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-