Nathan - six to seven months

(I'm combining 2 months because I've been 'gasp' falling behind on my posts)

Half a year has flown by with our sweet guy.  One of the biggest things that stands out to us with his personality now really developing is just how emotional he is! (Sorry, older Nathan if you're reading this 15 years+ from now! hehe). There's really not much you need to do to get a smile and belly laugh out of him and he "flirts" with just about anyone who glances his way.  On the other end, he also seems to be effected negatively by things pretty easily too (i.e. Mommy walking away from him God forbid).  He's a TOTAL Momma's boy (again, sorry Nathan. But for me it's the best feeling in the world)!  

This is such a fun age with him sitting and interacting a lot more, and even starting to make some word sounds.  I have an adorable video of him saying "Dada"!  He's obsessed with studying Gwen, and she's just infatuated with him.

OK, here are some updates:

Sleeping

This has been a challenge from the start.  I've been much more willing to bring him into bed with us than I was with Gwen.  I'm not sure if willing is the right word.  The sheer exhaustion of having a toddler and a newborn made it so that I didn't have much of a choice.  I would basically just fall asleep nursing him and any time I tried to stay awake to put him back in the crib after that first middle of the night feeding, he would just cry so I'd end up just bringing him back in anyway.  With Gwen, we had a bit of trouble getting her to fall asleep initially but once she was asleep, she was out.  It has been the opposite with Nathan.  He falls asleep almost immediately (yay for my sanity), but then he wakes himself up throughout the night.  He just moves around so much, kicks his legs and scratches his head (to the point where it breaks skin) and wakes himself up.  Thankfully now I'm starting to see a change in that and I think we're heading in a good direction here.  At seven months now, he's starting to just wake up once at night.  And now, tonight I'm not expecting to get much sleep because I just typed that out loud.

Nursing

I don't think I've posted about this since he was born.  Let me tell you, nursing the second is a WORLD of difference from the first.  The pain wasn't even close to as bad.  Plus, I was totally SHOCKED at how often I needed to nurse Gwen in the beginning but it was much easier the second time around knowing what to expect.  Nathan latched very easily from the beginning and he's much quicker than Gwen was so each feeding isn't taking as long as it did the first time.  I'm also not keeping track of each feeding on my phone so I think it has put less pressure on me and I've just been nursing him whenever I think he seems hungry.  At this point I think we're down to 5 or 6 feedings per 24hrs.  We're at that annoying stage though where he gets distracted by everything so keeping discreet while we're out just isn't possible.

Food

We started solids a little after 5 months and we're up to 3 times a day now.  I've made some of the food but I'm doing mostly store bought organic which I did with Gwen too.  He's had a variety of fruits and veggies (sweet potatoes, butternut squash, peas, carrots, green beans, spinach, avocado, apples, bananas, peaches, prunes - ahem, Lord knows we've needed them!, apricot, pears, blueberries, and I'm sure there are others I've forgotten.  No meat or dairy as of yet).  He seems to like everything pretty equally with no real obvious favorite but he does prefer the thicker purees.  He usually makes a disgusted face after the first taste of just about everything, but then once he gets used to the taste he'll gobble it all right up.  He wasn't a fan of the homemade peas or avacado but I'm thinking that's because I wasn't able to get it pureed as smoothly as the rest.  

6 Month Photos & Stats:

Weight: 16lbs 5oz 40th %

Height: 26.25in 58th %

Head: 17.25in 62nd %

7 Month Photos

Nathan - two months

So the first month totally FLEW by.  We had a ton of help from family and both Anne and Kristen were able to visit.  The second month draaagggggggggggged.  Man, is it tough being by myself with a 2.5 year old and a newborn (I swear, if it's true what they say about age 3 being harder than 2 I may just lose my mind).

OK I'm making a serious effort for this post to be all about Nathan, and not Gwen's reaction to Nathan.  Poor second kid always gets compared to the first, I'm hoping I can avoid that....

So I know I didn't write a 1 month post, but I'll just try to cover everything here.  First, let me say that breastfeeding [comparatively speaking]...oh crap there I go again.... has been a piece of cake.  I had some pain in the first week (and the uterine cramping the first 3 days UGH!), but nothing I couldn't handle.  I was very happy about this because I really questioned whether I was going to be able to do it again if the first 2 weeks were anything like I remembered.  Well, now we're into the third month and it's going great!

At around 3 weeks we had one night in particular that we questioned if we'd make it through.  Nathan was up the ENTIRE night wanting to nurse constantly, but then choking and crying, and his breathing was very shallow and labored.  It was so bad that we called the on-call Dr and she had us bring him in the next morning.  Physically, he was fine so she thought it could be reflux.....OR.....the dreaded "C" word.  Yes, COLIC. AHHHHHHH!!!  No parent ever wants to hear that word.  Luckily, it turned out to be an isolated event.  We held off on the reflux meds and although he spits up more than any child I've ever seen, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have reflux.  And although he can be a bit fussy when he wants to be, he most certainly does not have colic (phew).

Nights have been going great.  He's still in our room in the pack n' play because he'll eventually be sharing a room with Gwen, and she sleeps so well that we haven't wanted to make the move yet.   For the last few weeks he's been sleeping anywhere between 5.5 - 7 hours, and one night he slept 8!! Hallelujah!  I'm pretty sure this is all due to the swaddle (which is something we never did before).  He was moving around a lot, and we thought he was keeping himself up because of it.  He seems to instantly relax when I swaddle him.

The boy is growing like a weed.  Most people are shocked when I tell them his age because he looks older.  Here are his stats:

Birth:
7lbs 10oz, 21in

2 wks:
8lbs 7oz, 22 in

2 mo:
11lbs 15oz, 23 in

At his 2 month appt, the Dr told me that he's above the 90th percentile for both height and weight.  Grow baby, grow!

In the past few weeks, he has been super smiley, talkative, and responsive to us.  The Dr told us that he's very "flirty" for a 2 month old.  I think he's going to be a very animated little guy and I'm really looking forward to watching his personality develop.

Here he is, happy as can be, at 2 months old:

Oh, hi!

Wow, so I haven't blogged since June?!  OK, now I'm overwhelmed with topics to write about.

So I know I mentioned that I was considering weaning Gwen on my 15 month update.  We did it just before she turned 16 months.  I guess I never wrote about it because it actually ended up being not such a big deal.  It was a little sad for me, but I knew it was time.  We were down to just 1 feeding right before bed, and there were nights I was out and Justin put her to bed and she was fine without it, so I knew the transition would probably be harder on me than her.  So I just decided one night that this would be the last time (tear), and she never gave me any strong signals that she missed it.  The day after we stopped, I celebrated with some light day-drinking.  After you've gone 2+ years (pregnancy and nursing) not being able to drink, or "pumping and dumping", it was nice to be able to have a couple and not have to worry about passing the alcohol along to my sweet babe.  Lets just say that I can see how stay-at-home moms become closet alcy's HA!  Good thing I've never been much of a drinker myself, and the novelty wore off after a day or two ;)

Gwen turned 18 months on July 9th (that's right, the big half birthday).  Finally, I've been able to stop telling people her age in months.  Now I can say "she's a year and a half" and when we get a bit closer to her bday, I'll simply say "she'll be 2 in January".  I had a mom once tell me that her kid was 25 months.  Just say he's 2, woman!
And here are the stats from her visit:
Weight: 23lbs = 31%
Height: 31.5in = 46%
Head: 18in = 27%

We've spent a lot of time at spray parks, the beach, and area lakes this summer.  Gwen is terrified of the movement of the ocean, so we pretty much stay on the towels and hang out in the sand.  But, she LOVES the still water of lakes and will wade in the water forever (or until she's hungry for a snack).  We've tried to plan as many outdoor activities as possible, and let me tell you - we've been having a blast!!

Our summer in pictures:

Happy Father's Day!

Playdates:

Tuesday playgroup at the Zoo

hugs for Ava

backyard water fun playdate

lunch in Salem

Happy 4th!

6 year anniversary!

notice we're quite a bit away from those waves ;)

baby Reagan's first playgroup

Lowell Summer Music Series

at the Butterfly Place

Liquid Planet Water Park

hangin with Annie Annie

Visiting Grammy and Grampy on Long Island

Long Island Petting Zoo