Sunday, August 28, 2011

Day Trip to Tulsa

On Friday, Jared had to go to Tulsa for work. Since Paxton did so well on the trip to the lake, we decided to join Jared. We left on Friday morning and were planning on eating lunch somewhere cool before Jared had to be at Tinker Federal Credit Union. Unfortunately, lunch time coincided with bottle time for Paxton so we ended up eating lunch at the food court at the Woodland Hills Mall.

After lunch, Jared left and Paxton and I walked around the mall. Baby Gap was having a pretty good sale so I got Paxton some fall clothes. Hopefully he's wearing nine month clothes when it starts getting cooler...cuz that's what he has.

We have started putting Paxton in just his stroller instead of leaving him in his car seat and attaching that to the stroller...mostly because he isn't a huge fan of his car seat. It has a five-point harness and the seat is really reclined so he isn't forced to sit up. He really liked it, he could see everything that was going on and there were lots of people to smile at:








When Jared was finished, we drove around downtown and Jared took some pictures of some of the old churches. Paxton made it through the whole trip without a nap...which is crazy. He usually takes a nap every two hours throughout the day but he usually will only sleep in his bed...he usually doesn't fall asleep in his car seat like he did when he was a newborn. He got a little fussy on the way home because he was so sleepy, but overall it was a fun little day trip.

We did an adorable photo shoot with Paxton last weekend. You can see some of the best shots on Jared's blog.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Playing

Paxton is at a really fun age right now. He is really interactive and loves to play. He gets really excited when Jared comes home because these things usually happen:











He really was having fun...the pictures where he was smiling are the ones with lots of movement which means blurry.

We had our first play date last week. My friend Jessica has an adorable 12 month old little boy named Camden, so Paxton and I went over there in between naps:




They seemed to really like each other. Camden had to take a nap pretty soon after we got there so they didn't have a lot of time to play, but I think there will be several more play dates in the future.

Aunt Teighynne bought Paxton a new cd. It was one we used to listen to all the time when we were little, Raffi. Of course we immediately turned it on...I think my mom and sisters and I had more fun with it than Paxton did. He did enjoy chewing on it though.






Here is Paxton practicing his new skill...sitting up on his boppy! I think he'll be sitting up on his own soon. He really likes sitting up to play and gets frustrated lying down now.




Here is his favorite teddy bear. Our friends Tom and Nicole McDaniel bought it for Paxton before he was born and he loves to grab it and cuddle it when he wakes up.




And here he is today sitting in his bumbo playing. Other than dropping things and not being able to reach them, it's his new favorite place to play.

Monday, August 22, 2011

FIVE MONTHS!!

Paxton is five months old today!  Here are the pictures from his five month photo shoot:


He looks mad but was really just focused on the toy I was using to get his attention

Looks like his daddy in this one


Sitting up all by himself!





This month, Paxton has gotten even more fun and interactive.  He loves his toys and has really learned how to play with them.  He grabs the hanging toys on his vibrating seat and his frog play mat, he shakes rattles, he moves the little pieces on his bouncy seat.  He also likes to be talked to, tickled and tossed in the air by Daddy.  He thinks people singing to him are hilarious.  He has added the "G" sound to his babbling and says something that sounds like "hungry" every time I change his diaper.  I love his little voice and I'm excited for him to start saying little words.

He is getting really close to being able to sit up alone.  He can do it now for a few seconds, especially if he uses his hands as kind of a tripod.  He watches TV for a few minutes at a time (bad parenting I know...but it's so cute).  He's still eating rice cereal from a bottle and we'll probably stick with just that for this month and then start doing it from a bowl (along with a few other baby foods) around 6 months.  He also rolled over from back to front for the first (and second) time this past week.  I don't have pictures or a video because I wasn't expecting it!  There weren't really any new milestones this month in "What to Expect the First Year"...it did say that some babies may be able to pull up from a sitting position which blows my mind!  They're still so little at this age!  Paxton is still wearing 3-6 month clothes and 6 month clothes.  He wore his first pair of jeans this month...adorable!

He loves to be around people and isn't crazy about being alone.  Sometimes if I leave him playing in his room and go into another room for a minute, he starts shrieking...not crying...just kind of a loud squeal until I come back.  Then he busts out a huge smile and starts "talking" to me.  He has also started to get really excited when Jared comes home from work.  When Jared walks in the door, he has a huge smile and he flails his little arms and legs.

He recognizes his name now and will turn when one of us says "Paxton".  This is a pretty fun one.  I didn't realize that would happen so early.  I guess some babies start crawling in the next few months...I'm not quite ready for that one.  For now I'm enjoying knowing that he might roll off of a blanket on the floor but he's not really going anywhere.  It's nice to not have to worry about baby-proofing yet.

We are loving being parents to this little boy and watching as he makes new developments.  We can't believe how fast it's going (just like everyone told us it would). 

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Tomorrow

Paxton will be five months old tomorrow.  I can't believe how fast he has grown up.  These past months have flown by and he is starting to change and learn new things every day.

ONE MONTH

TWO MONTHS

THREE MONTHS
FOUR MONTHS
So I'll update tomorrow with his 5 month picture!!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Perfect Mom

When I was pregnant, I spent a lot of time reading books about babies.  This was my first time parenting and I wanted to do it right.  I also spent a lot of time fantasizing about being the perfect mom.  I even took advice from the book and things that other parents did that I liked or didn't like and made some "rules".

1.  No co-sleeping.  Paxton was going to sleep in his own room in his crib starting the night he came home.

2.  No pacifiers.  I had read that pacifiers before 3 months caused nipple confusion and all kinds of problems when it was time to wean the baby off of them.  So we were going to avoid that altogether.

3.  No formula. 

4.  No dinners spent holding him.  He could sit in his car seat while we ate.

5.  No risky decisions without consulting with the pediatrician first.

6.  I would look decent and have dinner at least started and the house mostly clean when Jared got home.  I would also do the grocery shopping alone.

I was living in a dream land...not sure what I was thinking exactly...apparently I thought maybe I was a super hero...

Here's what really happened:

1.  Co-sleeping:  we started out really well.  We brought Paxton home and the first night, we swaddled him and put him to sleep in his crib.


He did pretty well at first but after some amount of time...I can't remember now...he stopped liking it.  Plus it's hard!  I thought that since his room was right across the hall from ours, it would be no big deal to get him in the middle of the night...and it really wasn't...mostly it was the thought of taking him back to bed after I fed him.  Co-sleeping happened.  He slept great, we slept pretty well and we were all happy...for about two nights.  Then Jared mentioned that Paxton was a noisy sleeper...and I realized that I was waking up several times a night to make sure he was ok.  We decided to move him back to the crib, but knew we would have to take small steps.  We didn't have a bassinet, so we put a pillow and some blankets in a laundry basket and he slept next to our bed...that's embarrassing but true.  I had read that as long as we had him back in his crib by four months, he wouldn't be "spoiled"...I was really in no hurry to move him back.  Well, one night Jared decided it was time.  He put him to bed in his crib.  I was nervous.  I just knew he would wake up crying in about an hour and the laundry basket would be back.  I was wrong.  Paxton slept for six straight hours that night.  From then on it was official.  Paxton slept in his bed and he slept great.  It wasn't a hard transition at all...but I might have never taken that first step on my own.

2.  Pacifiers:  Paxton loves to suck...we had gotten several pacifiers from our baby shower and I had kept them...I probably knew deep down that this was a pretty silly thing to even try.  One night, my mom was over and Paxton was fussing.  She asked if he was hungry, I said he wasn't....there was a pacifier in close proximity, she plopped it in, he was silent.  Well, we were hooked.  He loved them, and we loved that all it took to make him stop fussing at ANY time was a pacifier.  To be honest, sometimes when he woke up in the middle of the night in his laundry basket, we would plop the pacifier in his mouth and buy 30 more minutes of sleep...  In the past few months, Pax has found his thumb (and his toes) and sucks that instead of pacifiers.  Jared sucked his thumb until he was about eight...so that came with a whole new set of weaning worries...but we'll deal with those when we need to.  For now, he's happy and so are we.

3.  Formula:  Paxton was 9 pounds when he was born.  Apparently babies that are born that big have trouble metabolizing sugar.  While we were in the hospital, nurses would come every few hours and take blood from his heel (TERRIBLE) to check his sugar.  When Paxton was a day old, I was in the bathroom getting ready while the nurses checked his sugar.  It was really low.  I was still in the bathroom when they decided to supplement with formula.  I came out of the bathroom to find Paxton eating 15mL of Similac from a bottle.  From then on, we had to supplement each feeding with 15 mL of formula.  Well, Paxton learned that the formula was coming and it was much easier to eat than breast milk.  Pretty soon he got too frustrated when nursing and would only take a bottle.  I continued to pump until he was eight weeks old.  I had heard that babies get the most important benefits in the first eight weeks...and boy was it stressful trying to pump along with everything else...so when that eight week mark hit, I quit...with more than a little guilt...but I have a happy and full baby who is growing just like he should.   

4.  Dinners spent holding him:  Paxton is in a phase right now where he doesn't like his car seat very much.  Even with toys, sometimes he is fussy sitting in it.  So about 20% of the time, we take turns eating and holding Paxton...it's less embarrassing than him shrieking in public.  When we eat at home, he has plenty to do and he entertains himself while we eat...so at least we have that.  Plus, as he gets a little bigger, he can start sitting in high chairs which I think will work out much better.

5.  Involving the pediatrician in everything:  The first few weeks (okay...months) Paxton was home, I called the pediatrician a lot.  I had a favorite nurse...Kim.  Since then, I have started trusting myself to make decisions.  Without calling the pediatrician, I bought Paxton a pool floatie and took him swimming.  I decided to skip the lake.  I figured out how much rice cereal to feed him.  I let Paxton decide how many naps he wants a day and how long they are.  I bought him a stationary walker.  I let him play with Scarlett.  I let him sleep on his tummy (that one I wouldn't have asked the pediatrician anyway...cuz I know what he would say...).  Granted most of these involve some time on Google and some serious talks with my amazing husband...but it does feel good to take the role as the decision maker...I still called him when I wanted to switch Paxton to a different formula because I wanted to make sure they were similar and that the new one had all of the ingredients he needed, and I will still call if ANYTHING involving Paxton's health is an issue.   

6.  Super Wife:  Most days I don't put on make up, I wear shorts and a t-shirt pretty much every day.  My hair is never down.  The house is usually a mess.  Dinner is never started (ok maybe twice).  A lot of evenings Jared comes home and the dinner dishes from the night before are still in the sink...and I stopped going to the store by myself.  I told Jared it was because Paxton is loud at the store and I get stressed...and that's definitely true.  Going to the store with a baby is waaaay harder than going alone...from parking near the carts, to getting the car seat latched on correctly, seeing what's in front of you over the cart, keeping him entertained when you can't really pay attention to him, the whole paying process (NIGHTMARE!) and then loading the groceries and the baby back in the car in an order that makes sense...and then what do you do with the cart?  You can't leave it out, but you also can't leave the baby in the car while you take it back...so I usually do some sort of awkward scenario involving dragging the car seat to the basket rack while trying to push the cart (P.S. why do those cart guys always just stand and watch me struggle? Help a sister out!!).  So, yeah...having Jared there helps a lot.  But mostly I missed having someone to talk to and make decisions with. 

So there it is.  All my broken plans for being the perfect mom.  But I love every minute of it.  I wouldn't trade my messy house or my thumb dependency anxieties for anything.  I love my little family and I love that we've had some struggles to get where we are. 






Saturday, August 13, 2011

My Favorite Picture Ever

I LOVE this picture!!
How sweet is that?  A boy and his daddy...both smiling!  I don't know how anything could be sweeter than that.




Watching TV
I've read all the articles about keeping kids away from the TV until they're three...but look how much he loves it!  I don't think it's going to hurt him to watch some HGTV with his momma...he's not even going to remember.  Plus look at those thighs!

Sitting Up!
Also, this happened this week.  Thursday night I had Paxton propped in my lap and I noticed that he wasn't really leaning on me.  I moved away and grabbed the camera.  By the time I took the picture, he was kind of leaning over...but still!  I think this is a pretty big deal for four months!

And look how much Paxton has grown up in the last four months....

Coming home from the hospital

Last Sunday at Lotsa Noodles
I can't believe how much he has changed in just four months.  He has gone from a sweet sleepy newborn to an active and loud baby!  Just to compare...look how much Jared and I haven't changed in four months:

Jared in March

Jared in July
Me in March

Me in July

Friday, August 5, 2011

Rice Cereal and Rolling Over

We started Paxton on rice cereal on Monday when we got back from the lake.  After a quick stop at Wal-Mart to stock up on baby bowls and Gerber Rice Cereal, we were ready to go.  Dr. Campbell said that we could either mix the cereal with his bottle, or try feeding it to him with a spoon.  Well, feeding him from a bottle didn't sound that fun, so we opted for the bowl.  Paxton loves putting everything in his mouth and will suck on anything...so we thought the spoon wouldn't be a problem...haha.  Feeding him rice cereal was a mess!  I think he maybe swallowed about a teaspoon the entire time.  Most of it came right back out...but it was hilarious.  I think for the next few weeks we'll stick to the bottle.

Happy Baby...Messy Face
Spitting most of it out
  Paxton has been rolling over for awhile now...but I'm always surprised when I see him do it.  So today, during one of our many photo shoots, I caught him doing it:

Before

During

After!  He's so proud!
And just in case that wasn't enough pictures of Paxton...here are some more:

Putting all his toys in his mouth at once

and the blanket...

First time in a high chair at Chick-fil-A and loving it!

He's ready for big boy cups  


So happy in his new swing from Granny V

Waking up at the lake

His new favorite...eating his big toe

Playing




Also...just in case you're one of those people who wants to watch 500 home videos of Paxton not rolling over and not smiling...here's the link to our youtube channel.