Isaiah at 18 Months

Isaiah was 18 months on March 22, so I wanted to record a few things about him at this moment in time.

-He's 25lbs and just shy of 32 inches tall.

-He still only has 8 teeth.  His molars have been huge bruised "marbles" under his gums for MONTHS, but just now one is actually cutting through so that part of it is through the gums.  The other ones are still just bruises.

-He gets up between 2 and 4 times a night to nurse.  It's just recently he started sometimes getting up only 2 times.  I love those nights.  But I usually end up laying awake for 2 or 3 hours anyway.

-We cosleep, and we love it and have no plans to stop.

-He doesn't talk much, but he does say Mama, Dada, Noah, more, no, yah, ball, block, Papa, Nana, baby, bird, moo, cheep, and maybe a few other things.

-He likes to build now, not just destroy.

-His "lovey" is a panda that Noah built him at Build-A-Bear, named "Pandy".  He ADORES Pandy, which is especially cute because Noah made him for him. I don't think I have a picture of it, unfortunately.

-He hasn't been sick that many times.  4 or 5 times total, one of them being right now (we all have a cold except Justin).

-He's a super smiley, friendly baby, but he is not easy.  He is pretty high maintenance and requires a lot of attention.  But he's a toddler, so yeah.  I expect that.

-I've always said that 12-18 months is my least favourite age (for so many reasons), and literally just in the 1.5 weeks before Isaiah turned 18 months he suddenly got a little easier.  Up until that point he still wanted to be held or worn every second, even while I was cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, etc.  Right before turning 18 months he suddenly preferred to play than to be worn.  Nothing else got easier, really, but that made a HUGE difference.

-He is a MAJOR STINKER.

-He loves to strut around like a peacock on the dining room table.

-He's not a "good eater" even though he always wants to eat.  He just doesn't actually ingest a whole lot, and he's rather picky.  He still gets about 95% of his nutrition from breastmilk, which is fine.  It's healthier than most things he could eat anyway.

-In the tub he is constantly doing this (don't mind the old lady tiles):

-He continues to be a hitter, scratcher, pincher, and biter. He's always done these things, ever since he was an infant. It's usually not even malicious, but it HURTS! We are just finally starting to make some headway with the whole "Be gentle, be gentle" and petting things instead of hitting. And finally when we say "No biting! Just kissing." He will kiss whatever he was about to bite. Up until now those things didn't work. And interestingly, if he's hitting or biting and we just say "No hitting!" or "No biting!" it will make him do it even more. Every single time.

Trying to bite for no reason:

Still trying to bite...

A split second before I yelled "ISAIAH NOOO!!" and he smashed Noah on the head with the old diaper sprayer:

-He's a HUGE gym rat, and pretty much his favourite place to be is in our garage gym.

In short, he's "challenging", but he's a pretty awesome kid!  We like him :)

Crib Issues Solved... For Now

Yesterday I posted about how Noah just learned how to get out of his crib: by somersaulting over the railing - HEAD FIRST.  

Every time I put him in his crib and he didn't want to be in there, he did this.  So we were going to have to move to a big boy bed.  We had the whole thing set up - crib railing off, queen mattress on the floor beside the open-sided crib, a baby gate adjusted to fit his doorway... but I was totally sick to my stomach over it.  I knew Noah was nowhere near ready to sleep outside of a crib.  Not. Even. Close.  I knew that the night would involve a lot of hysterical screaming while standing at the gate in his doorway, and next to no sleep would occur.

Lest you think that I am just "in denial," and that it's just me who isn't ready for the "big boy bed" step (like someone on Facebook - who doesn't even know my child - suggested), let me tell you that all evening Noah was saying that sleeping on his new bed was going to be scary.  I was lying on the bed with him and turned out the lights and turned on the fan, and he told me right away it was too scary.  He loved having that big mattress on his floor so he could do gymnastics and jump around on it, but he didn't want to have to sleep on it.

It was pretty clear this was not going to work. But at the last minute - literally Noah was sitting on my bed in his pajamas playing on my iPod waiting to nurse - I found a solution that had bought us some more time. 

We took the crib support out of the crib, put the rail back on, and put the new baby's crib mattress under Noah's crib mattress inside of the crib. This way the top of the mattress is lower than before. We also took off the bumper pad on the outside of the crib. We have the breathable bumpers, which are "collapsible," but even when they collapsed they were giving Noah an extra inch of height.

We kept the queen mattress on the floor outside of his crib, so if he does manage to dive out head first again (even though the crib railing is now at his neck instead of under his chest), hopefully he won't break his neck.

He was passed out before I even got him in his crib last night.  And I got him right when he woke up in the morning.  He didn't have a chance to attempt to climb out, so I wasn't sure if he would do it.  We're going through a chillier spell right now, so for nap time today I put him in a sleep sack.  He cried (which he never does at nap anymore) and tried to climb out, but quickly realized he wouldn't be able to and went to sleep for 40 minutes.  Tonight he is in a sleep sack again, but he was tired so he didn't bother trying to get out.

I think I've bought us some more time with the crib.  The sleep sack gives me an extra feeling of security, but it's fleece, and he can't wear it when our house is 75 degrees.  I'm going to try to find someone who can make me a couple of light cotton sleep sacks.  Noah is about 37 inches tall, so it's not like I can find them in the stores!

(Side note/rant: what is with people on Facebook trying to tell me what is going on with my own kid when obviously no one in the world knows him better than I do??  This has happened on several occasions now. Just because YOUR kid did well in a big boy bed at 18 months old when he started escaping his crib doesn't mean MY 26 month old will.  Every kid is different!  And I am certainly not "ignoring my kid's cues"... just because a toddler can escape from his crib doesn't mean that he is ready to be able to wander around his room and house at night.  Don't presume to know what is best for MY kid.  If he tells me he is scared of not being in his crib, I'm pretty sure that's a freaking "cue" that he isn't ready for that step!  Don't imply to me that I don't have good parenting instincts and can't follow my kid's lead - I have freaking amazing parenting instincts.  I am very in tune with my child, and I bend over backwards each and every day to make the best possible decisions concerning him.  So bite me.)

17 Months Old

At 17 months, here is where Noah is at:

-He is probably about 24lbs.

-He is about 34.5 inches tall.

-He is in size 4 diapers during the day and night.

-He wears 24 month clothing, for the most part.  He still fits into 9 month shorts, but they have gotten pretty snug.  I'm trying to get through the rest of the summer with what I have, though.

-He nurses on demand, 7-8 times a day.

-He pretty much exclusively feeds himself.  Using a spoon and fork has become less messy this month, and he really enjoys it.  I can get him to eat pretty much any vegetable if I give him a spoon or fork to eat it with.

-He has 16 full teeth.  The only ones left are his 2 year molars.

-He has one nap a day, usually about an hour long.
-This month he's been sleeping 11.5-12 hours at night, getting up to nurse once. Bedtime is after 8:30pm most nights, and we've been sleeping in until at least 8:15am every morning.


-He still gets up to nurse once a night, but he seems to be consistently pushing this later for the past week and a half.  Almost every night he has slept 10 hours straight before getting up, sometimes sleeping until 7:30 (and then going back to sleep until 9:30!).  I'd like to think he is maybe night-weaning himself, but I know better than to think this will last.  Over a year ago he was consistently sleeping 10 hours straight before nursing, and that didn't last!

-He still does just three signs: nurse (the sign for milk), water (waves his hand up and down), and eat (sticks his finger in his mouth).  I don't do any other signs, because he picks up language easy enough.

-At 15 months Noah was saying 18 words. At 16 months he was saying 42 words.  At 17 months he is saying 79 words.

His old words that he's still saying are: Mama, Dada, uh oh, more, this, that, cat, night night, hot, up, yes, woof woof ("what does a dog say?"), baa ("what does a sheep/goat say?"), moo ("what does a cow say?"), car, ball, shoes, cracker, Noah, water, orange, clock, blech, hi, done, dirt, Bert, puff, swish, fluff, book, buzz, Papa, Nana, boo, fish, phone, again, home, sunglasses, Gramper, sit.

His new words are: stretch, glasses, food, laptop, love, hair, quack, bye, tshirt, shirt, aunt, poop, slide, cheese, Colton, danger, banana, feet, please, clock, cold, toes, ooo-ooo-ahh-ahh (monkey sound), bad, burger, boo-boo (as in, an owie), nurse,  block, fly, stuck, chalk, out, fit, hat, bye-bye, and shit (yeah, I'm not proud of that).

-After he poops (and sometimes beforehand) he will inform us by saying "Poop!  Poop!  Poop!"  He still doesn't really care if you change his diaper or not, though.  I think he might actually be content with a poopy bum all day long.

-Noah still loves to point out things that are hot.  He waves his hands around saying "Hot!  Hot!" and then blows air out his mouth like he's trying to cool something down.  He really pronounces the "t", and the way he says it is sooo cute.  He looks so proud of himself for knowing everything that is hot.

-His verbal comprehension continues to be above average.

-He still gets into everything and anything, but he is starting to obey the word "no" more often (up until the past few days, he seemed to think it was optional).


-He is a super-climber.  He wishes our entire house was his jungle gym.

-He loves pools!  He loves to swim.

-We started doing time outs this month.  Just 1 minute in his crib when he's been disobedient.  I resisted this for awhile because I didn't want him to have bad associations with his crib.  But then I figured it was much better for both of us if I did it anyway, rather than letting my frustration turn to anger and build to a boiling point.  The time outs are working, and I stay very calm.  I've felt much more 'in control' for the past month than I did before.

-Every month Noah gets better with strangers and with separation from Mommy.  He's much better when it's on his own terms, though.  He's still not okay with being left in the church nursery, but we're working on it.  For now, I'm spending most of the church service in there with him.  I'm not going to force it and make him scream for an hour and a half.  It will come.

-No more illnesses this month!  The count is still at 12.

-He has a thing for pretty blonde women.  I'm sure it's because I am blonde.  It's really funny though, how he'll warm up to a blonde who is about my age in about 30 seconds, and want to sit with them and cuddle with them.  Actually, come to think of it, we have a gorgeous model friend who is a brunette, and he has a thing for her, too.  What can I say, my boy has discerning taste;)

-He is such a cuddly, affectionate little monkey.  He loves to hug and be hugged, loves to get and give kisses, loves to sit in our laps.  He such a sweet little boy.

My Little Mischief Maker

This month Noah has been especially mischievous.  He's always been a boundary pusher, and I've posted somewhat recently about his penchant for doing everything I don't want him to do.  This picture somewhat represents what Noah might like to do at any given moment:

I'll break it down for you.  He is holding a large, sharp fork, which he snagged from a kitchen drawer.  He has taken our bathroom garbage can, emptied it, and although you can't see it in this picture, it now contains my alarm clock.  He had put said garbage can and alarm clock into his car, and is attempting to join them, while holding the large, sharp fork.

This is very tame.  It is just the only picture I have of him engaging in activities with things I'd rather he didn't play with.

Moving along. 

Lately Noah has continued to push boundaries like crazy, both in 'secret' (when he thinks we're not watching) and for attention.  There have been a few particular instances lately that were hilariously funny after the fact, and I don't want to forget them. 

The following events are in chronological order.  They happened over the span of about a week and a half.  And they get better as they go along.


Number 1:

I was sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch and reading.  Noah had been playing with his toys independently (hooray!  a rare occasion), and all was very quiet.  After a few minutes I realized I'd been hearing a swishing noise for quite awhile, and it occured to me that I had no idea what he might be swishing around.  I figured he had reached up onto the bar-height dining room table and taken down a sheet or two of paper, and was playing with them on the hardwood floors.

Um, no.  I went into the dining room, where I saw Noah sitting in the middle of this:

That would be a wallet with approximately $3500 in cash spilling all over the floor.  Noah had climbed up onto the bar-height chairs, gotten the wallet from the middle of the table, and taken most of it out.  He apparently wanted to know what it felt like to be 'rollin in the dough.'



Number 2:

Noah went into my closet, opened the zipper of my purse, and got my deoderant out.  I told him to bring it to Mommy, and he started walking away from me.  I then told him very sternly to bring it to Mommy.  Amazingly, he started walking toward me to obey my command.  However, on the way he took the lid off of the deoderant and proceeded to shred it all over my carpet.

The bright side is, now when I turn on my dustbuster, it smells like Cool Breeze.


Number 3:

I stepped out onto the deck, leaving Noah inside, because I needed to start the barbeque.  When I tried to return to the house, I discovered that Noah had locked the patio door.

I'm locked out on the deck.  Noah is in the house.  Alone.  Smiling sneakily at me through the glass.

I did not realize he knew how to lock the door.  I am pretty sure he just realized it himself in that 30 seconds.

I had a small panic attack, until I realized that Justin was training in the garage, and therefore that door would be unlocked.  However, I did manage to get Noah to unlock the door and let me back in. 

I will be hiding a spare key outside my house in the very near future.


Number 4:

This one happened yesterday.  I left my dear angel for about 30 seconds in order to check my email.  I was sitting on my bed.  Suddenly Noah walks into my room and hoists a 2lb leaky bag of raw, bloody ground beef over his head and onto my comforter. 

"Here Mom.  I thought you should start dinner." 

There was a huge puddle of blood in the fridge (where the beef was originally in a bowl), and a trail of beef blood all through the kitchen, down the hallway, and through my bedroom, which is carpeted.  Not to mention the enormous blood stain on my comforter.  My king size comforter which does not fit in my enormous washing machine or dryer.

~~~~~~~

I'm not going to lie, two of these four events made me flip my lid.  They occured after a several hour long spurt of constantly interfering and refereeing his activities, saying no about 2347 times, and giving several time outs.  I wonder if you can guess which two.

He is awfully cute, though.





For Pete's Sake, Kid, PLAY WITH YOUR TOYS!

I've heard there are children who hardly ever do things they aren't supposed to do.

I would like to know what that's like.

Noah is not a "bad boy."  But 97% of the time, all he wants to do are things he knows he's not supposed to do, or things I'd really rather he not do.  Apparently these activities are more interesting than playing with his toys.  Such activities include:

1. Opening cupboards I am unable to lock and pulling stuff out of them.

2. Opening closets and playing with the contents.

3. Opening the dishwasher and playing with knives.  And dirty dishes.

4. Climbing on top of the kitchen table to gain access to what lies in the middle of it.

5. Taking the floor vents out of the floor and putting objects down there.

6. Opening dresser drawers, taking fistfuls of clothes out, and depositing them elsewhere in the house.

7. Opening the wipes warmer and taking the wipes out.

8. Destroying my neat piles of diapers/blankets/laundry/etc.

9. Taking anything off of any raised surface (counter top, dresser top, table, whatever).

10. Unplugging a monitor/fan/lamp/whatever and playing with it.

11. Turning on all the fans in the house.

12. Playing with/chewing on the TV remotes.

13. Playing with the satellite receiver and all of the cords attached to it.

14. Opening the fridge and taking food or condiments out of it.

15. Opening the pantry and taking food/candles/unused toilet brushes out of it.

16. Opening the pantry and playing with the crock pots stored on the floor.

17. Are you getting the picture?

Now, all of these things may not seem like a big deal in and of themselves.  Or you might even read the list and think "Oh, big deal, those things aren't that harmful, except for the playing with knives part."

But if 97% of your child's activities were doing these things, do you think you might end up SCREAMING??  Sometimes Noah will go from restricted activity to restricted activity, staring at us to see what we will do.

He almost NEVER wants to play with his toys.  He seriously ONLY wants to do things he either really shouldn't do, or he knows he's not supposed to do.  And 9 times out of 10, he ignores me when I tell him "No." 

Trust me, this kid's verbal comprehension is fantastic.  He knows exactly what "No" means.  He just choses to ignore it.  He has selective hearing, apparently.

I'm not even going to get into the whole "discipline" thing, because trust me, I have tried everything.  And Harvey Karp might be a genius when it comes to infants, but his Happiest Toddler on the Block book is completely irrelevant when it comes to my toddler.

I have tried baby proofing my house as much as I can, but the only thing left for me to do is to somehow put everything out of Noah's reach, even the things that are behind closed doors.  Because, as I mentioned when Noah was 12 months old, he can open closed doors.  And closet doors.  Unfortunately, I have too much stuff to keep everything on shelves that are at least 5 feet high.  And Noah, being the child that he is, wouldn't be stopped by things being out of his reach.  He would literally drag a kitchen chair over to the closet or cupboard, climb up on it, and then reach the forbidden items.

Besides, I can't keep all of our clothes, food, and other belongs on high shelves.  It's just not practical.  The only things still out are the things that have to be out.

I am tearing out my hair.  Nothing is working.  This morning I finally resorted to doing something I didn't want to do by putting Noah in his crib after he had a string of misbehaviour.  He screamed, and I didn't care.  I didn't want to do that though, because we have had enough of a struggle getting to where we are with his sleep.  I don't want to make him hate his crib because he keeps getting put in it when he misbehaves.

I'm reaching the end of my rope.  Actually, the past couple of days I am at the end of my rope.  I want to scream.  I want to tear out my hair.  I want to bang my head against the wall.

I want to put Noah in a padded room that has NOTHING in it that he can misbehave with.

WHEN WILL IT END?!?!?!

14 Months Old

Better late than never, right? 


At 14 months old, here is where Noah is at:

-He weighs about 21.5lbs.  He was 22lbs even with his clothes and shoes on, carrying my big pile of keys (I wasn't about to pry them out of his fingers and have a tantrum on my hands in the middle of the doctor's office).  This is just under 50th percentile, according to WHO chart for breastfed babies.

-He is about 32.5 inches tall, 98th percentile, according to WHO chart for breastfed babies.

-He's between the 10th and 25th percentile for weight-for-length, according to the WHO chart for breastfed babies.

-His head measures 19.9 inches around.  Over 100th percentile, according to the WHO chart for breastfed babies.  Massive.  But it's not wide, it's deep, so it doesn't actually look like he has a giant noggin.

-He is just about to move into size 4 diapers 100% of the time.  He still fits size 3 Pampers Cruisers really well, but he is too tall for other size 3 diapers (even though they fit his waist well).

-He still breastfeeds on demand, which is usually around 10 times a day.

-75% of his nutrition still comes from breastfeeding.  He is beginning to want to eat more solids more often.  I let him lead the way.

-He will still eat purees if there are no "solid" solids in sight.  I have a whole bunch of jarred baby food to use up, so I'm still going for it.

-He loves meat and fruit.  They are his favourite.  He also really likes peanut butter sandwiches.  He does not like vegetables anymore.  Sad:(

-He still enjoys a balance of being fed and feeding himself.

-He wears 18 and 24 month clothing, depending on what it is.  Except shorts.  He wears 9 month shorts.  The little skinny-minny.

-He wears size 4 shoes.

-He has 10 teeth.  The front 8 (4 top and 4 bottom), which have been in since he was 8 months old, and now his one year molars on top are poking through his gums a fair bit.  On the bottom his gums are swollen, like he has two marbles under his gums. 

-He's been down to one nap for a month.  This nap is about an hour long, give or take a few minutes.

-He sleeps 11-11.5 hours at night, getting up to nurse once.  I have no idea when he will drop that overnight nursing.

-Did you do the math?  He only sleeps 12-12.5 hours a day.

-Bedtime is still about 8-8:30pm, despite the one nap.  I prefer to start my morning sometime past 7, and if I put him to bed earlier he does wake up earlier.

-He signs to nurse (the sign for milk), for water (waves his hand up and down), and to eat (sticks his finger in his mouth).  Those are the only signs I'm consistent with, otherwise I'm sure he'd sign more.

-He still doesn't say much verbally.  Just Dad, a little bit of Mama, uh oh, that, this...  He just started doing two animal sounds, though.  He says, "Woof woof" when he hears a dog or we ask what a dog says, and he says "Ca Ca" for what a bird says.   He totally started doing both of those on his own, though, imitating the dogs and birds that live around us.  He really is not into copying us verbally, except for those two noises now.

-I am always surprised by how much he understands.  He can follow so many instructions, even multi-step instructions like "Get your shoes so we can go outside!"  He'll run and get his shoes and then go to the door and try to go outside. 

Here are some other examples (by no means a comprehensive list):

*"Do you want to listen to music?"  He'll nod, smile, point to the iPod dock, and start dancing.

*"Do you want to go downstairs?" He'll run to the top of the stairs gate.
*"Are you hungry?" He signs to eat. "Go get in your high chair!"  He'll run over to his high chair and reach up to try and get into it.

*"Can you get Mommy's brush for her?" He will literally go to the bathroom, open the drawer, get out my brush, and bring it to me.

*"No hitting!  Gentle, Noah, gentle..."  He will start gently patting whatever he was being too rough with, be it the cats or my face or his own head. 

*He also can answer "Where's Mommy's nose?" and "Where's Mommy's belly button?" by pointing the the appropriate body part.  He'll even lift up my shirt to find my belly button.  He doesn't point to those things on himself, though.

*On his own body he points out his ears, feet, and hands when asked.

*If we tell him not to do something when we're somewhere other than home, he looks at us very seriously, nods his head, and stops what he's doing.  He also shakes his head no, when appropriate.

-He's a very sweet boy, and very cuddly and kissy.  He loves to hug other babies, our cats, and pictures of animals.

-He loves to get out our swiffers and swiffer all over our floors.  He'll swiffer the carpets, couches, and coffee tables too.  He also imitates me cleaning by rubbing cloths on the floor and tables.

-He loves to play outside.  A little over a month ago he was still not a big fan of it, but now he loves it.  He would spend most of his day outside if he could.  The weather hasn't been very conducive to this, though.

-He got comfortable walking on the grass just before 14 months.  I've mentioned that he is a very careful little guy, so before this it felt too unsteady for him and he would just stand still if we put him on the grass.

-He can open closet doors now, as well as regular doors.  Unwelcome development.

-I can leave the stair gates open without worrying that he will fall down the stairs.  I only use them to confine him to one floor or another, but sometimes I leave them open and he just goes up and down the stairs (without me there) to his heart's content.  He's very careful, and very quick.

-He is a lot more comfortable around strangers, now.  He sticks close to me for a little while, but then gets more adventurous.  He still doesn't smile much at strangers, but he is a lot less scared of them than he used to be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A typical day in our house is very relaxed.  Noah wakes up between 7 and 8 (usually more like between 7:15 and 7:45).  I get up with him, immediately nurse him (he's usually hungry and disgruntled, so this is the reset button), then change his bum.  Then we go out into the rest of the house and play.  I make myself breakfast at some point.  Sometimes Noah wants some, sometimes he waits until later.  After we have breakfast that's usually when I unload and reload the dishwasher.  Then I get in the shower and get ready for the day. 

Sometimes after my shower we'll have time to go outside before Justin gets home for lunch.  Sometimes not, and sometimes it's just not nice enough weather.  Actually, often it's not nice enough weather.  Sometimes this is when I throw laundry in or do some other chores. 

Justin comes home for lunch from 11:00-11:30, and we hang around with him.  Noah often gets little bites to eat during this time.  Justine leaves, and we play more.  Noah goes down for his nap sometime after 12:30.  He generally stays awake for about 5 hours in the morning.  He always nurses before his nap - always.  (He also nurses whenever he asks for it all day long, but these nursing sessions are not at the same times everyday, which is why I only mention the nursings before or after he wakes up).  He sleeps for an hour, and during this time I try to take time to myself to relax.  I make myself lunch and watch something from the PVR.  The hour goes by quickly.  Noah is always awake before I know it.  He almost always nurses immediately when he wakes up, because he's usually pretty ticked off.  It's just his personality - he's rarely happy right when he wakes up.  After nursing he's good to go.

If we are going to go do anything out of the house, like running errands, this is typically when we do it.  Occasionally I can fit errands in before nap, but I rarely have the motivation to rush around to shower and eat and get ready in time to do errands and then be home for when Justin gets home at 11.  I don't have to be there, but I think it's nice that we can all spend a little bit of time together in the middle of the day, especially since we don't see him in the morning before he goes to work.

For the rest of the afternoon it's always different.  Sometimes chores, sometimes hanging out with Justin if he gets home from work early, sometimes visiting with my Mom or Dad or a friend.  Sometimes just hanging out and doing nothing in particular.  Of course, I make dinner in the evening and clean up the kitchen and dishes immeidately afterward.

I tend to have the most motivation to do chores in the hour before I am supposed to start bedtime routine (I aim to start that at 7:30).  That's when I'll suddenly decide to catch up on laundry, vacuum the entire house, and give Noah a haircut.  And those overly ambitious nights are the nights that Noah doesn't get into bed until 8:30.  I generally aim for 8:00, but I'm often a bit later.

I almost always have my house cleaned up and tidied before I start bathing Noah.  I also wash my own face and brush my teeth before I bathe Noah.  It's just this thing I have.  I need to be ready for bed and need everything to be in its place before Noah goes to bed.  I nurse Noah to sleep every night.  I usually cuddle and nurse him for about 20 minutes... I love holding my sleeping little baby.  I really cherish these times with him, especially since he's already 14 months.  Before I know it he won't be sleeping in my arms again - ever.

(I want to clarify that although I do nurse Noah to sleep, he can put himself to sleep, and he does that on a regular basis. If he doesn't show signs of falling asleep in the first 10-15 minutes of nursing, he goes in his crib awake, and is usually asleep within about 5 minutes).

After I put him in his crib, I do whatever little things need to be done, like finishing cleaning up the bathroom after his bath, or put away the things he threw around the house as I was wrangling him into the bathtub.  Then I collapse on my bed and watch TV.  Justin is usually around by then, with no more clients to train, so we hang out and watch TV until I feel tired enough to sleep.


So that's my day!  Sounds nice, doesn't it?  I love spending all my time with Noah, cooking, cleaning, and playing.  It's not amazing every single day, but it's pretty darn close:)

11 Months Old

I don't think I've ever been so late with a monthly update.  Noah turned 11 months over a week ago, so I'm going to keep these updates restricted to those things he was doing at that time.  Some things have changed quite a bit in this past week.

At 11 months old, here is where Noah is at:

-He weighs 20lbs 9oz totally naked, but after a lot of nursings.  That's about 25th percentile.

-He is 31.5 inches long, about 100th percentile.

-He is less than 5th percentile for weight for height (he has tall, slim parents - he can't help it).

-He wears size 3 diapers during the day, and size 4 diapers at night.

-He wears 18 month clothing. His sleepers, onesies, and shirts fit perfectly, maybe a little on the small side.  His 18 month pants are a perfect length.

-He has 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom.

-He started signing 'nurse' at 10.5 months, and ever since then we've been nursing much more than every 2 hours.  He often wants to nurse again 5 minutes after we just finished.

-He still has just one formal "meal" of solids - mostly purees - at dinnertime.  The rest of the day he snacks on various things, usually what I'm eating.  He's still about 90% breastfed, with solids making up the other 10%.

-He goes to bed at about 7pm, sleeps until past 4am, nurses, and goes back to sleep again until about 7am, give or take.  (This has changed since a couple of days after he turned 11 months... that post is still to come.)

-He has two naps a day, ranging from 30 minutes to an hour.  The first nap is about 3 - 3.5 hours after he wakes up (he can make it to 4 pretty easily), and the second nap is 3.5 - 4 hours after he wakes up from his first nap.

-He is totally done with the soother, now.  I take very little credit for this, although I recognize that my actions inadvertently got him to this point.  He always needed it when he was being rocked to sleep.  Then we had a few weeks where he was either nursed to sleep or put in his crib awake.  I would give him his soother when I put him in his crib awake, but he never fell asleep using it.  So after seeing if he still wanted it on several different occasions, I have come to the conclusion that he is definitely over it.  It holds no appeal for him anymore.

-He's getting better at the sippy cup.  Sometimes he'll drink a couple of ounces of water out of it in one sitting.  He likes water now.

-He stands alone, takes a few independent steps (this was just an occasional thing still when he turned 11 months), cruises really well, speed crawls, and climbs.

-He loves to throw balls, play with his baseball bats, score points on his basketball hoop, and practice stick handling with his mini-sticks and hockey puck.  His athlete father is so proud :) 

-He's become extremely cuddly lately, often hugging us and laying his head down on our shoulders, draping himself over us, ect.  He'll even fall asleep sometimes with his head laying on my shoulder, which he hadn't done since he was about 2 months old.

-He loves to give Mommy kisses (sometimes Dad gets one).  He gives me probably a hundred open mouth slobber kisses each day.  Sometimes he just seems overwhelmed with the need to kiss me.  It's adorable.

-He's still a big mommy suck.  He's getting a bit friendlier with other people (smiling, making faces, giggling), but will freak out if I start to walk away. 

-He still has horrifyingly awful separation anxiety.  He still can't handle if I'm not in his sight when we're at home, so I have to plan chores and things carefully.  I can't even go to the bathroom without him.

-He just started doing this hilarious scrunchy face, sometimes doing it with a closed, pursed mouth, other times "showing off" his front teeth.  He breathes really fast in and out of his nose when he does it.  It's hilarious.

-He just started to lounge on the floor like a lazy toddler.  Not for long periods of time, but before this he would never ever sit still or lay down during the day, but now he'll sometimes lay his cheek on the floor, or recline on some pillows in front of the TV (terrible... I blame Dad).

-It's always hard to know exactly how much an 11 month old understands, but we know for sure he knows the meanings of: Mom, Dad, nurse, up, night-night, hug, kiss, no, this, book, "say hi," and "say bye".  He demonstrates understanding of those words through his actions.  I'm guessing he knows a lot more, but I can't tell.

-He just started saying "Uh oh," but its often more of an "Uh uhhh" or an "Oooh oooh." Sometimes he does "Uh uh uh ohh." He mostly does this after he drops something and we say "Uh oh."

-He says "Dis," "Dat," "Mamamama," and "Dad" or "Dada".  It seems like he says all these things in the right settings, but he also uses them at other times, so I don't know if he's really using them as words or just sounds.

-He loves to "read." He pulls out his books and sits and flips through the pages. His two teacher parents are thrilled:)

-We have this book called Who Do You See, and after "I see a bee" I say "buzzz" and he ALWAYS says "zzzzzzzz" as he strokes the bee.  After "I see a lion" I say "Rooaaar!" and he sometimes gently goes "Raaaaa."


I'm sure there is much, much more I could say, but I am already 9 days late with this post.  I am just going to finish it before I waste another day ruminating about it. 

But, as a last thing, I have to say, Noah is becoming hilarious.  His toddler personality that is beginning to emerge (although I still think 1 year olds are babies) cracks me up.  I seriously could not love him any more.  He is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me, and I am incredibly, deeply grateful for him every second of every day!

10 Months Old

Here is where Noah is at at 10 months old:

-He's 31 inches tall, 100th percentile.

-He weighs 20lbs 5oz naked (after a good nursing).  That's about 35th percentile, and almost a pound gain in less than a month!

-He is 5th percentile for 'weight for length'

-His head circumference is 19 inches..

-He wears size 3 diapers during the day, and size 4 diapers at night (we just switched to size 4s the night before he turned 10 months because of night-leaking).

-He wears 18 month clothing.  His sleepers, onesies, and shirts fit perfectly, his 18 month pants are a little bit long.

-He has 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom.

-He nurses every 2 hours or so all day long (two nursings during each awake period), and once overnight.  He nurses 7-8 times in a 24 hour period.

-He has one meal of solids (mostly purees) at dinnertime, and throughout the day he might have little nibbles of what I'm eating.  I'm careful about what he has, but I don't follow a specific '3 day wait' rule anymore.

-He is obsessed with fruit.  If he sees a piece of fruit and isn't allowed to eat it, he has a little hissy fit.

-He's still constipated pretty much all the time.  We have only a couple of normal poops in a month.

-After a long break, he's starting to show a little bit of interest in the sippy cup, although he is really terrible at getting water out of it.  he chews more than sucks.  But at least it's water in there!  He seems to love the taste of water now, whereas it disgusted him a few months ago. 

-He goes to bed at 7, has one night nursing sometime after 4am, and wakes up around 7, sometimes later if he has a long awake period around 6am and ends up falling back asleep.

-He has 2 naps a day, each usually 30-40 minutes long (although sometimes he'll have an hour long nap).  He's not on a strict schedule, and his naptimes start anywhere between 10-11am, and 2:30-3:30pm.

-He stands unassisted for far longer periods of time, far more frequently.  His record is several minutes.

-He can stand up from a squatting position without holding on to anything, and can squat down slowly and gracefully from standing without holding on to anything.

-He's a much better cruiser now, and walks with his walker really well.  However, on the hardwood floors he has a tendency to let it get ahead of him and ends up looking like he's charging through the house on a rampage.

-He's been hands and knees crawling and pulling up to stand for 3 months.

-He's been climbing stairs for at least a couple of months, but he's really fast at it now.

-If he loses something under the couch he'll crawl over, lay on his tummy, peer under the couch, and reach for the object.

-He waves "Hi!" when we say "Say 'hi'!"  He lifts his arms when we say "Up!" and understands the word "No," but doesn't always listen to it (these are several months old).  These are the 3 "commands" that we can tell 100% for sure that he understands.

-He still babbles a lot and says things like Dada, Dad, dat, dis, deh, that seem like words, but I'm not sure if he is really intending them to be words.  He likes to imitate singular sounds we make like fff, sss, tthh, but not really any combinations of letters. 

-Just started babbling "Mamama" again after a long break.  I don't think he's calling me "Mama" though.
-He's still pointing a lot to things he wants or places he wants to go.

-His new fascination is with light switches.  He loves to turn lights on and off.

-He puts objects in containers and balls into the holes they're supposed to go into.

-He plays with his "talking" toys a lot more purposefully now.  Instead of mashing his hands around on things in an excited way, he carefully presses specific buttons to hear specific words and noises.  It's need to see him become so purposeful in this area.

-We have this framed print in our house that has the line from the hymn: "All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all."  Noah LOVES it, and always points to go over to it.  When we start reading it to him (we point to the words as we read them) he gets this huge adorable smile on his face, and sometimes starts giggling.  It's so cute!

-He started dropping toys off his high chair tray all the time shortly after he turned 9 months.  He would do this occasionally before but I always ignored it.  Then Daddy made a FUN GAME out of it *rolls eyes and sighs*, so I'm trying to break him of this habit.


-He loves it when I spray water in his mouth with a spray bottle.  He laughs and opens his mouth for it again and again.  His face is hilarious.  A squinty wince, with his mouth wide open... so cute.

-He's figured out how to undo the bottom of our top-of-the-stair gate, and he gets really ticked off that he can't pull it all the way open.

-His pincer grasp is about the same as last month.  Not amazing, but not bad.

-He detests the playpen (immediately starts screaming if he's put in it), and doesn't like being in his jumperoo.  So basically, he's a free man all the time.  Therefore, I can't shower unless he's sleeping.  I can't vacuum unless he's in the sling (or my husband is home).

-Diaper changes are still a big battle, but this past month he has added a freak-out everytime we lay him on the change table.  Sometimes he'll cry the entire time he's being changed.  It's ridiculous, really.

-He hugs and kisses Mommy (with a wide open slobbery mouth) all the time.  He's been kissing me for months, but this month he started kissing Daddy!  He'll only kiss his ear, though, because Daddy's face is too scratchy:)  I find that hilarious.  The few times he's tried to kiss his cheek or mouth he came away with an injured, disgusted look on his face.  It cracks us up!

-He is an enormous Mommy-suck.  He is so attached to me I can hardly even describe it.  He cannot be distracted or dissuaded if he wants his Mom, and he wants his Mom often.  After seeing any display of this Mommy-suckyness, people agree that if I were going back to work when my maternity leave is technically over in 2 months, he honestly might never recover.  I am the be-all and end-all in his life, and if I disappeared I honestly think he might will himself to die.


A typical day in our house at 10 months old might look like this:

7:00am - Wake up
7:30am - Nurse
9:30am - Nurse
10:15am - Sleep
11:00am - Wake up
11:30am - Nurse
1:30pm - Nurse
2:15pm - Sleep
3:00pm - Wake up
3:30 - Nurse
5:00 - Nurse
6:00 - Dinner (solids)
6:40 - Bath time
7:00 - Nurse and bedtime (plus 1 night feeding)

That's what a typical day MIGHT look like, but we are by no means on a schedule and the timing of things can be different everyday.  If a nap goes long, or he wants to nurse sooner or later, or he does seem to want to sleep... everyday is different.  The one basically consistent part of our day is the wake, nurse, nurse, nap, nurse, nurse, nap, nurse, nurse, dinner, bath, bedtime (with nursing).  Lately Noah has been nursing to sleep for his naps more often just because that's when his feeding happens to land.  And I'm not a nazi about not letting him fall asleep nursing.  I try to have him fall asleep in a variety of ways throughout the week so that he has "versatility."  I want him to be able to fall asleep nursing, rocking, on his own, or in the car.

Now that Noah is down to 2 short naps a day I have even less time to get things done around the house.  I use his first nap to shower (I have to finish getting ready while he's awake, usually), and his second nap I use to try and relax and eat something, since I don't have time to do that during the rest of the day.  I do most of my chores when Justin is home because it's way easier to clean my house without Noah strapped to my body or trying to climb my legs.

We seem to have had a month off from teething, which has been nice.  And it's been nice going down to 2 naps, which we did right at 9 months, even though that usually means I have less baby-free time.  It's just been a lot easier to do other things now that Noah has awake periods of at least 3 hours, and can usually stay awake (and be happy) for 4 hours or more if we're out doing something.

Noah's 10th month has been lots of fun.  It's crazy watching him grow up so quickly, and I can't believe he's going to be a year old so soon!  I should start thinking about his birthday party...

9 Months Old

At 9 months old, here is where Noah is at:

-On December 23 (9 months and 5 days) he weighed 19lbs 6oz (totally naked).  This is about the 25th percentile.

-He's 30.5 inches tall, which is about 100th percentile

-His head circumference is 19 inches (48.3cm), which is 100th percentile.

-He wears size 3 diapers.

-He wears 12 and 18 month clothing by Carter's (my yardstick).  The 12 month clothing is on the verge of being too small.  Most of the 18 month clothing is a little too big.  We're in the awkward in between stage, since he's 30.5 inches and that's the max height for 12 months and min height for 18 months.

-He has 7 teeth, but his 7th tooth has not grown very much since it popped through.

-He's a very good eater, according to everyone who watches him (they all make comments). He's accepting of so many foods, he opens his mouth well, hardly any food gets on his face... just a good eater.

-He points to everyone and everything with his tiny pointer finger.  And he "shows" you things by holding them up in your direction.  "See??  Look at my toy!!"

-His pincer grasp is getting better.  He picks things up between his thumb and forefinger, it's just not necessarily the tip of his forefinger.  He could still make improvement in this area.  But he doesn't get a ton of chance to practice, and was only presented with the opportunity about a month ago, so I can't really blame him.

-He's still exclusively breastfed (no bottles or cups) except for a dinner of solids, and the occasional snack or taste of food during the day.  Most days he doesn't need anything until dinner, though.

-He nurses usually every 2 hours during the day.  More right now, since I've trying to build my milk supply back up after having the flu for 4 days.

-He is 100% swaddle free, and has been since a few days after he turned 8 months.

-He sleeps very well at night, usually about 11 hours total.  He usually starts nursing to sleep at 7:15, although if he doesn't fall asleep I can put him in bed awake and he'll only cry for about 30 seconds before going to sleep.  He sleeps 9 to 11 hours straight (usually around 10 hours), then nurses and goes back to sleep for a bit.  If he wakes up before 4, I don't get him up to nurse, because I have found that he will STILL wake up sometime in the 4-5:30 range even if I nurse him at 3:45.  He falls back asleep very well if he wakes up in the middle of the night.  In the morning he has no consistent wake up time, but he usually does have a period of wakefulness in the 6-7am range, we don't turn on the lights or get him out of his crib until 7am, so if he wakes closer to 6 he often falls back asleep for a bit.

-Naps are still crap.  A usual day has three 30 minute naps.  We started a half-hearted attempt at nap training, but I'm not very consistent.  It's bad, I know.

-I think he may need to go down to 2 naps a day, because I'm finding it harder and harder to get him to fall asleep before the 3 hour mark.  The problem is that two half hour naps a day is not enough for any child.

-He still uses a soother every time I rock him to sleep, but if he goes to sleep on his own he spits it out (because of crying) and doesn't put it back in.  So he only needs it if I'm rocking him.

-He had his fourth haircut today.

-He had his 4th illness this past week, a stomach bug, but was over it very quickly thanks to breastfeeding.  No such luck for me.

-He's very capable, physically.  He started full-time hands-and-knees crawling and pulling up 2 months ago, so you can imagine how good he is at it now.  He's a great climber, too.

-He's getting better at cruising, but isn't amazing at it.

-He waves!

-He's back to social coughing again - A LOT.  He was doing it way back at around 5 months, but my Dad got him back into it a few weeks ago when he copied him every time he coughed.  He thinks it's hilarious.

-He's very talkative and babbles incessantly, but hasn't connected any words with any actual objects yet.  As far as we can tell, the only word he truly understands is "Up."

-This month he started making an adorable scrunchy face.  He does it often, when he's smiling, whining, whenever.  It's so cute.

-When we click our tongues he copies us, and thinks it's the greatest.

-He never goes in his jumperoo or exersaucer.  He prefers to play with the toys while standing next to it.  Whatever!

-He loves to play peekabo in the mirror, and to watch you make faces at him in the mirror.  This isn't new (he's loved the mirror for a long time), but he's just really really enjoying it this month.

-He still enjoys his jolly jumper, but we don't put him in it very often.  He jumps way too high and hard, and the spring slams shut really hard and he continues to fly past the point where he should have stopped.  It's not dangerous or anything, but sometimes he doesn't like the jolting he gets when that happens.

-He has separation and stranger anxiety, but it's not too bad at the moment.  It seems like it's really bad when he's teething.

-Bathtime hasn't been tons of fun this month.  Some days he hates the actual bath (for whatever reason), some days he's fine.  But everyday is a huge struggle getting him undressed, giving him his vitamin D, getting him dried off, lotioning him (his skin has very dry spots, so he needs to lotion) desitin-ing his bum, diapering him, and getting him dressed again.  He will flip over and bear crawl away so fast (he doesn't like the cold ceramic tile, so he bear crawls... lol).  And he's so strong now, there's really nothing we can do about it.  Justin pretty much has to pin down his upper body while I deal with the diaper.  After that I can dress him as he's sitting and standing.  But getting the diaper on is HARD.

~~~~~~~~~~

This past month has had ups and downs.  Noah reached his peak of separation anxiety this month, and I had many days (some entire weeks) where he was literally glued to me.  I couldn't even stand up without him freaking out.  As a SAHM, this gets very tiring.  I couldn't get anything done, my house was a mess, and I couldn't even go to the bathroom without bringing him with me.  Since he hardly naps, the only time I wasn't concentrating on him was at night when he was sleeping.  It got tough after several long days.

I may have connected increased separation anxiety with active teething, though.  It seems to get worse when he's actually cutting a tooth, and he cut 4 teeth in the past month, including his two front teeth (which are rather large, and I assume painful to cut).  Unfortunately none of his teeth cut at the same time, so it meant a lot of painful days for him.

Noah has also reached the lowest of valleys in napping habits.  3 naps a day, all less than 30 minutes.  This is frustrating, and I haven't been very good about nap training.  There are several reasons for this.  One, I don't enjoy listening to him cry, and oh-boy does he cry when I nap train.  Two, for the past couple of weeks (since I decided to nap train) I've had a very hard time figuring out his optimal awake time, which is key if I'm not "putting" him to sleep.  He's seemed to need awake times of at least 3 hours, but I can't fit 3 hour awake times plus 3 half hour naps PLUS the time it takes for him to fall asleep on his own into our day (3 naps means he has 4 awake times).  It seems to be a time of transition, so maybe my efforts will go better if I cut him down to 2 naps a day.

Furthermore, we both got sick again this month with the stomach flu.  I was laid up for 4 days, and today, day 6, I'm still not feeling great.  Being a nursing mom with the stomach flu really sucks.

There have also been good times this month.  Like when I connected the separation anxiety/crankiness with teething and was able to give him Motrin to avoid him being miserable all day long.  Like the seriously improved night time sleep that has given me my evenings and nights back - uninterrupted!  I've also been sleeping pretty good for the most part.  Very few nights do I lie awake for hours on end, although I do still wake up upwards of 6 times a night - and this is medicated sleep, people.  That's how bad a sleeper I am.  But not being rudely awakened by a crying baby 10 times a night is a joy that every mother should experience.  And that being your NORMAL?  It's fantastic.

There have also been GREAT times this past month.  The hugs and kisses and cuddles from my wonderful son.  The fun games of copy cat that make him smile sooo big.  Chasing after his skinny little naked body as he bear crawls out of the bathroom before bathtime so he can go out and happily play with his toys and stand naked at his baby gate.  Seeing him relax on Daddy's lap in the rocking chair by the front window, watching the snow.  Him really being so happy and well behaved after the teething was over.  Being complimented over and over on what a cute, cheerful kid he is.  Listening to Christmas music, and singing Silent Night to Noah before he goes to sleep.  Just enjoying this wonderful time of the year and being sooooooo thankful that our miracle baby is here to share it with us. 

I just can't even put into words how incredibly in love I am with Noah.  He is the perfect baby for us, the only baby for us.  I honestly can't imagine how empty our lives would be if he wasn't here.  And all the challenges and tiring days don't for a second make me wish anything was different.  He completes my life.  I had this big hole, and now it's overflowing because of this most perfect child. 

I am so full of thankfulness and love, I feel like my heart could burst.  I freakin' LOVE my kid, and I love my life, and I can't imagine things being any different.  THANK YOU God, for blessing us with Noah.


(PS - did you know a post can only have at most 20 labels, and those labels can only have a maximum of 200 characters?  I only know since I surpassed that and needed to delete some of my labels on this post.  What is the purpose of that limit?  Let people label as much as they want!!)

Stair Climber

Noah is 8 months and 6 days old

Today while we were visiting my parents, Noah climbed up the stairs.  It was his first attempt at stair climbing EVER and he figured it out in about 5 seconds.

I cannot believe this little rascal!