Four Months.

The littlest of the littles turned 4 months old yesterday {Thursday}.   Today {Friday} in celebration he got to get one shot and get all checked out and he is looking mighty fine.  Weighing in at 15lbs and 25 3/8 inches long putting him somewhere in between 50-75% ie just a bit about average.
In the past month he has all but mastered rolling over from his front to his back and also from his back to his front.  He has learned to t-totally freak out if anyone other than his people talk to him.   His favorite toy is his hand and is often found with it shoved completely in his mouth.   Just this past week he seems to have found his feet.   He is digging toys he can chew on or just hold.
For some unknown reason he has decided that he loathes the car and if he isn't sleeping he is usually not happy.  However we have discovered that either video's of ME talking to him or Baby Einstein videos calm him down.  Which goes completely against what I would like--as in who wants their infant watching TV?  But it's that or he screams--so he can watch some TV and we will all be much happier.
At 4 months he loves to chat it up with his toys and familiar faces.  He seems to like snuggling with a blanket or something soft.  I also noticed just today that classical music or just instrumental music in the car seems to help.  He can actually sit for a few seconds and I suspect will be sitting well on his own by the end of this month.  All of his big brothers were earlier sitters and it seems he will follow suit.
Sleeping is as we know not his strong suit.  Sleeping thru the night is no were in sight at this point and I am still ok with that--though longer stretches would be nice.  He is good about going to sleep at night however and is usually out for the night by 8 often 7:30.  This is because napping is a joke--and he cat naps his way thru the day and is exhausted by nightfall.
We are all quite enamored with him of course.  He is starting to enjoy his exersaucer and bouncy dealio for longer stretches but still prefers to be held over anything else.  He is currently sitting next to me in his exersaucer getting upset that I am not picking him up!  His favorite spot is in my arms or in one of the many carriers I often use for him, strolling thru the house.  His eyes are ever so bright and his smiles light up a room or cure a grumpy face.

We think his eyes are turning brown but they could go green we just aren't sure!  And oh my has his hair grown!  I don't think we will make it to 12 months without at least a trim...but we will see!
This month has been a bit harder--he has gotten more demanding and while still a very happy baby he has become very sensitive to his surroundings.  I say this as just now I sneezed and sent him over the edge with fear--poor guy!  Loud sudden sounds and new faces scare him.  But he calms easy and smiles are plentiful!   End of first attempt at posts...Begin new ending...2 days later.  He is now snuggled in the Ergo and sleeping soundly.   Now rocking his 3rd cold and either a low grade temp from the cold or a slight reaction to the Pentacel shot he received on Friday.  :(  I didn't delay shots with his brother but am opting to do so this go round so he gets one shot at a time.  He even has a doctor that said "He's not going to get Hepatitis B we can wait on this one until he's older..." How awesome is that?   Pentacel however is 5 vaccines in one so yeah waiting is good.
He loves to be held and snuggled and is very content to be doing one of those things.   I am trying to slow down and enjoy him and and enjoy the snuggles and let the dust and dirty house be while I enjoy this baby, every ounce of him.  Some days that's hard--enjoying him isn't hard--relaxing about all that "needs" to be done is hard.
He still loves the Baby Einstein mat and is loving toys more and more.  Seems to be liking to snuggle blankets and soft things.  His big brothers can't NOT kiss him and love him hence him rocking cold number 3.  We are  constantly telling them to "get out of his face."  He is a love and a delight and squishably awesome at 4 months.  25% of a full year and 100% fantastic.

This is my favorite new face he is making.

1 Month.
2 Months.
3 Months.

3 Months

One quarter of a year and I am still amazed.  At 3 months I snuggle him and picture his grown up self and wish I could keep him so sweet.   At 3 months he is a pro smiler and I managed to get one little chuckle laugh out of him last week.  No full on belly laughs just yet.  He rolled over last Thursday from stomach to back...I think it was a fluke but I am counting it.  I had laid him down and he just plopped right over.  He seems to be creating a routine of his own eating every 3 hours and napping for 30 min or so every hour and a half.  At night he has been bumping his bedtime earlier and earlier and seems to be consistently down for the night between 7:30 and 8.  Which is right when his brothers go to bed so that works for us!  We know when he is down for the night because he is O.U.T. out, most definitely different from his daytime sleep.  He has had a few nights of sleeping for 7hrs before waking to eat.  Most nights he only wakes one time.  We get up in the mornings about 6:30 to get ready for school and often he will wake up long enough to get a clean diaper and eat and then konks back out for another hour or so.

At 3 months he holds his head up like a champ, is rocking "tummy time" though isn't a fan he can lift his head quite high and look around.  He can sit propped up and can stand on his short little legs for I think as long as we will let him.  He still "drums" his fingers and is moving his little hands all over the place.   He is often found holding his hands together at his chest and it is quite possibly the sweetest thing ever.  He is drooling lots and is often found sporting a bib these days--I know his brothers did the same thing at this age, though Nolan likes to let it all bubble out of his mouth and usually is kicked back chilling with foam coming out his mouth.  He still seems to like to be swaddled to sleep though he wiggles those arms out as soon as he can.  We also busted out the exersaucer and jumperoo....it looks like we have a daycare in the living room.

It seems I could go on and on with all that has changed over the past month.  He has gone from a newborn to an infant who enjoys toys and is smiling and smiling.  He most definitely prefers me over most people.  He does let a few people hold him for just a bit before turning into hysterics until I "rescue" him.  Poor Robert is trying to not get his feelings hurt.  I think he is worse than his brothers were about this, at least at this young of an age.  He is doing much better about getting startled by loud noises and fast movements but still will let out a wail if we talk to loud suddenly or even appear in his line of sight out of the blue.  I think he is very alert and this is part of why he startles so easily.   Other than those times he rarely ever cries and is a content happy guy at 3 months.   We are getting into a routine with him and enjoying every minute with him.  His brothers adore him and we still just can't enough of this sweet chubby cheeked baby boy.  

The Biggest Brother.

One of the neat things about having a baby in the house again is seeing the nurturing coming from the big brothers.  Jakeb, the biggest of the big ones, is especially sweet.  One day last week or so we were sitting in Nolan's room after he woke up from a (brief) nap and Jakeb asked to hold him.  As he started to take him he remembered he needed to wash his hands and ran off.  He came back and picked him up out of his crib...standing to hold him is something we are letting him do here and there under strict instructions to NOT do unless with us.   So he carefully picked him up and walked over to his rocking chair and sat holding him.   And I sat on the floor watching the 2 of them...my almost 10 year old and my 2 month old. My oldest and youngest....watching him with Nolan is just cool.  He is careful and sweet and amazed by him.  We call him Daddy Jake or Daddy 2.0...he is just good.  Nolan was looking at Jakeb and smiling and Jakeb giggled "He's smiling at me...look at him smile"  He (Jakeb) talks to him in the baby voice we all get and he gets it.  The baby-ness.  Nolan fusses and he has a barrage of people around him to pick him up or pop a paci in his mouth.  Jakeb often responds faster than I do and he responds as if it was second nature...he just does it.
I can't wait to see how their bond grows, how Nolan at 2 looks up to his almost 12 year old brother...or at 4 and 14.  Wow.  My first thought about having a baby and a 9 year old was that it was like starting over and it is but oh my how neat it is.  Watching this big boy with this little baby is just...sweet.

This past Friday I ran Zachary to a neighbors house just down the road...as in in our neighborhood about 8 houses down.  It was cold and I am not ok with him walking down there alone just yet (our 'hood is very hilly and people make me nervous driving).   Nolan was asleep and it was going to take me 2 min so I told Jakeb he was on baby duty--ie pop the paci in his mouth-- but most likely he wouldn't need to do a thing before I got back.  Of course Nolan woke up while I was gone--my 2 min ended up being more like 7.  I came in to find Nolan laying in his crib happily chatting away to his big bro.  Jakeb who was calling a friend when Nolan started crying told his friend he had to go to deal with his baby brother.  {relayed back to me by Jakeb of course} He then proceeded to tell me that he in fact picked Nolan up and got to the top of the stairs to bring him down (EEK!) and realized that was probably not a very good idea so he laid him back down in his bed.  Smart, careful boy.   While I certainly don't think a 9 year old is ok to babysit for any length of time it's amazing how careful and thoughtful he is.  Watching him with the baby is fabulous and I am so glad we are getting the chance to do so.

4 on the 14th.

So I am barely scraping in under the wire on this...first day on it.  But it is what it is and I did it so yeah.  For the record I spent all day working on organizing their 365's from um...2008/2009 but I am almost done!
Here is our first installment of the 4 on the 14th....in crummy lighting and with sick kids--one with pneumonia, one with a sore throat, and one with a cough.   And yes they are holding the healthy baby...with strict instructions to NOT cough for the 30 seconds I need to take a picture.  All 4 freshly bathed and pajama'ed and ready for bed!

Month 2.

Two whole months have passed since we welcomed sweet baby Nolan into the world and I still look at him in awe that he is here.   In 2 months he has changed our lives more than I imagined and only for the better.  At 2 months he is smiling every chance he gets...at our voices, our smiling faces, and even his toys.  He is "talking" and his favorite sounds are "aaaaAAAaaa" and the occasional "gu" he is learning that he can control how loud he makes his voice and this week seems to enjoy making it louder.  At 2 months I am impressed with his chatty-ness. "You, I'm talking to you!"   At his 2 month check-up he weighed in at 12lbs 7.2oz and 22 1/2 inches long.  He seems to be the happiest baby of the bunch and is easy peasy.  He sleeps like a dream at night waking once or twice to eat and never making a peep.  I hear him stirring and feed him and he drifts back off to sleep quickly and easily in fact I don't think he really even wakes.  We do have off nights here and there where he seems to stir a lot and I wake up feeling as if I played the in and out game with his paci all night.  But most nights are nearly perfect.  Napping during the day is another story and he seems to prefer to cat nap 30-45 min here and there or even just 15.  In fact it seems he may be taking after his big bro Zman and fighting sleep as much as he can.  Unless we are out running errands then he often snoozes the day away in his car seat quite happily.  At 2 months he loves his play mat, his swing, and bouncy seat.  He loves to sit in his bouncy chair and watch me piddle around in the kitchen....I stop and chit chat with him and he smiles and smiles and chit chats right back.  I am surprised I haven't burned more dinners with my little happy distraction.  A sure way to get him snoozing is to pop him in one of the carriers I have for him--right now we are switching between the Moby and the Baby Hawk mei tai.  He is content in either and often goes right to sleep and will snooze the day away.  We noticed a few weeks ago that he is preferring to keep his head turned to the left and it seems to be causing some "molding" on his head so we are now trying to encourage him to turn his head the other direction as much as possible.  As well as working on more "tummy time".  I am not worried about it and know we will be diligent in getting it all rounded back out!  Much as the rest of his body has!

His big brothers can't get enough of him and are eager to help any way they can...we all pretty much think he rocks.   Happy 2 months Nolan! 

Here are his 2 month shots! (I am not impressed with the quality of these...A) he was fussy and not in the mood for a picture party and B)the lighting on January 8th was poo--thanks to wintery blah and rain and C) I used my flash and have all sorts of shadows...anyway he's still cute!)

1 month...er 2.

So one of my plans was to write a little blip about Nolan each month and as we are quickly rounding the corner into his 2nd month it dawned on me that I never said much about the first month.  So here we go.  I am not going to say all the things he is doing now because that will go with the 2 month post next week :)  Let's pretend I said all this 3 weeks ago mmmk?? At 1 month he is starting to coo and ahh and guuu  at us and is smiling more and more everyday.  He is waking 2 times a night with the longest stretch being about 4 hours.  We are still quite enamored with him and imagine will be forever.  I am surprised with the patience I have with him and even the patience and calm I feel with his big brothers as well.  I feel calm and at ease in caring for him even if it's at 2:30 in the morning.  I don't know if I felt this much "peace" with his big brothers it seems that maybe I didn't and felt a bit more edgy.  The calm is nice.  He is a wonderful baby...he rarely cries.  Seems to have an affinity for the left and keeps his head turned that direction most times.  His eyes seem to be getting a bit of brown in them.  We can't tell if they will go all the way brown or be a combo of brown/green like his big brothers.  They are still very dark and I doubt they will be blue.  His hair is amazing and I am jealous.  When it's freshly washed it dries into this nice soft little poof of sweetness on his head.  He is still liking the swaddle and definitely seems to sleep better all snuggled up.  He is almost always moving kicking his feet and moving his hands and arms.  Much like he was before he was born. At 1 month I am still in awe that he's here and he's ours and so ever thankful that he is.

8 days to 1 month

A friend of mine gave us little Onesie stickers to document each month of Nolan's first year.  I am super excited to do this and wish I had done it with each of the boys.  I am going to do them in the same location each time and will also include this little giraffe as another reference to size.  It was a gift as well and is too darn cute!  Since I didn't post the first set of pictures I put them side by side for comparison.  Amazing how much he has changed in just a few weeks!  The first pictures were taken when he was 8 days old and then at 1 month.  I won't do this each month but it's fun this first time...the onesie he has on is the same one in both but we will definitely have to go up a size for the 2 month shots!

ETA: the 18.5 inches he was measured at birth may have been closer to right than I thought...look at the change in his length compared to the giraffe in the first 2 sets.  

Mean hands.

We are almost 1 month into this new baby thing and are settling right in...he is growing and totally starting to smile especially in the mornings. He is a grunter and growler and loves to stretch in his sleep and freak us all out by making his face turn bright red. Jakeb will announce "he's doing the red face thing again!" and we all stop to make sure he's ok. His poor little out of control hands keep latching onto his hair and pulling. Today they didn't want to let go and he was not a happy baby. We are fast approaching Christmas break and the big boys will be home for 2 weeks. I am mentally thinking of activities to do to help keep them occupied and not arguing. The 2 biggest of the wild ones are rather um animated as of late and need some more structure time I am thinking.

Shock and Awe

Still pretty much rolling around in disbelief that we have another little baby in the house...another person of us to care for and love. He is currently snoozing away in his swing--which is where he sleeps if he is not in our arms, which is probably creating a bad habit of sorts but whatever he won't be sleeping in his swing when he's 5 so for now it's what's happening. Jakeb and Zachary are down the street playing at a friends house and Gavin is in the living room with the little girl from next door smacking around a balloon. Tomorrow Nolan will be 3 weeks and very soon he will be one whole month old and holy cow really? I am feeling much better these days than I was when I was doing all that whining and I am grateful for that. I am anxious to get the ball rolling on Christmas shopping and am feeling more comfy to take Nolan out in brief spurts here and there so we may venture out once or twice this week. So far his only trips out in public have been to the dr. Actually we did hit up a movie this past week with the boys--he slept thru it all in the Moby perfectly content. Hmm I guess we also did go to Zachary's football banquet where he also camped out in the Moby...so he's been out but on a limited basis. I tortured myself and tried on a pair of prebaby jeans...that was uh not cool. I should have known better though--because while I have lost over half of what I gained I haven't lost THAT much. Duh. Even if the jeans that I was wearing ARE my jeans I wore right after all 3 big boys were born, ho hum. At his last little Dr. visit he was up to 8lbs 1oz....so he's trucking along like he should! We had multiple appts for him recently--something I didn't mention previously because I was probably too scared to type it out. At his 3 day visit he was down to 6lbs 12oz so the dr. (who rocks) had us come back in for a weight check the following Monday. His weight was fantastic and he had gained 9oz in the 3 day span, but I had noticed a little tiny "bump" on his abdomen, in his diaper area but on his stomach that really just looked like a baby acne spot but it was a little inflamed looking. So I knew I wanted to ask the Dr about it...but Monday morning it looked worse and no longer just looked like a baby acne spot. The dr. said yep looks like staph...gasp...he popped and cultured it. While it was still pretty tiny it was a concern, we were told to treat it with antibacterial soap wash 2x a day and neosporin 4x a day. Meanwhile the culture came back showing "light growth of MRSA". So yeah I was a bit panicky about it...staph infections in newborns can get bad but it seems we managed to get it at the right time and all is just fine with him. Dr. said it likely came from the hospital thru his umbilical cord stump OR his circumcision. It never got nasty looking and really cleared up just as quickly as it came. Now just dealing with a slight diaper rash and some itty bitty skin irritation from the antibacterial soap. I have spent more time worrying over it than is probably necessary but it scared me and I am glad it's all clearing up like it should. Can't believe we are fast approaching December already and that Thanksgiving has already come and gone. We had a nice Thanksgiving here at home with just us and my mom....we whipped up some food and waited much too long for our turkey to be done but overall had a great dinner and a very relaxing day.

Wendy Whiner.

So a few posts back I was all like "breathe and focus" in fact that may have been Monday....but today I am going to be all like this is noootttt fuunnnnn. The thing is....I am not a very good pregnant person, which is not cool on my part really because technically I am a pretty good pregnant person. I have pretty standard and easy-ish (for most people) pregnancies...and while this one really has been tougher on me it's really not that bad. But dang November can't get here quick enough. Cause while feeling the baby move is super dee duper neato schmeato---the other part of my brain has a hard time with the fact that there is a real live person moving around in my stomach. Because you know OMG there is a person moving around in my stomach. So there's that...which really is my favorite part of being pregnant but at the same time sorta creeps me out if I really think about it. Then the aches and pains and the uncomfortable and the bathroom trips and the not sleeping. Which is the worst part for me. I am a sleeper or rather I am a I need sleep at night person. I don't nap well so night time is my thing. I go to bed and I sleep all night and I don't have a hard time sleeping and I wake semi refreshed-ish and I am good to go. Except now I am not and that makes me want to cry. Except that's not cool because a 31 year old crying pregnant person is understandable but really put your big girl panties on and deal with it lady.

So yesterday was hard and it seems this morning is off on the wrong foot already but really there is no reason it should be because nothing happened. Though adjusting to kindergarden for my little guy is hard... for me. Last Friday he lost recess time and center time because he didn't finish coloring the all spots on a sheet on time. Which I get....kinda.. but really I didn't know coloring was a life skill. I mean obviously little dude knows his numbers and his colors and can follow directions (because he was) and is good to go in that regard but for real was it necessary for him to color every single spot--because he's not a fan of coloring, his perfectionism makes it hard for his 5 year old hands, as in he is really slow and his hand gets tired of trying so hard to stay in the lines. But apparently we aren't worried about how well a person does it but how fast and of course that they can color. *headsmack* (which he can color he just doesn't like to because he's s.l.o.w. at it) And then yesterday I went to the school for a super energized fundraiser pep rally thing a majig and as I was watching the guys prepare it occurred to me that maybe this was going to be a bit intense for all these little kindergarden babies that are still adjusting and are going to walk into screaming and woohoo'ing and chaos 7 days into school. At least I knew it might be for mine...and it was. I snagged him after the yelling into the microphone session and he was upset because he thought he had to go on some crazy adventure and totally didn't understand. And it broke my heart just a bit because he's so innocent and little. But then I realized that he so wasn't traumatized and was just totally fine and that maybe this is harder for me than him. And probably he should learn to be a bit less of a perfectionist and that he does need to finish his work in a time frame because I suppose that is a important life skill. But don't make my baby cry and miss recess for coloring in the same week because I am pregnant and all grumpy and whiney and I might cry too.

And while we are on the up swing of my emotional pendulum I will stop right there because if I rant any longer it won't get pretty.

ETA: He did finish his coloring and wasn't the only one (he and 3 other kids missed recess) and apparently did much better on Monday. But I still have the slight desire to march up to the school and say it's ridiculous. But I get it.

Dear Nolan.

Our sweet little surprise gift. I have been thinking about my feelings and emotions towards being pregnant again a lot recently. I find it funny that it still blows my mind that there is another little boy rolling around in my belly. At 21 weeks over halfway thru my pregnancy. My favorite time of day is laying in bed at night feeling your kicks and flops and I *think* hiccups. I have said that you are a mover and a groover but I am not so sure you are a rowdy one. Your big brothers are certainly full of sweetness but my feeling about you is that you are overflowing with it. That you are gentle and playful. I see your ultrasound picture every single day and my heart swells with happiness and sweetness. We shall see soon enough but day dreaming about you is lovely. I try to imagine your eyes and your sweet little nose and your skin and your hair. Will it be brown like your biggest brothers or blonde like your littlest of the big brothers or even still a different color all together. Will you have freckles like your uncle or dark skin that tans like a biscuit like Zachary. That fact that you are even you is amazing enough and that you will be here in a very short time even more shocking. We are so anxious to see you and hold you and meet your sweet little face and the sweet little person that you are. The love I feel for you already is amazing and overwhelming and so very welcome.

A dilemma....of not so epic-ness.

So back 4 days ago when I thought I was having a little girl....I had room plans rolling around in my head and was excited to be buying a new white crib and pink bedding and girliness. Now I am working on switching my thinking to boy and back to blue...I have pretty much got it planned as well and am tossing myself into executing the plan once the big boys start back to school (in OMG a month!) The dilemma that is no so epic is white crib or black crib. Going totally basic here and back to the classics and doing a Jenny Lind crib....just trying to decide if I want this bedding to be with a Ebony (aka black but we don't want to say black because it's a baby bed) crib or the White. I know so silly to fret over and truth be told I am not fretting I mean for goodness sake...I have 19 or so weeks to go...roughly 4 1/2 months. I could slap a room together in a week including ordering time. But it's a decision I am pondering at the very moment and the best thing I could think of writing about because what I want to blog about I can't. So let's talk about baby stuff instead! The baby...aka Nolan is quite a wiggly one and I must say that I have had no problem referring to him and HIM and also as Nolan which is funny because while I didn't have a hard time saying her and she when the baby was not girl I couldn't bring myself to say the name. Which is probably good because I am having a hard time not thinking about the boys sister--and then going oh wait...they didn't have one. I just can't wait to see this little boy and his sweet face...it is very fun pondering who he will look like. Jakeb and Zachary look so similar we often have people ask if they are twins--which is insane because in my opinion they look very different, and then we have Gavin the blonde boy who actually looks like his brothers but his coloring throws everyone off because he is so very blonde. (Side note: as I looked up name meanings yesterday I discovered that Gavin actually means White Hawk....how cool and fitting is that?) So it will be interesting to see who we get this go round. And Nolan means Fighter....which also seems very fitting.