4 Months! And 5 Months!

My baby is growing up so fast! Maybe not super fast, but at any rate, she's growing faster than mommy can write new blog posts. She's already 5 months old. Of course it feels like we've had her forever (especially at 1:00 in the morning).

In the last month she's started rolling front to back, then a week later, back to front. Now she's trying to sit up on her own and actually manages to stay upright for a few seconds before faceplanting into the floor. Next week she'll probably be crawling. Although I hope not since I'm not very mobile at the present time.  

I have to say, Greyden is the best big brother ever. I had to take both kids to the doctor for their well visits a few weeks ago. Of course both needed shots and Kevin was out of town. I had them do Greyden's first so that I could calm him down before doing Emerson. He cried for a few minutes, but I asked him if he could help Sissy with her shots. He said yes and climbed up on the step stool next to the table and held her hand. It was precious. It's also amazing how much Emerson adores Greyden. If he's in the room, she has to be watching him and, if possible, touching him. There is nothing the two of them like more than laying next to each other in Emerson's crib before their baths each night. Emerson just reaches for him and laughs the entire time.

Here are her 4 month pictures:

And here are her 5 month shots:

Checking In!

Weeks Post Partum: 22 Weeks

Total weight gain/loss: A TON. Well, not quite a ton. But I was thrilled to step on the scale last week and see that I was down to 165. How? I have no idea. It must have been the fact that I haven't exercised since October. Or maybe the fact that we order pizza at least twice a week. Regardless, I'll take it. (And if that's the case, bring on the Christmas cookies!)

Maternity Clothes: I have officially ditched the maternity pants. Literally. I threw a pair of jeans away. Granted it just about killed me since I hate throwing away clothes. I'd love to say it was because they were too big on me, but to be honest, the belt loops were ripped off (from me hauling them over my love handles) leaving gaping holes where my muffin top was squeezing out. How's that for a visual? 

Sleep: Have you ever heard of the 4 month wakeful? Apparently at 4 months, babies are hitting a stage where they're becoming more aware of their surroundings and therefore are sleeping a lot less. I remember Greyden going through that phase. I just laughed this time thinking about how Emerson would never start waking up at night. She's been sleeping all night and only getting up once since day 1. No sense in ruining a good thing, right? Then she ruined it. At about 4 months and 2 weeks, she became very difficult to put down. I used to nurse her, lay her in the crib, and walk out. Now I nurse her, lay her in the crib, walk out, walk back in, put paci in, walk out, walk in, put paci in, sit in chair because I'm sick of walking out, walk out, go downstairs and relax for 15 minutes, go upstairs, nurse her, lay her in crib, walk out, walk back in, put paci in....you get the idea. All I could figure was that it was because she was fighting her swaddle so badly. So we stopped cold turkey. For the 3rd time. The last 2 times we gave up and reswaddled her again after a few sleepless nights. This time, we're sticking with it. She's getting a little better. I only have to go back into her room 1 or 2 times before she's down for the night. And when I say "down for the night" I mean, down until she gets up at 11, 1, and 5.

Best moments this week: 

 
What I am looking forward to: Christmas! I am so excited for Santa to come for the kids. We've been telling Greyden all about Santa. While Kevin was explaining that Santa was coming to bring presents, Greyden suddenly stopped and looked at the door. Then he looked back at Kevin and said "Someone here, Daddy!" HA! Not quite yet, buddy. We took them to see Santa last week. There is a little one room schoolhouse that the Brighton Historical Society opens each year to host Santa and Mrs. Claus for the kids. It was perfect. No mall, no lines. There were probably 20 people there total, and most were running it. And they had baked goods. We've definitely found our Santa spot. I'm still shocked that Greyden went and sat on his lap. Emerson was ALL about the candy cane (which Mommy later ate - refer to weight loss section above).

Milestones: Rolling front to back (18 weeks), back to front (19 weeks), and wanting to sit up on her own. We've also moved her into the big bathtub with Greyden since her little infant tub was causing tsunamis all over the mirror and countertop. The girl likes to splash just a leettle bit.



This is when we caught her rolling from back to front. Doesn't she look proud of herself?

Babies are Hazardous to Your Health

Guess where I spent the morning today? If you guessed at my desk and hard at work, you'd be wrong right because my boss reads this blog! However if you guessed at the local Urgent Care clinic, you might be a little closer to the truth.

We have been dealing with sick kids lately. The coughy, sneezy, snot dripping down their chins kind of sick. You know, the kind every other kid at daycare also has right now. It's been awesome. Greyden, although still stuffy and crusty, appears to be on the upswing. On the other hand, Emerson is still pretty bad so I decided to keep her home from daycare yesterday. I figured that letting her get a good nap and keeping her nose cleared out would help her progress along. After napping from 9:30 - 1:30, then again from 4:00 - 4:45 she did seem to be a little better. Still, you can see where I'm going with this, right? Sick baby....urgent care..........................a knee injury.....*sigh*

Yesterday afternoon I went up to the nursery to get Emerson when she woke up from her nap. As I was holding her and gently swaying back and forth (while belting out Christmas carols at the top of my lungs), my knee cracked. In my mind it sounded like the crack of a gun shot, but truth be told, it was probably closer to a knuckle cracking really loudly. Regardless, you could definitely hear it over my singing so you know I'm not exaggerating too much. Immediately it started to hurt and as the night went on it kept getting worse. By the end of the evening I could barely walk on it. I was hoping that resting it overnight would help, but when I fell stepped out of bed this morning, it was obvious that it was no better. Therefore, I found myself sitting in front of the Urgent Care waiting for them to open.

After successfully elbowing all of the other patrons out of my way (I said knee injury, my elbows were fine), I was the first one in the clinic. The doctor turned out to be an older gentleman who was apparently hard of hearing. As I'm describing my unbearable symptoms (sharp pain below my kneecap, stiffness, extreme pain when walking on it) he's telling me to open my mouth and say "ahh", looking in my ears, checking my lungs, and telling me about all of the cases of strep and pneumonia he's seen lately. Huh? Granted, I wasn't expecting stellar health care from a walk in clinic, but I thought (was hoping?) that they might be able to land a little closer to the old goal line than that. Then he started listening to my heart and telling me that it sounded "funny". Dude, really? I figured it would be just my luck to come in for a knee injury and leave with a heart attack.

Eventually he got around to sending me off for x-rays (of my knee and not my chest believe it or not) which of course came back clear as we figured they would. My prescription? Ice and immobilization. Because THAT will be easy with a 2 year old and a 5 month old. He did give me a prescription for pain meds (the good stuff - regular strength Tylenol since I'm still breastfeeding), a referral to a sports medicine doctor, and sent me on my way. He told me that if I'm still having pain in a week, I am supposed to make an appointment with the sports medicine doc (since the orthopedic places can't get me in until the end of January) and we can discuss an MRI at that time. So I have at least a week of hobbling around like I'm 90. Oh, and he did say that I could use crutches, but recommended a cane instead since I have to carry around a baby wherever I go. (Yes, I'm trying to picture this too). Not that it matters since I don't own a cane and we can't even find both of my crutches. Kevin's been using one for an awning opener on the RV for the last 2 years. The other one is probably........ somewhere....... shop maybe........ basement........ Kevin was nice enough to apologize for separating them and losing one since he "thought my clumsy days were over" and therefore didn't realize that I'd ever need my crutches again. He also said he should have known better. I told him that I wasn't being "clumsy" this time since I was literally just standing there. Clumsy would have obviously involved falling over. Then we got to take a trip down memory lane as he recounted all of my previous "clumsy" injuries....the big ones being slipping down the stairs of our boat, landing on my ass in the cabin, and spraining my ankle, and walking through a door and breaking my foot (while failing to mention that the raised threshold that was the culprit, of course). Yes, I may have landed myself on crutches a time or two before, but who's counting? Definitely not Kevin since he also told me that he's lost track of all of my other injuries.

So that's my morning in a nutshell. There goes my dream of finishing up my Christmas shopping at lunch today, since I'm obviously limited to stores with Amigo scooters. And while I'm beyond thrilled to have an excuse to put it off for yet another few days, I'm also a little scared that I won't be able to walk next week either, although not as scared as the people whose gifts I haven't bought yet should be, since I'll have to send Kevin out for theirs. I'd tell you who you are, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out on Christmas morning.

Greyden's 2nd Birthday!

If any of you read my post of Greyden's first birthday (you should have since it was only two months ago), you'll remember that he isn't exactly a fan of cake. In fact, he's downright scared of it. Sometimes I wonder if he really is my child. Since he was going to have an audience at his party, Kevin and I decided to ease him into the whole birthday cake thing this year. On his actual birthday (2 days before his party) we went to the grocery store and bought a practice cake for him. He seemed okay with it at first.

  

He was REALLY okay with it when those candles were lit. We lit and blew them out about 47 times. Then came the part where we encouraged him to take a bite. Yeah, not so much. (As he pushed the cake away being meticulously careful not to actually touch the frosting.)

 


We gave up. And relit the candles. And blew them out. And I ate the cake. Darn. No sense in making him do something he doesn't want to do, right?  


His actual birthday party turned out well! We did a Thomas the Train theme since having a two year old boy means that lately we live and breathe that quirky little train.



My Thomas the Train chili toppings holder

  

Greyden's favorite part of the night was obviously the presents. Because he needs more toys, right? It took him all of 4.3 seconds to catch on to the fact that there were toys under all of that wrapping paper. Game on.

We even skyped in Aunt Kerry and cousin Addie to witness the destruction. 

  

Then it was time for (dum, dum, dum)............the cake. I would LOVE to say that this cake is my own creation, but that's not completely true. I baked the cake from scratch and made the butter cream frosting, but I made mom decorate it. I just don't have that kind of talent patience. I did make sure to carefully oversee the project (over her shoulder) though.



When we put the cake in front of him, I thought we might stand a chance. Then I realized he was focused on the candles only.  Light, blow out, light, blow out, rinse, repeat.

 Yup, as soon as we suggested he stick a finger in it, he tried to get down from his chair.  

 

He obviously didn't stick around long enough to watch me cut it open. If he had, he would have devoured it. I mean, who can resist a cake that looks like this? 

I wish I had taken a picture of the pile of gifts he received. Although I guess it wouldn't matter since, even after amassing a ton of new toys, he ended his night engrossed in my salad spinner.

(While I have your attention, I'd like to take this moment to point out that Greyden would also like a new crock pot and a cast iron griddle for Christmas.)

While I'm posting about Greyden's birthday, I can't forget about Kevin! Since his birthday is 3 days after Greyden's (and therefore completely insignificant) I decided I should do something for his birthday too. When I told him I wanted to make him a cake, he told me not to bother because he didn't like cake. Yet, the cake I made him was completely gone by the end of the night. Hmmm.