Chael 7-8-9-10 Month Updates

Posted on September 8, 2014 by sparkleypinklemons

Hi there friends!! How are ya all? Wish you all had a great summer!

I started writing this post back in July, here is an insert from it.

Wowzers..sorry this is soo late! We spend the first few weeks of the month visiting family out west and now just trying to get back to our routine back at home. Let me just say that traveling with a 7 month year old can be challenging especially with long delays and cancelled ( YES cancelled) flights. Luckily, I have an angel of a boy who made it all a breeze. Just a couple of tips if you plan to travel soon with your little one

– If your little one takes a paci, do your self a favor and buy one of those attachy things. Gosh, why didn’t I do that, I won’t even go into my experience on one of our flights with a sick kid next to us and our paci..ahh..trust me just buy one 🙂

– pack light for flying. I just brought a small purse that had a crossbody strap and an Ergo. It was sooo much easier than when we tried flying with a carry on, etc.

So whats new –

Chael has been such an awesome little boy. It has been a pure joy watching him grow. It has been mostly just Chael and I this summer as daddy was away working, but we have made the best of it.

Updates –

Milestones – Chael has learned sooo much these past few months.

Crawling – Chael started rolling just before 6 months then he learned how to crawl sideways around this time as well. To date he is not officially crawling forward but he has mastered crawling backwards & side ways, rolling and scooting on his butt. He has been standing pretty well for a few months now, mostly when leaned up against something. Update since I wrote this the other night — he’s officially crawling each and every way!

Talking – His first word at 8 months was Dada. He does lots and lots of baby talk so I really do feel this will be climaxing to words before we know it.

Eating- This has been a challenging thing. We introduced solids at 6 months and it took until about 8 1/2 -9 months before he actually enjoyed them. It got a bit frustrating in the beginning because he would reject everything we tried for days, weeks, months but finally he gave in. 🙂 Since then we have been doing 3 meals a day and that seems to be working well. In between meals he nurses, so he is nursing 4 times during the day then 2-3 times at night ( yes we are still not sleeping through the night).

sleeping – Ahhh..Soo we are still not sleeping through the night. He wakes anywhere from 1 to 4 times per night. He usually goes to bed around 8 then sleeps until 8 or 9 in the morning. We are down to 2 naps during the day. I thought perhaps the 3 naps per day was causing him to wake more at night but now, that didn’t help. But he is such a good baby so I am ok with the not sleeping well at night.

Here are some pictures from the past few months.

Drinking like a big boy

Sharky baby

His funny faces make us smile

Soo happy to be his mom!

4th of July weekend

Yay! Such a handsome guy. Hope you enjoy the pictures and you are all doing great!

Chael Month 6

Posted on May 6, 2014 by sparkleypinklemons

Woohoo, guess who just turned 1/2 year old! Yes, I can hardly believe it myself either.

What’s new –

Chael is growing more and more every day. Each morning it is amazing to see how different he can look and the new things that he surprises you by doing. This little man hasn’t really taken to rolling around, but has been focusing lots of time on learning to crawl. When we put him down for tummy time, he gets all hands and legs going in an attempt to take off. Which usually results in him pivoting around in a circle. This little guy really cracks us up, haha..

Eating / Sleeping –

YAY we made it to silver!! 6 Months EFB!!! I couldn’t be more happier!

Chael is still nursing the same every 3/4 hours. We also JUST started solids on his 6 month birthday. He wasn’t so sure about it, but went with it anyways. After much debate, I decided to start with rice cereal. I wasn’t sure if I would skip it or not but decided to start with that. I opted for Organic Brown Rice instead of traditional rice. He doesn’t seem to have any issues yet. We are going to do this for 3 days, just to have him get used to the idea of eating from a spoon and of course testing for allergies. Next, we plan to try out avocados then other green veggies, of course introducing them one at a time for 3 days each. As of right now, we just feed him from a spoon once a day. Usually in the afternoon about 1/2 hour after he nurses. Sleeping is the same. He is usually up 1/2 times at night to eat. So from the time he goes to bed at 8 he eats about 3/4 times from then to the time he gets up in the am. I am really not sure if this guy is every going to sleep through the night, haha..As much as we have tried to keep a routine and all. But it’s okay.

Mommy progress –

I am doing great! I FINALLY broke my prepregnancy weight this week! I had been at or slightly above my prepregnancy weight since about 3 weeks post partum. I admit, I haven’t really been trying to lose any, just wanted to tone up. I have still been doing the same workouts, but just started a 10 week program called T25. So far so good! I really like it, especially because it’s only 25 minutes of your day. As the weather gets nicer we will also incorporate some walking / hiking into our day.

Here are some pictures from this month 🙂

Cloth Diaper 0-6 Months – Part 1

Posted on April 18, 2014 by sparkleypinklemons

Here I am finally getting around to writing this post. I love reading other blogs on this topic so I felt it was important that I share my experience with cloth diapering.

First off, why am I cloth diapering?! Cloth diapering was something I had thought about before getting pregnant. Not really sure why because at the time I knew nothing about it and knew no one that did it. Once getting pregnant I decided to look more into it and instantly I was hooked. ( Did you know it takes 400-500 years for a disposable diaper to degrade in a dump? Also disposable diapers are the third most populated item in our land fills. — ps I have used disposables so I’m not knocking them, but was just shocked by the info I found out)…Besides being super adorable, cloth diapers are going to save us a ton of cash! We have invested about $215 dollars on diapers so far, that and some gifts that we received we have about 60 diapers ( not including inserts / prefolds / flats)..

Quick run down on the type of cloth diapers we have 1) pockets – diaper that you insert a cloth of some sort into a pocket in the diaper 2) All In Ones – basically just like a disposable ( all parts intact) but made of cloth 3) Cover- just a waterproof shell that you use a flat/prefold with 4) AIO2- sort of a mixture of the first two but the insert can detach some, making it easier to dry

If you don’t have any prior experience with cloth diapers this all may seem confusing as it was for me in the beginning. If you want to learn more I would suggest spending some times reading and watching videos on Pinterest, YouTube and the Baby Center cloth diaper board.

Ok– so our cloth diapering experience thus far ( — has been GREAT!)) .

The first few weeks after baby Chael was born we used Pamper Swaddlers because of the meconium and Vaseline ( for circumcision). We gradually weaned our way into cloth diapering by tying out some of the newborn cloth diapers we had. At about 5/6 weeks of age his first stash of small Fuzzinbunz pocket diapers started to fit ( he was about 8/9 lbs). We used those with BabyKicks Hemparoos. Somewhere around maybe 2 months he started to fit into his SunBaby pockets. Now at 5 Months he is fitting into most of our stash. Which is nice. Since we did not receive any disposable diapers as baby shower gifts, I think we are almost breaking even for what we spent as appose to what we would have spent on disposables by now.

We also use cloth wipes in which I made last summer while I was pregnant. I will do a post about that as well.

Next I will write about the diapers we are using ( with pictures) and our reviews on them. Here is a couple pictures of Chael in fluff. The Dino is a Tots Bots and the Fire Engine is a newborn Little Joey (fav)..

Chael Month 5

Posted on April 9, 2014 by sparkleypinklemons

What’s new –

Each month it is so hard to believe that our little guy is another month older. It is just exciting to know that we made it another month breastfeeding!!

The past month Chael has been learning new things. He is so very curious, when presented with something new you can just see him concentrating and soaking it all in. He has became found of his jumper ( the door kind), his sister Macie and is starting to sit up for longer periods of time by himself.

Eating / Sleeping –

Chael is becoming a faster eater, he can be done in less than 20 mins with both sides. He has a habit where he likes to talk and play while eating. His newest thing is he likes to pull and grab on my bottom lip while he’s eating, ha, that doesn’t go over well. He also seems to be going longer in between feedings to about 4 hours. Next month we will be starting solids and I am looking forward to that.

He is still sleeping fairly well. He is up now usually at 2/3 then again at 6/7 but then will sleep in until 8/9.

Mommy progress –

I am still doing really good. I slipped up a little bit with the exercising when my mom came in town to visit but I am back at it. I am looking forward to better weather so we can all get out and mommy can get some good cardio in.

We also went to our first MOPS play group the other week. I was able to meet lots of nice moms and cute babies.

I’ll leave you with some more pictures from the past month.
X.P.

Pinterest Spring Decorating

Posted on March 15, 2014 by sparkleypinklemons

It’s official less than one week until SPRING!! Ahh..BUT will it feel like spring? I’m not gonna count my lucky stars that it is. In hopes to help me get into the spirit, anyways, I found these uber cute decorating ideas on Pinterest.