The one with the three month update!

Well, I'm terrible at updating.  Obviously I did not get the seven week update in time ... and now my baby boy is three months old!

What to say about three month old Myles?
He is a pretty big guy.  I had him to the doctor yesterday and he weighs 13bs7oz.  For someone who doesn't eat, that's pretty good!  ;)  He is happy and healthy and that's all that matters.

His eating and sleeping is still nutty.  He doesn't have a whole lot of interest in eating.  He is still only drinking maybe 4oz at a time, every 3-5 hours.  Once in a while, he'll surprise me and eat 5-6oz but that doesn't always happen.  Thankfully, though, he is still growing just fine and has not fallen off his growth curve so I guess he's just doing okay with a small amount of milk.
He goes to bed around 7pm and usually sleeps until around midnight ... and then it varies from there.  Sometimes he will be up again at 3, sometimes he will sleep until 5.  Sometimes he'll go right back to sleep after he wakes and eats, sometimes he just wants to party.  It is a struggle, for sure.  I like my sleep and he, apparently, does not.  I am hoping that as he gets older, he will start to sleep better.  Please, Myles?



He is a very happy and smiley little guy.  All you have to do is look at him and he grins.  He is so sweet!  He loves getting undressed and every time I start taking off his clothes, he starts giggling.  I love it.  He has the most adorable little baby voice and I love when we have conversations and he just coos.  So so cute.
He enjoys hanging out on his play mat, smacking the dangling toys around.  He is starting to reach for items more and will occasionally grasp toys.  This morning, he was playing with a toy and brought it to his mouth!  Exciting times!

He loathes being on his tummy and just sort of sky-dive poses and screams when I try to put him on his tummy.  I'm not too concerned, though.  He can hold his head steady when I'm holding him upright.  He will like being on his tummy more when he is able to roll there by himself.  He will sit in the Bumbo sometimes but prefers to sit on someone's lap and look around.

He still adores his big sister and will stare at her, smile and laugh, and talk to her.  They are adorable together  :)

That's all for now!  Let's be realistic and hope for the next update before he is six months old  :)

The one with the five week update

Big five week old boy today!  What is new with five week old Myles?

He seems to be (finally) settling into some natural rhythms this week.  Over the last week, I've discovered that he enjoys being swaddled so I have been wrapping him up to sleep and it's made quite a difference.  He has been going to bed between 8:30-9:00 at night after getting a bath and a nice big bottle.  He will sleep until anywhere between 2am-4am to eat, will go back to sleep, and wake up around 7ish.  His naps are still iffy, but he does sleep relatively well during the day.  Today he slept for three hours in the pack n' play (we are at Grammie and Grampie's house) and he's conked out again in the swing.

He has been eating better as well.  I decided a few days ago that we were finished with breastfeeding and he is 100% on bottles now.  I was tired of fighting with him to stay latched, it was uncomfortable, and exhausting.  Had he been my only child, perhaps we would have continued longer but I have another child to take care of as well and I couldn't spend hours at a time nursing him, only to have him start rooting 20 minutes later.  It just wasn't working for our family anymore and I am okay with that!  He is doing great on formula and doesn't seem bothered in the slightest.  He is eating about 6-7 times in 24 hours.  Most times he will drink 4oz but sometimes he will want 5oz or even 6oz.  I always make a 6oz bottle for the last one before bed, but he usually only drinks about half of it.

He is starting to get a lot more interactive this week.  He has been super smiley all week, giving the little smirks and the big gummy smiles.  He focuses on us a lot more and will "talk" to us, moving his mouth to imitate us and makes a lot more noises besides his usual grunts and groans.

He isn't too bothered by tummy time, usually (although - I'll be honest - I don't do it much because it's not a very natural position for babies to be in ... I prefer carrying him upright or holding him to strengthen his neck muscles) but today he got so angry about being on his tummy, he actually ROLLED from belly to back!  I couldn't believe it.  He was determined, haha!  Normally, though, he just lays there and puts his head down, and watches the world.

He is definitely getting bigger and bigger every day.  I'm not sure exactly what he weighs now, but I weighed myself and then myself + him this morning and the difference was 10.6 on the scale. So 10lbs now?  He is wearing 3 month clothing (still a little big on him, but 0-3 is too tight).  His hair is still a dark blonde(ish) colour and his eyes are still blue!  I wonder if they will change...

The one with the two week update

Well, two and a half weeks.  We run a little late here these days.

Myles turned two weeks old on Wednesday.  I remember the first two weeks dragging when Charlotte was a baby, but these last two weeks have gone by pretty quickly!

So far, Myles is doing really well.  He is back up to his birth weight of 8lbs 7oz and we go back to the doctor on Friday to weigh him again for his three week check up.  He is already starting to outgrow his newborn clothing and he's quite round with a double chin so I think he's doing pretty good  ;)  He is still nursing relatively well.   He has a bottle here and there, sometimes formula, sometimes pumped milk.  He takes about 45 minutes to an hour to eat sometimes and usually eats about every three hours during the day and goes longer stretches at nighttime.  He has never had his days and nights mixed up, which is very helpful.  Last night I tried putting him in his cradle at nighttime - he had been sleeping on my pillow all night - and he did pretty good.  He slept soundly from about 10pm until around 3am but then was up almost hourly until about 6am.  He didn't eat very much at 3am so I think that was the issue.  If he had had a nice big feed, he probably would have gone back to sleep right until morning.  Regardless, I'm happy that he seems to have taken well to the cradle!  Hopefully that continues because I slept a lot better as well.

He is starting to focus on people and things.  He really likes to stare up at the pictures hanging in the living room - I think he likes the contrast between between the dark frames and the light walls.  I like sitting with him on my knees to chat and he will look at me.  He will lay on his play mat and look around but doesn't like to be on the floor for too long.  Charlotte really likes when he is on the floor, though, so she can talk to him and tell him all about the world.

He is a pretty chill little guy, but will complain quite loudly when he needs something.  He absolutely does not like to be wet or dirty (whereas Charlotte never really seemed to care if she needed a new diaper), if he's tired he will yell about it, and when he's hungry he'll protest (and then take forever to latch, the goose) but as long as everything is okay in his world, he's happy  :)

That's it for now!

The one with the LOOOOONG overdue update!

I know, I know! I swear I didn't intend for Charlotte to turn one and then the blog suddenly stops. Things have just been busy - nothing special, really, but just life.

We had a wonderful Christmas and even though I only had two days off work (four days total since Christmas was on a weekend) we still managed to see both of our families and have our own Christmas time. It was busy and a bit stressful but we made it work. Charlotte was very excited about Christmas morning. She didn't really know what was going on but she danced around and ate cinnamon buns in the living room and got new toys, so she was happy. She was absolutely enamored with snowmen and Christmas trees and I'm a bit sad that the season is over. Granted, she was the same way with pumpkins around Hallowe'en so I'm sure she'll find something new to obsess over ;)
























She turned 15 months yesterday and continues to amaze me. She still doesn't talk much but she understands so much and picks things up so quickly that it's almost scary. She points a lot and she'll point to something if you ask her (i.e. "Charlotte, where's your humidifier?"). She currently signs "more", "all done", "sing", "milk", "I love you", and "toilet". She knows what a horse, cow, sheep, cat, dog, duck, lion, and Santa say. When she asks to sing, she will choose songs herself (for example, she'll smack her lips together if she wants "Pop Goes The Weasel" or will say "E-I-O" if she wants "Old MacDonald"). She recognizes letters (has a fondness for "O" and will walk around, carrying her "O" magnets going "Ooooo") and can recognize some colours. Her comprehension is outstanding and I often forget just how young she actually is.

















She's still teeny and probably always will be. I'm not sure how big she is, but I imagine she's hit 20lbs by now. She just went through a growth spurt and finally fits into the 18month clothing she owns. She has 11 teeth - four front, three bottom, two top molars, and two bottom molars. Her hair is growing longer and her curls are adorable. She's started to change her looks and I get told she looks a lot more like me now. It's nice to hear :) I did birth her, after all...

















She still loves her books and reading is still one of her favourite activities. She got a kitchen for Christmas from Santa and has been enjoying "cooking" there and feeding us her concoctions. She also got a lion from Santa and LOVES it. She runs around the house, hugging it, and saying "roar!" She has a couple of dolls and enjoys feeding them, brushing their hair, and patting their backs. She just loves pointing at things and figuring out what things are. Right now her current obsessions are the ladybugs on her blanket and Maggie's toy mice. I can't quite tell if she likes the mice or hates the mice, but she'll walk around the house with a toy mouse in each hand, following Maggie, attempting to give them to the cat. If she sees a cat toy on the floor, she points at it and kind of yells. Maybe she's mad that Maggie doesn't clean up after herself.

She has little traits that make me chuckle. She likes to put her cup in the cup holder of her high chair tray when she's done taking a drink. If it doesn't fit, she puts it on the table. When she's eating snack, she'll put something (a cracker, a piece of fruit) back in the bowl before taking something else to nibble on. She's developing her little personality more and more every day and she's certainly a character!

























She's still doing great with her eating and sleeping habits. We've finally, FINALLY, rid ourselves of bottles! Hooray! She's doing perfectly fine without them and doesn't seem to miss them one bit. She's eating three meals and two snacks a day and, usually, sleeps 10-11 hours at night. She has one after-lunch nap that is usually 2 hours on average, but can sometimes be as short as an hour and a half or as long as today where she slept for FOUR hours. Nutty. It's usually 2, 2.5 hours though. She doesn't eat as much in one sitting as she used to (which makes sense, because she's not growing as rapidly as she was in her first year) but she still eats well. She still loves all her usual favourites: pasta, meats, potatoes, corn, peas, english muffins, toast, crackers, grapes, bananas, blueberries, waffles, etc. There's not really a whole lot she won't eat as a whole - somedays she'd rather have one thing over another, but as a whole she eats a really well-balanced diet and loves her healthy foods.
























She's just the light of our lives. She has a very sweet, caring, pleasant personality and is so very easy-going. Charlotte, we love you!

I promise to update again before she turns 2 ;)

The one with the seven month update

My apologies for the lateness of this post. Charlotte turned seven months on Saturday but I was away visiting at my mom's house so I chose to wait until I got home (and had access to all my pictures) before updating the blog.

You know how people always say that children grow up so fast? Well, I finally understand. It took a while, but times seems to be passing much more quickly now that Charlotte is getting older. I think because our days are much more structured and she and I can interact a lot more, the hours don't tick by as slowly as they once did. I can't believe she's already on the other side of six months! We'll be celebrating her first birthday in no time...

















So what is seven-month-old Charlotte like? Hilarious, that's what.
Her little personality comes out more and more every day. She's such a silly little goose. She's been doing this thing lately where she wants to get a better view of something so she lunges forward and tilts her body. She's such a nosy little thing - loves to see what's going on all the time. She's showing preferences for certain toys. Her favourites right now are Vincent her Lamaze horse (she loves to chew on his nose)...
































...anything with a tag that she can pull on/chew on, anything that lights up, and anything that she can spin (like the beads on her abacus). She's using her fingers a lot more and she's showing beginning signs of developing her pincer grasp. When she is playing with tags or ribbons on her horse, she pulls on them between her thumb and forefinger. I bought her some Cheerios for practice during breakfast. She almost got one in her mouth this morning! She also loves when I sing with her and I've been bringing back some old daycare favourites that I had almost forgotten about. I'm going to be making her some discovery/sensory bottles this week and I'm going to start stocking up on art supplies so we can start doing art together. She's such a fun age now!

She continues to do well with her eating. She eats (or at least tastes) pretty much everything we put in front of her. Some recent favourites are lasagna, pierogies, and yogurt. I pre-load the spoon for her and she's been really good at guiding it into her mouth. Sometimes she likes to shake her hands around and the yogurt ends up in her hair ... naturally. We've also introduced a sippy cup. She knows how to get the water out but she doesn't quite get that the cup needs to tip in order to do so. She'll figure it out eventually!



















My little Oompa Loompa after a particularly delicious lasagna supper!

Our days and nights have finally become predictable. Charlotte is sleeping straight through the night, every night. She has her bath at 7pm, gets all dried/lotioned/jammied up, has her last bottle of the day, and is usually out for the count by 7:30/7:45. She wakes up anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30 the next morning. When I sleep in the same room as her (when I'm at my mom's), I do notice that she sort of wakes and stirs a bit around 4am, but she always goes back to sleep. I keep the sound on the monitor down at home so I only hear her when she starts talking and yelling out in the morning. Her stirring and little sleep-sighs don't wake me anymore.
She's taking four bottles a day (7-8oz each) and is eating two, sometimes three, meals a day. We always have breakfast and supper together and I'm just trying to come up with some good lunch ideas so we can have lunch together too. She goes down for her first nap of the day between 9-9:30 and usually sleeps for a good 1.5-2 hours. Her second nap has been tricky lately - it sometimes takes her just as long to fall asleep as she stays sleeping. I'm trying to figure out if I'm putting her down too early and she's just not tired yet or too late and she's too tired. Hmm. Lately she's only been sleeping about 30-45 minutes in the afternoon, if she winds up sleeping at all. I usually put her down between 1:30-2pm. Trial and error, I suppose!
















Sleeping love and her new BFF, Polly.
It's an all natural "bonding" doll, stuffed with 100% sheep's wool so it absorbs the scents around it. I think I might love it just as much as Charlotte does.

Can you believe this kid STILL has no teeth? She's been teething forever! Her two bottom teeth have been right under the gum line for a while now. Yesterday I thought I saw a bit more white, so I ran my finger along her gum and I felt a small bump. She clamped her gums tight together when I did that, though, so they must be feeling pretty tender. I'm assuming that tooth will pop through by the end of the week. Really, I'm anxious for her to cut a tooth mainly because I want to see if her amber teething necklace works! So far she hasn't seemed to be in much pain and she hardly drools for a teething baby. But, I want to see how she reacts when the tooth actually pushes through. I do realize, though, that it's not a magic necklace. Nothing will necessarily take ALL the pain away, but so far it does seem to be taking the edge off the discomforts of teething.

















As far as skills go, she's doing everything on the 4-7 month developmental checklist:

- pushes up on extended arms
- pulls to sitting with no head lag
- sits with support of hands
- sits unsupported for short periods (*she sits unsupported for LONG periods - I can sit her down and go off and do something else now without worrying too much about her falling over)
- supports whole weight on legs
- grasps feet
- transfers objects from hand to hand
- uses raking grasp
- looks for toy beyond tracking range
- tracks moving objects with ease
- grasps objects dangling in front of her
- looks for fallen toys
- distinguishes emotions by tone of voice
- responds to sounds by making sounds (*this one is adorable, I love it!)
- uses voice to express joy and displeasure (*ugh, this is where the whining has now come into play)
- syllable repetition begins
- finds partially hidden objects
- explores with hands and mouth
- struggles to get objects that are out of reach
- enjoys social play (*LOVES to have someone down with her, playing)
- interested in mirror images (*watching her try to catch her hands in the mirror is precious)
- responds to other people's expression of emotions

and is doing a few things on the 8-12 month checklist:

- assumes hand and knee position (* but will only do it on carpet - she still loathes being on her belly on the hard floors)
- pokes with index finger
- explores objects in many different ways
- shows preference for certain people and toys (*and foods!)
- finger feeds herself

She hasn't really started babbling yet but she does make sounds, giggles, and squeals a lot. Whenever I ask her if she can say "mama" or "mum", she just grins at me. I think she's got something up her sleeve, haha.

She's still trying SO hard to crawl but she seems to get uncomfortable and frustrated on our hard floors. I've noticed that she will get up on her hands and knees when she's on carpet, so I think we'll be spending some time playing in the hall downstairs (the only carpeted area of our house). She's really good at moving backwards and can move her body around in a circle - she just hasn't figured out how to pull herself forward.
She LOVES to stand and will stand up while supporting herself on things like our hands, the back of the couch, the coffee table, etc. She takes steps while we hold her hands. I wonder if she might skip crawling altogether.

Phew, that was a long update! I think I've covered it all. I guess it's been a pretty busy month when it comes to growing!

Charlotte, my mom, and I are heading down to the States this weekend to visit family for a week. I'm so excited! It'll be Charlotte's first airplane trip (shockingly enough) and her first time really away from home for an extended period of time. I'm hoping she does well. We're going to be visiting family in NH and taking a day trip into Boston, weather-permitting, to go see the sights and visit the aquarium. I'll be sure to post when we get back!

















Happy seven months, lovey! <3

The one with the very merry unbirthday!

Charlotte turned six months old yesterday - half a year, wow! Happy half-birthday, baby girl!
















































Laughing at the ceiling fan - one of her favourite things these days...

Charlotte had her 6 month check up this morning. She is now 14lbs 10oz (yay doubled her birth weight!), and 26 inches long. She's still petite, but hey - so am I! She got two more needles (boo) but now no more needles until she turns one! Yay!

She has just been getting more and more fun over the last little while. She's learning so much and I love watching her discover new things. Now that the weather is getting warmer, we've been going to the park more. She enjoys the swings and the playground equipment, but what she LOVES the most is watching other children. She's fascinated by them! Last weekend, she busted up laughing while watching a group of school-aged girls playing on the swings. It was absolutely precious.



























My little hoodlum chillin out in the swing

She's getting steadier and steadier with her sitting. She's always had a very strong core and she can sit up unsupported now for minutes at a time. She can even right herself when she starts to tip over backwards and has moved herself in a complete circle while sitting. She's getting really close to creeping and moved herself a TEENY bit forward last night. She's been staring at her fingers more these days - it reminds me of Christmas time when all she ever did was stare at her hands. Now she's discovered that she has fingers attached! This makes manipulative toys a lot more appealing to her. Watching her spin the beads on her abacus is so funny :)

She's still doing well on a basic schedule/routine. We took her soothers away on Monday in hopes that she would sleep a bit better. She was always either waking up looking for it or it would end up under her face and wake her up because it was uncomfortable. She was waking up almost hourly, the poor kid. So Monday we took the soothers away and Tuesday we started putting her to bed awake and letting her settle herself to sleep. She's had wonderful nights' sleeps this week and very very minimal crying about it. I think she's pretty much forgotten that she ever even had a soother. We're keeping one for when we travel on the airplane, but other than that, we're soother-free!

As far as her feeding goes, we've pretty much ditched the purees and are headed full-force into Baby Led Weaning territory. She seems to really love it and has tried so many things! So far she's had banana, toast, roasted sweet potato, green beans, wax beans, broccoli, pork tenderloin, pancake, cheese, pear, apple, and noodles. We offered some chicken the other night but I think she thought it was pork - she picked it up, looked at it, and put it back down as if to say "yeah, I remember you..." (she didn't like the pork, haha). It's great watching her explore the food and learn how to eat. Sharing our meals is such a nice experience and it making me eat a lot healthier - I've actually been eating fruit.






























Toast and banana - yum!

Still can't really believe she's 6 months old. I never thought it would come, haha. Those first few months were so long, tiring, and overwhelming ... but here we are! I love watching her grow and learn. Can't wait to see what the next few months bring!

The one where Charlotte is too cool for school

And by "school", I mean "being rocked to sleep".

Yes, that's right. My tiny little baby who isn't even four months old yet has decided that she doesn't want to be rocked to sleep anymore. She just wants to be put in her crib and she'll fall asleep on her own, thank you very much.

This makes Mommy very sad ... and very thankful at the same time.

I hear of a lot of parents having a ridiculously difficult time getting their babies to sleep at all, so I really should not be complaining that my baby is sleeping, sleeping for long stretches, sleeping for long stretches after falling asleep on her own...

(Can I track down all those people who, during my pregnancy, told me that I would never sleep again once the baby came? Remember those people? Ha! I have a magic sleeping baby, y'all!)

But it does bum me out that she's becoming so independent so quickly. I mean, not only will she not sleep on us at all, but there's no way we can rock her to sleep anymore. She'll doze in our arms, but she won't get into a good deep sleep until we put her down in her bed. It's almost like rocking with us is just too much stimulation and she needs to relax comfortably in her own bed to sleep. She wiggles and squirms and makes noises until we put her down in her crib and then she relaxes like "ahhhhh, it's bedtime!"

It also bums me out because I feel like I missed out on all that prime snuggly time when she was a newborn. Because of our horrible breastfeeding issues, I had a really hard time dealing with her when she was young and liked being held and snuggled all the time. Now, she's older and more curious - she doesn't want to sit on our laps or cuddle for very long. She just wants to go and explore. I'm a bit angry that I couldn't enjoy her as much as I deserved to when she was little. I want those two and a half weeks back. I want to lay on the couch with her all snuggled up on my chest, fast asleep ... but she won't have any of that now.

But, in the long run, I know this is a good thing. She obviously has a secure attachment and feels safe and happy falling asleep on her own. She knows that she'll be well-rested and that when she wakes up, our smiling faces will peer over the side of her crib and she'll come out and play with us. I like the fact that (thus far) she's not crying in her bed because she has to go to sleep. I like that (knock on wood) we won't have to do any sleep training with her. Sleep is something that we don't have to worry about and that's really a wonderful thing in the Land O' Parenting.

At least I can live vicariously through pictures...

The one with the good night's sleep

Shout it from the rooftops - Charlotte slept straight through the night last night! Woot woot!

Now, she's always been a pretty decent night sleeper since we started her bedtime routine. She'd get up once or twice to eat and usually go back to sleep easily. Usually. But last night, oh last night, it was different!

She went to bed at 10:30pm (or just a little bit before). At 4:15am I heard her stretching and sort of sleep-cooing a bit, so I got her bottle ready because I expected her to start smacking and protesting for food. I shook up her bottle, got up, looked in the playpen (we're sleeping at Grammie and Grampie's tonight) and she was FAST asleep. I shrugged and headed back to bed, keeping my ear on her just waiting for her to wake up. Even sleeping from 10:30 til just after 4 was exciting for me.

The next time I woke up was just before 6:30am because I heard people awake. I checked the time and was surprised that Charlotte still hadn't woken for food. I got up and looked at her again. Fast asleep. I stuck my finger into her open hand and she grasped it, so I knew she was still alive ;)

Finally, at 7:45am I decided to get out of bed.
Charlotte was still sleeping.

At 8:00, I checked on her and her eyes were open and she was staring at her hand (naturally). Not fussing, not smacking, not crying - just hanging out with her eyes open. So I started talking to her, asking if she wanted to wake up now, and she looked up at me and grinned.

Melt my heart.

So 10:30pm until 8am, Charlotte slept straight through. How very exciting! Now I don't know if it's a fluke (probably), but we may have to move in with Grammie and Grampie if this continues ;)

Happy rested Mommy and happy rested baby are going to finish up the Christmas shopping today, visit with uncles and aunts, and spend another fun evening with Grammie and Grampie. Hooray!

























My beautiful little lovey <3