Peter is 9 months

This past month has been the month where I have noticed the most changes in Peter in his short little life. He has made some huge developments lately and I am (obviously) loving them!

In the past week and a half, he has started using consanents. He started with "ba ba ba ba" and has now progressed to "ma ma ma". Love!! Spencer and I are now trying to get him to do "da da da da" too. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm sure it's next! He also loves to shake his head no all the time. He doesn't necessarily mean "no" when he does it but when he does it and I say "no no no" along with it, it just cracks him up.

He is pulling to stand on everything and is cruising on furniture, letting go of one thing and grabbing onto another. He can crawl up our steps with minimal assistance (though we are right behind him b/c it scares the crap out of me). He will only do it though if Spence is at the top of the stairs as he needs someone to cheer him on from the top. He is starting to walk holding onto our hands and wants to walk to us if he is standing up on something. He doesn't have enough balance to stand on his own yet, but I would guess that he'll be walking before Spencer did (SYT was 13 months).

We had his 9 month apt last Friday. He weighs 21lbs, 8oz. That's 77% for his age. The unfortunate part is that he is only 17% for height. Yep, he's a total chubster :) He loves to eat but for the most part, all he gets is fruits, veggies, beans, and a little meat (only in the past 2 weeks). It's not like he is getting a bunch of processed food at all. We don't even give him bread yet! His only processed food is cheerios, really. Apparently, I must have really high fat milk. Spence was also a chunk, but he was certainly longer so looked a little more balanced. I'm sure Peter will slim out some once he is walking. Is it terrible that I love his sweet, chubby, kissable thighs? I promise, I won't let him be a 90lb 4 year old (we had one in clinic two weeks ago- horrid. To me that verges on child abuse.), but, for now, I just love his sweet cheeks, belly, thighs and feet!!

For the most part, he is a great sleeper. He goes down by 7 every night and has zero problems falling asleep. He occasionally wakes up between 2-4 in the morning- I would say maybe 5 times per month? His normal wake up time is between 5:30 and 6:30.

He did get sick last week for two days. He had a fever, runny nose, really red cheeks, and just looked sick. He slept well throughout the whole illness, thankfully! Often when Spencer would get sick as a baby, he would be up a few times a night fussing and needing tylenol. Peter slept just fine and even napped well. We didn't take him to the doctor as he wasn't acting sick, and I made sure to clear him with the nephrologist to make sure he didn't need to get catheterized to check his urine for a kidney infection. They said since he had an obvious cold that I didn't need to. I'm glad as it was a really short, obviously viral illness that he is completely over now. I took him to work with me on Thursday morning to get some paperwork done, and he was sooo good. Thank God, my team all loves babies and my attending docs weren't mad at all!!

It's fun to be a mom to both my boys. I seriously thank God every day for them and count my blessings ALL the time.

Peter is 4 months old

Hey, sweet P! You are 4 months old. I would say I can't believe it, yet I remember so vividly the time flying by with your brother as well.

Peter is a very sweet, very smiley baby during the day. He will, of course, have occasional moments of fussiness, but, for the most part, is a sweet little guy. He is cooing and doing lots of "gahs" and "guhs". Just this a.m. I heard him making new noises with different high and low tones. He is definitely chattier than Spencer was at this age. He will say something and then wait for you to say something back and then make more noises, just like a "real" conversation. I love it! He is also full on laughing now and it's fabulous. He does it at random times and not always for the same reasons, so it's super fun if you happen to catch him in the act. He's starting to interact with toys and loves looking in the mirror too.

 

No rolling over yet and he doesn't seem interested in trying either. He will roll if he is already laying on his side but he certainly can't get from back to front or front to back. He did scootch around on his tummy the other day to look in a new direction. He is sitting well in the bumbo (as evidenced above) and likes the exersaucer at daycare. He's great in the car- it's a great sleep tool!

It's a shame he is in daycare all day as he, like so many babies, can get fussy in the evenings which is the only time we have with him. It's hard to have a baby who is happy when being held but fussy when out of our arms while we are trying to make dinner, attend to both boys' needs, talk to each other, and wind down from our work day in general. Don't get me wrong, I love holding the little guy, but holding babies and chopping veggies for dinner is a little, shall we say, tricky and, I'm certain, not advised by the American Academy of Pediatrics :)

Love these ears!!!!

He is gaining weight very well and growing in length too. No stats since drs apt is next week, but he is outgrowing clothes left and right. The other day I put him in a 6-12 month sleeper and it wasn't too big at all!! Yikes. He takes 3 5oz bottles of pumped breastmilk while at daycare and occasionally will take 1-2 more oz while there from the extra bottle we send. He nurses in the morning, in the evening twice and, lately, like crazy overnight. I'm amazed I'm keeping up with him to be honest!

See this smile? Are you madly in love? Yep, me too. Would you like to see it mulitple times overnight? Yea, me neither. It's hard to say whether or not he is in the 4 month wakeful period or if his reflux is getting worse, but his sleep for the past 12 days has been awful. He certainly has never been the greatest sleeper. He's only had one 8 hour stretch in his little life, most nights he is up 1-2 times to nurse (usually around 1 and then around 4). For the past 12 days, he has been up 3-4 times every single night fussy and not wanting to go back to bed unless he is nursed. Apparently this is not uncommon, and Spencer did this too for two weeks around this time. Not uncommon, but NOT appreciated either. I honestly can say that I have never, ever been as tired as I have been in the past two weeks.

 

He's always had reflux- very spitty, coughs when lying down, you can hear stuff gurgling around in his esophagus, etc, but it seems to be getting a bit worse lately. We started Prevacid this weekend (which takes about two weeks to really take effect). We'll see if this helps him over the next month and then decide if it is worth continuing. At night, we have noticed that he is often comfort nursing rather than really needing to nurse, and I think it is due to wanting to swallow/suck to get the burning from the reflux down as the pacifier is no longer cutting it and that used to be his soothing mechanism. I'm hoping that if we can cut down on the acid, he'll have an easier time at night when lying down. Only time will tell!

 

I feel badly as this post seems to be more negative than positive. I truly adore my sweet boy and wouldn't trade him for the world! We're just have a rough go right now which I don't want to sugar coat as I think people really appreciate knowing that other moms out there struggle with infants just as much as they do. Plus, as any mom will tell you, lack of sleep is incredibly wearing, and at some point in time, it's impossible to be smiley, perfect, happy pants when you are so gosh darn tired. This too shall pass- it did with Spence and it will with Peter. We're incredibly lucky overall, and all the goos, gahs, smiles, laughs, and bright eyed moments of wonder make up for everything else!

If you need any proof that my babies do not look alike at all, here it is! They really could not be more different. The only similar feature are their sweet noses :) (Click here for Spencer's 4 month pics to see how different their baby pics are)

Getting excited....

The past 4 days I have gotten to hold lots and lots of babies.  Babies at work, friend's babies, babies at a party, babies, babies, babies.  I'm not going to lie when I tell you that I am now just itching to hold the little guy that is taking up real estate in my tummy.  All these little ones are just so snuggly and cute and fit so perfectly in my arms.  They just look at you with those big eyes and smile and coo and are SO sweet. 

Right now I can't decide if 7 1/2 weeks is too long or too short before his arrival time.  Part of me wants it to be longer to get more done and to love on SYT just a bit longer before his world is changed and the other part of me is just crazy to get him out and have him with us in our family.  I want him fully developed and big and healthy, so 7-8 weeks would be perfect.  And I know that the time between now and then is just going to fly by. 

It's funny, two weeks ago I had no thoughts whatsoever about holding him, loving him, newborns, burp clothes, sleepers, nothing.  Now I'm like a crazy woman who cannot fathom life without this sweet boy that I haven't even met yet.  Just less than two months and I'm going to be a mom of TWO!  I just feel so blessed, blissful, and excited.  My heart is filled with joyful expectation.  Ahhhhh.............

Oh, and BTW, still no name.............

Welcome to the world, future Lilly lover!

Mom x 2 (now 3) had her baby last night. A darling baby girl. I let her tell you all the details but head on over and wish her well. I'm sure she'd love to hear from you!

Good News!

My cousin and his wife got married in Labor Day weekend of 07. They have been wanting a baby for awhile now, and we found out in December that they are pregnant with twins! Today we found out that they are having a boy and a girl. The ultrasound showed that the babies' hearts are in good working order and that the pregnancy is going as smoothly as possible. I am so thankful for this! At times it is very difficult to be a pediatric nurse and not worry constantly about friend's and family's pregnancies. On a daily basis I see all the things that could possibly go wrong, and I have a hard time knowing that people who are close to me could go through these things. What I choose to think about instead is that since we are a major medical center, I see the sickest of the sick, and MOST children are completely healthy and happy. Also, to the moms out there, children are incredibly resilient and make it through things that they shouldn't ever make it through, so don't let this post stress you out!! It's really just supposed to be a praise that C&A will have the first great-grandbabies in our family and we'll all get to meet them at his sister's wedding in September. I'm so so so happy right now!