This is Crazy! Wk 37

Here is a new installment of Schuelkins Sentry.  Lately I am finding certain things in this household CRAZY!  Being that our crazy changes from week to week, I thought that I would try to capture some of them from time to time so that I can reflect on them later.

* That I am having conversations like, "Who did you play with at school today?  Did you play outside?" Blog of 1st day of preschool in the works...

* My B-A-B-Y scooted over to the pantry and unloaded cans from the bottom shelf on the door.

* We had to run our heater on September 15!

* That we live in a place where the shelters at the parking garage have a heater option.  I remember visiting Minnesota and finding it CRAZY that they had those at their bus stops!!!

* I find Caden listening intently to conversations, even when they aren't directed at him.  He will then ask me if I was "talking about something".  And then try to tie what I was talking about to something that he can remember.

First day of Preschool and someone was EX-CI-TED!!!

See what I am talking about?!?!

Bright Eyed Baby... LOVE his big eyes!

6 Months

Wow!  I am TOTALLY sleep deprived!!!  I wasn't getting up this much at night with a newborn!  I finally figured it out, he wasn't getting enough breastmilk during the day, so he was waking more and more frequently at night to nurse.  AND, as the time went on, my supply started to drop, so he was waking even more!  There was a span of 3-4 weeks, where I was getting up 4-7 times a night, with a hungry, tired, cranky baby!  I'm glad that I went through the troubleshooting list; teething-no, milestones/alertness - no, ear infection - yes, but not the REAL problem, started to pay more attention to how much he was actually eating in a 24 hour period... DING DING DING!  It probably took me 2 weeks to sort through everything, but I FINALLY got it!   YAY!!!  sleep deprivation did not expedite the process either... ;)

So, I started supplementing with formula bottles this month.  He was not huge on the formula or the bottle, and wouldn't eat much at all. So it wasn't an immediate turn-around, but as soon as he got the hang of it, it did help.  Then I noticed that even with the supplemented bottles, he would always cap at 3 oz.  Always!  It was the most bizarre thing.  He should be eating, 5-7 oz a time at this age/size and he was only doing 3.  And yes, he was still getting up at night.  SO, the next challenge is going to be getting this guy to eat more than 3 oz in one sitting.  I think that it is going to take me stretching his stomach some, so it might be a slow process.  Hopefully he'll get the hang of solids soon too, so he can fill up on those as well!

He came down with an ear infection and was impossible to feed the amoxicillan to.  He had his first solid food.  Sweet potatoes, but it didn't go over too well.  Possibly because I hid Pink Shakey Shakey Bubble Gum Medicine in it???  His tongue thrust was still so strong, that it wasn't an easy or productive process.  But I know, practice makes perfect, so I'll keep it coming.

We took a family vacation to Lake Michigan, and it was all I could have dreamed of.  It could have been a little warmer, but we still enjoyed lots of time on the beach and outdoors.  We went blueberry picking and ate about as much as we picked.  Carsten is NOT a fan of his car seat, which made the 5.5 hour trip difficult.  But honestly, the Bald Eagle spotting, right there at our Lake House and the 65 steps to the petosky stone dusted Lake Michigan Beach made it all worth it!!!

Carsten can army crawl and move where he finds interesting objects.  He can certainly sit unsupported and is extremely close to sitting himself up.

5 Months

At 5 months my best gauge is that Carsten is 18 pounds and 27 inches.  He is now rolling both ways, and arcing his back, getting close to the crawling position.  Carsten was able to take his first dip in our backyard pool.  The big one was destroyed, so it was just the tiny one, but probably the perfect size for him.  Unfortunately his sleeping schedule has really digressed.  Towards the end of the fifth month, he was getting up more than twice a night.  Not so good for one of those kids who slept through the night at 2 months.

This month was very exciting as we had our great friends the Caswells come stay with us for a week.  That put, 5 kids, under 5 years, in one house.  Ahhhhhh!  I think the adults earned a medal during that week!  We visited the Indianapolis Zoo for the first time and spent a lot of time playing outdoors.

4 months

4 months?!?  Seriously??? I guess the time flies faster when you are chasing two kids, but man!, this kid is growing up too fast!!!

He is getting a hang of the napping thing.  And as long as I can stay on the front end of the grumpiness, I can get him down pretty fast.  Much like Caden, he likes to have a little blanket or piece of cloth (sometimes my shirt) to hang on to while he is going down.  And a pacifier - sigh.  He was sleeping through the night pretty good, until I came down with this TERRIBLE stomach bug that knocked me out for 4 days and really hurt my milk supply.  We've fought hard to come back from that illness, and have done remarkably well, given the situation, BUT, he is still getting up twice a night.  Ugh!  I am waiting for 6 months before starting him on any solids.  That was the protocol that we used with Caden and it worked really nice, so I don't want to change that, even though I bet a little sustenance would help him sleep better.  He can roll tummy to back like a champ.  He is ALMOST rolling back to tummy.  He will roll up on his side and kick and squirm, he is about 90% there!!!  He's definitely enjoying his feet these days!  He'll play with a few toys, especially those that are fun to chew/suck on.

Brad and I left him with my Mom AND a neighbor for the first extended time (long story, but Mom got in a car wreck and couldn't pick-up the kids, she shouldn't have even traveled up here, but she did...).  We went to see a traveling Broadway for Brad's birthday.  Everything was fine when we left, but when we got home and realized that the neighbor was still there and the baby was still awake, we knew things must not have gone as planned... And it didn't... He had received a few bottles from me, leading up to this event, but I guess he wasn't really up for receiving a bottle from someone else.  Poor kid screamed for 1.5 hours!!!!  Geez!  I feel sorry for all parties involved!!!  As soon as we walked in, he calmed down on my shoulder and guzzled a 6 ounce bottle... he was STARVING!!!

I LOVE his smiles and to make him laugh!!!

Funny Story...

Well, this one is on me.  I must write about it before I forget it, because with every month postpartum I easily forget how miserable I was towards the end of my pregnancy.  It was 7 days until my due date, my first child would have been a week old already, the nursery had been finished for weeks and I had been having true contractions for 2 weeks now.... I was READY! My mom, Caden and I were at the grocery store in the check-out line.  I glanced over at the magazine rack and saw a cover story reading.. "Kate is pregnant!".  You should have seen my face!!!  I turned to my Mom with the most disgusted look on my face and said, "I know they are roylaty and all, but HOW can she have TWO babies in the time it has taken me to have ONE!?!?"

I vividly remember her giving birth to Prince George while I was newly pregnant... here I am 39 weeks and counting and she is having another baby already!  :0  How'd she do that???  I obviously need some of whatever it is that she is taking!

Anywho, Carsten finally made his presence into the world without too much coaxing, although, I still compare him to the groundhog and think that our winter was so brutal,  he just wanted to wait for Spring!

3 Monthts

I feel like Carsten has hit so many milestones during this last month.  He is smiling - which I LOVE.  He sleeps through the night - which I also LOVE.  He had his first flight on an airplane when we went to Texas.  He has grown a lot and is really trying to roll over and I feel that it will be very soon.  We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, so I did my best with his height and weight.  He is HUGE compared to Caden, he is wearing some 3-6 months and some 6-9 months clothes.  He is in size 3 diapers.  I got out the lot of 6-9 months clothes to put him in, and realized that Caden was eating solid foods when he wore them because of all the stains.  We have another 3 months before that happens!!!  I also have pictures of Caden pulling up in these clothes because he wore them good into the 9 month range.

Smiles

Philly has nothing on us, we are full of Brotherly Love!

First flight

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to make him laugh!!!

Photo taken by Becky Roberson, I think she did GREAT with this one!!!

Fireman Caden

I have joined a local Mom's group which has organized outings like touring the fire station.  I knew that this was something Caden would enjoy, so I arranged for Brad to stay home with Carsten and the two of us had a nice little outing.  He put on his fireman rain boots and his hat and carried the banana bread that we had made the fireman out to the car.  I must say that the tour was setup pretty strangely for a group of toddlers and their parents - it was a meeting room, with tables and chairs setup much like a class room, the kids were supposed to sit still and listen as the fireman spoke at the front of the room.  Thankfully the spiel didn't go on too long, as all the kids were getting restless.  BUT, for the one mom that INSISTED on asking her un-necessary question at the end of the talk, I apologize for the ugly look.  The kids were going to get to tour the station and the trucks right after the introduction.  The fireman was done with his intro and asked any questions.  And this one mom.... Ughhhhhh... she said that she had a question, which in itself made me angry because all the kids were already restless, but then when I actually heard her question.... OY VE!  COME ON LADY!!!

At any rate, we were finally standing in the large garage in awe of all the HUGE trucks filled with tools and hoses.  It was a little boy's dream!!!

2 Months

At 2 months I have started to get the hang of having two at home.  Thankfully Brad worked from home for a good portion of the 1st two months, which meant that he could chip in during the critical times, like breakfast, lunch and naps.  Carsten has started to get on a schedule, and will still eat every 2 hours, but can stretch to 3 at times.  He is getting up once or twice during the night, but goes back to sleep right away!  He's been making the sweetest little noises and is working pretty hard on his facial expressions.  I think a smile will be coming really soon!!!!

He weighed 13 pounds 8 ounces, which put him in the 81st percentile.  His height was 24 inches which put him in the 43rd percentile, but I must confess, I wasn't quite prepared to hold his head to take his measurements, so there is a chance that the number is skewed.  ;)

Easter

This post is coming so late that I am having a hard time remembering all the details, but what I do know is that we DID have a wonderful Easter celebration at our house!  We started the festivities with the town egg hunt at Lion's Park on Saturday morning.  It was chaotic.  There were tons of people there and the space where they had Caden's age egg hunt was pretty small.  I think that there was a mis-fire/jump start on the behalf of a few over-anxious parents, which really put the egg hunt off to a bad start.  Regardless, Caden did happen to round up 3 eggs for his basket and ended up completely overwhelmed, from looking at the pictures, it was warranted.  He did amazingly well with the large characters that were wondering around the park, and had his picture taken with many of them.

Since my mom was in town for a visit, I took advantage of the extra hands and we prepared a HUGE Easter feast for Saturday dinner.  We figured that trying to get that large and delicious of a meal out on Sunday lunch would be a little crazy, and it would have been.  We had Brad's co-worker, who is Canadian and doesn't have family around, over to join us... known around here as Uncle Kevin.  He's great with kids and likes to drink Brad's beer, so our door is always open to him.  :)

Sunday we woke up to Easter Baskets and eggs hidden in the yard, yes, even though we live in the Midwest, they were IN THE YARD!  I really do despise indoor egg hunts.  It was chilly, probably in the 40's, and damp with dew, but we got out there and hunted eggs.  Caden unfortunately returned to his old egg hunting ways (don't get me started on that story.... again) and it took him a good 20 minutes to find 15 OBVIOUS eggs.  The reason is that he stops and opens every egg, sometimes insisting on eating what is in them, before continuing on with the search. (Thanks AGAIN Mom!). :p

We then headed out to church, which was pretty eventful being that the Fire Truck AND Police Car showed up.  Turns out someone accidentally activated the fire alarm.  We headed home for the leftovers from the feast the night before and a nap, which we ALL needed!

We ended up dying eggs the Monday after Easter, but it was still a lot of fun and TOTALLY messy!

Carsten's 1st Easter!

Pre egg hunt, see the eggs in the back, AND all the people waiting?

During the egg hunt, doesn't it seem chaotic?!?

How Carsten spent his time at Lion's Park

New swim trunks from the Easter Basket

EGGS!!!!!!!!!!

How Carsten spent his time during the egg hunt

I tried to get a picture of the 2 boys together, BUT, Caden really resisted which then spurred a 5 minute session of tickling himself with the evergreen (it was pretty entertaining).

Another shot at a pic of the boys

Yes, it was hard to get all the dye off his hand!