Wednesday, July 31, 2019

2019 Week 29/52 Photo


After preschool on Friday, VBS had their closing party. Preschool could attend. We never have before. The kids loved the bounce houses. Then we had food. They actually liked it.  Ella asked why we didn't have a blanket but I didn't even know they had food since we never went. We made it work and we still had fun.  I was able to put Liam down on his ring sling and we sat in the grass. We had some food and played and then went home.

Photo Taken July 19, 2019

Monday, July 29, 2019

Fun Run 7.21.19


Ella and Miles both had a fun run.  This is Ella's third time and Miles's second for a race I organized. It was at the same location as last year but different than 2016.  But the older kids were separated out this year with running 2 loops.  Ella got upset and ended up not running her loop and ran with Miles's group.

Ella told me days in advance she was going to tantrum and not do it. She always gets overwhelmed when I'm in charge.

Miles woke up the morning up at 5 am coughing so hard he couldn't stop. He kept asking why and how to fix it. He didn't know how to cough of phlegm.   He ran his race but wishes he was not sick.

Both kids did the bonus 30 meter race at the end. Miles did that himself and didn't need to be held. Dave took Miles home after so he could rest while Ella stuck around with me while I had to clean up.

Ella's age (ages 5-7) was to run .4 miles but she didn't run that.  Then Miles's age (ages 1-4) ran .2 miles.
the junk i took to organize the race
The photobooth, snacks, and water were a hit after. Ella seemed to feel better once she was playing and getting balloons.



Saturday, July 27, 2019

Miles and Liam


Almost every morning Liam and Miles lie next to each other in bed to hang out. It gives me time to get dressed and they both like cuddling with each other. I don't take pictures of it every day.

One time while doing this, Miles tells me "I like my baby brother. Can we keep him?"
Sometimes they are just lying there and other times Miles is holding an iPad.
making sure he's covered
All photos here were just taken in July.  It started in June I believe.  I also don't take pictures everyday.

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Liam 3 Month Update

Stats:
  • Weight: 14 lb 1 oz - 93rd percentile 
  • Height: 27" - 99.5th percentile
  • Head Circumference: 41.4 cm - 80th percentile
  • Weight/Length Percentile: 10%
  • Diapers: Size 2
  • Clothing: 3 month or 6 month clothing 
  • Shoe Size: N/A
  • Teeth: 0 
Sleep
I guess sleep is slightly better now than when the month started.  He has had more 5 hour days recently. Then he wakes up and nurses and back to sleep for 2-3 hours 2 times.  He's so happy when he wakes. Sometimes it's 6:30 and sometimes 7:30  But almost no matter what he has his first nap at 8:30. Depending what is going on for the day, his routine varies.  I wake him up from naps a lot to make to to places on-time. I feel bad. Some days I wake him 4 times.

He is sometimes awake for 2 hours between naps and other times he wakes up and I nurse and he's back to sleep.

Right around 7, he wants to go to sleep and becomes miserable. He either has a good chunk of sleep once he falls asleep or he wakes up 4 times by midnight.

Eating
I feel like he nurses less often but each time he nurses, he is nursing longer.

He still spits up a lot but mostly minor amounts.
Sample Schedule:
Around 7:00, he likes to start nursing to go to sleep. He will wake up in the night 2-3 times and go back to sleep after nursing for just a few minutes.   It's usually around 7 when we are done nursing and he's not going back to sleep.  The only consistent nap seems to be that he wants to nap right at 8:30 which really messes up his nap or the drop off to preschool.  Throughout the day it's so scattered based on how long naps are and if we have to leave the house.  My app says I have 7 sleep entries a day and in June it was 9. (So that's how many times he wakes up and back to sleep counting at night and during the day. He naps better on days Dave is home and I can get more done but then I feel like Dave secretly judges why I can't get work done because he sure naps long.  School pickup, dinner, and bed are so rough with nap/sleep timing.

If we are home, I nurse every time before he sleeps. I nurse a lot when we wakes up but sometimes he's only in the crib 18 minutes so he's not getting a nursing session after that.   There are times he will nap, wake up, I nurse, and then he falls right back to sleep.  He sometimes is awake only 45 minutes before he wants to sleep and other times he's awake 3 hours.


Special Moments:
On June 16, Ella gave Liam 2.5 oz of milk. And he would have had more!
On June 17, Ella hurt him. She bent his neck backwards. It was a bad time getting to sleep. Lots of crying. I got him to sleep but then he woke up. I gave him Tylenol. He spit up a ton all over.It even came out his nose. Ella hurt him by diving on him. Miles was sort of moving and jumping and I said no jumping while I was on the ground holding Liam. And Ella seems to always do the thing we just yell at Miles for so then she dove over and pulled on Liam. She got in trouble and still did not understand how bad it was and how much she hurt him for a long time.
On June 19, I changed Miles on a changing table at gymnastics while Liam was in ring sling.
On June 25, every time Dave sings Liam frowns. Dave finished a song and Liam shed a tear. We never tried this again to see if he would frown every time on a different day.
On June 28, Liam spit up so much. This was the day that way more poop started each time he pooped.
On July 1, I did a dream feed since I slept in the chair so long. He definitely has cradle cap.
On July 2, he pooped on me (pants and shirt and ring sling) during interview for new school manager position. I wonder if the person we were interviewing noticed.
On July 8, 2019, Liam woke up and cried. When I got in there hew as on his stomach. We had his mattress tilted because it helped him not split it up but I got rid of that.
On July 10, I forgot to turn on baby monitor. Then I slept with laptop on me all night. Who knows if he woke. But I had a 7 hour break of not going to him. And I slept 5.5 straight hours!!! Liam got so excited when Miles woke up. And I asked Miles if he wanted to lie down next to Liam like he does everyday and Liam smiled so big. We had a Google hangout with my parents. Liam didn’t really understand looking at the screen but would look at me.
On July 13, Liam grabbed a bib and put it in his mouth. This is the first time I noticed him put something in his mouth.
On July 14, I did a dream feed after I slept 2.5 hours in chair. He didn’t want to latch. Finally did. Put in crib. He was awake and moving. But he put himself back to sleep?!

Development:
He grabs his hands now. He just started grabbing and holding onto toys on his play mat.   He smiles when people talk to him. So far he has let anyone but me hold him if he's not tired.  He smiles more and more. He can lean against pillows propped up in bed longer without falling over (but he still falls over eventually.) He can follow something with his eyes (me or the camera or a toy).  Sometimes it takes him a bit to actually find you or find something. He makes a lot of sounds and tries to talk a lot. He will be on his play mat and rotate to a different position. 


Other Tidbits:
Likes
He likes to lie beside Miles in the mornings.
He likes to sleep swaddled.
He likes his new toucan play mat.
He likes to just look at himself in the mirror on his play mat for awhile.
He likes to coo and smile.
He likes to take a bottle.
He likes it cold.

Dislikes
He hates when anyone holds him but me if he's tired.
He does not like it hot.

Fun Facts
Longest time sleeping: 7 hours 14 minutes 
Days with a sleep greater than 5 hours: 13
Days with a sleep greater than 6 hours: 5
(According to the internet sleeping through the night is considered sleeping 5-6 straight hours.)
Days with sleep greater than 7 hours: 2
Days with sleep greater than 8 hours: 0
Diapers used (from July 1-14): 10 per day 
Time spent nursing (from July 1-14): 3:03 per day  
Time spent sleeping (from July 1-14): 15 hours 5 minutes per day
Doctor Visits: 0
Illnesses: 0    

Favorite Toys
Toucan play mat

Favorite Songs
none yet
not Row Row Row your boat

Favorite Books
none yet

Other Tidbits
Liam developed cradle cap this month. He doesn't spit up nearly as often and not as many huge spit ups either. Tummy time still sucks and he barely lifts up his head. 
My recovery
I have about 40 lb to lose. I have gained 10 lbs the past 2 months.  I'm still going to PT for my back even though I feel like I don't need to. I don't do my exercises at home a lot. They take well over an hour to complete and I can't get to it all so then I just don't start. I also started pelvic floor PT.

I'm sleeping so horribly. I think I only slept a 4 hour stretch once and every sleep is shorter than that. The exhaustion is wearing me down. But then sometimes I try to nap and fail because of everything that needs to be done and my mind won't let me nap.

After sleeping for a few hours in the chair in the nursery, my ankles finally don't seem to get swollen.

I take forever to write this then forever to edit photos and make collages. So I'm just including less pictures or he'll be 4 months old before I post this.

Ella's Birthday Party (4.15.18)


Ella's birthday is in December. We like to do half birthday parties for her to avoid the Christmas rush. But she didn't know her preschool friends in June 2017 so missed a party. Then we were moving so we'd miss a party. So we awkwardly did a party when she was 4 and almost 1/3. So weird. Most people didn't know her actual birthday so it was like she was turning 4.  We decided to have it at a place that one of her friends had a party.

Ella had a lot of fun. We had it just days before moving so she didn't get to play with everything. 
















We invited the entire preschool class (18 kids) and had 12 in attendance. I had wrote the invitations and it was so much more annoying than an evite. I just didn't have any of their contact information so I put invites in their cubbies. 




Monday, July 22, 2019

2019 Week 27/52 Photo



While Miles napped, I took Ella to the park.  We were trying to go when Liam napped but he immediately woke up so we took him. He's in a stroller just behind the camera in all of these pictures. Ella was running to catch up to me and I'm pushing him in a stroller. Then when we both ran he was just chilling in his stroller by the camera.   I jogged a bit while Ella biked the loop. She also ran with me. Then we ran in front of the camera. we played in the playground too.  Once Miles woke up, Dave and Miles joined us too.

Photo Taken July 7, 2019
Miles was so excited to pick out an orange. We had oranges at home but he was so excited that I let him pick one.

Photo Taken July 3, 2019

I keep picking 2 photos!

Sunday, July 21, 2019

2019 Week 25/52 Photo

There was an incoming kinder play date.  One girl there was in Ella's preschool class. I pulled up a pic to show her dad. Another mom there said, "hey that's this park. Recreate the picture. "  So we did.

Top pictures September 2016.
Bottom Photos taken June 23, 2019.
I also had to share this.  I end up leaving preschool carrying almost everything. I keep forgetting on Friday to just take a huge bag in with me. Usually I baby wear Liam too but I didn't so that made it even more challenging.  I had Ella take my picture as evidence.

Photo Taken June 21, 2019

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Ella's 5.5 Birthday Party (6.22.19)


For the past year Ella talked about how she wanted to have her party at Pump It Up.  But then when I finally looked it up, it was too expensive and I didn't want to do it. So we did it at Twister Gymnastics.  It's a different gymnastics place than she goes to so I thought it would be nice for some variety.    The party packages are 2 hours long. 1 hour for playing on the equipment and 1 hour  in the party room for food and cake. Most places have it like this with an hour in a room. I always feel that is too long. I also feel 1 hour playing is not long enough but that's pretty standard.


Ella had so much fun with her friends. Someone held Liam for me for a bit so I was able to take pictures and just talk with Ella and Miles as they went through it all.  Miles loved it too.   I was a little crazy at the end and almost forgot the goodie bags.  I did spend time the night before the party making Ella's picture boards and then I totally forgot to get them out of my bag.




 I have about 80 group pictures and it's hard to even figure out which one is the best. Someone is always hidden or not looking.



Timmy was so excited to give Ella her gift. He got her a fancy tooth brush. 


Here are the photo boards I forgot to get out.