Baby Update: 10 Months

Our sweet baby turned 10 months old last week. He is learning and growing far too quickly.

Peter has learned to stand up on his own and took his first steps just a couple of days after turning 10 months old. It was so exciting to watch him take those first steps, but also terrifying because I suddenly felt like I was so out of control.  He just seemed so big and independent!

Peter's eat habits have definitely changed this past month too. He favors solid foods much more than bottles and is down to only two bottles per day, so we're saving tons on formula!

We carved our first family pumpkin and Peter definitely seemed to have a blast. He kept trying to each the pumpkin so we let him have a taste, and the face he made was well worth the laugh.

Peter's favorite thing is to scale the fireplace and then burst into tears when I tell him "no" and move him away. We're already learning the consistency is key to parenting this boy. It usually only takes a couple of times and he's content to move on to another toy or activity.

We never made it to our local pumpkin patch because of the ridiculous amount of rain we've had here in north Texas, so our home carving was good enough for us! 

Baby Update: 8 & 9 Months

I put off Peter's 8 month blog post update because we were in the middle of going back to school and figuring out a brand new schedule. Now, we are 5 days away from Peter turning 9 months old, so I thought I would post both updates at once.

Peter is a crawling CHAMP! He's constantly on the move, both at home and at daycare. He's not a huge fan of the baby gates we've put up to block his access to the kitchen and hallway, but he otherwise loves having our big living room to roam. He's most recently began letting go of furniture and hovering for a few seconds before plopping to the ground. Both my husband and I walked at 9 months, so I imagine Peter isn't too far off.

We began baby-led weaning around 7 months and now Peter is eating everything we eat, with the exception of cows milk, honey, and fast food or processed food. Baby-led weaning has seriously made our lives so much easier. No more fighting with the spoon to get Peter to eat, no making separate meals for him. He eats what we eat and feeds himself, which helps to develop fine motor skills! It's seriously the best.

Peter's first tooth finally broke through this month! He had been teething for weeks, and it broke this momma's heart to see him in so much discomfort. I had no idea babies could have so many different symptoms while teething. I'm glad we got through that first tooth, and I'm hopeful the next ones won't be so bad.

We are so looking forward to fall and getting to take Peter to all our favorite local festivals and share our adventures! 

Home Upgrades

Today I wanted to share some of the updates we've done on our home since moving in a year ago!

When we first moved into our home it was way outdated. It had been a rental home for about 30 years, so the owners had really only ever replaced the carpet before each new renter moved in. There were a lot of things that were pretty gross, including the ridiculously old living room carpet.

The first thing we did before moving in was paint the living room. We picked a pretty light blue color from Behr Paints called Rain Dance. Hubs and I both love blue and felt it would add some color to the living room without being overwhelming. We knew we wanted white furniture and to paint the fireplace white, so we opted not to paint the walls any kind of white.

After the walls were finished we ripped up the carpet and three tiled areas in the living room. Carpet is easy to get up, tile is not. We decided we wanted flooring that was easy to lay and would be easy to keep clean over time. So, we went with laminate flooring from Lowes in Woodfin. It was pretty easy to lay and didn't cost an arm and a leg.

We finished the living room floors with new baseboards, which really made the room feel so fresh and new.

Once the floors and walls were finally finished I decided to tackle the fireplace. We jokingly call the bricks on our house "worm bricks" because they literally look like worms were laid in them. They're not at all pretty. The fireplace should be the focal point of the room and should be attractive. Ours was the total opposite. Painting it white greatly improved the look of the worm brick and honestly brightened the whole living room. Hubs sanded and painted the mantle matte black, which just pops against the white.

We ended up turning the corner by the front door into a gated baby play area for Peter. His room is so small and doesn't have any room to store his toys. We also liked having a space that is totally baby proofed that he can be in when I have to run to the bathroom or cook dinner. 

We are so excited to get to some other projects around the house now. I feel like we rushed to get the living room done before baby got here so we could focus on the nursery and preparing to have a baby. Although we have significantly less time than we had before (welcome to parenthood) we aren't overly occupied preparing for a major life changing event, so I feel like I can put more time and money into make our house a home.

Baby Update: 7 Months

I feel like Peter experienced the most growth and hit so many milestones this month.

We got the go-ahead from our pediatrician to explore baby-led weaning. If you're not familiar with it, you explore my Pinterest board HERE. We combine baby-safe finger foods with purees and Peter seems to really enjoy getting to explore foods with his hands. Some of the finger foods we have explored are bananas, avocado, sweet potatoes, carrots, broccoli, and peaches.

Peter is officially crawling with his belly off the floor. He's been doing the army crawl for a couple of months, but now that he got his belly off the floor he's unstoppable!

He has also started pulling up on everything. My new favorite thing is going into his room to get him in the morning because he's always standing, waiting on me with a big smile on his face. Of course, now it takes him forever to go to sleep because he's busy playing in the crib, practicing all his new skills.

He can now say "mama" and "baba" over and over and over again. It's super cute!

We recently went to a nearby splash pad with some mommy friends from work. There were lots of fountains and streams of water for the kids to play in. Peter is such a water baby,  I couldn't get any pictures of him looking up at the camera! We'll definitely be taking Peter back again before summer ends.

Baby Update: 6 Months

For six months now we have been blessed with baby Peter. We haven't experienced a dull moment since he joined our family.

At six months Peter has almost mastered sitting up by himself. He's already adventurous and throws himself to the floor from a sitting position to chase after whatever toy catches his eye. Peter is army crawling all over the house and I get a good workout in everyday chasing after him. He's incredibly quick and can get from one side of a room to the other in the blink of an eye.

We recently put an above ground pool in our backyard and it's safe to say that Peter is a big fan. Hubs had the genius idea of putting an umbrella in the middle of the pool and that's made it so much easier to keep baby protected from the intense Texas sun.

Peter's sleep habits haven't been so great lately. I'm not sure if its the dreaded sleep regression or teething, but he's gotten up at least once a night for the past couple of weeks. Thankfully I'm out of school for the summer, so I can handle getting up at night. My fingers are crossed that this phase passes quickly.

I'm trying to get us into a good daily routine, but am struggling to overcome the initial summer laziness that always hits me when school gets out. I'd really like to get in the habit of taking morning walks, and will try my best to get myself out the door in the morning before it gets too hot.

Right now our days look something like this:
Between 6:00-7:00 am wake up and give bottle and baby food.
Play for two hours until Peter gets sleepy.
During his two hour morning nap I wash bottles, pick up the house, shower.
After his first nap he has a morning snack followed by more playtime. Usually he plays more independently during this time either in the pack'n'play, door bouncer, or walker.
Second nap of the day lasts another two hours. I take this time to watch t.v. and eat lunch.
Peter wakes again for another feed. Hubs is usually getting home from work around this time and plays with Peter for a while.
Peter takes one more evening nap. This one only lasts about an hour.
Last feed of the day, a little more play time, then we get ready for bed around 7:30.

I'm finding that now that I'm home I'm not as concerned about keeping Peter on a strict schedule. I obsessed about his schedule while I was working. I guess I wanted to know exactly what he was doing all day and when he was doing it. I also read so many mommy blogs about the importance of schedules. But honestly, neither of us are worse for wear without a strict schedule. Bedtime is the only thing I really try to keep consistent each day.

We are so excited for the upcoming milestones baby will reach next!

Baby Update: 5 Months

I know I say this all the time, but HOW has Peter grown so quickly?!

Peter turned 5 months old on Friday and my mommy brain cannot handle it! He is so alert and active and curious about everything. He is a moving machine and gone are the days of putting him on the floor to run to the bathroom because he will take off as soon as I walk away.

Peter is very close to crawling. He's learned how to get up on his hands and knees and will rock back and forth. I'm guessing that within the next week he'll figure out how to get those hands moving, and then he will be unstoppable.

Peter is eating SO MUCH! I can't even imagine all the food we'll go through when he is in high school. He definitely loves his veggies more than fruits, which makes us laugh, because hubs and I both have a major sweet tooth. But I won't complain!

We are finally getting full nights of sleep. Every once in a while he will wake up and need a bottle to help calm him down, but those nights are far and few between. We have been using Sam's Club brand diapers and have really liked them, but recently realized that part of why Peter was waking up during the night was because his diaper was getting too full. We switched to Huggies diapers at night and have seen a huge improvement in how often Peter wakes up.

I am finally feeling more and more like a normal human again and have started working out in the evenings and doing more things for myself. It is really amazing how much of a difference it makes in my attitude when I take those 30 minutes for myself in the evenings. 

Baby boy, we can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

Baby Update: 4 Months

Holy cow where have the past four months gone?! I love looking back through my millions of photos of Peter and seeing how much he has grown and changed. Does it ever get easier, moms?

Peter has surprised us by sleeping through the night a couple of times. He still wakes up hungry most nights so he gets a snack before falling back to sleep. He constantly fights his naps during the day. 

We started adding rice cereal to his diet. It took him a few days to get the hang of the spoon, but now he shouts if we don't get the spoon to his mouth fast enough. 

We are still working on daytime naps. The goal is for him to nap in his crib 3 times a day, but of course that doesn't always work out. He's gone from sleeping only 20 minutes in the crib to about 40 minutes. It's something! 

Bath time is such a joy to experience. He loves when we pour the warm water over him and he's learned the art of splashing. Everything is new and exciting and fun. 

A friend commented to me the other day that he's grown from an infant/newborn into a baby. It's so true, especially now that he's more aware of his surroundings and spends more time awake during the day. 

I've said it once and I'll say it again- I LOVE being his mommy!

Baby Update: 3 Months

I cannot believe how quickly the past three months have gone by. With life being so incredibly crazy I obviously took a break from publishing any posts. I am now back at work with my firsties and yes, leaving sweet baby every morning completely breaks my heart. My mind and body have been stretched far beyond anything I could have ever imagined, but I have never been happier or more content.

It took us a while to get established into a good routine with Peter. We had to put him on formula the day we came home from the hospital and he's had some reflux problems. So it felt like every day we were playing with his schedule and trying to figure out how much to feed him at each feeding. It was hectic.

But now, we really have a routine that works for all of us and Peter is just absolutely thriving.

5:45 a.m.- Hubs and I get up for work. I have somehow managed to shorten my makeup routine and it only takes me about 15 minutes to get dressed, put on makeup, and fix my hair.

6:20 a.m.- Wake baby. Peter is the happiest little baby in the morning. All smiles and giggles.

7:00 a.m.- First feed. We learned that we can't feed Peter right when he wakes up because he won't finish his bottle and he was spitting up WAY too much. Letting him be awake for a while before eating has made a HUGE difference.

9:00 a.m.- Morning nap. We follow the Eat, Play, Sleep routine and it keeps Peter from spitting up in his sleep. He will sometimes take a full 2 hour nap, and sometimes he will only sleep for 20 minutes. Depends on the day.

11:00 a.m.- Second feed.

1:00 p.m.- Afternoon nap.

3:00 p.m.- Third feed. He eats more at this feeding to get full for the night.

5:00 p.m.- Evening nap.

6:30 p.m.- Last feed. Again, eating more. Feeding him earlier helps him to not spit up once we lay him on his back in his crib.

8:00 p.m.- Bedtime routine. Diaper change and change into pajamas. Hubs holds him while I read Goodnight Moon. He gets really into the story and LOVES looking at the pictures. Then I give him a pacifier and rock him to sleep. Once I put him in the crib he's completely out. He still wakes up once around 2 a.m. and has a quick snack and goes right back to sleep.

We hit some pretty big milestones this month. Peter has learned how to grab and hold onto his toes, laugh, and roll from stomach to back.

It's incredible to think of all the changes Peter has gone through since birth. It feels so bittersweet watching him grow up. I just wish it would slow down, just a little bit.