Snow Day

On Friday in the early afternoon it started to snow...and it snowed....and it snowed...and it snowed!! Saturday morning we woke up to about a 1/2 foot of snow. After Keven cleared the driveway we decided to bundle Nolan up and take him out for some pictures in the snow. We weren't out very long but did get some good pictures of Nolan in the snow. He didn't seem to mind being out in the cold. So here is to Nolan's first real big snow day.

5 Months!

Wow!! How times flies!! It feels like Nolan just turned 4 months old and here we are celebrating 5 months of joy, frustration, blessings, learning, adjusting, growing, and a new kind of love. Kevin and I have been amazed at how much Nolan has changed just over the last few weeks. He has really come to life and is so much fun to interact with. Here is a list of just some of the new things that he has been doing....

• Rolling from back to front (we have perfected this trick over the last few days and use it to get to toys we are interest in laying just out of reach...we also don't seem to enjoy being on our tummy all that much though...)
• Rolling from front to back (don't do this as often as back to front...although you would think that he would do this more often to get back to his back since he doesn't like being on his tummy)
• holding a bottle while being fed (he grabs at everything and while he needs assistance to keep the bottle steady and to get it in his mouth he is getting more accurate each time with this as well)
• He loves standing up....i don't know how he is ever going to learn to sit because whenever we try to sit him up he pushes his legs out until you stand him up.
• He is eating during the day!!! Some of you know about what a struggle we have been having with him not eating during the day at daycare. This week we have made leaps and bounds in this area and have gone from eating 1-4 ounces at a time to 6!!! Instead of eating 3-6 ounces during the entire day he is now eating an average of 12!! I think a few things played into this change...1. we did more of his feedings with bottles (mostly breast milk even on the weekends and in the early evening during the week), 2. we switched to a fast flow nipple (probably should have done this months ago, but i didn't know!!!) 3. we switched to a different nipple. I am now usually only nursing him two times a day (first feeding in the morning and before going to bed). I still plan on breastfeeding as long as I can (well my goal is between 9-12 months) but with the way he is eating now I am already finding it difficult to pump enough for what he needs the next day.
• He is now only getting up 1-2 times during the night instead of 3-4+. And not only is he waking less he is much easier to put down for naps and at bedtime. We have been working on laying him down in is crib awake and having him fall asleep there versus nursing or rocking him to sleep. While we miss cuddling with our sleeping baby and at times he is not very happy about us putting him down he is beginning to sleep better. The problem that we are still working on is teaching him that he doesn't need to eat every time he wakes up at night. I have been nursing him the first time that he wakes up (anywhere between 10-2) and then if/when he wakes up the second time we try to sooth him without actually picking him up out of his crib. This can take some time but we are hoping that over time he will just sleep!!! :) There have been a couple of times when he has woken up, began to cry, and put himself back to sleep before we made it into the room.
• He loves his jumper seat! Our jumper seat is one where he can move 360 degrees around and play with different toys and he has figured out how to move him self around to get to his favorite toy. Ever since he was a newborn he loved that bouncy motion (we often had to take turns sitting out my exercise ball while holding him and bouncing up and down to get him to calm down...) and now he just goes crazy jumping and bouncing himself!
• He has gotten much more accurate when reaching for things and his grasp has gotten a lot stronger. He passes toys back and forth from hand to hand and is so cute when he is concentrating really hard trying to figure the toy out. He seems to really be intrigued by faces and enjoys reaching out and grabbing at them (ok he grabs at most things..).
• His firth two teeth are almost all the way through (he has pretty much stopped biting when nursing....woohoo!)
• He can still be quite the chatter box but he has this spitting and buzzing of his lips thing that he does that is quite funny to watch. It seems like he is really trying to tell you something but all you get is spit in your face and buzzing of his lips.
• We have been working on eating cereal and for a while seemed to really enjoy it but he hasn't been enjoying it so much the last few days (up right refusing to eat any of it) so we might start moving more into baby foods.

Ok, i'm sure there are a lot more things because it seems like he does something new each day, but these are some to give you an idea of how fast he is growing-up (very exciting and awesome to watch but can't they slow down just a little!!!).

Blessings to you all!

Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of our little man!!!

One...Two...

TEETH!!! It is official...Nolan is teething. We noticed earlier this week that Nolan had a little, sharp, white speck poking through his bottom gum. Kevin discovered this when Nolan pulled Kevin's finger into his mouth and chomped down. After seeing it with my own eyes I later felt it myself while nursing (ouch!!)....and the next day we noticed that it wasn't just one tooth making it's way out but two. They have not pushed all the way out but they are definitely there and he is chomping away...on EVERYTHING!!! He seems to be handling it pretty well...a little extra whining but he also has a stuffed nose making it difficult to breath and a horrible old man's cough.

In other updates we have begun experimenting with solid foods. At Nolan's 4 month appointment his doctor said we could begin on baby foods. We have mainly been sticking to rice cereal (which he seems to think is ok..especially if mixed with breast milk), but have also tried carrots a few times. I think we will continue working with the rice cereal for now and start more with the baby foods over the next month or so.

He still isn't sleeping well...wakes every 2-3 hours...4 hours if we are really lucky. My mom talked with a lactation consultant she knows who told her that Nolan is what they call a "reversed eater or feeder" which basically means that he doesn't eat much during the day (mom isn't around...) and then eats all night (because mom is there). She said he will probably grow-up to be a persistent guy who knows what he wants...sound like anyone? haha He is his father's son! :) So for now I guess it means frequent waking and feeding during the night....I'm not sure how long we should expect this to go on....or how long I can keep going on being so sleep deprived....

Overall the little man is doing quite well and we are enjoying him more and more each day. It is a joy to see him changing and doing new things each day. I was just telling Kevin this morning that I can't believe that in just over a week Nolan will be 5 months old...didn't he just turn 4 months?!?!

I don't have any new pictures on this computer so will have to post some in a later post.

Christmas, New Years, Sleep, and 4 months

Wow! A lot has happened since my last post...especially since my last post on Nolan. I'm going to start with Christmas and try to update you all on the bigger events in our lives...and of course I will include some pictures as well :)

Christmas was wonderful. Nolan, Kevin, and I bought our first real Christmas tree and I enjoyed decorating the house for the holiday season. I LOVE Christmas and this year, even though Nolan had no idea what was going on, Christmas was even more special. Kevin and I bought Nolan a stocking to hang next to ours above the fireplace, and we bought a few ornament making kits and made hand and foot prints for ourselves as well as for the grandmas. It took a little while but we now have some special ornaments to remember Nolan's first Christmas. The Sunday before Christmas brother Jonny flew into Indy and got to have some quality uncle/nephew time in with Nolan on Monday, Tuesday, and half day Wednesday while Kevin and I worked. On Wednesday before Christmas we all piled in the car (it was quite packed with all of our things) and headed up North where we stayed until the Sunday after Christmas. We had a wonderful time with both sides of the family and wish we would have had more time! Our trips always seem to go by so quickly. Besides spending time with our immediate families we also received visits from my friend Anna who has been in Honduras for the past two years (her first time meeting Nolan) and Kevin's friend Nathan from New York (also his first time meeting Nolan). We also spent a morning with some Gingrich family members including Tyson who is 11 days younger than Nolan. It was so fun to see the little guys begin to interact! All in all it was a wonderful Christmas this year with many special memories.

New Years...New Years was spent in our home with some of our dear friends, Matt and Erin, Laura Beth and Charlie, and Kevin's sister Libby. We had a low-key evening of playing the Wii, telling stories, talking about babies (Laura Beth and Charlie are expecting their first baby!! :)), and eating yummy food. It was nice to bring in the new year with close friends and family and to reflect back over everything that has happened over the last year. We truly have a lot to be thankful for this year and we look forward to all that 2010 will bring, especially with all of the firsts we get to experience with Nolan.

Sleep....we aren't getting very much of it!!! When I returned to work when Nolan was 6 weeks old he blessed us with sleeping 7-8 hours every night, only getting up once to eat. However, around the beginning of December when he began to roll from his back to his side we decided to stop swaddling him and ever since Nolan has decided that it isn't as fun to sleep 7-8 hours and seems to prefer 3-4 hour stretches instead!!! We have tried many different things and read many different books, only to become more frustrated. This past Sunday we decided to forget all the books and to try our own thing. We have a nice bed time routine down of bath (between 7 and 7:30), jammies, nursing, sleep (usually around 8 or 8:30). It doesn't usually take much to get Nolan to fall asleep...it's the keeping him asleep part and having him sleep for longer periods that we are struggling with. The first part of this week he started to sleep some longer stretches again of 5-6 hours but then last night returned to waking every 1 1/2 - 3 hours. EXHAUSTING!!! We're not sure what to do besides just push through and hope that one day he will figure out that mommy really does know best and it feels good to sleep 8 hours at one time! :) We notice that he is a much happier baby when he sleeps well at night and when he takes naps during the day. We are working on getting him on more of a napping schedule during the day so we shall see what happens.

Nolan is 4 months!!! Where does the time go?! haha Kevin and I joke that before we know it he is going to be asking for the car keys. He is growing so quickly and we are trying to enjoy every moment of it (even the not sleeping part). He is doing new things almost everyday or at least improving on things that he has already been doing, which is soooo much fun to watch! He has the biggest smiles, a high pitched squeak when he is really happy and excited, a horrible sounding squawk when he is not so happy, a man grunt, he is grabbing for things and putting anything he can hold onto into his mouth, he loves shoving as many fingers as possible into his mouth (often gaging himself), he's trying really hard to sit-up and loves being in his bumbo seat or being held outwards so we can take everything in, he is also enjoying standing on our laps and is starting to get the hang of his jumper seat, overall he is much more interactive and will babble on and on like he is telling you an important story (even at 4 in the morning). Today at the doctor's office he weighed in at 16lbs 12 ounces and was almost 25 inches long (I think that is right). The doctor was very impressed with how he is doing and said that we could start him on baby foods whenever we want to. We had already started experimenting with rice cereal starting just this past week. He did a pretty good job with it and seems to like it. Any suggestions on the best ways to introduce other foods? Our doctor said maybe do veggies first and then fruits? This is all new territory but also very fun and exciting!!! :) (Maybe this will help with his sleeping? I've read both sides...that it can help or that it has nothing to do with the sleep....) Anyway, we are continuing to enjoy our little guy and feel blessed by his presence each day.

He still loves bath time!

Nolan falling asleep in auntie Jules' arms while Nathan sings and plays the piano

Nolan playing with his new dog from great grandma Baines

Family photo

Anna meeting Nolan for the first time

Nolan and Tyson checking each other out! :)

Running

During the summer of 2008 Kevin and I took up running. Not usually together but both of us were running consistently about 3-4 times a week. Now anyone who knows me knows that running is not something that I ever really enjoyed or did. I tried to take up running the summer I was in the Dominican Republic but that was short lived. But the summer of 2008 I actually started to really enjoy running and could often be found lapping around our apartment complex or running on the Monon. I started off barely being able to run 1 mile but by the end of the summer I could run between 3-4!!!!...but then school started again...it got cold....I got pregnant...and the running stopped. While I was pregnant with Nolan Kevin and I did a lot of walking and mapped out several routes around our subdivision. Throughout my pregnancy i would get these urges to go for a run so when I got my OK from my doctor at my 6 week postpartum appointment to return to all physical activities I decided to give the running another try. I did a couple walk/jogs with Nolan in his stroller along one of the routes Kevin and I had been walking towards the end of my pregnancy. It felt so good to be out running and when I got home I would crave going out again. i even enjoyed running outside as it began to get colder and enjoyed looking up longer runs at www.mapmyrun.com. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to get back to running 3-4 miles. Then one day I got this crazy idea that I would like to run the Indy mini marathon that takes place every May on race weekend. This is something that I thought would be cool to do at some point but not something that I had ever thought seriously about. I have several friends who ran it last year, which i obviously couldn't do being 6 months pregnant. Kevin also recently started running again and so a few weeks ago we decided to register for the mini!!! It is now too cold for me to run outside and so Kevin has added me to his gym membership so I can continue my running on the treadmill. I think the training will be much more enjoyable when it gets nicer/warmer out again and I can continue my running outside. At times we wonder what we have gotten ourselves into ( running just over 13 miles) but overall I'm really excited about it and am looking forward to the accomplishment. :) Encouragement and training tips are welcome!!

Sweetest sound

Tonight Nolan giggled for the first time!!! It took place on his changing table after bath time (I remember Kevin telling me he thought Nolan's first giggles would take place on the changing table because he has always seemed to enjoy being there). He loves bath time but usually does not enjoy the time immediately after as we dry him off and put him in his pjs. However, tonight he wasn't crying and seemed to be somewhat content. As I was getting ready to put on his diaper I saw his little tummy and thought of my brother Jon who has just been waiting to blow on it, so i decided I would give it a try and...out came the first little giggle....so I did it again...and again I heard the giggle. I called for Kevin who didn't believe me until I did it again and sure enough another giggle. The look on Nolan's face was as if he didn't know what was going on but he seemed to be enjoying himself. We have been waiting for these giggles. Many times when he flashed us one of his huge smiles we thought one would slip out and tonight it did...and it sure was one of the sweetest sounds!!! :)