8 Months - Micah

Micah is finally sitting all on his own without the need for pillows! This happened just a couple of weeks ago and I'm thrilled. It seems like it took forever since his pediatrician commented on his torso strength at his 4 month appointment. I think I've been saying for the last 3 months that he's "so close to sitting" so it's great that it's finally here. He'll occasionally fall backwards if he's tired and has face planted a few times reaching for things. He still has no interest in being on his stomach or pushing up on his arms so I don't think we have to worry about crawling for a little while. He can scoot around in a circle a little bit he's pretty stationary at this point. I think he's beginning to get a little frustrated about it so we'll both be ready for mobility when it finally arrives.

Micah is doing much better with solids. Pat got up with him the morning of my birthday so I could get a little extra sleep and fed him breakfast and ever since he's been doing pretty well. He's eating 2-3 meals each day and typically gets pretty fussy beforehand and demanding during. He's handled all of the food well but has been gassier lately so I'm not sure if that's a food he's eating, us increasing amounts too quickly or him just eating too fast.

Micah has 3 teeth now. The funny part is that they aren't the typical first teeth to come through. The first one was the tooth to the right of his top front tooth, then the front tooth next to it came through and now the bottom tooth on the right side is coming through. His mouth is a little lopsided so it's pretty funny. We've had some rough nights but it's hard to tell if it's teeth or just bad nights. (Micah now has 6 teeth since writing this.)

Micah has been a little bit fussier the last day or two so I wouldn't be surprised if there are more teeth coming in. I'm hoping that's it and that they come in before Christmas so he can be his usual happy self when we're with family.

Micah is taking 2 naps a day but I'm working on setting specific times. I usually get one 45 minute nap and one 1 1/2 hour nap. It varies on whether that is in the morning or afternoon though.

Steroids and shadows

We have a new accessory in our house for hopefully a short time...

Owen has had a terrible cough for about 2 weeks so he saw the doctor on Thursday and we were sent home with a nebulizer and a rx for a steroid. Can I just say that a 2 1/2 year old on steroids is CRAZY! The kid doesn't stop moving or talking. Just a couple more days of it thankfully.

Owen also become afraid of shadows in his room this week so that has made bedtime last a little longer. We did shadow puppets one night and have tried to explain what is causing the shadows. He seems a little better about it now and has moved to just talking about them a lot. I also tell him to look at the light instead of the shadows which is a good reminder to myself!

Micah: 7 Months

Micah seems to be working on some teeth that are refusing to come through. We had a couple of nights where I gave him tylenol because he wasn't going to sleep and I was convinced it was teeth. He still has none though and is just a little bit fussier and clingier than usual.

We've had a couple of 5-6 hour stretches of sleep after the tylenol which was great but they were preceded by hours of crying which was not so great. There was one night this week where I took Micah upstairs for bad at 6:00 and it was at least 9:00 before he fell asleep. That was rough. I think it was because he'd had a little bit later nap that day which I thought would help us avoid the typical cranky hour or so that we usually have. Turns out he needs that time I guess.

I'm trying to ease him out of sleeping in the rock 'n' play but it's not going so well. He was out of it around 4 months but then when he got sick last month I put him back in it so he he could be more upright. Not sure it was a good idea or not. He's napped in the pack 'n' play for the last couple of days and I've had mixed results. I go back and forth over forcing him out of it. It's going to be no matter when I do so I'm thinking I might as well wait until I have to do and then deal with it. In the meantime I'll enjoy a little more sleep. Although I'm not sure it makes much difference. Last night he was up 3 times so I don't know that that qualifies as good sleep.

I've stopped feeding Micah before I go to bed and just nurse him when he wakes up. I've had mixed results there as well. There have been nights where he doesn't wake up until 2 and sometimes he wakes up at midnight. He's just really unpredictable.

We've tried a few solids with less than stellar results. I worked on it for a little over a week with about 2 days of him seeming to like it and the other nights just spitting it all out. I decided to just wait a couple more weeks and let him start feeding himself. He seems to be doing fine with just nursing and is clearly growing steadily.

Micah is almost sitting completely unassisted. I still put pillows around him because every time I haven't he's fallen over. It's crazy to me that it's taken this long just because he seems like he was so close 2 months ago. Ah well. He has no interest in crawling or scooting which I'm okay with. I'll happily enjoy his immobility a while longer knowing that once it's gone my life will get much more difficult.

First bite of "solids"

He loves his toes!

Kisses for mommy

Halloween

doing a little thigh comparison with his cousin Zeke....Micah wins

This face...oh my

Micah - 6 month stats

H: 28 1/8 inches (90%) - I'm not convinced he's this tall...close maybe
W: 18lb 11oz (75%) - This was actually less than I was expecting
HC: 44cm/17 1/4in (55%)

Owen - 2 1/2

(This was written a couple of months ago and I decided to just post it and not update anything.)

It's been a while since I've done an update on just Owen! This boy is a non-stop chatter box at home. It's still hard for me to believe that 6 months ago he was barely talking. We have reached the fun "kids say the darndest things" stage and every conversation is quite entertaining. He tends to stutter a lot so it can take a while for his thoughts to get out. In the last couple of weeks the the "what..." questions has dominated his vocabulary. I hear a lot of "What they/that doing?" and "what was that?". It's great that he's wanting to learn things but so many questions can be exhausting when the answer is usually the same.
Some of the funny things I've heard are:
Oh no forgot!
Play air guitar....do do do do
How 'bout....
Uh...sure!
Owenowenowenowenowen
Mama...mama...mama...mama....(these last two used to happen from his bed all of the time)
Well, hi there!
Had a good nap/lunch/supper
FUN! (while signing fun)
Owen sleep like...10 hours/6 hours/6 minutes
So...what should we do?

There are a lot more but I forget to write them down. He is super funny.
He's also started trying to negotiate with us on things and sometimes I let him win and sometimes what mama says isn't going to change. I usually try to decide based on how he asks but still tell him that even though he asks politely he won't always get what he wants.
We're teaching him some chores like putting his dishes in the sink after he's done eating and I'll usually have him put some of his laundry away or help with the dishwasher. He's great about picking up his toys which is really nice. He even told me one day that he loved cleaning. Good thing kid because I've got plans for you! :)
Owen refuses to let anyone but me put him to bed which I don't usually mind. Pat did it the other night but he cried and I had to do some convincing.
He LOVES books and can't have enough read to him. I've had to start telling him that we can only read one book if he throws a fit before bed.
Owen is incredibly smart with letters. He's been able to recognize the entire alphabet (upper and lowercase) for several months now but he now knows what sound each letter makes! This is incredibly impressing to me. He's able to say his alphabet almost perfectly. He has to want to do it though otherwise he acts like he forgets letters.
Owen spends a lot of time lining up and parking his trucks and tractors so there are usually at least 15 of them strewn across the sofa during the day.
Owen LOVES music. I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell Owen that he can't use something for a drum. For a while it was Micah. He will use anything for a drumstick (usually my vacuum attachments) and likes counting off with his "sticks". His favorite song varies. Currently it is Man of Sorrows - Hillsong and Fix My Eyes - For King & Country. He'll break out his air guitar and rock out whenever these start and is learning the words quite quickly. He really enjoys music videos so this is probably where he picked up most of his moves. I've caught him with his hands raised when we play Man of Sorrows as well as in church. I pray that he soon understands who he is worshiping.

Micah - 5 & 6 months

Well, I totally blew it with Micah's 5 month update so I'll have to try and combine (remember) the last 2 months.

Micah loves to sit in his Bumbo seat and is getting really close to sitting independently. I do look forward to that milestone and somewhat hopes he follows Owen with being content to just sit on the floor. Owen didn't crawl until 10 months old and I would be perfectly happy if Micah followed suit. It's nice to just set them on the floor and know they'll be in the same spot when you come back. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing how each baby becomes mobile but I'm in no hurry.
Micah has figured out rolling over but really prefers to not do it. I don't put him on the floor too often just because Owen likes to lay on top of him and I worry he'll get stepped on or tripped over while Owen runs around.
Micah loves his brother, despite being bitten 3 times. Owen has bitten his forehead, his fingers and his nose hard enough to leave marks. I often see Owen lying on top of Micah and tell him to be gentle just to see Micah underneath with a big grin on his face. Owen can get Micah to laugh like no one else which is so fun to see. I also hear lots of "Don't touch that Micah!" "That's mine, Micah!" etc. so I'm sure I'll be breaking up many fights in my future as well.
I realize that my last post was mostly about how bad of a sleeper Micah is so I'll try to not say much about that other than it's about the same. 2.5-3 hour stretches. It's gotten terribly difficult to put him down at night and it will often involve 1+ hours of crying. It's been difficult but I keep reminding myself that it will pass. (In the couple of weeks between writing this and actually posting it things have improved somewhat. The last couple of nights he done 3.5-4 hour stretches although 2 nights ago he was awake for over an hour each time he woke up which was not so great.)
Micah has had a nasty cough for the last week or so and has all but completely lost his voice. It's super cute to hear him talk all raspy but heartbreaking to hear him try to cry. He ended up having an ear infection which didn't surprise me. Lingering coughs always became ear infections with Owen. Giving Micah the antibiotic was awful. He would gag and try to spit it out and threw up a few times. I tried it in a bottle once but he was having none of it from me so Pat tried the next day and it didn't go much better. I think Micah has had a total of 3 bottles so it could've been more that than anything else. He did get better about taking it but I was glad when it was over.
We started putting Micah in the nursery around 4.5 months which is quite a bit earlier than Owen. Micah didn't sleep during the service like Owen did and since he's so happy I didn't feel as bad about putting him in there. He's does great and I think I've only had to get him early a couple of times.
We are borrowing a Jumperoo from Pat's parents and Micah has started to enjoy that. He's just recently figured out how to bounce it so that's fun.
No obvious signs of any teeth yet but gallons of drool and lots of finger gnawing.
We started some solids this week. The rice cereal went better than the squash tonight. He seemed to really like the cereal (it was mixed with breastmilk so I'm sure it just tasted like what he's used to) but had a hard time keeping it in his mouth. The squash he just gagged and spit it out. He seems more interested in chewing his bib or the spoon but we'll keep trying! I'm not in a rush since he is clearly growing just fine and doesn't seem hungry after nursing. It also means that I have to start rinsing my cloth diapers :P

Oh these boys.

Micah - 4 months

H: 25.1 inches (50%)
W: 16 lb 5 oz (75%)
HC: 16.8 inches/42.5cm (75%)

Micah is still the happiest baby I've come across which somewhat makes up for the fact that he's sleeping like crap. My wonderfully easy baby that was sleeping so well decided to throw it out the window right after my last post. He's gotten progressively worse and this is the most tired I've felt since he was born. I actually tried to nap today which I never do. I think I got 5-10 minutes in before Micah woke up. Part of the reason I don't try to nap is that it usually means a kid will wake up shortly after I lay down or the phone will ring or someone will knock on the door. In my mind I'd rather be tired than be woken up right as I'm falling asleep. Anyway, nobody wants to hear how tired I am and I'm not going to care a year from now. :) Pat was gone for a week at a conference and I decided I needed to get the boys to bed earlier if I was going to stay sane while he was gone. I started putting Micah to bed at 7:00 and have kept that up for a couple of weeks. I was trying to figure out when he was getting tired at night and go off of his cues but they weren't clear enough so I decided I just needed to choose what time I wanted him to go down and stick do it. I try to do the same routine as I did with Owen with a book and lotion and nursing but sometimes it's just swaddle and nursing and there's no time for anything else. I nurse him again around 10:30 when I go to bed because the first couple of nights he woke up an hour after I went to sleep and a "dream feed" give me an extra hour or 2. Micah's sleep stretches have gotten shorter and shorter - going for 3 hours, to 2 hours to ~1.5 hours last night. Being woken up that frequently makes for a tired and grumpy mama. At this point in time Owen is sleeping more hours than Micah is which is frustrating. Naps are not going particularly well either. He typically wakes up after 35 minutes and I've started letting him cry for a while before going in and he'll usually go back to sleep. We had a couple of days this week where he slept for 1.5 in the morning and another 1.5 - 2 hours in the afternoon. The problem I ran into was that he would wake up at 3:30-4 and then be ready for a nap at 5:30-6 which isn't ideal when you want to put him down at 7. He's so happy during the day so I at least have that.
The other hard part is that he HATES to be alone. I can't leave the room for a minute without him getting upset. He's not too fond of his activity mat and is really only content with sitting in his bouncy seat watching me or being held. I've put him in the bumbo a few times which he likes for a few minutes but then gets tired. Maybe he'll grow up to be an extrovert...
Aside from the sleeping and not wanting to be alone he is a total joy. The nights are short and the days can be long at times but the joy that this little boy has is so great. I pray he keeps that happy spirit.
I'm getting more and more giggles out of him which is so fun. He rolled over for the first time last week. He went back to front which is opposite of Owen. He's only done it once or twice but he never really wants to lay on the floor so he doesn't get much time to practice. He always tries to pull himself up to a sitting position if he's leaning back so I wouldn't be too surprised if he sits earlier than Owen did. The doctor said he had great core strength so we'll see.

Micah - 3 months

Micah has become such a happy little guy! He is definitely a social smiler and will light up with eye contact from just about anyone. He's still quite vocal and has started smacking his lips a lot which has started waking me up at night. Silly boy. It's very rare for me to not know why he is crying. He is either hungry, tired, in need of a diaper change or just wants to be held.
He's sleeping great at night with a few rough nights every now and then. He typically goes down around 10:00 when I'm ready for bed and sleeps around 6 hours then wakes up at 6:30 then goes back down for a couple more hours. Last night I put him to bed at 9:00 but he only made it 3 1/2 hours but I'm going to try again! It's nice to have a little quiet time after both boys go to bed.
Micah is not as attached to a paci as Owen was but typically prefers it when falling asleep. He MUST be swaddled to fall asleep (unless he's in his car seat or if someone other than mom is holding him). If I catch him at the right stage of sleepiness he will light up as soon as I start wrapping him up and then want to smile and chat for a bit before going to sleep. He does pretty well falling asleep on his own but I do typically nurse him to sleep at night to make sure his tummy is full. It's not a huge deal if he wakes up after nursing and will usually just take a paci and go back to sleep. He's still sleeping in the Rock n Play in our bedroom at night and for his one big nap in the afternoon. His other naps are in the pack n play in the living room. I want him to get used to sleeping through noise and he seems to do okay. I think we're at around 4 naps right now. One long one and 3ish short ones. There have been a lot of days where I feel like I'm always putting him down for a nap which is a little exhausting even if he does go down easy.
Micah loves hanging out under his toy bar and making that little penguin swing. If he's not there he's in his bouncy chair or mama's arms
We're super close to getting a laugh out of Micah which is super exciting! Last not a got a little "ha ha" chuckle :)

2 Months

Writing blog posts has become increasingly difficult and I think I'll regret not keeping better track of my boys' growth and changes.

Micah is now 2 months old so I should probably say something about him here! He's been a much easier baby than Owen was which I'm so thankful for. He sleeps great at night and he's been taking one really good nap in the afternoon while Owen naps which is really nice. He loves to be held a lot which is the only "difficult" part but he's begun to enjoy the bouncy seat as long as Owen isn't trying to launch him out of it. He's been smiling a talking for a few weeks now and has become so much fun. He loves having his diaper changed and as soon lay him down and start undressing him he'll get a big smile on his face. I love it! Owen usually loves his brother which means I have to keep a close eye on him or he'll squeeze too hard or try to pick Micah up when he's crying. It's all very sweet but a little nerve wracking at times. I discovered yesterday that Owen can unbuckle Micah from his car seat so there's really no safe place for this child!

Micah has been sleeping between 4-6 hours for his first stretch at night and then 1.5 - 3 hours after that so I'm really only waking up once a night which is amazing. Even the first couple of weeks home he was doing a 3 hour stretch so I don't feel like I've been nearly as exhausted this time around even though I have a 2 year old to chase around. I've had a few days where walking up the stairs used every bit of energy I had but otherwise I've felt great. I think the fact that I was sleeping so well at the end of pregnancy helped as well. I was starting off exhausted. Micah was the noisiest baby I'd ever been around until the last couple of weeks. He would just grunt for so long (I'm talking an hour or more) before actually crying or filling his diaper. Our routine for the first several weeks were to go to bed at midnight, wake up around 3 then he'd start grunting at 6 which woke me up and I'd just lay there until he would start fussing. I was so glad when he started cooing so there was something else to listen to! We'll see if he continues to be a very vocal child.

His stats at his 2 month check up this week were:
H: 23 3/4 in (79%)
W: 12 lbs 9 oz (59%)
HC: 39.5 cm/15 1/2 in (63%)

He grew 3 inches and gained 5 lbs. Pack it on kiddo! You'll need it to protect yourself from you big brother :)

Micah with his new buddy, Zachary

Love these little rolls!

Not a fan of tummy time either

Brothers!

Owen helping with tummy time

Stylin' the mohawk

Meeting his first cousin, Zeke. He'll meet the other 6 in a few weeks!