Baby Sullivan | Week Seventeen

We are moving quickly into the world of having a 4 month old. Sullivan will be 4 months old on November 3rd. He has his 4 month well check appointment next week and I am anxious to see how much he actually weighs and to make sure that he's the healthy and growing boy that I believe he is. 

We were realizing how little he was actually napping over the last month or so. Night sleeping has been pretty decent and he wasn't fussy during the day without a lot of sleep, but I noticed how overtired he was starting to look. Poor little guy. We were always heading out to go get groceries or pick up big sis from school or...the list goes on and on. He was getting some naps but nothing substantial and was just kind of napping on the go. That's not good for a little guy his age. He needs a good schedule, one of consistency. Kiddos thrive in routine. I've seen that time and time again with Marin. 

So, we have set out the past few days to really focus on his napping and feeding schedule. I've been researching a lot of different schedules, asked a few friends, etc. We have landed on something that seems to be working fairly well. As long as we begin our day with naps in mind, it seems to go fairly well. His only issue lately is that he wakes up about half way through his nap time, stirs and maybe cries a bit, but then usually goes back down for a while longer. 

We've also moved his bedtime up earlier. I was feeding him around 9:00pm/9:30pm and then putting him down for bed. We now have moved it up to between 7pm and 8pm. Granted, we've had some 3:30am feedings, but I'm ok with it. I can go to bed earlier because I am old if he goes down earlier as well. I have no issues with getting up at 3am to feed him because I usually don't have any trouble falling back to sleep and most of the time, neither does he. 

Right now, he is napping 3 times a day. The third one is usually more of a catnap around dinner time. We have set aside a good nap time in the morning and in the afternoon. I pretty much feel like super woman when Marin is having her quiet time and Sullivan is in the next room over napping. Every nap is a process. We are learning his cues and he is learning how to self-soothe himself to sleep. 

Week Sixteen. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Sixteen

We always love trips to Costco. 

I'm late in writing this post for this week but that is pretty reflective of how this week feels already...and somehow it's only Tuesday. Ryan is on vacation this week but I'm not, which is always a bummer. He's also feeling under the weather and being sick on vacation is always pretty crappy. But, here we are. Tuesday evening. The older kiddo is in bed asking for who knows what to get her out of said bed. Little dude is finally sleeping in his bouncer and will hopefully do so for a while until his last feeding for the night. 

Sullivan is growing out of most of his clothes already and I need to do a major overhaul of the contents of his dresser drawers. Luckily, we've been given a ton of clothes but most of them start around 18 months or so. At the rate he is growing though, he will be wearing that size before we know it. 

I think he's starting to teethe a bit already. Marin was super slow getting even one tooth but I have this inkling that Sully won't be that way. He has grown exponentially fast already. But, we have had lots of drool lately, more fussiness than usual, and some super fun diaper blow outs. He has been stocking up the fun diapers for a few days and then we get to deal with the mess. At least I finally found a way to get poop stains out of his clothes. Thanks Pinterest! I owe you one. 

We also have been trying to have more of a constant schedule with him everyday. He was getting to the point of hardly napping at all and that was killing all of us slowly. I'm trying to be more diligent with feeding and napping schedules. With Marin, it was so much easier because she was the only kiddo. Now, we are shuffling Marin here and there, working all over the place. Little guy just kind of is along for the ride sometimes. But, our goal is to have him nap consistently in his own crib. I'm taking it one day at a time....

I captured Elsa in her natural habitat, through the backdoor screen. 

Yesterday I had my hair cut and colored. I went with a color and cut that I haven't done in a few years or so. It feels good. I needed a change and what better way to do that than changing your hair. It can be as temporary as you want it to be and I like that freedom. The funny thing though is that when I came home to feed Sullivan, he was just waking up from his nap. He opened his eyes and started crying. He didn't recognize me at first with the new hair color, poor guy! The entire time I was feeding him, he gave the side eye like..."I know you're my mom but something is different here..." He's finally warmed up to it but I didn't even think about that when I was sitting in the salon chair. 

Good Change

This week is a crazy one for me at work and now we just need to make sure that everyone in the house gets healthy and stays healthy. I'm on day 23 of the Whole 30....the home stretch. I'm pretty ready to be done with it, at least as strictly as I have been following the plan the past 23 days. I do know that I'll incorporate a good chunk of how I am currently eating into how I will eat in the future. I want to have freedom in the food I eat and how I take care of myself. It is an ongoing process pretty much all of the time. 

Week Sixteen.

Baby Sullivan | Week Fifteen

I was wiping the bottom of one of our adorabe children today and it hit me....this is where we are. This is part of who we are. This season of my life doesn't completely define who I am but it helps define parts of who I am. If someone had sat me down 10 years ago and told me that I would be married, working at a church, own our home, and have 2 small children under 4 years old...I probably would have laughed you out of the room. Back then, my grandiose vision contained dreams of traveling the world, playing music, taking photos, living in the northwest. My dreams didn't really consist of cleaning the bathroom, conquering mountains of laundry (how many people live in my house? I want to know!), dealing with toddler tantrums, and fussy babies. 

But, here we are. I am right here, in this moment of wiping bums and noses. I am right here in this moment of scrubbing down the carseat after Sullivan had a major explosion at the grandparent's house while I was working at church. I am right here, playing out in the leaves with my preschooler, holding the baby in my lap and watching Marin slide her Barbies down the slide. I am right here with the sun on my face, longing for this fall season to stick around for a while longer. 

Would I like to be traveling the world, being creative? Of course. But, I'm also totally content where I am right in this very moment. I never wanted to admit before that one of the callings upon my life was to be a wife and mom. I honestly used to think that was an excuse to not succeed in my career or passions. Now, I see it as one of the most important callings of all. I don't care what other people think about that anymore. Certain aspects of my creative life are in a stand still right now. I see that, I feel that pretty much all of the time. But, the fact that we get to raise our children without having them in daycare 40 hours a week is the biggest blessing we have right now. I still get to work full time but still get to be home with my kiddos throughout the week. I don't take that lightly. I am super blessed by a job that allows me to do just that. 

The next time I start to feel the ache of my former life before becoming a mom, I just need to open my eyes to where I am in this season. I need to be okay with reheating my coffee for the 800th time in the last few hours. I need to be okay with the sand dumped all over the living room rug from Marin's boots because that means that she was out playing and learning and living. I need to be okay with the 4:30am feedings and cherish them with everything I have because they will disappear soon enough. I need to soak in the mornings when Marin has to give me multiple hugs before sitting down to eat breakfast. 

Sullivan is fifteen weeks old today. We've had many diaper explosions the past few days. I've scoured Pinterest far too much for ways to get poop stains out of baby clothes. He's asleep next to me on the floor of the basement as I write this and we are surrounded by an explosion of toys, thanks to Marin. Tomorrow, we are bringing snack to preschool, I am a teacher for the morning, and Ryan and I are the music teachers. 

10 years ago, I didn't think my life would look like this now. But, I'm so grateful that it does look this way. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Fourteen

Our baby is 3 months old now and I can't hardly believe it. He's growing like a weed. I've already had to go through his clothes and put away everything he can no longer fit in. I don't plan on keeping it all this time around because I believe our family is feeling pretty complete at two kids. It will be weird to not keep around the swing or bouncer once he outgrows it. All of his little clothes too will no longer just sit in a box but I'll donate them so some other little guy can use them. I am excited to get the insane amount of all things baby out of my house someday soon. He needs to slow down a bit though. He's 3 months old and weighs 16 pounds!!!! He's wearing mostly 3-6 month clothing and we almost have him in size 3 diapers already. 

His new favorite thing is a little elephant that we received as a gift. He likes the gnaw on its little nose and have it close to him. He didn't really have a little stuffed animal yet that he liked, not like Marin and Bernie the Bunny. That bunny still goes almost everywhere with us. He now is in a pink sparkly dress with pink sparkly shoes. Marin would wear a similar outfit everyday if I let her. 

Marin took a bit of a tumble last night while I was cooking dinner. She was going downstairs to grab her little water bottle for bedtime. Daddy has just read her a few books and she came down the steps. As soon as she hit our wood floor, she slipped in her socks and I heard a BOOM! That noise was followed by a pause and then a wail. Poor kiddo fell and slammed her mouth into the floor. Her gums were bleeding and punctured her lip a bit. Mouth wounds always have lots of blood. She has a bit of a puffy lip right now, poor kid. But, we are keeping an eye on the teeth and I'm sure she will survive. 

Sully is also using his voice a lot lately. I captured this video of him the other night with Daddy. 

Marin is still going strong with "Quiet Time" instead of our daily afternoon naps. She does a pretty good job of entertaining herself in her room for a while. It helps keep us sane and gives her some time to learn and explore. She has put herself to bed a few times in the past week or so. I'm glad she recognizes when she's tired. 

Week Fourteen. 

Here's Marin at 14 weeks. 

Portrait Two

I took this photo last week and I am just now finding the time to post it. As part of my 32 Things Before 32 List, I am attempting to take one self-portrait per month. This is September, in all of it's early morning, un-showered, unruly haired glory. 

Lately, Sullivan will wake up anytime between 3:30am and 5:30am. I stumble out of bed and feed him in the soft glow of his nightlight. After that I put him back in his crib and decide whether or not I will just get up or go back to bed. If it's anywhere near 5am, I just get up. If it's before that, I will usually head back to bed to sleep for just a little while longer. 

I love mornings. Becoming a parent has slowly helped me become more of a morning person. I was much more of a night owl in the my college days but those days are long gone. I normally do not see midnight nowadays unless I'm waking up to feed a baby, change a diaper, or wipe a runny nose. The morning is the only time that I find an overwhelming peace and I find myself longing for that time, no matter how long or short it may be that day. 

If I decide to stay up after I've fed Sullivan, I walk downstairs and make some coffee. I sit in my chair by the piano. My books, Bible, and journals are found on the table next to me. I usually try to read my Bible along with whatever reading plan I'm doing. Then I will read a portion of a personal development book of some sort. If time allows and everyone is still sleeping, I will journal in my moleskin. My goal is usually three pages, taken from the Artist's Way Morning Pages. I write about my days, my hopes, my frustrations, my prayers. I've journaled for a very long time through many seasons of my life and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Putting pen to paper is such a great way for me to begin my day, no matter how many times I was up in the night with the kids. 

This portrait captures the person I am in the quiet hours of the morning before anyone else is awake. I usually watch the sun rise out of the living room window. If it's raining, I throw open the windows and drink my cup of coffee that hasn't been reheated a million times within the course of my parenting day. My hair is always a mess. I usually can be found cuddled up in a blanket in my robe that I bought for when I was in the hospital having Sullivan. I spend part of my morning whisper yelling at the cat to quit raising hell in the house and try to not feed him too early because he always seems to puke it back up again when Ryan is sleeping. Kitty puke is the worst. 

This is me in September of this year. I'm slowly trying to rediscover who I am in the early morning hours. A mom, a wife, a creative individual that needs this time to soak, pray, and better myself. I am always willing to wake up at 5am to get this time. I need it. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Thirteen

We've had a few runny noses in our home over the past week. Marin stayed home from preschool last Tuesday. Sully is pretty congested. I've been taking vitamin C like it's going out of style. So far, I haven't gotten sick and I'm just hoping and praying it stays that way. Life is way too crazy right now to be sick. I also can't take a lot of medication when I am nursing. I feel like we are finally getting healthy again aside from some pretty raw little noses. 

We did take Marin to the doctor last week and found out that she has an incurable skin condition. I thought she might have a yeast infection but turns out it was something else, something pretty crappy. I have faith that God is bigger than this condition. We are treating it with a creme currently and it seems to be helping. She's not as itchy as before. Sadly though, no more bubble baths. The condition could come and go for the rest of her life. The medical community doesn't have a ton of information on it other than the fact that it is common in girls/boys before puberty or after menopause. It might be due to low estrogen levels. I'm trying to just pray through it and hope for the best. It's pretty sucky. 

On a whim, I decided to try and weigh Sully last week as well. I believe he is just over 16lbs now. This kid just keeps growing. I don't feel like we are feeding him too much but I do tend to feed on demand when I am there. Luckily, he's really tall too so his weight isn't a big concern with the doctors. He's a healthy, growing little guy, that's for sure! 

He's growing so quickly and is so strong already. He's been sitting in a Bumbo chair lately as well. His chubby little thighs almost don't fit in it though. We've been doing lots of tummy time lately too and he gets stronger every day. He's sleeping decently well and wakes usually once a night. 

We've also gotten to the point now with Marin that I believe she is doing away with her naps. (Cue mommy crying in a corner somewhere! Nooooooo!) Those naps are the one thing that has kept me sane in motherhood and that's also a time that I get a lot of work done for my job. So, we've created a compromise. We have gatherered together a number of activities to keep her busy. She can have quiet time in her room instead of taking a nap. She can read books, build with blocks, play with dolls, put together puzzles. If she wants to sleep, she's welcome to. Being the strong-willed child that she is, she always declares that she will not sleep, but she's just going to play. The first day we tried, she spent half of the time pounding on her door and yelling, "Mom! I know you can hear me in the monitor! Mom! I know you can see me in the monitor!" But, overall I think she's starting to look forward to that time now and we get to still stay a little sane. 

Pretty blurry, but I had to get his smile.

Week Thirteen.