7 Months Later 7 Months Apart

When one of my best friends had her baby, she had no idea that I was about 6 weeks pregnant.  I was so happy to be having a baby so close to her.  Kids can make or break friendships.  It's a big life change and so I'm so happy that I've gone through it with her as I know that our kids will grow up together and we will all be in each others lives years from now.

Her baby is a big boy.  He's on the opposite end of the spectrum from Parker.  Parker is in the 0.1 percentile and Declan is (or last I heard was) in the 98th.  So when we took this picture when Parker was a month old we thought it was the most hilarious picture ever.

Next week Michaela goes back to work from her 14 month maternity leave.  We are going to miss our weekly baby dates with her and Declan!  We knew we just had to try to recreate that picture taken 7 months ago!  It was a bit trickier this time.  Declan is a little mover!  He walks and crawls and was not content to lay on that blanket with Parker like he was last time! This is what I have to look forward to.  

I know that Declan can't wait until Parker is big enough to really play with him. (Will that ever happen?)  Slowly but surely we're getting there and some day this 7 month age gap won't seem like as big of a deal.  Parker is truly lucky to have a few special little friends who are close to his age to grow up with.  I'm sure they will be getting into lots of trouble with each other soon enough.

 Mic, thanks for being our mommy sounding board for the past 7 months.  For answering every single one of my "what did you do?" questions.  You know just because you are going back to work doesn't mean that those questions stop!  You just have an excuse to not respond to me until 3:30.  We love you both!

He Looks Like His Daddy

Sometimes people who don't know Ryan well ask who Parker looks like.  Well when I took this 7 month picture of him the other day I immediately thought, I've seen that picture before.  It's fairly obvious to me anyways that he looks like his daddy!

Things I Wish I Knew 7 Months Ago

7 months ago when I gave birth to a perfect, 5 week early, 4lb 3oz baby boy I really had no idea what I was in for.  I thought I had at least another 5 weeks to prep for this baby and the changes that he was going to bring.  But here we are 7 months later and life is different and better than I ever could of imagined it.  But those first couple of months were rough.  There are some things that I would go back and tell myself if I was able to.

It will get better.  Some day he will sleep through the night and you will sleep through the night.  Some day he will eat enough so that you don't have to pump after each and every feeding.  He will go longer between feeds (although not much).  

Soon he will smile at you and that will make everything a bit easier as you will finally have a reward for all of your hard work.

He will occupy himself.  Give him a toy and lay him on the floor and you will be able to shower and do your hair and put on make up.  Right now you are wondering how when you go back to work you will be able to make yourself presentable.  It will be possible.

Life won't get any less busy, but you will get your routines.  You will be able to get stuff done during the day and the baby won't cry every time you leave the room.  

You will only have time to paint your toe nails 3 times in the next 7 months though.  Because it never fails that as soon as you take the 2 month old nail polish off or get a base coat on Parker will wake up and need attention.

You will decide whether to change your outfit or Parker's outfit based on what type of bodily fluid is on it and how much of it there is.  A small amount of puke, pee or poop?  Ya we aren't changing outfits for that because you know that as soon as you do he will spit up all over the new outfit.

Despite spending 14 waking hours a day with a baby, you will love almost every minute of it.  You don't mind that some days you hardly have an adult conversation or you aren't able to shower or you smell like spit up.  Because you will love this baby more than you could ever imagine.

Parker at 7 Months

Parker is 7 months old!  This months pictures have been my favourite to take so far.  He was happy for them and was into everything!  He was grabbing at the blocks and some of the pictures say that he's 8 years old instead of 7 months.... It might have been a bit trickier to get some of the shots but they were so much fun for both of us.

Weight: 11lbs 12 oz

Feeding: We started solids this month!  So far Parker has had rice cereal, peas, zuchini and sweet potatoes.  He wasn't a huge fan of the cereal or zucchini but he seems to like the peas and sweet potatoes.  It's still a long and messy process and he doesn't eat very much in a sitting.

I still nurse on demand.  He nurses for less time, I'm hoping he's just gotten efficient and is still eating a lot, but he's still very content.  I would say he's going a bit longer between feedings too so he's maybe only eating 6 times a day on average instead of 8.

Sleeping: This has been a tricky month for us.  Some nights he still sleeps great, but we've had lots of nights where he's woken up and needed some calming.  Some nights he has ended up in bed with us while camping and some nights I've had to feed him in the middle of the night.  I'm not sure what's to blame!  Whether it's teeth or growth spurts, who knows....  But he still has a lot of nights where he sleeps completely through and is his normal self!

Clothes:  Still 0-3....will we ever get out of this size?  I said the same thing about newborn!  I think we are pretty close to the next size up.  What kind of 7 month old baby wears 0-3 clothes?  Parker that's who...

Diapers:  Size 1's.  

Likes:  The bath.  He splashes around in there and makes a mess!  But he loves it, so I let him.  His toys, the jolly jumper and the exersaucer.  The ladies.  I took him to work and he was passed around for an hour and just smiled away.  Mom who?

Dislikes:   Bottles apparently.  He stopped taking a bottle this month.  The other night I left him with my mom though and she said he took one fine, so I think he's maybe just realized that if his mom is around there is no need for a bottle!

Milestones:  Nothing overly new this month, just doing more and getting better at last months stuff.  He sometimes can sit for a while on his own, but we have to put him there.  Rolls back and forth constantly.  On his belly he props himself up and looks around and then makes grunting noises like it's the hardest thing in the world.   Of course eating solids is definitely a milestone!

He's gotten pretty good at the whole nap thing this month.  We aren't super scheduled but I usually try to put him down for a nap in both the morning and afternoon.  I would say his morning nap is only about 45 minutes to an hour long.  He sometimes naps for a couple hours in the afternoon or will have two one hour naps.  He typically goes down pretty easy and falls right to sleep since I try to put him down when he's looking tired rather than saying "at 9:30 you will nap!"

And Then The Worst Happened

About 3 weeks ago we started Parker on solids.  He did ok his first few rounds with rice cereal and then he just wasn't really interested in it.  Of course he spit out a lot of it, but I thought we were making progress until we weren't. 

So then I thought, maybe he just doesn't like the rice cereal.  So I whipped him up some peas in the baby bullet.  (I'm so domestic, I know.  But seriously making your own baby food is super easy.)  The first few days he wasn't real interested and then all of a sudden he was.  The past 2 days he ate those peas right up!  It was a slow process, he definitely doesn't eat fast, but he was opening his mouth and actually eating the peas!  

It's a messy ordeal.  Yes, those are peas on his forehead.

And then this morning he pooped.

For those of you who don't know, breast milk poop is lovely as far as poop goes.  It looks weird, is a yellow mustard colour and super runny, but it doesn't smell bad and when cloth diapering you can throw those diapers straight into the wash without even rinsing!  And this mornings poop was not that lovely poop that I'm so used to.  I knew it was coming, but I wasn't looking forward to it!  I will spare you any more details about poop....

So anyways, that's what's new with us these days!

In other news, we spent the weekend at the cottage.  It was a really quiet cottage weekend for us and we only had a few people up.  We had some friends come for a day with their 2 month old who is bigger than Parker!  Don't let the pink life jacket deceive you, it's a boy.  Poor little guy was stuck with a pink life jacket because it's all we had.  It was nice to spend some time with good friends and to get these 2 little guys together!

Just a couple babies chewing on their life jackets.

 

Friday Things

Random Friday thoughts:

• We're going to the cottage today.  This is our 4th weekend in a row that we are away and although I love the cottage and am excited to go, I'm also looking forward to next weekend when I don't have to back all of our belongings and wonder how many times Parker is going to puke on his outfits during a weekend
• I just downloaded 3 books from the library and am in the middle of Left Neglected.  I have the books for 2 weeks.  Why do I think I can read 4 books in 2 weeks?
• I'm currently avoiding the packing that I need to be doing for the cottage by blogging
• Parker is finally tall enough for his exersaucer and he loves it!  This is the face that he gave me when I put him in it yesterday.

• I went to yoga in the park with my sister on Wednesday and it was the best class ever.  Despite the fact that they were setting up for a music festival around us, we were completely oblivious to what was going on and were totally in the zone. 
• I got some professional pictures done a bit over a month ago and spent way too much money on them.  But how cute is he.  Of course my smiley boy was Mr. Serious that day!

Have a great weekend!

We're All A Little Bit Scottish

Every year Fergus holds the Scottish Festival.  It's a full weekend of bag pipes, highland dancing and beer.  Back in my previous life, the beer tent was the only part of this festival that I really participated in.  This was our first year camping at the festival and we all had a great time!

While sitting at our camp site, there was a constant hum of bag pipes.  It might sound annoying, but I actually kind of liked it.  This was a pipe band just walking around the festival.

It was nice to be able to camp at the festival because we could come and go as we pleased and I could go back to the site to feed Parker when he needed it.  Parker got lots of attention all weekend as we were camping with my parents and an aunt and uncle and then other family members and friends came to visit as well.

Parker was too little for a kilt, so we got him a hat instead.  

Yes, the hat came with red hair.  He wanted to be just like his mama.  It was so funny because he didn't mind the hat at all and he looked so ridiculous!

Watkins Glen and other New York Places

 Get ready for picture overload.  

Last week we spent a week camping in New York.  We started out at Four Mile Creek State Park, then travelled to Watkins Glen in the Finger Lakes and ended up at a little private campground called Adventure Bound which is minutes from Letchworth State Park.  We also travelled to Buttermilk Falls State Park for a hike.  Needless to say, we now love New York State Parks!  Who knew that there were so many beautiful things to see within 5 hours of home!

First up we have Watkins Glen.  Watkins Glen is right at the bottom of Seneca Lake.  Within the park, there are 19 waterfalls and a gorgeous gorge.  The first time we hiked it we went up.  We went without my mom because she wasn't feeling great that day.  It was a tough hike and had a lot of stairs, plus it was crazy hot out, but it was worth it.  Watkins Glen isn't even so much about the waterfalls as it is the gorge.  It's hard to describe, but it's just beautiful.

Later in the week, when my mom was feeling better, we hiked it again.  This time we hiked down the gorge.  Much easier!  You get a completely different view point, and although I found I had to make a conscious effort to turn around and see the waterfalls, I felt like I enjoyed the gorge itself much more on this hike.

Another day we went to Buttermilk Falls State Park just outside of Ithaca.  There are 12 waterfalls in this park.  The hike started with us climbing about 500 feet straight up.  (Well that's what it felt like).  What a workout!  Then it evened out a bit.  These waterfalls were beautiful as well.  There were kids playing at the bottom of some of them and it was really fun to see.  There were lots of people, but nothing like Watkins Glen, it's more of a hidden gem.  And those are the types of waterfalls that I love, the ones that aren't over saturated with tourists.

At the end of the week we started back home and stayed in a park called Adventure Bound for one night because Letchworth State Park was booked.  However it was super close to the park.  We didn't spend a ton of time in the park since we only had the one day but what an amazing place!  They call it the Grand Canyon of the east.  It had 3 waterfalls in it and luckily for our tired legs they were all easily accessible.  Parker was also waterfalled out by this point and was a bit grumpy.

Middle Falls

High Falls

On our way out of the park, at the top of high falls there were some cops and a ton of people.  We asked someone what was going on and he said the train was coming in 4 minutes.  So we decided to park and see what all the fuss was about.  Apparently they are tearing down the bridge over the river this year and rebuilding.  They had a special passenger sightseeing train travelling over the bridge that day and so tons of people had come to see it.  

It was an old steam engine and it was pretty neat to see!  There were 800 passengers on board all waving at us.  

Just some of the peole up on the hill taking pictures of the train

 We had a fantastic trip and saw some amazing things.  It was a great year to do this trip with Parker because he could literally be strapped onto one of us and just go.  Next year we might need to come up with a few more baby friendly vacation ideas!

Our First Family Vacation

After a week of camping, we're home again.  We just returned on Sunday from our very first official family vacation.  

We started off the week at Four Mile Creek State Park, which was right on Lake Ontario outside of Lewiston, New York.  We had a site backing onto the lake and had the most beautiful sunsets.

At Parker's six month appointment, the doctor told me he was ready to start solids.  So I brought along some rice cereal and we made our first attempt.  He spits a lot of it out, but he is interested in it and opens his mouth for the spoon.  It's a work in progress!

After a couple days there, we took off for Watkins Glen.  I will share more pictures of the hikes we went on in another post, but we had a great time seeing all the sites in the Finger Lakes!  Daddy carried Parker for the first time in the carrier (because I'm clumsy and didn't trust myself in waterfall country with a baby strapped on).  Parker loved it!  For the first part of the hike he would smile away and look around and then he would eventually fall asleep.

 We hiked Watkins Glen twice and Buttermilk Falls.  They were both beautiful and had completely different things going for them.  I've found it so hard to keep up with workouts now that I have Parker around and so it was so nice to be able to do something active as a family. 

We have a 22 foot 5th wheel trailer.  I'm kind of a prissy camper and I still think it's a bit too cramped.  It was definitely difficult for us to pack for a week and stay organized in the trailer, but it got the job done.  Parker had his baths in the sink, which actually worked out pretty well.  Now that he can support himself in a seated position bath time was easy breezy.

 The bumbo got lots of use.  He eats in it and we would put him in it when we were busy to keep him upright so that he could see what was going on.

Overall Parker was pretty good, but I found him to be a bit off all week.  I'm not sure if it was just being out of routine, or if he's teething (typical mom excuse) or if there was something else going on.  He didn't eat real great all week and we had a few nights where he was up.  I even fed him in the middle of the night twice and he slept with us one night.  I haven't fed him in the middle of the night since he started sleeping through about 3 months ago!  Funny how now I don't even know how I functioned getting up in the middle of the night. 

 Here is Parker Pants just hanging out on Gram and Gramps mat while the rest of us get stuff done.

We had a great time on our week away.  The Finger Lakes is an amazing area.  Obviously Ryan and myself love waterfalls and it was awesome to share our love of hiking with Parker.  We saw some beautiful areas and enjoyed lots of wine tastings on Seneca Lake.  I grew up camping and going on trips like this with my parents and I can't wait to have so many more fun camping adventures with my own little family.