Xander: 13 Weeks Old

It's amazing how much Xander can change day to day. This week alone we've seen some serious milestones. His first real belly laugh -- melts a momma's heart!! -- and he has started actually playing with his toys. He grabs them and puts them in his mouth -- yum!

His first real laugh was during his bathtime on Monday. Can you say FISHY! The boy loves bathtime. Seriously. He just giggles and coos the whole time. Unfortunately, that means he is less than happy with us when it's time to come out of the water. I guess he doesn't realize that too much of a good thing leads to pruney, old man looking skin. He screams and screams until he's all dry and warm in his 'jammies. Of course, that has me thinking part of the problem is that he's cold after leaving the warm water, but we try to keep him wrapped in the big fluffy towel, so who knows... such a cutie.

We took his 3 month photos today with Andrea. He did so good! I can't wait to see them. We also went to Gymboree today with daddy. He really enjoys it and is meeting lots of new friends like Patrick and Kenya. I've realized though that while I see these people twice per week, I have no idea what the moms' names are in class...just the babies. Mike compares it to the dog park where you know the dogs but not the owners. So sad. I'm making it a point this coming week to actually trade names with the moms...I can't be the only one lacking in that department!

This was a good week. We were all fighting colds, but Xander has come out like a champ with just a little bit of sneezing and coughing. Not even that fussy - yay!

We've still just been sampling formulas here and there to see if he likes the taste or reacts poorly to it. Looks like we'll probably use Similac Advanced (Early Shield) once the time comes to use formula on a regular basis. Guessing that will be at least a few more weeks.

Well, as Xander and daddy are working on going to bed...it's already 8:30pm here and we have church tomorrow, momma is relaxing with a cup of tea. Enjoy!

xoxo-
V

Xander: 12 weeks old!

Well, we've made it to 12 weeks and Xander is absolutely thriving. He is getting bigger everyday and is constantly amazing me with his new milestones. He's started holding on to objects now and putting things in his mouth. It's pretty cute!

Big thing today - formula! We just tried our first 4oz of formula and, what do you know, the little guy didn't bat an eye! He went straight from the formula to an extra oz of breastmilk too, so despite the awful smell (at least I think it smells awful!), he apparently can't tell the difference (or doesn't care). Yay! This makes me feel so much better about attempting to kill my supply and transition him to formula. It's going to take several weeks, I think, for my supply to totally diminish and then I still have about 500+oz frozen in the deep freezer that we'll need to get through, but we're on our way and I'm excited! And a bit sad. But excited! I wish I hadn't had so many issues with infections, etc. because my supply is obviously not a problem, and I would love to keep going to 6 months if it wasn't so painful. Bah...

Gymboree...this is week 3. Today we're doing a foot print project. Should be fun to compare his foot size to the one taken in the hospital when he was born.

Pics to come.

xoxo -
V

Xander: Weeks 10 and 11

Sorry for the lack of posting. Where does time go!?!

Week 10 was Xander's first trip to Gymboree. We now go on Mondays and Saturdays, and he seems to reallyu enjoy it. It's brightly colored, the teacher has a nice loud voice and there are lots of other babies to stare at lovingly and coo with. Who wouldn't be happy! :) We're taking the Saturday class with Sean and Matthew too, so it's nice to see how everyone has grown each week.

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Xander also started music class on Thursdays with Grandma Terri. Music Together seems like a great program but Xander fell asleep right in the middle of his first class. This was totally excused since he is BY FAR the youngest participant (age range is 3 mo to 2 years), but we couldn't help but laugh. Apparently this child can sleep through anything.

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Only a few weeks after Christmas, we finally exchanged Christmas presents with Matthew and Sean too. These pics are clearly different than the Halloween ones...everyone is getting so big!

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Wonderful new product...the Woombie! This thing is the best swaddle yet because he can not pull an "Incredible Hulk" and bust out of it. So that means no hitting himself in the head and waking up crying. I think it's saving us. That being said, he can bring his hands up to his face higher than in other swaddles and every morning at around 4-5am X starts looking to put something in his mouth. We catch him sucking on his hands though the Woombie in the monitor. This is obviously tough to do, so he gets a bit agitated in his sleep. If I get in there before he's actually awake and stick the popper in then we can sleep til about 6 or 6:30 which is heaven now. Yay!

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Momma promises to be better about posting. Especially now that we have the video camera which is AWESOME!

xoxo
V

Happy New Year!

We woke up on New Year's Day and had Pajama Brunch at Firefly with our friends (John and Jill and Mike and Stephanie) and my mom. Xander slept through the whole brunch. Guess he didn't like the idea of $1 bloody marys and free coffee.

New Year's Day Xander slept til 7:30am. Thought it was a fluke since Aunt Carmen and Grandma Terri kept him up (albeit asleep on their laps) until after midnight while we were across the street, but nope. He's still sleeping lots and going up to 11 hours between bottle now at night.

Yay!

Good-bye 2009!

Well, the year (the decade!) is winding down and I can't help but look back and reminisce. So many changes! From start to finish 2009 was definitely more ups than downs since the focus was primarily on being pregnant and bringing Xander into this world and spending the last 2+ months learning how to be parents. All changes, all challenging and all absolutely wonderful. So I can't help but say goodbye to 2009 and only hope that 2010 is even 1/2 as good. With that in mind, some resolutions:

(i) I need to lose the baby weight. Seriously. I'd like to be back in my clothes by April and running the Marine Corp marathon in October.

(ii) I need to learn more children's songs and nursery rhymes. How is it possible to not remember the rhyming tunes of my childhood!?! Seriously. Mike can't help but shake his head at my mom and I as we attempt to sing songs like "BINGO" "Old McDonald" and "This Old Man" to X with half of the words made up on the spot.

(iii) I need/want to spend more time with my husband. Alone. We try to get out for date night and we try to spend some time each night talking before bed, but it's hard. We're tired. And we have so much going on. My mom has been wonderful about encouraging us to get out without Xander for dinner or a movie. Thank you! Now we just need to actually do it more often in 2010. I whole heartedly believe that the parents have to be strong and connected in order to build the framework for the family and the home. So Xander...you have to stay home sometimes. :)

So those are my resolutions. And now a toast...to my friends and loved ones. May your 2010 bring you happiness and health and blessings beyond your imagination.

See you in the new year!

Cheers,
Vicky

Eight is GREAT!

Okay, so perhaps yesterday's excitement was a bit premature because, ladies & gentleman, our little man just woke up after 8 (yes, 8) hours between feedings! 8:30pm and 4:30pm -- count it! :) And the nice thing is that last night he was actually asleep by about 9pm and we were actually asleep by about 10pm (darn pumping), which means we've gotten 6.5 hours of sleep. So exciting!

Here's a pic from this morning. Still with oily hair, so we'd just attempted to wash it for the 4th time in 2 days! Lesson learned -- do not use Aquafor on baby hair!! Seriously.




xoxo-
V

Seven is HEAVEN!

Xander went 7 whole hours between feedings last night. That's a record! He had a bottle at 8:30pm and didn't wake up for his next one until 3:30pm. Now the caveat, he didn't actually go to bed until about 9:30pm. We're still working on that one. But we're so close to sleeping through the night that I just had to shine attention on our little man.

Now if I could just go without having to pump in the middle of the night -- that would be awesome! But at least the end is in sight for my mom and Mike having to wake up.

Here's a pic of Xander from his day with Grandma yesterday. She has the cute lil' hat from tia carmen on him because we are working on getting rid of his cradle cap and I think he had olive oil on his head. Yum!



xoxo -

Vicky