Isaiah is 3 Months Old

Hi people!  I haven't been blogging or even reading any blogs because my laptop busted and Noah has been sick with the darn plague for the past week, but I had to make some time to write a 3 month post before 2013 gets here!

Isaiah was 3 months old on December 22.  (Incidentally, I need to have my kids earlier in the month so that I have more time to get the appropriate post up in the actual month that it occurred.)  Here's the quick low down:

-Isaiah weighs 15.5 lbs (this was naked, on our digital scale, on his 3 month birthday).

-I believe he's around 25 inches but I'm not sure  I can't remember when I last measured him.  He's in 6 month clothing, some of which is too small because of his cloth diapers.  If we used disposables they would all fit fine (although a few things are getting too short).  He's tall, but not as tall as Noah was at this age.  However, he does weigh more than Noah did.


-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.  This means I never have to stuff diapers, which I HATE HATE HATE doing.  I may as well get rid of all my pocket diapers.  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.


-He is a super sleeper at night time!  His record is 11 hours and 15 minutes straight.  He's also done 10 hours and 45 minutes.  Those were his two longest stretches.  Generally I get a 6-9 hour stretch out of him at the beginning of the night, which is amazing.  He's only getting up to nurse once most nights, which is wonderful to me.  Noah was up nursing once a night until he was 18 months old, so I'm happy with this and I won't be looking to night wean Isaiah until he's a toddler, probably.  I do expect some regressions in this area, though.

-Right before he turned 3 months I started putting him down for some naps in his crib because he doesn't nap on me as well as he used to.  If he's sleeping on me and I have to talk, he wakes up.  However, he also only cat naps in his crib.  Or rather, he did only cat nap in his crib.  In the past few days I've gotten a couple of long naps out of him (over an hour).  The napping situation is very fluid.  Noah was a terrible napper and I vowed not to stress myself out over the napping thing.  I'm just happy that Isaiah finally nurses to sleep (he didn't do that until sometime in the past few weeks).

-Isaiah 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 is a super happy baby most of the time now.  He's very very smiley, starting to laugh, and is still very "talkative".  I just love when he talks, it's the cutest thing.

-He is quick to smile back at people when they're talking and smiling at him, but he definitely prefers him Mommy over everyone else.  Other people always want to hold him, but it never lasts long as he makes his preference for me very clear pretty quickly.

-He's not rolling yet, but he can push himself right up off his tummy when he's laying on his front.

-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, and that makes my heart melt.

-We still babywear a lot, which we both love.

-Evenings aren't nearly as fussy as they used to be, and I can eat dinner sitting down more often now, either with Isaiah in the bouncy chair or sitting on my lap (he prefers to be on my lap, obviously).

-He still has all his baths in the kitchen sink because it's easier for me, but he has totally outgrown it.  It's very squishy in there.

I'm trying to think of other things, but I'm feeling very rushed to get this posted before Isaiah wakes up.  So here are some cute pictures from the past few weeks!

He makes me so happy :)

The Past 5 Days

My hubby was gone for three full days last week - Thursday, Friday, Saturday.  I kept myself as busy as possible, especially in the evenings, because otherwise I get all bitter about being left alone for 3 days for an optional track and field meet.  Especially when I was left alone for two full days the week before for another optional track and field meet.

Here's what we did:

Thursday - In the morning Noah and I went into town for my midwife appointment, and then went shopping for my friend for her bridal shower.  We went home for nap, which didn't happen for whatever reason.  Then we went back into town to my parents' house to hang out and for dinner.

Friday - We had my friend Melissa and her 8 month old daughter Talya over.  We played inside and went out to the pool, as well.  Then naptime.  After nap Noah and I went back out to the pool until 5:20.  I thought we'd stay home for the evening, since we had been fully occupied until that point... that turned out to be a mistake.  Noah goes to bed pretty late, so we just felt like it was a long time to fill.  I got so lonely and bored.  Apparently I am a huge suck.  But even Noah was asking "Can we go somewhere, please?"

Saturday - My parents came over at 11:30 in the morning and didn't leave until 7:30.  We spent the day by the pool and then I made them baked potatoes, BBQed steak, and vegetables for dinner.  I surprised myself (and my parents) in that I was able to BBQ the steak and actually do a really good job.  I have never actually BBQed before!  I've turned the BBQ on, and I've started to BBQ things like pork chops, chicken, and burgers.  But my hubby has always stepped in by the halfway point and finished things.

On Sunday morning Justin was finally home!  But Noah and I had to leave at 9:30am to meet up with my Mom and then drive 2 hours away for my friend Corey's bridal shower.  I was pretty much dreading Sunday for a long time.  I didn't want to bring Noah because there was 4 hours of driving in one day, and a fancy bridal shower to bring a 2 year old boy to.  But I was also 100% uncomfortable with leaving him in a different city for 9 hours while I was 2 hours away.  I had never left Noah any longer than 2 hours before, and I just was not comfortable leaving him for that huge chunk of time when I was not in pretty close proximity to come home if things weren't going well.

I hemmed and hawed about it for awhile, but the few days leading up to the shower (along with the way Sunday morning went) clinched it for me.  I would have not enjoyed myself at all because of worrying about Noah if I hadn't brought him.

So, as I mentioned, I was a little bit worried about the trip.  However, it couldn't have gone smoother!  I knew Noah would be awesome at the shower (he's been to many showers and always done really well), and he was.  He was the only kid there, and we were there for about 4 hours, but everyone was incredibly impressed with him.  He was as good as gold.

The car ride was what I was more worried about.  4 hours in the car in one day is a lot to ask of any toddler.  But Noah was perfect.  He slept for about half an hour on the way there (he was up way too early that morning), but other than that he was fully awake.  Still, he didn't even whine.  Like I said, it couldn't have gone smoother, so I was thrilled!

It was nice to be able to make it to the shower, because Corey is getting married on September 29.  My due date is October 10.  Considering my current level of pain/discomfort, and taking into considering how I was completely crippled at that point in my pregnancy with Noah, I am 99% certain I won't be able to make it to the wedding.  Corey is a really good friend - we lived together for 3 years in university, and she was one of my bridesmaids when I got married (before she got engaged I told her I loved her, but asked her to please not ask me to be a bridesmaid, because I would probably be pregnant or have a newborn, plus I have Noah, and I just wouldn't be able to handle the responsibility).  Not making it to her wedding is pretty sad for us, so it was really nice to be able to celebrate with her on Sunday.

So that was my weekend.

This morning Noah and I went to parent/child drop in to get out of the house and play.  It was okay... there were only two other kids there, and I wanted to punch the one little boy.  Noah tried to go over and play with them twice, and both times the little boy shrieked/growled at Noah when he got close.  Both times Noah jumped and ran away terrified.  I was so mad.  Noah is just the nicest, sweetest little boy.  When he is playing with other kids he is so helpful and kind to them.  He would never be mean!  We don't really ever even interact with mean little kids.  I only get together with friends who have nice little kids, because why would I want to hang out with a brat?

What happened this morning was such a small thing, but it really bothers me.  It just reminds me how mean some kids can be, and how I can't protect Noah from everything that's going to hurt him in his life.  As a mother, that thought makes me cry.


Okay, moving along.  This afternoon I told Justin that after 4 full days of being Noah's only parent, I was ready to get out of the house - alone.  So I went shopping.  In town.  Without Noah.  I realized today that I have never done that.  I have never left Noah at home with Justin and gone to a different city.  I've left him at home with Justin so I can run errands in our little town, but I've never actually left town.  I was gone for 3 hours.  Justin said it wasn't totally smooth sailing, and Noah had a bit of a hard time.  But they made it through unscathed.

I think it's important that Noah realized I was actually gone, and I was gone for awhile, and then I came back.  He still has really bad separation anxiety from me.  The problem is that I usually don't have any reason to leave him.  I don't have any childless friends nearby, and there's not a lot that I would go do that Noah wouldn't really enjoy... so I take him!  Plus, Justin isn't home a ton because of teaching and coaching, so it's not like I have very many opportunities to take off by myself.

Today I did, so I took it.  I went to town, picked up my mom, and went shopping.  I bought four super cute maxi dresses that I am really looking forward to wearing!  Life is about to get a lot more comfortable:)

20 Months Old

At 20 months, here is where Noah is at:

-I haven't weighed or measured Noah this month, but I assume he is just slightly heavier and taller than he was at 18 months, when he was 27lbs and 35 inches.

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

-He wears size 2T and 3T clothing. Most 2T clothing is too short, though.

-He wears size 6 shoes.

-He nurses on demand, 4-8 times a day.

-He exclusively feeds himself his solids, either with his hands or with a spoon and fork. If he is given a utensil, he will always use it. He also drinks out of a regular cup quite well, although we try to use a sippy cup as often as he will let us since we run less risk of him purposefully pouring out his water.

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

-His broken leg is pretty much completely healed.

-He sleeps straight through the night now, between 9.5 and 11 hours total.  11 hours is rare.  He gets less total sleep now that he's not nursing overnight, which isn't great, but I am loving not getting up in the middle of the night with him.  Bedtime is still about 8:30pm.

-He naps for one hour, and we are finally at the point that I just plop him in his crib wide awake.

-At 15 months Noah was saying 18 words. At 16 months he was saying 42 words. At 17 months he was saying 79 words. At 18 months he was saying 137 words.  At 19 months Noah was saying over 300 words, although I had only recorded 281.

-At 20 months Noah is saying over 424 words (I have 424 recorded, but I know I'm missing some - I finally alphabetized them in an Excel document!  I know, so overboard.)

Sorry, here's where I record these words in case my computer crashes...

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, 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), pool, eyes, nose, rice, pour, no, apple, bath, heck, help, eat, T.V., pup, corn, cook, moon, sun, on, off, mouse, brush, ice, neigh, push, yay, peach, buddy, you, hi, mess, flip, hose, toast, home, see you, pieces, pear, foot, me, tape, open, meat, ok, out, street, outside, keys, bits, pee, flies, away, whoa, cheerios, cut, gas, wet, hey, bless, plate, baby, kick, acorn, grass, light, dark, medicine, horse, cake, after, bar, house, two, three, go, doctor, windy, lid, hide, Elmo, get, it, fix, button, thank, beep, one, cookie, high, chair, highchair, whack, walk, tower, cute, breakfast, bawk (chicken), back, moose, lion, tiger, dinner, pocket, Ernie, draw, wall, welcome, Granny, Matt, Lynsey, aunt, Giliane, Nick, Hilary, cuddle, boat, pen, puck, ready, picture, coming, dude, cool, clothes, soother, green, purple, blue, both, you, I, love, fries, toys, red, playdoh, stick, hockey, hit, ribbit, frog (which comes out as f#ck), colour, found, plug, pizza, coffee, cricket, broke, ring, hug, rice, watch, arm, leg, ear, closet, open, dukie (dutch slang for washcloth), chicken, Abby, sweep, music, Emmie, Lexie, other, room, welcome, rain, clap, table, yellow, crayon, crib, music, lotion, cube, self, ice cube, new, giraffe, bite, blanky, dance, meow, cow, dog, rabbit, tomato, tree, bathroom, cup, window, honk, pretty, grape, fork, spoon, knife, goose, bang, Scout, peek-a-boo.

His new words are (and I don't actually expect anyone to read through this list):  

Sun, Whistle, Groceries, Bat, Head, Sweetpea, Soap, Squeeze, Knock, Bib, Beef, Fishies, Hand, Yum, Yummy, Mustard, Tag, Bubbles, Jeans, Kids, Sock, Nipple, Hammer, Dinner, Supper, Piano, Bear, Bed, Room, Bedroom, James, Pasta, Diaper, Zoe, Pushing, Computer, Sick, Basket, Egg, Working, Sleeping, Sleepy, Walking, Bumbo, Noise, What, Wipe, Empty, Big, Fast, Heavy, Football, Tape, Scissors, Getting, Buckle, Seatbelt, Potty, Swirl, Smock, Tray, Header, Baseball, Pass, Penguin, Pumpkin, Shower, Mommy, Daddy, Mom, Right, Flower, Bathtime, Wall, Spin, Heat, Wow, Neat, Clean, Here, Good, Fishies, Sitting, Tub, Bum, Berries, Wash, Washing, Nursing, Helping, Brushing, Puppy, Super, Grover, Drink, Drinking, Eating, Hitting, Warm, Bucky, Gross, Careful, Sleep, Yuck, Yucky, Take, Tickle, Bike, Ride, Riding, Funny, Cord, Cereal, Smell, peel, nothing, teacher, elastic, cushion, nope, yup, Dad, Blow, Goldfish, Throw, There, Is, Sheep, Pink, White, Where, Hiding, Nap, Camera, Pancake, Boots, Sandals, Stinky, Stroller, Squish, Squishy, excuse, fun, happy, me, under, over

-This month, in about 3 days time, Noah went from calling us Mama, Dada, and Wawa (how he pronounced Noah), to Mommy, Daddy, and Noah.  It made me a little bit sad.

-He is putting many two word and some three word phrases together. For example: thank you, bless you, get it, get you, got you, hang on, excuse me, there it is, etc.

-He still loves to play with the vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, any cleaning implement, or anything electronic that isn't meant to be played with.

-As for actual toys, his favourites are our Clifford Stacking Blocks, his Cozy Coupe car, his tricycle, any type of ball, his mini sticks, and mega blocks.

-He knows all 10 of the main colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, black, brown, white.

-He knows the shapes circle, star, and square.  We don't really work any discussion of shapes into our play, so far.  He just picked those up because his magnetic doodle pad has circle, star, and square magnets.

-He'll count "one, two, three..." but most of the time when he's counting he still says "Two, two, two, two..." as he points to different objects. It is so cute.

-He loves to colour, play with play-doh, blow bubbles, build towers, play in the corn table, play in the bubble table, play outside, kick balls... I could go on.

-He still loves Sesame Street, and the show Super Why.  I'm impressed with how much he will pay attention to Super Why, considering it's a full half hour show about reading, letters, and writing.

-Noah has been sick twice in the last month. The count is at 15.

-He is getting much less shy, but he still has separation anxiety from me.  The only people who can babysit him are my Mom and Dad (together - my Mom HAS to be there).  They've done this twice in the past couple of weeks so Justin and I could go out on an early dinner date - home in time for bath and bed!

19-20 months was a really nice month for us.  Noah was really fun, agreeable, and obedient.  There were no sleep struggles, which was awesome.  I guess it did suck that he was sick twice, but if he's happy and pleasant (which he's not with this latest cold), I don't mind him being sick as much.

19 Months Old

It has been extremely difficult getting around to writing Noah's 19 month stats.  I just sent him off with Daddy for an hour, so instead of taking some time to relax or make dinner, I'm doing this. 

At 19 months, here is where Noah is at:

-I haven't weighed or measured Noah this month, but I assume he is just slightly heavier and taller than last month, when he was 27lbs and 35 inches.

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

-He wears size 2T and 3T clothing.  Most 2T clothing is too short, though.

-He wears size 6 shoes.

-He nurses on demand, 4-6 times a day.

-He exclusively feeds himself his solids, either with his hands or with a spoon and fork. If he is given a utensil, he will always use it.  He also drinks out of a regular cup quite well, although we try to use a sippy cup as often as he will let us since we run less risk of him purposefully pouring out his water.

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

-He broke his leg on Saturday, September 24, 2011.  The diagnosis wasn't confirmed until the following Thursday.  He is doing a lot better now, but he is still limping.

-As of his 19 month birthday, he had been on a nap strike for 15 days, where he absolutely refused to nap unless he was actively nursing or in the car.  I think we might have beaten that now, though.  Update on that separately.  Soon, hopefully.

-Half of this month he was been sleeping 11 to 11.5 hours at night, getting up to nurse twice.  I went along with this because it started happening right after he broke his leg.  But when naps went to crap and Noah woke up wanting to nurse already at 11:30pm, I buckled down.  Since then he has been sleeping straight through the night 2/3 of the time and getting up to nurse sometime after 5am 1/3 of the time (one nurse a night is normal for him and I don't mind it).

-Bedtime is after 8:30pm most nights, and we've been sleeping in until about 8am or later every morning.

-He no longer signs to nurse, eat, or for water.  He's strictly verbal.

-At 15 months Noah was saying 18 words. At 16 months he was saying 42 words. At 17 months he was saying 79 words. At 18 months he was saying 137 words.  

-At 19 months Noah is saying way over 300 words.  However, I am not very good at writing them all down, and I need to find a way to automatically alphabetize them on the computer because it's really hard to go through the list to see if a new word is really a new word or not.  As a result, I have only recorded 281 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, 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), pool, eyes, nose, rice, pour, no, apple, bath, heck, help, eat, T.V., pup, corn, cook, moon, sun, on, off, mouse, brush, ice, neigh, push, yay, peach, buddy, you, hi, mess, flip, hose, toast, home, see you, pieces, pear, foot, me, tape, open, meat, ok, out, street, outside, keys, bits, pee, flies, away, whoa, cheerios, cut, gas, wet, hey, bless.

-Some of his new words are: plate, baby, kick, acorn, grass, light, dark, medicine, horse, cake, after, bar, house, two, three, go, doctor, windy, lid, hide, Elmo, get, it, fix, button, thank, beep, one, cookie, high, chair, highchair, whack, walk, tower, cute, breakfast, bawk (chicken), back, moose, lion, tiger, dinner, pocket, Ernie, draw, wall, welcome, Granny, Matt, Lynsey, aunt, Giliane, Nick, Hilary, cuddle, boat, pen, puck, ready, picture, coming, dude, cool, clothes, soother, green, purple, blue, both, you, I, love, fries, toys, red, playdoh, stick, hockey, hit, ribbit, frog (which comes out as f#ck), colour, found, plug, pizza, coffee, cricket, broke, ring, hug, rice, watch, arm, leg, ear, closet, open, dukie (dutch slang for washcloth), chicken, Abby, sweep, music, Emmie, Lexie, other, room, welcome, rain, clap, table, yellow, crayon, crib, music, lotion, cube, self, ice cube, new, giraffe, bite, blanky, dance, meow, cow, dog, rabbit, tomato, tree, bathroom, cup, window, honk, pretty, grape, fork, spoon, knife, goose, bang, Scout, peek-a-boo.

-In case you didn't read through that long list (I don't blame you), Noah says frog, but it comes out as "f#ck." Quite perfectly pronounced, too.  It has embarrassed me several times.

-He is putting many two word phrases together.  For example: thank you, bless you, get it, get you, got you, hang on, etc.

-He knows that poop and pee go in the toilet, and he shows interest when we go to the bathroom, but I haven't gotten him a potty or even started to bother training him.  I am in no hurry.

-His verbal comprehension continues to be amazing. He understands everything we say to him. We can even reason with him.

-He still wants gets into everything, but he is continuing to obey the word "no" more consistently.

-Currently, his favourite "toys" are our Dyson vacuum cleaner, my hair dryer, any cleaning implement, or anything electronic that isn't meant to be played with.

-He just jumped for the first time, actually getting air.  We weren't trying to teach him, he just suddenly decided to stand there on two feet and figure out how to jump up and land again.  And he did it.

-He loves to colour with us.  We colour with paper and crayons, or on his big AquaDoodle mat.  I love AquaDoodle.

-He knows most of the main colours: green, orange, blue, red, yellow, purple, and black.  He spends most of his time concentrating on green and orange, though.  Especially orange.

-He'll count "one, two, three..." but most of the time when he's counting he says "Two, two, two, two..." as he points to different objects.  This slays me.  It's hilarious.

-He loves to play with playdoh.  I bought it when he broke his leg and wasn't supposed to walk.  I bought a Sesame Street set of shapes and cutters and things, so when he wants to play with playdoh he'll usually say "Elmo!  Cut!"  

-He L.O.V.E.S. Sesame Street.  He either asks to watch "Street" or "Elmo".  He absolutely adores Elmo, and his second favourite character would probably be Abby Cadabby.  He even knows that if I spell "E-L-M-O" that spells Elmo.  I tried spelling it so he wouldn't hear the word, but he figured it out pretty quickly.

-This is the very first month he has shown an interest in loving stuffed animals.  Before now he was only attached to "Pup," his lovey.  And that was only after having him in his crib for months and months.  This month he fell in love with a puppy at Build-A-Bear, so we made one for him.  He adores that puppy.  He hugs him and kisses him and cuddles with him.  We call him "Scout," which Noah pronounces something like "Suck."

-Time outs are still extremely successful around here. They've been so successful, we don't need to use them that often anymore.

-No illnesses for Noah this month. The count is at 13.

-He is getting much less shy, but he still has separation anxiety from me.

-He is such a smart, sweet, gentle little boy who just loves other kids and babies.  He shares, he's nice, he's empathetic... I'm so proud of him!

Brave Noah

I have to post something unrelated to my misery:

Noah has gotten so much braver and outgoing than he was in the spring.  We go out a lot now, sometimes to new places he's not familiar with.  In the past, he used to cling to me, just watching, for about 30 minutes before venturing off to play with other kids.  Now he just flies into the thick of things.

For example, today we went to Drop-In at the Best Start hub where we live.  It's just a free place that's kind of like a daycare, but you stay with your kids and can socialize with other parents.  We haven't been there since Noah was about 12 months because it's only on Mondays and Thursdays from 9-11:30am, and all summer Justin was home and not training during that time.  Today was the first day in months that Justin was at work on one of those days, so we went.

Noah had a ball.  He took off from me as soon as we got there, playing with all the toys. He would come back to me every 15 minutes or so, plop in my lap for a cuddle, and then take off again. He sure has gotten more comfortable in places like that.

I also saw someone who Justin works with who's off on maternity leave right now.  So we chatted a lot, which was nice, since those places are often cliquey.

We left during circle time because Noah just does NOT enjoy that stuff anymore. He kept getting up, even though I told him he had to sit in the circle or we would leave. So I asked him if he wanted to go home and he immediately nodded, said "home", waved bye to the "teacher", and headed for the door. He couldn't wait to get out of that circle and go home.

On Tuesday we were at Tales for Tots at the library.  When I signed up for it I was a little worried, since I had a feeling Noah would just want to pull books off the shelves.

Well, I was right.  He had no interest in anything the teacher was doing.  Totally not her fault - she was doing a good job.  But he just wanted to play with books.  When he was 12 or 13 months it would have gone well, since he would have been too shy to get off my lap.  But from about 15 or 16 months until now?  Totally different story.  I know this is normal, but he was the ONLY kid doing this at that session.  Every other kid was participating, or at least paying attention.

We got a sheet about what you should do with your kid, the kind of behaviour is expected, etc.  And it said that if after 3 sessions the child is not cooperating, perhaps you should try again in the future.  I'm not sure if this applies to Noah, since he wasn't being disruptive in the least.  He was perfectly quiet.  But still, he wasn't doing what he was supposed to be doing.

Either way, I don't know if we're going to go back.  We might try one more time, but if Noah's not into it right now, there's no sense in trying to force it.

Anyway, I'm proud of him for being so much more outgoing.  I never forced it when he was clingy and more timid, and he just grew out of it naturally.  Although he still would not be okay if I left him alone in these places.  In fact, last night Justin took him to basketball practice because I wasn't feeling well, and the whole time he kept walking out into the hallway saying "Mama?  Mama?  Mama?  Mama?"  And he kept pouting and his eyes would fill with tears.  Justin had to keep giving him Mum Mums to distract him.

That makes me laugh and feel sad for him at the same time.  He's still a Mama's boy, that's for darn sure.

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.

16 Months Old

At 16 months, here is where Noah is at:

-He is a little over 23lbs.

-He is about 34 inches tall.

-His head circumference is 20 inches.

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

-He wears size 4 shoes.

-He wears 24 month clothing, for the most part.  His shorts are still 9 month, although he seems to have had a growth spurt in the past month and would probably finally fit into the waistband of 12 month shorts.

-He nurses on demand, probably 8+ times a day.

-He still enjoys a balance of feeding himself and being fed when he eats solids. He eats mostly grown up food, but sometimes still has purees.

-He is getting better at using a spoon and fork, but it is an extremely messy process.

-He has 12 teeth that are fully in (front 8 teeth and 4 molars), and his four canines are in the process of breaking through.  A few tips are already poking through, and the other one is just about to break his gums.

-He has one nap a day, usually about an hour long.

-He sleeps 11-11.5 hours at night, getting up to nurse once. Bedtime is between 8 and 8:30pm most nights.

-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.

-At 15 months Noah was saying 18 words, now at 16 months he is saying 42 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 say?"), moo ("what does a cow say?"), car, ball, shoes, cracker. 

His new words are: Noah, water, orange, clock, blech, hi, done, dirt, Bert, puff, swish, fluff, book, buzz, Papa, Nana, boo, fish, phone, again, home, sunglasses, Nana, Gramper, sit.

-When something is hot, Noah waves his arms around and says "Hot!  Hot!"  The oven, a candle flame, water, food, the weather... he knows exactly what "hot" is in different contexts and circumstances.  This past Sunday at church Noah saw the candle flame at the front of the church during prayer and wouldn't stop saying "HOT!"  My Dad and I were shaking with silent laughter.

-His verbal comprehension continues to amaze me.

-Noah can get into anything.  Doors, closets, cupboards, drawers, fridge, stove, freezer, dishwasher... He is just one of those kids.   He's well behaved, but at the same time he tests the limits constantly.  Seriously, constantly.  It can be sooo frustrating. 

-He climbs on everything now.  He can even climb up on our high pub chairs, and therefore can get on top of our tall pub table.  This is an unwelcome development.

-Noah loves power cords.  Anything that has a cord and plug attached to it is fascinating to him.  When we went to the cottage I didn't even need to bring toys.  Just hand him a hair dryer, alarm clock, or even just an extension cord, and he's good to go.

-He's still very cuddly and affectionate.  He is getting quite good at giving hugs and kisses to people when we say goodbye.  Especially my parents, his Granny and Gramper.  He doesn't do this very readily for my inlaws, though.

-Noah has become much friendlier in the past few months.  He will flirt with, smile at, and wave to strangers now.  He likes strangers better if he can seek them out, though, and usually from the safety of Mommy's arms or shopping cart.  If you seek him out and he doesn't know you very well, he will still look at you like "Who the heck are you and why are you looking at me?"

-No illnesses this month!  Still sitting at 12 illnesses in his 16 months of life.


I am making more of an effort the past couple of months to take Noah places and do activities with him.  As he gets older he seems to need this more.  He loves to visit people and do things out of his ordinary routine.  If we go somewhere outside of the house, he will be so happy and distracted, he won't whine or cry or anything the whole time we are out.  I really wish we didn't live in the boonies.  It makes getting out of the house much more difficult.

Noah did wonderfully this month when we went on vacation to the cottage.  He had a total blast in his new surroundings, and all my fears about his sleep were unnecessary; he slept great! 

Since we have gotten home, though, his sleep has not been great.  Normally he only gets up once a night to nurse.  In the past 9 nights we have been home, he has gotten up twice (or more) probably 5 or 6 of the nights.  I've been understanding and not made him CIO, because he is teething hardcore.  But if this continues on too much longer I think I'll have to take a bit of a firmer line.  I don't mind nursing him once overnight, and I know he sleeps longer than he would if he didn't nurse.  But he doesn't need to nurse twice.  Not for hunger purposes, anyway. 

Speaking of teething, I think it is very interesting how Noah teeths in such huge spurts.  His first spurt was from 5 to 8 months, when he got 8 teeth in 3 months.  Then he had a 5 month break, and at 13 months he started teething again.  He got his 4 molars, and 3 of his canines are showing (one is about to).  So basically he will have gotten another 8 teeth in about 3 months.  It's rough, but if I could chose it, I would chose this.  If he's going to be in pain from cutting teeth, he might as well cut a whole bunch of teeth at once, rather than one tooth at a time.

Noah hasn't been a big fan of vegetables for the past several months. But this month we figured out how to get him to eat them again - give him a utensil to eat them with! He will eat all sorts of less-than-yummy stuff if he's feeding himself with a fork or spoon.

This past weekend Justin and I were able to go out for dinner for the first time since Noah was born.  We drove into town, and dropped Noah off at my parents house at 4:30 - it was a very early dinner.  We went out for almost an hour and a half.  Noah did really well.  He asked for Mama a few times, but my parents just reminded him that I was out for dinner and would be home soon, and he accepted it.  This is huge, because he has had such horrible separation anxiety for most of his life.  So have I, for that matter!  Justin and I already missed him when we were still in my parents' driveway.  Despite this, we really enjoyed our early evening date, and I'm glad Noah did well.  He loves my parents, though.  He wouldn't have done as well with anyone else.

This month Noah has really gotten into imitating his Daddy.  He tries to copy Justin by doing pushups, situps, squats, and deadlifts, making grunting noises while he does each movement.  He also copies Daddy's big overhead stretch, groaning while he does it.  It just melts me to watch him try to be like his Dad.

This past month Noah has used the word "Mama" more than ever before.  For instance, when Justin goes into his room in the morning to get him, Noah will immediately say "Mama??  Mama??"  Like "What are you doing here, Dad?  I want my Mom!!!"  If I walk in there, he just smiles.  I love hearing him say Mama.  Maybe it's because a "Mom" is such a special thing in my mind, so having him call me by my appropriate name almost makes me feel like he recognizes what a special person I am in his life.  I have always been his favourite person by FAR, but still, it just feels so special to hear him call me Mama. 

13 Months

At 13 months old, here is what Noah is up to:

-I'm guessing he weighs about 21.5lbs, but I didn't get him weighed today

-He is about 32-33 inches long (when comparing him to other kids who measured 31.5 inches, he is visibly taller than them by at least an inch, but we haven't been able to get a good measurement of him ourselves).

-He wears size 3 Pampers Cruisers during the day, size 4 Baby Dry at night, which he often leaks through.

-He still nurses 10+ times a day, and signs for it a lot more often that that!

-He signs for "nurse" and "water".  I don't really do any other signs consistently.

-He is still about 75-50% breastfed, with solids making up the other 20-25%.  He has gotten more picky this month, and will spit out any vegetables he puts in his mouth.  He loves meats and fruits, and most starchy foods (potatoes, stuffing, etc).  But he is no longer a fan of vegetables.  This would bother me more, but since he is still breastfeeding I'm not at all worried about any picky eating habits because he is getting more nutrients from breastmilk than he would from vegetables.

-He doesn't eat much "baby food" anymore.  Not because he won't, but because we just usually feed him from what we're eating since we never know how much he will eat.  We have a ton of purees and baby oatmeal left though.  I'm not totally sure what we'll do with it.

-He enjoys a balance of being fed and feeding himself.  He's not totally in one camp or the other.

-He wears 18 and 24 month clothing, depending on what it is. For example, he wears 24 month footless sleepers, but 18 month footed sleepers. He wears some 18 month onesies, some 24 month onesies. It just depends on the piece.  The funniest/weirdest thing is that he fits in 6-9 month shorts, but the waist on them is kind of big on him.  I thought he would wear them last summer, but they never ended up fitting him.  I tried them this year... almost perfect!  I wonder if it's the brand?

-He still has just 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom. He hasn't gotten a new tooth since he was 8 months old.

-He currently has his 10th illness, another cold.

-He goes to bed at about 8pm (sometimes early, but sometimes closer to 8:30), sleeps until sometime past 5am, nurses, and goes back to sleep again until who knows when. It's totally hit and miss with how long he sleeps, but I don't get him out of bed until close to 7:30am.

-Bedtime has been later this month because Noah is in an awkward transition from 2 naps down to 1 nap.  He is increasing the length of his daytime naps (generally to about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes), but slightly decreasing his amount of total sleep in 24 hours, so his nighttime sleep has been shortening.  I'm actually liking the later bedtime.  I'm in less of a rush in the evenings to get dinner cooked, eaten, and Noah bathed and in bed.  We have more time to be a family.  It's nice.

-We're having a hard time fitting 2 naps in everyday.  About half the time he only takes one nap a day, the other half he takes two naps.  This depends on what time he wakes up in the morning.  If he gets up at 7am, he'll definitely have 2 naps.  If he gets up at 8am, whether he has two naps would depend on how early he's able to get to sleep for his first nap, and then how long he sleeps for (this nap is almost always about 1 hour).  If he wakes up at 8:30, he definitely only has one nap.  If he only has one nap, his awake period before bed is usually about 7 hours, give or take.  Sometimes he is 100% fine with this, sometimes he is kind of cranky.  This occasional crankiness is why we haven't just made the leap to one nap. 

-(By the way, I don't consider this transition to be a sleep issue at all... it'll work itself out soon I'm sur - probably within the next month - and until then we are just playing it by ear.  I don't mind at all.  His nighttime sleep and daytime sleep are still doing well).

-He is almost running now! 

-He is very careful, and almost never hurts himself.

-When he goes to climb the stairs, he opens the baby gate at the bottom, walks through it, climbs up the first stair, turns around, closes the baby gate fully, and then proceeds to climb all the way upstairs.  He needs the gate to be shut first.  It's funny.

-He is really good at picking up his basketball, walking across the room, reaching the ball over his head, and scoring a basket. 

-He still "talks on the phone" by putting the phone (or an object that resembles a phone) all the way behind his head and "talking."  He also hands us the phone to talk, too.

-He's still very cuddly, and loves to hug and kiss Mommy.  He also loves to hug and kiss babies of any age.  He is such a little sweetie-pie.

-I am still his number 1 favourite person, and I'm who he wants when he cries, but he is getting friendlier to other people that he knows and is slightly less of a Mommy-suck.

-He still loves to play in the curtains. He breathes really excitedly, giggles, and pops his head out with a huge smile when I say "Where's Noah?!"

-He loves to walk around with a blanket over his head and giggle.

-He still loves to lounge around on the floor and lay his head on pillows.

-Diaper changes are still torture.  I've discovered that actually belting him to the change pad works to keep him on his back, though (with the belt thats attached to the change pad, not an actual belt).  So I just have to deal with the screaming, which I can handle.  I often just change his bum when he walking around to avoid the hassle. 

-He is understanding so much language now.  He follows many directions and points to objects and pictures when we ask where they are.

-His expressive language is still the same.  Besides babbling and gibberish, he says "Uh oh," "Dis," "Dat," "Mama," and "Dad" or "Dada". 

-He loves to "read".  If he is allowed, he will pull every book off his bookshelf and still flipping through them.  If he is allowed, he will also eat every book on his bookshelf.  His favourite book for us to read to him is still Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? He gets a huge smile on his face when we start it.

-He continues to happily allow me to shower while he is awake, and plays in the bathroom while I'm doing so. This is going better (for me) since I reorganized the cupboards and drawers. There's less for him to pull out and toss around, now. (This is a new development since shortly before 12 months... before this I was always having to shower while he was sleeping or else he would scream his head off).


 
There's 13 months for you!  I can't believe Noah is 13 months old already.  It seems so old to me.  And I can't believe I'm on time with this update!  I better post it now before a week suddenly passes...

1 YEAR OLD!

I am getting really bad at posting these on time. 

At 12 months old, here is what Noah is up to:

-He weighs 21lbs even, totally naked, on March 14 (he was 21lbs 11oz with his clothes and diaper on, which I then weighed, and they were exactly 11oz).

-He is still about 31.5 inches long.

-He wears size 3 diapers during the day, size 4 at night, which he often leaks through. 

-He still nurses 10+ times a day, and signs for it a lot more often that that!

-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, as he wants them.. He's still about 90% breastfed, with solids making up the other 10%.

-He wears 18 and 24 month clothing, depend on the piece.  For example, he wears 24 month footless sleepers, but 18 month footed sleepers.  He wears some 18 month onesies, some 24 month onesies.  It just depends on the piece.

-He still has  just 8 teeth, the four top and four bottom.  He hasn't gotten a new tooth since before he was 8 months old.

-He goes to bed at about 7:30pm, sleeps until sometime past 4:30am (sometimes as late as 6:30am), nurses, and goes back to sleep again until about 7:30am, give or take.  The time changed a couple of weeks ago, and I don't think I'm interested in shifting everything the entire hour.  I think I'll keep bedtime at 7:30 for the spring and summertime.

-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, and the second nap is about 3.5 hours after he wakes up from his first nap.  He can handle awake periods that are a lot longer, with no problem, but we have to fit in both naps so I make sure he gets down on time.

-He is fully walking, all over the house, turning corners, going in circles, waving objects in the air... it's so cute, but it makes me sad!

-He loves to throw balls (and anything else), play with his baseball bats, score points on his basketball hoop, hit his baseball off his Little Tikes Talking T-Ball tee, and practice stick handling with his mini-sticks and hockey puck.

-He "talks on the phone" by putting the phone (or an object that resembles a phone) all the way behind his head.  It's sooo cute!

-He's still cuddling with us a lot, which we obviously love!

-He still loves to give Mommy kisses (sometimes Daddy, sometimes other babies, and once even Gramper!), but he's not as obsessed with it as he was at 11 months.  I've found it comes in waves, ever since he started bakc at like 7 months old.

-He's still a mommy suck, but he is getting a little better about his separation anxiety.  I don't always have to be in the same room as him if other people are around.

-I can now shower with him in the bathroom with me and he doesn't scream!  Instead he stands at the side of the tub and throws shampoo bottles, toys, and one time even a magazine, into the tub with me.  This is a very welcome development.  Not the toy-throwing, but the lack of screaming while I'm showering.

-He loves to play in the curtains.  He breathes really excitedly, giggles, and pops his head out with a huge smile when I say "Where's Noah?!"

-He is still lounging on the floor like a lazy toddler, rolling back and forth and just enjoying being a goof.

-It is so hard to change his diaper.  He often starts screaming, and won't lie on his back.  I've taken to trying to change him while he's walking around.  Every diaper change is a dreaded battle.  Thank goodness he doesn't poop very often.

-It's always hard to know exactly how much an 12 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," "say bye," and "lean back". He demonstrates understanding of those words through his actions. I'm guessing he knows a lot more, but I can't tell.

-He says "Uh oh," "Dis," "Dat," "Mama," 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" (flip through his books independently) His favourite book for us to read to him is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  He gets a huge smile on his face when we start it.


Well, it happened.  My baby turned ONE.  Over a week ago. 

It makes me so happy, and it makes me sad.  I love each new stage that Noah goes through (well, I guess not every stage), but it makes me so sad that I can never experience his infant-ness again.  People tell me to have another baby, and while I'm happy that I will (hopefully) experience another baby (or two), it's still not baby Noah.  And that's what I want.  To experience baby Noah again.

With that being said, I feel like being a mom just  keeps getting easier and more enjoyable.  The past year of my life has been phenomenal, and I couldn't be happier.  Nothing in my life has ever been as 'worth it' as being Noah's mom has been.  I love that kid to pieces!

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!

A Mom Like Me...

When I first entered Motherhood, I found it to be a very bonding experience.  I suddenly felt connected with almost every other mother out there, past and present.  Having a newborn is some crazy business that I just couldn't imagine before I actually had a baby, and once I had one I felt like I was in the loop.  And so was every other mother.

Now Noah is just 8 days away from turning 10 months old, and the more time passes the more I start to feel... isolated.  Sometimes I feel disconnected from other mothers, rather than connected to them.  And no, it's not because I'm a stay-at-home-mom.  It's because I really think that no two mothers are exactly the same, no two babies are exactly the same, and I just want another mother who's exactly like me, with a baby who's exactly like mine, to be friends with.  Someone I can relate to, and who can relate to me 100%, instead of in bits and pieces.

Going through infertility was an isolating experience, because unless you've gone through infertility, you can't imagine the emotional pain that's involved.  But, I found this big community of IFers on the internet, and whether we had suffered for 1, 2, 3, or 4 years of infertility, whether we ended up conceiving naturally, through IUI, IVF, a donor, or having a child through adoption, we all knew what the suffering felt like.  We could all empathize and connect with one another over the shared pain.

I don't necessarily always find the same to be true with motherhood.  And this is quite possibly because I'm really IN it right now.  I might feel differently once I no longer have babies and toddlers.  But for the past while I've noticed that while it may have seemed at the beginning that there were other mothers like me, as time passes, they're just not anymore. 

Somewhere out there there must be someone like me...

A mother who's gone through infertility, and will deal with that pain everytime she wants another child.

A mother who breastfeeds totally exclusively.  Whose kid has never had a bottle or cup, and didn't start solids until past 6 months.  And who wants it that way.

A mother who takes the advice that "breastmilk should be the main source of nutrition for the first year - or more - of life" seriously, and who doesn't feel the need to give her little baby 3 "solid" meals a day just because certain baby books say she should.  A mother who thinks that perhaps babies' little digestive systems haven't necessarily evolved so that they should be handling a whole lot else besides breastmilk at such a young age, considering thousands of years ago they didn't have "pureed baby food" to feed young babies.

A mother who thought cosleeping was a nice idea, but who couldn't pull it off because she just couldn't sleep with the baby in the room.

A mother who was firmly against cry-it-out, and then ended up with an 8 month old who was a terrible sleeper.  She tried everything, and was forced to use CIO.  She realized that while it may not be her first option, it works, and it doesn't make you a terrible parent.

A mother who has a child who ONLY CAT NAPS, because that's just who he is.

A mother who has a child who was impossible to schedule before 9 months old, who gave up trying, and who really doesn't care anymore, but is still diligent in watching the clock and her child for cues of hunger and fatigue.

A mother who has a child who nursed literally every hour or hour and a half until he was about 5 months old, when he moved to a 2 hour "schedule" (I use that term loosely) and is still there at almost 10 months old.  And who doesn't care.

A mother who doesn't feel the need to wean at 1 year of age just because extended breastfeeding isn't exactly the norm in North America, and who has researched and understands the incredible value of breastmilk and nursing past the age of 1.

A mother whose kid has phases of major separation and stranger anxiety that stop her from functioning like a normal stay at home mom and actually doing chores while her husband is at work.

A mother who is willing to tote her kid around on "long" drives because she thinks babies need to be used to the car, but she doesn't do it in excess and will decline an invitation if she knows that on that particular day, her baby will be cranky during the long car ride.

A mother whose kid detests the playpen, and hysterically screams the moment he's put in it.

A mother who has never left her baby for more than an hour and a half, and only on maybe 4 occasions in his 10 months of life.

A mother who hasn't been outside of her home past 7pm for her child's entire life, because bedtime is important.

A mother who chose (and was able) to put her career on hold (or possibly end it forever) and take a step down in her standard of living in order to stay home with her child(ren) because she knew that nothing could fulfill her more than being the one to take care of her babies full time, every single day.  Even though she held an extremely coveted full-time teaching position, which, where she lives, requires 5 years of university, 2 degrees, and an average of SEVEN YEARS of occasional teaching to achieve after graduation, she gave it up, because she knows that at the end of her life, she won't wish that she had worked more.  But she would wish that she spent more time with her kids.


I'm not saying my way is the only way.  But sometimes it sure would be nice if there was someone out there just like me. 

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!!)

Separation Anxiety

(Noah is about 8 1/2 months old)

I can't remember exactly when Noah's separation anxiety started.  I think it was one of those things that gradually crept up on me.  I do know it's been going on for at least a month.

It started out with some fussing if I put him in the playpen, or if he was on the floor and I walked into the kitchen.

It has progressed to full blown, red-faced screaming as he sadly jumps in the jolly jumper while I shower with the curtain open talking and singing to him as the puddle on my floor gets bigger and bigger.  Lesson learned.  Do not attempt a shower unless he's taking one of his half hour naps.

I can't do anything.  I can't do chores.  I can't make myself something to eat.  I can't even stand up when we've been playing on the floor without him crying and trying to climb my legs.  As soon as he senses I'm about to walk away - even if it's to somewhere nearby where he can still see me - he starts crying.  And the shower thing: I was about 5 feet away from him, looking at him and talking to him, but he apparently knew that I was otherwise incapacitated and couldn't pick him up.  Because normally he loves his jolly jumper.

I do all my housework while Justin is home so he can be with Noah.  Justin isn't always enough for Noah, though.  Sometimes he just needs his Mama.  For example, after his last nap today he woke up crying, as he almost always does.  Justin went and got him and he was okay (not great).  But as soon as he saw me the big pouty lip came out and the eyes welled up and he reached for me.

Just now I went to the kitchen to check on dinner.  We have an open concept house, so I'm still visible when I'm in the kitchen.  Justin was with Noah in the living room, but Noah started whimpering and crawling after me.  When I came back I sent his wheely giraffe toy rolling across the floor to him.  He usually loves that thing, but he knocked it over, pushed it to the side, and crawled into my arms.  "I don't want no stinkin' giraffe, I want my Mama!"

Last week sometime he woke up really early from a nap (after about 20 minutes of sleep, including the time he spent in my arms).  I had just finished making a really nice lunch, and I was frustrated because so many of my meals have been interrupted by having to hold him because he's upset.  So I got Noah from his crib and put him in his jumperoo.  Clearly he could sense that I was frustrated, because he started wailing.  Justin picked him up and tried to calm him down but the wails and crocodile tears continued until I took him in my arms.  This was perhaps not an issue with separation anxiety, but instead an example of how intuitive Noah is, and how sometimes only Mommy will do.  Even when it has nothing to do with boobs.

It's not ALWAYS like this though.  I'd say 30% of the time he's happy enough without me right next to him.  But 70% is a lot of the time.  I can hardly go to the bathroom.  Noah has to come with me and sit on the floor playing with something. 

The playpen?  Forget it.  Not unless I want an automatic meltdown.

It's hard to be a SAHM in a remote little town where there's nothing to do and nowhere to go and be totally glued to your kid for his every waking minute.  And my husband is gone A LOT. 

I'm not going to lie.  About 20% of this post is flat-out complaining.  Being a SAHM is not always easy.  I'm not going to say that I'd rather be a working mom - I wouldn't.  But it's not easy to be alone all day everyday with a cranky baby who needs to be right next to you every second, especially when you don't get to see your husband - or any other adult - much (or at all) several days in a row (like last week) and the previously-mentioned baby barely naps.

The other 80% of me feels very tolerant of this behaviour.  It makes me feel loved, and important.  Noah obviously knows that I am his most important caregiver.  I nurse him all day, I put him to sleep every single time he sleeps, I bathe him every single time he has a bath.  Noah knows that without me, he'd be screwed.  He loves me.  In a funny way, I feel that the separation anxiety means that he appreciates me.

Furthermore, I am fairly certain this is not "put on."  He is literally feeling anxiety.  That's not fun!  I had bad separation anxiety when I was about 4 years old, and I remember it very vividly.  I remember being terrified when I didn't know where my mom or an adult was. One time I ran to my neighbours house panicked because I couldn't find my mom. It turned out she was just upstairs blowdrying her hair, but I was crying and yelling for her and she couldn't hear me so I was convinced she had left the house without me.

Another time we were being babysat by this woman and she left the house and went to the neighbours for some reason.  I was so scared that there was no grown up around so I ran outside and went down the driveway to find her. She ended up getting me in so much trouble and I had to sit in a chair facing the corner.  Needless to say, she never babysat us again. It still makes me feel anxious inside when I think about it! I remember how scared I was running down the driveway to find a grownup and then I got in trouble for it.

So I try not to get annoyed at Noah's separation anxiety, even though it's crippling my life. Because it's obviously very real to him, and I don't want to cause him extra anxiety by acting frustrated or ignoring his cries.  Hopefully he will get past this sooner rather than later.  In the meantime, any coping suggestions are more than welcome!

8 Months Old!

I can't even believe my baby is 8 months old. He's been outside of me for as long as I knew he was inside of me (I found out I was pregnant on July 19th and he was born on March 18th - his EDD was March 29). Where oh where has the time gone??

Here's what Noah is up to at 8 months old:

-He weighs 18lbs 12oz (less than 50th percentile)

-He is 29.5 inches (about 95th percentile)

-He is 10th percentile for weight for height... just a little stringbean.

-He wears 12 month and 18 month clothing.

-He wears size 3 diapers (most Pampers BabyDry).

-He has 4 teeth, three from when he was 5 months old and one he just got in the past week. I think he may be working on his top-right-middle tooth, too. We'll see!

-He is still exclusively breastfed (except for solids at dinner; he still has never had a bottle), and he is getting to be a very cuddly nurser again.

-He eats about 4oz of solids before bedtime, but during the rest of the day it's just breastfeeding. He has finally ingested a small amount of liquid (1/3 pear juice, 2/3 water) from a "sippy cup" (a silicone spout sort of thing, not a true sippy cup). He's usually not that into it, though.

-Most solids still constipate him. So far the only safe foods are pears, prunes, peaches, and butternut squash. Peas, carrots, rice cereal, bananas, apples, apples and apricots, sweet potato, and sweet potato and turkey all constipate him. It's very frustrating, because it takes forever to unplug him again, and it makes it very difficult to introduce new foods. I think the fact that we keep having to switch back to strictly pears and prunes is starting to make him a bit pickier. He was at a point where he loved everything we offered him, but I don't know anymore.

-We just started Oat cereal in hopes that it won't constipate him.

-He's going to sleep at night usually between 7 and 7:30.

-He sleeps amazingly well at night after a very short bout with CIO. He pretty much sleeps 10 to 11 hours straight (with an outside range of 9.5 to 11.5), nurses, and then usually goes back to bed, depending on how long that stretch was (if it was 11.5 hours, he usually won't fall asleep again). He is usually awake when I put him back in his crib, but that seems to be the only time during the day and night that I can lay him down in his crib, walk away, and he'll often drift off to sleep, even if it's 45 minutes later.

-Bedtime routine is boob, solids, bath, boob, bed. He falls asleep nursing nearly every night.

-He has 2 or 3 naps a day.

-His normal awake time is about 2.5 hours.  Sometimes as short as an hour and 15 minutes, and often he has a stretch of 3 hours or more in the evening.

-His naps are still crappy most of the time. In an entire week he maybe has 2 or 3 naps that are about an hour long. The rest are all 30-40 minutes.

-He's still rocked to sleep with a soother for all his naps. I've tried letting him CIO for naps, but the crying is usually much worse than it was at nighttime when we used CIO, so I don't feel he's ready to go to sleep independently for all his naps.
-He is still swaddled at nighttime, but we recently have stopped swaddling for naps. I think it's going okay.

-He sleeps on his tummy even when he's swaddled.  I thought this was just the worst thing until I remembered that when I used to sleep on my tummy (before being pregnant and nursing... I haven't slept on my tummy in a very very long time) I would always sleep with my arms straight down at my sides.  So it's not like it's uncomfortable.

-Everytime we go to get him out of his crib he's standing up waiting for us. It's one of those things I always dreamed of about being a mom:)

-He crawls on his hands and knees exclusively. He started doing this right at 7 months, and had ditched army crawling completely by 7.5 months. The only time he'll army crawl is if he's trying to get under something that's too low to crawl under.

-He pulls up to standing using everything (even just a flat wall) and can sit down again on his own. His crib is on the 2nd lowest setting. He no longer needs someone to sit behind him when he's standing in case he falls, because he pretty much never falls. He doesn't even lean on the things that are supporting him. He just needs a hand on something to steady himself.

-He can just sit there in a squatting position, not holding on to anything.

-He can stand on his own - without holding on to anything - for a few seconds at a time. His record is about 5 seconds. This is by no means something he has mastered, though.

-He is understanding object permanence and looks for dropped objects.

-He has seperation anxiety and stranger anxiety. Fun fun!:)

-If he wants to be picked up and you are across the room, he will whine and crawl over to you and use your legs to stand up until you pick him up.

-He gives me lots of kisses everyday. He's started to "talk" while he does it, I think because when I kiss him I often am going "Muah, muah muah, muah." He's started to open his mouth, plant it on me, and go "Ahhhhhh." He doesn't kiss anybody else, usually, but yesterday he gave his friend Aubrey (3 weeks older) a kiss on the cheek, "Ahhh" and everything..

-He likes to sit in the bumbo on the kitchen counter while I cook.

-He babbles lots and sometimes purposefully imitates the sounds we make ("bat"). His most common sound is "Dada."

-He laughs his head off when Justin turns the ring stacker upside down, spins it like a top, and says "BING!"

-He doesn't get his soother much during the day, so he's falling out of love with it. When he does get it during the day, he plays with it more than he sucks on it.

-He still does the head-tilt thing, but it's becoming less frequent than it was a month ago.

-He loves our cats, but they do not love him. It makes me not love them.

There it is!  Happy 8 months, my sweet little Noah!  The past 8 months have been the best and happiest 8 months of my life.