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!