To my Baby Kangaroo - week 14

Last week we took you for a photo with Santa at the mall. This Santa was pretty awesome with a real beard. He tickled your feet and his elf-photographers were really good at getting you to smile. 

We spent some time last Sunday at the farm. Your dad was testing out his new gun and bow (alternative methods deer season started yesterday), so we hung out inside with your grandma. I think, just maybe, she is a proud grandma. Maybe. :)

Here you were sitting on the couch and turned sideways. You kept looking at me like, "what did I do?"

You continue to drool all. the. time. The upper portion of your onesie is nearly always soaked. I'm thinking maybe you need to wear a bib all day?! You chew on your fingers, on your blankets, and your stuffed toys. You take a pacifier, but only when you are going down for a nap or for the night. 

We are still cloth diapering. I wash diapers twice a week. Usually once on Saturday or Sunday, and then again Wednesday or Thursday. You are still wearing disposable diapers at night, but only because we were given a diaper cake for your shower and I can't exchange opened diapers... It is giving me a chance to figure out how to cloth diaper you at night though, too. During naptime you completely soak your diaper, so I need to try different combinations of inserts. 

I am still pumping at work. When I first started at work, I was pumping at 930am, lunch and 330pm. But I now usually drop the lunch time pump, unless I don't get much milk at the first pumping (I usually get 9-12 oz at the first pumping). You need 12 oz while you are at the sitter, and I usually pump 15 to 20 oz per day, in addition to what you breastfeed in the mornings and evenings. The excess gets frozen. My goal was to breastfeed you for at least 6 months; I don't see any reason why we can't go longer than that with all this extra milk! I notice on Mondays that I don't pump as much, and I think it is because I don't stay hydrated enough on the weekends. I would love to completely avoid formula. 

You typically sleep 930 to 6. Sometimes you sleep the entire time, sometimes you are up once a night. I hear about the 4th-month sleep regression and am not looking forward to you being up more times! 

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To my Baby Kangaroo - week 13

Now that I am back at work full time, finding time to write posts is increasingly difficult. I'm still taking photos, though, because I know we'll look back in awe at how much you change each week. You continue to be vocal. You "talk" to us most of the time when you are awake now, cooing at us and singing. I really should take a video to show you when you are older. 

You can almost sit up by yourself, but if I put you on the floor, seated, you fall forward. Your abs aren't quite strong enough to hold yourself up. 

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To My Baby Kangaroo - Week 12

In addition to the small Thanksgiving at our house, we also had a big family gathering on Saturday at the farm. Here you are with your uncle Daniel, being lifted into the air and back down again. (And your grandma Wilma is in the foreground, but I accidentally chopped her head off. Sorry Mom! lol)

You are able to sit up by yourself better on the couch now. Sometimes you still fall over to the side, but for the most part you stay however I sit you. Unless you decide to lean forward and then you faceplant and get angry. Guess your abs aren't very well developed yet, huh? I started giving you a bath in the regular bathtub. You've been taking showers with me for a couple weeks now. When it's time for me to wash off I put you down in your bumbo seat at the back of the shower. When I put you in the bathtub by yourself you are also in the seat. It's made out of a sealed foam so it doesn't soak up any water. Sometimes you hold on to a little rubber ducky; your grasp is getting stronger. (It's been really strong for awhile when it comes to yanking out your Momma's hair!)

I don't like to put pants on you because they don't fit very well over the cloth diapers. But this week it was chilly several days and your leg warmers got lost in the mail. I actually contacted babyleggings.com and they resent the order. They were supposed to arrive last Friday and never showed! And the USPS website doesn't recognize the tracking number! But there is another order on the way, so hopefully they arrive soon and then you won't need to wear pants. lol

This week you had a slight cold. Thursday morning you seemed fine, and we ran a couple errands in town. When we got home, your nose was all stuffed up and you had a lot of drainage. I suctioned out your nose but you still sounded like Darth Vader. There's not much to do for a baby with a cold except keep your nose cleaned out. So I used the saline spray several times, along with the nose bulb. And then we sent your dad to pick up a humidifier on his way home from work (the one I bought in college finally bit the dust - apparently 10 years is the lifespan on a humidifier?!) Our new one has slots to put Vicks menthol pads in it, and will probably come in handy for all of us! I also put a thin layer of Vasoline on your nose and the area between your nose and mouth because it was getting raw from all the drainage and nose-wiping. Today you are sounding a lot better. You've slept in the rock and play the last couple nights instead of the crib because you can sleep at an incline; I thought that would help with drainage. (I always sleep with an extra pillow when I have a cold so my head and neck are inclined!)

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To My Baby Kangaroo - Week 11

I am a little behind in my weekly posts! Between working three days in a row the week of Thanksgiving, and the holiday, I haven't had much time to write! 

You smile a lot now. When you get upset, it is easy (usually) to talk to you and get you smiling again. 

This was a day you were fighting sleep. You finally took your only nap for the day late in the afternoon!

On Thanksgiving we had my parents, the hubs' mom, my brother and my grandma over for lunch. Here is your grandpa and great grandma. I'm pretty sure your grandpa was "beep beep"-ing your nose in this photo... He likes to pester you like that. The week of Thanksgiving you got to meet a lot of family for the first time. My aunt (my dad's sister) celebrated her 25th anniversary and my aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles, grandma, and cousins were at the open house. Your grandpa whisked you away from me when you weren't eating and was a very proud grandpa showing you off to family. And promptly brought you back to me when you started getting fussy for food! (Hey - sometimes pumping is more work that it's worth because then there are bottles to wash in addition to the boring sitting for 20 minutes waiting for milk to pump! Just easier to whip out a boob!)

Your uncle Daniel likes to lift you in the air and bring you back down, making noises. You smile and almost laugh when he does this. 

This looks like an angry face, but it's not. I caught you in the middle of your cooing. 

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