Seth: Nine Months Old

Seth continues to be a constant source of joy in our home, and I love him more with every passing day.  He is starting to really come into his own, and it is so fun to see his personality shine.  He has finally hit my favorite baby stage: 9 - 18 months.  This is, in my opinion, the most fun age with babies, and I plan to enjoy every moment.

This is one of the first photos I have gotten with my new camera that I really love! I still don't know how to edit, and it is far from perfect, but it is a far cry from my Kodak EasyShare.  :-)

Sleeping Patterns:  I think we are finally getting into some kind of routine, although it still varies a little each day.  For the most part, Seth wakes up around 7 AM, naps from about 9:30 AM until 12:00 PM, naps again from around 3 PM until 4 or 5 PM, and he typically goes to bed around 8:00 (although last night he fell asleep at 10 PM and the night before he went down at 7:30 PM.  We try to put him down around 8 each night, but when he lays in there and screams and stands up and jumps around, we eventually take pity on him.)

It is impossible to get an energetic 9-month-old to sit still for pictures.  Wrestling the prop is much more fun.

The only stinky thing about sleep is that he's currently teething and a bottle is the only thing that puts him back to sleep in the middle of the night.  Stinks for both of us.

Eating Habits:  Seth usually has a bottle when he first wakes up, another when he wakes from his nap at 12 PM, another when he wakes from his nap at 5 PM, and another before bed.  Sometimes, when he's had a really hungry day, I wake him around 10 PM to give him a bottle and put him back to bed.  He also has breakfast, lunch, and dinner in his high chair most days, but he kind of hates it.  He doesn't hate food, but he hates slowing down to sit in a high chair, and he really hates being fed baby food.  I try to alternate baby food and finger food throughout each meal so we are both satisfied.

First time in a restaurant high chair!

Seth's favorite finger foods right now are bananas, toast, and puffs.  We've given him real peas, chicken, noodles, and homemade macaroni and cheese, and he wasn't a fan of much of it.  He often tells us he is all done (we've taught him to sign) before he ever starts eating.

Another change in eating is formula.  I just wasn't convinced Seth was really allergic to his formula, and after a month on Nutramigen, I talked to the doctor and we decided to switch him back to regular formula.  So far he has been back on it for a week, and everything seems okay.  We are really hoping that it was a false alarm in the first place.  I do not want to avoid dairy for months on end, and I definitely do not want to pay $250 a month for formula for the next several months.

I'm loving Seth's hair.  It is getting tiny waves and is so soft!

Baby's Weight Gain:  At his nine month appointment, Seth weighed 18 pounds, 7 oz.  This puts him at about the 20th percentile for weight, which is decent.  You'd never guess he was small... he has a super cute little gut!

Accomplishments: On Christmas Eve day, Seth pulled up in his crib for the first time.  He was so proud!  Since then he has become more and more mobile, and now he is into everything.  It has only been three weeks since that first time he pulled himself up, but now he is upright more than he is horizontal.  He loves standing at his toys, the couch, chairs, and anywhere else he can think to pull up and find things to explore.

Places We Went:  On December 17th, Seth had tubes placed in both ears.  It went really well, and since then he has really taken off.  Besides the fact that he started pulling up nine days after the surgery, Seth has become more confident and started babbling more.  And when the doctor looked in his ears last week and told me they looked good - which is the first time since September I have heard that - I nearly cried with relief.

Those are fake beans on the floor by his feet, just so you know. :-) 

Memorable Events or Holidays:  Seth enjoyed his first Christmas.  It was slightly hard to keep him from crawling to all of the packages – and tearing into the ones that didn't belong to him – and he definitely preferred putting the wrapping paper in his mouth to looking at presents, but it was a sweet time to share a last first Christmas with one of our kids.

Seth Riggs, I cannot get enough of you (except maybe in the middle of the night when I want to be sleeping...)  You hold my heart, little guy.  I can't wait to see what the next few months hold for you.

Family Photos 2012

In October we scheduled some professional family photographs, and they were the first ones we've done since Cora was 12 months old.

This was our first time working with Ilde Cook of Shehewe Photography, and it was amazing!!  I first met Ilde over four years ago when Brennan and her daughter Ava were in Mother's Day Out together. That year when the kids had a little Thanksgiving feast at school, Ilde shot this picture of Brennan and me and emailed it to me:

I still love that photo.  I doubt Ilde even remembers that first photo, but check out this one:

History repeats itself!  Seth's placement could use a little work, but Brennan had a few years on him.  :-)

Ilde is a master at making kids laugh.  Brennan hates having his photo taken, and I was sort of dreading the whole experience.  But Ilde is a-mazing.  She used crazy props - including a whoopie cushion - and she captured some true joy in my kids' faces.

Initially we were supposed to do our photos outside at a farm (or farm-like area).  It was freezing that day, and we decided we would be cuter without forty-six layers of clothes.  So, we opted to stay at our house instead.  I am so glad we did!  I love that Ilde captured and preserved elements of our everyday life.  

Being in our home and working with someone who really knew how to work with kids ended up making this one of my favorite photo shoots of all time!  Plus, the weather warmed up just enough at the end of the afternoon that we were able to do some pictures in our backyard just before we lost the light.  

Everyone knows someone who takes great pictures.  But not just anyone is brilliant with small children.  Honestly, it takes a special person.

If you find someone who can do both, you get near perfection.

This month I get to benefit even more from Ilde's gifts.  I got my Canon Rebel 3Ti last month (finally!!!!) and Ilde is going to help me get started with it.  I'm taking a small class with her and her husband, Jim, in a few weeks, and I am super excited to begin moving towards taking portraits instead of just snapshots!  The photos on this blog should start getting much, much better in the coming months!  :-)

Pre-Christmas Busyness

We had a super busy Christmas season this year.  I don't know why, but it felt busier than any other I remember, and I don't think it's just because I had more kids.  Honestly, I just wanted everything to slow down.  I am definitely going to make an effort to have a simplier, calmer Christmas season next year.

At the beginning of December, Cora had a Christmas program at school.  She did an excellent job remembering all of the words to her songs and standing on stage to perform.  It was a big improvement over a year ago when she ran off the stage at her old school.

On the morning of Cora's program, I had a horrible stomach bug.  I felt well enough to go and watch her sing - but just well enough.  Right after she finished, we had planned to go chop down our Christmas tree.  Against my better judgment, I decided to go.  

I survived walking around the tree farm, but by the time we got in the car to go home, I felt terrible.  I got home, crawled into bed, and basically didn't resurface until the next day.

I think it took a whole week to get our tree decorated because I felt so crummy and life was so busy, but we finally got it done.

As usual, lots of homemade gifts and crafts kept me busy in December, as well.  

Courtesy of this blog, I made these nativity blocks that my kiddos could play with (since Cora always wants to hold baby Jesus in my good set).  Sadly, I don't have a better photo, but the images are all paint.  I love the way they turned out, and I love that the kids will have a sweet family decoration to pass down.  I hope they fight over it.  ;-)

I have a bunch of other crafts I didn't think to photograph, but I did take some pictures of my Christmas gift to my in-laws.  They have been saying they need some artwork in the guest room at the Little Vacation House.  When a neighbor was giving away some scraps of barn wood she had acquired from a barn in Kentucky, I jumped on them.  

Jim pieced them all together per my instructions and put some dark felt on the back to keep white walls from showing through (totally his idea... kudos to him on that one), and I hand-painted a quote on the front.  

I am so crazy about how it turned out, I have decided to make one for myself to put in our front living room.  I have to get some barn wood (I hopefully can get more from that same barn), and I still haven't decided what I will paint on it, so if you have an inspirational quote or Bible verse that describes my life or family, let me know!

Seth: Eight Months Old

So, this post is super old.  I wrote it over a month ago (beginning of December), but I was having trouble with Blogger.  It kept telling me I had exceeded my maximum photo storage.  Today, when I went to buy more, I was nowhere near capacity.  I'm not sure what happened, but it's time to play post catch-up again!!!  Hooray!

Sleeping Patterns: Seth is still a good sleeper, and I think he'd be a great sleeper if he weren't still dealing with ear infections and teething.  His schedule is a little different every day because his ears are disruptive - and because his brother and sister's schedules make consistency impossible - but he usually sleeps roughly twelve hours at night and takes about three long naps during the day.  He takes one of his naps in the morning (depending on when he wakes up), he gets sleepy again between 12 and 1 PM, and then he takes one more, usually shorter power nap around dinnertime.

Eating Habits: Eating has been the source of lots of frustration this past month.  Although Seth is eating more than he was when he was exclusively nursing, we have discovered that he is allergic to both regular and soy formula.  We have just transitioned him to Nutramigen and hope to see his allergy symptoms disappear in the next week.

Baby's Weight Gain: We are finally gaining some weight!  The last time I brought Seth in, he weighed over 17 pounds, which was great.  I am looking forward to his weigh-in at the beginning of January.

Accomplishments: We have our first tooth today!  This morning when I woke up and felt Seth's lower gums, I could feel a teeny, tiny rough spot, and upon examining it, I could see a sliver of white poking through.  It looks like the tooth next door may not be far behind, either.  Aside from that, Seth started saying, "duh" this past month.  He really isn't babbling as much as I would like, but I think that is because he can't really hear me.

Seth is army crawling much more proficiently.  I can no longer leave him in one place or trust that he'll stay out of trouble.  He has discovered cords, crumbs on the kitchen floor, and his sister's tiny toys.  He has also started feeding himself puffs, and it is super fun to watch him try to get them out of his fist and into his mouth.

Places We Went: We took our annual trip to a Christmas tree farm to choose and chop down a tree.  Seth also went to Cora's Christmas program, Brennan's performance at the Nolensville Christmas tree lighting, and he has been to many, many stores with me as I prepare for Christmas.  :-)

Memorable Events or Holidays:  We celebrated a hectic and fun Thanksgiving with some friends.  We had five adults and six kids in our house (ages 6, 4, 3, 3, 1, and 7 mos).  Seth just hung out with people, sat in his high chair, and slept.  He was a perfect baby, as usual.

(So, I know the photos in this post are blurry.  No, it's not your eyes or your computer.  I took the pics with my iPhone.  Don't worry... I won't make that mistake again with the monthly photos!) :-)

Seth: Seven Months Old

I never posted about Seth turning half a year old.  :-(  Poor third child... I try so hard, but there just isn't as much of me to go around as there used to be.

Sleeping Patterns: Seth has had an ear infection for for about three weeks now, so his sleep has been disrupted.  Unlike Cora, who used to wake every 2.5 - 3 hours with an ear infection, Seth only wakes once a night.  Anyway, we are on our third antibiotic in an attempt to get rid of the infection.  I'm really hoping this one does the trick because I'm tired of interrupted sleep, worrying about hearing and speech development, and changing dirty diapers a hundred times a day (courtesy of antibiotics).

Eating Habits:  Seth has milk about five times a day, but he has had no interest in baby food for a month now.  Foods that he used to like now have no appeal for him.  In fact, when I come at his mouth with a spoon, he clamps his mouth shut and refuses to eat.  It is upsetting and disturbing for me as his mom, even though I know that baby food for the first year is just "practice" and not a main source of nutrition or calories.  We don't know if this change in appetite is due to the ear infections and just feeling bad, or if there is something else going on.  For right now, my doctor said to just keep offering the food and we'll focus on getting rid of the infection before we tackle the food.  (I will say that last night I got Seth to eat 3/4 of a container of carrots, so I am very hopeful that the new antibiotic is taking away ear pain and he'll start wanting food again.)

Baby's Weight Gain:  This is a real area of concern.  Not eating baby food is a worry because we don't understand why he doesn't want it, but milk is an even bigger issue.  My body just isn't making enough, probably because Seth doesn't demand it.  In other words, when I only have three ounces to give him, he happily stops eating and waits until the next feeding, which has taught my body to scale way back.  At birth, Seth was in the 75th percentile for weight.  At his three month appointment, he was in the 50th percentile, and at the six month appointment, he was in the 25th.  When I brought him in for his ear infection after the sixth month, the downward trend had continued.  Since then I have started supplementing with formula once a day, and this past weekend our pediatrician told me that I successfully stopped the downward trend, but now we need to work on trending back up.  So, I need to give Seth formula 2 - 3 times a day.  I am sad about it because I have actually enjoyed nursing this time around, and I could pump every few hours, drink water like a fish, and even take some herbs to try to build my supply back up, but honestly, I don't have it in me.  If I can continue to give Seth some breast milk for a couple more weeks, I will have lasted for eight plus months, and I feel really good about that.  Right now all I care about is making sure my baby is healthy, strong, and gaining weight, and I will do whatever it takes to make that happen.

Accomplishments:  Last night Seth army crawled / face planted his way across the floor a few feet to get a toy that he wanted.  He is now up on his hands and knees, rocking back and forth before thrusting himself forward onto his face.  It won't be long before he is all over the house, and it scares me!  It is so convenient to set him down and know that I can walk away, but all of that is about to change!

Places We Went:  We went on vacation to Gatlinburg / Pigeon Forge.

Memorable Events or Holidays:  We celebrated Halloween, and Seth had several cute outfits to wear in the days leading up to Candy Day.  Other than that, it was like any other day for him since he is too little to partake.

It is fun to see Seth coming into his own.  He is smiling more spontaneously, reaching for everything around him, and showing some independence.  He is still crazy laid back, but that just may be who God designed him to be.  If I could describe Seth in one word, it would be patient.  (It will be fun to read this post again in five, ten, and twenty years and see if that is still the case.)  He is such a love.