July and August

After we got home from Ohio, our family officially started a paleo lifestyle by doing a Whole30.  The results were incredible and we never looked back.  We've had weight loss, less joint pain, more energy, less tummy trouble, less mental fog - it's so good!

The quiet summer travel season gave us some good times at home.

Andrew started to enjoy talking on the phone.  Here he's speaking to Uncle Devin.

Flying a rocket to outer space on a rainy summer evening

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site

Nana came to visit!

Then Grandma and Grandpa visited right after!

Grandma's toy horse

Happy 70th birthday, Grandpa!

"That cake was paleo?  I couldn't even tell!"

Sibs

Hail storm!

The First Four Weeks

Gah, time flies.  Here's how it's been going since we became a family of four.  Fear not, there are also pictures.

Clara: Clara has taken to life on Earth like a champ.  She is pretty much a textbook baby: she follows the schedules (eat, play, sleep) the books say you are supposed to follow.  She eats every 2-3 hours during the day and every 3-4 hours at night.  She is able to sleep on her own without touching a person.  She has her days and nights sorted out, mostly (other than a 10pm-10am sleep schedule).  She has the uncanny ability to fall asleep on her own, pretty much anywhere.  If I had had her first, I might have been the kind of parent who told you exactly how to fix your baby with an air of confident authority.  No, instead I am more and more convinced that infant sleep is mostly out of parents' control, and we really need to adapt to our individual children, instead of letting someone else make us feel bad for not doing what should be done.  I'm also glad I had my bad sleeper first -- it makes this seem like a cakewalk!

She is still breastfeeding and gaining weight like nobody's business.  I swear she's been smiling since she was two days old.  She loves to do pushups and hold her head up.  She's very alert and into looking around at everything.

Andrew: Andrew is such a big boy.  At 14.5 months, he's constantly mistaken for a 2-2.5 year old.  He's still not talking, but communication is definitely up.  He is signing "more" and "all done" - actually he signs "more" for pretty much everything - points to things he wants, answers back conversationally in baby babble, and follows directions pretty well.  We are also starting in the toddler tantrum stage - especially when he can't have what he wants.  Here's hoping that this phase is related to not having language and that it will pass pretty quickly.  He loves drumming with his drumsticks, climbing on playground equipment and stairs, and the mouse on the desktop computer.  He makes goofy faces.  He sings little ditties that he makes up.

He has 15 teeth (his upper left cuspid is the "last one" to come in), which means he's only lacking 2 year molars now, and his chewing ability has gotten a lot better.  He likes eggs for breakfast, meat and cheese of all kinds, broccoli and brussels sprouts for vegetable, white and sweet potatoes.  He is not a big fan of fruit, no matter how I try.  He likes the applesauce packets that you squish into your mouth, and very occasionally I get him to take a few bites of banana.  All in all, though, he's a very adventurous eater, and I'm pleased.  He is still drinking 3 or 4 bottles of whole milk a day.  It has slightly decreased and he drinks lots of water too.

His sleep is fairly stable, and rough nights only happen occasionally.  He is an absolute champ as putting himself to sleep for naps and at night - I am so thrilled.  Lately he's been resistant to me leaving the room,  but his protests are very short, and he is able to get himself settled in very short order.

I probably owe an entire post to the progress Andrew's foot has made, but we'll just say for now that he's responding incredibly to the therapy.  We can get his feet to be basically the same size now, although the right one will still puff back up if we don't compress it somehow - either with bandaging (his "special sock") or shoes.

He is very curious about and protective of his sister.  He uses gentle touches most of the time but occasionally has to be reminded - he is a rambunctious toddler boy, after all.  We haven't noticed any regression or emotional distress from becoming a big brother, so that's really good.  I'm really trying to make sure he's getting a lot of attention.

Us: Speaking of Andrew getting attention, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the *only way* we have survived the past four weeks has been with the stellar help of both sets of grandparents.  My mom was the last one to leave this past Thursday.  Travis was at work at the time, and after Andrew decided to skip his nap, I only managed to make it through one hour of being alone with two kids before having a massive breakdown.  So major thanks to the grandparents for being there, especially for Andrew, during this crazy transition time.

So yeah, us with two kids.  As long as both of us are around, it's going great!!  Two parents handling two kids is totally doable.  I am working on trying to get to a place where I can handle them both on my own, and to be totally honest, I still can't see it.  I'll get there, slowly.  Someday.  Somehow.

And now, pictures:

Grandma Mary Ellen

Skin to skin time with Daddy

Grandpa Jerry

First Bath time!

Big Brother wants to help!  (With Excedrin)

That wasn't so bad, was it?

Nap on a hot day

First ride in the double BOB

Miss Shanti and Baby John came to visit!  (Not pictured: Annie and Gregory)

Bathtime with Grandpa Mike

Playing guitar

Clara bakes cookies with Grandma Joyce

Hairs need trimmed!

New slide/climber in our outdoor area!

Bouncing on the ball - just like brother used to like

Gma Joyce helped us finally get Andrew's 1st birthday Time Capsule sealed - it got used as a drum, of course!

Hop on Pop is one of our *favorite* books - just like it was for mommy!

Napping in the 100-year-old family cradle

bathtime beauty

15 weeks old.

the state of the union

Here's a round robin update on how we're doing here.

Breastfeeding: I'm shocked at how much more efficient Andrew is lately (10 minutes each side, 13 if he's dawdling) and shocked also at how much I miss when he would lollygag for 30 minutes on each side.  We have continued to go to a breastfeeding support group sponsored by our lactation consultant, which has been awesome for us, and for me to socialize with other new moms.

Sleep: Andrew defies all conventional wisdom on baby sleep.  He only needs 9-10ish hours a day, including naps.  He rarely takes long naps, mostly just cat naps - except for today, because we apparently wore him out on the weekend.  If he goes to bed before about 9:30pm, he wants to get up for the day (or at least throw a party) around 330-4am.  I thought babies were supposed to need a lot of sleep!  I'm working on letting go of the idea that "what the books say" doesn't necessarily apply to us, and things are getting much easier for us.  We co-sleep at night for the most part.  Once he started to be able to sleep by himself in the crib, I started putting him down there for the first 3-hour segment and then bringing him in to sleep with me, so that I could get some more restful sleep myself.  The problem I had with that is that I would put him down and then stay up to get things done or just spend time with my Travis, and i ended up more exhausted than before.  So we are back to full time co-sleeping, and he goes to bed when I do between 9:30 and 10:30.

Travis has been sleeping in the spare room since his paternity leave ended. This works out really well for us because he gets enough sleep for work, and then if Andrew does decide to throw a 4am party, he is freshly ready and able to entertain him, and I can get rest, and we both end up with a reasonable amount of sleep.

For naps Andrew will sleep in the crib in the nursery, in the cradle in the living room, or in the swing in the dining room.  I'm encouraged that after a rough start of needing to sleep on someone ALL THE TIME, he seems to be rather flexible in his sleep situation.  We swaddle him whenever he is sleeping by himself to help him not get distracted by his own hands.

Cloth diapering: we are also using and loving the BumGenius 3.0-4.0 one-size models.  I'm definitely loving the cloth diapers.  We do disposables on the road/for travel days and I can't wait to get him back into the cloth at the end of the day.  He has stopped pooping overnight, so I've been doubling the liners and he's been going all night on one diaper, which gets me even more sleep, because now when he stirs, I just roll over, start him feeding, and drift back off to sleep.  I don't even have to wake up.  Not bad.

Currently my biggest stress is going back to work.  I am in the throes of trying to determine what childcare is going to be and I'm completely freaking out about it.  I'm having visions of him being left in a crib to cry, and I have the same nightmare for a nanny as I do for a day care center.  He's pretty much the easiest baby in the world - never cries without a reason, always very easy to soothe - which is why leaving him to cry would be absolutely tragic.  I'm getting emotional just typing that.


On the positive side, some of my pregnancy pounds have melted off.  It's never been easy for me to lose or maintain a healthy weight, and so to see some of it slip off so easily is ridiculously exciting.  I attribute it some to breastfeeding, some to getting back to exercising, and a lot to cutting out dairy.  I may want to continue that diet even after Andrew is okay with it again!

That's my world right now.  Here are some pictures and highlights of this week:

Daddy gives a bottle of mama's milk.

Sitting up supported! Like a couch potato.

Grandpa and Andrew play on the baby gym.

My new friend, Maulee Brown

This beautiful girl pictured above followed Travis home from his morning walk the other day.  She's a pit bull. I have rarely seen a dog so obedient and well-behaved.  And so friendly and affectionate!  She hung out on our porch all morning and didn't seem to know how to get home even when I took her on a walk to the vicinity of her house and said, "go home!"  When her mom came to pick her up, she was grateful that she was found by people who were friendly to her - some in the neighborhood apparently don't appreciate her very much.  It was hard not to be friendly to such a wonderful dog!

It's gotten very warm again, so we decided to do Andrew's bath on the porch:

Bathtime still life.

Naked baby!

Tub with a view

After the bath, we went out to get some exercise and walked from Morrison to Quincy and Wadsworth (~7 miles) through Bear Creek Lake Park.  We pushed Andrew in the BOB.  It was quite the adventure.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/41709904

We've had lots of storms.  With storms come rainbows. And internet outages.

We took Grandma and Grandpa off-roading.  First we drove over the (smooth) Boreas Pass Road.  Then we attempted Georgia Pass:

The family cradle now lives in Colorado.  Andrew broke it in with a three hour nap today.

Grandma got to give Andrew his bottle.  Andrew is still getting used to the bottle thing.