7 months

This month crept up on me.  Every month I've been making notes on my phone for these monthly posts, this month I never even started one. Oops!

We had to convince you to smile for your pictures today.

• You weigh around 17lbs
• I measured you at 26".  So you've grown since your 6 month checkup
• We're still breastfeeding.  I keep going back and forth on when to stop but it's all for selfish reasons so I'm going to keep going as long as I can.  I'm just ready to not have to share my body anymore.  I do love breastfeeding though. ( I do not love however getting up at 4:30 to pump so you can have a bottle at work, especially now that you're sleeping through the night)
• You nurse 3-4 times a day for 20-25 minutes, you still get one bottle most days and it's around 6 ounces.
• You're eating solids once a day and you're loving it.  This month we've added bananas, avocado and applesauce.  (You've also had broccoli casserole and cauliflower with ranch, compliments of your Grandaddy)  You eat about 2 ounces of food and 2 ounces of cereal every night.

• Sleep is 100 times better! Yay!
• We had to let you cry it out again to retrain yourself to sleep and it's worked fantastically!  The first time you cried for over 2 hours.  It was horrible.  The next night was over an hour, now maybe a minute and then you're out.  
• We also {finally} broke you of the swaddle.  It makes me a nervous wreck.  You roll all over your crib.  We're still putting you in a sleepsack but not swaddled.
• You're sleeping 11 hours at night. You usually go down around 7:30 and you sleep till 6:30-7:00 if I'm lucky.
• Naps haven't been great.  Sometimes you nap great at work, but most days you don't.  You need 2 1.5-2 hour naps but we rarely get that unless we're at home all day.

• You're still wearing mostly 6 month clothes, although you're still wearing some 3 month things and some 9 month.
• Size 2 diaper still you go through 5 or 6 a day.
• Your hair is lightening up a lot.  It's thinning out more too.  Also, for the first time since you were a tiny newborn it's laying down when we brush it after your bath.
• I'm thinking your eyes are going to change too.  I want them to be blue like your daddy but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

• This month you went to your great grandmothers house in Brookside for the first time.  (She passed away 9 years ago but your great uncle still lives there)
• You celebrated your first July 4th.
• You went to the lake for the second time.
• You went swimming for the first time.
• You've been doing good at church.  We've only had to go to the cry room a couple of times.  

• You've really started to play with toys now.  You've had a bunch of toys in your pack & play for a while but this month you started getting them yourself to play.
• You've also started grabbing Ally if she gets to close to you.  She's so good though and only squeals if you're hurting her.
• Still not sitting on your own.  You're getting better though.
• You still love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, you've also started watching Baby Einstein some too.
• You love your tongue.  You stick it out constantly, You're amazed by it. 
• I keep thinking you're getting teeth but none have showed up yet.  

You, little prince, are on the downhill to your first birthday.  The days are long but the years are short.  This month has been more relaxing than months past.  Now that you're sleeping and eating on a pretty good schedule we have more freedom to do things.  I can predict what time you'll wake up in the mornings and when you'll need to be in the bed.  I love being your mom.  I really do.  I love watching you discover new things.  You are really starting to watch us and notice what we're doing and it fascinates you.  I hope that we are always good examples for you.  

Happy 7 months baby, we love you!

"A Future King has been born"

So for the last week or so I've been a bit obsessed with the royal baby watch.  I was so excited when I found out Kate was pregnant that we were going to have babies in the same year, alas Barrett decided he didn't want to share his birth year with the prince.  Anyway, I've been glued to the TV {Internet} since I heard she'd gone into labor.  I'll never forget where I was while I watched the live footage of the royal birth announcement being placed on the golden easel just inside the palace gates. (I was nursing my own prince.)  Although in this day and age Twitter broke the news to me.  I've been so jealous of Kate's maternity style.  She always looks so effortlessly perfect.  I'd been stalking twitter today to catch the first glimpse of the new family.  I think my obsession has stemmed from the fact that just 7 months ago I was sitting in a hospital room patiently awaiting the birth of my first child.  No he wasn't a future king, but he was {and still is} our little prince.  I remember the emotion and excitement I felt.  I mean there were a few little differences.  As far as I know the paparazzi weren't camped out for weeks.  I didn't get to deliver in the posh Lindo Wing.  And I sure as hell didn't wear heels home. I'm taking notes for next time. ;)  

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I thought they were absolutely precious on the steps of the hospital.  They looked like any other new parents.  Full of excitement.  I loved that she said becoming a mother was such an emotional experience.  That was something I was not prepared for, I thought I was but I wasn't.  I want to tell her that it's still an emotional experience.  Every time I look at Barrett I'm overcome with emotion.  It's an amazing feeling.

And I loved that the new Daddy drove them home...to the palace.  I mean they really are just like us! Ha!

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How about this guy that basically crashed the royal baby announcement.

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Such a sweet couple.  I hope they get to experience all the joys of parenthood. 

I can't help but think back to Barrett's birthday.  It was such a special time for me and my family.  I can't imagine giving birth to the future king  {I guess I can't really imagine being married to a future king either}.  It's really something to see the world gather to celebrate something so special.  I feel like so much of the news lately is negative and hard to watch.  I enjoyed seeing something happy for once.

Weekend Review

We had a very nice relaxing weekend.  We didn't really have any plans and just went with the flow and it was just what I needed to gear up for the last few weekends of summer.  It won't be long till football season kicks off and we'll be going all fall.

Barrett is proud to be an American every day!  He's also really into his feet these days. (This was right before I turned my back for 0.5 seconds and he toppled over an hit his face on the wipes box. #momfail

Friday night Lorie, Kristen and I went to an early dinner so I could get back home to feed Barrett and get him in bed.  We are babysitting Bella while her family is on vacation and Kristen brought Marni so we had a little poodle play date.  I had not seen Marni in a few months, she has grown so much and she and Ally look so much alike.

Bella was relaxing Saturday morning.

I thought this was a cute shot of the dogs napping together.

My big handsome {almost} 7 month old. Seriously, time slow down.
We enjoyed the day while Patrick was at work and then Saturday evening John and Hope came by to visit after their engagement pictures!  We enjoyed visiting with them.

Church wore this guy out.  My mom was holding him and he was looking at my dad while dad was talking to him and his eyes just closed and he was asleep!

Sunday afternoon Patrick took Barrett to his parent's house to visit while I took a nap.  It was a wonderful afternoon! I love this outfit I borrowed for Barrett. I thought he looked like a little royal baby!   Which by the way I am obsessed with!   Hope y'all had a great weekend.  Looking forward to the weekend and my birthday Saturday! 

Family Photos

A few weeks ago we had some family photos made.  I was so excited to finally have some decent photos of all 3 of us.  I have been so sad that we didn't have any newborn photos done other than the ones in the hospital.  I wish I had more pictures of me with my tiny newborn baby.  I booked a mini session with Lacey Barnwell from LB Studios.  I love her work and was so excited to work with her.  I think she did a great job capturing our little family.

Here are a few photos from the session.



I love Barrett's eyebrow in this one.

I love them all so much!  

Hopefully it won't be another 6 months before I get a decent family photo!

Wordless Wednesday

Dog weekend at the Lake

We had a nice weekend at the lake with my little brother, his soon to be wife and 5 dogs.  I love taking our two labs to the lake because they love it. It's so hard when we have a full house of people to add 2 hundred pound dogs, so we planned a low key weekend just the 5 of us and our dogs.  We were loaded down in my pilot.  We had to put the dogs in the very back, we put Barrett in and the piled stuff around him.  It was a lot of work but so worth it.

 

This was Barrett's second trip to the lake but first time to swim and he looked adorable!

In our hats ready for the water.

 

He was not to excited about the water.  I think he might have enjoyed more if I'd spent more than $3 on him a float.  It was crappy and I was afraid he was going to fall out it.

Here we are dodging the dogs chasing tennis balls.  They played fetch forever.  They had a ball.

My sweet (old) girl.  This is her spot on the deck.  It's completely in the way but she likes to keep an eye on everything.

This girl didn't really know what to think with her big brother and sister there.  She did manage to roll around in the dirt and get extra dirty!

I think this boy had the most fun out of all of us.

My boys.

He fell asleep waiting on dinner.

I love this picture of Patrick and Barrett snuggling one morning.  So sweet!

 

I thought it would be fun to get a family picture of the three of us and the three dogs.  Yes, i'm crazy.  This was the best one!

Packed up and headed home.    It was a nice relaxing weekend.  We enjoyed getting spend time with John and Hope.  John has grown up so much in the last few years and I love hearing him talk about life.  He's embarking on the start to the rest of his life. Graduating college, starting his career and getting married.   I remember the excitement I felt when I was in that stage of life and I love seeing it again through his eyes. I'm so proud of him. 

The one about Breastfeeding.

{Warning: Long Boring Post}

So, I've been wanting to write this post for a few months now just for my own memory and record. 

I knew I wanted to try to breastfeed before I even got pregnant.  I knew that it was great for both me and my baby.  I'm cheap and I didn't want to have to buy formula if I could avoid it (and I hate the way it smells).  I really just wanted the overall experience of providing for my child.  The thought of being all he needed for a few months both amazed me and terrified me. 

I didn't have an expectations really.  Everything I'd read made me think that it wasn't really going to be easy and that I was probably going to have to work at it.  If I made it one week fine, one month great, anything more was just icing on the cake.  It started kinda rough in the hospital.  Barrett wasn't very interested in nursing.  I tried not to stress about it.  The nurses were so helpful.  We would have to take all of his clothes off and Patrick would basically have to tickle him the entire time he was nursing to keep him awake.  He would go 3 hours between feedings which was nice.   I hate to say this but I almost dreaded every time it was time to feed him those first couple of days.  It was just such a process.  I didn't really stress because although he was losing weight he was still in the healthy range.  The third day his blood sugar kept dropping so they suggested we give him formula to get his blood sugar up.  I think we were still letting him latch for some time then giving him the bottle, I really can't remember though.  I still didn't stress, we were just going with the flow and doing what was best for our baby.  It was going pretty good.  I was able to relax a bit because I knew Barrett was getting food. 

We went home on the bili-light and the nurse suggested we keep with the formula while he was on the light just so we were sure he was getting enough to flush the bilirubin out. (or something like that) The Dr suggested I just pump until further notice.  This is where I started to think that maybe breastfeeding wasn't going to work for us.  I was so afraid he wasn't going to want to nurse after having a bottle for basically the first week of his life.  He finally got off the light and we started trying to nurse him again.  He was a little resistant at first but after a few minutes he realized he was getting milk and he was perfectly fine.  Turns out he didn't really care where it came from as long as he got it.  Barrett was/is a great eater.  At night he would wake every 3.5-4 hours eat and go right back to sleep.  From then on out it's been fairly easy for us.  I was fortunate enough that I can usually skip a feeding without needing to pump.  I joke that I have large containers. 

I wasn't in love with breastfeeding at first.  It was so overwhelming being the only one to really feed him.  Luckily while we were giving him formula I was able to pump and store so Patrick could feed him when I needed him to but I hated using the stored milk.  I was basically hoarding it.  

It seemed like no time and we were at the 2 month mark.  I felt like I had really accomplished something.  I think it was around that time that I really started to enjoy the bonding time.  One time particularly was the day we had him baptized.  He had done wonderfully all day.  He'd been passed around from person to person.  He wasn't really fussy at all.  When it was time for him to eat I got him and I was going to give him a bottle but I felt like he just needed to nurse.  It was like he missed me and needed me for comfort.  It was the reassurance I needed that I was doing something right. 

Here we are 6 months later and we're still going strong.  I still don't have any goals or expectations.  I'm just happy I've been able to do it this long.  I keep thinking I'm going to have to supplement one bottle of formula during the day while I'm at work because it's really difficult to nurse him there and I don't pump enough for two bottles.  (I've been nursing him right before I leave, give him one bottle and nurse him right when we get home.  I'm only working 5-6 hours a day.)  If I have to give him formula, I will.  I'm just so thankful to have made it this far. 

 

One funny thing I want to always remember...Harper always kept me company while I was nursing.  Usually it was just because she wanted to hold him and was patiently waiting.  One Sunday she'd been keeping me company then went in the kitchen to tell everyone that "He eats from your bra!" 

 

So here's my two cents about my experience with breastfeeding.  It has been one of the most special parts of being a mommy.  I'm so glad I didn't give up when it was tough those first few weeks.  The hardest part has been dressing for feeding the baby.  You have to wear separates.  I used to wear a lot of dresses but they just don't work while breastfeeding.  I also realize breastfeeding isn't for everyone.  If it was causing me so much stress that I was missing out on my sweet new baby, I wouldn't do it.  I encourage every new mom to give it a try though, you might be surprised by how much you enjoy it.  I know I was, eventually.

 

Barrett's First 4th of July

We usually go to the lake for the 4th but we didn't this year.  I'm kinda glad we didn't since the weather turned out to be less than favorable.  When we were younger we always went to my Mimi's house in Brookside.  The men grilled all day and the women made the sides.  My Mimi died 9 years ago, my uncle still lives in her house so we all headed down there for some ribs and hot dogs (and a bunch of other stuff my favorite being the watermelon and brownies).  This was Barrett's first trip to Brookside (that's what we always refer to my Mimi's house as.  Ex:  "If you're not doing anything tomorrow I'll be in Brookside if you want to come visit.")  I didn't really think about it being his first trip until we had already left or I would have made a bigger deal and taken more pictures.  My Mimi has a swing on the porch (which is really a sun room).  I can remember sitting with her out on that swing so many times.  We'd sit out there and watch the cars and listen for trains.  It was so surreal to sit out on that swing with my son.  So many kids have enjoyed that space and I was so special to share it with my own child. 

Uncle Donald gave Barrett some BBQ sauce.

He didn't hate it.

Love this picture!

After we left Brookside we met Patrick at my parents house.  My dad thankfully accepted our last minute request to watch Barrett so we could meet some of Patrick's friends from work to hear a band.  We had a fun time.  I got to meet a couple the guys that I'd heard so much about.  When I picked Barrett up they were sitting on the deck listening to the frogs and Barrett was mesmerized by the croaking.  It was funny to watch!

Here are some pictures of Barrett's red, white and blue outfits

Sweet smocked firecrackers for church on Sunday.

I made him this cute chevron flag shirt.

He's learned to blow bubbles in the last couple of weeks and he thinks it is hilarious.

Happy boy covered in spit.

I love this outfit.  It's one of my favorites! 

Love this one of my cousin Ryan and Barrett.  They were so happy to have their picture made!

Today we had Barrett's 6 month checkup.  He's growing great and had to get 4 shots.  Patrick had to work so I went by myself.  I hate having hold him down for the shots and it just gets worse the older he gets.

  

Happy 4th of July

From this little firecracker! Hope you enjoy the day and stay safe (and dry if you're in my neck of the woods)!