Baby Sullivan | Week Forty One

Week Forty One. As of today, Sullivan is 292 days old and every day with him is a new adventure. I see a new piece of the puzzle in terms of his personality and the little boy he is becoming. I'm starting to see this little boy slowly coming to the surface. Soon he will no longer be our little baby but our little boy. I try to not think about that too much because I love the age he's at but I also know that time passes so quickly and he is growing up so quickly. 

We are not planning on having any other children so this is the last era of diapers and sleepless nights, of baby giggles and teething. In many ways, I am alright with living life beyond that season but in other ways, I am slowly starting to mourn the loss of that season. I'm soaking it in while I can. I am trying to soak in the moments when I am still nursing him, in the early morning hours or right before bed time. I can feel those moments slowly falling away. 

Sullivan has been loving all food lately. He is such a good eater and I am sure that he will pretty much eat us out of house and home when he hits the teenage years. Seriously, we will buy so much food! Just yesterday for lunch he had turkey, half of a grilled cheese sandwich, peas, carrots, and a mum mum. Good gravy. The kid loves to eat! He has been slowly taking less and less breastmilk and formula. 

He's definitely working on some more teeth. His nose has been running, his cheeks have been rosy. He's been gnawing on anything he can get his hands on and drooling like crazy. I can see three more teeth, one on the bottom and two on the top, just waiting to break through. He has his first dentist appointment next week with big sis. He has gotten teeth so much earlier than Marin ever did. 

He still is not crawling, not even a little. He is not a fan of being on his tummy. He will sit and play to is his heart's content. He will stand and lean on things for an extended period of time. But crawling, not so much. I know it will happen when he's ready but I'm ready. 

Ryan is on vacation this week and I'm excited to spend some time together as a family. Since I started my new job, I feel like our weeks move so swiftly and we don't really have any days or extended periods of time to spend together as a family. We have some fun stuff planned and I am so looking forward to it. I will still be working a bit but overall, we get some time together and it's much needed. 

Here's Marin at 41 weeks. 

Baby Sullivan | Week Thirty Seven

This week has felt long and tiring but we made it to Saturday and for that I am thankful. The days are so full lately with my job switch. I feel like I'm juggling a million things at once in an effort to leave well. I don't know who is taking my job over so the added unknowns of that have been weighing on me. I would love to be able to train whoever this person is so I can sleep soundly at night and not fret about whether or not teams have been scheduled and confirmed. I know, I know. I am the one that decided to move to a different job. I am the one that wanted to make this big switch. I am thankful for all of the change lately but will be very excited to be on the other side of it and working at the new job. I'm ready to dive in. 

With the craziness of this week, Sully and I have been a little under the weather. I've been fighting a sore throat all week and it's now moved into my sinuses. Hopefully today is the last day of it because I am leading worship tomorrow at church and I need to be able to sing without sounding like my head is full of snot, which is currently is. So lovely. 

Sully has been teething like crazy. His top two teeth are finally breaking through the gums. Teething plus a stuffy nose for him has made a few of our nights and early mornings pretty crappy. He wakes up wanting to nurse but then doesn't want to nurse because I think laying down on his side like that makes his sinuses and mouth hurt. Poor little dude. At least the teeth are breaking through. It looks like all of his top teeth are just right below the surface of his gums, just waiting to burst forth. Teething is so rough at times but I know it's something that we just have to get through. 

Marin had her 4 year well check on Monday and is doing well. She weighs just shy of 32 lbs and is 3 feet 3.5 inches tall. She is in the petite category and percentile, which doesn't surprise me. She did so well at her appointment. The vision test went well, the hearing test went well. We did get a few shots before she starts kindergarten, which is never fun. Luckily, she won't need any more until she's in middle school. But, she was such a trooper. She has a skin condition as well that we've been monitoring and putting steroid cream on. Luckily, we can now quit using the cream unless it flairs up again. I fully believe that Jesus will heal her of it though. The doctors stated that she could have it for the rest of her life, but Jesus heals, of that I am certain. We stopped and got hot chocolate and sour gummy worms at Daddy's grocery store where he works afterwards. I'm glad that appointment is over. Now she will just have a dentist appointment in April but it will be where I will be working so hopefully that will go better than it has in the past. 

Sullivan's 9 month appointment will be in a few weeks and I'm curious to see how he is growing. He's not even 9 months yet but wears mostly 18 month clothing. He is a tank and we love him for that. We are still hauling him around in his infant car seat. I'm trying to make it last as long as possible but soon, very soon, we will have to switch to a different car seat. 

I'm ready to dive into this next week, finish my time at the church, and embark on something new. I'm ready to have everyone in our home healthy and happy. I just keep realizing the importance of taking care of myself so that I can care well for my family. One day at a time. 

Here's Marin at Week Thirty Seven. 

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 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 Twenty-Two

I feel like we are all finally slowly on the mend with all of the sickness that has been going around. Our coughs still remain a bit but we have actually been able to leave the house and go out in public without the fear of getting everyone around us sick as well. Both kiddos went to church on Sunday for the first time in weeks. Marin finally went back to school today. She has missed three classes now in the past two weeks. I'm feeling way better than I was a few days ago and I'm hoping we all stay well through the New Year. Fingers crossed and prayers lifted up. Having sick kids is no joke. Being sick while your kids are also sick is one of my least favorite things, especially when the kind of sick you are isn't enough to warrant you staying in bed all day but you just kind of walk around like a zombie, sniffling and coughing you way through the day. I also can't take super intense medicine to kick it to the curb because I'm still breastfeeding. 

On Sunday, Sully turned 5 months old! Sully is currently closing in on the 20 pound mark. He's going to outgrow his carseat any day now and we will have to figure out the next option. I'm thinking of using the convertible car seats that Marin sits in for him now and get her a little less expensive toddler convertible seat. None of them are cheap, at least the good ones. I'm going to miss having just the one carseat that just clips into the bases in our cars. Now we need multiple seats for multiple vehicles, including the grandparent's cars. I'm in the process of researching what our best options are. He will still be rear facing for a long time, but little dude isn't so little anymore. 

I went and got adjusted at the chiropractor last week because I've been having a lot of pain in my wrist, all the way up my arm, and to my back. I hadn't been in since right before I had Sullivan. Ouch.  Lugging around our huge baby is giving me great arm muscles but my body sure is taking a beating. I need to get in more often and really watch how I carry Sullivan around. He's just an adorable lug right now. 

I believe he also starting to teethe. As you will notice in most of these photos, the bibs have arrived. I get so sick and tired of changing his outfit every few hours because he drools all over himself. These bibs are super cute and stylish though and I love them. Now he can drool away in style. I have a feeling he will get teeth a lot earlier than Marin but we will see. Now we wait and I just pray that he isn't a biter.

The next few weeks are going to be filled with a lot of fun Christmas stuff with the kids and I am loving it. Experiencing this season through the eyes of a child is one of my very favorite things. This Friday, Marin's preschool gets to see Santa and his reindeer. Saturday evening, we are going to a Christmas light show at a local garden area. We are going to a light thing at a sculpture park next week. I plan on drinking lots of hot chocolate and bundling everyone up to see Santa and soak it all in. I also love that we get to do all of these things with our families. 

Week Twenty Two. 

Here's Marin at week twenty two. 

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.