10 months old

Life keeps us busy around here!  Too tired to blog for too long, but here's the haps.

Christopher is 10 months old today!  I can't believe it.  Time is flying.  He's crawling 90 mph on his belly still like a little soldier.  He's really fast and likes to sneak off into the kitchen and play in the dog water and food bowls.  It sure makes working from home with him here exhausting!  He's very curious about everything and very observant like his daddy.  He studies things very carefully and I really think he's trying to figure out how things work.  It's so interesting how different kids can be.  Audrey was not nearly as curious about everything.  She really stayed put for the most part and focused on her toys and what she was doing.  He has to touch everything and be everywhere!  He can't sit still anymore! 

He's got 6 teeth now...4 on top and 2 on bottom.  His face changes daily as those chompers come in.  He has the big gap in the middle of his top teeth just like Audrey did.  That always makes me smile cause it's just like my Papaw.  I think of him often when I look at my kiddos.  :-)

Audrey started brownies this month.  And poor mama is the leader of the troop :-/  I like organizing and I love being a part of her activities, but I think one year of sole leadership of the troop is enough for me.  I'm fine being the treasurer...not too keen on being in charge of all those moms!!

Audrey is doing great in school and really seems to like it.  In fact, this morning she said to me while doing some math problems, "Wow, I am really learing a lot in second grade!"  Love it.  So glad she likes school and wants to do great.  She is really excited for the weekend too...she is doing a day clinic with the Hays Highschool Highsteppers.  It's the drill team for the local high school.  She's thinking she wants to do drill team when she gets older.  She's doing team stuff for dance and gymnastics, but she doesn't really enjoy the working out at the gym.  And that's really the focus there--strength training.  She prefers to shake her bootie!

10:31 pm...way past this mama's bedtime.  Sigh...sucks getting old ;-)

7 years and 8 months

Well it's been 2 months since I blogged!  Life's been busy these last couple months.  Audrey turned 7 years old, Christopher turned 8 months old and we took a long road trip to Colorado to visit my mom and step dad.

Audrey is looking forward to starting the 2nd grade.  She had a few of her good friends over for a swim and slumber party last week.  They had a blast.  Not too much drama this year!  She's so emotionally driven it can be pretty trying sometimes.  But it seems to be leveling out some as she gets older.  Plus her friends will call her out on it now!  :)  We're excited to get her home on a couple weeks.  This school year she's going to be doing pre team gymnastics and pre team ballet/tap/jazz.  Both of which have competitions in the spring!  It will be fun and I think she will grow a lot as a dancer and athlete.

Christopher is growing and changing daily!  He's pretty close to 20 pounds we think.  He gained 2 pounds between his 6 month and 7 month doctor visits!  No more concern with weight gain!!  He loves to eat.  He will eat just about anything I give him and we've done lots of good wholesome foods.  He's already enjoying bananas, tortillas, cheerios, and pancakes in finger foods! The purees I give him are really thick and most of them have beef or chicken or sometimes tofu in them.  He's not crawling per say, but he is doing a sort of army crawl thing with his head down.  He rolls a lot too.  He's just about crawling though...look out!

He's got his 2 bottom teeth and one of the top just broke through today!  I'm still nursing him, although those teeth have chomped me a few times.  He seems to understand when I tell him not to do it and usually only does it once then stops.  I'm going to do my best to get to 12 months, then wean him over to whole milk from the cup.  He's working on various sounds too, like "da", "ma" and "ba". So much fun!

We drove up to Colorado this summer, which was a long trip but we had a blast up there.  We got to ride 4 wheelers, hike, and go swimming in a hot spring fed pool.  It was really nice to see Mimi and Pawpaw too.  Don't get to see them nearly enough.  We're hoping when we get our mini van (August we hope!!) we can go back around Christmas time.

8 months old!

Audrey's 7th Birthday Party

Family Photo at Palo Duro Canyon

6 months!

Christopher turned 6 months old on May 22.  Can't believe he's been with us that long already!  A lot has changed in the last 6 months.  Seems like Audrey has really grown up a lot in that time and of course Christopher has changed so much.
At his check up Christopher weighed 15 lbs 7 oz and was 25" long.  His weight has finally gone up some and he's now in the 10-25 %.  His height is still down in the 10th percentile.  But both are following the growth chart nicely.  His head is up in the 75th percentile!  He's a smart pants :-)
We got the ok to give him basically any real food except things with nuts, honey or that may be a choking hazard (like grapes and small items).  I didn't realize meat and dairy were ok so early so I was a little suprised.  Christopher was excited!!  He has now tried these new things in addition to all the fruits and veggies:  pork chops, mac n cheese, ground beef, vanilla baby yogurt.  He loves it all!  He's not crazy about green beans, but everything else is good.  I've just been grinding whatever we are eating up in the food processor and serving it up.  He prefers it chunky and when I've given him stage 2 Gerber foods, he sort of drools them out since they are so much thinner.  The new stuff is allowing him to chew which is pretty funny to watch since he has no teeth!!
He's doing much better on tummy time these days too and has started skootching a little and turning over a lot both back to tummy and tummy to back.  He still struggles with sitting, mostly I think because his head is so much bigger than his body.  He basically still folds in half when you sit him down, although he's trying to put his arms down to support himself.  He'll get it when he's ready!
Audrey has gone off to Paris, TX with her daddy and step mom for the summer.  It's always weird around here when she is gone...a lot less stuff to do.  But Christopher loves watching and playing with her so much, I can tell he misses her.  We've got FaceTime and Skype set up so she will be able to call us and call Christopher while she's gone.

6 months old!

Trying to sit up

Practicing with a real cup

Swimming in the pool!

Playing with bananas

Audrey's 3rd Dance Recital

Lots of pic updates!

It's been almost a month since I blogged!  Lots has been happening.  Audrey came down with some terrible poison sumac and was covered from head to toe with hives.  It took awhile to heal up but was gone after like 2 weeks.  Poor thing!  :-(

Christopher will soon be 6 months!  I can't believe it.  Time flies.  He's doing great on foods and really picked up the weight gain pace!  I think he's about 16 pounds now!  Crazy.  I've been making all kinds of baby food for him.  Lots of combos like squash, peas, parmesean, and carrots and peas, and mango and banana!  I've got a big stock pile for him (see pics below :-)  So far green beans have been the only one he dislikes.  But I think it might be the texture.  I made them from frozen and they were hard to get really smooth.  I'm going to let Gerber be in charge of those!  He's finally starting to enjoy tummy time more and is trying to sqootch along some.  He's getting stronger and loves to stand up!

Audrey is wrapping up 1st grade and will be in GT next year in 2nd!  We're excited to see what that's all about. 

Guess that's all for now...lots of pictures this time :-D

New Tastes

We've been exploring real food over the last month.  Christopher will be 5 months old on Friday and he's already discovered several new tastes :-)

He has had rice cereal and oatmeal, which he likes most of the time.  He prefers it a little thicker than I figured at his age, but if it's runny at all he just spits it back at us.  If it's thick, he will actually work it from the front of his tongue to the back and swallow like a little person!  It's cool to watch him learn.

We tried some barley cereal too, but it seemed to give him gas, so I'm holding off on the wheat and barley until at least 6 months.  The gluten is pretty hard for baby tummies to digest.

He's really doing well on veggies!  We've tried sweet potatoes, carrots and just last night had our first taste of avocado.  He LOVED the first two, avocado got a funny, skeptical look at first but then he ate all of it too.

I've got a 3 day per veggie schedule right now just letting him try different stuff and make sure he doesn't have bad reactions to any of them.  I think next in line are butternut squash, pears, apples, bananas and peas.  Once he's tried most of the main ones, I'll start doing some combos.  I've got a good recipe book with great ideas.

I think he is teething hard core now too.  He's been chewing pretty hard and constantly on his hands.  Yes, both hands at the same time or one whole fist.  We've got a teether that we froze and he liked chewing on that for a little while.  He was fussy all day at the sitter yesterday and I think that was part of it.  I also forgot his amber teething necklace, so that may be helping afterall....

Again, videos and/or pictures will come when I think to update the blog from my home pc :-)

Yummy Cereal!!

4 months

First campout...Buescher State Park

First bowl of rice cereal...3-26-11

Christopher is 4 Months Old

photos will be posted when I'm at my home pc.....

Well little Christopher hit the 4 month mark on Tuesday last week (March 22).  We had his check up on Friday.  He's doing great!  Poor little guy had to get his shots--which gets worse each time since they don't get over it as fast as they get older!!

Now I don't worry about his weight gain anymore.  He weighed in at 12 lb 4 oz (5-10%) and measured at 23.75 in (10-25%).  His big noggin was in the 50-75%!  So in the last month he's gained a pound and 4 oz and he's grown 1.25 inches!  I'd say he's picking up the pace :-)

We got the OK to start him on foods (cereal for now) from the doctor.  The last week he's been grabbing at my food as I eat if he's sitting on my lap during mealtime and he eyeballs every one's food if he's watching us eat.  And he added a feeding back in during the night.  I was pretty sure it was a growth spurt, even though the doctor says at this age it could start to be a behavioral issue and not a growth spurt.....well as soon as he had some cereal, it was back to sleeping through the night.  I'm voting growth spurt on this one ;-)

We started rice cereal on Saturday morning and I have never seen a baby eat like that!!  He had NO trouble with swallowing at all.  He was really angry in between bites too....he wanted a constant flow of food! And I had nursed him about an hour before so I know he wasn't "starving".  His "spit the food back out" reflex is gone and he was ready to eat!

We'll do cereal for about a month probably (rice, oatmeal, wheat, then a combo).  Then I think he'll be ready for veggies and fruit!  Audrey started around the same time and picked up a little slower than him, but by 5.5 months she was eating fruits and veggies too.  It's true they will tell YOU when THEY are ready :-)  And our boy was READY!!

I swear he's already gained a pound since that first bowl of cereal!  He's getting 2 servings a day now.  Mommy is worried no more :-)

3 months old

Quick update of Christopher: 
Christopher is 3 months old (actually 14 weeks now) and he didn't have an official doctor's appointment, but I did take him in for a weight check.  He's such a little guy!  He was 11.0 pounds until he peed all over the scale and me and the nurse (he giggled at this of course!).  We cleaned him and ourselves up and reweighed him and he was 10 pounds 15 ounces.  He measured 22.5" long.  That is the 5th % for weight and 3rd % for height.

The good news is that though he's small, he's following the curve for those percentiles on the growth chart and he's proportional, both are signs that he's healthy, just little.  Of course Mommy has a tough time with this!!  When Audrey was a baby she followed the 90th % curve for weight and height.  She was so chubby!  So I sorta equate chubby with healthy.  I know this isn't true for Christopher, but it's hard not to think that way.  He's the happiest baby I know! 

It's so hard knowing that your baby is little and slow growing when you are their sole source of food.  But he eats and he's full of smiles and giggles, so I know it's ok.  The joys of motherhood....worrying constantly!  :-)

Well I had my first full day back at work and away from Christopher on Tuesday.  It was hard for me to not see him all day!  Work was exactly like when I left, not sure why I thought things would have miraculously gotten better and less dramatic or nuts!  I actually got a few hugs from some folks so glad I was back.

Pumping was easier than I anticipated (of course!).  I had stressed a lot about it for whatever reason-probably just the fear of the unknown territory-but it worked out just fine.  The one complaint I have is that the pumping room is under lock and key because it houses the building's HVAC unit as well (I know-classy right??).  This means that each time I go pump, I have to stop at the security desk and get an officer to walk with me to unlock the door to the room.  He's very nice and even turns the sign on the door for me to "Do Not Disturb".  I'm not embarrassed that I am pumping or anything like that, but it seems like a big freakin production everytime.  He assurses me that it's not a big deal for him and he doesn't mind at all.  He even asks about the baby.  I would like to just go to the room and not have to tell anyone that's where I am!!

Depending on how much Christopher will eat normally I may or may not have to supplement with formula!  I only pumped 12 oz (3 bottles) during the day and I had left 16 oz (4 bottles) with the sitter.  But he seemed to go 4 hours between feedings with those bottles instead of the usual 2.5-3 with the breast.  So he only consumed 3 bottles while I was gone.  If that's the trend then I'll pump enough and not have to make more bottles of formula.  I want to keep 4 bottles on hand though just in case.

I'm not really sure when he will transition to eating more ounces and fewer times a day.  Currently he's eating 7-8 times a day.  I figure he's getting about 26-28 ounces a day.  It's hard to know when he nurses how much he's getting.  Anyway, I'm thinking it's easy enough to pump at work so far that I should have no problem lasting at least til he's 9 months but hopefully til he's 1 year.

In Audrey news, she starts back to soccer tonight.  Hopefully she will enjoy it.  She loved the games last season but didn't care for practice.  She's the one who wanted to do it again though, so we are doing the spring season!  She's been having trouble with meals again recently.  She gets so distracted and picks and eats baby bites, so 30 minutes into the meal we are all done and she has barely made a dent.  Then she starts the whining...and it's all down hill from there.  Same at breakfast--it's like pulling teeth to get her to eat.  The catch 22 is that she's grumpy and whiney because she's hungry, but she won't eat!  Sigh...it's always something!

Bumbo Chair (12 1/2 weeks old)

Back to Work

It's bittersweet to be working again.  Although these 2 days I'm at home and Christopher is only at the sitter part time, next week will be a little harder.  I'll go in the office 2 full days next week.  It's kinda nice to have a purpose again other than just mommy.  That's my favorite roll in life, but it's hard when it feels like that's all that defines you.  So it's good to have that other world where I'm important to some adults too!

Christopher is loving Ms. Darlene's!  He was all smiles when I picked him up yesterday.  He took his bottles well also.  I went ahead and pumped at home to practice.  I may have to supplement him a little.  I pumped about 3.5 oz of milk and the bottles he took were 4 oz.  She said he seemed like he could even take a little more if it was there.  I'm going to use what I pump, but will probably throw in a few ounces of formula too for that hungry boy!  He's little so I figure a little more is fine for him.  His weight was down in the 5-10% at 2 months.

He's definetely chubbing up though!  And look at him in his Bumbo seat...he's supporting that head well!  :-) 
(that pic will come soon...work computer won't let me add images!)
Guess since I'm back to work I should actually do some work and stop blogging...so that's all for now!

Sleep

Perhaps sleep is in our future...that's 2 nights in a row where he slept about 7-8 hours! If I go to bed when he does I'm in good shape! Not too sleepy this morning. He was so cute when I got up this morning and looked in his cradle he was wide awake and gave me a huge smile!

12 weeks old

Christopher is 12 weeks old!!  Crazy!  He is talking a lot these days, lots of "ah-goo" :-)  He's awake a lot more and hardly fussy at all unless it's eating time!  He nurses every 2.5-3 hours still (about 8 times a day).  He sleeps for a 6 hour stretch then again for another 3 usually at night.  He can hold his head up pretty well and is doing good at working on that in the bumbo chair.  He can't lift his head while on his tummy, but he hates tummy time so I'm guilty of not giving him enough opportunity to do that!  He's about 10.8-11 pounds we think.

What a sweetheart!  :-)

11 weeks

So Christopher was 11 weeks old yesterday!  It's amazing how time flies.  I have to say as I'm gearing up to go back to work, I'm on the fence.  I'm sad I won't get to see him all the time, but at the same time, I'm a little relieved to get back to "normal" and not to be always at the whem of the boob.  I'll be pumping at work, but I get to dictate when I do it and don't have to feel the urgency of a screaming baby.

I feel a bit guilty to want to go back, but I know how much I'll miss him at the same time!  He's changed so much in this short time, I know I'll miss stuff.  That makes me really sad :(

Luckily, he'll be at our neighbor's house and I'll feel comfortable asking what's going on with him and know that he'll be spoiled rotten with love :)

I'm pretty exhausted these days too so I'm not sure how that'll work once I'm back at the office full time.  I feel bad for Reuben to have to deal with me passing out asleep at 9 every night, but the 2-3 hours here and there, just really don't add up to "I got 7 hours of sleep last night".  It's not the same as continuious.  I hope that will get better soon.  He still seems to want to eat every 4 hours at night....2.5-3 during the day.  He's bee cluster feeding in the evenings too where he's nursing ever 1.5 hours.  That is just exhausting!

But on a good note, Christopher is doing really well with head control and is almost ready to hold his head independently.  He's also been smiling and cooing a LOT and seems like a really happy little guy!  He's so good--only fussy when he really needs something.

Audrey is a great big sis too.  She loves to try to make him feel better by dancing, singing, hugging or giving him his pacifier.  She's pretty good at figuring out what he needs.  She has watched a couple diaper changes, but otherwise is not interested in helping with that AT ALL!

That's all for now...

Snow Day!

It doesn't happen very often around here, but we actually got a snow day on Friday!  It was fun to watch Audrey squeal in delight as she ran in the snow.  We took Christopher out for a few minutes to see it and snap a few photos.  He got to wear his snow suit that used to belong to Uncle Justin.  It was nice to have Reuben home all day too.  We need long weekends every week!

Check out the pictures on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bevobaby/

Starting a Blog!

November 14, 2010

November 22, 2010

So this will be my first attempt at blogging.  I just felt like I should document some of this stuff somewhere.  It's all changing so fast and I don't want to miss or forget any of it.

So here's the back story, then future posts will be current.

Reuben and I met back in the mid 90's in high school.  We hung out some but never dated back then.  In 2006 after I had been married and divorced and had my daughter Audrey, we started chatting online on myspace (before it was totally sleezy and before facebook was all the rage).  We dated, we married in October of 2009  and are now living in Buda, Texas.

November 22, 2010 brought us big changes.  Our son, Christopher Henry James, was born--we became parents together and Audrey (6 years old) became a big sister!  Christopher has changed our lives in so many ways, he is the reason I wanted to start writing things down.  So this blog begins....Reuben, Melissa, Audrey and Christopher living life in Buda, Texas.  Hope it's not too boring ;-)