Surprises Everyday!

I would say, as a mother, it has been the most fun with Bennett since he was about 8 months old.  Having a small infant is so sweet and rewarding, just in a different way.  It's rewarding because you are caring for you baby and you know they love you and rely on you, but they can't physically show it, which at times can be tough.  It's nice to see them love you back.  Now he can smile and laugh when he's having fun or likes something.  On the flip side, he can cry and flail his legs when he doesn't.  He can also put his hands up when he wants you to pick him up.  It's a great feeling to see that he wants you.  Watching him learn and do new things is so much more fun.  Not that he was boring before, but he couldn't really do much.  Now he's entertaining us!  :)  Last night Jason and I were watching him and he sat himself up from his stomach all by himself.  We were both shocked!!  When did he learn that?!  The day before he was clapping his hands!  It's like every day brings on something new and cute and fun!  He's making different sounds and jabbers up a storm (like his dad)!!  

In less than a week he'll be 10 months!!  10 whole months.  My baby isn't a baby anymore.  He's still doing pretty good with his sleeping.  I guess he's just going to take a little longer to get the hang of that.  But that's ok, I wouldn't trade him for anything!! 

The weather has been great the past several days.  Spring is in the air.  I'm so excited because now we can actually do things with Bennett outside!  Staying cooped up in the house during the winter gets boring but it's just too cold to really do anything.  I'm looking forward to his first trip to the zoo, which will be soon!  Also looking forward to taking him to the park and out for stroller rides around the neighborhood.  Maybe Mommy will lose some weight once we start getting out and doing things.  :)  The other day we took him for a stroll and it was so nice!!  Here are some pictures!!

I just love that face!!

Funny picture- Mommy has to move her hair out of the way or Bennett will grab it!  :)

 10 month chair pictures will be up soon!!  That is if he'll sit still long enough for me to get them.  :)

Sleep....

I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but I feel like I need to tell the world!!  Bennett slept wonderfully last night!!  By wonderfully, I mean he slept for a long stretch of time and only got up once while he was in his crib!  Last night was a huge milestone for us.  Ever since Bennett was born, sleep, or lack thereof, has been the biggest challenge for me.  I say for me because for Bennett he was perfectly content to sleep that way and I'm pretty sure that's the way he really wanted it.  Let me just tell you about all our sleeping arrangements since birth.

I knew from the beginning Bennett would not be sleeping in his room  His room is upstairs and I was not going to drag my butt up those stairs during the middle of the night to feed him.  We had a pack and play all ready for him right next to our bed.  Bennett had other plans though because for the first couple of months Bennett slept on my chest on his stomach.  Yes, you read that right, he slept on me.  I slept on the couch with him for the longest time.  While it wasn't the best sleeping arrangements, it was the only arrangement that would make Bennett sleep- and at that time I was all about getting him to just sleep.  He didn't want to sleep on his back and I was scared to death of letting him sleep on his stomach.  That was the only position he wanted to be in.  So I felt much more at ease with him asleep on me that way.  I worked hard trying to get him to sleep on his own- he just did not want to be put down and sleep by himself.  I can't really blame him, he was used to the comfort and security of mommy and only being 2 months old, it had to be scary.  Eventually he was ok with sleeping right next to mommy in her bed, which I was more than happy to do because it was much better than sleeping on couch with him on my chest.  So that's how he started sleeping in our bed.  Plus, middle of the night feedings were SO much easier if he was right there beside me.  We have been sleeping that like that for a long time now.  And to be honest, I loved it.  I loved knowing he was right there with me and I could just reach over and rub his hair or feel his soft little hand.  There were some sweet moments in the midst of some frustrating and exhausting nights. 

The 9 month growth spurt has been the roughest so far.  It had him getting up several times a night and I think he got used to doing that because he continued to get up all throughout the night.  Plus teeth started to come in and I'm sure he was uncomfortable with that.  Being a mother who never let Bennett cry it out, it was exhausting.  But I knew in time he would reach a point when he was ready to sleep differently.  The hard part was I just didn't know when.  I think last night might have been the turning point.  We put him in his crib around 8:00, which was early, and he slept for about an hour or so and then we heard him stirring.  Before, he would wake up and start to cry, but last night he rolled around in is crib and went right on back to sleep.  (Note, his crib has been in our bedroom because we have attempted to try to get him to sleep there many nights.  And the thought of him being upstairs in his room is still uneasy to me right now.)  I even walked into our room and put sheets on our bed and he didn't wake.  I had a hard time going to sleep last night, probably because in the back of my head I just knew he would get up again.   He slept until 3:30, which at that time he woke up and was crying.  Jason got up and warmed up a bottle and he drank it, spit some of it back up, and went right on back to sleep, in his crib!  Jason had to wake him up at 7:00 to get him ready to go to Mrs. Bertha's.

I'm in shock right now, and I definitely don't want to jinx myself by writing all of this.  But it seems like Bennett has made a turn in the right direction.  Not that what we were doing before was wrong.  (Although I'm sure a lot of you reading this might think it was wrong to co-sleep)  But for all of you out there that might be struggling with the same thing, babies will reach milestones when they are ready.  I think a lot of parents have this idea what is right and what their baby should be doing at certain times, specifically sleeping through the night, and sometimes they aren't there yet.  Letting them cry it out isn't the answer- give them time, give them lots of love and attention, and in the end everything will turn out just fine. 

Now, we just have to see what Bennett does tonight!!!  :)

February Fun!

So here is February- about 2 and a half months til Bennett's first birthday!  As I was browsing through some pictures I had taken recently, I realized that Bennett doesn't really look like a baby anymore.  It was a sad moment but a moment that was sure to come.  He is such a handsome little thing.  Lately, when we're out in public, he will smile and laugh at anyone who comes up to talk to him.  This makes me think he's going to be a people person like Jason.  It's the cutest thing!  On another note, Bennett sure does love his oatmeal.  That's what he eats every night for supper.  I try to give him other stuff, but it doesn't seem like he likes it as much.  He gobbles his oatmeal down fast!! 

Just wanted to share some cute pictures we took last night while hanging out at the house.



My Favorite Moment

The days are long and harder now.  Night time is Bennett's fussy time and he is still waking once or twice a night and I'm at work between 7 and 7:30 every morning and work til 4:30 or 5:00.  The nights aren't relaxing like they used to be, where I could just come home and kick my shoes off and put my feet up.  Now they entail making sure Bennett is fed and we are fed, giving him a bath, playing with him to keep him entertained until bedtime, giving him his last bottle of the night and then putting him to sleep.  Sometimes putting him to sleep is easier than other times.  He fights sleep some nights, which makes it exhausting.  But don't think I do that all by myself.  Jason is here and helps out tremendously but it gets exhausting to say the least.  But the prize comes at the very end!  There is nothing better than looking down at my son who is asleep in my arms, who has a full little belly and is smelling all clean from his bath.  That is the most beautiful site- his long beautiful eyelashes and cute little nose.  Just knowing he is relaxed and sleeping and hopefully having sweet dreams is the best feeling.  I know some parents seem to think that putting their kids down awake and letting them fall asleep on their own is the best thing to do, but I, on the other hand, enjoy those last few moments with him before bedtime, when he is sleeping peacefully in my arms.  That's when I get the best kisses.  I could look at him forever like that!  And I know one day he will want to go to bed on his own and not need me.  But for now, I'm going to enjoy those last few sweet moments with him!!

RSV = Really Stinky Virus

A week ago we noticed Bennett had a bad cough and a little runny nose. We thought he just had another nasty little cold and since his 9 month wellness check was just a few days away we thought we'd just wait it out and mention it to Dr. Delaney then. At his well check he sounded clear and the doctor said we could give him a small dose of Benadryl for his runny nose. So we left the doctor's office and went and bought some Benadryl to help clear Bennett up. A week passed and he still had the runny nose and his cough wasn't getting any better. A red flag went up when Mrs. Bertha commented about his cough and how she thought it needed to be looked at. I took Bennett home and noticed he was wheezing really bad. So we called the on call nurse and she suggested we do some nebulizer treatments since we still had some left over from when he had bronchitis. We did 2 Friday night and one Saturday morning and called his doctor for an appointment. They were extremely helpful and got us an appointment quick.  We saw Dr. Guyton and after he checked him over- he looked ok- no fever and his %O2 was good.  He decided to test him for RSV. Within 2 minutes he came back to tell us it was positive.  Since we had done a few breathing treatments, he thought it would be best to give him some oral steroids because he did have some pretty bad wheezing.

Well, those oral steroids were the worst thing ever!!!  We gave him 2 doses Saturday and he literally could not go to sleep Saturday night.  You could tell he was so exhausted and wanted to go to sleep but those steroids were preventing him from being able to fall asleep.  He was wired.  Around 10:00 I thought taking him for a car ride would help because that usually soothes him and puts him to sleep.  He was asleep before we got out of our neighborhood!  Poor little fella was so tired.  We rode around for a good 30 minutes but once we got him out of his seat he was awake and mad that he was woken up.  Luckily my mom was over to help out and Jason and I got some sleep while she stayed up with him.  I woke up at 1 am and he was still awake like it was 8:00 in the morning!!  At 2:00 I decided we needed to go for another car ride and, sure enough, he was out within 1 minute of driving.  We drove around the neighborhood for about 10 minutes and then we camped out in the car for about an hour.  Yes, we slept in the car in front of our house while my sweet baby boy could get some much needed sleep.  He started to stir so I carefully got him out of his car seat and took him inside.  Luckily, he stayed asleep so I just rocked him and let him sleep in my arms.  He woke up around 5:00 so he got about 3 hours of sleep and I fed him and he went back to sleep for another 3 hours.  Whew!!  Talk about a rough night!

Sunday went pretty well.  We gave him a dose of oral steroids in the morning and 2 nebulizer treatments.  We skipped the oral steroids at night because we didn't want another occurrence of Saturday night.  I couldn't take another night like that.  Not only was it tiring, but it was scary to see Bennett act the way he was acting.  He was wired but exhausted at the same time.  He took a good nap Sunday morning and a couple catnaps in the afternoon and was down for bed at 8:00.  Poor little guy was so tired from the night before. 

I just pray that his wheezing gets better.  I'm home with him tomorrow so he can get some good rest and some breathing treatments during the day.  He goes back to the doctor on Friday so they can check his breathing again.  I'm praying he will not have to stay on those steroids.  I think he is getting better but it's just going to take a few days for it to clear up completely.

Just a couple pictures to leave you with....

His beautiful blues and some crazy hair!!

I think he gets that look from Mommy!

Sweet boy playing in his saucer

I'm gonna miss that gummy smile!!

So last night I noticed Bennett's first tooth that broke through!!  I kept wondering when he'd get his teeth and I had just told Jason how I was kinda glad he didn't have any yet because I loved his cute gummy smile.  Well, now he's got his first tooth!!!  I was so excited when I saw it but it kinda makes me sad too.  Just another sign of him growing up.  Soon he'll have a whole mouth full!  :)  And let's hope he's not a biter too- I don't want to have to deal with a biter.  We tried to take a picture, but everytime we'd pull his lip down to get a good view of it, Bennett would stick his tongue out.  :)  I'll try again tonight and if we are successful I'll post it. 

Bennett's 9 month check up went well too.  He's on the bigger side of his percentiles, which doesn't surprise me. What did surprise me was the fact that he only weighed 22 pounds.  It feels like a sack of potatoes when you carry that boy- I just knew he'd weigh more than that!  :)  And he's 28.5 inches long, which means he's grown 8.5 inches since birth.  That amazes me! 

Just a quick look back....

Birth

The day we brought him home

1 month

2 months

9 months Already!!

Yesterday Bennett turned 9 months.  I can't believe he's now the same age for as long as I carried him!!  I know I say this every month, but time is just flying by!  Last night I kept thinking back to the day I went into labor.  I will never forget that night and early morning.  I was blessed to have a good labor that ended with our little blessing!!  He truly is the most beautiful being I have ever seen.  I love him to pieces and so does his Daddy!  Here are a few things he is now doing at 9 months:

He's starting to pull up on things.  He has to first get on his knees and get used to that before getting on his feet. He loves to pull up on his Incrediblock and play with that. 

He loves to explore everything!  He scoots around really good and since our living room is pretty much wide open, we let him go.  Of course we are there watching him making sure he doesn't get into anything he's not supposed to, but he loves to get around now!  He does the cutest thing when he's on his stomach.  He'll sway from side to side like he's dancing.  Even the ladies at Mrs. Bertha tell us they get a kick out of that!  It's so cute!!

He's still very observant.  I've had a few people comment on how he really watches things, not just looks but really studies what he's looking at.  You can tell the wheels are turning with every new things he sees.

He's very much a people person.  He'll go to just about anyone without fussing.  We went to a birthday party last week and he was passed around from person to person and he was ok with that.  Of course I had my eye on him the whole time!

He's still a very good eater and is not picky at all.  I don't think I've every put anything in his mouth he doesn't like.  He even eats prunes!!  :)  We've got him on a pretty good schedule now.  It took a while to really figure out what was best for him but I think we finally found one.  He usually has a bottle at Mrs. Bertha's around 4:00 so I'll give him more milk at 7:00.  Then at around 8:30 we'll give him some cereal mixed with oatmeal.  He gobbles that right up!  We'll end the night with a nice warm bath, which he loves and then give him as much milk as he wants right before bed.  He's usually down for the night between 9:30 and 10:00.

I'm still nursing.  There have been a couple times when I thought I wanted to quit but I can't seem to give that up yet.  I love nursing him.  I worked so hard to actually get to the point where nursing was easy, and now I don't want to give it up.  I am so glad nursing Bennett was a success because I think he will definitely benefit from it.

He's still not sleeping through the night yet.  He usually gets up twice.  Here lately he's been waking up around midnight and I'll soothe him back to sleep without any trouble.  Not sure what that's about but hopefully it's just a phase.  I'm truly not going to know what to do when the day comes when he sleeps all night.  By that time he'll have a little brother or sister and I'll have to start all over again.  ;)  I can honestly say the 9 month growth spurt has been the worst so far.  It lasted for at least 3 weeks.  He was getting up every hour and a half at night!!  Talk about wearing a mommy out!!  He was also extra fussy at night and just did not want to sleep.  Glad we made it though that one though!!  It was pretty rough!

He loves his snacks.  We bought him some puffs and some peach yogurt melts.  They are kinda small so he hasn't quite figured out how to get them in his mouth when he's got his whole hand around them. He also likes bread.  We've given him a couple of people food and bread seems to be his favorite.  He ate some cornbread tonight and loved it!  It's so fun to watch him try new things!!

No teeth yet!  :)  I was 9 months before I got any teeth so I guess he's taking after me in that department.  But he's getting more and more hair.  I think he's going to have thick hair like his Dad.  :)

Monday we have his 9 month check up with Dr. Delaney.  Can't wait to see how much he weighs and how long he is now.  He's gotten so big!  Jason guesses he weighs 25 pounds.  I know he weighs at least that, if not more.  I'll update the blog after his appointment on Monday.  And now I'll leave with you a few pictures.  It's getting harder and harder to take these chair pictures.  :)

Snow in January!

Bennett is 8 and a half months old and he got to see his first snowfall today.  It was absolutely beautiful!  We got about 4 inches of snow which means no work today!  So glad to be home with my family in the warmth enjoying the beautiful snowfall outside.  It started around midnight- after I fed him at midnight I peeked outside to see if the weatherman was right.  And sure enough, there was a light dusting on the ground but I didn't expect much at that point.  When my supervisor texted me right before 6:00 am telling me the office was closed, I jumped up and saw the ground covered in snow!  It was beautiful!!  And the snow was still falling!  Once it let up, around lunchtime, we bundled up and took Bennett outside to check it all out.  We didn't stay out there long because it was COLD but we let him touch it.  Enjoy our pictures!!

Our little house covered in snow!

Daddy showing Bennett the snow for the first time

Touching the cold snow

Daddy sure does love Bennett!

My handsome little guy!

So we've been snowed in all day just hanging out keeping this little fella entertained.  We might be staying home tomorrow too- depends on how the weather continues during the night.  They are calling for ice and bad weather once the temps drop low tonight. 

The other night we finally put Bennett in his big boy bath.  Yes, he is almost 9 months old and was still taking baths in his baby bath.  It was just easier that way and didn't hurt my back as much.  But he really was too big for that thing and we had bought him a little duckie bath months ago so we decided to try it out. At first, Bennett wasn't too sure about it- it was big and bright yellow.  But we put him in there with some of his toys and he started playing and having fun.  It's a little more tricky washing his hair.  Of course we took pictures to commemorate the event. 

This face is just priceless!

Just hanging out!

And here are just some random pictures we've taken so far in January.  In about a week we'll be taking Bennett's 9 month chair pictures!  9 months already- wow!!!