Baby Sullivan | Week Thirty Four

Pure joy at Costco. 

As of today, Sullivan James Hollen is eight months old. He has now been with us for 243 days and counting. What a whirlwind our lives have been since his arrival and I'm sure life will only get crazier from here on out. Someday in the near future Sullivan will start crawling. The baby gates will have to be taken out of the back of our closets.

I feel like Sullivan is hitting milestones a bit later than his sister and I'm trying not to let that go to my head and worry. I know that every child is very different. Marin and Sullivan are pretty much night and day with a lot of things. At this point, Marin was pretty much crawling and saying, "Mama." Sullivan isn't a fan of floor time and rolls over the second you get him on his tummy. At least he is now rolling over because that was a little slow going for a while. 

Sullivan also eats a lot more solid foods than Marin did at this point so I'm counting that as a win. We have been giving him lots of vegetables, sweet potatoes, some fruits and chicken. I want to continue to expand his eating horizons one meal at a time. He's a great little eater and I am thankful for that. I can slowly feel him nursing less and less though. We are still consistently nursing but the sessions aren't for nearly as long as before. I know that having solid foods alters those feedings but I don't want him to start weaning himself yet. I don't think he will but I like where we are at with breastfeeding. My goal is one year at least with him and I feel like we are well on our way to hitting that goal. 

My goal this week is to make sure he's getting lots of floor time and lots of tummy time. I know he will start becoming mobile when he's ready. He's also not a small dude and sometimes I think his size hinders him at times. I do believe that's why it took him so long to roll over. I also think with the second kid, everything is so different. You still are caring for your first child so your focus is not just on one child but two. He does a lot of hanging out with us and it perfectly content just staying in one place. 

We are getting our kitchen cabinets resurfaced & refaced this week and a backsplash done. I am super excited but I am definitely not looking forward to not having a kitchen for a week. I'm trying to figure out feeding our children...perhaps we will set up shop in the living room and use the Instant Pot a bunch? Who knows. It will be an adventure for sure, but I'm so excited for that project to completed. 

Happy 8 months, Little Dude! 

Baby Sullivan | Week Twenty Nine

We are really getting into the swing of things with Sullivan James lately. I feel like we hit 6 months with him and so many things just started to fall into place. He is hitting so many milestones lately that I feel like there's a million new things about him every morning he wakes up. He is growing like crazy and I'm trying to soak it all in. We feel that we are done with two kids so I'm trying to embrace all of the little milestones and details of little Sullivan. He may be the last baby I nurse at 1:30 in the morning in the glow of his night light. He may be the last baby we introduce solids to and the last baby that I have to wipe down after giving him solid foods. He may be the last baby that we buy so many diapers for. It's weird to think about. 

He's been taking pretty good naps for me lately and for that I am thankful. Nighttime has been another story though. He is happy as can be all day until the moment we lay him down in his crib for bedtime. Then he cries and cries. I hate having him cry it out but he's a smart cookie and knows that mommy or daddy will come running in if he looses his binky and starts wailing. Luckily, he usually zonks out fairly quickly but it still stinks. 

He's been eating solid foods 3 times a day lately and he's loving it. We usually start the day with mushed banana and oatmeal or a jar of fruit baby food. Lunch is usually a mum mum and a jar of food. Dinner is the same. He really likes peas and pears. This week we are going to try some with meat in them, more Stage 2 foods. He's a great eater and it's been fun having him sit at the table with us while Marin eats. 

I really want to try and have some family dinners though. Right now, Ryan works late enough that I usually feed the kiddos before he gets home. Then I cook dinner for the adults after the kids are in bed. I think family dinners are important. I realize our children are still young but I also really want to expand Marin's palette beyond chicken nuggets and cheese for dinner. She should eat what we eat. I know saying that is one thing and actually doing it is another but I would like to make that my goal someday. 

We hit another milestone this week as well. Sullivan sat in a shopping cart for the first time at Costco. We usually push him in his stroller and the other parent pushes Marin in the cart but on Monday, he rode in the cart with her. He thought that was pretty much the coolest thing ever. It was nice not having to push a stroller and a cart. We are slowly getting closer to me being able to go grocery shopping by myself with two kiddos. 

Week Twenty Nine!

Here's Marin at Week Twenty Nine. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Twenty Five

Sullivan will be 6 months old in a few days and we are preparing for a new year. I keep coming to the realization that we definitely do not have a newborn anymore. Sully grows a little more every single day. I'm always surprised when I go to feed him in the early hours of the morning and he seems to have grown even within the night hours while he sleeps away in his crib. It's hard for me to believe that we are already almost half way through his first year of life. I truly feel like I was just big and pregnant, wobbling around in our home praying that his delivery would go smoothly. I feel like I was just in the hospital, waking with him every few hours to work on nursing and learn how to be a mother to two little kiddos instead of just one. He fits into our family so well and I am so thankful. 

We dove into feeding Sullivan his first food last week. I thought we went with sweet potatoes but I didn't read the jar well apparently. His food food was officially some carrots. Overall, he did great. A bit messy, but that's to be expected. He went for it and I think he will be a good eater of solid foods just like he is a good nurser. I would really like to expand his palette a lot more than we did with Marin as he grows. Marin would literally eat the same 3 things all of the time and has a hard time expanding her horizons. I need our second child to not survive on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheese. I know, every mom probably says that, but seriously. I hope to introduce him to a lot more foods that we did with Marin. 

That night after we fed him his first solid food was pretty rough though. It took us about 2 hours to get him to finally fall asleep. His poor little tummy was pretty upset and not used to the solid food yet. We haven't tried again, honestly...but I hope to dive back in this week. I plan on not introducing new food so late in the day too. That was our first issue. Poor guy. We are going to take this one meal at a time. 

He is also working on cutting more teeth. His has one on the bottom that is slowly popping out of his gums. I can feel some top teeth making their way out as well. This is all so foreign to me because Marin was so late in getting teeth. He's already a biter and I'm sure we are going to have to work on that. I hope to breastfeed him for at least a year and he needs to be nice to me. 

Week Twenty Five. 

Here's Marin at Week Twenty Five. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Twenty Four

Week Twenty Four....We have hit a few milestones this week and I feel like Sullivan will be a teenager eating us out of house and home by next Tuesday. Slow down, kiddo. In a few weeks, he will be 6 months old and I can hardly believe that we will be half way through the first year of having Sullivan in our little family. Time passes so quickly lately and I feel like I was just pregnant or laying in a hospital bed with a newborn in my arms wondering how we were going to do this family of four thing. 

I'm looking forward to Sully's first Christmas this year. I'm sure he won't remember it but it's still fun to wrap up some presents for him and have him experience all of the festivities. I've been singing Christmas songs to him all week at the top of my lungs. He appreciates my singing but Marin tells me to stop. Nope, kid. Not stopping. 

I brought the high chair up from the depths of our spare room in the basement. This Ikea highchair got us through Marin and now Sully gets to use it. It's super cheap and super awesome. You can just hose it down when it gets too messy. I like the look of it and it will find its home at the end of our kitchen table. Our table has two drop down sides and we drop one and put the high chair there. I like it because it feels like an extension of the table and he gets to be up close and personal with all of us. The highchair was the first milestone that this past week presented to us. 

Now milestone two....we have a tooth! It's just starting to bust through the surface of his gums, but it's there! Marin didn't get teeth until almost 44 weeks old! She was really late in the teeth game. Now I do have an explanation for the added fussiness we've experienced this week with Sully. Poor little guy was working on that tooth! He's normally a very happy, chill baby. Teething is proving to be super fun. 

In the next few days, I plan on starting to introduce some food purees to Sully. We usually are in the camp of "food for fun 'til one." I bought some new bibs and bowls. The high chair is in the kitchen. Sullivan watches your every move when you eat already and I'm sure he's ready to dive right in. I'm sure it will be a fun mess. 

Here's Marin at Week Twenty Four. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Seven

Week seven is here. Every week I say it and I will say it again...time is moving quickly. This week feels fresh and new. We are slowly getting into the swing of things and my heart has been so full the past few days. I look at my life and cannot believe I get to be a part of it, honestly. I guess I've just been feeling extra blessed lately, like everything is falling into place and life is pretty darn good lately. Do I still feel a bit of new baby fog? Of course, but overall I feel like we are landing on a good schedule and many good things are coming in the near future.

Sullivan has given us the awesome gift of sleeping through the night for the past few nights. We had one rough night last week and that was it. Other than that, we are getting much longer stretches of time. We feed him one last time around 9pm and he's been sleeping until 4:30 or 5am. How did we get so lucky? I shouldn't say that because I don't want to jinx it. Seriously though, it's crazy. I wake up feeling far more rested than before. I've just been getting up after I feed him in the mornings and I feel like I'm slowly gaining some sanity and clarity for this season. Being able to have quiet time for even just a little while is life giving.

Another milestone this week is that we had to trim the baby fingernails. Every parent knows how utterly terrifying that can be. Luckily, Ryan always seems to do it for me. He's awesome like that. We will keep him around. We are also seeing lots of smiles lately from Sullivan and I still can't seem to capture one in a photograph. He has been awake a lot more during the day and it's been fun to see his little personality start to shine through. 

I've been making it a point to not just aimlessly look at my phone while nursing him and that seems to be working out well for me. Instead, I've been reading. It's refreshing to not have my eyes glued to a phone screen constantly. Half of the stuff on Facebook nowadays stinks and I'd rather fill my mind and heart with something better. I just finished The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You. I just started Mom Enough: The Fearless Mother's Heart and Hope. 

I returned to work part time last week and it feels good to be back and having some conversations with adults. I hit the ground running and quickly dove into scheduling, finance stuff, payroll, etc. Most of my anxiety has fallen away and I am excited for the season ahead. Also, fall is coming, my very favorite time of the year. 

Week Seven. 

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Baby Marin | Week Forty Nine

This week has been full of baby drool, baby snot, and working on baby teeth. We resorted back to wearing bibs for a while because this little gal is a drool producing factory at the moment. I believe she is working on a few more teeth. Marin hates having her nose cleaned out and wiped off. She battles against the Kleenex every single time. I can't wait until we get to the point of where she knows how to blow her nose. For now, we are all kind of snotty messes around these parts. 

I feel like Marin is so close to walking. Part of me isn't ready for that, it is all going so fast! She will stand on her own every once in a while and then quickly realizes what she is doing and she falls back to the floor. One day she is just going to walk and surprise us all, including herself. 

Also, these photos should be proof of the toy destruction that is usually found in our basement. Building blocks, toy pianos, baby dolls, stuffed animals. Everything must be out on the floor and should never be in the nice baskets that we have for the toys. That's at least Marin's philosophy on all of it. 

I only have a few more of these posts before we hit one year. I am trying to decide what my next plan is with the Marin photos. Creating these posts every week has been pretty time consuming. But, they do help me get out my camera and actually use it even within the chaos that is our life. There is never a dull moment when Marin is involved. 

I feel like this could be Marin's first "Selfie." 

Week Forty Nine. 

Baby Marin | Week Thirty Nine

Leaving Marin last weekend was tough. It's good to be home. I feel like every day she comes up with some new trick or milestone. For example, I put her in her crib to go grab my camera, and came back to this....standing up in her crib! Uh-oh. We are in trouble now. She usually wears a sleep sack when she naps and sleeps so she doesn't really try anything too crazy. But, put her in her crib without her sleep sack and she stands up all on her own. Slow down, baby. Slow down. 

I am really looking forward to the next few weeks with Marin. I love the holidays to begin with and add two little babies into the picture (including little cousin Gunnar) and fun will be had. I'm sure I will barely hold her the entire time we are at our parent's house for Thanksgiving. 

We have been experimenting with different finger foods and are slowly moving away from purees. She is still getting the hang of picking up food off her tray but we are working on it. She really likes trying new things and I am just praying that we don't have a picky eater on our hands. I don't think we will, at least so far. 

Oh and...still no teeth. 

Week Thirty Nine. 

Baby Marin: Week Twenty Nine

This week has been a whirlwind of craziness. Change is on our horizon and we are just trying to hold onto the moments of every day that matter the most. It has been raining nearly all week, which is fine but all of us. I just want to curl up at home with Marin and read Winnie the Pooh books all day. Marin has begun to army crawl and is sitting up even better than last week for longer periods of time. She loves playing peek-a-boo. I blink and we reach another milestone. 

Also, her little hoodie just kills me. 

Week Twenty Nine. 

(All photos this week were taking by Ryan.)