9 months

9 months!!!

Killean is now nine months old!  I suppose it's time for a short (emphasis on short) and sweet update on this little guy.

Killean now how four teeth-two on top, and two on bottom. I'm sure more are coming...and probably will be in rapid succession too!

He is 17lb 13.6oz.  So it seems he has lost a little weight since we took him in around 8 months, but only a few ounces.  Still, surprised both Ian and I.  Doctor isn't concerned about his weight or height.  They are around the 10th-15th percentile each, so he's proportionate.

He is starting to like food a little bit better.  As long as there is some fruit mixed in with whatever we're eating, he'll take it OK.  His favorites seems to be peaches/nectarines and bananas.  He does love finger food though!  We aren't doing that much finger food yet, but cut up blue berries, puffs, and then steamed veggies seems to go over pretty well for him.

His sleep is still not good.  The early morning time seems to be the worst now.  3am to 6am is filled with frequent feedings and nursing is the only thing that will get him to go back to sleep easily.  It can't last forever right?

He is quite happy though.  A mama's boy to the extreme. Stands all the time and cruises around furniture like a pro.  I would be surprised if he's not walking around his birthday.  He loves to clap and is starting to dance to music too!  Just a few minutes ago he was jamming out to "Moves like Jagger".  Proof that he is my kid =)

His eyes-so blue.  His hair-so red.  Our fiery little boy is a joy despite the lack of sleep.

8 months!

Wowzer...Killean is 8 months.

Kid is on the move too!  He tries really hard to cruise around a table already.  He loves to climb when he can.  He thinks he can stand up already (OK...he can kind of stand up...he just isn't super stead yet).  He's still preferring to army crawl, but he has crawled a couple of times like a 'normal' baby.  He is also ends up on his feet and looks like he's going to bear crawl some times.  He's definitely figuring out how his body works and moves.  And boy, does. he. move.

Teeth: we're still at two.  I was convinced he was going to get some more...but nope. Still at two.

Sleep: meh?  Any night we only wake up twice I consider it a win.  When we're not feeling great, we can be up every. hour.  We're getting more consistent at only waking up twice.  We're also getting much better at going to sleep in our own crib happily.  He's no longer insisting on sleeping in our bed for part of the night.  Gives me hope that we're progressing to sleeping on our own for an entire night.

Food: we're getting better at eating food.  We discovered tonight that he does not like carrots.  He seems to really like fruit.  Veggies...not so much.  At least he's starting to eat something other than milk.  He has been exposed to carrots, squash, sweet potato, peas, potato, broccoli, pears, peaches, banana, apple, avocado...and PUFFS!  That kid is a puff monster.  He loves them.  They are turning into a nice tool to keep him occupied while we get dinner on the table for those that eat real food :)

Growth: He's a little over 18 pounds now 27+ inches.  He had to go to the doctor because I was convinced he had an ear infection-I was wrong.  Was nice to get his stats though.

At this point though I'm seriously considering switching to formula.  I'm tired of having to watch every single thing I eat.  I'm tired of always wondering if the reason he's not sleeping great is because I ate a chocolate chip...or didn't read a label right...or didn't pick all that cheese out of my pasta I didn't realize came with cheese at the restaurant.  I'm tired of being tied to a pump or a baby every 3 hours.  I'm just...tired.  I feel as though there is so much pressure this time around to make sure I'm not only pumping regularly at work or when I'm away from Killean but also really watching what I'm eating.  It's exhausting for me.  I know breastfeeding has so many benefits for Killean.  I know it has benefits for me (can't say I've missed my period at all).  But...I just don't love it right now and I'm tired.  Bad thing: the formula we would likely need to use is stupid expensive.  My original goal was a year...my revised goal is one more day.  Every day I wake up and say, one more day.  Re-evaluation will happen at Killean's 9 month appointment.

Attempting to bear crawl

Standing!!!!!

Puff monster!

Killean 7 months

7 Months Old

 Killean is now 7 months old!  He's more than 6 months old...we're more than half way to his first birthday.  Ho.Ly. Crap.  These 7 months have gone by so incredibly fast...and at times they feel like they've dragged on forever-though I think that's mostly due to feeling like I have no clue how to raise a baby since he's so very different than Rowan.  But more than anything, I can't imagine what life was like before we had two precious little boys in our family.

Happy Easter Baby

Killean continues to prove he is his own person and dramatically different than his brother.  After he crossed that 6 month mark, we decided to attempt 'solid' foods.  Now, solid foods for babies really isn't solid food.  It's food that gets pureed to a lovely runny consistency and we expect babies to love it.  Right?  Rowan certainly did.  We could feed him anything and he'd eat it.  He didn't even mind baby cereal.  Killean has struggled to find a food he'll eat.  We've discovered that he does much better with food when we put it in one of those mesh teething pouches and let him eat real food rather than the pureed version. But even then, we're not always winning.  He has liked bananas and blueberries...and that's it.  He seems to like avocados OK.  Squash, sweet potatoes, and carrots are a no go.  He didn't mind gumming on broccoli, but when it came to actually eating it...he wasn't impressed.  So he's still about 95% nourished by milk alone. Not sure what his official weight is, but it's certainly over 17 pounds now.  He's still fitting into 6 months clothes, but I'm starting to make the switch in his closet since some 6 month clothes are pretty tight.  There's such a big change between 6 and 9 month things though...so I guess he'll either be in tight clothes or baggy clothes until he grows just a little bit bigger.

Easter Twinsies

I'm still off dairy.  I've started to become much more strict in what I'll eat.  Up until this point, I haven't been too concerned with watching out for small bits of dairy in foods.  I ate a little bit of chocolate regularly.  I also didn't read all the labels on bread products that certainly contained a little bit of milk.  Right before he turned 7 months I decided to become much more strict in hopes of getting his sleep sorted out.  I noticed a rash develop on his neck after Easter when I ate some foods that definitely had milk in them, so figured it wouldn't hurt to become more strict.  I haven't noticed an improvement in sleep yet, but I have noticed a small lingering rash on his back/stomach has gone away.  Looks like I'm in for an ice-cream-less summer.  Here's hoping he grows out of this dairy sensitivity before his first birthday (fingers crossed!)

Teeth...we have teeth!  Had popped his two bottom teeth through on the SAME DAY.  We had a terrible night on the 13th, and then on the 14th I noticed there were two little teeth on his bottom gums. Guess that explains his terrible night?  No other teeth popping through yet, but I'm not going to be surprised if they all come in pairs since his first two came through at the exact same time.

Bath time with brother

And sleep...or lack there of.  Killean still does not want to sleep through the night.  He seems to think he needs to get up every two hours.  Frankly, this is getting old.  I understand he's little...and I understand it's normal for babies to not sleep for a solid 8ish hours when they're this age.  But seriously kid...every two hours?  I'm hoping that in the near future we see a change in this pattern.  Last night was better?  He went for about 3 1/2 hours, then 2 hours, then another 3 1/2.  If we can just combine some of those chunks and get one wake up after about 5 hours that would be wonderful.  I think I'll feel more human if that becomes the norm rather than the exception.

Cloth diapers aren't going as well for Killean.  Turns out high efficiency washing machines work very different than the traditional washing machines we used when cloth diapering Rowan.  Since they work differently, you have to wash diapers differently...or else you get build ups which can result in amonia burns on your baby.  Ouch.  We got that issue all sorted out though, and are back to using cloth diapers about 50% of the time.

He has started to move around like crazy.  He isn't 'crawling' but he can motor around and get to where he wants.  He's doing an army crawl most of the time.  He sometimes will get up on all fours and look like he's wanting to crawl, he's just not getting it consistently.  He doesn't have a need to really either since he's pretty efficient with his army crawling.

Slightly evil smile

Killean continues to be a happy baby.  He really only gets upset when we have the audacity to try and make him sleep, or if he doesn't get fed the SECOND he decides his hungry.  Most of the time though he's great at going with the flow and happy to just be where ever we are.  His laughs and smiles come freely.  He is starting to scrunch up his face when he smiles (proof that he's my baby) and we're capturing lots of evil looking faces in pictures.

Killean 6 months

Yes...yes...I'm late on this.  What can I say? It's harder to be punctual with these updates when you have two small children running around to take care of.  Excuse? Perhaps.  Truth? Deifnitely.

6 months old!

Killean is now SIX MONTHS OLD!!!  It's hard to believe he's halfway to his first birthday. It's even weirder to think where we were at this time last year.  We were still in Omaha, just starting the process of selling our house to move down to Lincoln and adjusting to the idea of having a second child.  Now, we're settled into our house and (dare I say it) in a routine of our lives. 

Killean continues to grow.  He is just shy of 17 pounds and about 26.5 inches.  He is still wearing 6 months clothes, though he will probably be transitioning into 9 months clothes soon.  I put him in a 3-6 month onesie the other day, and promptly took him out of it because it was way to small.  Straight 6 month clothes are still ok (unless they're Target brand)...for now. 

Carrots coming out.

No teeth have popped through the gums yet.  He's gumming toys and his hands all the time, but no sign of teeth yet.  That's probably a good thing because food has NOT being going well.  We've tried carrots and squash.  He does not like either.  If we're lucky enough to get a bit into his mouth, he promptly A) spits it out or B) gags so much he sounds like he's about ready to throw up.  Here's hoping we find something he likes better than carrots and squash.

Sleeping is...OK?  Most nights he wakes up once to eat. Sometimes twice.  He is pretty good at just going back to sleep.  Every now and then, he wakes up to just talk for a while before eating.  He goes to bed pretty easy, so all in all pretty good.  We had a couple of rough nights not too long ago.  We were pretty mean to him...ear infection, 6 month shots, introducing food, and moving him into sharing a room with his brother all in the course of 3-4 days.  So we had a rough week or so, but now we're back on track.  Next step: hoping he sleeps 7-8 hours in the near future.  I'm looking forward to that. So. Very. Much.

His disposition is happy.  He smiles and laughs a lot.  He's starting to get an 'evil' looking smile which is devilish and adorable.  He loves his brother too.  He also loves his jumper. 

We love him =)

Little Raphael

Watching big brother

Happy, smiley boy

Killean-5 months

Killean is now 5 months old! He is a very smiley boy!  He really enjoys playing with his brother...even when his brother gets a little rough.  Killean smiles when Rowan screams in his face or pushes on his stomach, which unfortunately encourages that behavior.  But it's definitely their relationship developing.  They love each other, and I love it. 

He also loves music, eating his foot, and his jumper.  Oh...and talking.  Oh the talking!  He usually talks over me when we are reading books.  And he loves to tell stories as often as he can. 

He continues to be a good eater and is still eating at least once, but usually twice during the night.  He's got some chunky, CHUNKY thighs and weighs about 16 pounds.  He's fitting comfortably in 3-6 or 6 month clothes, though some are getting a little tight. He doesn't have much hair and no teeth yet.  I was convinced he would be getting teeth soon, but it turns out he just likes to chew on our knuckles. We're holding off on food for a while still since he has a sensitivity to dairy.  That and he doesn't seem that interested in food yet.  He sits up with assistance pretty well, but he isn't showing an interest in our food yet.  It's just a matter of time until he gets exposed to the world of fruits and veggies!  He loves to put things in his mouth, but he doesn't seem too drawn to our food.  Right now, he's content with milk.  

He is a pro a tummy time now.  He doesn't mind laying on his stomach and looking around.  He does get tired of it after a while, but most of the time he's perfectly content to lay on his stomach.  Now...our problem comes in when he wants to get off his tummy.  He CAN NOT figure out how to roll from his stomach to his back!  He can roll from his back to his stomach all day long, but the opposite direction-no way no how!

He suffers from some very dry skin.  He has a terrible patch of dry skin under his chin.  Vaseline is doing OK at helping that, but we have to put it on often.  Unless it starts to bother him more, we'll probably check with his doctor at his next check up to see if there are other options we can do to help him out.  

I love how much he smiles.  And when he smiles, he smiles with his whole face.  He is a happy, happy baby and shares that happiness with us often which we just love.  

SNOW!!!!

We FINALLY got some snow out here!  Rowan has loved the idea of making a snowman.  Unfortunately, the snow we got was very light power.  Easy to shovel, not so good for snow man making.  But, it's still fun to play in.  Rowan has had a lot of fun playing in it.  Today when we were out shoveling, he laid down and said he was making a snow angel.  Neither Ian nor I know where that came from, but somehow Rowan intuitively knows that you get to make snow angels when you lay down in the snow.  So much fun to see him playing outside for an hour and just loving every minute of it.

Playing in the snow while it's snowing

Throwing snow at daddy

Lots of snow!

Making snow angels!

Killean 4 months!

Four Months old!

Killean is now 4 months old!  He's doing lots of growing, smiling, and playing.  He has recently discovered his tongue and has lots of fun playing with that.  He has a hard time getting laughs out.  He's definitely ticklish, but he doesn't quite know how to get laughs going.  Once he does get them going, he gets some good laughs.  He does smile all the time though.  And when he smiles, he smiles with his whole face.  Rowan makes Killean smile a lot which is pretty precious to see.  These brothers are getting to be pretty good buds already.  

Big boy!

We've figured out that Killean does has a mild sensitivity to dairy.  Over the last couple of months, I noticed that his poos were a little funky. That and he was pretty fussy at nights and had a hard time settling down.  Plus he was pretty gassy and spit up a bit.  All of these things were signs of an intolerance to dairy.  So I cut that out of my diet for a while.  This last weekend I decided to see if this dairy intolerance was all in my head of it was for real.  I had some pizza and ice cream on Saturday night.  Then Sunday I had a cheese stick with lunch.  Sunday night Killean decided going to bed was over rated.  Prior to Sunday night we were getting into a good routine of getting him to bed around 7:30.  Sunday night: going to bed was not happening unless he was being held.  Same thing Monday.  Monday he also seemed to be having a little more trouble pooping, but we didn't notice anything too off.  Tonight, he was way more fussy than normal (though he did get shots today too...would make me fussy!)  Ian managed to get him to go to sleep on his own, so here's hoping we're settling back into our routine.  Until then, I'm going to keep cheese and such out of my life until we're closer to a year and/or weaning.  But man, I'm going to go on a dairy binge when I can!  Cheese.  Ice Cream.  Milk.  It will be glorious.

Despite some of these dietary limitations, Killean is definitely growing!  He weighed in at 14lb 15oz today and about 25 inches.  I've been feeling like I'm not making enough milk to keep up with his demands.  This has been insanely frustrating for me.  With Rowan, I had enough milk to feed him, build up a freezer stash, and donate milk to a milk bank.  With Killean I'm having to do some power pumping at work to make sure he's got enough.  I don't have much in the freezer, and what I do have is filled with dairy so I'd rather not give him that unless we have to.  I can honestly say I've never been so happy to work in an office by myself.  I can pump every two hours without stressing too much about my lack of productivity or bothering coworkers.  Now if only they could install a sink in my office. That would be great!

Happy boy sitting up so big!

He's great at sitting up with help-he's got a steady head and strong neck.  He doesn't mind being on his tummy either.  He seems to like holding his head up and looking around.  He hasn't quite figured out the rolling over thing.  He can, and occasionally does, roll over from his stomach to his back.  He also can, and occasionally does, roll from his back onto his stomach.  He's putting a lot of stuff in his mouth and chewing on his hands (and ours) non stop.  No signs of teeth yet, though for a moment I thought he might be getting one on the bottom.  We'll see when that first one pops through.

We love our boy!  He's a happy guy and brings a lot of happiness to our family-picky eater and all!