6 months

My sweet baby turned 6 months on Thanksgiving. He had his doctors appointment yesterday and he's still 23 inches long and he weighs 10 pounds 14 ounces. We have an appointment to meet with a specialist to see why he's still so small. The Dr thinks he may have reflux since he spits up so much. Judah never seems uncomfortable after meals though and spitting up doesn't ever bother him. I've prayed over him, so I'm not worried about it. He does so well at the Dr. He got 4 shots and cried when he got stuck, but stopped as soon as it was over. He didn't get a fever and he wasn't fussy at all this time.
Over the past 2 weeks Judah has gotten super happy and independent. We can put him down and walk away and he'll play alone for a long time. He seems to think covering his face with blankets and bibs is a fun game. Even when I take it off, he just pulls it back. He's doing well with sitting up with support, and he can sit alone in the frog position for about a minute before he tips over. Judah acts like he's ready to crawl, he's pushing up and rocking so I'm keeping an eye on him in case he decides to take off one day. He loves eating peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash. He doesn't like bananas or avocados. He wouldn't even swallow the avocado. He made the "what the heck is this" face and spit them out. I gave him peas and he ate then right up and I tried the avocado again right after and he spit it out again.
I put him in the nursery at church for a bit on Sunday. They said he did well, but he got upset when a parent checked their child out. I guess he was ready to escape too.
He's guaranteed at least 3 thirty minute naps a day, but sometimes he'll go a little longer. Last night, he slept through the night! I put him down at 10, and I woke up at 5 and realized he was still sleeping. I had to pump because things got uncomfortable, but that's a good problem for me to have if it means more uninterrupted sleep in my future. He woke up at 6 and I'm feeding him now and I'll put him back in the crib to see how much longer he'll sleep.

Old man Judah

Judah sleeps like he just finished a 12 hour shift at a warehouse. I guess trying to snatch everything mommy has in her hands really wears him out.

Just a baby

I'm so behind on reading blogs and posting on mine. While I'm watching the end of Top Chef I'll take a minute to talk about my sweet laughing baby. He likes eating sweet potatoes, squash and peas. He likes to take the spoon and feed himself which leads to a very messy baby. I'm only giving him one tablespoon of food, but when he turns 6 months (Thanksgiving day) I'm going to allow him to eat for real. Right now I'm just introducing him to different flavors and getting him used to the process. He wants to sit up all the time now. When I put him in his boppy, he pulls forward and won't lean back. He can't do it without support yet though. We're working on going to bed independently right now. I'm going to miss holding him and rocking him every night, but I still have nap time! I just finished night 2 and he hasn't put up too much of a fight. He likes to flip over and play even when he's exhausted and I just have to keep flipping him back over so he won't hype himself back up. I am not a fan of crying it out, and I will not be making Judah do that. I keep telling him to chill out and just be a baby, but he insists upon growing up. Let me get some sleep now before bright eyes gets up.

Nursery

Judah's room is almost complete! This is all we're doing right now for his safari themed bedroom. I'll get a better picture of his brown and cream animals that are on each wall of Judah's room. Eventually we're going to have a table and chairs for him, a bookshelf, and a toy chest, but a 5 month old has no need for any of those things. We also still need to buy a door for his room so he can have a quiet room even when his momma is being loud and watching tv in her room (like right now).

Help Me, 5 Months, and GO HOME

I'm so happy we've been making actual progress in the house. I'll have pictures soon :) we need to clean up first. I'm going to make a cleaning schedule and post it because it's quite ridiculous. I washed clothes two weeks ago and they're still sitting at the foot of my bed.

 

*********

My sweet baby is 5 months old today! He's 10.2 pounds now, so he's holding steady with his one pound per month weight gain. I've been recording him since he thinks he should talk/screech all the time now . I'll be posting some videos as soon as my silly self learns how to upload things properly. We just started him on solids. We were doing the rice cereal but he was so unenthused about it, I decided to go ahead and give him some sweet potatoes. He loved them so much we had to restrain him to keep him from jumping us to eat them. We're going to give him bananas today. I'm only giving him a tablespoon mixed with some bre.astmilk once a day and we'll eventually move to twice a day and then I'll up the quantity. I love making baby food, it's quick and easy. Judah is trying to figure out how to be mobile. We put some toy in front of him and placed him on his stomach and he really tried to figure out how to get to them, before, he would just look at us like "I'm not here for your amusement, I will not perform for you." He really enjoys sucking on his fingers/fist/wrist as well as my collarbone and yesterday he tried to eat my leg. He passes out smiles all day long and he loves to stare at his pretty momma. He's beginning to reach out if you hold out your arms to pick him up, and if it's me, he'll actually move his body to get closer to me so I can take him from whoever has him. He's been trying to like my dad, but that man makes it so dang difficult. As soon as Judah wakes up from a nap my dad is in his face talking. Judah likes to take some time to look around, then flip over, then talk to himself and eat his hands before interacting with people. Oh well, one day they'll be able to peacefully coexist.

 

*********

I need some recommendations from you people. Do you like your dryer? Do you like your fridge? What make and model is it? If you have one that you hate, mention that too please! Also, do any of y'all use cast iron cookware like this? I think as I replace our pots,I want to go with cast iron, but probably not the Le Creuset brand because those prices are ridiculous. I'll build my collection one pot at a time so maybe by 2015, I'll have a set!

 

*******

I came into the office today because I really wanted to work, buttttttt I haven't done one report yet. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. My boss decided to actually come in today too, and she won't go home, so I can't go home. I'm going to be so sad if I have to stay until 4:30. GO HOME!

 

********

Right now my focus is on Operation Lactation. The goal is to get a freezer full of milk for the baby so I won't have to be a slave to the pump or this baby during the holiday season. Last week I had to use all of the milk I had stored up (and by all the milk, I mean 10 ounces. I'm pitiful) because I was going to be gone for 3 feedings. I was panicking thinking I wouldn't have enough for him to eat and that I would have to give him some formula. As part of Operation Lactation I'm taking Fenugreek capsules to get my supply up and I baked lactation cookies (basically take any oatmeal cookie recipe and add brewer's yeast and flax meal). I haven't had an increase of milk yet, but I have been thirsty as all get out because of all the extra pumping. My plan is in effect until at least Thanksgiving. Y'all probably don't want updates on it, but I'm going to give them to you anyway!

 

**********

I showed my ma pictures of my friends 10 day old baby and she said: "ohhhh. He's funny looking." Ma, I didn't say he was cute, I said he was here and he was sweet. Newborns are supposed to be ugly anyway, so it's ok, I'm sure he'll get cute just like Judah did :)

Living Room Colors

Get it together

I really need to get in gear. I took off over the weekend which meant I did nothing outside of feeding the baby. I didn't cook, I didn't put away the laundry I washed on Wednesday, and I barely got out of the bed. It really was quite lovely, but now I just want my house in order. We have a lot to do still and we're making no progress.I figure if I blog about it, I'll be motivated enough to get some stuff done. First off, our dryer stopped working last week and our freezer cuts off periodically. Those are two big expenses that aren't in the budget right now, but I just keep singing Jesus Will Work it Out (no seriously, I sing it at the freezer daily) and I trust that he will. MrC and I can't agree on the living room color scheme. I'm going to have to put together a formal presentation to convince him I know what I'm doing. We also haven't picked colors for the guest bedroom or the office/exercise room. I need to pick fabric for my curtains and the chairs I bought 2 years ago to reupholster but I haven't done that either. Oh, our vacuum cleaner is broken. I keep meaning to take it apart to see if I can fix it, but I haven't. I want new floors, but that's not high on the priority list right now. We have a leaky window in the kitchen that we need to fix before the snow comes and a hinge broke on one of our cabinets. I'd really like new cabinets and a new counter top in the kitchen too. You know what would help me get all this done? If HGTV came and did it. I'd be really appreciative. We're a cute little family, we could be on tv. A nice windfall of money would help too. I don't mind doing the work myself, we just need somebody to pay for it. I'll set a goal, by January 1, everything that we can afford to get done will be done. That means at LEAST the house will be painted. I'm going to do do better, starting with today's trip to get groceries. Be back tomorrow, hopefully with some actual progress reports.