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.