5 Months Old {Conrad}

Size
He's still wearing all the same stuff and sizes as last month, he seems to be really lean and long. Wearing size 2 diapers and weighs around 15 lbs but won't have official numbers until next month.

Eyes
Still rocking blue eyes and I'm hoping since Hanley has blue also, they will stay that way!

Hair
Coming in so good! It's silly how happy his little fuzzy head makes me! And his hair is so blonde that you can't even tell how much he truly has because it's so light!

Sleep
Oh baby boy! Midway through his 4th month he started waking constantly at night again like a newborn. I decided he was outgrowing his bassinet in my room and put him in his crib full time at night about a week ago or so... (09-23-15)

Naps (around 3 a day) are always in his crib and I rock him to sleep for those and then lay him down. It has become increasingly difficult to get him to fall asleep and then equally difficult to get him to stay asleep upon the transfer, we are working toward a solution...

Since he started rolling while being swaddled last month, I had to start letting him sleep unswaddled. I found the Zipadee-zip and that was supposed to help with the startle reflex babies have. He started using that at night and it seems to be a good thing for him (17 weeks) - plus it serves as a wearable blanket.

Diet
I haven't tried in awhile but he wouldn't ever take a bottle so we are still nursing - which I would still nurse him, but would let him have a bottle occasionally so I can be away longer than 2-3 hours at a time...

I also started giving him purees once a day to every other day. Started out with cereal (09-01-15), and quickly moved right on to avocado. Green beans, carrots, banana, and squash. I've made all the food that he has consumed so far and have a pretty decent stock pile in the freezer. He has loved everything I've ever given him. The banana was given through the mesh eater and that was a fun new experience for him!

Milestones
He is doing so much! He doesn't sit still, seems to be all boy! He is sitting up unassisted (19 weeks) (mostly, still placing the boppy around him if he's sitting on the floor) he is doing a crawling stance/motion. He gets up on his hands and knees, rocks back and forth and will pull one knee up at a time, like crawling, but his hands aren't moving. He is also trying really really hard to go from a hands and knees position to a sitter position, he's not quite there but so close and so cute!

Likes
Loves his big sister. Likes playing with toys and sitting in his exersaucer.

Dislikes
Being put down if he's tired, he wants to be held.

Nicknames
Brother, bubba, monkey

A Collection of Firsts {Conrad} 4 Months

When Conrad turned 4 months I mixed up a bowl of cereal for him to try. Of course, he loved it! We then quickly moved on to avocado since I only planned to use the cereal to introduce food to him. I'm only giving him 1 serving a day, and even then, some days we skip days here and there. His main source of nourishment is still breastmilk. He has since had green beans, squash, banana, and carrots. He has loved it all! I've (so far) made all his baby food and already have a little stock pile made up in the freezer.

At the tail end of 3 months and beginning of 4 months (17 weeks), he started rolling in his sleep when he was swaddled so I knew I had to stop swaddling him soon... Hanley stayed swaddled until a solid 6 months old so this was completely foreign to me. I knew he still had his startle reflex so I looked around and ended up purchasing a Zipadee-Zip to help him feel enclosed in something and I like it! It's also one of those things that I think he will start to associate with sleep so when I put it on him, he knows that's the goal.

He started sleeping super crappy in his bassinet at the end of 4 months old (21 weeks). I really wasn't ready for him to be in his own room but it was best for him so I moved him into his bed full time and his sleep got so much better. He went back to sleeping longer stretches of time. He was getting nearly as long as the actual bassinet and when he would try to roll in the night he would hit the sides and I just think he was getting too cramped in there. 


I was playing with both kids in our back yard and Hanley loves swinging on her swing set. She hasn't been in the 'baby swing' in quite some time because she took a liking to the 'big girl swing' so the baby swing has been in the garage for awhile. Hanley asked if Conrad could swing, and it hit me that we still had that baby swing so I set it up on the swing set and away he went swinging! He couldn't really hold himself up too well and kept sliding down (next time I might use a towel to line the swing to help him from sliding). He loved it, he was giggling and smiling and Hanley, of course, loved pushing him and thought I wasn't pushing him high enough! haha

Then I informed Hanley it was nearing bedtime and so we had to get inside to jump in the bathtub. She asked if Conrad could take a bath with he, and again, it hit me, that I could put Conrad in his Bumbo and place the Bumbo in the tub. Again, he loved it! He absolutely adores watching Hanley at whatever she is doing, at any time, so watching her splash around in the tub where she couldn't get out of his sight was a treat for him! She loved helping me rinse all the soap off of him, too. This is a huge game changer for us! While I actually think it's probably equal amounts of work to do the baths separate as it is to do them together, it just seems easier to do them together and they enjoy it!

Stuffed 'Game Day's Pull-Apart Pizza Bread {recipe}

This is a fun little 'game day' pizza that the littles can easily help with! It's a nice and different twist on regular pizza.

 

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf of unsliced bakery bread - I used "Tuscany" bread  
• 1 1/2 marinara or pizza sauce
• 1/2 package sliced pepperoni
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese
• cooking spray

Directions:  

Preheat oven to 350F. Leaving the bottom 1-inch of the bread crust intact, cut the loaf into 1inch "slices". Cut both lengthwise and width of the bread. Spoon sauce between cuts, then place pepperoni (or whatever other toppings you like) and cheese in-between the bread cuts. Lightly coat the loaf with cooking spray and wrap the entire loaf in foil. Place on a baking pan and bake 15 minutes. Carefully open the foil to expose the bread and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and lightly browned. Serve immediately.

A few tips: Use tongs or two forks to help "pull" the bread and filling from the loaf for serving. If you like spicy food, you could mix  3-4 tbsp of buffalo wing sauce to the marinara/pizza sauce to give it a little kick.

Here's to hoping your team gets a win!

Countdown paper chains

Hanleys 3rd birthday is in 6 days and it has become a daily occurrence for her to question us about it. I've tried showing her the calendar and pointing out which day we are on, then showing her which day we have to get to but I think it's a little too much for her to comprehend.

Yesterday she asked when her birthday would be here and all of the sudden, the light bulb went off to make a paper chain to show her "how many more sleeps."

So this morning I went and grabbed some construction paper and cut out strips, wrote a day on each one leading up to her actual birthday and then another up to her birthday party, then stapled them together! I tried explaining it to her again but hoping tomorrow when she wakes up and we take a chain off, she might understand a little bit more. And if not, it's still something fun to do with her. I'm also a sucker for traditions so we might be doing lots of more paper chains in her future!

The Paci Fairy

I'll preface this by saying I've always hated pacifiers. If they're used for their actual intent, like soothing a baby in a crowded restaurant or helping to soothe a baby back to sleep then cool, not a big deal. It's the kids who have a pacifier in that do not need to be soothed, who are calm and happy but still just sucking away. Also, the kids who are talking through a pacifier or not even trying to talk at all because the things always in their mouth. When Hanley was born I tried saying she was never going to have a pacifier. As a newborn, she cried all.the.time I was practically shoving the thing down her throat! She wanted nothing to do with it for the first couple months of life but eventually she took it.

Hanley has been obsessed with her pacifier since a little before a year old. Around that same time I made the pacifier only accessible to her during nap and bed times. Once she left her crib, the pacifier was no longer hers to have.

I knew this whole time I wanted the pacifier gone by her 3rd birthday. Over the last 3 weeks, one by one, I've started slitting the tips of her paci's and then when she goes to use them the suction is gone, she tells me they're broken, and we toss them in the trash.

She would always just be ok with throwing them away but would ask me if I could fix them. I told her "once they're broken, they go in the trash" and she was ok with that.

We got down to the last paci and I didn't want to slit the tip. So before bedtime last week, I hid it and when she went to go grab it out of her drawer it was gone. I told her the "paci fairy" must have come earlier that day and took it away. She was very inquisitive about the paci fairy, asking me questions about what it looked like, how it got in, and what the fairy does with the paci's. I told her the paci fairy takes big girls pacifiers and gives them to little babies that need them.

Hanley also had a dentist appointment last week in which he was showing me how her bite was being affected on the left side from the pacifier. After her dentist appointment, I kept reminding her that the dentist said it was time to get rid of it. In the end, I told her the paci fairy came because the dentist called her and told her it was time.

Shockingly, there were never any tears before bed but she did have a night terror the 2nd night, which she is prone to, and she begged me for her pacifier. She even went as far to ask for one of Conrads pacifiers. It was very sad and broke my heart. I stayed strong and never gave in even though I wanted to so bad. Each night seems to be a little better but she's still looking in her drawer for it and asking questions.

Truthfully, my first goal was to have it gone by her 2nd birthday but I put no effort forth and finally settled on 3 because since she only got it when she slept it wasn't that bad... I thought about letting her get rid of it on her own time but ultimately I'm happy I decided to stick to my goal. I drug my feet so long because I know how much she loves that stupid thing and I didn't want to see her sad. Hopefully soon it will just be a thing of the past.

6 Weeks of Princess Dance Camp {The Summer Chronicles}

I originally planned to wait out the summer before enrolling her into a dance class in the fall. Then I saw an opportunity arise for her to attend a 6 week Disney Princess Dance Camp! What better way to get her to try out dance AND get to wear princess dresses doing it!?

They focused on a different Disney Princess each week and they got to dress like that particular princess. It was a "creative movement" class for 2-3 year olds and they would dance to songs from each movie.

She absolutely LOVED it! I signed her up for the fall dance season and she can not wait to go back!! 

4 Months Old {Conrad}

My sweet boy! He is a happy boy; very chill, content, and easy going. Still spitting up occasionally, not too worried about it though. Still the most drooly kid ever and the doc agrees it looks like his bottom 2 front teeth are going to come through soon.

Size

He is still wearing 3 month clothing but 0-3 is now too small. I also can put him in a lot of 6 month rompers, they're baggy but apparently I don't have much 3-6 size clothing(!?) Not sure what happened there lol

He weighed in at 14 lbs 4.2 oz (23%) at his 4 month doctor appointment. 86% in height at 26 inches. Wearing size 2 diapers.

Eyes

Still sporting blue eyes, they're beautiful!  He loves watching big sister, Hanley!! Also, starting to watch a lot of what the dogs do. Has excellent hand/eye coordination.

Hair
So blonde that he looks bald! His hair is very short but I love what he does have!

Sleep
I'm pretty proud that he has never ended up in our bed so far! He's (mostly) a champion sleeper. He doesn't sleep through every night but he gives me pretty good stretches of sleep. Still taking around 3 naps a day and goes to bed around 10:30pm and is typically up around 6am to nurse but then goes right back to sleep until 8-9am.

Halfway through month 3 he stopped getting swaddled for his naps. I use to already have a swaddle blanket in his crib, ready to swaddle him after he fell asleep but he started waking up in the process of swaddling so I started letting him sleep on his belly and keeping a good eye on him through his video monitor.

Starting around 13 weeks he started rolling from his back to his stomach while sleeping and swaddled... After it started becoming a more consistent thing, I had to start making him sleep at night unswaddled. 

Diet
Nursing full time.

Milestones

Rolling in all directions. Giggled without being tickled (07/30/15). Good hand/eye coordination and grabbing stuff. Wants to sit up so bad, especially in his car seat.

Likes
He is playing with more toys on his exersaucer. He always seems to giggle the most right before bed and enjoys sticking spitting and sputtering

Dislikes
Won't take a bottle, doesn't exactly dislike it, just won't take ANY of the 12ish different kinds we have. Car rides... There's usually around a 70% chance he will cry at some point during a car ride.

Nicknames
Brother
Buggy

• took both kids swimming at Lions Park wading pool, put Conrad in Hanleys floaty
• went to Swings N Things
• started playing in his exersaucer
• first Akron Rubber Ducks game (08/22/15)