In the Blink of an Eye

Today I had an eye doctor appointment. It’s that annual appointment where my eye doctor gets to tell me that everything looks good and my prescription is the same (it hasn’t changed since I started wearing contacts in 11th grade) and then I get to hand over swipe my credit card for what I think is a ridiculous amount.

When I do things that only happen once a year, they always remind me of what was going on in my life the year before. Does that happen to you?

Last year at this time I was about 6 weeks pregnant. I was super excited, but this also marked the start of morning all day sickness that lasted until I was about 22 week pregnant. In fact I remember not feeling so great at my last eye doctor’s appointment. Ha, glad that’s over!

The year before that (no, my memory is not that good, but thanks to this blog, I can easily see what was going on back in 2008) I was just about finished with summer school and we were enjoying the summer. Now that I think about it, I am pretty glad school is over for me too!

Today, as I was sitting in the exam room, waiting to get air shot into my eye…seriously is that not the worst test ever! Oh sure, let me sit here and lean into the machine knowing full well that in a few seconds a “puff” of air will be coming straight at me. Oh, what was that? I didn’t keep my eye open long enough? Oh sure let’s try it again. Sigh. Anyway, as I was sitting there I couldn’t help but think about where we would be next year at this time. Aedan will be almost a year and a half! Will we have the same jobs? Will we be living in the same house? What will Aedan be up to?

I’m sure this year will go by in a blink of an eye and before I know it, I will find myself back in the exam room chair thinking about the next year and wondering why someone doesn’t invent a machine that does the same job as the “puff” machine without the stupid air “puff”.

-Lauren-

Baby Giggles

This happy guy did GREAT at the sitter’s house today! Yay! My meeting was cancelled, but since the sitter was already expecting Aedan, I decided to take him and run some errands on my own. It was nice to run in and out of stores without having to take Aedan in and out of his carseat, especially when it started raining!

When I got there to pick him up he was all smiles. The sitter said he did 1000 times better. He had fun laughing and smiling at the older kids, playing in a bouncer and drinking a bottle!! Seriously I think one of the reasons he was so cranky when he was over there before was because he would get hungry and then not take a bottle. Now that we got that taken care of, things are SO much better.

He is going back tomorrow while I go to a friends bridal shower/luncheon. I’m hoping he does just as well.

-Lauren-

The End of Barefoot Days

I’m not a fan of shoes. Wait, I guess I should say I’m not a fan of wearing shoes. I mean don’t get me wrong, I enjoy shopping for and wearing cute shoes when I am out and about, but as soon as I get home, taking of my shoes is one of the first things I do. It is funny because Jon is the complete opposite. He puts on shoes as soon as he gets dressed in the morning and doesn’t take them off until he is getting ready for bed at night (well I guess he takes them off when he manages to squeeze in an afternoon nap).

So, I spend most of my day walking around the house shoeless, no big deal right? Well unfortunately when I walk around barefooted so much by the end of the day my heels are killing me. I get this dull ache in the center of my heel. I have had this for awhile, but it seemed to get worse when I was pregnant (probably due to the extra weight). Unfortunately, even though most of the weight is gone, my heels seem to still be pretty sensitive. The only way I can make them feel better is to do lots of calf stretches. I could prevent it by wearing shoes all day, but really that’s just not going to happen. So I decided to invest in the next best thing to being barefoot…slippers. Not just any slippers, flip flop slippers! To be honest I don’t even like wearing regular slippers any more than I like wearing shoes around the house.

Hopefully now I won’t have sore heels at the end of the day. :)

-Lauren-

Summer Baking

Today I was extra productive. Not only did I accomplish my to do list for work, I also went to the grocery store, got in a good swimming work out and made zucchini bread muffins.

Whenever I make zucchini bread muffins it reminds me of being in college. My roommate and good friend, Dara’s great grandmother used to send her boxes of zucchini bread muffins. I remember snacking on the best homemade muffins while listening to Norah Jones and studying.

I try to make these muffins on a regular basis. If you have never tried them, you should! They are perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack, plus you just feel like your making a healthy choice when you pick up a muffin with veggies in it, right? :)

I have a good recipe for the muffins that I have used for the last few years, but today I decided to try something new. Last night I was searching for some new dinner recipes online…I tend to get stuck making the same things for dinner week after week. Anyway, I came across this recipe for blueberry zucchini bread and decided to give it a try. I’m so glad I did! It is so good! I made a dozen muffins and then I used the rest of the batter to make a loaf of bread. Jon was a little skeptical of the blueberry addition to my muffins but since he has eaten 3 this afternoon, I am thinking he approves of them too! I think this will become my go to recipe from now on.

-Lauren-

Storing Baby Toys

Now that Aedan is getting older, he is becoming more and more interested in his toys and books. We have lots of storage in his bedroom for toys and books, but we spend most of the day in the living room. Before we used to just have his playmat and bouncy seat in the living room. Then I started bringing a few toys out after each nap. By the end of the day he had lots of rings, rattles and various other baby toys out in the living room. Instead of putting them away in his room each night, I decided I should just start a toy basket in the living room.

Hiro already had a canvas toy basket next to the table in the living room so I just added a second basket to the other side. Perfect. Well no, not prefect. One night I was looking at my toy basket set up and I just wasn’t happy with it. I just didn’t like the look of the canvas baskets on either side of the table (of course I didn’t take a before picture). Then it hit me. Why have two baskets on either side of a table that already has 3 baskets underneath it. So I just cleared out two of the baskets and made one for Hiro’s toys.

And one for Aedan’s toys.

Now that all the toys are neatly tucked away under the table it makes the whole wall look less cluttered. Ah, much better.

And now Aedan has a spot to play that is super easy to clean up when he goes down for naps or for the night.

I know the amount of toys he has will only get bigger, but I am hoping that we can keep most of them in his bedroom and rotate out the ones in the living room toy basket.

What about you all with little kids, how do you mange the ever growing collection of toys?

-Lauren-

Bottle Boot Camp

We gave Aedan his first bottle when he was 2 weeks old. He took it like a champ and had no problem switching between bottle and breast until he was about 2 months old. Then it became harder and harder to give him a bottle. By the time I went back to work when he was 3 months old it was next to impossible to get him to take a bottle. He would skip meals and end up being very cranky during the day and wake up at night to make up for the lost calories. It was getting pretty stressful for me.

I am thankful that breastfeeding has worked out for us so well. From day one his latch was pretty good and I haven’t had too many issues the whole time. I have been able to pump a ton of extra milk (seriously I am not sure we will ever be able to use it all). However I was beginning to feel stressed out about the whole thing. I felt like I couldn’t leave for more than 3 hours (which is hard since sometimes work requires me to be gone longer) and I felt like I couldn’t go anywhere with Aedan for longer periods of time unless I nursed him in public. I am not opposed to this but he is getting bigger and it is getting harder, plus the boy does not like hates the nursing cover. Whenever we were hanging out with friends or family I would have to go to another room to feed him, plus I was the only one who could put him down for the night and feed him during the occasional nights when he would wake up. Sigh.

We tried different bottles, different nipples, different nipple flows, different temperatures, different feeding positions, just pumped milk, different times of the day…you name it, we probably tried it. Some things seemed to work for a while, but then quickly stopped working. I had tried to do a bottle bootcamp before but I would always end up nursing Aedan after each feeding because I knew he hadn’t had enough to eat and I didn’t want to mess up his great night sleeping. Well over last weekend Jon and I decided enough was enough. It was time for some serious bottle bootcamp. As in bottle or nothing for 3 days straight. We planned a time when Jon was in town since we figured the nights would be rough. It also happened be a time when my parents were in town which turned out to be perfect. My mom spent 2 days helping out and I could not have done it without her!

Day One (Tuesday): Jon tried to give Aedan a bottle for his first feeding. Aedan is always in a great mood when he wakes up and he usually isn’t very hungry (even when I am nursing him) so of course he just smiled and cooed while playing with the bottle. After Jon went to work I finally got him to take a few ounces. My mom came over later in the morning and we spent the day trying to get Aedan to take a bottle. He actually did much better then I thought he would. He took about 3-4 ounces at each feeding. I figured he needed about 6 ounces so I knew he wasn’t getting quite enough but he was in a great mood all day. He went down for the night right at his bed time. Jon and I figured he would be up during the night since he hadn’t had a lot to eat all day. I thought he would be up more than once, but he only woke up once around 12:30. He drank 3 ounces and went straight back to sleep.

Day Two (Wednesday): Aedan didn’t take much at his first feeding as usual but during all the rest of the feedings he did great. I had a work meeting that morning so my mom watched him for me. It was so nice to not have to worry about Aedan being super hungry and cranky because I was not home by his next feeding. What a relief! He went to bed that night right on time and slept through to his new normal wake time (which is now 7:45, yay!).

Day Three (Thursday): Aedan took a bottle really well. He still only had about 4.5 ounces in the morning but the other feedings were closer to 6 ounces. He did wake up around 5:30am, but Jon just went in and patted him back to sleep (he had gotten some vaccines that day so maybe that caused him to wake up early).

Day Four (Friday): Aedan is still taking a bottle pretty well. He put up a little bit of a fight when Jon started to give him a bottle instead of me but he calmed down and finished the bottle just fine.

I was going to go back to nursing him first thing in the morning and right before bed today, but it has been easier to just give bottles. I am able to pump enough the night before and in the morning before he wakes up to make almost 3 bottles. Plus at before bed Aedan used to nurse for sooo long. I knew he was mostly just sucking and not really eating, but since I was only nursing I was afraid he needed to eat more before bed so I would just let him keep nursing…talk about a bad habit! Now he takes a big bottle (7.5 ounces) after his bath then we read a book or just snuggle before we put him down for the night. It is so nice to know that when he starts fussing it is because he is tired and not because he needs more to eat.

It looks like we survived bottle bootcamp! What a great feeling!! We will probably go back to nursing a couple of times a day, and using bottles for the other feedings but it is great to know  that he can take bottles all day if he needs to. Plus it is nice to know we will be able to put the excessive amount of frozen pumped milk in our freezer to good use, even though right now I am able to keep up with him plus some extra.

-Lauren-

4 Months Old

Look who is 4 months old!!

 

Aedan, here is what you have been up to:

• You weigh 16lbs and 15oz and are 24.5 inches long.
• You are wearing size 3 diapers and size 3-6 month clothes (and some size 6 month clothes) and I am pretty sure the onesie in your picture is a 9 month!
• You are still sleeping great most nights from 8pm-7/7:30am. We had a few rough nights were you woke up hungry at either 3ish or 5ish. We just switched you to eating every 3.5 hours and you started sleeping through the night again which made mommy very happy!
• You still love to sit in your bouncy seat. We put you on the ottoman so you can be eye level with us and you just smile and talk to us the whole time.
• You started taking great naps again (usually 2 long naps and a short nap everyday) now that we put you on your tummy to sleep.
• You have started to bring everything to you mouth, the rings on your playmat, your burp cloth, your lovey and your hand if you have nothing else.
• You love when people talk to you, and if we stop you start “talking” louder until we pay attention to you again.
• You don’t like loud noises at all. In fact if someone sneezes loudly you get all worked up but you are getting better about being too sensitive. We may need to buy you baby headphones. :)
• We started giving you rice cereal once or twice a day. You are not a fan of the plain rice cereal but when we mix in the apple rice cereal you love it.
• You laugh whenever Daddy talks to you in a funny voice or Mommy swings you up and down or tickles you.
• I think your most ticklish spot might be your neck. Every time we put a shirt over your head you laugh and squirm.
• You have really started to notice all your toys, patterns on blankets and pictures in books.
• You rolled over (tummy to back) about 10 times in a row earlier this month but since then you don’t seem to want to roll anymore. You are fine on your back or tummy at play time. We aren’t too worried, I’m pretty sure you will know how to roll over before you go to high school. :)

You have grown up so much already. We are loving learning more and more about you everyday. We love you baby boy!

-Lauren-

Things We Love Part 4

Aedan and I are back with things we have loved this last month.

I talked about this in a previous post, but I love love love my Baby KTan carrier. Aedan was weighing in at 16 lbs at 3 months so carrying him around was getting hard. The carrier is super comfortable and easy to put on. I use it at least once a day.

Aedan has discovered mirrors this month and he loves to look at himself and whoever is holding him. He has a little mirror above his playmat and he just stares at it and coos the whole time. When I am walking around the house with him (usually in the carrier) we will stop in front of the mirrors and he just can’t help smiling at himself.

Loveyes have also become a hit at our house. Aedan used to love hanging onto rings, but now he gets more excited when I give him his lovey. I think he likes that he can grab it with both hands. He usually tries to stick it in his month, but then he realizes it doesn’t tastes so good.

Aedan has also really started to like looking at books. It is so cute, he studies the pictures and even likes to hold onto the cardboard pages.

And since we started bottle bootcamp this week (more on that later this week) we are also loving our new bottle warmer. I never really thought we would need a bottle warmer and since Aedan quit taking bottles we definitely didn’t need one. But now that we seem to be getting back on track it is super nice to just drop the bottle in and push the start button vs fill a mug up with water, heat it up in the microwave, put the bottle in the mug and wait for it to get warm but not too hot.

 

 

 

 

-Lauren-

One Year Ago Today…

Jon and I had just gotten back the day before from a great trip to South Padre. Jon had a job early that morning and while he was making breakfast I took a pregnancy test. I had a gut feeling it was going to be positive and when it turned positive right away I was so excited.

One year ago today we found out that this little guy was joining our family. We are so blessed and happy.

 

-Lauren-

Trip to the Country

We just got back from visiting Jon’s family out in Whitehouse TX. Jon’s parents live out on a few acres and have a whole slew of animals. Hiro usually has a blast out there, but this year the 3 dogs that my in-laws have were a little territorial and didn’t let him into their little group so Hiro spent most of the weekend inside with us. He did get spend the whole night on the bed with us both nights. He could be the worlds worst bed hog! Usually we only let him get up with us before we turn out the lights but we had to share a room with Aedan and we didn’t want Hiro wondering around the room all night with his nails tapping on the wood floor (I want wood floors in our house but I’m not sure I want to listen to that sound all the time).

Aedan did pretty well. He still doesn’t like his carseat too much, but he is getting better. He eats about every 3.5 hours so we still had to stop and feed him mid-trip. I am looking forward to when he doesn’t eat as often and we won’t have to stop for 30 minutes for him to eat. There was a lot going on all weekend so I think Aedan got a little over stimulated and was pretty difficult to put down to sleep at night but he slept well and took good naps. Hopefully we will get back on track now that we are back home tonight.

Aedan did get to try out a new toy from his Mama (Jon’s mom). I was surprised at how much he liked the little toys on the tray. He learned pretty fast how to tap the buttons to make the lights and sounds come on. Such a grown up boy! He is still learning that he can make it bounce. He gets a huge smile when I bounce him in it so I am sure once he gets it he will love it. Oh and he does have a little more hair than it looks like in the picture, it is just super white blonde. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have also started him on some rice cereal a couple of times a day. He does not love it, but we are working on it. Hopefully in a few weeks we will officially start introducing solids. I’m pretty sure this face is saying “seriously you want me to eat this?!?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a good weekend but it is always nice to get home. My parents are coming in town today and we have a big week planned, including some serious “bottle boot camp”. For now we are relaxing at home watching the World Cup Final will some good friends.

-Lauren-

Tummy Sleeper

Aedan has been a great night time sleeper since about 6 weeks. He now sleeps from about 8pm to 7/7:30am and always wakes up cooing and smiling. His naps were great to until he hit 2 months (literally the day he was 2 months old). Then our house was visited invaded by the 45 minute nap intruder. He would wake up exactly 45 minutes after falling asleep at every nap. He was super cranky and it made for very long days. Then a couple of weeks ago some of his naps were becoming only 30 minutes long. When I would go in an get him mid nap, he would almost always close his eyes and seem to fall back asleep until I tried to put him back in his crib. As soon as I laid him on his back his eyes would open and he would start squirming around.

I have Aedan on a eat/play/sleep routine throughout the day and I didn’t think he was getting overtired (which can cause short naps) since I am pretty sure his optimal wake time is about 1.5 hours. I did realize that I hadn’t been doing a wind down routine before naps. Instead I was just taking him straight from playing to rock for a couple of minutes and then to bed. Now we slow things down and I carry him around in the carrier or we bounce on the yoga ball  for a few minutes before going down for a nap. That seemed to help a little bit, but he was still waking up at 45 minutes.

Then a few weekends ago Jon was putting him down for a nap and he noticed that Aedan seemed really uncomfortable on his back. We have know he has had some reflux issues since he was born but we hoped he would grow out of it quickly. Since he has always eaten fine and gained weight we weren’t very worried. Well a few weeks ago we decided to take Aedan to the doctor because we felt like his reflux wasn’t getting any better, in fact it seemed to be getting worse. The doctor agreed with us and said that sometimes reflux can get worse around his age because they become more active. So we got him on some medicine and I am happy to say it seems to really be helping.

Since Aedan seemed so uncomfortable on his back, Jon put him on his stomach for a nap and he slept for about an hour (we had to wake him up because we were heading to a friend’s house to watch a World Cup game). We continued to put him on his stomach for his naps the whole weekend and at first we would hear him make some noise at the 45 minute mark but usually by the time we would go to his room he would be back asleep. Now he is usually taking 1.5 naps and a few 2 hour naps even. He is so much happier during the day because he is getting enough sleep.

I’m so glad we have been able to figure his nap issues. I think it is a combination of the reflux medicine and sleeping on his stomach. We have a much happier baby now (except when we try to give him a bottle…that is still not happening, any advice??).

-Lauren-

Bridesmaid Dress(es)

My good friend Unjoo is getting married in September and I am so exited for her. All the girls in my small group are going to be in the wedding party and she is letting us pick the style of our bridesmaid dresses. How fun is that! Looking back I should have done that with my bridesmaids. Anyway these are the four dresses I have to choose from.

1.

2.

 

3.

4.

We are getting them in black. I think I am leaning towards dress 3 or 4. I’m planning on going to try them on next week. I’m just hoping my breastfeeding sized chest doesn’t disappear after I order the dress or I may be in search for a padded bra before the wedding. :)

-Lauren-

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! We’re are having a pretty lazy day around here. Usually we head to Plano for the 4th to celebrate with my family and some good friends. My parents have been getting together with the same group of friends for the 4th since my mom met the other women in grad school before I was born. I have only missed a few 4th of July parties in my life and I am sad that we had to miss this one. We are heading to Tyler to see Jon’s parents on Thursday and we thought it would be too much traveling for Aedan to be gone two weekends in a row. We are are definitely planning on going to Plano next summer and I am sure Aedan will have a blast.

Today we are hoping to get some cleaning and yard work done and then maybe we will enjoy watching fireworks from our roof after Aedan goes to bed (I’m hoping he will sleep through all the fireworks).

Aedan wanted to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July!!

 

-Lauren-

P.S. Nonnie, the shorts you got him to go with this outfit are too small already! He is getting so big!haha.

Growth Spurt Come and Gone

Wednesday night Aedan woke up at 4am, which hasn’t happened in weeks. I went in his room and tried to rock him a little bit, but it was pretty clear he was starving so I feed him and he went back to sleep. Then I heard him awake again at 6am. I really didn’t want to get him up at 6 since I had just put him back down around 4:45 so I rocked him back to sleep pretty quickly and went back to bed. He woke up at his normal 7am time and Jon went to get him to change his diaper and bring him to me. He said his diaper was super full and his pjs were wet. Poor guy, that is probably why he woke up at 6.

Aedan woke up early from his morning naps and since he has been taking great naps lately (more on that in another post) I figured he was hungry and feed him. He nurse forever at every feeding and even had an extra feeding by the time the day was over. I was feeling pretty tired so when he went down for his late afternoon nap, Jon and I laid down for a nap too. We figured he would be up in 45min or an hour so we didn’t set any alarms or anything. Well I guess his growth spurt ended because he slept for a little over 2 hours. It took a little bit longer to get him to go to bed, probably since he slept so late in the afternoon. I am just hoping that the growth spurt is over and he doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night again for awhile.

-Lauren-