Ten Months

This month seemed to go by faster than any of the rest. I'm not sure why, but geez, it feels like I just posted his 9 month update! I can't believe we are only two months away from his first birthday. Crazy.

Milestones and Firsts...

• He sure knows how to make us laugh. He does these squinty eyed smiles and the more we laugh, the more he does them. He also holds some of his toys in his mouth and carries on with playing or whatever he is doing while he holds it. And his favorite thing to do is open all the drawers and throw, sometimes at very high speeds, everything out of them. His school told me that he opened the child proof lock on their cabinets the other day :| We are in trouble! He is just like his Dad - curious about how everything works.
• He just started clapping a few days ago. I always clap at him, especially when he does something well. 
• His two front teeth began to emerge about a week after his 9 month birthday. One of those has broken through his gums and you can see about half of that tooth. The other one is following close behind. My little man is growing up!

• He crawls, stands and furniture walks really well. He has stood unassisted several times for a few seconds and he walks with his Playskool Walk 'N Ride. He seems very close to walking.
• A very sad, for me, milestone... breastfeeding has come to an end :( :( :( Our last breast feed was on Friday night, May 25th. My freezer stash at daycare ran out in mid-May. I planned to continue with one or two feeds per day, but it just didn't work out that way. Grayson was done with breastfeeding and I could tell. If I think about it too much, I get very sad. Honestly, I wish I could have exclusively breastfed him for one year. I know that if I wasn't working, I could have done it. But instead of dwelling on that, I am going to be happy that we made it to nearly 10 months. That's pretty darn good :)
• He is a fantastic eater! He feeds himself really well and tries everything we give him. So far, he loves it all. We are pretty much done with buying purees. I give him whatever we are eating: chicken, beef, lamb, pork, fish, all veggies, all fruits, cheese, eggs, etc. He has had almost everything, but he eats mostly Primal/Paleo now because we do. 

Bison and broccoli. Yum!

• He has been using his sippy cup for water and does really well with it. I am going to start transitioning his formula into the sippy cups. 
• He adores his Daddy! He has been such a Momma's boy for so long, but lately he has really taken to his Dad. He gets very excited and shrieks when he sees him, and wants him to hold him. It absolutely melts my heart, and I know it makes Nick very happy.

•  He is absolutely obsessed with the water. We started our second set of swim lessons now that we moved and wow, did he have a blast! He was splashing and laughing and shrieking. He had so much fun. Much more fun for both of us than when he was 3 and 4 months old. He even crawled across the floating mat. I cannot wait for our pool to be finished!

• REI had a sale and we splurged on the Burley D'Lite bike trailer. I am so excited to be able to ride my bike again now that I can pull him along with us. I love my bike and I need the exercise! It also converts into a jogger so I can mix it up.

Other tidbits about being 10 months old...

• He still says "mama", "dada", "baba" and shrieks at the kitties and Apollo. 

• He is sleeping great. 11-12 hours every night. His naps are getting less frequent. He is pretty much down to one nap a day. 
• He is wearing mostly 12 month clothes.
• He is wearing size 3 diapers.

 San Diego Zoo Safari Park

I used to...

I used to care about my car being sparkly clean and now there are baby blankets and baby jackets and baby toys spread across my back seat.

I used to worry about what I looked like and now I go to work with baby drool on my shirt, and instead of trying to get it off, I stare at it and think of my baby boy.

I used to look forward to buying myself a new pair of jeans and now I get giddy to buy a new rash guard for my little man to wear to the lake.

I used to think about work and life when I fell asleep every night and now I fall asleep thinking of how much I miss my son after I put him to bed.

I used to be able to read the news and now I am afraid to because all I can think of is how awful it would be if something happened to Grayson. I couldn't handle it if anything ever did. I wouldn't be able to go on. I have to stay away from the news.

I used to get angry at stupid things and now I find myself kinder than usual. I have always been sensitive to other's feelings but having my son has brought out the best in me like I couldn't imagine.

Being a Mom is literally the best thing that has ever happened to me. He gives everything a whole new purpose. He makes every day an amazing day.  He makes my relationship with my husband better, with my family better, with everyone better. He puts life into a different perspective for me.

Thank you, my sweet boy. No words can express how much you mean to your Dad and I.

xoxo,
Megan

Nine Months

It was a hot weekend, so we took this month's pictures almost naked :)

This age is SO MUCH FUN! Can he just stay this age forever?!?!?!

Milestones and Firsts...

• His favorite thing to do is move! He crawls like a champ now and then climbs up anything he can find. He loves to stand and cruise down the furniture. Crawl, sit, play, crawl, climb, stand, sit, crawl, play. Both Nick and I never stop moving either so I guess I am not surprised.

Video clip of our active, happy boy:

• He loves to explore. He is much more independent now. He is very adventurous and brave, and curious about everything around him. He is such a boy. He bonks his head and falls/tumbles sometimes, but we make a point to not react except in a positive, distracting way and he carries on without even a whimper.
• We are still breastfeeding and he usually has 3 bottles of formula at daycare.

• Boy can he eat!!! He "complains" when you don't feed him fast enough! I just started adding containers of cut up finger foods (fruits, veggies, chicken, bread, puffs, etc) and applesauce or yogurt to his daycare meals.
• His sleep is the best it has ever been. He goes to bed by 8pm and I usually have to wake him up between 7 and 7:30 to go to "school." He still fights his naps, but he takes about an hour and a half to two hours worth of naps.
• He had his first "hair cut" at home. I trimmed the sides of his hair so they weren't growing into his ears.
• He loooooooooooves the water! We are in the process of getting in-ground pool quotes because I am obsessed with the water too. SO excited! For now, we are playing in a little kiddie pool and at our community lake.

Video clip of G playing in his pool:

Other tidbits about being 9 months old...

• He is {almost} always happy. He really seems to enjoy life and that makes Nick and I so happy.
• He loves when Daddy plays with him, especially pull-the-baby-in-the-box :)

Vine video clip:

• He is "talking" a lot lately. "mamamama", "babababa", "dadadada"
• He hates laying down for diaper and clothing changes. I have to do them as fast as I can and distract him with anything he will focus on. He is way too busy for this laying down stuff ;)
• His eyes are still a dark blueish with green in the center and his hair is still a very light brown with a reddish tint. He looks like he got a lot of features from Nick's Dad.

Playing at the lake. We sure love our new house and neighborhood!

• He is wearing 12 month clothes.
• He is wearing size 3 diapers.
• He weighed 19lbs 11oz, measured 27 inches long and his head circumference was 45cm at his 9 month check up yesterday.

Breastfeeding - Month 8

I haven't written an update on breastfeeding since mid-January when Grayson was 5 1/2 months old. He will be 9 months old in a few days. What the what?!?! Time really needs to slow down!

Our routine goes like this....
I breast feed him when he is not at "school" and I pump once a day at work, so I send him to daycare with one breast milk bottle and three formula bottles, plus two jars of food, a ziplock bag of fruit or veggie puffs and another snack like applesauce or yogurt. This kid can eat! And he's a great eater too - trying everything I give him and liking almost everything so far. He is very active and burns off those calories so fast. His formula bottles are 6 oz and the breast milk is between 4 and 6 oz, so he consumes around 24 oz at daycare. I breastfeed him once in the morning and one to two times in the evenings, depending on his schedule during the day. I do give him some formula on the weekends now that my supply is dwindling during the work week.

I am so happy that I stuck with it and that I have made it this far. It's amazing and fulfilling and everything I hoped it would be when he was still growing in my belly. I have had my cycle back since G was 3 months old, so I am relieved to know that until {or if} I go back for treatment to have baby #2, I don't have to wean. I don't know for sure what will happen in the next few months, but for now my goal is to make it to a year and then wean him onto cow's milk. I'll keep you all posted :)

xoxo,
Megan

Number Two

My little man with his bunny from Nana

Now that we are settled in our new home {house tour post in the works!} and we love this kiddo more than anything, we have started talking about a second baby. We both always knew we wanted at least two kids. We want them close in age and I am afraid to wait much longer with the issues we had getting pregnant the first time. The question now is when and how. When do we start trying? How long do we try on our own before going back to the RE? Do we go straight back to the RE even though our diagnosis is Unexplained? Does my body know what to do now that I have been pregnant?

One positive thing this time is that we now have Infertility insurance coverage, up to $10,000. For my last treatments, we were 100% out of pocket and we spent almost $7,000. Of course Grayson is priceless so it didn't matter, but it sure is nice to know that if we need help again, we have coverage.

I miss being pregnant. I miss all the milestones of pregnancy. I miss the excitement. I miss my belly and his kicks. I even miss the doctor appointments. I know, I am weird :) I really loved that entire experience. Even though his delivery wasn't smooth, I even miss that. Everything was new and exciting, and I loved all of it.

One of Nick's friends and his wife have inspired me... I really want to wait to find out the gender of this baby. I know what pregnancy and birth are like now, so I think it would be fun to keep something a mystery. I imagine the doctor pulling the baby out {my OB and hospital do not do VBAC's, so I will have another c-section} and announcing "It's a ....." in the OR. How exciting would that be?!?! And then Nick and I can tell our families in recovery. I just think that would be so cool :) Hopefully we can stick to that plan.

I'll post more once we get closer to this next part of our journey.

xoxo,
Megan

Eight Months

Time is flying by!!!!! I was looking through the calendar I made of his pictures and I started sobbing. I can't handle how fast he is growing up. I just want him to stay tiny forever. Sigh.

He is SO much fun right now though, so I try to remember to enjoy him growing up :)

Milestones and Firsts...

• The biggest thing that happened this month was our move into the new house! We love it, Grayson loves it, the kitties and Apollo love it... we are so happy and thankful to be living in a wonderful city (4th safest city in America!) and in our perfect house. 
• He started saying "Mama!!!!" My heart swelled and I couldn't stop smiling. He wants to say it all the time now. He is getting more and more vocal. Squealing, shrieking, yelling... he loves to "talk." He will lay on his tummy and take his hands and feet off the ground and shriek - we call it his superman pose. Here is a short clip of him saying "Mama": 

• He is really crawling now. We are so proud! He started the real thing the week of March 11th. The army crawl is fazing out. He also climbed up a step at my parent's house while we were still living there and now he wants to go up our staircase. He gets very excited and squeals when he crawls quickly toward something he wants. I pretend to chase him and he cracks up. I have so much fun with him.
• He started pulling himself up. The first time was on our bed drawer on St. Patrick's Day. He pulls up to stand on everything now... I even caught him standing in his crib for the first time! He has started cruising down the furniture too. He has no fear and sometimes he gets distracted and just lets go with both hands. Crazy kid. Short clip of him pulling up and cruising down the table:

• He has started waving. He is not reliable with it, but we keep practicing. He already gives great high fives and smacks his palms on the table/high chair/tambourine/etc.
• His two bottom teeth are all the way through and so darn cute! He sure loves to chomp on everything, especially the spoon when he is eating. I don't see any other teeth coming through just yet.
• We are still breastfeeding and it's still wonderful. I am supplementing bottles of formula at daycare, but otherwise he is breastfed. I am very proud and very happy that we have made it this far.
• He is eating solids three times a day. He loves his food, just like his parents. He hasn't refused anything so far. He feeds himself his veggie/fruit puffs and fingers foods.

 He sure loves his Dad

• Poor thing cannot catch a break.... first a cold, then RSV, then the flu and now another cold. And he even had a flu shot at his 6 month appointment. He stayed home for two days and was on Tamiflu. He remained happy through it all, my little trooper. Nick and I have been sick off and on too. I guess this is the life with a baby in daycare.
• He is sleeping really well lately. He goes to bed between 7 and 8pm and gets up around 6 or 7am. We still have exceptions, but for the most part he sleeps through the night.
• The spit up is almost a thing of the past. Even his daycare teachers commented that he almost never spits up anymore. Ahhhh... I was really looking forward to this milestone :)
• He loves to play peek-a-boo, he loves to play the tambourine or use something to bang on the tambourine like a drum, and he is still obsessed with tags. My Mom also started asking him what sound different animals make: "Grayson, what sound does a dog make? Ruff ruff, Ruff ruff." He will stop whatever he is doing, even crying, and sit still and listen. The cow's "Moooooooooooo" is his favorite.

• He loves animals, just like his momma. If he sees a dog or cat walking by, he gets very excited.

Other tidbits about being 8 months old...

• He cracks us up on a daily basis. It's so fun to see his personality emerging. Along with that personality are some mini tantrums, like when we take something away from him. Oh boy, he doesn't like that!  
• He really enjoys going on walks with Apollo. He is in awe of everything around him: the trees, the wind blowing, flowers, animals, etc. He definitely got that from me and my Mom's side of the family.

• He LOVES blowing raspberries! When he does them on the leather ottoman, he makes the funniest noises. We laugh and laugh, and I think that encourages him to do it more. He seems to be realizing cause and effect now.
• He still hates laying down for diaper and clothing changes. He wants to flip over and crawl off the dresser.
• His hair is growing like crazy. His bald spot is gone now that he rolls onto his side or tummy to sleep.

• His eyes are still a dark blueish with some green/brown toward the center. I hope they stay this color - they are so pretty!
• He is wearing 6-12 month, 9 month and 12 month clothes.
• He is wearing size 3 diapers. I switched to Pampers Cruisers from the Swaddlers now that he is moving around so much.
• He weighs around 19 lbs.

 Kisses for Mommy

xoxo,

Megan

Seven Months

Distracted... so typical of his personality right now :)

Milestones and Firsts...

• He has two teeth that popped through on the bottom, both at the same time! I saw them peeking through his gums two weeks ago on February 14th. He has done pretty well with it. I bought every teether out there and the Hyland's teething tablets, but breastfeeding seems to comfort him best. Those little teeth are so darn cute when he gives us a big smile.
• He is still on breast milk, but I am supplementing one bottle at daycare with formula right now. I beat myself up about it, even though he does fine with it and he still gets lots of the good stuff. Despite pumping as much as I can, my supply is steadily decreasing. I just cannot keep up with the four 6 ounce bottles a day he takes at daycare. He is also getting less interested in breastfeeding. He is easily distracted and wants to play instead. Silly kid. I always breastfeed him when he is with me so he's just a hybrid eater now :)
• Poor sweet baby contracted RSV. He did have a fever for one day, but otherwise he is just coughing a lot. He is getting nebulizer breathing treatments and they seem to help loosen things up in his chest so he can cough it out. He hasn't been sleeping well at night, poor thing. I have been a zombie at work.

• He is eating solids three times a day - fruits and veggies at daycare and another meal in the evening with us. He loves everything he tries. He seems to spit up orange foods, so we are avoiding those for now. For purees, he has had oatmeal, apples, bananas, peaches, peas, plums, sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, spinach, blueberries, raspberries, spring veggie mix with brown rice, chicken with brown rice, turkey vegetable dinner. He has also tried some regular foods: avocado, zucchini, bananas, lemons, carrots, mashed potatoes, and salmon. He has also had vegetable puffs and he really likes them. I love Plum Organics baby food - I just picked up some new combinations to try that look delicious: cherry/sweet corn/greek yogurt and zucchini/banana/amaranth.

Check out his mashed potato hillbilly teeth hehehe. That happened on it's own. We were all laughing so hard.

• He loves to sit in the shopping cart. All smiles.

• He is army crawling all over the place. He is constantly on the move. Even if you are holding him, he nearly jumps out of your arms when he is excited or when he sees something he wants. He also gets up in a regular crawling position all the time and rocks back and forth.
• He throws his toys across the room. I've almost been knocked out by a flying rattle a few times.
• He is still putting together consonants and vowels. He says "wa, wa", "ba" and "ma." I am still waiting for "mama"
• He has mentally grown up a ton this month. Examples: when I am sitting at a red light, I will talk to him and peek over the edge of his car seat, and he will look up at me and give me a big grin. When I pick him up from daycare, he spots me walking in and gets very excited and anxious to see me, and does his shrieking squeal and starts jumping. He watches what Daddy and I do and wants to be involved in everything.

Video of that shriek/squeal I love {and Mr. G Hopper, one of his favorite toys}:

• He is sitting up really well. He still tips over sometimes, but he is pretty darn sturdy now.

Valentines Day

Other tidbits about being 7 months old...

• He loves bath time and sits in the bathtub now instead of laying down. I need to schedule his last five swimming lessons. I miss those.
• He loves to be outside. If he is ever fussy, sitting outside is a sure way to make him happy. I am really looking forward to this summer, spending time at the pool and at the lake. Our new house has a membership to a wonderful lake with a beach and picnic areas. I am so excited!
• He hates to lay down on his changing mat. He would rather roll over and lay on his tummy. It makes diaper and clothing changes a challenge.
• His laugh is still my favorite thing ever. I could spend all day making him laugh.
• Besides the vomiting from the RSV, the spitting up continues to improve.
• He is sleeping better at night. Most nights he goes to bed at 8pm and gets up around 5am, with the exception of this past week with RSV. On average, he takes two naps every day. He is sleeping less and less during the day.
• His hair is getting thicker and longer. It's very light with a reddish tint. We both have dark hair, so I wonder how his will end up.
• His eyes are still a dark blueish with some green/brown toward the center.
• He is wearing 6-12 month and 9 month clothes.
• He is wearing size 3 diapers.
• He weighed 18lbs 2oz. at his doctor appointment a few days ago.

We love you to the moon and back!!!!!!!!! Being your Mom is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I wake up every day happy and thankful that you are here.

xoxo,
Megan