Baby Sullivan | Week Forty Seven

Today, June 3rd, Sullivan James is 11 months old...give or take a few days in the grand scheme of things. This time last year, I was uncomfortable and quite pregnant. We were getting ready to have air conditioning installed in our home and that has been one of the best decisions we have ever made as home owners. Seriously, life changing. 

Anyways...11 months old. I can hardly believe that in a month we will have a 1 year old in our home. No more formula and bottles, hallelujah! He has slowly been wanting bottles less and less and his preference is most definitely solid foods. I feel like the transition to just milk at meal time and no more bottles will be fairly easy with him. Just like with no longer breastfeeding, it just sort of happened one day. One day, he decided he was done and that was that. I, of course, am still kind of sad about no longer nursing but I am working through that a little more every day. 

Sleepy dude after the Splash Park with Grammy. 

I need to start planning a 1 year old birthday bash for Sullivan now. We have never really been the type of parents that go all out for birthday parties. I am not the mom that invites every kid from school and life to a party at our home. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing that but we just love to open our home and lives to those we are closest to, our family. I am looking forward to the fact that Sullivan has a summer birthday (July 3rd) and we can be outside. With Marin, she was born in February so we are always cram everyone into our living room with over flow into the kitchen and up the stairs. 

In other news, we bought a new car after the great Hail Apocalypse of 2018. It's still crazy to me that we even had a storm like that but we are moving forward. We ended up leasing a Kia Optima for Ryan and he is nerding out with all things new car. It's super nice and we got a killer deal on it from a local dealership in town. I know leasing isn't always the best option but it worked within our budget for now and we went for it. We weren't exactly planning on having a new car payment right about now, especially now that I'm working a lot less hours than before. 

This week is shaping up to be a busy but good one. I somehow conquered most of the laundry this weekend and tomorrow will just be for bedding and towels. I'm off tomorrow and this house needs a good scrubbing. I didn't really do it last week and I can always tell. Next week, Ryan and I are going on a little trip and to say I'm excited is an understatement. First off, we are seeing pretty much my favorite musician ever at the best venue ever. Ryan Adams at Red Rocks. It doesn't get any better. We are then going to spend some time up at Blackhawk. I am looking so forward to getting away for a few days, kiddo free. The last time we were up in Blackhawk, that was the weekend I found I was pregnant with Sullivan. Good times. 

Here's Marin at forty seven weeks. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Forty Five

I keep letting the weekend come and go before I get these posts written. We are on the home stretch....seven weeks to be exact...to when Sullivan will turn one. 12 months old. Holy cow. I did these posts for Marin as well, for all 52 weeks. After that, I let myself off the hook and only blogged occasionally. I would like to continue with our posts in some form but we shall see what they end up actually looking like. Anyhow....

This week I've really been thinking about what matters most in our lives. This is cliche...but life is short. We only have so much time here and I want to make the most of it. What that looks like for me: I'm still working on that. But, for the most part, that looks like time spent with my family and running after the things that I'm passionate about, living creatively. 

It's important to me to have a home for our children to grow up in and for us to come to as a place of rest. It's important to me to take better care of myself so I can care better for others. It's important to me to make time to be creative and live out that path in my life, the one that has been pretty silent over the past 4 years of my life. Family dinners. Getting outside and allowing our children to get messy sometimes. My clean house won't matter in the grande scheme of things. What will matter is if I experienced joy and learned something new with my children. That matters. 

Anyways...this week has been fairly normal for the most part. Marin graduated from her preschool class on Thursday and I can't believe we survived being a part of a co-op. We have to do one last clean up day and then we are done. I love that school but I didn't love the co-op requirements. Especially after my job change, it felt pretty unrealistic. Now Marin gets to enjoy the summer and it will be nice to have a break from rushing out the door twice a week to get her to school on time. She's going to a different school this fall across town and that will be even more of a rush I'm sure. Our preschool this year was pretty much across the street from our house. We are also already starting to research kindergarten because in all reality, that will be here before we know it. 

Sullivan still isn't crawling. I'm going to write those words until he starts moving. He will get it, I know he will. I'm ready now, little buddy! You can do it! He's growing leaps and bounds in every other area. He's becoming more vocal everyday. His expressions are getting super fun. He knows how to wave now. I just love him to pieces. 

I'm still nursing him once or twice a day. I nurse him early in the morning when he wakes up and sometimes again late afternoon. I'm just not ready to give it up yet. In many ways I am ready but in many ways I'm not. He is my last baby. I will never breastfeed again. That's a big deal. I know my supply has dropped a lot but for now it's our little moment once a day and I will soak it all in. My goal is one year and I want to make it. We are so close. I've already breastfed him a lot longer than I did with Marin. It's been pretty special for me. 

Here is Marin at forty five weeks.  It's crazy to me how different each child is. At this point with Marin, she was crawling everywhere and starting to say words but wasn't quite catching on to eating a lot of solid foods. Sully is the king of baby led weaning and loves food. No one child is the same and that's a good reminder. All in good time. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Thirty Nine

 

This week has pretty much been super crazy. Today is the first day I’ve actually had a moment to sit down on the couch and try to not do a whole lot of anything. I started my new (old) job this week back at the dental office. I have been staring at spreadsheets and Quickbooks for days until my eyes pretty much are ready to give up all together. It’s strange being back at a place where I used to work. A lot has changed in three and a half years but at the same time, hardly anything has changed. I know only a few people from when I was there before. 

Overall though, I think I’m really going to love it. It’s a nice new challenge and I’m ready to actually know what I will be doing day in and day out. The one thing that I absolutely love about this switch is the fact that I no longer am working from home. It is so refreshing to not check my email constantly or work like a madwoman during naptime all the while praying that the children sleep just a little bit longer so I can accomplish something. Working from home was an amazing thing at one point in our lives but I’m ready to be done with all of that. I’m ready to just focus on our family when I’m home and then go to work and actually just work. Hallelujah. 

Sullivan has his 9 month appointment coming up this Monday and I’m curious to see how much the little chunk weighs now. He’s still eating great. I feel like he’s slowly wanting less breastmilk from me or the bottle. He just loves to eat solid foods and is just content as can be eating meatballs and broccoli to his heart’s content. 

We have been trying to do a lot of floor time lately because I feel like he’s a little late on the whole crawling and becoming mobile thing. I know I should eat my words because before I know it...he will be unstoppable and the baby gates will have to come out. I think part of it is because he’s not tiny by any means. I also think that being the second child, we are so focused on both kids. With Marin, it was constant encouragement to crawl, walk, talk, etc. It was just her at that point. I know I shouldn’t worry and he will move when he’s ready. 

Pumping at work is pretty much the bain of my existence at the moment. I’ve slowly been dropping pumping sessions. As of today, I will have only nursed before 7am and at bed time. We will see if I can make it through the afternoon without the insatiable desire to pump. I’m not ready to give up nursing entirely but having to pump at work or during the day just isn’t working any longer. I’m hoping I can get my body to respond to only nursing during the early morning and at night. Hopefully, I won’t lose my supply entirely. It’s such a process and since I’ve been ever so slowly getting rid of feeds, I’m hoping I don’t go all or nothing. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Thirty Six

This past week has been crazy, even though our home is pretty much back to normal after the kitchen cabinet remodel. I am very thankful to have dinner at our kitchen table in our actual kitchen. Not having a kitchen with two small children was quite the adventure. I'll be posting about the cabinets in the next few days or so. I still need to take some "after" photos. I love them. They are so great and clean and I don't have to ever paint them ever again. Hallelujah. 

Many things have been changing this week and I'm just trying to grasp all of it. Granted, most of the change has been at my hand, but nonetheless, our lives have been all over the place lately. Some of you know this, some of you do not but I guess now is a better time as any to tell you all out in the grand internet....

I gave my two weeks notice at the church I work for, at least in the administrative role that I have been in the past few years. For the past few years, I have lived and breathed all things admin. It has been a wild ride but I really started to feel the need for more consistency in our schedule and I really, really, really want to be able to raise our own children. Now I know that sounds like I quit my job and am not replacing it with another, but that is not how this story ends. Long story short...I'm going back to the pediatric dental office I was at for nearly 6 years of my life. Many people probably think I'm crazy but I need a job I can go to, work hard at all day, then walk out the doors and leave it there. With working in a church and in ministry, it's 24/7 in one capacity or another. I think if we didn't have children, this would all look so different but for now, I'm going back to the dental world, part time. I also am still going to be even more involved in worship at church and I'm looking forward to diving deeper into that part of me once more. That part has been dormant for far too long. I've been involved but I have always had a million other administrative responsiblities taking up space in my head. It will be nice to not have to worry about all of that and just focus again in the place my heart really longs for. 

Anyways...enough about me. Sullivan is thirty six weeks old. His top two teeth are going to break through any day now and he's had quite a bit of teething pain this week. His normal demeanor is super chill to begin with so I know when he's hurting. Poor dude. Teething is pretty much the worst. 

He's been eating like a champ. The dude loves eat. His current favorites are meatballs, tortellini, peas, carrots, avocados, hummus, and bananas. He eats better than Marin most days. The girl knows what she likes and pretty much refuses to steer away from that. I know that's mostly our fault as parents...too many cheeseburgers...not enough broccoli. 

I have been trying to not nurse or pump quite as much and keep end up being in way too much pain. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. I was trying to get down to one pumping session during the day at work, especially with the new job coming up and just feed him in the morning and at night. But, we aren't quite there yet. I need to slowly back off of all the feedings and supplement instead of going almost cold turkey. My body gets all confused and in pain when I drastically start changing feeding times and frequencies. Breastfeeding has been great this time around and I am definitely not ready to give it up completely. 

Marin has been on Spring Break this week and it's been nice with all of my work craziness to not have her in school for a few days. She's had one slumber party already with the grandparents and she will be with the other set of grandparents tomorrow evening with her cousin. Marin loves sleepovers but I feel like they wipe her out so much. When she finally does sleep, she sleeps hard. 

Here's Marin at Week Thirty Six.  The crazy thing is that when I posted her week thirty six, I had just changed jobs to the job that I just gave my notice at this week. Life is crazy sometimes. 

Week Thirty Six. 

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 Thirty

Here we are at Week Thirty! Sully is will be 7 months old on Saturday. He's growing leaps and bounds and is such a little man lately. 

He finally is rolling over! It took him a while to get the gist of it but now that he knows how, that's all he wants to do. So far he only will roll over from tummy to back but not back to tummy quite yet. Now, the moment you put him on his tummy, he rolls right over and is so pleased with himself every time he does it. He's never been a huge fan of tummy time, but now that he can flip over, he definitely is totally fine with not remaining on his tummy for too long. 

He has been sleeping longer stretches at night and I am forever thankful. For a while there, he was waking up anywhere between 1:30am and 4:30am. Now he sleeps from 7pm-ish until about 4:30/5:30am. Hallelujah. So much better. I'm sure we will face another sleep regression soon but for now I'm soaking in those few hours of uninterrupted sleep while I can. 

We have been feeding him solids for three meals a day. Last Friday, we tried the chicken & sweet potatoes jarred food. He liked it a little too much because he ended up eating too much and throwing most of it up throughout the course of the afternoon. Poor little dude! I was washing a lot of bed sheets after that endeavor. I am laying off the meat jarred food for a bit longer because I don't think his little tummy is quite ready yet. 

We are in the process of figuring out Marin's school plan for next fall. She will be in Pre-K which pretty much makes my head spin just thinking about it. We have enjoyed where she is going to preschool but it's a co-op and we just don't have the ability to continue with that much involvement. It's a great school but we need a little less involvement. If I was a stay at home mom and didn't work full time, same as Ryan, we would probably stay there. But, now I am filling out new paperwork, getting immunization records, and checking out schools. It's crazy that we are already here. By the time she starts Pre-K, Sully will be 1.5 years old. I can't quite wrap my mind around it. 

Isn't Marin's little pony so cute!? She finally has started to let me attempt to do her hair. 

Week Thirty!