Will's first day of Preschool...

How is it possible that this day has already come...Will's 1st day of preschool. All summer I looked forward to the beginning of school, but as I drove to Colonial Baptist yesterday morning I felt a pit in my stomach. Uncertainty for myself but great anticipation for Will. Being that Will is an October birthday he will always be the oldest of his class. Something I think that will serve him well, particularly as a little boy. That extra year makes all the difference.

Yesterday morning, Will woke up bright and early and said he was ready to go to school! Nana came over to keep Pierce for me in the event that I needed to stay longer if he was having a hard time saying goodbye (something that I now know to be laughable). We took a few quick pictures and headed out. The whole ride there Will was talking up a storm about his teacher Mrs. Amanda and how he was going to share with his new friends interspersed with the constant hollers of wahooo!!! Squeals of complete delight and excited anticipation of this new chapter of his life.

I walked him in and he RAN into his classroom and never looked back. The pit in my stomach grew... it was at that moment that I realized that this is the beginning of our gradual separation. Recognizing my responsibility to teach my sweet baby boy to take risks and shoot him out into the world like an arrow. It is so easy for us as mom's to want to hold them so close and keep them with us forever but biblical parenthood requires of us to shoot them out like arrows to take on the world for the gospel...especially our boys. In the next 20 years I will have to constantly remind myself of this.

I was so nervous to hear how he did his first day. When I walked in I saw him helping his teacher clean up all the toys and it brought a smile to my face. As soon as he saw me his face lit up and he said "Hey Mamma!" as he ran to the door. His teacher, Mrs Amanda is so very kind. I watched as she hugged each child leaving and told them she loved them. It nearly brought a tear to my eye. I asked how Will did and she smiled big and said, "I think he's ready for college." "He also helped us clean up all the toys and was very kind and helpful. He is definitely ready to be here."

We grabbed his first craft and headed for home. The first the out of Will's mouth was, "Hey Mamma, that was really fun! Can I go back tomorrow?" No son you may not go back tomorrow, two days a week is all that I can handle! Here's to a great first year of preschool! We love you so much my sweet Will and can already see the great and mighty things the Lord has in store for your life!

Happy 5 Months Baby Pierce!

Pierce you continue to light up my life in every way! You are the happiest, most contented baby I have ever met (ok, I know I'm a biased Mamma but for real!)

You are growing like a weed! (out more than up it seems...but I think your fatness dear son is what keeps you easy breezy). I won't know your stats until your 6 month appointment but I feel confident you will be jumping percentiles yet again. This month we set out to get some pictures of you and your brother outdoors hence why going through 400+ pictures delayed getting your post up. What a fun time we had!

Eating:
Same schedule: you eat at 7:30/7:45, 11:30, 3:30, 7:30 and we continue to give you a dreamfeed at 10:30 to ensure a good night for all. The one night I skipped it you woke up at 5am hungry. We just started solids the week you turned 5 months and you LOVE the oatmeal as we skipped the rice cereal all together. You are one hungry boy. You never spit it out and you open your mouth wide like a little bird ready to be fed. The only real food we have tried is green beans that I made very thick for you and you loved them as well. You have clearly been ready for the main event for some time. I will probably keep you on only veggies for a while to hopefully establish a love for them. Right now we just give it to you twice a day but you don't freak out if we can't get to it.

Sleeping:

Same. 9:15-11:30 (morning nap), 1:15-3:30 (afternoon nap) and then a 45 min catnap in the evening. You go to bed right after we feed you at 7:30 pm and we don't hear a peep out of you until we come wake you up in the morning.

Milestones:
You are a little rolling machine! You grab your feet and roll right on over to your back, though oddly enough you no longer roll the other way. You hold that head up FOREVER and kick your arms and legs like you want to crawl. You are almost sitting but not quite yet. Your favorite thing in the whole wide world though is your johnny jumper. You LOVE to jump! You literally could jump all day as you squeal in delight. Will loved it too but not nearly as much as you. You also started holding your bottle, but I'm not ready for that just yet so I assist to feel needed.

 

I sound like a broken record, but all in all you are a joy and your Daddy and I are so thankful that Jesus gave us such an easy 2nd child. You fit like a glove!

Just a few more for good measure!

 

Love my chunk!

Breaking in the door jams! He is seriously the happiest baby! 

Happy 4 Months Pierce!

Our sweet Baby Pierce continues to be a joy! He seems to hit spurts of growing out and then up. He is teething like a mad man but aside from waking early from a nap he NEVER fusses. He is a dream baby. He had an ear infection, big brother swallowed a quarter to the tune of $12,000, we've been on vacation, and we just lost my sweet grandma and celebrated her life today. 

Sweet boy, you were not forgotten just somewhere in the mix, life happened.... but here it goes

Weight: 16 lbs, 2.5 oz (66%)

Height: 25 inches (42%)

Head: 42.9 cm (85%)

Sleeping: Still sleeping like a champ, 7:45pm- 7:45am then a morning nap from 9:30-11:30 an afternoon nap from 1:30-3:30 and a short catnap around 5:30.

Eating: At 4 months we moved you to a 4 hour schedule so you eat 7:45am, 11:30am, 3:30am, 7:30am and then we still do a 10:30pm dreamfeed because we are too chicken to give it up. I am holding off on solids because your weight is great and frankly the thought of doing bottles and solids right now with an almost 3 year old is not super appealing for mealtimes. I imagine we will jump on that between 5 and 6 months!

Milestones: Pierce continues to roll tummy to back but has yet to roll back to tummy which for now, I am fine with! He sits in the bumbo for long periods of time and LOVES the exersaucer. My favorite favorite thing though is his super happy belly laugh that he lets out when he sees momma. Pierce loves watching his big brother and generally just loves kids.  My guess is by 5 months he may be sitting on his own but definitely by 6 months. He pulls up to stand and continue to babble up a storm. Pierce is so contented that I often say, if all my babies were like this I could have 10 kids! (But no worries, we will NOT be having 10 kids).  The only pitiful thing lately has been how badly he has been teething. Three fingers are in his mouth at all times!
 

 

Happy 3 months baby Pierce!

This has been the fastest 3 months of my life. In my wildest dreams I never thought I would feel this way about infancy, but Pierce makes me feel ready for more kiddos. I feel like we are in such a great groove that he seems like a dream baby! He is the chunk I always wanted!

Weight: I estimate a little over 14 pounds (Will was just over 13 at 3mths)

We don't go back to pediatrician until 4 months so we will know more then!

Eating: My sweet little chubby baby is still eating every 3 hours and taking 5 oz each feed. (7:30, 10:30, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 and then a dreamfeed at 10:30) No more middle of the night!!!

Sleeping: Praise Jesus God almighty I actually have a baby who is sleeping from 8:00pm-7:45am. It is unbelievable! I am over the moon. I will say though, it didn't happen by chance. He had consistently been going til 5am for a while, but couldn't seem to get past that. Two weeks ago I started going in once to check on him, then setting an alarm on my phone for 30 minutes and turning off monitor. My heart can't handle him screaming for 30 minutes in the middle of the night (even though I know that teaching him to soothe is the most loving thing I can do for him.) It took a couple tough love nights of Crying for 30-45 minutes total and now he wakes up babbling, happy in the mornings... completely content.

Swaddle: We did have a bit of a challenge two weeks ago when he started busting out of his straight jacket (velcro swaddle) because he wanted his hands in his mouth. Problem was, he could not put himself back to sleep. I am pretty sure he is going to be a thumb sucker, but for now he is a full fist sucker. He still can't handle the full freedom of being out of the swaddle so I just swaddle one arm and let him get to the other hand. It took a few additional night/naps of crying but now he does great!

Likes: He LOVES to interact with people. He smiles constantly. He talks (babbles) all day long. If I am in the room he has to look at me which my Daddy says he loves. He loves Will and Will has come to love Pierce very much! We has also started to belly laugh which makes the rest of us laugh as well. We recently started the Bumbo and he loves it. His favorite position though is laying on his back where he can kick his arms and legs.

Dislikes: He really is not a fussy baby so at this point dislikes are hard. The only thing he doesn't love is being on his tummy. For a while he had gotton too fat to roll but as of yesterday he has started rolling himself back to his back again to avoid being on his tummy (little rascal.) I have tried to be more conscious of switching his positions because he was starting to get a flat spot on the back of his head. Hopefully that will resolve.

One sweet tid bit: As most of our friends and family know, Will wasn't exactly over the moon about getting a baby brother. In fact, when we would talk about it, my non-aggressive 2 year old would say " Not, Pierce! I will kick him in the face!" which I of course was horrified by. Well... we've come a long way. Several weeks ago I went to drop Pierce off at the YMCA nursery so I could take Will swimming at the pool and Will flipped out hysterically crying, "No, Momma! Don't let that lady take Pierce! Momma, don't leave him, don't leave him." It nearly broke my heart! He is already protective of his baby brother and gets very upset whenever we drop him off. He told me he wanted him to come swimming and the minute I told him we had to leave the pool to go get Pierce he came running and was so excited! He said, "Momma, that lady gave me Pierce back! I am so happy." Best buddies in the making!

 

 Can't wait to see what the next month holds! Baby Pierce, you have made our family complete!

Sleeping...

Well...this is a post I have eagerly anticipated...and prayed for! It is no surprise to anyone that Will was NOT the world's best sleeper! He didn't sleep through the night consistently til 6 months and that was after a very long CIO (cry it out) weekend at 4 months.

Pierce out of the gate seemed to be a better sleeper than Will, but still seems to have a fast metabolism and wanted to eat every four hours at night. After talking with my good friend Ashlee whose baby starting sleeping through the night at 6wks I immediately began picking her brain. Miss Charlotte (baby #3) was born two days after Pierce and Ashlee assured me she had no idea how/why her girls slept through so early but the more she talked the more I realize that she actually did have a method. Ashlee had been telling me that when Charlotte would wake she would first put the paci in and try to hold her off. Miraculously, Charlotte would sleep several more hours. It made perfect sense to me as you truly do have to train their tummies that nighttime is NOT the time to eat. I also had joined a facebook group called "I love babywise" which is a support group for Mom's who subscribe to Parent Directed Feeding. They had a document with tips for sleeping through the night and the suggestions seemed to loosely coincide with my conversation with Ashlee. Here is an excerpt of their suggestions:

2) In the early morning (5-6ish), feed until your baby goes back to sleep and then put him down. The MON ; and early morning feeds are the times you don't have to worry about feeding baby to sleep. Now I'm not saying that if baby is fast asleep as soon as he latches on, you put him down...you know what I mean. With mine, I'd work a little harder at the first MON feed (anywhere from 1-3am usually), but at the early morning feed, I just go 5-10 min on one side. This way a) you are back in bed sooner and b) baby will take a full feeding at the first official feeding of the day. 

3) Some time between 8-12 weeks, use controlled crying to push the MON feeding back. In my experience, my babies would go from two night wakings to one at about 8 weeks. It would just suddenly happen. From there, I'd begin to work on that last MON feeding. I'll try to describe the;process....If, for example, my baby had demonstrated that he could routinely make it from 10:30 (DreamFeed)- 3:00, I would set 3:00 as the minimum time. So if he woke at 2:00, I'd allow 15 minutes of crying. To my surprise, what often happened was that he'd cry 10 min and then fall back asleep until 3:30 or whatever. When he woke again, I'd get him. After a few nights, I'd reset the "minimum" time to 3:30. This would go on for about 2 weeks, at which point I'd have the MON feeding pushed back to 5- something. At that point, I dropped it. With my babies, it required two nights of off & on crying. It was not as bad as I feared, and they never looked back after that.

4) Limit the amount of milk offered at the MON feedings. This is the method utilized by the author of the BW blog (babywisemom.blogpsot.com). It is used in place of the CIO method outlined above. I've never tried it, but here's how it works...You offer progressively less milk at each MON feeding over the course of a few weeks. If you are breastfeeding, you'd start by limiting the time at the 2nd breast. Then work your way down to just doing one side. After that, limit time on the first side. This gets baby used to taking in less at night and more in the daytime.

I should say that I have yet to do the crying it out, not because I am oppose to it, but because I would fully wake up if I listened to him scream for 15 minutes. What I have done is hold him off at the 30 minute intervals with the paci (because there is no paci in the world that would put Pierce back to sleep for several hours). This past weekend was rough holding him off from 4 am to 5am but yay! It has worked. Pierce did his first night of sleeping til 5:30am (7 hours straight) without a peep. I am hopeful that by the end of the week he will be fully sleeping til 7:30am! Yay!!! I simply cannot even believe it. What I love about this advice is that it doesn't presume that baby will automatically know how to sttn but needs to learn. I wish so badly I had known this for Will! But that's the story of first time parents! Hope this is helpful for those in the trenches right now! I am definitely a Momma who needs 8 hours of sleep! 

Pierce: 2 Months Old!

It amazes me at this point how much changes in 4 short weeks! Pierce has plumped up, is sleeping so much better and his reflux is finally under control!

We had his 2 month check up yesterday and he is doing great!

Weight: 11 lbs, 13.5 oz (37th percentile)

Height: 23 in. (48th percentile....up from 16% at his last appointment which must have been a fluke because it didn't fit with his other numbers!)

Head: 39.5 (61st percentile)

Eating: Pierce still eats 4 oz every 3 hours during the day and we continue to follow the Eat, Wake, Sleep pattern of Parent Directed Feeding (PDF). I have truly found that for my boys, it has made them less fussy and more predictable! I feed him at 7:30am, 10:30am, 1:15 pm, 4:30, 7:30 then down for bed. Just as we did for Will, I do a Dreamfeed at 10:30pm while he is sleeping to tied him over longer at night. He has continued to stretch at night and has been doing a 6 hour stretch in the middle of the night, so we are down to one middle of the night feed around 4:30am.

Sleeping: We have made major strides here. For a good part of this past month we struggled and struggled with the 45 minute naps where Pierce was unable to resettle and go back to sleep. Lots and lots of crying and generally overtired during the day as a result. Finally, I decided that I needed to give him a chance to resettle on his own before intervening with a paci or moving him to the swing. I set the timer for 10 minutes for both going down for a nap as well as if he wakes early before I go in.... and what do you know, the child goes back to sleep! YAY!!! This has made all the difference in the world to my day. He now is awake for about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes and then naps the remainder of the 3 hour cycle (so 1hr and 45 min-2 hours of a nap each time.) At night he goes to bed at 8pm and I usually don't hear anything out of him until 4:30 with the 10:30 dreamfeed in the middle. I am super hopeful that in the next few weeks he will be sleeping a full night til 7am or 7:30am. Our ped said they really need to be 12 pounds to sustain their tummies a full night... so we shall see!

Milestones: As I mentioned in an earlier post, Pierce has been rolling over since 7 weeks and rarely allows himself to spend much time on his belly before making his way to his back. He is tracking faces and toys like a champ (even though I was a bit worried about not tracking toys...more on that in a latter post). He has started "talking" baby talk and cooing and laughing. He LOVES to watch Will and I must say, his favorite face to see at the moment is Mama. He is constantly looking for me which melts my heart. I call Pierce my squishy baby because he is much fatter than Will ever was. I always said that I wanted to have "chunks" and he is turning out to be just that...and I LOVE it! Pierce truly is the happiest baby! We love you so much baby boy!

We are all doing GREAT and I absolutely LOVE being the Momma of boys! Sure the clothes aren't as cute but there is just something about a Momma and her sons that can't fully be described in words. I do hope we have the chance to parent a daughter as well one day, but for now I'll take my house of 5 boys (counting Charlie and Hank of course! :) )

I could just eat him up! This face gets kisses ALL DAY LONG!