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 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 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. 

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. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Twelve

I love this photo. He seems so hardcore. 

The weather has cooled down a bit in the past few days and it rained all of yesterday. We even turned on our heater the other night because it was freezing in our home. This is my happy place. The first day of fall has arrived and Sullivan is twelve weeks old. 

I'm back to work in full swing and pumping will probably be the death of me. I also keep forgetting to bring the little lids that go on top of the bottles for after I pump. I've resorted to pouring the milk into water bottles until I can get them home and put a lid on them. Seriously. How do I keep doing that? Those lids are important. I want to keep my supply up so I'm pumping on the same schedule that I feed him, give or take an hour or so. Sundays are the hardest because the second I step foot at church/work, my day flies by at breakneck speed. 

Sullivan is all smiles and coos. He is finding his voice. He's outgrowing all of his clothes and I need to get him some pants because cooler weather is coming soon. He is already in 3-6 month clothes and is growing like a weed. He loves playing on the activity mat that we had for Marin. I feel bad for the little guy though because it's very pink but he doesn't seem to mind at all. 

Sorry for all of the pink, buddy. 

Marin caught a cold in the last few days so we've been taking it super easy at home and just praying that she takes long naps and gets healthy. Now that she's in preschool, I'm sure she's around a lot more germs than before. I'm also consistently asking her to stay out of baby brother's face because a sick baby is never any fun for anyone. I'm praying that she is on the mend because she has preschool again tomorrow and I know she will be super bummed if she has to miss it because her nose is so runny. 

The weeks are moving so swiftly and we are almost in October already. I decorated the inside of our home for fall. I'm ready to drink lots of hot coffee. I want to take the kids to a pumpkin patch this year. We've never done that before and I think Marin would have a blast. I feel the need to try and slow down a bit in our lives but it becomes difficult when our weeks are so full. The days go very quickly. With every new week, I'm left wondering where the previous week went. It will be Christmas before we know it and we will have an almost 4 year old and a 6 month old! My goodness. 

Week Twelve. And just for fun....Marin at 12 Weeks

Baby Sullivan | Week Eleven

Baby Sullivan is most definitely going through another growth spurt. I'm certain he is over 15 pounds already since his  2 month appointment at the beginning of September. He's also not been sleeping quite as well as he has been. I'm just trying to take every night as it comes. On Saturday, his was up every 2 hours all night, just like when he was a newborn. I worked on Sunday morning and had to get in the shower at 5am, be at church/work by 6am. Needless to say, I was pretty dang tired. 

I think he's growing so quickly and he has just been more hungry at night lately. I miss the nights where he goes to bed at 9am and wakes up once around 4am. Let's go back to that game plan. This mama is T-I-R-E-D. 

Our weeks are flying by and there are some good, new things on the horizon. I've had some answered prayers lately and I'm so thankful with the direction I am heading in the music realm again. No, I'm definitely not playing any shows or anything like that, but I do have the opportunity to do something I love and help support my family while doing it. Win, win. It feels like home already. Every little bit helps me not feel like I've lost myself once I became a parent. 

Sully initiated Great Grandma on Friday by pooping all over her lap while we were visiting for our weekly lunch with them. He had just eaten and was starting to do his business. Next thing I know, I look over at them and my Grandma has poop all up the side of her. It was an epic blow out. I'm just thankful I wasn't holding him at the time because I didn't have a change of clothes for myself. Diaper blow outs are always so fun. Luckily, I don't believe we ever had a diaper blow out in the car seat. I shouldn't jinx it....

I'm ready to get out the fall decorations this week. I want to carve pumpkins with Marin and maybe visit a pumpkin patch. I want to take a mountain drive to see the fall colors. I'm ready for cooler weather and hot coffee. September has been treating us well and I love the groove we are falling into. 

Week Eleven.