3 Months!

Adam is 3 months old already. He is doing well and growing great. He is probably close to 16 lbs and quite a chunk to carry. He hasn't made any progress on his sleeping just yet. He goes to bed around 9 and wakes to eat between 3 and 4. Then, depending on how he is feeling, will sleep until 7 or so. If he is not feeling well, this is very fussy sleep and we are up putting in his paci or holding him. His daytime sleep has gone downhill lately. He is sleeping 30 minutes 4 to 6 times a day. This makes it very hard to get anything done because when he is up, he is tired and cranky. We hope this is short lived!
Adam rolls from his belly to his back quite easily in his crib, but doesn't do it on the floor yet. He chose not to roll head first like most babies, but instead sticks his little butt in the air and throws it over. It is very funny to watch. When Adam is rested and his belly is feeling good (which means mom has been good) he is a very sweet baby. He is very attentive and serious, but will flash you his big grin if you talk to him. He is liking his toys more and will tolerate more time playing in his seats or his playmats.

Here is my hunk of little man on Saturday at our second Christmas celebration. (his little feet say Ho Ho :)

Christmas!

Well it was a busy day! We got up bright and early and held Hannah off until 7am to open presents. The big hits were the trampoline and Hannah's new ballet outfits. Layla loves her new baby and her Elmo. We headed out in the afternoon and had dinner with the family. Layla told us the evening was over around 6pm. She was done and slept until after 8am this morning! (in our family this is equivalent to noon)



Christmas Eve:We let Hannah jump on the tramp before Layla got up. She was so excited to open presents! Notice it is still dark out. We also let her do her stocking. When we woke Layla up at 7 we let her jump for a bit too...Later she got to jump by herself. Here she is resting - jumping is a lot of work.

We poured Adam into his Christmas jammies.
Later he got to wear his big boy clothes. He doesn't get out of his feetie jams much and now I remember why. Putting babies in clothes is kind of a pain. Everything rides up and the baby ends up uncomfortable. He did look cute though.

Here we all are at the end of the evening looking sleepy.
It was a good day.

Santa

We just got back from seeing Santa. It was fun :)

Next year is sure to be just as much fun - just a different child crying.

Hands

Adam has hands - two of them and they are delicious!

Layla wants to be a baby............

This is where I found Layla.........

Then she immediately got herself stuck here: (sorry for the sideways video - I'm dumb)

11 Weeks

Adam is 11 weeks already! He is such a sweet baby. He is about 14.5 lbs now and looking quite chunky. I will post a picture of his little hams (thighs) - they are so cute.

He is now sleeping from about 9 until 3:30am. Then until about 7 or so. It is very nice. He also naps well most days. He is not on a schedule, but he has a pretty good pattern of 1.5 hours up and then back to sleep. If we watch him closely, we can tell when he is getting tired and put him to sleep before he gets cranky.

Adam eats 6 times a day (including the 3:30am). He probably drinks about 6 oz each feeding now - hungry guy. We are working on keeping the bottle going with him as he has started to refuse it. My kids just love to nurse - they all get smart enough as some point to refuse the cold plastic nipple. He will work it out though - we are making sure he gets a bottle every day or every other day.
Most of the time Adam is pretty happy. He does still have belly issues after eating, but we are used to this. We are also used to the spit up so it is no longer a reason for stress. He takes his meds without screaming now so he is getting used to them which is good and we keep the mylanta handy for bad times. He does not tolerate me eating red sauce of any kind so that is out and also dairy. He does noticibly better with this and I can handle it, so we will keep nursing for a bit longer. I know it is best for him expecially in the winter time. I do love those moments while nursing when I get a big old milky grin :)

Adam went from having 6 or so poopy diapers a day to one massive poop-plosion every day or every other. This event calls for not only a diaper change, but an outfit change, changing table change, and even a mommy change sometimes. It's just gross. He happily smiles and goos at you though while you fumble and tell him how stinky he is.

Pics

I'll get some updates up soon. I am dealing with the whiniest clingiest 1 year old in the world right now. She was sick, is better now, but her attitude has taken a turn. She is cranky, demanding and very loud. It is making things very unpleasant. Hmmmm..........

Birthday Girl

My big girl turned 4 today. She was born at 11:56 so officially I was still pregnant with her 4 years ago. Just 6 hours of labor and a handful of pushes brought her to us. It was a great day.

Today we are celebrating by going to Chuck E.Cheese. This must be one of the grossest places on earth save some public restrooms. Hannah really likes it though. Oh the things we do for our kids.

Now that birthday celebration week is over, we can look forward to Christmas!

Adam

Adam had his 2 month appointment today. He weighed in at 14 lbs even and is 24.2 inches tall. That is 90% for height and weight. Chunky monkey.

He screamed through his shots and has been pretty fussy since (I think his legs hurt). He got a dose of tylenol and now has been sleeping for 2 hours so that is good.

Here he is just wasting away to practically nothing......... :)

Busy Weekend

Hannah's big birthday party at the Magic House was this weekend and it was awesome. She had so much fun. All the kids and parents seemed to enjoy the party. She got more presents than she knows what to do with. Doing the news at the museum.

Water Play

My birthday girl.

Adam turned 2 months this weekend also. He is doing well and has finally got his one long stretch of sleep going. He sleeps from 8 or 9 until 2 or 3. Yay! Mommy feel almost human again. After 2 or 3 his sleep is a little bit fussier requiring some mommy visits and sometimes requires a pacifier, but it will get better. His doctor visit is friday so we will know how big he has gotten. He was a very good baby all weekend.

This is such a sweet picture of Layla and her Papa.

Mark, Beth and Abbey came to visit us this weekend and it was so much fun. The girls had a great time.

Silly Cousins.

Hairdos are courtesy of aunt shelly. How cute are they?

8 Weeks

Adam is 8 weeks and doing well. He is getting quite chunky. I'll have to get a picture of him getting ready to tub. He is probably close to 14 lbs I would imagine. He eats still 8 times a day and naps in between about 3/4 of his feedings. His naps are anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending and he is on no ones schedule. We just live around Adam's schedule :) The good news is that most of his naps are carried out in his own bed. Sometimes we can even "put him down" for a nap - meaning he is awake and tired, we put him in bed, and he goes to sleep. Yay! This works maybe once a day, but we know eventually he will do it consistently. We do play a fair amount of "fetch my pacifier please" during the daytime naps. This is funny because if you try to give him one while awake, he gets pissed. He only wants it to sleep. Fine by us. Adam is sucking on his hands a lot so perhaps he will find a thumb or finger to suck instead? We can only hope. He does not get pacifiers at night so that is good. He usually crashes and if he does have one, we take it away before putting him in bed. Our roughest time with Adam is 5-8pm. He is still can get pretty fussy. He also is very uncomfortable from about 5-7am. We don't know why, but holding, walking, bouncing, etc does not help during this time. All in all we are doing ok. I do wish we would get a longer stretch of sleep at night going as both the girls were going much longer at this point. Hopefully it is just around the corner. At least that is what I keep telling myself :)

I love this picture! I wonder what he is thinking..........'Crazy mommy' I'm sure.

Screamfest 2008 - Shockley House

You missed it. It was quite an event. It began at around 4 yesterday when Hannah (up at 6am and no nap) started acting out. She spent most of the evening in time out - screaming and trying to make herself throw up. When she was out she was hurting or taking toys from Layla so that led to Layla crying most of the evening also. No one ate their dinner. No one had fun.

Then around 6:15 Adam joined his sisters with his screaming that was not cured by changing, feeding or trying to rock/sway/bounce.

6:45 - Layla goes to bed - one less voice.........

6:55 - Hannah falls asleep on couch and is carried to bed.......

Adam carries on until 8:15 when he finally passes out.........

This evening required an extra glass of wine and 10 minutes in the driveway for mom. I just needed to be away from the crying and didn't at all mind the frigid temperatures. Matt indulged in some vodka and football to help him relax.

Thank God Adam slept until 1:30 am. At least I got 4.5 hours of sleep out of the deal.

Our morning hasn't been much better. We aren't sure why, but we hope it gets better soon.

7 weeks and smiling

Adam can smile. He doesn't do it a lot just yet, but he has his moments and is trying to coo also. He can make "arrr" (his pirate noise) and "gooo" (the baby noise). He smiles biggest for Grandma (as all my kids have) and his sisters. Something about Grandma just makes kids smile. He also sleeps best on Grandma (as all the kids have). Grandmas are just special like that.

Adam is doing ok these days. He is fussy pants after eating and always in the evening, but he is growing and getting stronger so that is good. He spits up if he is jostled, put down too soon or if he eats too much, but otherwise he keeps his food in the belly. He does have some reflux/colic after he eats for a while though, and he burps a ton. The prevacid seems to be helping and he doesn't cry when he spits up anymore so that is nice.

Adam still gets up around 12 and 3 to eat so no movement there just yet. This is a rough schedule that all new moms hope gets better soon. He just won't go longer than 4 hours then 3 hours at night. We might have to help him do this at 2 months. I think he is close to 13 lbs so he need not be eating at 12 anymore!

Tonight is Adam's second night with Grandma! I am so excited I could cry. I love my baby, but I am having a nice dinner with my husband (thanks also to Shelly for watching the girls). I am going to have 2 glasses of wine and then - sleep! Yay me! Last time we did this I stayed up too late (election night) and was up worried after 4am, but now that I know he did fine - I should do better.

Only one more day

Ugh - I can't wait until Matt is back and this week is officially over.

Thanks to my helpers (Grandma and Aunt Shelly) we made it this far without mommy loosing it.

Sleep is still hard to come by although Adam took two good naps yesterday. Today he is struggling again and I have no idea why. Our nights are still stupid so nothing new to report there.

The girls are doing ok, but they are ready for their daddy to come home. They are at school today so that is nice (for them and me really - they love school). I got to take a nap so that was awesome.My serious little man. He is trying so hard to smile. Maybe next week. My silly girl.

Day three and four

Yesterday was ok since Grandma is back. Yay Grandma.

I got a short nap so that was nice. The girls are in school today so I also got a snooze in this morning. It was much needed since Adam is on a terrible rough stretch. It is just aweful. I have no idea what to do other than just wait it out. I am getting about 4 hours of sleep a night. It sucks.

I will post some pictures soon.

Three more days until Matt is back..........

Day two of seven

Today didn't go as well. The baby didn't sleep much and the girls also didn't sleep. Layla yelled and kept Hannah up, then she pooped. She ended up sleeping for an hour, but Adam was up, so no nap for me. Layla is also very clingy right now because of teeth and her cold so that is really hard on all.

Thanks to Candice and Carley for helping out this weekend. The did come play with the girls so that was nice. They are 13 and 15 so the chance to make some money was good for them.

I got 5 hours of sleep last night. On to day three...........

Day one of seven

Done. The baby slept a lot today. He was fussy whenever he was awake so maybe growing?

The girls were ok. They got up early and took early naps, but they hung in there.

I got 4 hours of sleep last night and a half hour nap. on to day two..........

Bye Bye Daddy

Matt is leaving tomorrow for 8 days. If you cannot see my tears, I assure you they are there. We have some people lined up to help out throughout the week so that will be good. With the girls having colds and the baby, I need all the help I can get.

Layla

Someone asked me how Layla was doing and I realized I had not updated in a while. Layla is doing awesome. We are going to trial dairy with her again this month and hope she passes this time. If not - we can't try again until she is 3. She still takes prevacid and we will try to wean her again sometime next year. I am not trying that until after the holidays since she is doing so great and I know she will get a lot of foods she hasn't had before this holiday season.

Layla is such a joy. She is a very happy toddler and very sweet and funny. She says over 100 words and even started stringing words together, so she is doing great. She climbs everything and is very coordinated and strong. She rarely fusses unless she is being bothered or she can't get something she wants. Even now, she has a terrible cold, but she is still in a pretty good mood. Her newest words are treat (thanks to Halloween candy) cookie and hot dog. She constantly suprises us with more things she knows and just says. When she wants to be held, she says "Got you". When she wants to go to bed, she says "night night". When she wants to eat she says "bite" or "high chair". She says "juice" is she is thirsty. She is just amazing. She is my momma's girl and we have a very special bond and I hope always will. She makes me smile even on my worst days.

Sleeping

So I am a bad mommy and started putting Adam on his belly to sleep for naps. He has done much better this way. He actually sleeps without the noisy breathing and constant refluxing. He does still have some reflux/colic that might wake him, but a paci and a few tush pats usually gets him back to sleep. I did laundry today and cleaned my bathroom (it was gross). I ate lunch at lunchtime and relaxed on the couch for a little bit. Bliss.

Fall Fun

The girls have enjoyed the beautiful fall weather these last few days. It is going to get cold this week so we know this was a special treat!

Adam weighed 10lbs 10oz at his appointment this morning. He is 22.5 inches long. Other than the reflux and airway issues, he is a healthy guy. He holds his head up pretty well for 1 month and accidentally rolls over (belly to back) every once in a while. Sometimes he is on the floor fussing and then - silence. Once he rolls he gets quiet probably because he is in shock :) Adam is a fairly awake baby so we have lots of time to hold or play. He doesn't spit up buckets like Layla, so that makes it possible to play with him a little more. He is still pretty fussy after eating and when he gets over tired, but he is pretty little. He is loosing his hair in front - poor little guy. This happened to Hannah and she looked like an old man for a few months until it grew back. Looks like Adam will have the same fate.