must have monday

i've been back to work since the beginning of the new year and i had reservations about pumping at work, how i was going to have time to do it, if the stress/sleep deprivation would effect my supply, etc. but i had gotten that far without having to use formula, and i didn't want to start if i didn't have to.

as it turns out, the whole pumping at work thing wasn't too bad. luckily i have an office, so i can close my door and not be interrupted. one of the things that has made pumping at work very easy is my 'must have monday' item!

the medela quick clean micro-steam bags!

thank you thank you thank you medela!! you have saved me countless hours of standing at the sink scrubbing and drying pump parts! all i simply have to do is rinse the parts afterwards, throw them in the bag, add 2 oz of water (which just so happens to be the amount that fits in the dixie bathroom cups..like the ones the dentist puts mouthwash in for you), then throw it in the microwave on high for a minute and a half and finally drain the water out through the convenient whole in the top corner of the bag. and VOILA....sterilized!!!! then back in my desk drawer the bag goes until the next use!

and great thing about the steam bags is that they're cost effective. you get 20 uses out of one bag, and you get 5 bags in a box. another great thing about the bags is you can use them for milk storage bottles too...although i must admit, i hand wash mine. i have to be able to use my boon grass drying rack for something!!

so if you are a working, nursing mom...or if you simply want more time back in your day, i would HIGHLY recommend getting some of these.

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

he's definitely trying!! 'boo' is one of his favorite words for me to say to him...and i can't help but think how cute it would be if that was his first word, being born around halloween! :)

ready for my close-up

i only had time to take pictures of graham on his actual 4 month birthday at the doctors office, so today we had a fun four month photo shoot!



i love my little dude's smiles!

sophie

we got our sophie at graham's baby shower and have been waiting for the day when he was actually interested in it.
well, now that pretty much everything is going into his mouth these days, the dude has realized that sophie is a pretty cool toy! we love when he chews on her because he's figured out how to make the squeaky sound on it with his gums. LOVE it!!



his other favorite toy at the moment is his shamrock teether...how fitting for next month!

cereal!

we got the go ahead from dr. bill to start giving graham cereal once or twice a day. woo hoo!! i think we'll be sticking to once a day at dinner time until he gets the hang of it.

here was our day one experience!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtLeluMzgnM&hd=1

four months!

happy four month birthday little dude!!!



stats:

weight: 13 lbs 7 oz (23%) (increase of 2.4 lbs since two month visit)
height: 24 in (16%) (increase of 1.5 in since two month visit)
head circumference: 17.25 in (84%) (increase of 1.5 in since two month visit)

unfortunately (well i guess fortunately for graham), the little dude didn't get his 4 month vaccines today. dr. bill thought he sounded a little too wheezy for his liking. i went over everything we've been through (since we weren't able to see him for the bronchiolitis issues) and told him how the nebulizer seemed to work at the hospital, but all they sent us home with was the inhaler. so dr. bill wanted to try a nebulizer treatment in the office to see if it did help.

10 minutes later...yup, the nebulizer definitely helped. so we were sent home with our very own nebulizer and a months worth of albuterol! we'll have to give graham treatments three times a day until next tuesday when he goes in a for a follow-up, and hopefully his vaccines. daddy will have to go in for those alone!!

but let's change the topic and talk about all the milestones that have happened this month:

- outgrew size 1 diapers and are now in 1-2 diapers...soon making the transition to 2's!
- are mainly in 3-6 month clothes, although some of your 0-3 month sleepers and onesies still fit.
- sleeping through the night i'd say 50% of the time. you'll give me a good stretch of 8 hour nights...then it's back to up every 4 hours.
- wake-up call is usually betwen 5:15-6am.
- you have definitely found both your hands and your feet
- you have also found your thumb, and if you don't have your binkie, the thumb is usually in your mouth!
- you tolerate tummy time now. still not a huge fan, but more than you were.
- and even though you haven't rolled over yet during tummy time, you like to scoot yourself around in a circle, which is fun to watch.
- you smile as a reaction now!
- LOVE baths! they were very small too, but i think some splashing was being done during the last bath.
- you would much rather be sitting up or standing than laying on your back.
-you love to blow rasberries and are quite the little taker these days. you press your lips where it looks like you're trying to say 'boo' back to me.
- you are definitley a drooler now!! as the nurse put it...you are pre-teething!!


your firsts this month:

- mwrrrr, had your first visit to the ER
- watched your first superbowl!
- went to grammie's house

must have monday

so funny story (now that i think back to it)...when graham was born we were trying to go binkie free (what were we thinking!). i didn't want to confuse him at all, and if he didn't need it, we didn't want it. we actually went two days i think without one. woo hoo!! but then the third night when i became a human pacifier i had to put my foot down. so we broke and asked the nurse for a binkie. she came in with a soothie binkie and, like a charm, graham settled down and zonked out.

because graham was smaller when he was born, the binkies we had registered for, and received at our shower were too big for his little face. so we returned a few and got some more soothies. we tried later on to give him a regular style binkie, but nope, no cigar. the dude only wanted the soothie.

my dilemma with not being able to switch to a regular style binkie, was the fact that for the life of me, i couldn't find a binkie holder that worked with the soothies! so we were dealing with graham spitting it out and it falling to the floor. not that rinsing it off when needed was a huge deal, but it would be nice to not have to bend down all the time and then head to the sink.

and then came my must have monday item...

booginhead's pacigrip!!! (graham has this exact one attached to his outfit in the post below.)

it has been amazing! just thread the cord end through one of the holes in the soothie (or gumdrop binkie, which we now use) and attach it to the whatever is being worn at the time. perfect!! i wish i had known about these, oh say, four months ago!

now i'll admit, i thought i might try to make some of my own (since it doesn't look too hard), but trying to find the clips and actually finding the time to sew right now made me shell out the $5. $5 bucks well spent i say! and if you order them on amazon and have a prime account, you get free shipping!

copy cat

looks like graham has telepathically been getting tips from his cousin on what he should be doing!!
thanks mr. mason! :)



i also had to throw in a picture of graham blowing a rasberry. that's his latest thing. he loves doing it and then having us imitate him. it's so awesome being able to interact with him now! now 'ma-ma' just needs to come out of those lips first!! hehe!

thumb sucker

so graham started out as just a finger sucker...but now i think we're a full fledged thumb sucker! i'm on the fence as to how i feel about this. i'm glad that he can soothe himself back to sleep (at least during the day when he's taking naps, since he's still swaddled at night), but i know you can't take a thumb away like you can with a binky! right now we're letting him find his thumb though. if it helps him take naps, then we're all for it!

i guess it's not the end of the world if he becomes a thumb sucker. he'll just have something in common with his uncle tim (when he was little)!

must have monday

for a special must have monday....everyone must have.....

love

<3

happy valentines day from all of us to you!

going to grammie's house

today we took our very first trip out to grammie's house in west virginia. in classic graham style he slept the whole way out there, which is good, because he didn't do anymore sleeping until the drive home!



we had so much fun though. the dude met mr. bruce and mr. garret for the first time, and was a little (and by little i mean A BIG) flirt with miss justina! he was all smiles with her. can't blame him...she's quite purdy! we also had a fun time dancing, being held by grammie and wearing mr. bruce's hat. the dude's got a big melon, but thankfully there's room to grow in that one!

we can't wait until the spring when grammie gets new chicks and we can play with them and gather their eggs. we also can't wait for the summer time when the dude will be able to crawl through the sugar snap peas! we'll have to cook some fresh ones for him too. they're so tastey from the garden, i don't know how he wouldn't like them. guess we'll have to wait and see!

foto friday

look ma, i have feet!!



yes, my feet are my new fascination. they are so cool! and they're so fun to hang onto when i'm getting my diaper changed!

photo contest!

my wedding photographer, who also does amazing baby/children photography, is holding a contest for the cutest babies and kids. the winner of each age group gets a free photo shoot with her. and seeing as the dude is one of the cutest little dudes out there (might be a little partial), i submitted a photo!!

i need all of your help though. please visit swank photo studio's facebook page, and 'like' their page. then go to graham's photo and leave a comment. votes are tabulated by the number of comments only. so make sure to leave a comment. doesn't have to be long at all.

votes will be counted next tuesday, february 15th!!!

must have monday

this has been probably one of the best shower gifts we've gotten...right up there with the boppy!

boon's grass countertop drying rack

i use this everyday for cleaning and drying all my milk storage bottles. i can fit 8 of the milk storage bottles and lids on it with no problem! and from users photos on amazon, you can see you can fit a TON of stuff on it. it comes as two separate pieces, the white bottom tray and the grass and both pieces are dishwasher safe! because of the 'grass' design you can fit pretty much anything to dry on it. just press down and voila...it's locked in to dry!

not only is this a very functional and versatile drying rack, but it also looks stylish. it's like we're growing bottles and lids in our kitchen! oh, if that were only the case!

are you ready for some football!!

superbowl sunday!!!



okay, so the redskins aren't playing in the superbowl...but the dude sure does look cute in his little outfit! i absolutely LOVE the pants. they make him really look like a mini football player. he even had a matching bib to go with his outfit. that is until he drooled all over it. we've definitely hit that stage. the bib is a permanent fixture these days!

dancing baby

the little dude has started to really enjoy standing up lately. he REALLY loves standing on his changing pad and looking at himself in the mirror. i mean, can you blame him...he's looking at one handsome dude!! we'll have to try and get a video of that soon. for now here's graham's first dance video!

ps....PLEASE ignore our messy table.

bath time

yes, graham actually enjoys bath time now!!! this video is kind of long, but i love it. and yes...i use three washcloths for one bath. i mean you can't use the same one for the bum that you use for the tummy or hair! :)

happy baby

this was taken last weekend, but since i'm not home to take pictures...a couple videos are going to have to do this week! :) and can i just say how much i love my little happy baby!

sick day

nope, not for me this time....for the little dude!

for awhile now graham has had a cough. we first thought it was acid reflux, but then started to realize that might not be what it was. the cough got a little worse and then we heard a rattle in his chest. took him to the doctor and they told us nothing was wrong, that it was just course breathing. treatment was just to keep an eye on him. the coughing got better, but a couple weeks ago it started back up again. since i had been sick 3 weeks ago i was worried that i had given the dude what i had. scared that it might really take a toll on him, grady took him to the doctor today.

we saw a different doctor and instead of him focusing on the cough that we brought him in for, he focused more on graham's breathing. it worried him a bit, so he tried a nebulizer treatment. it loosened up a little mucus in his chest, but the doctor was still a little concerned. so he told grady to take the dude to the ER for xrays and another neb treatment. mwrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

grady was a trooper and was at the doctors from about 945am-1145am...then sat at the hospital from about 1pm-4pm!!! but from what grady said, graham was haming it up and having a good ol time. cooing, laughing, sleeping, flirting with the ladies!!

so while all this is going on, i'm at work worrying what could be wrong with my little dude. turns out he has bronchiolitis. that explains why he's had a cough for so long. looks like it could last anywhere from 2-4 weeks. so hopefully the worst part of this is over and he'll start getting better soon. they did test him for RSV and that came back negative. so i guess that's a positive thing from this whole thing. well that and the fact that the little dude is growing!!! 13 pounds!!!

for now, the hospital sent us home with a little inhaler that we use every 4 hours for the first 24 hours, and then we can give it to him when needed after the 24 hours. it won't cure the bronchiolitis, but it will at least help open up his lungs.

so think positive thoughts for the little dude that he gets over this soon! we're ready for the days when we don't hear him cough!