Lets train

April 28 | Eleven Months



(trying to BlogStomp these pictures instead of Photoshopping....turned out just ok, but whatever. )



Likes: Pointing and grunting for communication, playing keep away, open mouth kisses, tearing up train tracks, finding the smallest possible specks of dirt to eat off our floor, shredding paper products, opening kitchen cabinets, smiling when we tell her 'no', and eating like a linebacker.

Dislikes: diaper changes, playing with her own toys, sitting down in the bathtub



 

Biggest Achievement of the Month: sleep progress (!)

Biggest Challenge of the Month: into everything/trouble maker/exhausting





Some outtakes for you---giant hair bow is sort of a joke and sort of awesome. She loooooved having it on her head, obvi.







The Mecca (aka Sleep): We are finally getting somewhere with this insomniac! Most of the month included once-nightly wake ups, our trip to MO threw everything off, but now we are back on track with one or ZERO wake ups per night. Can I get an Amen? She legitimately slept through the night without making a peep for two nights in a row recently which is a first for our little girl. She also clocked two other nights of STTN in April bringing her monthly total to four nights of magic. Again, a first. Sometimes I will hear her wake up and fuss but she goes back down alone. Occasionally Nate will rock her back to sleep but she's not nursing in the night anymore (except for last night but I won't count that one because I was gone for bedtime and we needed to reconnect at 4 am, apparently).

The only thing we've done differently is that I am not nursing her immediately before bedtime or naps anymore. At night we will do baths, jammies, then nurse downstairs to keep her awake. We will play a bit, then back upstairs for books, pacifier and rocking. I tried giving her a bottle a few nights right before bed to really tank her up but she wouldn't drink much of it so I'm skipping them now. She eats so much real food for dinner I can't see how she would possibly be hungry just an hour later.

Naps are usually amazing, too---which I still say daytime naps (ie Mommy breaks) are even more important than nighttime sleep for my mental sanity. She goes down at 9am and 1pm each day. Sometimes she will sleep for 2+ hours at each nap and other times it's more like 1 hour in the afternoon and 2 in the morning. AMAZING, right? Especially when her afternoon nap coincides with Truman's. There is a God and he allows my children to sleep again. Life is good.





Temperament/Personality: The best. She is hilarious and really showing us her sense of humor these days. My favorite: she will hold out a toy and grunt at us, then when we try to take it from her she will rip it back to her chest and giggle, thrusting it back at us again to repeat her silly game.

She loves to imitate us with fake coughs, lip smacking, sticking her tongue out, and screeching. She will clap, give open mouthed kisses, and dance. This little girl is a firecracker with opinions and sass and drama....but she is also the sweetest, happiest little baby I know. We often say that she is going to be our challenging kid as she grows up---Truman was never INTO everything like this. We are in trouble and we don't mind;)









Talking/Communication: Saying 'Dada' mostly appropriately. Also, I swear she is saying 'All done' after eating but obviously it's a little muffled and hard to claim as a true 'word' at this point. She's a loud mouth, this one, and will babble non-stop. Again, I don't remember Truman being this vocal this early on. Picturing notes from school being sent home to say we have the chatter box of the class that is distracting everyone from learning. She can shake her head 'yes' and 'no' and I guess it's appropriate at times but more likely she just picks one and does it after we ask her a question. Still adorable to think about her responding to us a little more each day.

She loves books now that we are actually taking the time to read them to her. Any 'touch and feel' book is a favorite because she loves to touch those soft shapes with authority. I think it's really cute how she can tell which part of the page is 'different' and begs to be touched. She loves books in general and only tries to eat them half of the time.

Pointing at what she wants is a new thing this month and wow, she really knows what she wants. Usually it's something not baby friendly like a knife, my glass of ice water, or the chandelier. I've found that if any of us has a whole apple she will fa-reak out until we give it to her, pointing and grunting and squirming like crazy. She's getting her point across to us, alright.





Eating: Ridiculously good at shoveling all sorts of food into her tiny mouth. Turkey dogs, sausage links, scrambled eggs, bread and butter, yogurt, cereal, all fruits, and of course any sweets don't stand a chance with our little garbage disposal. It's pretty nice to have her clean up all of Truman's (numerous) left overs.



As for milk, she is still nursing about four times daily when we are home together: first thing in the morning, after first nap, after second nap, and after bath at bedtime.  On daycare days she takes two bottles that have 4oz of breastmilk and 2oz of whole milk---but she hasn't been loving my cocktail mixture so much. Need to start moving towards all whole milk but she is probably going to protest a change, like always.







Has mastered a straw and LOVES her some water in a sippy cup. Again, not so into milk in a sippy but we will get there.





The Superficial: Sad to say that her famous grimace face of last month has faded away;( But with those bright baby blues and red curly-ish locks, sister is my little heartbreaker baby. She's still incredibly long and has bumped up to 18 month or the 18-24 month clothing which means I had to go on a shopping spree for her (twist my arm). A lot of this bigger stuff is a little roomy in width but because of her length we are struggling with anything 12 month sized now.






Teeth: No new ones this month, still six total. Less drooling lately, too.

Motor Milestones: She's started letting go while standing still for about two seconds at a time now and Nate said she climbed 3 of our stairs the other day. Uh-oh.







Out and About: Us gals flew to Missouri together this month, which was Cecelia's second round-trip flight. She was flexible enough to get bounced around from house to house, different environments, etc--but we really suffered in the sleep department with all of that stimulation.

On an everyday basis, sister LOVES to get out of the house and behaves really well in social settings. Well, as long as she is with one of her parents, that is. She and Truman spent about three hours at Erin's house while Nate and I had a date night this month. And, well, Cecelia was sort of a hot mess the whole time being in a different house without her parents there for security. My opinionated little girl.



Firsts: Hair cut by mommy (bangs only), first time being babysat by someone other than family or Lori, first real shoes, first taste of sand, first time playing on a playground, first time on swings, first time in a convertible car seat (we need to make the switch for good!)








Little Sis and Big Bro:

Truman's eleven month post was an interesting one to read, yet again. Both kids are full of opinions at this age but Cecelia has to be a little more 'spunky', I think.  Truman was only nursing once per day and then drinking FOUR bottles (30oz) of milk after that? Wow. Totally different than Cecelia's four nursing sessions and 12oz at Lori's only. Truman was becoming picky with solids and CC just is NOT picky at all. T was 23 pounds at this point and I'm sure CC is nowhere near that---I'm guessing 19-20 at the most. Truman was sleeping even better than Cecelia does right now but he was starting those 5:30am wake ups and if I remember correctly that went on for quite some time. Cecelia's night sleeping is still too erratic to really say she has any pattern for waking up each day 'early' but I could see her STTN but starting her days at 5:30, for sure. I don't think Truman was even pulling up to stand at this point and Cecelia definitely has him beat in the mobility category, which makes me wonder if she will walk way before his 13-14 month mark. We shall see. Also, I find it hilarious that I thought Truman had a lot of hair at this age. HA! Cecelia has always boasted the gorgeous locks but Truman's round head is pretty unbeatable, too. It's so fun to compare kids!

Currently these two are still getting along really well, aside from the quarrels about sharing toys. Cecelia really does take it like a champ with Truman rips away everything from her grubby little hands and we are still working on patience with T. His favorite thing to do, when he sees her crawling towards his tracks, is scream at the top of his lungs (in a girly fashion) : "Ceeeeeeeeee Ceeeeeee! Nooooooooo! Mommyyyyyy!" That's my cue to retrieve the tornado baby before Truman creates a road block with his body. I can't wait until they are both old enough to play nicely together for an extended amount of time. I can picture it, but we aren't quite there yet.













I love being your mommy, Cecelia. I really can't believe you are nearing your first birthday but I'm trying not to be too sad about it because it's SO much fun to watch you grow up and change each month. My little stink pot. I love you so.

I know I can't update on every single day of Porter's life, but the first week is SO eventful and full of memories I don't want to forget in the blur that it will likely become. This is not going to be full of any deep thoughts or insightful glimpses into the life with three kids, but more of a simple re-telling of events. The emotions and thoughtfulness will come again some day, I hope;)

The second evening and night in the hospital was a good one. Tony and Lois came after my Mom and Dad came, and then Nate brought both kids back with him after they allll napped at home that day. Truman felt better and was very eager to see Porter again, so even though we weren't sure if he was sick or not we just made him stay away from breathing on P-man's face. We ordered pizza and had a ball as a big group. Needless to say, these four grandparents are freaking GOD SENDS to us right now.





(my camera is acting really weird for white balance indoors. Super annoying.)


The guys


Big sis


My THREE kids!



Anyway. The second night (Saturday) was good. Nate went back home that night since he truly slept horribly on Friday night with the little pull out couch in my room. He helped with bedtime and everyone got good sleep at home.

I had one of my favorite nurses from Cecelia's birth, Melissa, that night and I loved chatting with her about life while it was just me and Porter in the room. She happily took him to the nursery for me that night around 11, brought him back at 1:30 to nurse, then took him back until 5 am. GLORIOUS. She said he was doing great and was adorable (duh).

Sunday morning, Nate came with Collectivo coffee and a muffin for me, plus we ordered room service for their amazing breakfast sandwiches. YUM. Yet another reason I am obsessed with this hospital is that the nutrition department also sent up a little cup of cookies saying 'congrats on the new baby boy!'. Yes.





We ate, I showered, Porter got his state newborn screening blood test done (hated it), and we visited with the Pediatrician as he gave Porter a glowing report before he discharge him. I mentioned that P is spitting up a lot, my milk came in right after the 24 hour mark, and so I felt like Porter was kind of adjusting to that.



Side note: holy engorgement. I knew my milk came in soon last time with C, and I'm sure nursing her until 16 months and getting pregnant weeks after weaning just means my tats know what to do. But wow. Insane. By the 48 hour mark I was totally uncomfortable, and today---day 3---it's a little out of control. VERY out of control, painful, gigantic, etc etc. More on that in a 'recovery' post someday.

After the Ped came through, my OB came in to discharge me. I love her so much and Nate does, too. She talked with us for about an hour about everything and nothing, mostly about her kids and our kids;) We thanked her for being so amazing because I feel like she made this third experience the best it's ever been (more in the birth story later) and honestly, would like to have a fourth child just to have my OB lead the way again. Nate loves when I say things like that.



Another nurse that I love, Vanessa---she saw me through Truman's birth, discharged us after that. I requested the standard 'leaving from the hospital shot' from her and we were off!



Oh, I wanted Porter to wear this adorable bow tie/cardigan onesie my mom made him for his going home outfit. But alas, I'm not used to having an 8+ pound baby and it didn't fit over his head;( Newborn sizes are usually fine for now but this one was especially tight, so we went with another back up outfit and he looked just as adorable.

He loves to hold the paci in his mouth for us!




We got home around noon on Sunday. The kids and my parents were so happy to see us and for how much I love the hospital stay itself, coming home was pretty freaking amazing, too. Porter got to rock in his MamaRoo a bit, I unpacked, we visited and I got a great nap on the couch with mom and Porter. That night Lois and Tony came over with the BEST meal ever. Love having family support us and help out (again: God sends!)

Signs all over the house, made by the kids and Gogo!







Note the BEER!!!!!


The first night with Porter was pretty.....rough. I think the combination of my milk being in and being so much for him to handle, plus me trying to keep him in the co sleeper without holding him a ton (his favorite) made for an extra hard time. We all went to bed around 10 but Porter did not fall asleep until 1:00. He was awake at 2:00. GAH. I fed him, and I'd change him, but he just kept getting antsy and refusing to sleep. I finally had Nate turn off the AC around 3 am because I thought he was cold. He wanted to nurse but didn't want to nurse and eventually I had to take him into the nursery to rock on the glider a bit. He fell back to sleep around 5 am and we both woke up at 8---I basically held him and let him be in bed with me for that entire time. Breaking the rules already, I know.





Today is Monday--his fourth day of life and of course, since he partied all night, he was sleepy all day long. As I type this, he has been snoozing in the MamaRoo for 3 hours without a peep. Why didn't he sleep like this last night? Silly babies. But I got a shower, brushed my teeth, and even napped so I'm calling it a great day. The kids and I have had a ball with Mom and Dad today. It was incredibly sad to see them go tonight, though. Truman cried the most he's ever cried saying, 'I'm going to miss Popo and Gogo, I don't want them to leave. I'm sad.' So I cried, too. Truman wouldn't let go of me, CC wouldn't let go of me, and we were all just a mess. Ugh. My dad and Tony held it together for us, of course, and Tony took them to the airport. But it's just hard to see my parents go. Mom comes back in 10 days so we are trying to focus on that.





I know Nate must have been SO tired at work today but he is off on Tuesday and Thursday for this week AND next week. LOVE this set up so much. So tomorrow Nate and I will take Porter to the Pediatrician while Tony stays with the big kids.

I can't wait to get into a new rhythm with Porter---especially at night. But I know these early days will just be pure chaos and weird, so I'm trying to roll with it. He is the best baby and SO stinking cute. He takes a pacifier like a champ, unlike his sister ever did at this age, and is really quite chill during this super sleepy phase. I sort of forgot what it's like to worry your baby is sleeping TOO much during the day and probably should wake him up now to feed him. Lord help us tonight. And help my boobs not to explode.



A few other things I don't want to forget:

-Both kids have been sprinting over to the swing randomly, kissing Porter on his feet and head. No reason other than, 'We love Porter, mom.'



-CC tells me 'I like him.' She was fascinated that he could move, really likes to watch him nurse, and is carrying around a ziploc bag of pacifiers for him to use at some point. Oh boy.



-Mom made cupcakes with the kids, after I suggested we have a little birthday party for Porter. Obviously, this was a big hit.



-Truman regularly tells me, 'I love Porter so much mommy. I'm glad he came out. I love my family.' Yes, emotions are running high around here. He also asked, 'How do your boobs make milk?' Ha.



-The kids love Porter's belly button cord. They have heard his newborn poops and think it's hilarious that he goes so often. The like to fight over who gives him the pacifier. Such big helpers I have!





-CC has had a few extra clingy moments to me, where she wants to sit right next to me (on top of me?) while nursing, but nothing too bad just yet. We will see how she is now that mom is gone. They are quite the pair.

So far, so good. As Nate said last night, 'There is just something about having the baby here, healthy, happy.....it's the best.' Right on, Nate ;)