Isaiah is 14 Months Old!

Who am I kidding, I am not even a "blogger" anymore.  I just don't have or make the time.  However, I don't want Isaiah's baby/toddler/childhood to pass by without me recording ANYTHING.  Even if it's just every couple of months.

So, at 14 months old, Isaiah...

-Weighs 23lbs, which is about 65th percentile.

-Is 30 inches tall, which is apparently 25th percentile.... I knew he was a shorty!  Justin is in denial.

-Has 8 teeth - he just got 2 teeth (the two on the bottom to complete the set of four in the middle) this past month after 2 or 3 months of no new teeth.

-Started talking at 13.5 months old, just like Noah.  He's been saying Dada for a long long time, but he said it even when not referring to Justin, so I don't count that so much.  His first official word was "more" (more food, of course), followed by Mama, no (nah), and Noah (Nah-Nah).

-He also started signing to nurse on the same day he said his first word.

-He actually eats now.  When he turned one he liked the tastes of things but never actually swallowed anything.  He swallows things now.  He doesn't eat A LOT - maybe 3-5% of his nutrition is from solids, the rest from breastmilk - but it's an increase.  He started drinking water from straws and sippy cups, too.

-He still sleeps not so great.  Up 4-8 times a night.

-He naps well.  He went to one nap right at 12 months and that one nap is anywhere from 1 to 2.5 hours long.  Generally it's about an hour and a half.

-He was walking the week before his first birthday, and within about a week was walking totally full time.  He never crawls anymore... *tear*... crawling babies are so adorable.

-He wears 18 month pajamas and 24 month pants and shirts.  He's not as tall as Noah was, and he could fit into 18 month shirts, but I like them to be a little bigger so they don't ride up when he gets picked up.  All our 18 month pants are too short for him though, and the 24 month pants aren't TOO long... If we're going outside I cuff them, but he's not tripping over them or anything.

-This is random, but something I want to remember - He loves to sit on Noah's potties.  LOVES it.  He just sits there and grins, then stands up, sits back down, stands up, sits back down.  It's hilarious.

-He gets into everything.  Just like Noah did.  But he does something Noah never did: When I tell him "No", he says "NAAAHH!"  back at me in this kind of throaty voice.  It's quite funny.  I'm not sure what age that will stop being funny at. haha

-He is such a little cuddle bug.  We still babywear for several hours a day.  We all love the cuddles :)

-He LOVES Noah, and Noah loves him.  The two of them are as best of friends as brothers can be when they're 2.5 years apart.

Can I just take a moment to revel in the fact that It's the 22nd of the month, Isaiah's actual 14 month birthday, and I'm ACTUALLY posting this on the correct day??

I should really post more often.  Life is so full and it's just passing us by with no record of it.  Sigh.

Isaiah is 6 Months Old

9 days late... oops.

-Isaiah is about 18.5 lbs.

-He is 28 inches.

-His head circumference is about __ inches (it was 17 inches at 5 months)

-Same as last month, he is on the medium rise setting on his diapers. We exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in, mostly for Daddy. At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix. The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.

-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo (since he was 4 weeks old), and his bottom gums are swelling out in other areas, so I think some of his other teeth are moving around. I cannot believe those teeth haven't come through!

-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever.

-He has had no solids, and we don't plan to introduce them anytime soon.

-We cosleep, and I can't imagine how much life would suck if we didn't.  He sleeps like an infant is supposed to - getting up to nurse anywhere from 1 to 3 times in the night.  1 time a night has been rare this past month, it's usually twice.  But almost every night this past month he has had a long awake period in the middle of the night, ranging anywhere from half an hour to an hour and a half (this is why life would suck if we didn't cosleep).

-He goes to bed between 7 and 8, depending on when he woke up from his final nap, and wakes up between 6:30 and 7:30 (we are very very lucky if he sleeps all the way until 7:30, though).

-Isaiah isn't sleeping very well on me anymore, so most of his naps are in bed.  Like last month, most of his naps are 30-45 minutes long, but a few times a week we get one that ranges from an hour to an hour and 45 minutes long.  I big-puffy-heart LOVE those ones.

-We're in that awkward place between 2 and 3 naps.  He needs 3 but we can only fit in 2 most days.

-He still sleeps on his tummy, but this month he started flipping to his back on his own while he's in bed (he has been rolling over for a long time, obviously, but just never did it in bed until recently) and so occasionally he sleeps on his back.  He's finally at the point where I can lay him down on his back and his windmilling arms wouldn't wake him up immediately.  I don't usually do this, though, because he sleeps shorter periods when he's on his back.

-In the past I have said that Isaiah is the happiest baby I have ever met... Well, the past 2 or 3 weeks he's been kind of miserable.  He still has big smiles and giggles, but he's a lot fussier again this month.  It's been reminding me of when he was a newborn and things sucked.  Obviously it's not THAT bad, but we have seen far far better days.

-He started pushing himself up on his hands and knees and rocking right when he turned 5 months old.  Still not cross-crawling, though.

-He scoots himself all over the house, but hasn't perfected the army crawl like Noah had at this age.

-He is a really good sitter.  His back is straight, he doesn't need to be propped up by anything, and he can stay like that for a good 10 minutes.  Right when I started thinking he might not be sitting "properly" by the time he turned 6 months, he started sitting really well!  Just a few days before he turned 6 months old.

-He is friendly to people and smiles at them when they talk to and smile at him.

-He loves Noah!

-He is getting better in the car.  He won't nap in there (booo!  My sympathies to those of you whose children don't nap in the car!  I never understood how this was possible before), but at least he doesn't scream the entire time we're in there.  If I provide him with a steady rotation of toys he can make it through a 20 minute car ride with no issues... once a day, anyway.  The car ride back home usually involves screaming.

-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me.  I have no idea when I'm going to switch this to the bath tub.  Now that he sits up straight he is fitting really well in the sink and I have even less motivation to change the location.  Oh well!

-While last month I had 25 baby carriers, now I have 35 (even though I continue to sell them off).  Hello, my name is Lauren, and I am a babywearing addict.

This was a very cranky day... and he has since decided he doesn't like the soother (which I didn't even give to him until he turned 5 months old... I was shocked he took it in the first place!):

Happy baby! 

I forgot to mention... instead of reclining in the bouncy chair, he now insists on sitting straight up.  He can even do a sit up to get in this position if I lay him in the chair.

Isaiah is 4 Months Old!

My blogging has gone to poop, but gosh darnit I'm going to try my hardest to post this on Isaiah's ACTUAL 4 month birthday (January 22)!

-Isaiah weighs 16.5 lbs (this was naked, on our digital scale, on his 4 month birthday).

-He is 25.5 inches tall and mostly in 6 month clothing (Carter's brand... in some other brands he's in 9 month or 6-12 month).

-Same as last month, he is on the medium rise setting on his diapers. Even though we have hundreds of diapers, we exclusively use Flip covers with various inserts (stay dry, organic cotton, Thirsties inserts, flats, or prefolds) during the day, with a few bumGenius Freetimes thrown in.  At night he wears an sbish snapless fitted (with both doublers) with a Blueberry one size cover with aplix. The rise on the cover is completely unsnapped to fit over the fitted.

-He still has those two bottom teeth playing peekaboo.

-He has no bottles ever, nor will he ever have one unless something horrible happens, like me ending up in the hospital on my deathbed unable to breastfeed.

-Last month I was rejoicing over how he was a super sleeper at night time, with a record of 11 hours and 15 minutes straight, and almost always getting a 6-9 hour stretch out of him at the beginning of the night.  He was only getting up to nurse once a night, twice a night if you counted when I was already awake in the morning. Well, no longer.  He usually sleeps 12.5 - 13 hours each night but, but he is up 3 or 4 times a night to nurse.  One of those is usually around 7am after I am already awake.  We recently played musical beds, so the king bed is back in the master bedroom, and Noah's old crib is side-car'd between it and the wall.  Last night Isaiah spent half the night in there, half the night in his crib in his room.  I'm not exactly sure where I'll be going with this.  There are reasons I want to cosleep and reasons I'm not sure I want to start it up again now, after 4 months of not cosleeping.  I will say, though, that I completely expected this regression to happen, so I'm not feeling all distressed like I did when Noah did this.

-Isaiah only ever naps 30-40 minutes at a time, whether he's in his crib or we're babywearing.

-He is still pretty decent at going to sleep on his own if I put him in his crib on his tummy. Not every time, but I don't expect him to.

-He still does all his sleeping on his tummy. I'm becoming slightly less nervous about this, but I do still carefully examine him over the video monitor to see him breathing several times a night (haha, no really).

-He continues to be a super happy baby, like he was at 3 months.  

-He's shrieking with delight, giggling, and still has the HUGEST smiles! 

-He brings his hands together all the time, eats his fingers, and is starting to grab things.

-He rolled over for the first time when he was 15 weeks old... hasn't really done it since, though!

-He is friendly to people and smiles at them when they talk to and smile at him, but he doesn't want anyone but me to hold him.  He could be perfectly happy laying on the floor, smiling and cooing away, but if someone besides me (or sometimes Daddy) picks him up, within a few minutes he will start crying.

-He likes to sit up and look around (propped up by us, although he has balanced in a sitting position for a good 5 seconds on several occasions).

-He loves to watch Noah play, and really enjoys when Noah rolls around with him.  He gets a giant smile!

-We still babywear all the time, which makes us all happy, and our carrier stash continues to grow.  I believe we're at 18 right now.  4 Wrap Conversion Mei Tais, 7 woven wraps, 2 stretchy wraps, a ring sling, a pouch sling, and 3 buckle carriers. This is a much more expensive addiction than cloth diapers!

-Evenings aren't really that fussy any more.  I can eat a lot of my dinners sitting down because he's usually sleeping in the carrier, or he recently woke up from a nap and is happy to sit in the bouncy chair on the table and watch us eat.  He gets bored of that after 5-10 minutes, usually, and then he's happy to sit in my lap and watch Daddy and Noah eat.

-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me.

Now, pictures...

Drying off on the counter after bath time in the sink:

Watching Noah play on the iPad:

He thinks being tossed around is hilarious!:

I just want to SQUISH them!:

Yahoo, I did it!  I actually started and finished a post on the same day, AND it's on time! 

Isaiah is One Month Old!

Isaiah was 1 month on October 22.  I wanted to write an extended post like I did with Noah, but with 2 kids, one of whom doesn't nap, and the fact that I have to go to bed as soon as Isaiah goes to bed, I really don't have time for an extended post.  Here's an update on my littlest man:

-He got weighed at the midwife's on October 22, his one month birthday, and he was 10lbs 9oz (naked).  He gained 3.5lbs in 3 weeks.  Hopefully he'll slow down a bit this coming month!  It's crazy to me that some people give birth to babies that are his current size.

-He is now 22 inches long (he grew 2 inches).

-His head circumference is close to 15 inches now.

-Isaiah is exclusively breastfed, of course.  Just from the right side so far, (Noah has the left side, because the letdown on the side is crazy).  No bottles, and I don't expect him to ever have one.

-He's still super grunty, groany, moany, and shrieky, but I may be seeing slight improvements in that area.

-To attack the gruntyness (I know that's not a word), Isaiah is seeing the chiropractor, now on a weekly basis instead of every few days, and I bombard him with homeopathic colic remedies.  He doesn't have actual "colic" (crying 3 hours a day, 3 days a week, for at least 3 weeks), but his gruntyness stems from gas and all those remedies are geared toward gas.  I think I see some improvements when I give them to him.

-He takes the "witching hour" very seriously.  Well, witching "hours".  From about 4pm (or whenever he wakes up from his last nap) until he goes to bed sometime after 8.  He won't go down for another nap after that, although he does have short 10 minute snoozes in our arms.  Thankfully he is quite content if he is being held and walked around, so we don't have to listen to screaming as long as we're doing that.  We're doing quick and easy suppers and either take turns eating or I wear Isaiah in the Ergo and eat my dinner off of the kitchen island while bouncing around between bites.  This is a tiring phase, but thankfully we know from experience that "this too shall pass," and that makes it a lot easier to deal with.

-I do a LOT of babywearing with Isaiah - more than with Noah.  This is out of necessity, seeing as I have a toddler to take care of as well.  But Isaiah loves it.  I find he is more content on the days that I wear him a lot, not just when he's being worn but also when he's not being worn.  He's more chill.

-He is hit and miss for naps.  He'll have a couple of good ones if I hold him for long enough after he falls asleep.  He will NOT go to sleep on his own anymore.  That was done back at 2 weeks old.  I do allow him to fuss to see if he'll fall asleep on his own, but the fussing always turns to crying and I am not going to let a newborn cry it out.

-Things change on a bi-weekly basis, but lately during the day Isaiah takes most of his naps on his tummy in the bassinet of the pack and play in our living room.  He used to take them swaddled in his crib, but that stopped working out so well.

-Night time is frustrating.  It's hard to get him down for the night.  He either doesn't fall asleep for hours, or he does fall asleep but wakes up within 5-20 minutes of us putting him down.  And he doesn't just fuss, he CRIES.  Last night we had to put him back to sleep about 10 times.

-Once he's "down for the night" he generally sleeps for 2 to 2.5 hours, sometimes reaching 3 hours, but never longer than that.  Last night he had two "stretches" of sleep that were only 1.5 hours.  Boo.  He normally sleeps for at least 2 hours though, so I'm hoping those super short stretches were just flukes.  I am waking up to nurse him either 3 or 4 times each night.  3 times doesn't bother me.  4 kind of does.

-(Sometimes I wonder if God gives me crappy nights like last night just to make me appreciate the other nights more, since it's fairly easy to wish your child would sleep longer than 2 or 3 hours at a time.  However, 2-3 hours feels pretty good compared to 1.5 hours!)

-He's had 2 haircuts already.  His hair is quite light, like a light light brown or dark dark blonde.

-His blue eyes are lightening, so I'm pretty sure they'll stay blue.

-His skin tone is darker than Noah's was at this age, so he might have his Daddy's dark Italian skin.

-He loves when I wrap him in a towel and hold his head over the sink to wash his face and hair.  He closes his eyes and looks so content.

-He gets all his baths in the kitchen sink.  Whether he enjoys it or not depends on the day.

-I wash his face and hair everyday, but actual baths only happen a couple of times a week.

-Isaiah started smiling on his one month birthday.  We only get a few smiles per day at this point, but we'll take them:)

-He is mostly wearing one-size diapers now, on the smallest settings.  He doesn't wear the Kissaluvs fitteds anymore because he pees right through them.  Anything from the bumGenius family (4.0, Elemental, Freetime, and Flip) fit him nicely back at 8lbs.  Thankfully I have a big stash of these, because none of the Kawaii pockets fit him, even the Pure and Naturals, which are supposed to fit from 6-22lbs.  They're way too big around the waist.

-Isaiah absolutely hated diaper changes for the first couple of weeks and would scream the whole time.  He's chilled out in this area now, thankfully!

-He has a very strong trunk and neck, and holds his head up very well.  He's also pushing off things with his legs now.

-Both of Isaiah's testicles were undescended when he was born, which stressed Justin and I out majorly (the cause of Justin's infertility is an undescended testicle that wasn't corrected until he was 5).  However, they both descended by the time he was 2 weeks old.  HUGE RELIEF!  It must have just been because he was 18 days early.


I just realized I've been really bad at taking pictures lately.  I think it's because Isaiah is at the stage where if you put him down he is not happy.  That doesn't give a lot of opportunity to take pictures!  These are the ones taken within the past few days:

Cuddling with Daddy:

Tummy nap!:

Okay, that wasn't as bad - by bad I mean short - as I thought it would be.  Now I'm off to feed myself and Noah before Isaiah wakes up, which could be any minute now.