He Sits! He Stands! He...falls...

Happy boy on his tummy...

Who loves standing!!!

Hey, is he sitting up by himself?

Well, not too well, I think he is tipping over.

Yep. That happened.

Pretty happy about giving it a second try with some support though!

Official 5 month shot.

Not about the baby

Just kidding. What else does my life revolve around lately?  Ok, I have had other thoughts about what to blog but I've forgotten most of them. However...

Meal Planning.  I want to get back into this. When I have a solid block of time to organize my recipes and sort them. I intend to capture our top 20-30 meals and make "weekly" plans of 4-5 meals (accounting for leftovers, etc).  That way I can just rotate through the "weeks" and we can eat mostly whatever is scheduled for that week. One fish, 2 chicken, 1 red meat or pork meal - etc. I'm OK with repeating our biggest favorites so I would imagine I could get perhaps 10 weeks out of this strategy.

Babysitters. LOVE IT when you get the right ones. I stole mine from the other moms at church. She grocery shops for me during nap time. Then she comes home and does whatever food prep I might need. LOVE HER. The other day we had a date and John was nursing when she came in. He immediately popped off and smiled at her, kept leaning back (horrible nursing behavior) and smiling some more. That was the end of that meal.

Nursing. Sucks. I want to quit so often. But, its close to free, so, I carry on. Lately John has been a bit of a pill and I'm hoping its just a phase. In my mind, everything will suddenly be perfect when we "start on solids" like everyone seems to suggest will solve everything.  I know this will not be the case, but I'm excited to start anyway. Like maybe I snuck a teaspoon of cereal in some milk today and gave it to him. Maybe he loved it.  Maybe.

BSF. Bible Study Fellowship.  I love the women in my group. Its hard to make "friends" at BSF but studying the bible together really is great. They have shown me SO much love through tons of prayer and even recently, meals as I continue to get over this infection I've had for several months.  (Nothing to worry about, Grandpa! I'll be fine!!!!!!)

5 Months. 14 pounds. Sitting up assisted, but would prefer to stand. Would greatly prefer to bounce. Won't bother rolling over unless the toy is REALLY worth it.  Talked up a storm over Christmas and now is mostly silent as a mouse except when we really get him laughing. 6 month clothing. (After taking 3 months to even get INTO 3 month clothes, here we are out of them 2 months later.) Loves bathtime. Sleeping 6:30p-7a +/- 60 minutes.  Mom and Dad are loving having nights to ourselves again. Although eating, baths, and bedtime by 6:30 seems really early - I'm barely off work by 5! I've been doing a dream feed around 10 and he is still waking up at least one extra time to eat...until last night when I let him cry it out for 10 minutes and he fell back asleep at minute 9. You can bet we're trying that again tonight now that he's proven he can do it! Yay.

And, pictures...

All dressed up for GG's 90th Bday Party. Snazzy!

Parent Fail: My kid has his own iPad mini apps. Only used when he wakes up before 6:30 though. Or if he is really whiney and I need to delay bedtime a little bit. He has this Twinkle Twinkle app and an aquarium display app.

New closed mouth/chewing on lip face he makes ALL.THE.TIME. Usually accompanied by some spitting.

High quality nursing moves. Thats his head under the blanket, if you're wondering. He'd rather eat blankets than nurse most of the time.

We've been going on a lot of walks in a new stroller someone gave us - so much to see!

We start early with Cribbage on my side of the family.

Entertaining our child while waiting for some food...

Favorite toy: Jumperoo.

Learning how to stand up in his Pack and Play...great...and more closed mouth smirks!

I am so behind!!!!

Ack. So behind on pictures.  So this post will be mostly pictures and I can go back to boring drudgery next time.  I will say, however, that Baby Things in the household have greatly improved. Although I feel like every day is a complicated struggle to figure out when to wake, sleep, eat, how long a nap should be, why is my baby still spitting up...when I read back a post or two and remind myself where we were in November...we are in a better place now.  John naps in his bed and as of Friday has a very early bedtime. (And early wakeup time, ugh.) Anyhow.  I have far too much sleep training information on the brain that no one needs to read. Onto pictures.

Christmas with Mommy and Daddy: Playing with paper

He opened one gift, a moose. (This was a shower gift he hadn't played with yet. Parent shaming.)

T-shirt says, "Mom's Favorite Gift"

Christmas Travel - think he is outgrowing the travel bed?

No really...outgrowing the bed, seriously!

Home from travels and helping Mom and Dad clean out the car.

Refusing to nap. Took his pants off himself! 

Boy in a box! Perfect solution to enable him to sit up after eating so I can make my breakfast. (3 weeks later, he has outgrown box :( )

Putting together John's crib - John gets a ride on Daddy's back in a flagrant misuse of the Baby Bjorn carrier. He survived.

First night in crib...no sure what to think.

Pretty sure he isn't going to nap in this crib thing. (This is taken through the crack in the door. Zoom in if you can. I love the look on his face.)

Table Training: John sits at the table with us during dinner (This is day 2; day 1 lasted only 2 minutes)

He gets an apple slice in this food feeder meshy thing. He is at dinner, after all!

Favorite picture currently (ok, top 5). This was taken via iPad as John was watching himself in the front facing camera (aka mirror.) I guess he cracks himself up.

Thrift store had a sock monkey outfit...couldn't resist!

Quick Post

We've been seeing a LOT more of this lately: This is John asleep himself for a nap. I cannot emphasize how amazing this is, and how relieved I am that this has finally happened.  He will flip himself over (or I'll just put him down on his tummy if he is really tired) and he will bunch up his sheet protector (to spit and drool all over the sheet instead…) so that he has something by his face and then…passes out. Glorious. We are starting to work on CIO during the nighttime too. Its been easier at Grandma and Grandpa's house because the pack and play is right by the bed…I can snooze while he wails (yes, I can!) in relative warmth and comfort…not sitting by his bed or pacing the cold hallways of our home.  We'll see how this progresses when we get home. I'd really like to drop the feeding that occurs somewhere between 12 and 3 soon…

 Haven't uploaded much from Christmas yet (barely took any pictures) but John got a cute outfit from his great Grandma Betty and rocked it like a cute Santa all day.  Here he is with Auntie Amy and then Grandma Loni. I didn't take these…I was napping. I got 2 naps on Christmas. Merry Christmas to me!

In other topics (still related to John) his eyelashes have really grown. I am excited about this because they were STUBBY when he was born. I was worried. But they are pretty long and thick now.  He is getting more hair back too. After 3 months of taking his sweet time getting into 3mo size clothes, I'm not sure he will be in actual 3 mo size for much longer. His torso is long (like Daddy) so he may be in 6m tops soon.  He still has tiny legs though so I think we can wear our pants a bit longer. One pieces are getting tight really fast though…too fast!!!

John got a V-Tech light up ball for Christmas and LOVES the thing. It has a bunch of light up buttons and rolls around a bit.  He is already rolling around to chase it…great…I see some baby fence purchases in our future!

It was a really fun first Christmas with John (even though he slept through most of presents with his first …da dum…2 hour daytime nap in his bed!)  I will post more pictures when I get them, including his 4 month portraits!

Our kid

We are almost to 4 months, so I will call this our official 4 month post.

John has, for the last 2 days, successfully cried it out into naps in his bed. Wowser! The naps still only last exactly 45 minutes, but the 15 minutes of jabbering or crying plus the nap means an hour of time for me. I've been using that hour to nap, mostly, due to being really sick.  After some naps (he always wakes hungry) he falls back asleep while nursing or burping. I don't know what to do at that point but so far I've just held him so he could get his long afternoon nap.

I had a bit of an epiphany last night when I pumped (boys were at a party) and I only got THREE ounces instead of 6-7. I'm starving my kid at night! No wonder he eats every hour or two in the evening and needs to wake up at 1 and 4 to eat.  Previously a 6 hour night stretch was no problem...until 3 months when we had a few weeks of night wakes, which are gone now except the hunger wake ups. So last night, I nursed him and gave him 2 oz by bottle from our stash and...he slept til 4. Awesome.  I, however, only slept until 2 with this horrible cough.  When he did finally wake, I couldn't get him all the way back asleep (our nighttime routine) before putting him in bed due to all the hacking. So I put him in bed anyhow and I'm hoping the cry it out going works at night too. First he just jabbered a bunch but now he is pretty upset. 10 more minutes and I will go get him. (Yes, drafting this blog at 5am...doesn't everyone blog in the middle of he night?)  **UPDATED** CIO does not work at night. Woke Daddy up though, got hungry again, and by 6 mommy was back in bed and Daddy was doing baby duty

We've started "tickling" Daddy in the mornings (more like a dog digging a hole/scrambling at his arms or whatever is closest) but John seems to think it's somewhat amusing. He is also a pro hair grabber (well, we did teach him to grab stuff dangling in his face...he's just TOO SMART!) and just started this week grabbing at the table stuff while we eat. We are doomed! He doesn't like to play by himself as much as he used to, which is hard. I think he would prefer to sit up and play, but since he can't do that yet. He loves to be on his changing pad (sound familiar, Anna?) and talks a ton while we are there. Then I move him to his mat...over. This morning I moved him to the ground (memory foam mat) so I could go to the bathroom and he seemed to like that. Maybe the changing pad is just really comfy?

Hm...I need to upload some more pictures. Now that Zach's finals are over - I have my husband back!!!  Now if I could just get my health, we'd be on a roll...

John's First Airplane Trip

I'm hosting a gals craft day on Sunday and my house is a DISASTER. So what am I doing now that the baby is asleep? Blogging. Of course. What will I craft? Good question. Right now I have 3 interests: sewing one or more changing pad covers, sewing one or more quiet books (unfortunately, can't find a picture of them online - will post when done) or converting the last 2 years of Christmas Cards into an album or some other sort of collection so I can do the same thing every year.  Oh and of course feed and hold John the entire time if Zach has to study for finals. So I'll for sure get everything done.  I am secretly hoping some non-crafty girls will come and hold babies. :)

So reunion. We flew to Florida. John was pretty much a champ on the plane, except for pooping through his pants twice. (Word of advice: Using a blanket as a nursing cover? Same blanket for wrapping? Same blanket that gets pooped on? Uh-oh.)  He was a bit of a terror only for about 5 minutes twice (once was during boarding) but both times when he was very tired and over stimulated. In both cases we put the swaddle blanket over him and whichever of us was holding him to block out all the people and...sleep in 2 minutes. Awesome. Also, we travelled without any pump or bottles. It freaked me out a little. Next time I will at least travel with a bottle and some formula samples, just for emergencies. I'm a worrier. What if that quick trip to Walgreens became 3 hours because of traffic or an accident? etc. This was John's 3rd big trip but first by plane. I think this is the max age for easy traveling. They don't really need toys, sleep anywhere, etc. Even now in the car, John doesn't sleep if he isn't ready.  Before (early last month) he would just fall asleep every time we got on the road, very nice for 8 hours of driving in a day.  Now, its just screaming. Awesome.

At the reunion, John met his namesake, John Francis Doscher, a wonderful man, husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather. Also a great story teller, author, has a good sense of humor and a way with words.  At 83, he just quit jogging, running races, and I think toned down his softball team participation. I hope our John is a lot like him.  Poppi (thats what we call him) wrote a poem for John. I'm going to post it here in case I lose our copy.

JD

We will probably never get to know each other,

Too many years apart.

With your loving family around you,

Your life will have a good start.

Stay close to your family, have a good heart.

Invite the Lord into our life, 

He will see you through trouble, sorrow, and strife.

The world could get rough,

So you have to be tough.

Stand up for what's right and don't back down.

Be merciful and kind, a good guy all around.

So John Francis, my namesake you are,

I just know you'll be fine, I know you'll go far.

When you start playing ball and I hope that you do,

Play fair, play hard, just be you.

I'll gaze down from Heaven and I'll hear and I'l see,

Now coming to bat...JD.

By JFD

TEAR! I love it.  I think I will also put a copy in his album and maybe frame the poem and a picture of them for his room.

Poppi and John. John is wearing Yankee apparel (ouch, I know) because Poppi is a fan. (Anyone want a 3m yankee outfit now that this photo op is over?)

On Thanksgiving, Poppi cooked the whole gang his famous invented meal, Eggs and Noodles. Yum.

Everyone getting a well posed picture staring directly at the sun. Oh well.

Dressy John on Thanksgiving with his cousin Brady.

The rest of the reunion was great, our spoiled boy was held, I think, the entire time by someone or another. (NO WONDER WE HAVE SLEEP PROBLEMS!!!!!!!!)

3 months and then some

Finally! I got my pictures uploaded to picasa. My IE is so finicky!  We have a 3 month old now, so here is what we've been up to.

Enjoying our last bits of 0-3m clothing, like this Old Navy Superman outfit. I went online to get the next size up in Batman and they were sold out. Tragic. 

 Once he started staring at things intentionally, I busted out the books. (We did have a black and white thing by the changing pad and we noticed he would stare at that.)  He does seem to enjoy reading.  He initially really liked the Sassy books (still does) for their great patterns and colors. He seems to tolerate the fun Sandra Boynton books more now too (if heavy breathing is any indication) which I realized I have a bunch of from my storybook shower.  I'm greedy though, I already want more. I want them all!

 Every baby needs a bath robe, right? Or that is what I thought 4 months pregnant.  Turns out, not so practical. Good thing it was only $4. But cute, and goes up to 9mo...maybe we'll enjoy it a bit more later.

 I couldn't resist these 2 pc jammies for Christmastime. He looks so grown up! (Also, the pants are huge on him, you just can't tell. I guess we are a 3mo on top and still NB for bottoms. Oh well.)

 Seriously, how cute is this picture? This is Zach "driving" with John. John sits back and Zach makes motor noises and moves John's hands to shift. Its like his own ride at an amusement part, that type that make you puke because the seats move.  Well, obviously John LOVES it. Gales of giggles. So cute.

We travelled to Florida for Thanksgiving, which will be its own separate post. Both because I have travel experience I want to document for future reference and because John met his 83 year old great-Poppi (great grandpa) whom he is named after, and Poppi wrote a poem about it, and...I will save all that for later. For now, I have a baby that went to bed so I will be heading that direction SOON!

Stats: at 3 months - 10lb 13 oz (around 2nd percentile.) Still our tiny little guy. Big tummy, chicken legs, but he loves to stand! Grabbing at toys a lot more too. Drool city. Might become a thumb sucker, not sure yet. The end.