Vincent's 5 Month Update!

Height/Weight: According to our home scale and measuring tape, Vincent weighs 17 lbs and is 26 inches long! 

Daily: It really varies, especially depending on how well he slept the night before, but this is generally our "routine" for the day: wake up and have a feeding in the side-lying position on my bed. Then get up and have tummy time, while I throw together some breakfast for myself. During awake time, he rotates between activity mat and tummy time, time in the bouncy seat, the jumperoo or high chair and my lap. I try to limit time on his back and in the jumperoo, to avoid putting too much pressure on the back of his head or his hips. He has recently really begun to enjoy sitting in his high chair, because he can see the whole living area and have his toys right in front of him, without them falling down. He has become a champ at tummy time and now that we have put together the foam floor mat, he is on a much sturdier surface and has begun to push up on his hands instead of his elbows. He will now do tummy time for 10 minutes at a time or longer! He still takes around 3 naps every day, never longer than two hours at a time. As a matter of fact, most of his naps don't last more than an hour. 

Sleep: His bedtime is still between 8 and 9, depending on what time Mike comes home and we have dinner. We've still got the same bedtime routine: diaper, lotion, pajamas, bedtime story (or stories - he is rather fond of them!) and nurse to sleep. A couple of weeks ago, I began transitioning Vincent out of the swaddle. Since he started rolling onto his tummy a LOT, I figured it would be best to free his arms, so he could roll over safely. It has been very hard on both of us, especially since his arms are what keep him awake when he isn't swaddled. Also, he rolls to his tummy every time I put him in his crib, which is rather nerve-wracking for me, especially since I've been advised since before he was born to always put him on his back to sleep and I'm overly paranoid about SIDS. So naturally, I am constantly jumping up to check on him, to make sure he is okay. But I'm not surprised he favors sleeping on his tummy, since both his father and I are tummy sleepers. 
As far as sleep itself goes, I'm currently at a loss. Some nights are okay, others terrible. I used to be able to put him down, give him a kiss and talk to him calmly before leaving the room and he would fall asleep on his own. Now, as soon as he can sense I'm about him down to sleep, he cries. Loudly, if I may add. I've tried just about everything and nothing helps. Between what seems like a never ending "wonder week" growth spurt, the 4 month sleep regression period, teething and out-of-swaddle transition, nights and naps have been a disaster for both him and me! I've ordered a Zipadee-Zip (I'll make a separate post about this), an amber teething necklace and a new mobile, which will hopefully help nights become a bit better. I keep having to tell myself over and over that it is just a phase and it will hopefully pass soon.

Eating: Vincent still continues to eat every 2-3 hours during the day. One night he slept for an unusually long stretch and I was very engorged, so I got up to pump. He woke immediately afterward, so I gave him a 2.5 oz bottle. He was still hungry, so I gave him another; he drank 5 oz! The rest, I used to make breastmilk popsicles (one of which he is enjoying in the first photo below). He has definitely upped his intake. Sometimes I wish I had some sort of meter that told me how much he gets during every feeding. xD We ended up changing our minds about the solids. I really didn't want to start them until 6 months, but he had been showing so many signs that he was ready to try (literally trying to put our food and drink in his mouth in particular), that we ended up getting a few jars of baby food for him to try this past weekend. So far we've only tried squash, just two tablespoons per day at dinner. He is not a huge fan, as we suspected (haha), but he will get used to the taste! We also got these little mesh self-feeders and I put a piece of banana in there for him to chew on. He liked that!

Sizes: He is now in 3-6 and 6 month clothing. He fits in 9 month Gerber clothing, which seem to run smaller. I hated having to put all of his 0-3 month clothing away, but it was time! He still fits in 0-3 month pants though, and will for a while. I put him in size 3 diapers when we ran out of size 2, which was two weeks ago. Size 2 was no longer containing number 2 haha! 

Milestones and Changes:

• As you read earlier, he ate squash for the first time! We haven't given him anything else yet, besides banana to chew on through a mesh feeder.
• He is starting to babble! He even said "Mom" and "Mama!" Not on purpose of course, but it really is awesome to hear him make new sounds! "Mamamamama" and "Nanananana" are new as well as "Cheeeee" and "Thhhh". He always seems to have something to say and I can tell that he wants to talk badly!
• He rolled over onto his tummy for the first time by himself! Ever since that first time, he does it constantly. Nearly every time I put him on his back, as a matter of fact! 

• Vincent can sit up for about a minute unassisted! He leans forward on his hands to keep himself upright. It helps if I sit and talk with him during this time, since it forces him to look up and helps keep his balance.

• We carried Vince with his legs out in the carrier for the first time - he is finally big enough to where we can do that! Mike also wore him for the first time. :) <3

• He LOVES being read to. His favorite books are "The Going to Bed Book", "The Little Engine That Could" and "Where is the Green Sheep?". I look forward to expanding his library!

• Vincent can stand, leaning onto the back of the couch! He likes being "so big"!

• Even though sleep has not been great, he did sleep without the swaddle for the first time! 

Here are a couple more photos:

Vincent: 21 weeks in and 21 weeks out!

Vincent's 4 Month Update!

Height/Weight: According to our home scale, Vincent weighs 15 lbs! And I finally got around to purchasing measuring tape, and according to it, he is 25.5 inches long. So he has gained about 1 1/2 lbs and grown 2 inches this last month! He is getting so big.

Daily: We don't really have a set routine anymore, but Vince has started getting tired around the same times every day; at noon, at around 3 and again between 5 and 6, which is generally when I put him down for naps unless we're out and about. He doesn't sleep for very long; usually between 30 minutes to an hour. On occasion he sleeps for two hours, but only seldom. And he has completely stopped sleeping on me - he hasn't in a month! He used to only nap on my chest and now, he won't fall asleep that way at all! I miss the snuggles, but at the same time, I'm glad he is getting used to his crib and falling asleep on his own. And it gives me time to get things done around the house and a little time for myself!
As far as activities go, Vincent is pretty much doing the same things as last month. We rotate between the Pack n' Play for tummy and activity mat time, my lap, the bouncy seat and the horse jumparoo. (I guess that's what it's called haha!) He has gotten SO much more patient on his activity mat! It used to be that he would lose patience after about 3 minutes. Now, he will go as long as 15 to 20! I don't like to keep him on it longer than that anyway, since I prefer him to keep upright as much as he can. But it encourages him to reach out for toys and move around a bit. Tummy time has gotten much better too! It usually lasts about 3-5 minutes, which is spent completely upright on his elbows. I also have him practice rolling over several times a day during tummy time. 
When in my lap, he likes to sit or stand, while holding onto my thumbs. When he stands up, he giggles when I say "Yaaaay!" and clap his hands together. :D 

Sleep: His bedtime is still 8, but can sometimes be closer to 9, depending on when his last nap was or when we finished dinner. Since Mike sometimes gets home pretty late, we're still eating dinner at 8. His bedtime routine has changed just a little: First I change his diaper and apply lotion while putting him in his pajamas. Afterward, I read him a story, swaddle him and nurse him to sleep in the dark. He then either sleeps in his crib or the swing, depending on whether or not he puts up a fuss. I do try to get him to sleep in the crib every night and during nap time though and use the swing as a last resort. His sleep has gotten SO much better! He has begun to sleep from about 9 at night to 2 or 4 in the morning, has a dream feed and goes straight back to sleep until about 7 or 8. It varies from night to night, but he generally has a very long stretch first, followed by a short stretch. I'm finally starting to feel like more of a person and less of a zombie, now that I'm getting more sleep! The longest he has gone between feedings at night this month was 9 hours!! :D He has just begun a pretty gnarly growth spurt, so he has gone back to not sleeping very well again, but I know it will pass soon. As far as swaddling goes, I plan to continue with it until he starts rolling from his back to his tummy. 

Eating: Vincent still continues to eat every 2-3 hours during the day. He really doesn't show hunger signs like he used to, so often I just feed him at the 2 hour mark, whether he seems hungry or not. He still seems to favor nursing on the left side. During the day, I often have to feed him in the football position if it's time to nurse on the right side, because he really fights it! I've gone back to nursing in the side lying position during the morning feeding, which gives Vince a little more shut-eye and a bit of time for me to wake up. It's nice and I get my snuggles this way. :)
Mike and I don't want to start solids until Vince is at least 6 months old. He has been gaining weight, growing well and seems very satisfied after feedings. I do look forward to introducing solids though - he is starting to give us curious looks when he watches us eat! In fact, watching me snack on popcorn makes him smile! 

Sizes: He still fits in some off his 0-3 and 3 month clothing, even though he is growing so much! The Carter's brand seems to make longer onesies, which are the ones he still fits in. They are getting small on him, but I want to continue putting him in it as long as I can, since we have so much 0-3 month clothing. I am trying to keep him out of 3-6 month until he is completely out of 0-3, just so I can continue to get good use out of it. I started putting Vince in size 2 diapers on the 11th of June. I can imagine he will just be getting into size 3 by 5 months old.  

Milestones and Changes:

• Vince is learning how to blow raspberries! It is SO cute. If I do it and wait for him, he will almost always blow them back! Sometimes with bubbles, sometimes without.

• He laughed for the first time! I was playing with him on the bed and he let out this giggle, so I set up the camera and he seriously laughed! He has only done it a few more times since then, but I try to make him laugh every day!

• He rolled over for the first time! He since then has only rolled over a few more times; he likes to roll onto his side and just stay there. He seems to fight rolling over a lot! It takes more effort for him to stay upright than to roll over.

• As speaking of rolling over, if Vince is lying on his back and I give him one of my fingers to grab hold of, he will roll onto his tummy!
• He can sit, just holding my finger with one hand. A few times, he has been able to sit upright without assistance for a few seconds, before slowly tipping forward. Hehe

• He found his feet! He is constantly grabbing them and pulling them up. Especially when he is on his back! It makes it difficult to change his diaper or swaddle him sometimes because of it.

• If I hand him his pacifier, he knows how to put it in his mouth! And if he doesn't have his pacifier, he likes to suck those same two fingers that he began to last month. 

• I believe he may be teething! He gets fussy when he doesn't have something to chew on, so I started filling his soothie pacifiers with water and freezing them. He will hold it in his mouth and chew on it until the ice melts. I also picked up some teething toys filled with purified water, that I store in the freezer for him. He seems to like them pretty well also.

• He is still very talkative and is VERY good at expressing his feelings! When he is happy, he coos and shrieks and when he is getting mad or impatient, he lets out these ridiculously long grunts and even has a grumpy cry! In the photo is the famous (and adorable) "I'm pissed off" pout!

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. ;)

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!