Getting my roll on

Well...Almost!!! Last weekend Kevin and I made the decision that it was time for us to stop swaddling Nolan at night. This is proving to be a difficult transition with Nolan going from sleeping 7-8 hrs at a time to only a few hours at a time (waking up at least 4 times during the night instead of once)....but since we have stopped swaddling him he has started to work on rolling over. I always lay him down on his back (I am a prenatal education coordinator after all and must practice what i preach...back to sleep..front to play... :) ) but often find him on his side. We have seen him in action and it is quite adorable. He throws his legs up in the air swings them over to the side and uses them to propel the rest of his body over to his right side (he seems to prefer the right side). Today he would look at us, give us the biggest smile, and then the legs would swing and he would roll to his side...and repeat. I know it won't be long before we are finding him on his little tummy....now if he would return to his previous sleeping routine....

Blessed

I am continuously reminded about how blessed I am. Nolan is such a blessing and I feel so lucky to be his mom and to have him in my life. Here are a few recent pictures that make my heart happy.

Like a Weed!!

Nolan is growing like a weed!! I can hardly believe that my little man is already 2 months! Last Friday we took him for his 2 month doctor's appointment and found out that he is quite average...50th percentile for weight, length, and head measurement. He now weighs 12lbs 2 1/2 ounces and is just shy of being 24 inches long. He did not get his shots last week because we found out that he had his first ear infection (poor guy is doomed with the history kevin and i have of ear infections as little ones). We went back today and got the shots, which was just horrible (I cried with him). He was a bit more cranky than usual this evening but mostly seemed to be wanting to be close to his mommy and nursed on and off pretty much all night after we got home until it was time for bath time and bed.

He is changing in lots of other ways as well. He is a much happier baby and is more interactive than even a few weeks ago. He smiles ALL the time and I know there are giggles just waiting to burst out. He has also recently discovered his hands/fingers and they seem to be quite tasty. He doesn't suck on any one finger (or arm :)) but it's pretty cute and is a sure sign that he is ready to eat. He is so much fun and I look forward to all the new things he will learn and do..it's all so precious!

Oh, and Nolan had two nights this week where he slept for 8 hours!!! :) Now we need to work on sleeping without being swaddled and then moving into his own room!!

11 Years Ago

On this day 11 years ago my family's life was changed forever with the death of my dad, Keith (where Nolan got his middle name). Today I grieve not only the loss of my dad but also the loss of Nolan's grandpa. I grieve the fact that Nolan will never be held by his grandpa Gingrich, will never play catch, be tickled, or get to tug on his grandpa's great beard....however, while these are all great losses I know that my dad is present with us and with Nolan in a very special way. I look forward to being able to tell Nolan about his grandpa and through the stories and the many pictures we have Nolan will know his grandpa Gingrich and feel his lasting presence.

Fall and Halloween

On Saturday the sun was out and so we decided to take a family trip to a local park to take some fall pictures. As you can see Nolan didn't think it was such a good idea. He was fine in the car and in the stroller until we found the place where we wanted to take the pictures...and then the screaming began and didn't stop until he was eating in the car.

We decided that we wanted to dress Nolan up for his first Halloween so one day when Kevin was out running errands he found this cute red chili pepper costume and thought it was the perfect costume for our little guy. Isn't he cute?!?!

He fell asleep right before we headed out to the neighborhood block party

He was not impressed with us trying to take so many pictures, but he did tolerate the costume better than I thought he would.

It seems that a lot has happened since my last post. One of the biggest happenings, and the thing that has required a lot of adjusting to, is that I started back to work on October 19. It has been two weeks now, and while I continue to enjoy my job and the wonderful people that I work with it is still so hard to leave Nolan in the mornings!!! The six weeks home with him after he was born were so precious and passed way too quickly. I wish I would have been able to take more time off or better yet that I could be a stay at home home, but that isn't part of our reality at this point in time...so for now he spends his days at Angie's. Angie and her family live in our neighborhood making dropping Nolan off before work and picking him up after very convenient. Angie has a 3 year-old and a 1-year-old of her own and also watches several other children between those ages making Nolan the youngest. He seems to be doing pretty well and I know he gets a lot of attention. Avery (Angie's 3-year-old daughter) adores Nolan and loves helping us take him out of his car seat, putting him in his car seat, and making sure he has everything that he needs. She often gives me a play by play about what he did for the day and whether or not he smiled at her. I am lucky that work is only about 7 minutes away so I have been going to Angie's during my lunch break to feed and spend some time with Nolan. Avery will often ask to see my keys and she enjoys helping me take a picture of Nolan on my phone to send to Kevin. Nolan often has a smile waiting for me when I get there at lunch (if he isn't sleeping), which I love arriving to. I'm sure that as more time passes it will get a bit easier, although I'm sure I will always wish it was me taking care of him all day....

Other things that have happened since the last post:

• Nolan started sleeping between 5-7 hour stretches at night (he will wake up after this stretch of sleep to be changed and to eat and will go back to sleep for another 2-4 hours depending on when we have to get up in the morning).
• We started a bedtime routine of taking a bath (which Nolan LOVES), swaddling, nursing, and bed. We decided that although Nolan is probably still too young to pick-up on this routine we wanted to get ourselves into a routine that Nolan can fall into once he is old enough to. It is nice because we usually start this routine between 7:30 and 8:30 depending on what is going on and when he had is last nap. This puts him to sleep between 8:30 and 9:30 leaving me and Kevin with some time to relax together before going to bed ourselves.
• We attended Grandpa (Great grandpa) Gingrich's 93rd Birthday gathering in Goshen. We made the quick trip up to Goshen last weekend to spend time celebrating with family. All of my aunts and uncles were there along with quite a few of my cousins and even some with their own children. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with family that we hadn't seen since our wedding and to introduce Nolan to the extended family. My only wish is that we would have had more time.
• We bought and carved Nolan's first pumpkin (also the first time that Kevin and I bought and carved pumpkins together).
• Nolan dressed up in his first Halloween costume (red chili pepper) and we all attended our first Crickwood court block party.

Here are some pictures from the last several weeks. The ones of our little chili pepper will come soon.