Caroline - 4 Years Old

Our 4 year old!!

She is a GREAT big sister and takes it very seriously!

C at her Frozen party with her friends Charlotte (in the background), Aydin (her best friend), Alea, Patrick, Dhruv, and her cousants Anna, + Jack!

Caroline is now a four year old!!  She is very proud of this and 'helps' us remember it all the time.  She will tell me several times a day that when she was three she couldn't do something, but now that she is four, she can do it all by herself.

I don't even know how to start explaining our sweet girl.  She is the funniest, most dramatic, most unique, most helpful, sassiest, sweetest, smartest, and most amazing little human.  There are times where she frustrates us to high heaven, but most of the time I think she is just awesome.  I have tried to save some of the funny stuff that she says by posting it on Facebook, but that is maybe 20% of the funny stuff she says.  I feel like I will always remember the funny stuff, but I don't unless I have it written down somewhere.

Here are some things that I want to remember about Sassy Pants, Whack Job Sandwich, Hot Mess, Scooter Pooter, Smush Pocket, Hot Mama herself:

• She weighs 40 pounds (89th percentile) and is 3' 6 1/8" (81st percentile).
• She is so smart.  We are so lucky that we found Generations and Mrs. Val and Ms. Nita do such a great job with those kids.  She has been doing a preschool curriculum since she could sit up.  She can now completely write her own name, recognize all letters and numbers, count to 100, and she is beginning to pick out the sounds of letters in words.  It is amazing to see what she can do.  She brings home her school work and I am just amazed.  We also bought her a preschool work book to have at home and she will ask us if she can do her school work.  I will start to show her how to do something (go through a maze by drawing the line through all things that start with a 't') and before I even have the chance she has it finished.  She is very smart and she is already very excited about going to Kindergarten like Anna!  She will start school during the 2016 - 2017 school year.  She will start at age 5 and turn 6 March of that year.  That is too crazy for me to even think about!
• She loves being a big sister and she is great at it.  She helps us do everything from feeding him to giving him a bath to putting him in the bed or getting him up.  She had a little bit of a delayed reaction after he got here and acted out for a couple of weeks, but after that she has been fine.  She loves to make him laugh and he watches EVERYTHING that she does.  We try to remind her of this because he will be copying what she does very soon.  She takes her job as 'Big Sissy' very seriously.  She even started crying last night at dinner because she was going to miss him (and us) so much when she goes away to college!  If only she knew how much he is going to irritate the mess out of her!
• Things she loves: princesses (of course) - her favorites are Elsa and Rapunzel (her all time very favorite), her collections (she has lots of Magic Clips, My Little Ponies, Itty Bitties), her Nabi (she plays Hay Day and the grocery bagging game, checks the weather on her own app, and she loves watching PBS Kids shows on the app), watching movies in her DVD player (that she can work all by herself), all things Frozen (especially listening to the music and dramatically recreating every scene), playing with all of her 'cousants' and her neighbor Charlotte, playing games (Go Fish, Matching, games our of her Highlights magazine), coloring/painting/cutting paper, reading books and having books read to her, riding her bike, going to the park, playing in the building footings at Bethabara Park, wearing her sassy brown knee high boots, her rain boots, and her 'fancies', eating chicken 'nunnets' at Dairio (her all time favorite place, with Buffalo Wingos being a close 2nd), getting the mail all by herself, feeding the dogs all by herself, anything she can do all by herself :), watching Pinky Dinky Doo, Daniel Tiger, and Sofia the First, listening to Taylor Swift (Shake It Off and Blank Spaces are her two faves), click her eye (winking with a little added mouth click), being in charge (of Cam or anything else), mac + cheese, asking 7,506 questions a day, knowing why things are the way they are, ...
• Things she does not like: having to be patient, having to go to the bathroom when someone asks her to, trying new foods, seeing boogers or her own poo (she gags every time), not being able to do something the first time she tries, ...
• She all of a sudden has gotten very sensitive.  If she says something funny and I start laughing she will ask me to stop and tell me that it is hurting her feelings.  She has also started really crying (I mean crocodile tears, lip quivering, break your heart kind of crying) over leaving us to go to college and going to Heaven and other people playing with her toys!
• She is tall and lean and I really hope she stays that way.  She wears 4T or 5T pants (only for the length) and 5T or kids XS shirts for the length.  She wears size 11 shoes - her feet are going to be huge (like mine).
• She wears leggings and shirts almost every day, but she does love a dress once it gets warm.
• Her hair is getting really long, but is still really curly on the bottom and then straight on the top.  She wears it in a ponytail or with the front up in a 'hair up' most days.
• She loves night gowns to sleep in, but she still likes wearing her footy jams on cold nights - especially when Bubba wears his.
• Her room is still awesome.  She has the bed that is raised up and she is starting to use her Secret Spot more and more.  Things in the house are starting to make their way into her room (pictures that we have in frames, books she loves, etc.).  She has even begun hanging things she colored up onto her wall.
• She can get herself completely dressed - from the pants and shirt to the socks and shoes and jackets.
• She brought home a piece of paper from school and it asked what she wanted to be when she grew up - my girl said a Girl Fire Fighter!  Get 'em!

Caroline Grace,

You are growing up to be such an amazing little lady.  You are so smart and so funny and so YOU.  I hope that never changes.  You are always going to be so loved by your Daddy and me and I hope this crazy world doesn't make you anything different than what and who you are.  You are so strong willed and stubborn - it drives your Daddy and me crazy some times, but I know that you are going to be able to take care of yourself.  You make us laugh every single day and I am so glad that God picked me to be your mama.  I am so proud of you and I can't wait to be there to help and watch you grow. 

P.S.  If you could slow down that growing up a little bit I'd appreciate it! :)

Six Months!

I cannot believe that my baby is six months old - he is now closer to a year old than he is to the day he was born.  WHAT?!?!

5 Months Old!

My six month old boy!

This kid is going to be a character.  I worried about him having a hard time getting a word in with Caroline as a big sister, but I think he will be just fine!

• He weighs 17 lbs 6 oz (46th percentile) and is 27.5 in long (83rd percentile).  Our boy is long and lean - even though he has some of the chunkiest thighs I have ever seen!
• He is currently in 9 month clothes, but is starting to stretch out the toes in a few of his sleepers.
• He is in size 2 diapers and will be for a good while.
• I started mixing my milk with formula about two weeks ago.  Cam started to eat a little bit more and with me just pumping I just wasn't keeping up.  I was using my stash quicker than I wanted to, so I started with just one ounce of formula, but have worked my way up to about half and half and will stay like that until the milk comes close to running out.  The goal is to get him through his surgery with at least a little bit of breast milk in the bottle.
• He is still taking his Ranitidine two times a day.  I forgot a couple of times and thought we might be finished with it, but he started spitting up like crazy again.  Not sure if the two are related, but if it doesn't hurt him to keep taking it and he doesn't spit up as much when he does, we are just going to keep it flowing!
• He started eating solid foods not long after his four month appointment.  With Caroline I'm sure I was up to three times a day by now, but Cam is still just getting dinner.  He eats a veggie and a fruit with a little bit of rice cereal in them both.  Then he gets a bottle to wash it down.
• He eats at 6:30, 10:00, 1:00, 3:30, 5:30, and 7:30.  We put him down around 8 and he gets up around 6 - 6:30.  Not bad, my boy!
• A couple of days before he turned six months old, he rolled from this back to his belly.  He had been doing belly to back for a good month or so, but he is now officially a roller.  We went in to get him up one morning and he had flipped over and was fast asleep on his stomach.  He is still a back sleeper, but when he is playing he flips from back to front and back again.  Watch out, world!
• He is sleeping in his Zippy still and I wrap the swaddle around his waste to keep the zipper from getting in his face and just to help him feel secure.  We put him in and zip him up and he starts flapping around like a little bird.
• When I go to put him down he will look at me with the biggest smile and start flapping and laughing.  That certainly beats any sorts of tears from having to go to sleep.
• We use the turtle with the stars, his mobile, and his music in his room.
• He has started to really play with toys.  He LOVES chewing on Elmo's hook and hands, the stegosaurus, the duck, the lion, and the pink chew ring that was Caroline's (she constantly reminds everyone of this).
• He will go to town in the exersaucer and will get those legs going and jump and jump and jump. 
• He loves laying on his activity mat and watching the butterflies, chewing on the parrot and rolling back and forth between the mirror and the giraffe.
• We still use the bouncy seat to feed him sometimes, but he pulls himself to sitting up and almost rolls himself out of the thing.
• He sits in the booster seat now when we feed him his food.  He is too busy for the Bumbo.
• He is doing great at school.  They put him down for two naps while he is there and he sleeps a little bit during the first nap (too much going on - fear of missing out), but sleeps well in the afternoon.  I pick him the kids up around 4:30 and he comes home and goes straight down for a nap.  It is usually about 45 min to an hour and then he is up until bed time.  He eats his dinner around 5:30 or 6 and then gets his last bottle around 7:30.  Then it is off to bed!
• He is very ticklish!  You can get him on the inside of his thighs, on his neck, and his belly.  I LOVE to hear him laugh!
• We got for Cam's MRI next week to figure out the plan of action for his tethered chord.  Stay tuned!

Four (and a half) Months Old!

Totally dropped the ball on the four month update, so here is a Cam update at four and a half months!

• He weighs 15 lbs 14 oz (48th) and is  26 1/2 in (84th) long!  Despite his chunk, our boy is long and lean!!
• He is wearing size 2 diapers and 6 month clothes and sleepers.
• He is drinking 4 to 5 ounces of milk 5 to 6 times a day.  I am still pumping three times a day.
• He is still taking medicine for reflux twice a day.
• We only burp him after he eats now and he still spits up a little bit, but that has gotten much better.
• He is on a pretty solid three hour schedule.  He gives us 10 - 12 hours at night!
• He is the happiest, most laid back baby!  He smiles and laughs all the time unless he is hungry or super tired.
• He rolled over from his belly to his back a couple of days before Christmas.  He does it pretty easily now.
• He is starting to drool a ton and wanting to put everything into his mouth.  I'm thinking he has a couple of teeth trying to make their way up!
• He still likes his bouncy seat, but he tries to sit up all the time.
• He loves his exersaucer and will bounce and play with the toys.  He gets overwhelmed when we turn on the sights and sounds.  So for now, he just rolls the balls and bats stuff.
• To go to sleep, we would wrap Cam up in a Miracle Blanket and a swaddle blanket since he could break out of the Miracle by itself.  So after Christmas (4 1/2 months) we started putting him to sleep in a Zipadee-Zip sleep sack with arms and he has made the transition like a champ.   It allows him to feel secure, but gives him freedom so that we can switch him to just a sleep sack after a few weeks.
• He is still doing great at school.  He is so observant and loves to just watch what is going on.  He is going to be gone once he starts moving!  He wants so badly to be able to walk and talk and run around!
• He had a great first Christmas!  He got a few outfits and some toys to chew on and hold on to.
• We have finally found some soap that Cam can use!  He can take a bath every day and he doesn't break out at all!  We got the Mustela at Babies 'R' Us just to try it out and it has been great!

We are so in love with our sweet boy and love every second of watching him grow!!

Three Months!

What a difference a month can make!! I just read my two month post and could feel myself get stressed out just remembering how tough those weeks were.  I am very thankful to say that three months in, we are all doing just fine.  I went back to work last week (Nov 5), the day after Cam turned 12 weeks old.  I am so very thankful and grateful for those 12 weeks.  They were by no means easy, but I am lucky that I got to spend my whole leave with my sweet little ones.

Other than a rough day here and there, we have gotten into a pretty sweet swing of things around our house.  Cam started going to school with Caroline the Monday before I went back to work.  Leslie was being induced with Baby Drew on that Monday (Nov 3), so I wanted to be free to do what I could for her.  I also wanted to be available to go get the kids if I needed to.  Things couldn't have worked out better.  Cam has done great at school and has been taking short naps throughout the day and eating all of the milk that I send.  He comes homes EXHAUSTED and immediately goes down for a nap.  I really look forward to the two feedings he has at night now that I am not with him all day.  Ms. Val and Ms. Nita tell us how alert he is all day.  I'm sure he will be up and running before we know it!

Caroline loves being at school with Cam and helps take care of him.  The first day they were both going Caroline said, 'Don't worry, Mom.  I've got Cam's back!'  She was so excited to show him off to her friends.  About a week after they both started going, Ms. Nita needed to take him into another room because he was crying and Ms. Val needed to take a phone call.  Caroline flipped out.  She thought they were taking him away and she was not having it!!  It is so good to know that they are both so well taken care of and that they can take care of each other.

Now that we have the reflux and feeding figured out, Cam is the happiest, laid back little guy!  Most time when he wakes up from a nap he will cry until he sees your head and then he will smile so hard his eyes almost close!  He is laughing and blowing raspberries and he is about the cutest baby I've ever seen (biased or not!).  I can't wait to see his personality keep coming out and see what kind of little man he is going to turn into!

Now on to some three month stats:

• He weighs (unofficially) 15.2 lbs!  Our big boy!
• He is in 3 month clothes and 3/6 month sleepers.
• He is still in size 1 diapers.
• He was put in his crib to sleep at about 10 weeks and has done just fine since then!
• We still swaddle him and found that there is a pretty big gap between a small SwaddleMe swaddler and a medium/large.  The small got to be too small, but he could easily get out of the medium/large.  I got him a Miracle Blanket and it has worked great.  He is a strong rascal and can still get out of it if it isn't just right, but for the most part he goes to sleep before he even really tries.
• I am just pumping and have it down to three times a day.  He eats between 2 and 4 ounces 6 times a day.
• After school I put him right down for a nap.  He usually gets up and eats around 7, goes down until we get him up about 10 for a 'dream feed', and then we don't hear a peep until 5 or 6.  Then he goes back down after he eats until we leave for school.  I will take that every day of the week!  He does a great job of sleeping now - or maybe I just appreciate every bit of it since those early weeks were so tough!
• He still has all of his crazy skin stuff going on, so we are still doing his bath routine every other day with the T/Gel, baby oil, Cetaphil, and a toothbrush for scrubbing.
• He has been able to sit up in a Bumbo for a while and has full head control.  He loves to be up and out and be able to see everything that is going on.
• We have pulled the mat out with the jungle gym for him to look at those butterflies that Caroline loved.  He still loves his bouncy seat and will GO TO TOWN kicking with his feet when he really gets going.  He LOVES to talk to the frog and all his other friends on his bouncy seat.
• Unless he is really hungry, he will smile and talk and laugh the whole time he is up.
• The Babywise eat-play-sleep routine doesn't work for our boy.  He doesn't want to eat right away, but instead will play for a good bit when he wakes up until he fusses and then we feed him.  We still put him in the bed while he is awake, but he has a full belly.
• He smiled at Caroline for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it made Caroline's life.  She thought it was the cutest thing.  She is so ready for him to be able to do something!
• We have been calling Caroline 'Big Sister', but she has decided she wants to be called Sissy like her 'cousants' Anna and Penelope!
• He does a great job riding in his car seat.  He will just lay back there and talk to the friends dangling from the mirror or fuss for just a minute before going to sleep.  

I love my sweet boy and I eat up every minute of him snuggling with me after he eats.  Being a boy, I am sure he is going to be GONE once he can move, so I'm trying to enjoy him being willing to let me snuggle with him.  So glad I got picked to be his mama and I get to watch him grow up!!

Things I Have Learned

A few things I have learned in these first two months of being the mom of two sweet babies:

1.  Going from one child to two is NO JOKE.  I knew it would be hard, but I figured if you have done it once, you can do it a million times.  That is so far from the truth it isn't even funny.  A second kid doesn't just double the work, it is about 100 times the work.  And I'm not even totally sure why.  There have been a few times that Cam has been screaming, Caroline has been crying, the dogs are on my nerves and I have just started laughing hysterically.  I try really hard to find the humor in it all, because I really don't want to be the crying girl all the time - that is not a good look.

2.  When you bring babies into this world, it is so important to have a good support system.  When it is the middle of the night and you just can't be awake for one more second, it is so amazing to have someone that will tell you to lay down and they take the baby so that you can sleep.  I can't say enough about Jason and all that he has done.  I know they are his kids, too, but he comes home from work and jumps in with 100% effort with both kids.  He does everything I need for him to do and he some how knows exactly what it is that I need for myself.  Caroline and Camden - I want you to know how amazing your Daddy is.  I wouldn't be able to do what I do without him.  I also can't say enough about my parents and Jason's parents and how great they have been.  They come up to Winston to help out and are always ready for us to come to Jacksonville or Wilmington any time we want (or need!).  I have also had lots of calls and texts from friends just checking in to see how things are going.  When you are doing the same thing day in and day out and don't have much adult conversation, those texts and calls mean the world!

3.  It is important to admit when you need help.  This is not one that I do well, but when you have a baby that is screaming for the third nap in a row for you can't even remember how many days in a row - you need some help.  You need to be able to tag some one else in so that you can go somewhere that you can't hear the crying to give yourself a break.  Even when the baby isn't crying and everyone is happy, you are still taking care of other lives.  You still need to get out of the house by yourself or have someone watch the kids so that you can take a nice, long, hot shower!

4.  Back to the 'once you have done it once' thing - just because you have gotten one child out of diapers doesn't mean that you know jack squat about what the second kid will want or need.  My first instinct is to do what we did for Caroline because that is all I know, but just about every time Cam is pretty quick to let us know that he is not Caroline!  I know this is a lesson that I will learn MANY times over through their lives, so I might as well start learning it now!

5.  The idea of having a baby in the house and the reality of it can be two very different things.  Caroline said the other day, 'Cam cries a lot.  I still like him, but he cries a lot.'  After two months, she is a lot less willing to help and a lot less interested in what he does.  He doesn't do much but cry and take away our attention, so I'm sure I'd be over that pretty quickly, too.  I know she will begin to really enjoy him when he can do stuff and she can interact with him.  Even I remembered the sweet times of Caroline being little, but didn't quite hold on to the times she was screaming or pooping on me or how annoying washing those bottles would get.

6.  I am so very lucky to get to take all twelve weeks of maternity leave.  The end is coming up in a little over 3 weeks (yikes!) and while I may get overwhelmed or just exhausted - I wouldn't trade this time for anything in the world.  I some times wish I was back at work at lunch having adult conversation, but I know that once I am back I am going to long for these days of doing nothing but taking care of my babies.  I am going to miss seeing that smile on Cam's face when he is full and in a good mood.  I am going to miss doing 'projects' with Caroline and sitting down to eat lunch with her and having our 'conversations' about whatever it is she wants to talk about that day.

7.  On Facebook and social media in general, people like to put their best foot forward.  I am guilty of this.  I will take 15 pictures and chose the one that looks the happiest.  I don't take pictures when Caroline is on the floor throwing a fit or Cam is screaming for the umpteenth hour.  It's because no one wants to remember those things and no one wants other people to know how hard our life can get.  That is why I thought it was important to add all of this to this blog.  I don't want to remember how hard these days have been, but it is part of my life.  It is part of our story and everyone else is fighting their own battle every day, too.  Honesty can be a good thing!

8.  Through all of the frustration and tears these first two months have brought, there has also been so much joy.  The way Cam came into this world I should have known that nothing with him was going to be easy!  But when he smiles at me and those eyes squint up, there is nothing like that feeling.  And when I am holding Cam after feeding him and Caroline crawls in to my lap and says, 'I know you like holding your two babies,' I feel like the luckiest person in this world.  I love everything about this sweet life that I get to live.  I am still very much in love with my very best friend and I have two of the best things that we could have ever asked for.  Life is most certainly good.

Two Months!

I just read my one month post and laughed out loud.  I'm not sure if it was the adrenaline still pumping or that the exhaustion hadn't set it yet, but my ignorance was bliss!!  I wanted with all of my heart to believe (and did believe) that he was ready for a 3 hour set schedule and sleeping in the crib.  That was definitely not the case.  One of my problems is that I remember how Caroline ended up.  I remember that she was on a three hour schedule and that she napped so nicely in her crib.  What I don't remember is how we got there.  Caroline was a really easy baby, but things got tough at some points.  I remember listening to her cry and Jason and I keeping each other from going in there with her.  I also remember crying while she cried or calling Leslie and telling her that she had been crying for 30 minutes and what to do now.  So things weren't perfect, but we block out the hard stuff so that we'll be willing to do it again!

When I took Cam to the doctor for his two week check  up, I told the doctor that I thought he had reflux.  You could hear it, you could feel it, and he spit up so much and you could tell that it hurt.  He told me that he hesitated doing anything that early.  So I went home and continued to deal with a baby that was painfully spitting up a lot.  Over the next few weeks, he would spit up all the time and had trouble staying asleep for naps. I racked my brain trying to figure out what it was that kept him from sleeping well.  Did he need to be swaddled or did his hands need to be out?  Did he need white noise or music?  Was he too hot or too cold?  Was it took dark or too light?  Was it the kind of bottle we used? I just knew that there was something I was doing to keep him from sleeping well. (Why does mom guilt have to be so strong and so terrible?!) THANKFULLY, he always did pretty well at night.  The day was just rough.  Mornings usually went smoothly, but the afternoons from about 1 - 8 were just a fight.  He would be so tired and go right to sleep when I put him down, but then wake up 10 minutes later and just fuss and fight.  The crib did not work out at 4 weeks (that is so young now that I am a few weeks out from that!), so we started putting him to sleep in our Fisher Price Rock 'N Play.  We used that in our room at night to keep him kind of upright since I suspected reflux.  He slept well at night, so I figured he would sleep ok in it during the day.  So I would just move the Rock 'N Play to his room for naps to help him get used to it.  And this was how my life was for a few weeks.  Good morning naps (enough for me to pump and shower), eating ravenously every two hours or so, and then ROUGH afternoons. I tried everything - going in, putting his paci back in, staying out, listening to him cry and crying with him, putting in my head phones and timing how long I would let him cry, etc.  NOTHING WORKED.  He would sleep for 20 minutes or so and then wake up screaming.  If I went and got him he was fine, but I was not ok with a 20 minute nap and then having to stretch him to eat again.  I knew he needed to sleep longer to get good, restful sleep.

So, Jason would come home after being at work all day, bless his heart, and I would be a stressed out, crying mess.  I had listened to my baby cry all afternoon and hadn't been able to do anything for him.  Jason would take Cam and tell me to go give Caroline a bath or he would bring dinner home so I didn't have to worry about cooking anything.  He helped me any way he possibly could and would often just make me stop, give me a hug and a kiss, and tell me that I was doing a great job.  I don't know what I would have done without him!

When Cam was 6 weeks old Jason had a bye week.  So, we loaded up with the car with both kids and both dogs and headed to Jacksonville for a long weekend.  I was dreading it because I knew he wouldn't sleep and then we would be in someone else's house bothering them.  I talked to myself on the way down and decided that I was just going to have to go with the flow because we weren't at home and he didn't really have a solid flow any way.  For some reason, he did great!  He slept great naps and was just as happy as a clam.  It was awesome for that weekend because we were able to go out just the two of us and I didn't feel bad leaving the kids with Grammie and Grandpa.  Jason was a lot of help and it ended up being a good weekend.

When we got back I thought we had turned a corner and were going to have great naps.  Not so much.  I knew it was possible, so I got even more frustrated.  Finally, the day Cam turned 7 weeks old, I called my doctor and talked to a triage nurse. I told her about his projectile spit up, trouble napping, and his overall discomfort.  After 5 minutes of taking information she sent me to an appointment scheduler because she said we needed to be seen that day.  We went in a couple of hours later and walked out with a prescription for Zantac.  Hallelujah!  What I had known 5 weeks earlier was verifiied.

I knew that was going to be the fix I had been praying for.  This would stop him from hurting and let him take good naps.  So that night we put him to bed and I had a renewed hope for the days ahead.  We woke up the next morning and naps went great (as they had been).  I put Caroline in the bed for a nap about 1 and Cam down for a nap right after.  I was washing dishes and I thought that I might actually get a nap that day.  There was my big mistake right there!  AS SOON as I laid down after getting things cleaned up - screaming.  And screaming and screaming.  I would go in and give him his paci and he would be quiet for about 2 minutes and then scream again.  I finally put my headphones in and went into our bedroom across the house.  I texted Jason and I Leslie and just wanted someone to tell me how to fix it.  They both told me that it would take time for the medicine to kick in and that I just needed to stay in our room to see if maybe he would fall asleep.  I decided I needed a nap and he was in a safe place and he would be ok if he just cried for a while.  As soon as I started to drift off (once my mind quite racing) - Caroline was beside me.  No nap for me.  I cried again.  I went and got him after a while and fed him and just went on with what I could do.  Jason eventually got home and I was a mess.  I was supposed to go to Wilmington on Sunday (this was Wednesday), so Jason texted my mom and asked her to call me and tell me to come down the next day.  I resisted initially because I hate asking for help or admitting that I need help, but I knew that I needed all that I could get.

So, the next day I loaded the kids up and we headed to Wilmington.  This was SUCH a great week because I had a lot of help all day long, Cam did some crying there so I knew it wasn't me, and Mom would tell me to get out of the house or go somewhere quiet to take a nap so that I could get some sleep and get myself back together.  She also took him at night a few times to give me a full night sleep.  Deddy and Jeffro helped, too, and were glad to take him and talk to him or feed him for me.  I am so glad that Jason helped me see that I needed some help!

When we got home I was determined to figure all of this out.  Cam had been on medicine for about 10 days and he was 8 weeks old.  He would be fine to leave crying for a while.  I happened to be scrolling through Facebook and found a video about a 'baby whisperer' and how she gets babies to sleep.  It was like a light bulb went off.  It was what we had been doing, but not all together.  That afternoon I put him down for his first nap in his crib doing what this lady said.  He took a solid hour long nap.  I didn't hold my breath.  I put him down for his next nap and he slept for a couple of hours.  There I had it - he was in his crib and sleeping!
Since then, he has slept every nap and every night in his crib.  We swaddle him and play white noise or rain the loudness of a vaccuum.  The mornings have been great (like they always have been) and he has been sleeping through the night for the past week.  We feed him around 11 and he doesn't get up until around 5.  Not too shabby for a 2 month old!  The afternoons are still a fight.  He has been on his medicine for almost 2 weeks, so I know he isn't hurting.  His spit up is a lot less painful and it is not projectile any more.  He can still soak a burp cloth, but he is doing better.  So this week, I am starting full out Baby Wise.  I am putting him down for his nap, swaddled and safe, and I am letting him cry.  I am not putting his paci back in, I am not rocking him.  None of that is helping, so he is going to have to cry himself to sleep so he can learn how to put himself back to sleep when he wakes up.  The end result will be much better sleep for him and a lot less stress for me.

I used to think people were sick when they hurt little babies for just crying, but I can understand why.  I am lucky enough to have a fantastic support system and the sense to leave him in his crib crying if I am getting frustrated.  A baby that doesn't sleep for hours a day and just cries and cries is extremely frustrating!  I know as he gets older, things will only get better!

Now on to the two month stats:

• He weighs 13 pounds!  Even with all of his spitting up, he is still gaining plenty of weight!
• He had a six week and an eight week growth spurt that ran together.  Part of his screaming and 20 minute naps did come from him being hungry.  He would down an entire bottle, only to be hungry an hour and a half to two hours later.  It was exhausting.
• He is still in size 1 diapers and size 3 clothes.  The 3/6 month and 6 month clothes aren't far away!  His toes are getting tight!
• When he is up and has a full belly, he is such a happy baby!  He smiles all the time now and is talking to all sorts of things!  He will talk to people if you get him going and he loves sitting in his bouncy seat and talking to the animals he can see.  Talking always makes him spit up if he gets super excited!
• He is totally sleeping in his crib.  He takes about 6 naps a day and sleeps up to 6 hours at night!  Getting good chunks of sleep at night is making this mama feel more normal every day!
• He had a Wonder Week that was all about his brain linking to the movements of his body.  All though he can't grab things yet, his hands have opened up and he is starting to swat at things.  When he is in his bouncy seat his legs and feet are just a movin'!
• His skin is still a hot mess in places.  He has eczema on his arms and legs, acne on his face, and cradle cap on his scalp. Hopefully, those will figure themselves out as he gets older, too!
• One of my very favorite things that he does right now is nuzzling.  When he has just eaten, or if I go in a get him out of the crib and pat his back pretty hard, he will move his head back and forth on my shoulder until he gets in the very nook of my neck.  I can feel him breathing on me and feel his eyelashes if he is blinking.  In those moments, all of the tough times and frustrations go away and I am so lucky to be this sweet boys mama!

One Month!

How is our boy already a month old?!

• By my calculations, he weighs 11 pounds.  That means that he has gained 2.5 pounds since he was born.  What a chunk bucket!
• He wears size 1 diapers.  He wore newborns for a week or two and outgrew them.
• He can still wear a few of his newborn clothes, but his 0-3 month and 3 month have already made it into the rotation.
• He is on a pretty good 3 hour schedule (and has been for weeks I feel like) and at night has given us as many as 4 or 5 hours between feedings, though that is not the norm.  We aren't on any type of schedule, yet.  We just go with the flow.  That is going to change soon to get that sleeping through the night thing going.
• We haven't instated BabyWise yet, but we have followed the eat, play, sleep model since he was born.  When he wakes up he eats, then we change his diaper and talk to him/put him on his play mat/lay him down and let him look around until he starts fussing.  Then it is time for him to go to sleep, so we swaddle him up and put him down.  He doesn't always instantly fall asleep, but will look around for a bit and then doze off.  That is great because it means that he is already learning how to put himself to sleep, which will help out a bunch once we really start BabyWise-ing him in a few weeks.
• I am still exclusively pumping.  I was all ready to boob feed him, but at about the week mark he started needing more than I could give him.  He would eat for about an hour (ain't nobody got time for that!) and still be hungry.  I would have to make him a bottle to top him off.  I decided that it was just easier for me to pump and give him a full feeding out of a bottle when he ate.  I am such a cow that I only have to pump four times a day and that gets enough milk for all of his feedings and then some to stash in the freezer each day.  I already have a freezer FULL of milk, which I know is such a huge blessing.  A lot of women have to work really hard to produce milk and I am very lucky to just naturally be a big milk producer.  I do feel like a cow, though - MMOOOOOOO!!
• Today (4 1/2 wks) we put him down for a nap in his crib for the first time.  We have had him napping in the living room swaddled in the bouncy seat next to the white noise made by the MamaRoo (which he has already outgrown - he relaxed much more in something that vibrated).  We have not been quiet, but we have kept the TV just loud enough for us to hear it and tried to keep Caroline from running around him and making a ridiculous amount of noise.  He has done great and slept through everything, but this week is a Wonder Week (a book/app/website that shows physical symptoms that come from cognitive 'leaps' that babies make) so he has been much more aware of what is going on around him.  He started waking up a lot more because of noise and light.  So I decided just to try putting him to sleep in his room because it is much quieter and darker in his room.  He did not bat an eye.  He only woke up for a second during that first nap and we popped his paci back in and he went right back to sleep.  His second nap he closed his eyes and was out for two hours.  We may even let him sleep in his room at night already.  I can remember the difference that made with Caroline.  We all could use a good night sleep! (Haha...jumped the gun on that one!  This happened to be a Wonder Week where he is eating every two hours and is having a hard time getting himself to sleep.  We put him in his crib the night I said we would, but he was up every two hours so we are going to hold off on the crib stuff.  We just need to get everyone through this week using whatever works!)
• For the most part he is a really great baby.  Laid back, go with the flow - unless you change his clothes and try to make him straighten out his arms and legs, change his diaper, make him wait too long to eat, make him ride in his car seat, or wait to long to put him to bed.  So pretty much as long as he is full with a clean butt and put down for a nap after just a bit of being awake - he is happy as a clam!

We love you so much, sweet Cam!  You have been such a great baby and I can't wait to see how you grow and change over these next few months!

Got to have a one month picture with Big Sister!