SAHM I Am

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Home, Sweet Home!

Well, we've finally moved! And I am posting this ridiculously late, since today is the one month anniversary in our new place. But man, it has been quite a busy month! First off, here it is:

We found the perfect place. It's a duplex and we live in the right half. It has beautiful new tile throughout the whole house; the floor, the fireplace, the counters and the bathroom walls. It is SO much easier to not have to deal with carpet when you've got so many animals! We've got washer and dryer hook-ups (although one is in the second bedroom's closet? o.O), a nice, big, fenced-in yard and a large living/dining area. Since rent is super pricey here, due to the oilfield boom, my brother is living with us and we're splitting rent. This will help us all save some money. Besides, Vince is still so little, we planned to continue co-sleeping anyway.

Unpacking is DEFINITELY still a work in progress, but it's coming along! So please excuse all the boxes and various crap in some of the photos! xD I really look forward to it all being done, because I can't stand the clutter. We decided to get rid of our old entertainment center before we moved, since it was falling apart and a lot larger than what we needed. So once we replace it and I can unpack the boxes containing what was in our old one, I will pretty much be finished unpacking.
Overall, our new place is larger, but the kitchen and bathroom are both teeny tiny. I didn't think the bathroom in our old place could have been any smaller...boy was I wrong! Haha! But it works and the toilet, shower and sink are really nice.

In the kitchen, we lost a lot of floor and counter space. It's not really a big deal though, since I'm generally the only one cooking, which literally eliminates the "too many cooks in the kitchen" issue. (Insert sexist kitchen joke here :P) The only issue is the lost storage space, so things are a bit crammed. Thank goodness we don't have a whole lot of kitchen utensils and dishes and we generally only keep about a week's worth of food in the house at a time.

Despite the small kitchen and bathroom, the new place is larger in all the right places. The living room is large and extends into a dining area, which we didn't have in our old place. We've also got a cute little breakfast bar, which opens up the kitchen and lets in natural light, which I really love!

Also, our new bedroom is SO much larger than our old one, which allowed us to fit all of our and Vincent's furniture in the same room without being super crowded. Once my brother moves out later on down the road, his room will become Vincent's and we will be able to dig the desk out of storage and put it in our bedroom where his crib and changing table are.

Well, that just about covers it! As far as our new town goes; I like it, but I don't get out very often. I admit I am still afraid of the traffic...people here seriously don't know how to drive. Haha! I love being out and about with my sister in law every so often though. It's nice to spend time together and keeps me from becoming too stir crazy!
The three months prior to our move went by so quickly, being a new mommy, yet they dragged on because of being apart from Mike. We really are so happy here and so excited to finally begin this new chapter together as a family in a new town!
I will try to make a habit of posting more often, now that things have settled down a bit. ;) photo Leah_zpsc2dda01b.png

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Vincent's 3 Month Update!

Height/Weight: Vincent is now 13 lbs and 6 oz! This is based on our home scale, because little man won't have his next pediatrician appointment until 4 months old. Unfortunately I can't find our measuring tape at the moment, otherwise I would have included his length as well!

Daily: Vincent has a bit of an interesting schedule, which I find works the best for him. He wakes and eats, has awake time, eats again, then sleeps. So he basically stays awake for two hours, then sleeps for about two. During his awake time, he jumps in his horse bouncer, does tummy time, plays with the toys on his activity mat and plays with me while sitting in the boppy pillow on my lap. When he starts getting fussy, I feed him, change his diaper and put him down for a nap. If I wait too long, he will get overtired and it is very difficult to get him to go to sleep! I've tried to time his napping to where he sleeps while I cook dinner, but we haven't quite gotten that down yet. xD He has gotten a little bit better about taking a bath in the evening instead of the afternoon, but I have to make sure that I don't do it when he is already sleepy or he loses it when I take him out of the bath!

Sleep: Nearly every night, Vince goes down for bed at 8 PM and since we've gotten to Midland, we generally wake up around 8 AM every day. He has been having better nights, going longer stretches, which is really nice! He was waking up every two hours to eat before and it was downright exhausting. I think Mike is a good luck charm! Hehe :D I still do the same night time routine with him as I have been for the last few months; lotion, singing, swaddle, and down for bed. But now, he sleeps in his crib for every nap and generally all night. Sometimes once Mike has left for work, I will put Vince in the bed with me to nurse him and we sleep for a couple more hours before getting up for the day. He still doesn't have a set feeding schedule at night. It varies anywhere from 3-5 hours between feedings for the most part. Sometimes he will go every two hours and sometimes much longer. Our first night in Midland, he went almost 8 hours!! I woke up completely freaking out, because I was so used to him waking every two hours!
I still swaddle him every night - if I don't restrain his arms (as evil as that sounds), he scares himself awake and won't sleep. The swaddle seems to let him know that it's time to sleep as well, which settles him down for the night.

Eating: Vincent still eats every 2-3 hours during the day. Once we get around the two hour mark, he starts to get fussy. At night, as you read above, he will go anywhere from 2-8 hours between feedings. It just depends! I don't feed Vince in the side-lying position very often anymore. I have to lie in a very awkward position to keep him latched nearly every time and it becomes a bit frustrating. So I usually just feed him using the nursing pillow.
He is now eating between 8 and 20 minutes during every feeding. When I last pumped, I got 3 ounces on each side, which isn't a whole ton, but if I feed him on both sides, that's a lot! However he doesn't empty out both sides in one feeding.

Sizes: Vince is still in 0-3 and 3 month clothing. He does wear some 3-6 month clothing, but it runs a bit small. He does not fit in newborn at ALL anymore - I haven't even tried to squeeze him back in them. I am glad that he only had a few newborn outfits, so I didn't have to put away much at all. He is almost out of size 1 diapers! I got him some size 2 by accident which are still just a tad on the big side, so I bought more size 1 and I will definitely have to go up a size once the package is empty. Sadness!

Milestones and Changes:

Vincent has started blowing spit bubbles! And he drools. A LOT. I have to keep a bib on him for the majority of the day, or he soaks down the entire front of his onesie! Haha! It seems to amuse him.

He sleeps in his crib now! It wasn't a very difficult transition at all. We set it up and put him to sleep in it that same night...he did great! (In the photo, he had somehow managed to get is legs out of the swaddle! O.o)

He insists on sitting or standing up. He doesn't like lying down much anymore, unless it's to go to sleep. Even then, he seems to prefer to be upright!

Vince has found his fingers alone with no help! He has done it several times already. I am excited about the fact that he sucks on the same fingers that I did when I was little. :)

His favorite toy is still the blue puppy, whom I've named "Sammy". He picks him up and stuffs him in his mouth and snuggles with him. It's very cute!

He coos SO much! I can tell he is going to be a talker. He will flat out stop eating and look at me so that he can "talk" to me, a pillow, a curtain, the window...he talks to everything.
He sat in his horse bouncer for the first time after we moved to Midland! It is still quite big for him, so I have to put a towel in front of him. But he loves to jump up and down in it! I leave him in it for about 10 minutes a few times every day. I get a huge kick out of seeing him bounce!

He is grabbing hold of things a lot! He will grab hold of anything; my shirt, my necklace, the bars on the sides of his changing table, toys, his paci...the list goes on! He is also constantly folding his hands and playing with them.

Vincent demands attention a lot! If I put him down to go to the bathroom or get a drink, he will grunt in disapproval until I come back to him. Then he gives me a big, slobbery smile!
As speaking of smiling, he is a VERY smiley baby! Especially just after waking up. It's not hard to get him to do so either - he will generally smile back if you smile at him.

He expresses excitement by cooing, shrieking, raising his eyebrows and kicking his feet! And he will give me what looks like a laugh, only silent. I can't wait until he really starts laughing!