby boy...

...here he is at the pediatrician BEFORE the shots!

Update . . .

Hello, Stranger.

Oh wait, I'm the stranger.

Sorry.

 

 

So what's happened in the last 7 weeks?

 

Well, let's start from the beginning.

The day after my last post (December 9th) I was took some awesome Christmas pictures of Lincoln...

 

 

After several pictures I had Lincoln on his tummy and he decided to roll over...at 5 weeks old!! Silly boy. He did it 3 times in a row. As soon as Momma got the camera and video camera out, though, he froze. No more rolling. He hasn't rolled over again since then, either. He just wanted to show off and let everyone know how big of a boy he is.

 

 

When Lincoln was 9 weeks old we ran out of the frozen breast milk supply I had built up while in the hospital. I was still pumping, but as I talked about in my last post...supply and demand weren't working well together since Lincoln wasn't nursing. I tried. I really did. Lincoln did too. In the end, after beating myself up over it and then later coming to grips with it...we switched to Similac. At first it was really hard for me to accept. It made me feel like a failure - that I couldn't supply for my son. I finally came to terms with it and realized he had gotten the best of my milk for the first 9 weeks of his life. We still had an amazing bond, even without a great breastfeeding relationship. He's my lil Momma's Boy...breastfeeding or not. Nothing can change that.

 

I tell that little stinker every single day that I would do anything for him.

 

The monkey Uncle Mike got Lincoln is bigger than him!!

 

Lincoln had a great Christmas surrounded by lots of family. Christmas Eve was Lincoln's first outing that didn't revolve around doctors. We spent the day at Wes' parents' house surrounded by family. We were there about 5-6 hours and he slept through it all. I'm not sure how he managed - we're not a quiet group!

 

Christmas Day my sister-in-law and nieces came to see Lincoln. We made meatloaf and hashbrown casserole. Then a couple of my cousins stopped by to see the little guy. The girls and us then played some board games.

 

The weekend after Christmas my parents were finally able to come celebrate.

 

 

They got him this play mat and he looooves it! He dances while he lays there - his legs go crazy! From the beginning he loved looking at himself in that little orange mirror. Nowadays he hits the mirror (his drums) and jingles the elephant rattle that hangs above him (his cymbals). He's quite the talent, I tell ya!

 

 

He has lengthened his night sleep pattern a bit. He goes to bed at 7pm and typically wakes up anywhere from 12-2am to eat. After that it's back to every 3 hours. The last week or so it's been closer to the 2 or even 2:30am mark. Thursday night (01.24.13) he slept from 7pm - 4:30am. Momma was up at 1am and every hour thereafter worried. He ate 4oz at 4:30 and then slept again until 7:30am. I was quite proud and impressed. Of course since I bragged to everyone about it.......he made it a one night thing. Last night he was up at midnight, 3:30am, and 6am. We'll see what tonight holds.

 

He turned 12 weeks (6 weeks adjusted) yesterday.

I get these emails telling me what my 12 week old milestones are and such, so I have to remind myself that he is really only 6 weeks as far as development. He'll go to the hospital in March to get checked out by the preemie specialists to see how he's developing. I have no worries and am sure he'll show them how amazing he is. I know he'll do just fine catching up. I am anxious, though, just to know. Just to see where he "ranks".

 

I promise I'll try to update more often. I've been a bad blogger. Sorry!!