currently

FEELING tired, from lack of sleep. Levi hasn't been sleeping great as he is getting over another ear infection :( so that means mommy doesn't get much sleep either. I should probably be in bed right now, but oh well I guess.

HOPING that Levi feels better soon. I want my happy little monster back.

LISTENING to Paul talk on the phone.

EXCITED for a fun weekend... Hancock Expo/Craft Sale uptown tomorrow at the school, and Sunday bringing Levi out to the farm in his costume to take some pics with his cousins.

WANTING an ice cream mini, but it's too late now so I better skip it.

THINKING about how I can get myself motivated to lose these last 10 pounds that don't want to go away...contemplating Weight Watchers, but I don't want to pay to go to the meetings. I am cheap.

That's all I got, so I am off to bed. For a few hours anyway.

new trick

Levi is pulling up on everything now!! Once he figured it out, there is no stopping him! We are going to have our hands full! It's so fun to see him learning all these new things. When he gets himself up, he is always so proud of himself, and he'll look at me with this goofy grin like 'Look what I did mom!!' It makes me so thankful that I am able to be home a couple days with him instead of working full time. We have our struggles financially, but Paul knows how much it means to me and we make it work.

sweet potatoes!

Sweet potatoes were a hit from the first bite! LOVED them! They came from Grandpa Jeff's garden, so of course they were good! :) I couldn't get the spoon in his mouth fast enough!

The adorable Halloween bib was made by Great-Grandma Karen! These are my favorite types of bib because they cover a lot, and he can't pull them off.

Feed me already!!

Mmmm! Lovin' every last bite!

Next up....green beans!

avocado!

Avocado wasn't an immediate hit. The first night he wasn't crazy about it unless I mixed it with the oatmeal cereal....same with the second night. On nights three and four though, he scarfed it down! So I am going to call it a success!

Hmmm....not so sure about this stuff...

Next up....sweet potatoes!

squash!

Levi's first taste of actual baby food, not just rice or oatmeal cereal, was squash! We started on Tuesday night after we got the ok at his check-up that day. We'll be working our way through the veggies and fruits, one for 4 days before we try another. Just to make sure he doesn't have a reaction to any. I'm fairly certain he'll be fine, since neither Paul nor I have any allergies to foods.

Daddy gave him his first few bites so mommy could take a few pics! He wasn't super excited about it. But he didn't hate it. I don't think he exactly *liked* it, but he ate it. He did better with it mixed into his cereal, probably not quite as strong that way! The next few days were the same thing, not crazy about it, but he ate it.

 

Next up: Avocado! I'm going try and get pics of his reactions to each new thing we try!

Levi's 6 month pictures!

We had Levi's 6 month pictures taken by Stephanie Foto in Morris, and I just got the cd back yesterday. They turned out cute! I think they would have been better if Levi would have cooperated a little more, but what can you expect from an almost-6-month-old?! :) He didn't cry or anything, just didn't want to sit still! Surprise, surprise!! Ha! Here are some of my favorites!

 

All images copyright Stephanie Foto

6 months!!

I can't believe my little booger is already 6 months old!! Where did it go?! I know I probably say that every month, but it's true. Half a year has gone by since we drove to the hospital knowing that our lives would never be the same. I don't even remember what life was like without Levi. We just love him so much!!

Lots has happened this month. Lots of learning new things, lots of changes, and just all in all BUSY!

 

 At 6 months::

18 lb 9.5 oz (68th percentile)

28 3/4 inches tall (99th percentile)

size 3 dipes, moving to size 4 soon

In size 9 month clothes...still  a few 6 month I can squeeze him in to, but not many. depends on the brand

Completely on the bottle now...read my post from last week if you're interested in knowing how that came about. Kind of a long story. Tougher on mommy than Levi, I think.

We have been giving him oatmeal cereal for the past few weeks, and he likes that a lot better than the rice I think. Also, he has been getting it twice a day...around noon, then usually between 5:30-6:00.

JUST started on baby food tonight, after getting the ok from Dr. M at his 6 month check up today. Tried squash, and he didn't mind it, but didn't seem overly thrilled either. I will do another post with some pics once I get them uploaded! I am planning on making my own baby food, mostly to save on the cost, and also I just like the idea of it being more natural.

Moving, moving, moving!!! He started with a belly crawl at the beginning of this month, pulling forward with his hands and pushing with his feet...he's got that mastered and can get where he wants faster than you expect! Just the last few days he's started taking more steps on his hands and knees before dropping to his tummy and scooting. 

In regard to the last item, he is in to EVERYTHING!! Oh my goodness I have a strong feeling we are going to have our hands FULL. Ha! Payback, right mom!! :) anything that is not a toy is by far more interesting than said toy...for example: the remote, any sort of cord, the scale in the bathroom, the bathroom rug, framed pictures on the floor that I need to re-locate, etc.

Pulled up to his knees in the crib a few days ago, so we lowered the mattress!

Sleeping has been getting better, slowly but surely. We go upstairs for bedtime around 7-7:30 and he is usually asleep by 7:30-8, and he'll sleep until anywhere from 1-3 on a normal night, take a 4 oz bottle, then back to sleep either in his crib until 4:30-5:00 or with us until 5-5:30. Lately he has been waking up crying, and I think he has been having tummy aches. He sometimes gets a little constipated with the formula and cereal. At his check-up today, Dr. M told me he should be old enough that he doesn't need to be eating at night anymore, and he's most likely just waking up out of habit. She said to try daddy going in there instead of mommy, and that it might get worse before it gets better. SO. We'll see how that goes. We're going to wait a couple nights and see if having more baby food helps first.

Still on the subject of sleeping, he's been doing better when I lay him down in his crib too. If he wakes up, he'll just snuggle with his blanket and go back to sleep. I kind of love it that he snuggles with his blankie...it's so cute!

Naps GREAT at daycare. At home? Not so much. Grr. We'll get it though. Just have to be persistent. I try to do things the same as his schedule there, but that doesn't always happen.

Sits up all by himself! Just started this past week. And he can get from sitting to his tummy without doing a nose-dive too now! :)

Still no teeth! Hopefully soon. We've been saying that for the last couple months, but I have a feeling this will be the month! 

Levi got his first ear infection this month, it was actually a week or so after he turned 5 months. He did great taking the meds, he was on them for 10 days. It was when the weather was being goofy, going from cold and windy one day, to 80 degrees the next! His cousin Aaron, and 2nd cousin Ruth also had ear infections at the same time!

LOVES being outside!

We just moved up from the sponge at bath time to the blow-up ducky tub! He seems to like it. But he still tries to climb out, mostly because he just can't SIT STILL! :) He likes to splash. Fascinated with running water too...I turn the faucet on and he just wants to play with it! Such a goofball!

I think that about covers it, so I'll end with some pictures from the past month!

more pumpkin pics!

The other night I took Levi outside to get a few pics of him in the leaves with his big pumpkin from Grandpa Jeff. He LOVED all the leaves!! It was pretty funny. He kept wanting to dive at them when I sat him up. Needless to say he was nice and dirty after that! I got a few cute ones!

tough decisions

Well it may not seem tough to some people, but it was tough for me! If you don't want to read about why I stopped breastfeeding, you might want to skip this post...

When Levi was born I knew that I wanted to breastfeed, but I didn't realize how hard it would be. We had a tough first couple of weeks. Levi had a tongue-tie when he was born, so he didn't have the greatest latch right off the bat, and my nips got really sore and cracked even though I was using lanolin. That, along with worrying too much about things that I realize now were not such a big deal, made for quite a few tears on my part. It didn't help that we went through two rounds of meds for thrush. NOT fun. I thought about quitting a lot, but there was always something telling me to keep going. Like I knew I would regret it if I did. So we went week by week, and eventually it did get easier. Levi got his tongue clipped, so he was able to latch on better, and I got more comfortable with everything. I actually really enjoyed it. I loved having that bond and feeling so close to him.

Levi never really had a problem taking the bottle, so when he went to daycare at six weeks when I went back to work part time, it didn't bother him. I pumped and froze the breastmilk, which wasn't a lot of fun, but it's what I had to do. So from about 2 months until recently, it was pretty smooth sailing.

When Levi was about five months is when things started to get upset. My supply dropped a bit when I was pumping, so we decided to mix a little bit of formula with the breastmilk to make it go further. It didn't seem to bother him. Right about that time, we switched him up to a medium-flow nipple on the bottle. He seemed fine with that, too. All was mostly normal for about a week, then he decided that he didn't want to take the bottle anymore. He would go all day at daycare and only drink 3-4 oz, then when we got home, he was so hungry he'd just pull at me until we sat down to nurse. Up until then, I had been giving him a bottle at night on days I worked, since when I pumped I didn't feel like I had enough for him when I got home. That was working well until he didn't want to take it anymore. And when he wasn't eating during the day very well, he would wake up every few hours and want to eat at night to make up for it.

We tried different bottles, with different nipples, straight breastmilk without the formula...nothing seemed to make a difference. Then one day Michele (daycare mom) tried straight formula, just to see if he would take it because she knew he had to be getting hungry. He drank 4 oz right away. So she called me at work to make sure that was ok to give him straight formula, and I told her to go for it as long as he was eating something. So we figure he associated the breastmilk to me, and he didn't want to take it in a bottle. I was actually sort of happy, because I thought I could stop pumping, and still nurse in the mornings and at night. Not so much. Levi didn't want to take a bottle from me whatsoever. Which means I would have had to pump at work to keep  my supply up in order to nurse him at home, but if he wouldn't take it in a bottle at daycare it would be going to waste. There was really no simple solution.

So after lots of talking with Paul, my mom, and Paul's mom, I just decided to stop. My goal was 6 months, and I almost made that, even though I probably would have gone awhile longer if it worked out. I never thought it would be so hard to stop. I know he will grow and be healthy on formula as well, but it's the closeness and cuddle time that I will miss the most. It was the hardest thing ever to have to try and get him the bottle when all he wanted to do was nurse, and that's really all I wanted to do to. I still wonder if I did the right thing, or if I should have tried harder to figure something else out. Everyone told me it would be the best for him in the long run to just have one option. No turning back now, I just have to trust that I made the right decision. He seems to be adjusting fine after the first couple days, so that helps too.

Sorry this got super long. I just felt like I wanted to write (or type) it down somewhere so I remember how I felt at the time. Hopefully I didn't forget too much.

currently

FEELING tired. sore. achy. I guess that's what shopping all morning and being on your feet most of the day will do.

HOPING that harvest goes well and is done before too late this year. So far so good.

NEEDING a massage...my neck and shoulders are so tight. Pretty sure it is from always having a munchkin in my arms.

WISHING that money grew on trees. Ha.

LOVING all the new things that Levi is learning lately. Blowing bubbles, putting his paci back in his own mouth, up on all fours, scooting/army crawling to get where he wants, and just today he starting lifting his butt up so he'll be on just his hands and feet. He is such a goof. Love that little booger.

WORRYING about weaning Levi from nursing. I was planning on doing it at 6 months, but I am having second thoughts at times. It doesn't help that he won't take a bottle from me anymore. Apparently he wised up and decided that I want the real deal from mom! That is a whole nother topic that I will probably end up going into more detail on in his 6 month post. Or not. Depends if it's resolved and if I remember. Ha.

WONDERING if I will ever lose these last 10 pounds and feel like I look good again. Hopefully this winter if Paul is home more to watch Levi I can get some workouts in. My biggest problem is watching what I eat. I try, but it's so hard!! I have a love/hate relationship with food. I have a crappy metabolism too, always have. Aaaanyways....

EXCITED for Levi's 6 month pictures on Tuesday!!! Stephanie Foto from Morris is going to be taking them. From what I've seen, she does a great job. Hopefully he'll cooperate and not be a cranky pants! My mom is going to come with so that will be nice too. I will share them as soon as I get the cd I'm sure!