Ready for Spring

Yesterday finally brought some beautiful weather! Micah and I decided to play outside in the yard. Here's a glimpse of his first experience touching grass...

Checking it out...

I'm not so sure I like it Mom...

And I definitely don't like how it feels when I crawl...

But this pine straw tastes pretty good...
When we were out in the yard, I discovered that I might have somewhat of a green thumb! My grandmother, Nanny, passed away in February of last year, and I decided to plant some flowers from her funeral in my yard in her memory. I was so pleased to see that they've returned a year later and have started to bloom! I miss Nanny, and I'm so happy that I have these beautiful flowers to remind me of her sweet spirit.

And lastly, spring at our house means soccer season. Will coaches at Parkview and Micah attended his first soccer game last night! Here he is ready to go to the game.Go Panthers!

7 months!?!

I'm long overdue for an update, so here it goes...

Micah is 7 months old! Where did the time go? At his 6 month appointment he was 17lbs 10 oz and 28 1/4 inches long. I'm not sure where the height is coming from, but hopefully he'll be taller than me! He's cruising through his fruits and vegetables with no problems and loves to eat!

A typical day for us goes something like this:

8:15am- Micah wakes up and immediately sits straight up and starts talking (bababa, mamama, dadada, nanana), eats 1/2 jar baby food fruit and 1-2 tablespoons baby rice cereal or oatmeal

9:30- plays for about 30-45 minutes which consists of him crawling around and getting into everything he can, and me pulling him away from the fireplace, DVDs, magazines, etc. saying "no no". But it's so fun to watch him explore his world!

10 or 10:30- Micah nurses for about 20 minutes and falls asleep for his morning nap. He's still a cat napper, so the nap usually lasts 30-45 minutes.

Around 11- Micah nurses again, then plays some more

12:30- Lunch (1/2 jar baby food and 1-2 tablespoons rice cereal), then nurses

1:15- We usually try to go somewhere, whether it be the park, shopping, to see Aunt Britt, or something else to just get out of the house

2:00- another 30-45 minute catnap

Around 2:30- Nurses, then plays

Around 4:00- Snack of 2-3oz juice or 1/2 jar baby food, then plays

Around 5:00- another 30-45 minute catnap

Around 6:30- Dinner (2 tablespoons rice cereal or 1 tablespoon rice cereal and 1/2 jar baby food), then nurses

7:00- Bath time- Micah's favorite part of the day! He loves playing in the bubbles and sitting in his bath sear with his toys

Between 8 &9- Nursing and singing Micah to sleep

Then time for me and Will to hang out alone!

There's lots of crawling, pulling up, and mischief in between, and at some point, I usually get a shower while Micah plays in his walker. At the end of the day, I am exhausted! He really keeps me on my toes. Now that he can pull up, he thinks he's invincible and tries to pull up on everything. He's had a few head bumps, which I'm sure will not be his last.

Yesterday, I came in his room after his nap to find him pulled up to standing at the side of his crib just grinning! We lowered his crib mattress for the second time in 2 weeks and it's now at the lowest setting. It's quite a challenge for me to lay him down since I'm so short! He also has his first tooth, which I discovered on Monday. I thought he was cutting one a few months ago, but it disappeared and reappeared on Monday. Now that it's cut through, he's back to sleeping at least 7-8 hours straight, which Will and I are really grateful for!

As you can see, things are moving fast these days. It's bittersweet for me. I love watching Micah develop as he moves through his milestones, and it's exciting to see him do new things, but I'm sad that my baby is turning into a big boy! Sometimes I just have to stop and take a minute to thank God for our beautiful son, realizing that every moment with him is so precious.

On the move

Micah will be 6 months old on Friday and this week he started crawling! It's an army crawl, and he can't quite get his right arm to do exactly what he wants it to, but he's definitely able to get across the room. I had no idea that he would crawl this soon, and I have to say I'm not quite ready yet. Thankfully a friend told me that baby gates are on sale this week at Babies-R-Us!

Big eater

Micah has not been sleeping well lately. During the past week, he's been waking up every 3 hours or so at night wanting to eat. I feed him and he goes back to sleep, but if I lay him down in his crib, he immediately wakes up. I usually end up just bringing him in the bed with us because it's much more convenient to feed him and we both end up getting more sleep. I called his pediatrician's office a few days ago and asked if I could start feeding him rice cereal during the day because I think he's hungry, and they said yes! So we started feeding him rice cereal 3 days ago. His sleeping has gotten a little better. He's still waking up a good bit, but not wanting to eat and I can rock him back to sleep.


I'm facing a tough decision at this point. I've read several different theories and talked to many people about getting a baby to sleep. I've always nursed Micah to sleep or rocked him to sleep, then layed him down. This is one of my favorite things to do as a mom. I feel like this is such a bonding time for us and I know that he won't always let me rock him to sleep. I may sound cheesy and sentimental, but I want to cherish this time with my baby because he's already growing so fast! I've heard that you should lay a baby down while he's awake so he'll be able to soothe himself back to sleep if he wakes up. This means that I would have to let Micah cry himself to sleep, and I don't know if I can handle that. Will is all for trying that, in hopes that he will start to sleep through the night, but I want to wait until he's six months old to try it (I'm actually hoping he'll start to sleep better before we have to so this). I talked to a friend yesterday whose baby is 13 months old, and she told me that she always nursed her baby to sleep and rocked her to sleep when she would let her. She even let her sleep in the bed with her sometimes, and her baby now sleeps 12 hours at night, goes to sleep on her own, and she never let her cry herself to sleep. I know that every baby is different, and I feel like my job as a mom is to meet Micah's needs. I think that's what I'll continue to do. I'm learning every day about being a parent, and most of it has been through trial and error. I'm gonna keep rocking Micah to sleep and hopefully that rice cereal will kick in soon...

Sick with a baby

This weekend has been an interesting one. It started off Friday night when my husband Will surprised me with a night at the Westin, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (my fav), and a chick flick. I knew that he had a special date planned, but I have to admit that when I found out it was going to be overnight, I panicked a little. We have only left Micah overnight once and it was a couple of weeks ago. He did fine that night, but we had tried it when he was two months old, and it ended when my mom called me at midnight in tears because he wouldn't take a bottle from her. That little stinker. I trust my parents more than anyone with Micah, but an overnight trip for Micah is a lot of preparation...he owns a lot of stuff! Anyway, I was able to pack us up easily, thanks wo Will's help on his snow day, and we were off. We had a great dinner, the movie was cute, the hotel was beautiful, and just as we were going to bed at midnight I got a text from my mom saying that Micah had spit up all of the formula she gave him and she was down to 2 oz of breastmilk, and he was still awake. I called her and told her what I thought (weird that I can now tell my mom how to take care of a kid) and at the end of the conversation said hesitantly, "well, do you want me to come get him??" She said no (praise the Lord) and we were able to get a good night's sleep. Micah ended up sleeping from 1am-6am, so all was not lost. I, however, woke up with a stomach virus at 7am Saturday and we had to head home early. I'm sure my parents were fine with that. Poor Will has had to deal with Micah (besides feeding him) for the past 36 hours due to this virus I had. It sucks to be sick, but it sucks even more when you have to take care of a baby. Luckily, I think the virus was only a 24-hour deal and I think I'm in the clear.

Wild Man

Our first Christmas with a child has come and gone. It was all I hoped it would be and it flew by. Micah got lots of new toys...mostly ones he can chew on. Will got the usual grown up gifts (clothes, cologne, a weight vest...and yes, he asked for that), and I got an iphone! I'm loving my new toy!

Unrelated, Micah turned 5 months old yesterday! I cannot believe that it was 5 months ago that our lives changed and we welcomed this little angel into our lives. He has been so active lately and every day brings something new that he does. Yesterday, I strapped him down in his bouncy seat, which I always do when I shower so I can watch him. I was lathered up with soap and shampoo when I looked through the door and saw him holding onto the bar that hangs over his seat and trying to thrust his body forward...he was escaping! So I opened the door and pushed him back in, getting water all over him and the floor. I kept saying "Just a minute Micah, just let me rinse off and I'll get you out." So I continued my shower, thinking that surely he would forget that he could escape, but no...he did it again 2 seconds later. So I opened that door and pushed him back into the chair again, and at this point he had figured out how to lean all the way forward and was pushing the buttons below the chair. Needless to say, I finished rinsing off with the door wide open, soaking the floor even more, and as I was getting out, Micah saw a towel hanging on the doorknob and lunged for it. I caught him just as the bouncy seat foot came off the floor. This child has become a wild man. If he sees something that he wants, he goes for it and we are in trouble now. He is about to be on the move. Hopefully he can hold off on crawling for at least another month or two. I thought that the bouncy seat would last more than 5 months, but I guess I'll be placing it in the attic for our next kid. AND I saw the tip of Micah's first tooth today. He's gonna be walking before I know it!

And so it begins...

So tonight I decided to start blogging. I've been toying with the idea for over a year, and as I was blog stalking tonight, I decided that I really like the idea of having my own blog. Plus I just watched the movie "Julie and Julia" last night (if you haven't seen it you should). I think that it'll be fun to look back at this blog and read over the crazy events that Will and I encountered.

Will and I have been married for 4 1/2 years and in August we welcomed our first child, Micah William to our family. It's hard to believe that he's already 4 months old. He is the absolute joy of our lives and God has blessed us so abundantly. Micah's a whopping 15.35 lbs and 25.5 inches and growing like a weed. He's rolling over, laughing, and sleeping an average of 7 hours at night (wakes up once to feed and goes back to sleep for a total of 11-12 hours). He's gotten really fun in the past month especially. I think he's starting to look a lot like Will, although he's a pretty good mixture of us both. He's become my little buddy and it's hard for me to remember life before Micah. This will be his first Christmas and Will and I have decided that we're not gonna buy him much. It'll be the only Chrismas that he won't be able to open his own gifts, and may be the only Christmas he won't remember although I am looking forward to Christmas day with our family of three.