monthly recap

What a month! Baby girl is one month today already, and it has been busy. Some of the big things:

First bath!

First Easter!

This little hat I got in Peru back in 2009, and just saved away for a little wanted baby someday.

I'm pretty sure this was his first ice-cream cone all to himself!

Big brother turned 2.5, so fast!!!

Her little onesie was the one we bought for the gender reveal for ourselves, when we found out she was a girl <3

Like big brother, she also has a heart murmur. Had to go to a cardiologist to get an EKG and 2D echo, thankfully all normal findings. Praise God!

I made this sunbonnet for my neighbor's little girl and she gave it back to me :)

Baby Jeanie meets her namesake, my college friend Jeannie.

August's room got a little updating, I bought and framed this super sweet Etsy print about treasuring your children. Makes me tear up. And we hung his banner of him from birth to 11 months.

I love his room, we are still planning on the kids sharing several months from now, but he still has his own for now.

My matching jammies photo shoot didn't turn out as I planned, and both kids are almost too big for them!

My cousin got married last weekend, a couple family shots:

4 generations! Spanning 1 month to 98 years old!

our family (minus my siblings)

Big brother playing in her swing.

Ok, got to go, kids needing attention :)

9 months

Our little guy is 9 months already. Time is flying!

He's still mostly a breast-fed little guy, we've started some grains and veggies but he isn't too interested yet. He has nights of sleeping through the night, and then nights of waking up 1-3 times still. Honestly I am ready for that to be done. It's been so hard to muster up the energy to even check his diaper, sometimes I just give him his binky and that works, if he cries again then I check the diaper and feed him. I don't know what to say other than my body is done with the frequent wake ups!

We just came back from our first camping trip, which was good during the day, bad at night. We had this little packable sleeper box thing from his parents, but it was too small for him to roll onto his back. Plus it got pretty cold at night and his hands were icy cold when I nursed him at night, and stupid mommy hadn't packed any socks to even put on his hands. I wanted to tuck him into my bag with me, but Doug was worried I'd roll onto him, so he held him for a long time and eventually he fell asleep. And of course my whole family had woken up too, sorry everyone! My dumb phone is constantly out of picture storage space so will have to get the pics off Doug's phone.

Otherwise he's a pretty good boy. Addicted to his binky. Loves to reach out and grab anything he can possibly grab and stuff into his mouth. Sitting like a pro, but no crawling yet. Loves to be carried around and be with mom and dad. Will still sit and play with toys or be in his jumper, but not for too long, so that makes it difficult to get things done. Oh well.

He's always been so "easy", so when he's been more fussy lately it's been hard for me. Lately I've been struggling with feeling like a pretty lousy mom and have been praying so much for God to give me patience, kindness, and gentleness with him, and compassion for his needs. Pretty much praying Colossians 3:12-14 over me: "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

It seems bad to have to pray for more love for your own child, which also makes me feel like a failure, but it can feel very overwhelming trying everything and he's still crying and upset. It's so easy to get frustrated and even annoyed. So I keep praying. I always felt this deep desire to be a mother and God has so generously given that to me, I pray that I can be the mom that August needs! Please pray for me.

6 months!

August is 6 months. I can't believe it's been half a year already!

"cuddles" pretty much only when he's asleep, haha

(I didn't even realize we got the 'full family' shot with September asleep on the back of the couch there, awww)

He's a good boy.

Still exclusively breast fed, we know he CAN roll over both ways but he doesn't really do it very much, just rolls to his side. He still can't sit up alone without tipping over. He's grabbing EVERYTHING and putting it into his mouth. One not great thing is he's almost back to waking up every 3 hours at night, noooo! Pretty much like clockwork he's up at 12:30, then 3:30, then around 7 when usually I just put in his binky and pray for one more hour of sleep. I can't seem to handle any more wake ups by then. But overall a good little buddy! And mostly happy and smiley, we really have been blessed.

He enjoyed his first time in a swing

He loves his daddy

He was enjoying a stroller ride until a wheel popped and we have to figure out how to buy a replacement tire??

And he loves rides in the backpack :)

We went to Ben's 2nd birthday fiesta and August pretty much hung out in the backpack most of the time which was really nice for mom and dad to be able to hang out and eat and chat. Good times with baby boy!

5 month update

Little guy is 5 months old. Time is flying! He's got the start of one tooth. He alternates between getting up just once a night to every now and then he'll still wake up every 2-3 hours. He's still only on breast milk and for the most part doing really well. He can sit supported in the Bumbo but not on his own. He can stand supported for several minutes, strong legs! We know he can roll over both ways but he hasn't done that in quite a while. He's still in our room, maybe this will be his last month. We'll see.

Every month I get this jumparoo out of the closet but I still think it's too big for him, he loves to push his legs against you when you're holding him, but doesn't seem to understand what to do when he gets in here, he just sits and then his arm goes down the leg hole and he gets scared and needs rescuing.

He sat in his chair long enough earlier last week to let me rake out my front garden beds, I'm excited to see my plants grow!

Enjoying this little chewie on his new tooth. That night was a doozy, every time he woke up (every hour that night) he woke up screaming and he never does that. Luckily that was just 2 nights. And Doug is debuting his first haircut by yours truly, not bad if I do say so myself!

Baby still loves bathtime. We seem to only do this weekly, he just gets too dry if more often!

Treated Matt and Rachel (and Miralie) to Indian food as a thanks for watching August these last weeks while we had our Apologetics class.

A boy and his cat. September is a little more curious of August these days. She'll come nearby and sniff him, but she still keeps a good distance.

5 months seems both so long and so short. I definitely feel busy these days. Hardly time to myself or for house cleaning, blog writing, homework, book club book reading, Bible studying. Always behind on my to-do list. Never enough quality-time with Doug, often just talking about logistics and passing August back and forth. I am thankful we're in this together, and it's good, but definitely miss "our time".

August has his appointment with the cardiologist for his heart murmur this Thursday, so pray for him! Thanks :)

August's 4 month update

This little guy is growing up fast!

Today he had his 4 month doctor appointment. He's 26.5 inches long (95% percentile), and 14lbs 10 ounces (50%), he's gained 6 lbs since birth. Normally a baby should double their birth weight by 4 months, but his doctor said they worry about that less when they are born over 8lbs. She said he's doing great and meeting all his milestones. The downsides of the visit: he has some dry dry skin! So no more washing all our clothes together, I need to try washing his alone with a no dye/no perfumes. Bummer, extra loads of laundry. But hopefully that will help.

The other issue was at this appointment she noticed a heart murmur. So now he has to see a pediatric cardiologist. She said she's not really worried since he's not blue or short of breath or anything, but I still cried on the way home. My baby! I've been praying for a friend's baby who has to have open heart surgery this month, so of course my brain went there for August. But I really should be so thankful he is likely healthy and to keep lifting up the precious children who really do have serious medical needs.

Other than that he's doing good. I love our pediatrician, she is so awesome. She's super into health promotion and boosting the immune system. So now August is on vitamin D drops, a probiotic, and baby DHA. Seems kinda weird to have a little baby on those supplements, (and he smells so fishy after the DHA, ew!) but the evidence is there in the research that it does help. He's had 2 colds so far, but otherwise doing good.

And now for a slew of pictures:

August and grandpa

his little teething goat (no teeth yet, just lots of putting stuff in his mouth)

that smile!!!

reading books with mom.

so this little hat I bought "for my future baby" when I was probably in high school. To see it on my real baby like 15 years later, I totally teared up

rocking his 3-6 month clothes already

little nursing feet. he's always kicking off his socks

such sturdy little legs!

playing with his friend Miralie while Doug and I went to our Bible class

sweet little messy mullet

celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's birthdays!