First Time in a High Chair!

Andrew is such a great eater! We started him on solid foods at 4 months and since then, he has tried butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, avocado, pears, apples, mango, and peaches. He loved everything except the green beans! Oh, he's also had rice cereal and oatmeal with cinnamon. We are feeding him solid foods twice a day, once around 1:00 and again around 7:00.

So far, we've been sitting him in his little green chair. We call it the "babyman chair", but it's really a little Safety First copy of a bumbo. He loves the chair, but for me, it means sitting on the floor every time I go to feed him. It's not the best thing for my back! We decided it was time to graduate our big boy to a real high chair!

Last night, we ran out to Buy Buy Baby since I had a 20% off coupon. We found a really nice Chicco high chair that folds up for storage really nicely. (Space is at a premium in our townhome these days!) The second we sat him in it, you could tell he loved it. He feels like a real big boy!

Our little Andrew is growing up so fast. Six months old already! Oops, I just realized I never did a 6 month post, so that will have to come tomorrow. Poor Andrew had a raised temp last night and wasn't feeling well, but he slept great once he finally went down and seems to be feeling better today. He's napping now, but hopefully when he wakes up, he will be back to his normal happy self!

Date Night

George and I haven't been out on a date in a very long time! Unfortunately, we don't have family nearby who are willing/capable of watching Andrew, and we haven't found a good baby sitter. We have great friends and neighbors, but it would feel like we were inconveniencing them to ask them to watch him in the evenings. So basically that leaves us without a chance to go out and have a date night.

In the interest of trying to still be somewhat romantic and have a good time together out of the house, we decided to do a fun date night today. In the afternoon, haha. With the baby. It might not be a traditional "date", but it was still fun to get all dressed up and go out together. We went to Olive Garden, which isn't super fancy or anything, but was still amazing food.

Andrew even got dressed up with a tie!

How can you resist this cuteness?

He was a little bit fussy on the car ride over, so I was terrified he was going to be fussy at the restaurant. I hate those restaurant trips where you can't even carry on a conversation or enjoy the meal because you're constantly trying to distract the baby or figure out why he isn't feeling well or whatever. In those instances, I'd just rather be at home where I can soothe him better and he can be more comfortable and we don't have to deal with stares from strangers wondering why you can't make your baby be quiet!

Amazingly, however, the moment we put Andrew in the high chair, he was PERFECT! In the past, he's usually had to stay in his car seat (which he hates), or we have to hold him. He wasn't able to sit up enough or balance himself enough to be in a high chair. Today, though, we gave it a shot. I brought along our new little high chair/shopping cart cover and he LOVED it! I think he felt like a big boy sitting on his own! Plus, the cover has a loop so we could attach toys. We put his turtle on there and he played with it throughout most of the meal.

Our entire dinner took almost 2 hours. We talked, laughed, enjoyed each other's company, and ate some amazing food (4 courses!). We had a table on a corner, so everyone who passed by got a big smile from Andrew. Lots of people stopped by to tell us that he was just the cutest baby they'd ever seen :). I have to agree! He was such a perfect little man, so happy and smiley and content. Then, when we got home, he took a 2 1/2 hour nap!!! It was just about the perfect day.


I love my little family with all of my heart. Today is definitely one of those days where I feel so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing husband and baby boy. My heart is overflowing with joy and thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving in Georgia

Andrew's first visit to Georgia went well, all things considered. The drive down there took over 11 hours! YUCK! It was not the most pleasant day of my life, but we got there in one piece, thank goodness. :) The trip home went much smoother as we decided to leave the night before instead of in the morning. We left right as Andrew got sleepy for his bedtime (around 8:00) and he slept almost the entire way home! That trip only took about 8 hours, which was much more manageable.

The best part was getting to introduce Andrew to the rest of my family. He'd already met my brother and sister's family and my Mom and Dad, but he got to meet my cousins and aunts and uncle, which was great!

Unfortunately, we all three came home with some kind of yuck. I'm not feeling well tonight, so I'm calling it and heading to bed. Wanted to get a few pics up first though! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Can't believe Christmas is just right around the corner...

One of my faves. My sister took this of Andrew sitting up in the leaves!

My family!

Andrew and his Nana

First Thanksgiving!

My cousin's little girl (13 mos.) pointing to Andrew's turkey, hehe.

 

 

Andrew sleeping on his Uncle Doug's shoulder.

Family portrait!

My parents, us and my brother's family. It was a beautiful day.

5 Months!

Happy 5 months old Sweet baby Andrew!!!!

Andrew turned 5 months old on Monday!! I thought I would take a few minutes and document his growth and milestones so far!

He's growing so much. He's very alert and always looking around, wanting to be a part of everything. He can grab toys so easily now. Of course, they go straight to his mouth! He's drooling like crazy, and we're thinking about putting bibs on him all the time because he just ends up with this ring of drool on his clothes, haha. He's sitting up tripod style, but can't quite hold himself up without the use of his hands.

He still isn't sleeping through the night most nights. Well, unless you go by the 5 hours stretch thing. I personally don't consider sleeping from 8:30 to 1:30 sleeping through the night! Especially not when he's sometimes up for hours at a time in the middle of the night. Eek! We are doing the best we can though, and hoping the sleep will continue to get better and better.

Food! Andrew loves to eat and is doing such a great job with solid foods. So far he's tried: Pear, Avocado, Apples, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes and Butternut Squash. He's also had oatmeal and rice cereal. I think his favorite is the butternut squash, so I made LOTS of it and froze it into little cubes. I bought a Ninja food processor (which I'm loving) and make his food in big batches, then freeze it in ice cube trays. When it's frozen, I take it out and put the cubes into labeled ziplock bags in the freezer. Easy peasy! It's been a lot of fun to make Andrew's food, and I can't wait to try more variety and start mixing things in fun combinations. It won't be long until he's done with purees and on to finger foods!

We didn't make it to his 4 month well child visit/vaccinations, so we went yesterday instead. He is 16lbs, 9oz. (50th percentile) and 26.5 inches tall (75th percentile), so he is tall and just a little skinny, which she said is normal for breastfed babies at this stage. He's very healthy and did a great job with his shots. Again, we declined polio, hepB and rotavirus, but went ahead with DTaP, Hib and the pneumonia one. They didn't seem to bother him too much, so that's great! I love that he's so healthy and strong.

He's spending a lot of time in his exersaucer lately. He loves it! It's his favorite place to play, so he's in it at least an hour every day. He loves going for walks either in the Baby Bjorn or in the stroller. He also loves music. Every time I start to sing to him, he gets this big cheesy grin on his face. It's so adorable! Andrew is such a happy baby, smiling all the time! It melts my heart!

Cheesy Grin!

It's hard to believe he's almost halfway to a year. The six month mark will be here before we know it, I'm sure. Life with baby is still an adjustment, but I'm loving being a mom to the cutest baby boy on the planet.

Pediatrician

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but we haven't been super happy with UNC Family Medicine lately. Not only do they not seem to care about the fact that my c-section incision is STILL bleeding after 5 months, but they also just don't seem to give great advice and care in general. Also, it's a serious pain to have to drive 30 minutes to get to a pediatrician appointment. Especially since Andrew is not a huge fan of car rides.

So, long story short, I've been searching for a new pediatrician. After some great recommendations from my doula and her friends, we've found someone new right here in Cary! So close and supposed to be amazing. The doctor doesn't have any openings until January, so we'll have to go to UNC for Andrew's very belated 4 month appointment, but after that we'll be with the new doctor. So excited!

Sitting Up!

Just over the past couple of days, Andrew has started propping himself up! He's not quite sitting up all the way on his own, but it's a step in that direction. So exciting to see him gaining more control over his body. He's getting closer and closer to crawling too, but I know it could still be a while before he's really got it figured out.

Here's a cute video from today with him sitting up on his own! He has to use his hands to stay up.

Balance is So Hard!

Motherhood is such a joy, and I'm totally in love with my little guy! I love my career too, though, and would very much like to keep it going full force. Without daycare, that basically means I have two full time jobs. Mommy and writer. Finding balance is really the most difficult part of my life right now.

Blogging, unfortunately, falls somewhere way down the totem pole! I am still keeping up with everyone on my blogroll, though, and commenting there when I have time. I just looked at my last post, though, and realized it's been forever since I updated my own space here!

Of course, it's about 2:20 am and I'm still up working on my book. It's much easier to work and concentrate when the house is quiet and dark and the baby is sleeping. I'm taking a short break to post a few new pics, then it's back to the book!

Happy 4 months!!

Bathtime

Family portrait for Halloween!

Our Little Ninja

So expressive!

Tummy Time