Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house. My mom was kind enough to serve dinner at 1pm, which left me plenty of time to get to work. Oma was back from visiting Tante Wies in the Netherlands and Aunt Carol and Uncle Joe joined us as well. Adam was the highlight of dinner of course.

My night at work was very uneventful. I admitted a patient at 11pm and got to sleep uninterrupted for almost 5 hours. I was so well rested that we returned to my parent's house the following day to spend more time with Oma before leaving for New Hampshire.

The cousins had lots of fun playing together in New Hampshire. Jeff and I had a relaxing time visiting with family.

Happy Belated 8 Months!

Wow, Adam is 8 months old already!

Adam's First Haircut

I have been debating cutting Adam's hair for a few months. Part of me really wanted to cut his hair to remove the wispy strands and rat tail. And the other part of me wanted him to keep his baby hair forever. While Jeff was away at the pharmacy, and Adam was playing quietly on the floor, I got out the scissors and gave Adam a little trim.

I think he looks handsome :)

Happy (Belated) Halloween!

This week was extra special because Hurricane Sandy came through. Jeff and I were very fortunate and did not lose power. However, Branford is right on the CT coast and the Thorntons lost their power. Lucky for us we don't live that far, so Matt, Hannah, and Keira came over. The babies had a lot of fun interacting with each other and the adults had a good time as well.

Adam had a cold about 2 weeks ago and had gotten better but still had a residual cough. Over the past weekend his cough turned to a slight wheeze. When the Thorntons came over, Adam's cough was worsening so Aunt Hannah (and PNP) was kind enough to take Adam to the pediatrician's office. Please note that Hannah had BOTH babies Wednesday. I have my hands full with just Adam, I don't know how she did it with TWO babies! Adam was prescribed a nebulizer and needs to take albuterol and pulmicort until his wheezing is gone. He does ok with the nebulizer treatments, it doesn't bother him but he gets bored after a few minutes and wants to play instead.

Adam and Keira had a great time celebrating their first Halloween. Matt, Hannah, Jeff, and I took the babies out trick or treating. We visited several houses and everyone was excited to see cute babies dressed up. And the parents were excited for the candy :)

Knock on wood, Adam has done exceptionally well with sleeping! This weekend we stopped the 2am dream feed. So far Adam has slept right through them and barely made a peep. It's fantastic news because I'm getting more sleep too! Adam goes to bed around 7:30, he gets a dream feed at 10:30, another dream feed at 5:30 and is up usually around 7. I'm now able to sleep from 11 to 5:30 UNINTERRUPTED!

Getting into the Halloween spirit

Costume time

Trick or Treat

This dinosaur likes to eat giraffes, watch out!

Cousin play time

New coat, do you see the polar bears?

Time to make the donuts!!!

Sunday Funday: lounging in dinosaur pjs

Hurricane Sandy

Oh we are ready. We returned late last night after an awesome weekend in NH. Jeff went to the grocery store and got essentials and water. We filled up our cars. We did all our laundry and dishes and started in disposables. I don't want any dirty cloth diapers hanging around for over a week. We have our flashlights  out and ready. And we packed an overnight bag (ok bags) in case we need to head to my parent's house if we lose power. We have a plan for moving frozen milk if we lose power. And lastly we went to the liquor store because nothing says hurricane preparedness like a glass of wine.

Good thing we returned home when we did. My hospital declared a "Code Disaster" which means all essential employees are required to be on standby and come in if needed. Yup, I'm considered essential but have not been asked to come in yet.

I made Adam his own little play spot in a corner of the living room. There are foam pads underneath to protect him from the hardwood floors. So far I think Adam doesn't mind the hurricane.

I hope all the people in the path of Hurricane Sandy stay safe and warm.

7 Months

Well, time is certainly flying by! Adam is now 7 months old. He is sitting up unassisted and makes tons of new sounds. He likes to say ba, da, ga, and dee. And plenty of other sounds that I'm not sure I can spell out phonetically. He's doing really well at daycare and his teachers tell me how happy he is every day. Which is a good thing because some days he doesn't like to nap but he still remains happy. Most days I can leave work for 15 minutes and walk over to feed Adam a few times a day. I LOVE this! He gets the benefit of breastmilk and I get to see my little boy!  The past two weekends Adam got to see his Great Oma, but we forgot to take any photos :( This past weekend we also went up to New Hampshire to visit Jeff's family. We had lots of fun, enjoyed home cooked meals, Adam got plenty of snuggles, Jeff and I got to sleep in a little bit, but we had to return early because of Hurricane Sandy.

Happy (Belated) 7 Months Adam!!!

Out for a walk and stopped to have a chat with Gianna

Big boys play with trucks

 Happy Birthday, Dad!

Just modeling my new hat that Aunt Judy made!

Sleep Training

So the day finally arrived. We started sleep training this past Friday.  Before you get all judgy (no, that's not a word but it sounds like it could be), Jeff and I were starting to lose it after 6 months of constantly getting up. I knew I would be sleep deprived having a baby, but getting up 5, 10, sometimes 15 or 20 times per night is not healthy for anyone. Especially when it's night after night after night after night. Jeff and I feel like walking zombies.  The goal of sleep training is to teach babies to return to sleep when they lightly wake up through out the night.

On Friday, Adam's crib was moved into his own room. We did his night time routine like normal, naked time and lotion for his eczema, nursed him in the glider in his room, put him in his sleep sack, and then placed him in his crib without his pacifier. I was expecting lots of tears.  Nope. Very anticlimactic. He just rolled onto his side and fell asleep. He woke up and cried later in the night, and then he cried, fussed, and slept on and off for 2 hours with Jeff checking on him every so often.  But after those two hours he fell back into a deep sleep. I fed him at the designated times, but he had to be asleep when I fed him so that he no longer associates crying and eating. Not that eating at night is a bad thing, but often at night he uses me as a pacifier to fall back asleep. Little Dude woke up at 7:30 in the morning all smiles.

Knock on wood, but so far he's done very well.  He now goes to sleep without crying and only slightly wakes up when I feed him.  And Jeff and I are getting WAY more continuous sleep than ever before.

Adam had his 6 month appointment today. My big little boy is 17 lbs 4 oz and 27.75 inches. He is in the 75th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. His head is still measuring in the 95th percentile ;)

On a lighter note, it's now October and it's ok to wear Halloween outfits!