8 Months!

Note:  I've had this draft in my "edit posts" forever.  I was hoping to update with stats and details but if it hasn't happened yet...it's never going to happen.  So instead of waiting any longer since Ricky is going to turn 8 months in 9 short days, I'm going to go ahead and post what I have saved in my draft.  Enjoy.  :)


For reals.  Didn't I just log on here the other day to post your 7 month update??  If I could stop time I would...but unfortunately I'm unable to because I lack superhuman powers...so alas, you have turned 8 months already.  Sigh.

You still love the outdoors.

You took your 1st trip to the park.  Check out those thigh rolls!!!

You have a love/hate relationship with your bouncer....you hate it at first but then love it once you get bouncing. 



You got two teeth! 
Disclaimer:  I swear the food does actually go in his mouth.  He was playing with the spoon after I fed him and managed to get peaches everywhere. 

You can pimp it with a mohawk!




































We love you little man!

 

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7 Months!

Doing something a little different and will update Ricky's 7th month in pictures. Mostly because not a whole lot has changed since his 6 month post and he'll turn 8 months in less than 3 weeks. ;)

7 Months.  Really...7 Months?  Where oh where has the time gone?

Big sis Mia is still the best thing since sliced bread.  Seriously, watching these two together is just magical!



You're such a happy baby!  In your sister's pink hat (please don't kill us).  It's just too cute to not share.

You LOVE being outdoors.  This especially comes in handy when you're fussy and you want nothing to do with any of your zillion toys & gadgets.





































You've started to sit in your stroller like a big boy and love the new view!

You have hair!  And so Daddy loves giving you this spiked 'do' at bath time.  

Speaking of bath time, you love it since it gives you full access to your manly bits.  In true male fashion, you can't keep your hands off them whenever you get the chance!  (For the record, you're not grabbing yourself here - it just appears that way!)




































You took your 1st trip to the beach and loved every.minute.of.it.  Check out those man-boobs and tummy filled with cellulite.  LOVE it!  ;) 

*Sigh* It's so hard to believe that you're already 7 months old. I got a little weepy the other day thinking about how fast this has been going by. You're rounding up to one year now and I've even started thinking about your 1st birthday party. You continuously amaze me and I'm truly soaking in each and every day with you.  Baby boy, it's rediculous how much joy you bring in to our lives.  We love you so much!

 

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I think there's still hope...

Here's a 6 month comparison of Ricky & Mia...

Yes...there's no denying that these two are brother & sister.  And yes...they both have their daddy's beautiful blue eyes.  But...I think there's still hope that Ricky might look a smidgen like me.  Rick thinks that I'm smoking crack (of course he would).  But when I compare pictures these days, I don't think they look like 'twins separated at birth' anymore.  I know only time will tell and truthfully, I'd be completely content if Ricky did end up looking like his daddy...but at the same time, it would be really cool if at least one of my children looked like me.  Us moms can't work for free, right?!  ;)  

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I met my goal!

When Ricky was born back in July, I wrote about how happy I was that breastfeeding was going so well and that I hoped to reach a goal of 6 months. Well friends, today I’m proud to say that that goal has been met!! In fact, it’s been 6 months, 2 weeks and 6 days since I’ve been nursing Ricky and we’re still going strong. And to be honest, I don’t have any immediate plans to stop. I absolutely love nursing my sweet boy.  I mean, I knew I would enjoy it…but I didn’t think I would enjoy it this much. It’s such an amazing bonding experience that grows stronger and deeper as Ricky gets older. Nothing melts my heart more than when he looks up into my eyes with a soft smile after taking a little break. Honestly, it’s like pure heaven. It’s everything I hoped it would be…plus more.

I would love to set another goal of 3 more months but I’m fearful of when he gets teeth. There has been occasions when he’s clamped down with his gums and it hurt.  Hurt like, I jumped and screamed and in turn made him jump and scream. So I couldn’t imagine if he did that with teeth. But I guess we’ll have to wait and see. Either way, I really am so thankful that all my hopes about breastfeeding have become a reality for me...so really, anything after my 6 month goal is just gravy.  : )

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Sitting up!

Look who finally decided to sit up all by himself...

LOVE his hair blowing in the wind!

This is pretty cool stuff!

He'll only sit for a few minutes at a time but it's still a milestone that he's finally hit.  Still no rolling...but we'll take what we can get!  ; )

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6 Months

Ricky turned 6 months last Saturday.  Seriously, how has half a year gone by already since our precious son came into our lives?

Our big boy weighs in at 17lbs 6oz (50%) and measures 26 3/4" (70%).  To add some structure to this post, I'm trying something new and will touch on the hot topics in baby life: eating, sleeping and milestones.  So here goes...

Eating:  We started solids about a month ago.  Rice cereal was a no-go so we went straight to oatmeal and he loved it.  I swear he even says "hmmmm" while I'm feeding him.  The only problem with the oatmeal is that it stops him up pretty badly…which makes for an unhappy baby. So I now mix the oatmeal up with some pears that help alleviate his constipation.  Speaking of pears... I'm making all of Ricky's baby food.  I really wanted to do this when I read how easy and especially how economical it was.  So far I've made squash, sweet potato, carrots, pears and peaches.  Can I just tell you how much I enjoy it - a lot!  Who knew, right?  I swear that I’m not the crunchy-granola mom type but there's something so gratifying about making his baby food.  And it's great that I'm also saving money at the same time…and it really is so easy to do... definitely a win, win situation in my book!  I’m still exclusively breastfeeding and he still eats on a 3 hour schedule during the day at 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and one “early morning” feeding at 4am or 5am.

Does it get an cuter than this?

 

Sleeping:  I’m not going to lie, we've had our problems in the sleep department.  Everything seemed to go downhill when he turned 4 months (my lack of posting was not a coincidence).  Instead of dropping a nighttime feeding, Ricky was adding one (at midnight).  This did not sit well with an already sleep deprived mama.  After seeing two different pediatricians in the span of a month, they both agreed that our little chunk was very capable of sleeping through the night and we'd just have to let him CIO.  We started this around 5 months and although we're not completely to the point where I’d like to be…we're close.  He’s quit crying out at midnight, but for some reason he’ll still sometimes cry out at 2am.  He’ll fuss for about 10 minutes and then usually fall back asleep.  But for the most part, he'll eat at 6pm, go down for the night at 7pm and then need to eat again between 4 - 5am.  That is totally doable. 

Now naps are a different story - we're definitely still struggling there.  For some unknown reason, he cannot sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time.  You have no idea how batty this makes me.  I've tried many tricks to get him to sleep longer but NOTHING works.  I've done tons of research and although I’m not alone with a cat napping baby, there's pretty much nothing I can do.  It's just something that he needs to grow out of…please God, can it be soon?  He’s sleeping better at night though, so I suppose I should count my blessings and be happy with that.

Milestones/Achievements:  Well, I’d love to brag about all of the milestones that Ricky’s hit but I can’t do that since he hasn’t hit any. LOL! I really thought that he would be rolling and sitting up by now but I think our little man is just lazy (or stubborn) and will obviously do things on his own time. At first I was panicking a little but then I decided to embrace it since he’s not going to be a baby forever. And he’s my last…so why not hold on to this immobile stage as long as I can? We did speak with his pediatrician about it and she didn’t seem worried. She just told us to keep encouraging him – so that’s what we’re doing. And don’t get me wrong, he’s still doing 6 month old tricks - like pulling his legs under him and pushing up onto his hands when doing tummy time. He has awesome hand skills with a dead-on aim. Anything is fair game now and he’ll grab it if it’s within his reach. Even though he has a zillion toys, the tv remote seems to be his favorite thing to grab and ‘play’ with these days….besides his hands and feet of course. I’ve resorted to wearing a pony tail all day long because he will grab my hair and pull it out in chunks whenever possible. Daddy is also a target since Ricky loves to grab and pull on his chest hair. Fun stuff I tell you!

Close but not 100% perfected...

He is still such a happy baby and is usually all smiles. He has the best baby laugh that I'll never tire of hearing. Big sister Mia still revolves around his world and he could probably sit there for hours just watching her. In fact, I made a 4 hour journey to Naples for Christmas and I know there was NO WAY that I could have made it the whole way with him if it wasn't for Mia. She entertained him in between naps and definitely got the 'best big sister' award for that. It really is magical to watch the two of them together.

Christmas Day!

   

 

I can't wait to see what the next 6 months holds for us with this awesome little dude!  We love you so much!

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3 Months!

As usual, time has flown by at warped speed and all of a sudden my little man is 3 months already.  I’m not sure how it’s possible, but Ricky just gets cuter and cuter by the day.

He has been a drooly mess lately – so much so that he soaks through bibs and I end up having to change his outfit twice sometimes 3x a day.   He still thinks his hands are the bomb and are in his mouth whenever possible.  Could this be a sign that teething is in our near future?  I sure hope not - but I don't ever remember Mia being this drooly and being so obsessed with gnawing on her hands at 3 months old.

  

He “talks” up a storm (when his hands aren't in his mouth), smiles constantly and is laughing a lot more as well.  His little laugh is infectious and I can’t get enough of it.

He loves his new freedom in the bath now that we’ve gotten rid of the newborn hammock.  He splashes and kicks like crazy.  However, he gets very angry when bath time is over and screams to high heaven as soon as he’s out.

I’m beginning to think that my prenatal vitamins had steroids in them because I swear he has He-Man strength.  He has a death grip like no other and rips chunks of my hair out.  He loves to straighten out his legs and “stand” for extended periods of time.  And his ninja-like kicks really hurt when he’s sitting on your lap!  He also has amazing head control and am assuming he doesn’t hate tummy time as much anymore because of it.

Notice the constant drool streaming down his chin...

I’ve already had to retire all of his newborn outfits and some of his 0-3 outfits which made me a little sad.  He went to the Dr.’s office a little over two weeks ago since we spread out his first set of shots.  It wasn't that much of a surprise to find out that he weighed a whopping 13lbs 12oz!  So he's probably hit the 14lb mark by now - mummy's milk is obviously doing the boy good.  :)  Although our monster baby weighs as much as he does, he's still up (on average) twice a night to eat...I'm sorry but I don't count 5am as the start of my day!  I've been really tempted to pump and give him a bottle with rice cereal before bed - I usually discuss this with myself at 2am while nursing - but then I somehow talk myself out of it by morning the next day. 

Mia is truly an amazing big sister.  She loves to be the first one to greet him after he wakes up from a nap.  She loves to help me bathe him and then soothe him while I’m getting him in his pj’s (remember he hates getting out of the bath).  She loves talking to him and teaching him how to play.  Watching them together and seeing Ricky smile at her just melts my heart and really makes me realize that this is what life is all about!

 

  

Please excuse Mia's bed head in this picture.  It was taken at 8am this morning.  Also note how Ricky doesn't look so tiny anymore next to his big sister!

Seriously, how can you resist this face?  We love you baby boy!

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Fun Comparison

I came across a picture of Mia during bathtime at 6wks old and thought it would be fun to compare it side by side to a picture of Ricky at 6 wks old...(Mia is on the left)

Sooooooo, what do you think?  Am I SOL again?  Or do you think I have a chance that one of my kiddos will look even remotely like me?  And be honest...I can take it.  ; )

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2 Months!

This month has flown by compared to the first.  Maybe it’s because we’ve fallen into some kind of a routine.  It’s definitely not perfected…but it’s better than the sporadic eating and sleeping schedule from the first month.  Although, up until last week, Ricky was still eating every 2 hours during the day and taking 30 minute cat naps in between – I was seriously beginning to lose it!  Then, just like that, he started stretching his feeds to every 3 hours and taking marathon naps compared to the little cat naps he was giving us before.  Wow, wow, WOW - what a difference this has made!!!  I can actually get some things done around the house now and even have some extra time for me afterwards while he naps.  I can’t begin to express how incredibly nice this has been and I thank my little man profusely for giving mummy a much needed break!  ; )

I was trying very hard not to complain about his rigorous eating/sleeping schedule before since he’d been giving us a decent stretch of sleep the first part of the night - usually going 6 hrs between feedings.  Last night we had a huge hiccup though because the little man got his first batch of shots.  Can we say, “NOT FUN”.  Surprisingly, I held it together while he was lying on the table, beat red and crying so hard that no noise was coming out of his mouth.  L.  The handout we got at the Dr’s office noted this statement, “these immunizations can cause your baby to have a fever, decreased appetite, act fussy or change his/her normal sleep patterns”.  That explained Ricky to a “T” yesterday.  I’m hoping that these symptoms only last 24hrs and he’ll be back to his happy go lucky self today. 

Now for his stats…he weighs a whopping 12lbs 5.5oz (75^th percentile) & measures 23 7/8” (90^th percentile).  So yeah, I’d say he’s doing pretty awesome!  The pediatrician did say that this is a typical pattern that breastfed babies follow.  They spike at the top of the charts at their 2 & 4 month appts and then level back out around their 6 month appt. 

His favorite pastimes are still staring intently at the fan and chewing on his hands.  It’s actually quite hysterical to watch him try so very hard to shove both fists in his mouth at the same time.  He's smiling a ton now.  I just love when I get greeted with that gummy grin when I walk into his room to get him.  Watching his face light up with a huge smile makes my day every time!  I remember how fast the infant stage went with Mia and so I’m making a conscious effort to not take a second for granted and soak everything up.  I love you baby boy!

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They're real!

Ricky's smiles, that is.  He's been giving us genuine smiles for a little over a week now and we finally caught them on camera.  Oh, how nice it is to get a little bit of love back from the little man!  : ) 

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Ricky's 1st bottle

Ricky got his first bottle of expressed milk yesterday.  I'd be lying if I said that he liked it...it was more like he tolerated it.  But, he did end up drinking 3oz so I'm still going to call it a success.  : )

 

I have no idea how we're going to incorporate a night time bottle so I can get a good stretch of sleep in.  Truthfully, the whole process was a pain in the ass - from pumping to warming the milk to washing and sterilizing the pump parts and bottles.  Nursing is so much easier but I really, really need some good sleep!  So wish us luck please!  ; )

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1 Month

At times, it’s hard to believe you’re one month old already...and at other times it seems like it’s been longer (I blame the sleep deprivation on that).  I'm somewhat sad that you've lost that sleepy newborn look already, but I love those cubby cheeks of yours and can't kiss them enough!   You stay awake for longer stretches during the day now and we have so much fun with you while you lay in our lap.  You make a million different faces which makes us laugh all day long.  I’m amazed at how alert you are for a one month old and love when we stare intently at each another.  You love Eskimo kisses and getting your toes nibbled on and I can swear that I sometimes get a genuine smile out of you.

You have a love affair with all the fans in the house.  We’ve even heard chuckles from you while you stare completely fascinated at what I like to call your "beloved fans".  Oh, how I would love to know what you’re thinking!  You love when you big sister talks and “plays” with you – even though she totally invades your private space by getting an inch away from your face.

You’ve been exclusively breastfed for these past 31 days which I’ve loved and am so proud of.  Mummy is definitely in need of a little break though so we’re planning to give you a bottle of expressed milk this week. Daddy is excited about that!

Ricky - you’re a complete joy, a blessing from above and you’ve filled the void in our family that I didn’t even know existed. I love you baby boy!

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Too funny not to share...

Or at least I think it's hysterical that Mia is "nursing" her baby doll while I nurse Ricky.  : ) 

I cannot begin to explain how elated I am that nursing is going well.  Without going into detail, let's just say that Mia and I had numerous problems when trying to nurse.  I gave up too quickly and it's a decision that I still regret to this day.  But Ricky is a greedy little guy and latched on immediately after birth.  I did have quite a scare yesterday and thought I could possibly be developing mastitis on my right side, but we think it might have been a clogged duct now...which is still pretty serious.  I caught it early enough though and it's feeling/looking much better today.  I continue to hope and pray that I reach my nursing goal of 6 months with this awesome little dude! 

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HE'S HERE!!!!!

The super short version for now...
Richard Paul arrived on his due date of 7/22 at 3:10am.  He weighed in at 7lbs 7oz and measured 21" long.  I'm in love all over again!!!

I'll post my birth story and some more pictures later.  : )

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