Reilly's 1st Christmas!

Reilly's first Christmas was SO much fun and went so well! We had three Christmas' to get to, my mom's house, my grandpa's house, and jeff's mom's house! He did great and for the most part stayed happy all day. Unfortunately the only nap he took was a 2 hour nap at 9:30am, so last night was a catastrophe. (So bad I turned off the monitor.. don't worry.. he got me back by SOAKING his bed..ew!) I think he got a little overstimulated, but it was so fun watching him open gifts and play with his cousins. He got so many gifts (too many!).. I let him have 5, the rest are in the closet and he will get them over time.

We hope everyone else had a great Christmas, or whichever holiday you celebrate!! Have a great new year.. I will be watching the ball drop with the baby monitor by my side. Woo..hoo.. :)

ps-Reilly has made up some pretty sweet dance moves, and is starting to add songs to them.. it's pretty funny. Of course his songs are just sing songy babbling, but they're hilarious!! I'll have to post videos once I get my camera back from Jeriann.

Sleep Training..

Not Rei.. me! I'm not sure what happened, or why it happened, but I have developed some strange sleeping habits, the biggest being that I now sleep curled up on the edge of the bed, practically hanging over spooning the mattress. It's weird, but Jeff loves it, he likes to gloat about how he has the whole bed to himself and he feels like he sleeps alone again. Meanwhile I am getting crappy sleep and back pain from my new weird habits and am trying to train myself to sleep ON the bed again!

While I was pregnant I made what I called a pillow fort.. and I think that's where it all started. I would use 4 king size, big, whatever they're called, pillows and put on behind me to keep me from rolling onto my back (NOT a side sleeper), one in front of me to keep me from rolling onto my stomach, one between my knees because my hips got so dang wide and would hurt after 15 minutes of side sleeping.. sometimes one under neath my ribs to support them, and usually with all of that I wouldn't even need a separate one for under my head. No.. this was not comfortable at all, but it was much worse without the fort. Naturally, with Jeff and my pillow fort taking up so much space, in addition to getting out of bed every 40 minutes to use the restroom I stayed pretty close to the side of the bed.

The came Reilly.. yeah, we co slept! Totally against it in the beginning, but it happened and it was awesome and I would do it again. We waited until he was old enough to move around in his sleep so I would feel comfortable sleeping with him and not suffocating him with him next to me.. until then he just slept on me. (Not all the time.. he did have a bassinet, but.. it was allowed.) Anyway.. being constantly alert of him, and my husbands creepy sleeping issue (don't touch him in his sleep he will wake up swinging! it's terrifying!) I would try to give Rei plenty of space.. pushing me to the end of the bed and giving my son enough space for 7 babies! Of course he was tiny and insisted on being cuddled up against me at all times, not to mention gravity, but the more he moved closer the more I moved away to give him space, thus half my body hanging over the side of the bed. Fabulous.

So.. that's my newest development. It's not exciting, I'm consciously trying to work on it by starting in the middle of the bed and moving back there anytime I wake up.. kind of weird. Thought I'd share.. has this happened to anyone else?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Christmas is so much more exciting this year having a little one to celebrate with! I had to stop myself from making "From Santa" labels for his gifts and making sure I wrapped things in different wrapping paper, can't wait for those years! Instead this year I figured.. eh, he doesn't know what Christmas is.. why not just give him his presents early? I have given him one, and if it weren't for Jeff not letting me, I probably would have given him them all! Mostly I am excited to start new holiday traditions!

We had our first family Christmas last week at my Dad and Rhonda's. They go to Kentucky every Christmas so we always celebrate a little bit early. It was funny watching him figure out that there were things underneath the paper as he opened his gifts, and in my family's true spirit- Reilly received toys that made noises and bounced around.
Here is a little video of him opening gifts:

Jeff came back from his San Diego trip a day early, so yesterday we got to have a family day. We took Rei to see Santa at the mall. He fell asleep on the way there, so I wasn't sure how it would go. We woke him up and let him look at some of the displays, just to get him excited, then handed him over to Santa. He did awesome, I fully expected, and not going to lie- kind of wanted him to cry so I could enter him into the contest for a shopping spree, mother of the year... he looked around a little unsure, but then, at no fault to my sisters and their constant paparazzi style pictures of him, he saw the camera and started smiling.

Reilly is continuing to grow and change a little bit each day. Today he was wearing his "Baby's First Christmas" outfit has little reindeer on the feet, he kept wiggling his feet and getting so excited about the reindeer moving around.. strange child that one. OH! AND! Every night before his bath we clean up his room, and I try to make it fun and pretend he is included when really, until today, he has just watched my take away his toys and say goodbye to each one. Today I was cleaning up his toys doing my usual "bye panda, bye ring stacker, bye..etc" and he dumped the toy bin back over and continued playing with them! So this should be an interesting little transition. Hmm.

Oh.. if anyone has any great advise on introducing water, I'd love to hear it! I tried with the bottle, but he expected milk and wasn't too stoked. We have some sippy type cups, but the require more sucking than he is capable of.. he takes it out of my cup, but.. that's not reasonable. So the more tips the merrier! :)

Quick 6 Month Update!

Ahh.. I am falling behind again! Lately has been so crazy with work, Reilly, going to Reno.. unpacking! Love taking quick trips, but I HATE unpacking! Reilly turned 6 months a week ago and I don't know who this kid is from one day to the next! He is doing so much so fast that I can't keep up, but I am loving every second of it!

As of late, Reilly has decided he is a construction worker. One of his Christmas gifts this year was the Fisher-Price laugh and learn (or whatever that line is called) tool bench, and it's hilarious! He can sit for so long and just push the buttons, try to pull the paint churner thing, and hit it with other toys. It does come with a little hammer, first thing he does is takes the hammer out of it's place, plays with it for a few seconds, then uses something else (Sophie for instance) to hit the tool bench. It is also fun seeing him switch from toy to toy and keep himself entertained. While I was getting ready this morning I sat him up in his room with his toys and then got ready in his bathroom and just watched him as he played, it's amazing to see him grow and see how much he has developed! Child development was one of my bigger focuses in college and I worked in the area for several years, but I'm still so amazed by it- I really think it's one of the most incredible and mysterious things in the world and can't get enough of it!

Last night was really interesting, in a not so great fashion. I'm wondering if my sweet little angel is becoming a bit manipulative. Haha! I'm sure not intentionally, he just does what he knows gets a response.. but last night was.. frustrating! He went to bed around 8 and then woke up around 11:30 for his first middle of the night feeding, so it was looking like it was going to be a 3 hour night (it's always a surprise, either 7 hours straight or every 3.. fun little game). He woke up again at 1:30 and I put him back to sleep, but THEN at 2:30ish he started making one little cry noise, and then waiting for 5-10 seconds, making another, and waiting.. and this went on for quite a while. He wasn't crying, just making sounds and waiting. After a while Jeff was done listening to it, he gets up early for work and doesn't like when I ignore Reilly's noises. I knew that Reilly was just trying to get me to go in there and he didn't need me. He had just been nursed an hour prior and wasn't even crying.. so I went into his room just so Jeff could sleep and he was in his bed LAUGHING!! I was not stoked about this.. now, I laugh, because thinking about it the whole thing was pretty funny, and that is pretty clever of him, but at the time I was not a fan! So he got what he wanted, I rocked him back to sleep. That child.

We are missing his gym class today because he is moving up to Level 2, which is during nap time.. yuck! But I'm really excited for that class now that he is sitting up a lot more, so I guess we'll see it on Saturday. He is moving so much! He sits up for.. as long as he wants to, rolls everywhere, I had to use his changing table strap for the first time yesterday because he will not stay in one place. You put him on his stomach-he switches to his back, put him on his back-and he switches to his stomach. He has also started moving himself around backwards-like.. backwards army crawling I guess, and he is trying SO hard to crawl, he gets up on his arms and then kicks his feet really fast with his knees in the ground, but doesn't get anywhere.. poor guy! As much as I'm not in a hurry for him to crawl, he can take his sweet time as far as I care, it would be fun to see him crawling around with my cousins twins on Christmas since they are around the same age.

I think that's it for now.. as usual I'm skipping out on SO much but am not great at keeping this bad boy updated, and need to fully utilize nap time for other things besides blogging. I put a few of his 6 month pictures in here, he was so funny while Christina was taking pictures.. he looooves when the camera flashes so she just got that thing going and it had his full attention.

Thanksgiving.

So I'm clearly scattered all over the place, but whatever.. that's just how it will have to be until I catch up on this bad boy!!

Thanksgiving was a little over a month ago, but I realized I never wrote about it, and probably should before I forget it! It was definitely not an easy 1st holiday to celebrate with Reilly, but hey.. live and learn right? We are still trying to come up with the best possible solution to celebrate holidays with three sets of grandparents in town. I think it would be best to just divide Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day between the three sets because I can't really enjoy a holiday driving around town stressed out to make it to each place in time and upset about not getting to spend quality time with each family. It seems incomplete, but.. Jeff would rather rush around than miss anyone on a holiday- so we will do that until he realizes he hates rushing around and changes to my way. :)

Reilly and I woke up that morning just in time to watch the parade, my favorite part of the day, and from the looks of things- his also, until he fell asleep sitting up on my lap!

Once he was up from his nap we got ready to go and our first stop was my dad's house at 2pm.

Jeff and Reilly.. watched the football game while Rhonda, Ashley, and I worked on dinner.. any Amy and Karen ran around taking pictures. So like them!

We ate dinner and then of course people starting passing out on every couch, I washed some dishes and then we were off to stop #2, Uncle Bob's house with my mom's side of the family. The had already eaten, but we just wanted to stop by and see everyone, especially the twins who are only a few months older than Reilly, so the closest thing to cousins his age he has right now.. until any of our combined 7 sisters get on it! Let's go ladies! :) We hung out there for almost an hour and then our final stop for the day.. Jeff's Mom's house! They had also already had dinner, but Jeff was ready for round two so he made a turkey sandwich, we visited for a little while, then took our exhausted little man home! Definitely a stressful day, we tried to enjoy it as much as we could though, but hopefully we come up with a better routine because I don't think it's fair to us, to Reilly, or to our families to get an dine and dash appearance from us!

Bring on the Calories!

Making baby food is so addicting! Every batch makes like 6 little containers of food, and he can't just have the same food all day long, so I have quite the collection gathering.

Reilly's new favorite, once squash, is now "Potatoes, Carrots, and Corn". So I thought I'd share the recipe. :)

2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup onion, chopped
2-3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium sized potato (8oz), sliced into little squares
2 tbsp water or vegetable stock
1/3 cup of corn
1-2 tbsp milk

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then saute the onions for 1 minute. Add the carrots and saute for another 5 minutes. Add the potato and water/veg stock (i used water.. veg stock takes too long to make for my liking right now.. and I used a whole lot more water than it called for.. just kept adding it when it looked like it was getting dry). Cover and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes. Then stir in the corn and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the milk and puree.

I also didn't add the milk before puree'ing, because I don't want to put his food in the microwave with breast milk in it and kill the milk's nutrients. Took a little bite.. SO good! Going to have to try it as a mash potato recipe. :)


I'd hoped that the butter would give him a few extra calories to get through the night, as I was going to see Harry Potter at midnight and didn't want Rei to be too rough on Jeff. Umm.. nope, instead he woke up at midnight ready to play and talked Jeff's ear off until 2am, until Jeff just put him in his crib and let him talk himself to sleep. Oops.

Zombieland!

We're there! That movie with the zombies running wild killing each other and riding on roller coasters. Probably won't kill anyone anytime soon, and I can't ride a roller coaster to save my life.. but the rest is my world right now. That's not why I haven't updated the blog though.. that's an array of other excuses. The capslock on the keyboard got stuck and nothing is worth typing that much holding down the shift key, then the computer got attacked by a virus. But I think we're clear now.. so voici! BLOG!

Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Unfortunately I don't have many mommy friends that I talk to on a regular basis with older babies. I have some of those friends, just.. not the ones I talk to often-they are all days apart from Reilly due to meeting at a mommy mixer when they were weeks old and you tend to draw to the babies the exact same age because you're going through the same things.. you get it, so basically I learn my skills from books and internet sources. I'm pretty much winging this parenthood stuff. And people..specifically my father, tend to get annoyed when I say "well the book says blah blah blah", but as for now.. the "book" is my bible, and I follow every verse. Anyway.. as to the "where I'm going wrong".. WHY WON'T MY SON SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT ANYMORE!? He used to and it was beautiful, and we were a happy little family. Now he is a happy little baby and I am about to put him on formula just so I can have more than one caffeine a day. Yeah.. it's that bad! Here is how it goes. 7:30pm comes around and we start his sleep routine. He gets a bath, splash time in warm water with his toys, lotioned up-sometimes massaged, nursed, and then 2-3 books-always ending with Goodnight Moon. Then he gets put into his crib still awake and usually just talks to himself or rolls back and forth for about 10 minutes and is asleep. No crying, it's beautiful. He even has naps perfected. When I'm home with him, he gets put down around 10:30am and 2:00pm. Again, I lay him down completely awake, this time I give him a blanket since it's only for an hour.. he plays with the blanket, rolls to his side, and is out for a good hour. Love it.. piece of cake. However.. the hours between midnight and 8:30am are a nightmare! I feel like I have a newborn, every 3 hours on the dot.. he wakes up. I've tried letting him whine, but whining turns into full on screaming until I nurse him. Maybe he is really hungry? But maybe he has learned to wake up every 3 hours. I could understand if I put him to sleep nursing, but I don't.. I put him to sleep wide awake, so I know he has the skills to fall asleep on his own. Last night when I would respond to him I nursed him WAY less than usual, I cut him off instead of him letting go, and.. he slept the exact same 3 hours. So then I wonder what the function of him waking is and if it's really a hunger thing at all. Maybe a growth spurt.. maybe teething.. maybe I'm doomed for the rest of my life.. I don't know!? I don't know anything because my brain is going on very disrupted sleep. If it's a spurt/teeth/hunger thing, I'm fine with that, I just don't want to continue reinforcing a behavior that I should not and conditioning him to wake up every 3 hours for.. ever! So if you had advise.. spit it out! I've considered even moving him back into my room and starting all over with the sleep training, but.. that would ultimately be reinforcing. Last night I even got into his crib with him for a minute-his face lit up with smiles! But.. that's not realistic. Anyway.. that's my rant.

Onto more exciting news! Reilly sits up, rolls over, and is uncomfortably close to crawling. If you put your hands behind his feet and just.. follow him around that way, he will push off your hands and travel all over his room, can even steer himself in different directions. He still isn't a fan of his stomach, yet, put him on his back and he will flip himself right over, but has forgotten how to flip back. It's pretty funny. During his three hours of sleep he flips himself over guaranteed and sleeps on his stomach. He is napping right now and I just found him on his stomach.. face down. Not okay. He is definitely enjoying all the new views thought, and I think a little more independence, if he wants a toy he can get to it, and doesn't have to stare and squawk until I get it for him.

Solids are going great! They're so much fun. Like I mentioned before, I make his baby food and I love it! I love preparing things for him to eat, it makes me feel like I'm doing something more for him. And I love cooking anyway, so cooking for my baby is that much better. He has mastered carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, squash (his FAVORITE), pears, apples, broccoli, parsnip, avocado (my favorite to give him).. I think that's it. Only had a reaction to spinach-which really is fine by me. We have started mixing his vegetables now, today for lunch he had sweet potatoes and broccoli, and also on this weeks menu are "trio of root vegetables". I have been using Annabel Karmel's 100 purees or whatever it's called. I like it.. seems like a lot of tasty things. We've also brought rice cereal back, because before we introduced fruits, giving him vegetables for breakfast seemed weird. So in the morning we sit together and I eat my Rice Krispies and he eats his rice cereal.. sometimes he sucks on my banana, it's probably one of my favorite times of the day with him. Oh.. and he has started doing the best thing during meals. After every bite he sits there with a mouth full of food and says "mmm" over and over, no matter what he is eating. It's hilarious! I'll have to get that on a video that I can upload here.

What else, what else. OH! I would like to call "bullshit" on the "you can't spoil a baby before 6 months" bit. He is 5 months old and becoming quite demanding. We were at Town Square for a date with his Leram. As we were walking, she reached into his stroller to hold his hand. He yelled, pulled his hand away, and kicked his feet. When I noticed that he did this, I tried it and he did the same thing, only.. yelling louder- expressing that he was really not having it. The next day while Rhonda was preparing his lunch she had him sitting in his high chair and he began squawking (I know I keep using that word.. but it's what he does, he's not much a cryer.. just.. a squawker.) and pounding on the high chair table. I don't want to say he is all little bossy though- he is also very helpful. Whenever he is able to carry things, he does. For instance.. halmark card bags.

Ahh, nap time is over, thus is my blogging time. That's the update. Hope you enjoyed. Bye!


From Reilly: bt .l,k.......................nmep;jh i98ydceccc

Dream Come True!

Transitioning to his own room has gone GREAT!! The first night required hourly pacifier checks and every three hour feedings (just had to step away from the computer for one!)! But he slept soooo silently. No little grunts.. no learned whining to get in the bed.. just silent sleep (even scary-silent at times!) Night number 2 went even better because I put him to bed without a pacifier! He went 6 hours... ooooh how I missed those days! Last night was night 3 and I thought I'd let him off the hook for the night because of all of the thunder and lightening. It was so loud it was scaring me so I held him while I watched TV for a few hours then put him in our bed with Jeff and me. Immediately he made little noises and kicked so I took him to his room and put him in his crib and perfect little sleeping angel!! Yay! And now he is on night #4 so I put him to bed while he was tired but still awake and he put himself to sleep!! Yay.. all without having to cry! Crying was my biggest fear. I'm sure not letting him cry will cause annoyances down the road since he learning that I respond to every little whine.. but I'm just not ready for that yet. Maybe eventually.. but maybe never.

I think he likes sleeping in his crib because of all of the room. EVERY time I check on him.. he has moved. I like to call him a clock when he sleeps because he literally turns in circles all night.. so fast too!! Last night I put him down and less than an hour later he had completely 180'd!

Anyway.. so far so good. It has only been 3 nights though so it could be beginners luck. :)

We got his last photo CD back.. that's what the pics are from. OH!! And another thing! He ate a whooole 2 oz container of baby food tonight!! And 1 oz earlier today! Of green beans.. hopefully those calories get us 8 hours of sleep..

Empty Bassinet Syndrome

It exists! Maybe not as prevalent as empty "nest" syndrome, but I walked into my room after putting Reilly in his own, and cried upon the sight of the empty bassinet. It's just crazy how fast time flies! I swear I JUST put him in that thing, and somehow in a flash we've gone from setting a timer to wake up every 3 hours to feed him, to sleeping through the night, to NOT sleeping through the night, through being picky and wanting the sleep positioner one night and not the next, obsessive breathing checks, telling Jeff more than he wanted to know about SIDS leading him to obsessive breathing checks, creating a bed time routine, and now.. he has been kicked out!

I wasn't planning on doing this today, or.. ever for that matter. I could definitely handle a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style of sleep sans grand-parents! My goal for tonight was actually to simply not let him sleep in my bed, which I am way too guilty of. But then I thought maybe he doesn't like his bassinet because if he moves around enough in his sleep his toes touch the end, he has outgrown it. Jeff didn't have time tonight to bring the playpen upstairs, which was what I had wanted, so I figured- what's the point.. he's 4 1/2 months anyway. At 8:00 we started his bedtime routine, because I knew it wasn't going to be as quick as it usually is. Afterward he was sleepy eyed so I let him lay in his crib for a little while, until I knew he wasn't going to sleep on his own. We rocked for little while, then once he was asleep I put him back into the crib, he woke up pretty quickly. I rocked him again, and again placed him back in the crib. He slept there for about a half hour before waking up, which then I just repeated- rock.. crib. He woke up once more (so far.. it's only 10pm) but only wanted his pacifier replaced. So far so good and not one tear shed [from him]! Not ready for the crying approach. Does he really need to be a self soother? I'm just fine doing it myself, really!!

On other news.. he has mastered carrots!! He had them twice a day, for 3 days and last night he ate a whole ounce.. from my mom, the great eating accomplishments are never from me. We took today off from eating because his sleeping has been kind of weird lately. However, it could be from the whole bassinet issue, or the carrots, or because he was working (dang he's awake..just a pacifier alarm-duct tape anyone?!) up to rolling back to front (which he did today!!). Tomorrow we'll do apples twice, then Tuesday do apples and carrots to add a little variety, because how thrilling can eating the same thing 6 times be? No thanks.

And yes.. he did roll from back to front today! I missed it, but woke up from a nap to "Yay!! You're such a big boy!" coming from Jeff downstairs (THAT loud, he was THAT excited!!). He missed it also.. haha, he was reading a book while Reilly was on his playmat and heard the music go off, which is under one part of the mat and only goes off when pushed, and looked down to see the child he had just placed on his back.. on his stomach!! So that's exciting.. not really, because now there's a whole new level of middle of the night checks for rolls.. but I'm glad that Jeff got to experience a first for Reilly, he doesn't get many of those being at work most of the day, so he also got to put it in his baby book.


(And after all of this.. I just noticed I'm typing in the dark! HELLO! The baby is out of the room, turn the lights on Sarah!)

Four Month Well Check.

"He is the red-headed, blue eyed, light skinned type"- Dr. Blaze Gusic! HA to Jeff and all of his friends that said my kid better not be a ginger. He is pretty much diagnosed.

Reilly had his 4 month well check yesterday! INSANE!! Just yesterday we were practically living at St. Rose Pediatrics. It's astonishing how many doctors appointments a baby has in the first weeks of life, not to mention mine also! Between the two of us, the only time we ever got out of the house was for doctors appointments! It went well.. he is loving his pediatrician, it was so funny!! He kept smiling at him and.. hard to explain on a blog, but Dr. Gusic went to roll him over and Reilly turned his head all the way around just to keep smiling at him the entire time as he rolled. It was the cutest!

Side note- the pediatrician and the nurse kept saying "she". Jeff and I would drop hints like saying "he" or calling him "little dude". In hindsight, I think it would have been funny to let the pediatrician go on with it until he did the under-diaper check. That would have been a shocker!

We told him about the three endless nights of gas and zero sleep after the rice cereal. He said go ahead and just forget about rice cereal and sees no point in giving it to Reilly, so we are starting fruits and vegetables.. and eventually meat.. NOW! Today Jeff and I went to get the babyfood processor and then went shopping for Reilly's firsts! We got carrots, apples, and green beans. I've already pureed and frozen them all, it's SO much fun! The basenji's seem to like the vegetables too. Tomorrow morning we will start with.. one of them. I want to do apples because it seems more appropriate as a breakfast food, as opposed to carrots or green beans, but we'll probably end up starting with carrots.. then do another for lunch, keep those same two on the menu for three days and then switch it up.. maybe. Ahh, or maybe I'll just do one tomorrow, haven't quite decided, but either way- breakfast it is! Hopefully he doesn't decide to spit up at his Gymboree class. Does solid foods spit up have a color? Or is it still white? Eh.. I guess we'll find out. Hmm.. weird.

I think that's it for now. OH! His stats. He is now 17lb 10oz, 25 3/4in tall, and his head circumference is 47cm. He is in the 75-90% for weight, 75% for height, and 95+% for head circumference. So he is a short, fat, bobble head.

Feeding Frustrations!!

I don't really get this whole.. learning to eat thing. Shouldn't that just be something you're born knowing how to do if it's so necessary for survival? It's never ending and seems like every time we accomplish something, it's time to transition on to the next!

For instance.. Reilly took 6 weeks to latch! That is a very long time, but we were determined and I refused to give up because I figured it was the first difficult thing that I had to go through for my child and giving up would set the tone for our entire life and make me a bad parent. That's how I felt about it, I'm not saying that if you give up breastfeeding or are unable to do it you are a bad parent, I'm just referring to the challenge. I didn't want to give up just because something was too difficult when I knew that it was very possible too accomplish breastfeeding, regardless of how much time it took for us. Anyway.. he would not latch, so naturally he was bottle fed for most of his feedings and then we would make attempts to latch or use a shield (which is probably way too much information.. but, oh well.). At 5 weeks old we started to transition off of the shield, which only took a few days! Yay!! However.. I had an oversupply so I had to reduce my supply, which was painful. We don't need to go into more details than that. Naturally, getting him to transition off of the shield meant no more bottles until he was the perfect latcher. So he was, and then when we went to reintroduce bottles (we were allowed 2 a week until I went back to work just so he was used to them) he wouldn't take the bottle anymore. He is.. 18 weeks old and I can now give him a bottle.. almost. He still throws little fits about it. A few people can, I've never witnessed it because if I'm even in the room he would rather just breastfeed. SO YAY!! I gave him a bottle.. buuuutttt.. now he is 4 months old, so it is time to transition OFF of the bottle! Are you freaking kidding me? And combine that with starting solids. So as of Tuesday he would take a bottle from me, and starting Wednesday he takes my milk off of a spoon for one feeding a day! Not to mention I just finished cleaning his weaning cups and will probably give him one of those today. And then once he is used to that I'm sure we will start the next stage of bottle weaning. It all makes no sense to me!!

Day #2 of solids.. he didn't like it so we stopped.

My dad told me to put the rice cereal in a bottle with a faster flow nipple. However, he is a father of the stone age and everything now says NOT to do that because it could 1. choke them and 2. make spoon feeding that much more difficult later or 3. frustrate them and ruin all of the work that I've done to bottle train and now unbottle train. He told me to "keep it simple".. this is no time for personal change and growth. Who does he think I am? I have not done one simple thing in my entire life and I'm pretty sure that my kid is following in those footsteps considering this whole feeding conundrum!

Maybe it is simple, billions of people do this everyday.. but.. I'm tired so I'm allowing myself to be cranky! So that's my little rant for the day, thanks for listening. :)

Watching his movie. Baby Genius nursery rhymes.. sweet stuff. He gets a few minutes of it a day.. certainly not an entire DVD!!

It's 1:00am, but I'm staying on top of this!!

The last couple of days have been pretty rough. As most of our readers may have already heard, Jeff's Grandma Stewart passed away yesterday. It is an incredible loss, she was such a sweet and loving lady. I loved her and Grandpa's relationship, always making cute little jokes at each other, also the interest she took in people. Even last week while we were visiting with her at the physical therapy rehab center, she made fun-loving jokes at Grandpa about other gentlemen. She never forgot anything we would talk about and genuinely cared. Throughout my pregnancy she would mention that she was not going to have the chance to meet Reilly, and that would break both Jeff and my hearts. Reilly getting to meet his beautiful Great Grandmother was something that was so important to us, and we couldn't wait to take him over to meet her and Grandpa on our first trip out with him, and we are proud of the meaning that his middle name holds.

Rest in Peace Grandma, we miss you already.




As for Reilly's development, he had a HUGE first today. HIS FIRST SOLID MEAL! :) It was not a success honestly, and I question how much of it he actually got. He did amazing at taking food from a spoon.. was a complete natural, but with his massive size.. eating was never something I doubted would come easy to him. He seemed to take it pretty well, although it was still more breastmilk than anything.. 1 tbsp of rice cereal to 4 tbsp breastmilk. I fed him in his bouncer because he cannot yet sit up well enough alone for his high chair, so of course he was kicking his feet everywhere and despite my attempts to dodge him the entire time, he kicked the bowl, which splashed all over my hair, face, and clothes. Then once I had cleaned up and went to finish the feeding, part of his bouncer hit the bowl spilling the rest of it on the floor.. the dogs enjoyed it. Ew. So it looks like we will have a couple more nights of every 3 hour feedings, but I'm glad he doesn't mind the spoon!! For now we are just doing rice cereal and will probably start meats, fruits, and vegetables at 6 months, aside from pureeing vegetables from time to time just to add a little excitement to the boring rice cereal.



Another first he had this week was swinging at the park. He was getting a little fussy at the hospital, so we took a ride to the park just to get out for a while. I put him in a bucket swing and he loved it! It was adorable! Unfortunately I do not have a picture at the moment, it's on the memory card in my phone though- however, that's a pain to deal with, and definitely not a 1am activity. He ended up falling asleep in the swing so I took him out and we walked for a bit and then had some tummy time on the grass once he woke back up.. he also loved that. So glad the weather is finally decent and we can start spending more time outside!!


photo courtesy of his Leram, who came to hang out with us as the park!!

So that's that!! Jeff keeps complaining at me for doing this in the middle of the night and Rei should be ready to eat in an hour, so off to bed I go!

refusing to give up on this blogging stuff..

so.. from now on i'll just do lots of mini posts and not have to update this every month for two years because i have now gotten to the point where i dread blogging because it's been so long since the last time that i have too much to say so would rather not.

let's see.. Reilly..
-rolls from front to back and is getting uncomfortably close to back to front. i don't want that to happen because then my obsessive middle of the night baby checks will go up a level. no longer will i feel the need to constantly make sure he is breathing but now he must be breathing and on his back still. fortunately he is still in his bassinet so he can't roll too far.. perhaps just tip the whole thing over. maybe it's time to put the wheels on so it doesn't rock.. we don't rock him in there anymore anyway. and despite sleep position warnings i'm still keeping him in his because without it he thinks it's a fun idea to have his face as close to the side of his bed as possible. not allowed little dude.
-giggles at everything.. mostly faces. which is awesome.. nothing better than doing absolutely nothing and just having your face laughed at. it hasn't happened to me.. but i feel a little bit embarrassed each time he laughs at a face for no reason. like he is laughing at someone? yeah.. no. but still. it's a funny concept.
-is almost sitting up.. but he has got a LOT of weight to hold up and is super tall which makes it that much more difficult.
-takes a bottle!! woohoo. i think at least.. had a great bottle weekend so i'm considering him a bottle accepting baby. not from me of course but i have no desire to give him a bottle anyway.
-will grab anything you hold out in front of him out of your hand. he especially loves to grab the cup i use to pour water on him at bath time and feel the water go through his fingers.
-has two little teeth coming in.. but they've been visible for a month now so no big deal i guess.
-says "mama". :)

he is now 4 months and i keep going back and forth about whether or not i'm going to let him eat food. i definitely want to give him rice cereal.. i think. mostly for the iron but am not too set on vegetables or fruits yet. i'm not opposed to starting them now i just don't see a purpose yet.. he is doing just fine and we don't mind waiting until 6 months on that. maybe i'll puree a few vegetables or fruit to put into his rice cereal to add a little flavor. i guess i will know for certain after his 4 month visit on the 11th.

we started gymboree recently! he seems to like the parachute when it goes up and down over his face but doesn't really care for it going in a circle. and he likes the bubbles.. the rest of the time he is his usually grouchy-out-of-his-own-house self. :) i swear.. if we could just stay home all day and somehow socialize him he'd be the happiest little thing in the world because he is such a different baby at home than anywhere else.

i guess that's it for now.. he is sleeping so i'm going to go have some alone time with the dvr. :)

3 months in..

"If you could go back a year and see yourself now you would say, 'Wow, really? A pacifier as a ring? That is so lame!"- Jeff as I was driving the other day, apparently it was the first time he has gone anywhere with me driving. Pretty much sums up the baby transition!! (And no.. I don't wear them as rings, I have to be prepared for a crying baby in the car!)

Reilly is now 3 months old and officially not a newborn and I am LOVING it! I have loved him all along of course, but not gonna lie.. I think this has been my favorite age so far. He still does all of the same things he has done since birth, like insisting that our bodies were meant for nap time, only now he has SO much personality. He recently started laughing and that is definitely the best sound in the entire universe. I spend all day trying to figure out what makes him laugh just to hear it over and over. He is also starting to open up around groups and the kid is a chatterbox! He also sleeps 8 hours straight, which.. could we ask for more? No way! And as for going to bed.. read him two books, give him his last feeding for the day.. and put him in the bed! No fuss! Even if he is awake, he will just put himself to sleep.. with the help of the amazing dex baby sound sleeper of course. I swear by that thing.. I'm pretty sure at this point that Jeff nor I could sleep without it. I'm honestly contemplating not having anymore kids just because he has been such a blessing that I'm afraid I would pop out a little demon child (either that or he is making up for Layla's existence.. ugh). For the most part he does not cry and he has never "cried just to cry", I might be on the ignorant side because I don't have a crying baby- but.. do babies cry just to cry? He whines when he is tired, and the biggest indicator that he is tired is if you put him down somewhere and he gets more upset.. at that point just give the kid a pacifier and he's out. He snorts when he is hungry.. naturally. And in the rare circumstance that he may be hurt.. shots for instance, we won't even go there. NIGHTMARE.. then he holds his breath for a few seconds and then let's the world have it!!

A few weeks ago he reached another major milestone.. ROLLING OVER!! So exciting! It's just amazing watching him learn and grow. Everyday is so amazing.. a little more of his personality comes out or a new developmental change. He is the greatest blessing that both Jeff and I have ever experienced, and I 100% dread the day that he doesn't want to me to be with him every second or makes me his "nap time prisoner".

Tomorrow we have our Wednesday baby mixer where he has made plenty of friends! We are having a potluck and doing tiny impression hand printing. Reilly will not be getting his hand print done because we did one at 3 weeks and he is hosting a hand printing party at the end of the month, but we did make some cookies tonight for the potluck! That is the update for now!! Time to get to bed so I can enjoy part of that 8 hour sleep!

Goodbye Newborn!

Reilly is almost to the end of his 3rd month! CRAZY how time flies..it's exciting and breaking my heart at the same time (work.. EW!). A lot has happened in the past month including his first vacation, discovering toys, coo'ing up a storm, finding his fist, meeting his cousin Marley and almost fully gaining head control!

I'll start with his first vacation. We went to Kentucky from August 4th-8th for family time and my grandparents burial. The flight out was great.. it was at 7:45am, which is when he is still sleeping, we found a seat in the back and he slept in his car seat for a majority of the 3hour 15 minute flight. We landed in Nashville and he was AWAKE, and he stayed awake for the almost 3 hour drive to the house in Fredonia, very unhappy. Can you really blame him thought? No one would be happy in a car seat for almost 10 hours, I felt so bad for him. :( Of course his sleeping schedule was a disaster and the trip out exhausted him, so we spent most of the time taking naps, which I definitely don't mind because he likes his naps to be on me! One Amish town was the extent of our touring. He did get a lot of family time in though, and met a lot of new family too, including my great aunt Wanda, whom he took quickly to! Also.. I was very proud of him for being able to stay in a room with 7 girls and not disrupt anyone's sleep (or so they told me!). The trip back to Las Vegas went alright as well.. he stayed awake the entire time, but I kept him as happy as I possibly could the entire flight because the lady in front of us on the plane gave me a look with an "are you serious" and when I replied that he would sleep the entire time she said, "I hope so." Rude.

Something else that was exciting was meeting Marley!! My cousin Jamie and I have a pretty funny pregnancy story. Her family was in town, staying at my Dad and Rhonda's house last fall. During that time, I found out I was pregnant and wanted to tell my dad, but did not want everyone else finding out just yet, however they were going to be in town for a week and I don't have that kind of patience. One night everyone was bbq'ing at their house and I brought a Harley onesie to tell my dad. It took a while, but there was finally a quiet time where everyone was doing their own thing and I had the opportunity to take my dad away from the group and tell him.. apparently Jamie had also been waiting for that same quiet time to take her mom into a room, and without knowing, we both told our parents we were pregnant at the same time. The next night both of our parents made the announcement that we were pregnant. It was so great to have someone to go through it all with! Marley ended up being born exactly a week after Reilly. They live in California, so it wasn't until this weekend that they finally got to meet. Jamie, Kevin, and Marley came down for a family anniversary party! There is definitely a difference in size, although they are only a week apart... Reilly has a good few inches and 2 pounds on Marley!!

I guess I should add one more thing, because this post has taken a few days to type- babies are so demanding, but as of yesterday, and at this very moment.. Reilly is sleeping in his crib! Not at night though, don't get crazy, just for nap time. I would take a picture, but that might wake him up, and no way am I waking him up!! I have an hour to get things done and eat some oreos.

Reilly's Here!!

so i'm aware that i have dropped the ball on this blogging thing, but having a kid is hard! my little vision of sitting around blogging, making homemade baby food, keeping a perfect home, and having a warm dinner on the table when jeff got home was INSANE! man oh man. anyway.. on to reilly.

obviously he is here, or not so obviously because the announcements aren't out-they're sitting right next to me.. labeled and stamped, but it's way too hot to go to the mailbox, so expect those next week as opposed to this. but he is here none the less.. he arrived june 2nd at 7:39pm, weighing in at a great big 8 lb 14.8 oz and 20 1/2 inches long. big baby. i just want to go on the record though as.. i called it and also throw out a little "told you so" to my doctor who, up until "HOLY SHIT THAT'S A BIG BABY" came from her mouth while doing a double catch as to not drop my baby.. (yes..those were the words he was welcomed into the world with), said i had nothing to worry about, i was not gaining too much weight and everything seemed on track to an averaged sized baby, regardless of the fact that i could feel him in every part of me from my throat to my knees.. and i weighed 9lb 5 oz. what part do genetics play in this anyway? but as for the delivery, could not have asked for anything easier. being induced is the best thing ever in my opinion, as one sided as it may be, and childbirth is the easiest thing in the world with the help of a sweet sweet thing called an epidural. (my apologies to my amazing husband for wishing he would choke on a cookie, threatening to break his fingers off if he even so much as thought about trying to make me count breaths..like we had learned in our birthing class, and attempting to make an appointment for his vasectomy. also an apology to "the epidural man", who was later "best friend", for multiple announcements in regards to his speed, or lack there of). reilly stewart broo was born in the easiest 4 contractions ever and was the most beautiful thing i had ever seen in my entire life.

we were blessed with an incredibly smooth pregnancy and delivery, so it only fair that the recovery suck. i had a few complications, and had to be put out with pain medication reilly's first night.. leaving jeff to be SUPER DAD and take care of him on his own. he spent the entire first night feeding him, changing his diaper, and rocking him.. alone. by the next morning they had this amazing bond already.. jeff already knew what his faces meant.

we stayed for 2 more days and little rei continued to charm every person he came in contact with. when he went to get his hearing screening he even put his hands on the headphones like he was listening to music and when the rest of the nurses "aww'ed".. his said "yeah.. he's with me". and that's pretty much how his life for the past month and a half has gone.

reilly's first doctors appointment was the following monday, june 6th. he was down to 8lb 2oz, which was about 9% of his body weight. babies will lose up to 8% of their body weight, but that was too much. the doctor said that by his next appointment, if he had gone more than 10%, we would have to supplement him.. oh don't even worry-he bounced back at 9lb 7oz and has continued an almost off the charts weight gain since! at his one month appointment he was 11lb 13oz and 22 3/4 inches long, which a head circumference of 41cm... all of his numbers are around the 90%!! at our mommy group on wednesday, he weighed 12lb 6oz.. which throws him out of most of his 0-3 month clothes and into 3-6 months. i keep having to remind myself that he is only 6 weeks old and cut him some slack for not crawling yet, because he is so big he doesn't feel that young! but as far as his 6 week development goes.. he can track black and white objects (especially his very best friend in the world.. panda), turns his head towards mine and jeff's voices, has rolled over once..probably a fluke, the kid HATES tummy time, copies facial expressions such as a kissy face, sticking his tongue out, opening his mouth, and smiling, tries really hard to sleep through the night but we won't let him go more than 5 hours without waking him up to eat (at night!! in the day it's still 2-3 hours..we aren't starving him!), says "waaa waaa" like, a bird, not a cry when he wants to talk, and i think that's it. i mentioned his panda, he.. is in LOVE with this panda. it's on his bouncer and for the first couple of weeks i would feel like i was neglecting him if i put him down in his swing or bouncer, but now i feel like i'm depriving him if i don't. the second you put him in his bouncer that thing starts rocking and he is making noise and kicking and staring at this panda that hangs from it. it's the funniest thing in the universe. and it tires him out-so.. perfect!!

so that's the update, i'll try to post more often. we've finally gotten a really great routine going, so it should be possible. hope you enjoyed the novel-but that's pretty much a month and a half in a nutshell.. i guess if i wrote more you could read about his first trip to utah and his playgroup...buuuut..i'm not writing for 8 years, so we'll just take it from here! :)

a little video for your time.. and enjoyment:

down to the single digits.. 9 days left!!

Every corner of the house has been scrubbed, Jeff put all of the "baby stuff" together, his nursery is done, the suitcase is packed.. so now we're just waiting! (while writing thank you cards and filling out the baby book!) Thursday was our last birthing class.. surprisingly Jeff is a baby pro now, I'm SO excited to see him with Reilly. Here are some pictures of his nursery for those who haven't seen it.. and if you haven't, then come by, I'll be here all week.

We're Having a Baby!!

By now most of you know this.. if not, surprise-we're having a baby.. SOON! We're very excited, very nervous, very naive, very.. in for it, is probably the truth. So welcome friends and family that want to keep up on the life of Jeff and I as we embark on the adventure of starting our family, beginning with Reilly.