Recent picts

Happy New Year!

Hi, to all my faithful blog readers who did not abandon the blog due to inactivity. Hopefully this post will be a pleasant surprise! Well, Seth just turned 10 months and is growing like a weed. He is now pulling up on everything, and crawling around. One of his favorite things to do is to open and close doors repeatedly as well as take all of the toys and books off of the shelves. I'm trying to teach him to put them back on, but to no avail...I did have him "help" me clean his room before bed today and it made me feel really good. I'm starting a better routine with him now - up at 7am, nap at 10-12 (or 1), then another attempt at a nap at 2ish (though I haven't been successful the past few days) and down to bed at 6:30. This gives me an hour to clean, cook, facebook, etc before the hubby comes home. I hope you are all having a great new year!

Life in the Baby Lane

In the past month I've made it a point to go to as many baby play dates and activites as possible. This helps fill the gap that a few of my friends left when they skipped town, and it also gives Seth the opportunity to try many new things and spend time with other kids. It's beautiful to see how well he acts when there are other babies in the house. He was cuddling with his new friend Kaleb yesterday, and if you remember from before, he was holding hands at his first playdate ever. I think he's just an affectionate boy, I'm so in love with him!

Seth's First Play Date

I joined a group of stay at home mom's via meetup.com. Today was the first official "play date" and it was really fun seeing all the kids interact. At one point, a little 9 mo. old boy named Henry came up to Seth and smiled. Seth smiled back and when Henry reached out his arm so did Sethy. They held hands briefly and we were able to get a few pictures, though Seth started getting mesmerized by the camera as soon as it was taken out.

More pictures!

Seth found his hands this week, he's so cute! He's still kicking away a lot, I have a feeling if I had him on his tummy more he'd be crawling by now, but I'm not ready for that! He's growing too quickly! He is really a sweet baby, and I'm happy he has his daddy's temperament. Luke came home last night and wanted to play the baby a song before bed on the guitar, unbeknown to him Seth would go CRAZY over it. His eyes got really huge and then he started dancing wildly. It took an hour for him to calm down and go to sleep...cute, but I told Luke he can only play guitar for him in the morning from now on!

Cuter by the minute

I'm sure every mother has the "oh, my gosh, he's sooo stinkin' cute!" moments. I had several today. For the first time, he waved "bye bye" to his grandma. My mom has been teaching him to wave every time she leaves and today he mimiced her motion and tried to even wiggle his fingers. CUTE! Luke had him in the baby bjorn for the first time and it was so cute to see father and son together. Now, if I could get Luke to wear it for nine months, he may have some more sympathy for my pregnancy.... ;) He was great, though. Can't believe my baby has grown so much, one of these days I'll be sitting front row to his wedding...*sob* My baby!!

3 month update

It is hard to believe that Seth is already 12 weeks old! He has grown so much, and it's been fun getting to know his personality. He has the "super baby" smile now, which I love. Yesterday I took him to get his pictures done at Kiddie Kandids and at JCPenny Portraits. They turned out really cute. Seth has now added "hello" and "kitty" to his vocabulary. I can also tell he has pretty good comprehension because I will ask him "Seth, where is the kitty?" and he will look around and when he sees it (painted on the wall), he gets a big smile. This morning he actually cooed "kitty" (more like "ki - e"). Super cute.

Seth's Visit to the Doctor

Poor little Sethy was really fussy this past week. He was clawing at his face (self mutilating), and had tons of tiny bloody streaks everywhere from his little nails. His cheeks were red and bumpy and he had extremely dry skin. He also had puss in his left ear and it had a foul odor. After looking online I saw this indicated an ear infection, though it's rare for a baby this young to get it. So, I took him in and after some poking and prodding from the doctor (and some blood curdling screams from Seth), he said Seth did indeed have an ear infection. He also said that baby had eczema and told me to put hydrocortisone and lotion on it twice a day (which is why he was itching his face). So, after giving him his antibiotic and rubbing him down with lotions this morning I notice a drastic difference. His eyes aren't as swollen, there is less puss in his ear, and his cheeks are almost baby soft again! Praise the Lord! I guess it is true that baby's this young don't cry for no reason, we just though he was being feisty - turns out he was in pain. Poor baby!

Weekly Photos

Week 8
Week 7
Week 6
Week 5

My Baby is 8 Weeks Old!

Hard to believe two months has already flown by. Our little chunker sure has grown fast! He definitely has more of a personality now, cooing and smiling, grumpy face and grunting, and stealing our hearts every minute of the day. This month has been a lot easier than last, as there is finally some "reward" to the hard work. I have been garage saleing up a storm and have found some great deals on toys and outfits as well as a free power wheels dump truck (that he can't use quite yet...). Progress I've seen in month two:
1) Seth can hold his head up a lot better
2) Seth's personality has become quite a bit more noticible (my guess is that he is a meloncholy/phlagmatic as he loves to take naps, gets grumpy if fussed over, and likes his space)
3) Seth sleeps almost through the night - cluster feeding until about 8pm then out until 2am, feeding, then sleeps until about 6am
4) Diaper explosions are a lot less frequent - either mommy and daddy are getting the hang of it, or baby is taking it easy on us
5) Major growth spurt - I officially packed up 80% of his 0-3 month clothes and have moved on to 3-6 month range. The shocker was that the first time he wore his 3-6 month clothes, my friend commented that it didn't look like it would be fitting for that much longer!
P.S. For you doubters on the last blog - I'm going to have Luke video him saying (screaming) "hungy" one of these nights while I change his diaper and then I'll post it. There is no doubt about it! The other words are a little ify and haven't been consistent, but he definitely knows the word that gets him more food (his little swollen belly is proof of that)!

He Can Talk!

Well, that is the conclusion I have come to. A few weeks ago I was saying "hi, baby!" and he said "Hi!" back. I thought it was just a coincidence. Then, Luke was saying "hi, baby!" a few days ago, and baby said "Hi!" again. This morning he said "Dad" and what sounded like "I love you". The other phrases are when he cries, he says "hungy" (hungry) and "angy" (angry). He is seven weeks old today. I know it's a little young to be talking, but the more he does it, the more I'm convinced it's real and not just a coincidence that his coos sound like real words!

Settling In

Baby holding up his head
5 Week Picture

Life as a mom has now started to settle down. It is very true that your first month with baby goes by as sort of a blur because it's nothing more than survival mode - feed baby, change diapers, get baby to stop being fussy...all the while trying to remember to eat, comb your hair, and shower. These are the days of living in pajamas, avoiding the scale, and at least two loads of laundry daily. There are also a lot of rewards - getting your first smile from baby, watching him sleep (sometimes laughing while sleeping), see baby go from fussy to cooing, watching baby get big chubby cheeks and knowing that I had something to do with it. Some things I have learned the past 4 weeks:
1) Schedules - seems no matter how hard we try to get baby on a schedule he has his own...life became much easier when we just let him have his way on this
2) Nursing - a nightmare at first, very time consuming, but I know it's what is best for him, and how could I feel like a better mom then when I'm nursing?
3) Cluster feeding - something I wish I had known about before, last week he did this and I had no clue what was going on. Basically he was hungry all the time at night, no matter how much I nursed him. He seemed to want to nurse for two hours straight. Turns out he was trying to "stock up" so he could sleep longer at night - a very good thing. When I started feeding him instead of giving him his Nuk out of frusteration, or thinking I wasn't giving him enough milk he ended up sleeping 4-5 hours straight. He's been doing this pretty consistently the past few nights, nursing for a long time and then only getting up twice to feed. Pretty nice!

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