Week 27

Hayden LOVES eating... Are we surprised?!


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He ate the whole serving of rice cereal and was smiling and leaning in for more the whole time. Gobble! Gobble! I am planning on making my own baby food and have been reading up in a book called Super Baby Food and purchased a kit called So Easy Baby Food that comes with ice cube trays for making perfect frozen serving sizes you just pop in the microwave to defrost. Today we bought him a Space Saver High Chair so don't worry, the Bumbo seat was just temporary. Hayden sat in his new seat at the dinner table with us this evening and practiced drinking out of a sippy cup, banging a spoon and enjoying his new view. Pretty soon, he'll be eating dinner with us too (for now, he just has one solid food meal a day, around noon)! Let the fun begin!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Phil's family and then with my dad and his family & friends. I have SO MUCH to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, I don't even know where to start: A healthy, adorable, incredible baby. My amazing, supportive husband who continues to impress me with his ability to make up songs and speak in a voice higher than I thought possible for a male. ;) And for still thinking I am still his sexy wife! I am thankful for my PEPS group and all the other mommy friends I know who have been so helpful in sharing parenting stories, frustrations, rejoices, advice, and empathy. I am so blessed to have such a network of friends and family to help me on this journey. Above all, I thank God for providing for our needs in so many ways and demonstrating His love for us through Jesus. I have to admit, my spiritual life has taken a bit of a back seat while I am consumed by my new role as Mommy, but every time I turn to God, he is always there for me with open arms. When I look at Hayden, I feel like I can now more closely understand God's abundant love for His creation.



It was a little difficult to do a dairy-free Thanksgiving, but I managed. I substituted soy yogurt, soy milk, and imitation cream cheese in an awesome carrot cake recipe from my step-mom, and no one could even tell the difference! I made steamed sweet potatoes with brown sugar sprinkled on top, steamed green beans, and my sister-in-law used soy milk in the mashed potatoes for me. And she made an incredible 20 lb. turkey:



I didn't partake of my annual Black Friday Door Buster shopping since Phil had to work and I wasn't about to drag Hayden around with me through all that madness! Oh well. I wasn't all that impressed with the sales this year anyway, and now that we're really budget-conscious, shopping just isn't as fun anymore, even if there are good deals.

We also installed Hayden's new car seat this weekend. It's quite big, but definitely fits Hayden better than the infant carrier. So glad to be done with that thing!

Hayden is sitting up by himself really well now. Only if he gets really distracted will he fall over. I think this will help the little bald spot on the back of his head that was getting a little flat from all the laying down. Speaking of bald, Hayden's hair seems to be coming in more noticeably now. It looks like a dark reddish blonde. Still hard to tell!

I think his upper teeth might be close to popping through. He has been a little fussy, wanting to chew on anything that gets near his mouth, and not sleeping well the past couple nights. I thought solid foods were supposed to help a baby sleep better!! :) Actually, funny thing is, he slept GREAT the night BEFORE he started the rice cereal. He slept from 8pm to 6am with only one brief call for the pacifier/"shhh" routine at about midnight. Not too bad!

6 Months Old!

Here are the stats from his 6 month check-up yesterday:

Weight - 20 lbs, 10 oz (95 percentile)
Height - 29 inches (Above 97 percentile)
Head Circ. - 18 inches (95 percentile)

So he weighs less than Phil and I expected - I guess all that jumping in the Jumparoo has been good exercise! But still, he's certainly a BIG boy! And totally healthy. The Dr. was very impressed by his health and development.

Week 26

Can you believe Hayden will be 6 months old on Tuesday?! Time is FLYING by. We have Hayden's 6-month Well Baby doctor visit on Monday so I will report his stats next week. I think he'll be close to 22 lbs. and 29 inches tall. Time to upgrade to our new car seat! We bought the Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite from Costco about a month ago. I had hoped Hayden would be able to sit up on his own before we started using it, since it's pretty convenient how the infant seat we have can be carried in and out of the car. But I think he's just too big for that seat. It's not safe if he's too big, plus, it's actually hurting my wrist to carry him in it anyway. Since he rarely falls asleep in the car anymore, it's not a big deal to take him in and out of the seat. He can sit up for about 30 seconds on his own, but if he gets distracted he'll topple over. So when I go grocery shopping I'll have to put him in the Moby until he can sit up better.

He's not quite crawling yet, but does a really cute froggy kick that looks like he's swimming the breaststroke. He can slowly move around the floor by a combination of rolling, scooting, and pivoting if he's motivated enough, but usually he just starts fussing and Mommy will give in and hand him the toy he wants or pick him up... what can I say? I'm a softie.

Sleep continues to be an experiment. Sometimes he wakes up 3-4 times and other times it's only once to feed around 3am. He has yet to sleep a complete 7pm - 7am stretch. Usually when he wakes up, all it takes is popping in his pacifier, a little "shhhh" and pat on the chest and he's back to sleep in less than a minute. I only nurse him once a night now. One time around midnight, we tried to not go to him to do the pacifier routine and he got so worked up and cried for 40 minutes I just couldn't take it anymore. I don't know how to break this night waking habit without letting him cry. And since he still has a bit of a lingering cough and stuffy nose from his cold last week, I hate to let him cry at all.

If we get the green light from the pediatrician, we are planning on giving Hayden his first taste of rice cereal on Thanksgiving Day. We thought it would be fitting for him to get his first solid foods on the Day of Eating. I'm sure we'll have some photos of cereal all over his face coming shortly!

In the meantime, here are some other adorable photos that I took to submit to the Costco Baby Model casting call:

Week 25

Poor little guy. Hayden's had a yucky cold all week. It has been hard for him to eat with such a stuffy nose and hard to sleep since his cough would wake him up and expel his pacifier. We've been taking it easy, doing the saline nose drops, bulb syringe thing (which he HATES!) and a humidifier in his room. He seems to be a bit better today so I think the worst is over.

We even got to the park a few days ago to see if the fresh air would help. Hayden really loves the swing!


And here is another cute photo where you can really see his 2 bottom teeth!


On Friday and Saturday my mom, Step-Dad, and little sister were in town from Michigan for a quick visit. My step-dad had never met Hayden, my mom hadn't seen him since the day after he was born, and my little sister came out in June, so Hayden has certainly changed a lot since then! Despite still being a little under the weather, Hayden was an adorable little angel and my mom kept commenting on what a good baby he is. While we would be eating, Hayden would just sit quietly in his infant seat (which he has almost outgrown!). He was soaking up all the attention and especially loved all the activity and stimulation at Red Robin! Everyone enjoyed taking turns holding him. Well, my mom wasn't so good at sharing—every time Hayden would make a little noise, she would say "Hayden just said he wanted his Grandma Judi." :)

Grandma Judi

Aunt Ali

Grandpa Mark

My freelance design jobs are really picking up. I have 3 big projects going on right now so I am trying to wrap up a couple. First, I was worried about not having enough work. Now, it's too much! It's so hard to balance! The extra income is definitely coming at a good time, though, with the holidays coming up, so I can't complain.

My dad babysat Hayden on Thursday night so we could go to my older sister's "Happy Hour" birthday celebration. It was the first time we had someone other than us put Hayden to bed at night. I wrote out detailed, bullet point instructions for Hayden's bedtime routine, and my dad said Hayden was super easy. We were home by 8pm and Hayden was already asleep in his crib. Yay! This means Phil and I can actually enjoy a date once in a while! I'm so glad Hayden did well for my dad. My dad is so good with babies and kids, though, I am not surprised. And I think he really enjoyed the bonding time with his grandson.

Week 24

Hayden was a Supercute Superbaby for Halloween! We had fun surprising Grandpa Doug and Grandma Augusta for a "Trick or Treat" and also made the rounds over to Phil's parent's house. Daddy ate Hayden's candy for him, wasn't that nice of him?! Though no Butterfinger for me :( -- No milk chocolate candy of any kind! This non-dairy diet is brutal! I guess on the bright side, because I haven't been able to eat ice cream, brownies, cookies, cake, and milk chocolate, I'm down to my pre-pregnancy weight. I guess I have nursing a chunkasaurus to thank for that too. ;)

Even though our PEPS group officially "ended" on the 24th, we decided to continue meeting, and also get together for more Mommy's Night Outs and other fun events (that sometimes will also include the Daddies). I never could have imagined how wonderful it is to have this group to share the joys and challenges of parenting with, who are going through often EXACTLY the same things. They are incredible women and we have all bonded so well. We are also figuring out the possibility of a babysitting co-op so I'm looking forward to that too! Phil and I are continuing to host a couples' "Newlyparents Group" at our home every-other Saturday so with that, along with the moms I keep in touch with from my "You and Your New Baby" class, the moms from our KinderMusik class, and in our own family, I am surrounded by a support-network of other parents!

I never thought I'd say this, but I have insomnia. Before Hayden, my head would hit the pillow and I'd be asleep almost instantly. Now, I lay in bed for 1-2 hours every night trying to fall asleep. It seems like just when I finally start to drift off, Phil will start snoring, or Hayden will wake up, or a thought of something I need to remember to do will pop into my head and I'm wide awake all over again. The hardest part is that Hayden is actually sleeping pretty well now, so he's not even to blame! He'll go to sleep around 7:30pm, wake up at 2:30am or so for a feeding and fall right back to sleep, and then wake up at 6:30am. Then I bring him in bed with me and we snooze together until about 7:45am. The problem is, I go to bed around 10:30pm, it takes me until about midnight to actually fall asleep, so that 2:30 feeding wakes me up again, I'm awake until around 3:30 and it never feels like I got any sleep. I've recently received some good suggestions from friends and even my doctor, so we'll see if I can snap out of this insomnia!

Another challenge I am facing is this career as a Part-Time Freelance Designer. I thought the freelance opportunities would be plentiful and I could pick and choose what I'd want to take on. Turns out, it's been harder than I thought to have a steady flow of work, and then it seems a bunch come in all at once and I feel overwhelmed. I feel like being a full-time mom AND a part-time designer means I never get a break. Plus, I barely ever see Phil. When he gets home from work, I make dinner while he plays with Hayden a bit, then we eat dinner, do Hayden's bath and then I head down to my office to work the rest of the evening while Phil finishes Hayden's bedtime routine and then does his own thing. I need to figure out a way to schedule when I will work and when I will not. When you work from home, it's always there. Always something to do (even when I didn't have freelance work, I was finishing my online portfolio and resume). I've heard from other Work-at-Home moms that you have to schedule the time to work and schedule the "Family Time" so I will try that... I have to figure something out!