Carter - Seven Months

**There were several good pictures from his 7 month pictures that I wanted to post.  I couldn’t pick just one!**

Diapers

Still rockin’ the 2’s.  I really thought he’d be in 3’s by now, but 2’s are still fitting pretty good.  I haven’t actually tried a size 3 on him yet, but they look huge so as long as he’s still fitting into 2’s, we’ll stick with those.

Clothes

Baby boy is still on the small side!!!  He still wears a lot of his 3 month clothes and is just now fitting into some 6 month clothes, though most still swallow him, especially pants/shorts.  Even three month shorts fall off of him for some reason!

Nursing

Carter still likes nursing and eats so much more quickly now than he did when he was a newborn. I remember the days of nursing for 45+ minutes. Now he only nurses for maybe 10 minutes! He has certainly gotten more efficient with eating. Of course, as was the problem last month, if Daddy is in sight, Carter loves to stare at him and laugh which makes the meal take a bit longer.

Carter eats cereal and a 5-6 oz. bottle for breakfast, then a solid with another 5oz bottle for lunch, and his 3rd meal is a bottle only (usually 7oz). Finally he has solids for dinner and then I nurse him right before bedtime. I should specify that he eats from bottles during the week when I’m at work, but on the weekends he rarely gets bottle and is mainly nursed.

On the pumping front, I’ve decreased the number of times I am pumping at work from twice every day to only once. I can’t handle that much pumping anymore. It’s too much of a hassle when I’m at work, particularly when I have to go to a client’s office. As of now, I pump in the morning when I wake up, then again after lunchtime and then I nurse Carter before he goes to bed. I plan to keep this routine up for as long as possible. Once I made this decision, the amount of milk I was producing decreased. Because of this, the 7oz bottle that Carter gets when he eats from a bottle only is sometimes a formula bottle. The rest are always breastmilk.

Solids

So far, Carter has been introduced to all stage one foods: carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, bananas, peaches, pears, prunes and apples.  He loves them all except for peas.  He’ll eat the peas, but they are definitely not his favorite.  We’re almost done with all the stage 1 foods we have in our pantry.  My next round of purchasing baby food will include only stage 2’s.  Most of the foods are the same, there’s just more.  Stage 1 is 2 1/2 ounces and stage 2 is 3 1/2 ounces.  Though there are some additional foods in stage 2 that I’m interested to see if Carter likes.

Sleep

He is still the best little sleeper in the world.  He sleeps anywhere from 11-13 hours at night and his naps are, for the most part, pretty good.  He’s gotten to where he can stay awake longer, so his naps are little bit shorter.  Right now he takes two naps a day, both of which are usually 1 1/2 hours, maybe more, depending on how tired he is.  Very rarely do we have a 3rd nap but sometimes it will still happen.  I’m trying my hardest to get him to drop that 3rd nap all together.  I’m also doing everything I can to keep him awake for longer during his first waketime, but he seems to want this waketime to be the shortest.  I’m trying to do this because starting next month, he will be going to Mother’s Day Out at our church from 9am-1pm two days a week.  They do allow for a nap during this timeframe, but my guess is that it won’t be until around 11am and right now, Carter is doing good to make it to 10am without needing a nap.  So I have a month to get him used to making it longer in the morning!

Waketime

No major changes to the waketimes this month.  His favorite things to do during waketime are still watching Baby Einstein DVD’s and taking strolls around the neighborhood or running errands out and about town.  My kid LOVES to be outside.  LOVES it.  If you try to make him play with toys inside for a 2 hour waketime, he’ll get extremely fussy.  But the second you take him outside, he’s golden.  He loves trees and grass and the sky and animals he sees outside.  This is a pain for us right now because it’s friggin 100 degrees outside so it’s hard on US (heat doesn’t seem to bother him) to keep him entertained outside.  But I will love this later in his life.  I would much rather have a child that loves being outside than one that does nothing but play video games all day.

Statistics

Carter didn’t have a 7 month appointment and, in fact, won’t have another doctor appointment until he’s 9 months old.  I have a copy of the pediatrician graphs for weight and height percentages though (they come in the back of the “What To Expect The First Year” book)  so at least I have an idea of where Carter is on the growth scale.  At seven months, Carter weighs 17lbs, which puts him in the range of the 35-40th percentile.  He is around 27 inches long (extremely hard to measure a squirmy baby) which puts him around the 60th percentile for height.  Still relatively tall and skinny.

Abilities

Things he’s doing:

• Sits up extremely well on his own, but will still sometimes tip over and fall.
• He is very capable of holding his own bottle now and is even starting to figure out that in order to get the last bit of food in the bottle, he has to tip it up so the food can come down into the nipple.
• He finally figured out how to get on all fours when he was about 6 months and 1 week old.  He keeps rocking back and forth, testing the boundaries of his balancing abilities.  His favorite place to practice used to be in his crib.  He hated doing it anywhere else, but now he likes to practice anywhere and everywhere, thankfully.  He is definitely mobile now.  He is ALL OVER THE PLACE.  You put a toy in the corner of the room and he will get to it, he just doesn’t do it on his hands and knees just yet.  He uses a combination of scooting, rolling and army crawling to get there.  It’s actually pretty hilarious to watch!
• Last month, when we started rice cereal, I mentioned that Carter likes to suck his thumb in between the times when there’s a spoon in his mouth (I’ll put solids on the spoon and put it in his mouth, he swallows it then puts his thumb in his mouth until I get the next spoonful in there).  Well, I’ve been working really hard with him on this and on banging the tray at mealtimes.  I’ve told him “no” numerous times (and had a serious look on my face when I said it, which was hard) and now Carter never tries to suck his thumb during mealtime!!  In fact, my husband and mother-in-law pointed out to me that Carter’s thumb sucking has significantly decreased (he used to have that thumb in his mouth ALL THE TIME).  I’ve noticed it too….the only time lately that I’ve seen him suck his thumb is at bedtime.

Teeth

Carter still only has his bottom two teeth, the central incisors.  I swear, everyone I talk to about his teeth have asked me how I’m still breastfeeding since his teeth have come in.  Teeth (at least the ones on the bottom) don’t affect breastfeeding because their tongue goes on top of the teeth, so you shouldn’t feel anything….unless they bite you on purpose.  Thankfully, Carter hasn’t quite figured that out just yet :)  As far as teeth up top, I’m not sure how that affects breastfeeding, but usually the top teeth (according to APA) don’t usually come in until 8-12 months.  That might be a good time to stop nursing if he does learn to bite!  I’ve also purchased some baby toothpaste (already had a toothbrush that I got at a baby shower) and started brushing Carter’s two teeth, once after breakfast and then again during bathtime right before bed.

Likes

• Sleeping on his tummy, but now switches up between sleeping on his stomach and his back.  He also loves sleeping on his side.  He just loves sleep, no matter the position!!
• Loves playing with a water scoop in the bathtub.  This is not even a toy!!  It’s meant for me to use to get the shampoo out of his hair.  But he loves it!  He also loves being in the bathtub BEFORE you fill it with water.  He likes seeing water come out of the spout.
• Being put in the Baby Bjorn and taking golf cart rides.  This has become a nightly event in our household.  Riding the cart over to Ross Bridge is his favorite thing to do by far.
• Being outside
• Animals, particularly dogs
• Sitting up in his crib and playing with the music mobile attached to the crib
• Being thrown in the air
• Playing on all fours
• Going to the pool
• Riding in buggies at the grocery store and other stores.  We just started letting him sit in the buggies at stores this month and he loves the freedom to look at the whole store without the confinement of  the car seat.

Dislikes

• Still doesn’t enjoy being strapped down in the car seat, but he doesn’t always cry anymore.  He just kind of whines until we’re done strapping him down.  He also doesn’t love being strapped into the highchair for meals, but just like the car seat, he doesn’t always cry.
• Despises having clothes put on him. 
• Getting bored if he’s been doing one activity for too long.
• We bought him one of those bouncy swings you hang in a doorway recently.  He does NOT like it.  AT ALL.

Like I mentioned above, we’re trying to keep Carter awake longer in the mornings before his first nap.  Today, he woke up at 8am and my goal was to not have a nap until 11am.  In order to keep our sanity, that meant we had to take a golf cart ride.  We rode over to Ross Bridge this morning and there’s no telling how long he was asleep in the Baby Bjorn before Justin and I realized it:

See.  It’s hard to keep him awake that long, but we’re trying.  I think he fell asleep around 10:30ish.  He stayed asleep until I took him out of the Bjorn and just held him the rest of the ride home.  Sweet boy.

3 Years

Three years ago today, Justin and I got married.  I used to think it was so cliché to hear people say how they “married their best friend” but I understand it now.  I’ve always said that I couldn’t be married to anyone else and neither could Justin.  We were perfectly made for eachother.  I mean, I don’t know many couples that consider a two week trip to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro a vacation.  But we do.  We are so alike in so many ways, but in the ways we are different, those differences compliment one another. 

In three years I have married him, traveled the globe with him and had a baby with him.  He is second only to God in my heart. 

In past anniversaries, we have traveled to celebrate our anniversary, but this year we couldn’t due to the 7 month old rolling all over our household.  To see our past anniversary celebrations, click here.  So this year, we’re keeping it low key.  On Saturday, my mom is going to take Carter to spend the night at her house while Justin and I catch not one, but TWO movies.  I’ve never done this before!!  Justin really wants to see the movie Ted and the movie Neighborhood Watch so we’re going to see if we can manage seeing both of them back to back (depending on the timing of the flicks). 

I also got these beauties at work today:

My pictures from my phone will get much better when I get an I-Phone in September, I promise!!

The past three years have been amazing.  I love my husband more than he will ever know.  He is so patient with me and loves me like no one else can.  He is my rock in this life and I can’t wait to spend so many more years with him. 

Sunday School Party

Last Sunday (yes, almost a week ago…I don’t have a lot of free time these days which means my blogging has slacked a bit) our Sunday School class had a little party.  I absolutely LOVE our Sunday School class.  The downside is that I haven’t been in over a month.  The timing of it is right smack in the middle of Carter’s first nap which makes is near impossible for us to go.  Sometimes we’ll take turns going (Justin stays at home and watches Carter while I go and then they’ll come meet me for the normal service, or vice versa) and sometimes neither of us goes.  The only reason I am ready for Carter to drop his morning nap is for the ability to go to Sunday School again.

Anyway, regardless of the fact that we barely go anymore, we still love our class and keep up with what’s being taught in the class through email.  Our class is a new class at St. Mark and the first class of young adults without children (Justin and I kind of broke that rule).  It was created over a year ago and we’ve only had 3 parties: an ice cream social, a Christmas party and the party this past Sunday at the bowling alley.  We need to have more parties!!!

We had so much fun with everyone!  We went to the bowling alley on 280 after church and they were having cosmic bowling going on (thought this only happened at night).  I didn’t take many pics but here’s some that I did take:

Most of the class.  Left to right:  Amie Smith, Laura Ellis, Jade Sullivan, Stacey and Bryan Wolfe and of course, Justin.

Girl pic…and horrible pic of me.

Love my baby daddy…we celebrate 3 years of marriage next week!!

Stacey and Bryan.  Bryan is a jokester, much like Justin.  Explains why they get along so well :)

We started just having fun with it trying to figure out the dumbest ways to bowl a ball and Stacey was the only one that let me take a picture of it.  She turned in a bunch of circles and then threw the ball.  It was hilarious!!!  I’m honestly shocked she didn’t fall over!!

We decided as a group that our next outing will be ziplining at the new Red Mountain Park. Justin loves it out there. They have a ton of running trails with great views. Bryan and Stacey have already ziplined (is that a word?) there which is what gave us the idea to do something there. I’m excited. Now we just have to actually plan it.

Debbie and Gordon kept Carter while we were with our class.  After a couple of hours of bowling, we headed to their house to pick him up.  He was in SUCH  a good mood when we got there.  He was in another one of his “will laugh at anything” moods and found that the sound of an empty altoid box hitting the counter was hilarious.  See video below (bad quality, it was on my phone):

He’s my funny baby!

Carter will be 7 months old a week from today.  I don’t know if it’s just me, but the past 3 months have FLOWN by.  Maybe it’s because I’m working full time while raising a child.  I don’t know.  But I just can’t believe he’s already 7 months old!  He is sooooooooooooooo close to crawling y’all!  I think he now knows that in order to do it, he has to use his hands and his feet and he’s tried several ways.  He’s scooted, turned in circles on his stomach and even rolled his way to get to something.  He’s definitely quickly learning how to move without me and Justin having to pick him up (though that is still his favorite method). 

He has done INCREDIBLE on eating his solids.  His favorite by far is fruit.  He likes veggies too though.  He originally hated squash, but he eats it now.  He also hated peas and they still aren’t his favorite and you can tell, but he’ll still eat them.  He loves carrots, green beans, bananas, apples, peaches, pears and sweet potatoes.  The only foods in stage 1 that we haven’t gotten to yet are prunes and those are next.  I think once he’s eaten all the stage 1 foods that are in our pantry now, we’re just going to go ahead and move up to stage 2.  Stage 2 is for babies that sit up with a little bit of support.  Carter is pretty much a master at sitting up so he should probably be on stage 2 foods now, but I’ll wait until we’re done with what we have in the pantry.

Now for the gross part.  With solid foods comes solid poop.  Carter’s bowel movements have completely changed since starting solids.  They are thicker and smellier.  Justin LITERALLY has to wear the gas mask he bought as a joke when I was pregnant.  He also has to light a candle and change the diaper quickly or he’ll throw up.  My husband wasn’t blessed with the ability to be in sight of blood or poop without yaking.  Just goes to show you that us women are the stronger ones.

I haven’t blogged much about Carter this month because not a whole lot has changed from last month other than the introduction to more foods.  My hope is that by 8 months, we will have a crawler on our hands.  We shall see!!

Cooper Turns One

My sweet nephew Cooper turned one year old on July 13th.  Most of you know that my sister, Cooper’s mom, lives in Tampa, FL while the rest of our family lives in Alabama.  My mom was going to drive down to Tampa last Thursday and stay the weekend to be there for his party and drive home on Sunday.  She was going to be the only family member on our side there because none of the rest of us could make it to Florida.  Or so they thought.

To my mom and to Jennifer’s complete and total surprise and shock, I walked through Jen’s front door about 3o minutes before the party started.  I saw my mom first (she was in the kitchen) and she had the most confused look on her face and said “What?  What are you doing here?”.  She was so surprised she was stuttering.  Then Jennifer came into the kitchen (she was on the phone in their office and the doors are glass so she saw me enter the house but couldn’t come running just yet because she was on the phone).  When she got off the phone she ran into the kitchen and said the same thing “What are you doing here?!?!?”.  I had just gotten off the phone with her not even 30 minutes before that to tell her that I hope Cooper had a great birthday party.  When I got off the phone with her, I told her I had to go because Carter was crying for me, when in reality, I was walking out of my hotel and to my rental car to drive to her house.  I love surprises!!!  My sweet mom cried.  It was awesome.

So anyway, I was able to go to Cooper’s first birthday party!!  I was so excited.  Here’s some pictures of the day (his party was Mickey Mouse themed-he LOVES Mickey):

No birthday party is complete without the pictures hanging of how much a baby changes from being a newborn to turning one!

He’s so sweet!!!  Jen even had a shirt for him with Mickey on it that had “Cooper” written in the Disney font!

HEART HIM!!!

All the girls at the party wanted to watch chick flicks.

Pretty girls lined up in a row watching The Little Mermaid II.  Had no idea there was even a second movie to that.

Love this picture of my mom, Jennifer and me. 

The food table

The adults had some YUMMY sandwiches and the kids got peanut butter and jelly Mickey Mouse sandwiches.

On the left is Cooper’s cake that he got to dig into and on the right are the best cupcakes EVER.  Jennifer made them herself and they were INCREDIBLE.  I may or may not have eaten about 6 of them.

She also had a bib made for him!

Not really sure what to think about the huge cake in front of him…

He really liked the icing

He took all the icing off the first layer.  Jennifer had to take his hand and put it in the batter part of the cake for him.

I’m worn out mommy.  I need a nap from all this sugar and excitement!

Cute enough?!?!?

Naturally he got it all over his body

On the left, completely excited and happy.  On the right, totally silent and barely moving…the sugar crash officially set in. 

I have no idea who this little girl is nor do I know her parents, but she fell asleep in her daddy’s lap just like this.  HILARIOUS!!!!

I only stayed for the duration of the party and little bit afterwards.  I left at 4 to head back to the airport to fly home.  It was a quick trip, but well worth it.  I didn’t want to miss  Coop’s first birthday!!!

Today

Today, Walt Bridges would have turned one year old.  Some of you don’t know Walt and may not have heard about him from my blog.  I don’t even think I ever blogged about him in the time he was with us.  Walt is the son of two of me and Justin’s good friends, Katy and Joe.  He was born one year ago today.  On the morning of September 17, 2011, when Walt was just 9 weeks old, he went to be with his Creator in Heaven.  Walt died of SIDS in his sleep.  I was about 5 1/2 months pregnant when Walt died.  I was already a ball of emotions because of the extra hormones, but the death of a baby can send you into emotion overdrive.  I’ve never been to a funeral like that and hopefully never will again.  It was truly the saddest day I’ve ever experienced…and he wasn’t even my child.  Seeing Katy bend over that insanely small white casket to say goodbye to her son before they put him in the ground was unbearable.  UNBEARABLE.

So why the need to blog about this?  Well, for starters, I’ve been a nervous wreck ever since I got to work this morning.  I’ve been crying uncontrollably.  Partly due to the sadness that came with Walt’s passing and the hole that I know is still in his parents heart, but also because I’m mad at myself.

I’m mad at myself for all the times I have gotten beyond frustrated with Carter in the past 6 months.  For the times he wouldn’t sleep, the times he wouldn’t eat, the times where he screamed uncontrollably and I couldn’t calm him down, the times where he wouldn’t even let me take a shower, the times where he spits up or poops on me…I could go on like this for days.  Bottom line, I’ve gotten 6 months with Carter.  And Katy and Joe will never have that with Walt.  I am so blessed, even in the chaos.  Life is so short and you NEVER know when the Lord thinks it’s your time to go. 

A fellow blogger friend of mine is going to have a D&C today because she miscarried her first child.  Her and her husband have been trying to get pregnant for over a year.  Another girl that I was really good friends with in middle school and parts of high school (we lost touch as we got older) was pregnant with her fiancé's baby boy and a mere week before the birth, her fiancé died suddenly.  She is now raising a baby boy that she looks at every day and sees her fiancé.  Loss is all around us and for some reason it never really hits you until it happens to someone you know. 

So today, hug your children a little tighter.  Don’t get mad at them, but instead show them how much you love them and how you would do anything for them.  Because some people don’t get to experience that kind of love.

A friend of Katy’s made a video to honor Walt.  Click on the link below if you want to see it.  He was so beautiful.  At the time, Katy and Joe lived in Auburn, AL so we didn’t get to see them much.  But we were honored to be able to meet Walt for the first time a couple of weeks before he passed.  A group of us went to eat dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings in Hoover and they brought Walt and he slept the whole time.  He was such a good baby.  Happy Birthday Walt!

http://animoto.com/play/781cAkElt9vQztnJ2rHOiA

Week 27...How I Loathed You

Carter is almost 6 1/2 months old…at the end of his 27th week of life to be exact.  Week 27 was AWFUL.  I purchased a book a while back called The Wonder Weeks.  This book talks about the stages (weeks in specific) that babies go through developmental leaps where they have figured something out or are in the process of figuring something out and can be extremely fussy until they feel comfortable again.  Carter has been through many of these developmental leaps so far and none of them ever really affected him.  Until week 27.

Week 26 is actually the developmental week according to the book, but some babies experience the effects of the leap before or after the week mentioned in the book.  It’s just an estimate of when most babies experience them.  Week 26’s leap was development of relationships.  According to the book, this is the age where babies understand the relationship of one object to another.  For example, distance.  This is where I noticed Carter was having a hard time.  I think he finally understood distance from himself to me (or Gigi or Nana or whoever had him at the time).  He finally realized that when mommy leaves the room, she’s left the room.  He has no idea when I’m coming back or if I’ll come back at all.  A side affect of this leap is separation anxiety.  I found this to be TOTALLY true.  Carter all of a sudden wanted to be held all the time and if you left the room, he would scream.  On top of all of this, his naps were MUCH shorter than usual and he was waking up for the day significantly earlier than normal.  I was at my wits end for sure!!!

Even when he was playing and you were down on the floor with him, he wasn’t happy.  It was almost as if he was frustrated with himself more than me.  When I read about week 26 in The Wonder Weeks, it all made sense.  He was on the verge of discovering how to do something and at the time, I didn’t know what it was, I just knew that his fussiness and frustration was with himself because his brain was developing the ability to learn a new skill.  A mere day or so after turning 27 weeks, Carter mastered a new activity.  He figured out how to get from laying on his stomach to being on all fours.  As soon as he figured out how to do this, my angel baby returned.  He was no longer fussy and screaming all the time.  He went back to all smiles and giggles.  His naps returned to the normal 2-3 hours and he was waking up at the normal time again (today I had to wake him up at 8:15am after 13 hours of sleep).

**Picture was taken on my phone, sorry for bad quality**

Now that he has learned this new thing, he does it ALL THE TIME!!!!  I’ve blogged before about how I’ve heard moms say that when babies learn a new skill they want to do it over and over and over again.  I experienced this first hand once Carter learned to roll from tummy to back and then again when he learned to roll from back to tummy.  For the two days after learning how to get on all fours, Carter would wake up in the middle of the night and instead of falling back asleep, he thought it was a good idea to practice this new skill.  I would look at the monitor at 3am because he was making noise (not crying at all, just coo-ing) and when I turned on the video, he would sure enough be on all fours in the crib rocking back and forth, testing his balance.

I’m so glad he finally figured this out.  Now that he has learned this, he is SO close to crawling.  Justin and I were in the floor with him yesterday and he was on all fours and rocked back and forth several times and then finally plunged forward towards a toy.  He then squirmed (I say squirmed because I wouldn’t call it a crawl…if anything, it was an army crawl) towards the toy until he could touch it.  He is so close.  I feel like once he gets more practice on balancing when he’s up on all fours, he’ll become more comfortable reaching his hands out while moving his knees at the same time.  We will then officially have a crawler on our hands!!!

Nothing else major going on right now, just wanted to document this because I want to remember it.  Like I said, Carter is never fussy and the whole week of 4th of July was like I had someone else’s baby and not mine.  He’s never been like that in his life and I was so glad that he finally figured out what he was trying to and is now back to being my sweet ball of preciousness :)
Quick update for the past week:

• Carter is loving being on solids.  So far we’ve introduced rice cereal (which he was eating 3 times a day, but  now that we’ve introduced veggies, he only gets cereal in the morning), carrots, squash and sweet potatoes.  Next up is peas and green beans and once we’ve introduced all the vegetables, we’ll start up with fruits (bananas, peaches, apples, pears and prunes).  Biggest change I’ve noticed since being on solids….poop.  With solid foods comes solid poop.  Gross.  Also, his spit-up is now colored instead of just white….which means when he spits up, we must wash clothes ASAP or it will stain. 
• The only solid food that I don’t think Carter likes so far is squash.  He’ll eat it, but I can tell he doesn’t like it.  He loves carrots and sweet potatoes though.  I don’t mind him not liking squash.  I’ll still probably make him eat it every now and again, but since Justin and I don’t eat squash, it won’t be the end of the world if he doesn’t like it.
• Justin just got back from his climb of Mount Rainier.  He didn’t summit unfortunately, but he had a blast. The guides turned everyone around when they got to 12,800 feet because the avalanche danger was too high.  No team summited that day.  That was the longest he has been away from Carter and he was so excited to see him again when he got back in town.  He isn’t traveling at all in July so he will actually be keeping Carter the next two weeks while I’m at work instead of my mother-in-law.  Lots of Carter/Daddy time coming up!!
• On the 4th of July, Carter and I went over to the Lobdell’s to enjoy hamburgers and ribs and some FABULOUS deserts made by some friends.  I loved seeing Harper.  He’s over a month old now and just so stinkin adorable.  I have such a hard time remembering when Carter was that small!  Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures because Justin had my camera with him in Washington.  But we do finally have a picture of the boys together:

Another picture from my phone, sorry for the quality.  Is it weird if I’m excited to see what kind of trouble these two are going to get into together in the future??

• My mom has finally moved to our side of town!!!  She used to live in Chelsea, AL which was a good 45 minutes one way from our house.  She bought, and essentially re-modeled, a house on Hwy 150 in Hoover and is now a mere 10 minutes away from our house!  AND, it’s on the way to my work.  That came in handy when she kept Carter for two days last week since my mother-in-law was out of town.  I love her being so close.  I know she’s going to be so excited to see Carter all the time.  She’s already seen him so much and she’s only been moved into that house for less than two months.
• Carter has now cut a second tooth, so he now has his two bottom teeth.  I’ve heard that you should see a dentist as soon as the first tooth pops through.  I’m not sure that’s right though….at least most of my friends with babies waited longer than that, so I’m not really sure.  I have a dentist appointment in July so I’m going to ask my dentist if he does kids or if he can suggest someone who does.  If you have a little one, when did they go to the dentist for the first time?

Ok that’s about all I got.  Hopefully one of these days all of my blogposts won’t be about my son or parenting in general.  Kinda hard when you don’t have time for anything else ;)

#46 and #101 - CHECK!

Number 46 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to breastfeed for a full 6 months.  Well, Carter is now going on 6 1/2 months old and we’re still breastfeeding!  My new goal is to do it for a year, but I don’t know if I’ll make it that long due to pumping.  I’ve expressed my extreme hatred of pumping on the blog in the past and that hasn’t changed.  Working full time makes pumping extremely difficult.  I can never find the time to break away and get in a good 15 minutes to pump.  And most of the time, I forget to!  I used to pump 3 times a day at work and when Carter dropped from 5 feedings a day to 4, I dropped a pumping at work too.  But even still doing it twice a day takes a HUGE toll on me at work.  I would love to do it for a year, but realistically, I’m shooting for 8-9 months.

Number 101 on my list was to get a safe.  Justin and I actually bought one a long time ago, I just never marked it off the list.

I assure you, the closet floor is NOT the permanent location.  We’re actually going to bolt it to the floor soon.

Two more things off the list!!  Woo hoo!  Hope everyone has had a great 4th of July week!!