Updates

It has been a long time since I've had the chance to post anything, and a lot has been going on! We got all the details worked out with a house we love, and are so excited as we look forward to moving on November 13th! We're starting to pack now, and are getting estimates from moving companies. (We decided it's worth paying to have movers come with two young boys, a dog, two closings in one day, and a storage unit to empty in addition to our house...it will be nice to not do that all ourselves.) We can't believe that we'll be in our new house in three weeks! WOW!

Micah had a fun second birthday, and it was great having my parents here for the occasion. They got to see our new house while they were here too! He had his two year checkup a few days after they left. He weighed 34 lbs (95%), his height was 36 in (but we don't think this is accurate since he wasn't cooperating by standing still for them to measure, so we don't really have a good height measurement), and his head circumference was 20 in (90%). He's doing well with the developmental milestones and is talking up a storm! He's even added some three-word sentences lately. It's been so fun to watch him grow so quickly!

Dylan had croup last week, which was so sad! He would try to talk to us, but nothing would come out since he lost his voice, and he would look so confused...like, "Why is nothing coming out when I talk?" Poor boy. He's doing much better now. He was the happiest sick baby I've ever seen - SO different from Micah! What a blessing. :) He had his weight check this past Monday and was up to 17 lbs, 4 oz, so the Dr. said she's not worried about him, and won't make him come in for weight checks anymore! We heard his first laughs yesterday, and today we started him on rice cereal. He's growing up so quickly too!!

Dylan's 4 month check up, and house hunting!

Here's the latest update on Dylan. He had his 4 month well baby visit this past Thursday. He is now 27 inches tall (>95%), weighs 16 lbs, 3 oz (75%), and his head circumference is 17 inches (75%). The doctor was not to happy with him only gaining 1 oz in the last two weeks, so we go back for another weight check in two weeks. UGH! I don't know why we keep going through these weird cycles where he doesn't gain much, then gains a bunch. She's still not worried about him, but would like to see better weight gain. I'm supposed to give him a bottle with extra pumped milk later in the day (when my supply isn't as high), and to try to stay better hydrated. I'm the first to admit that I'm not drinking enough water - it's been a big struggle for me lately. I'm so busy during the day that I just don't think about it. And now with all of this house stuff going on, I've got even more on my mind, so it's been hard. I'm trying to focus on it now, but haven't done much better. I feel guilty that he's not getting enough from me!! If he doesn't gain well again, they might tell me to start him on some cereal. We started Micah at 5 mos, so hopefully we can start Dylan around then too. I should maybe call a lactation consultant to see if they have any suggestions...

Yesterday Steve and I got to go out house hunting together! (I'd previously gone with our realtor on Wednesday.) We had one favorite from the day that I went out looking, but as soon as we got in the car with her on Saturday she told us that it had sold in those past few days. I was so disappointed. We liked it, and there were two glaring issues with it, but I had thought it would be tough to find something better. Boy, was I wrong! The very first house we went to on Saturday was AWESOME! WAY better than that other one. We saw about 6-7 houses that day, and it was very clear as the day went on that this house was the one. It has everything we need, and everything on our wish list too! To make a long story short, we put in an offer on it yesterday and agreed on a price last night. The sellers asked for 24 hours to look at the 3 houses that they were interested in buying for themselves, so we still don't have a signed contract at the moment. They will get back to us for sure tonight, so in the mean time we're waiting on pins and needles. The house has only been on the market for 3 days, so we're afraid that someone else is going to come in with a better offer today and price us out of it. We know that the Lord is in control of which house He has planned for us, so we are trying to rest in that peace. But this house would be so great for us that it will be really hard if it falls through. So we'll just keep waiting and praying until later tonight...

We sold our house!

This has been a long time in coming, but this past Wednesday night we sold our house! It was on the market for almost 15 months, so we are totally thrilled. :) We have not been out looking at houses because we didn't want to find something we loved, then not be able to buy it because we couldn't sell our house. So, now that we are in the position to be looking, we can't wait to get out there with our realtor. :) We'll be looking in Lake Zurich and Palatine, and we'll see what we can find that best meets our needs.

After having such wonderful success with Dylan's sleep training at the end of last week, this week was horrible. It was as if I never even worked on it with him! As I write, he's been in his bed crying for 50 minutes. He's exhausted. He's just so stubborn and WILL NOT give in! So I'm back to feeling frustrated and exhausted from all of his crying. He gets very little sleep during the day since he refuses it, so that makes him extra crabby.

Steve and I have essentially moved out of our bedroom for Dylan's benefit (and ours) at night. He wakes up with the littlest noise of us crawling into bed, so his sleep gets interrupted. I'm afraid to even roll over in bed because that wakes him up too, so I get a horrible night's sleep, and then I'm not able to stay patient and calm for the next day's battles. The past two nights that we've slept on the blow up mattress in our family room have been the best two nights of sleep I've had in a long time! Now I know that we'll only be in this house for about 6 more weeks, so the end is in sight. Dylan will have his own room and we'll get ours back too! Can't wait!

Update on Dylan

Dylan had his weight check on Wednesday this week, and he was up to 16 lbs, 2 oz! So he gained 12 oz in two weeks. :) The pediatrician was very pleased and said it's rare to see growth like that outside of the first month or two! I think he had a little growth spurt right after I was in for his three month appointment, because he was nursing very frequently for the next two or three days. I'm guessing that's what happened, and that made him gain so much weight.

Steve and I got to a point this past Sunday where we couldn't handle Dylan not sleeping in his bed anymore, so we decided to start his sleep training right then and there! On Tuesday I finally got one or two successes. Wednesday was the same, then yesterday he took three naps in his bed! Woo hoo! He will even go down fairly easily for at least one of those naps each day. Such a dramatic improvement in less than one week! I have felt the weight lifting from my shoulders (almost literally, as I don't have to hold Dylan while he sleeps anymore!), and it has really brightened my mood. :) We still have a little more work to do, but I'm very thankful for the progress he's making!

Last night I think I heard one little chuckle out of Dylan! He really needed a fourth nap yesterday, but wouldn't give in, so he had gotten a bit hysterical with his crying by bedtime. I was getting him ready for bed and making fun of the noises he had been making a few minutes before, and he thought it was funny! We grabbed the camera to get a video, and he didn't laugh, but we got plenty of cute baby happy noises. Enjoy!

Micah's such a big boy!

As we close in on Micah's second birthday, I'm amazed at what a big boy he's becoming! When my sister, her husband, and daughter came to visit a week ago we put Kate in Micah's high chair and set up his booster seat at the table for Micah. Since then he's continued to want to eat at the table (as we expected!). He's finally wanting to eat with a fork all the time now - for so long he just wanted to play with it, not use it to eat with. And he's eating off of a plate too! That's a very new development - even a month ago he just played with it and threw it around. It's made me all emotional this week when we sit down to dinner as a family, and there's Micah sitting across from me, eating with his fork and plate, looking all grown up! Here's a picture of my view at dinner time. :)
He's still talking a ton, and repeats many words that we say in conversation. Lately he's started saying "love you" when prompted, which is SO sweet! He loves blowing kisses to anyone and everyone too. :) We've started to sing the alphabet song to him, and we follow along with the letters in one of his picture books that shows each letter. Sometimes out of the blue he'll sing little bits of the song - he particularly likes "e, f, g!" Of course this makes me emotional too, since I just can't believe my little boy is starting to learn the alphabet already! We're starting to work on letter recognition too, and so far he knows A and B. :)

What a precious blessing he is to us!!

Dylan's 3 month checkup

I took Dylan to his 3 month checkup today. Here are his stats: he weighed 15 lbs, 6 oz (90%), was 25 3/4 in (95%) tall, and his head circumference was 16 1/2 in (50-75%). Everything looked great, but he only gained 6 oz since his last visit. I was surprised by this since he gained over 2 lbs between months 1 and 2! His Dr. didn't think it was a big deal, but wants to see him back in two weeks for a weight check just to make sure. She said that he'd had big growth spurts the first two months, and it's possible that he's just settling into his "real" growth curve now. She also noticed how active he was (kicking his legs and moving his arms vigorously), and when I told her that he is that active most of the day, she said he could just be burning off all his calories! So I'm going to focus on his feedings to make sure he's nursing long enough, and hopefully he'll still be on track in two weeks.

I was wondering if he might still be hungry tonight after his last feeding, so I thought I'd offer him some more milk in a bottle to see if he would take it. He hasn't had a bottle at all yet, so I didn't know if he would even drink from it. I defrosted 3 ounces of frozen milk, and WOW, he took right to that bottle! So either he was really hungry still, or he was excited about how easy it was to get milk from a bottle. :) I'm so glad to know that he'll take a bottle! But now I'm slightly worried that my supply isn't sufficient...I guess we'll see.

Sleep training...kind of

Dylan is now 12 weeks old, and his Dr. said I could start sleep training at 3 months. He'll be officially 3 months at the end of this coming week, so I'm thinking about exactly what I want to do and how. I thought I'd try just putting him down this week when he was tired to see what happened. (The past 6 weeks or so this has not been successful in the slightest.) The first few days of this week were like a dream! I basically just laid him down in his bed when he started yawning, and he drifted off to sleep on his own! I couldn't believe it! We've been bouncing him to sleep while holding him for the last 6 weeks, since every time you tried to put him down he'd wake up and start screaming. The end of the week did not go well, but it gave me hope that sleep training should go well when I get serious about it!

I started this process with Micah at 4 months, and basically he had to cry it out for a good week before we made any progress. But after that, we've had very few problems with him sleeping during the night or day - even up to now! I am hoping that this process is easier with Dylan. The boys already seem to have such different temperaments that I wouldn't be surprised if Dylan takes to it a little faster. Today he took two good naps in his own bed, one of which started with me putting him down completely awake! (The other started with Steve bouncing him to sleep, then putting him down.) Plus tonight I put him down for bedtime awake, and I haven't heard any peeps out of our room yet. :) There is hope!

I think I'll wait until after my sister and her family's visit until I get going with the hard core sleep training (first couple days of September). But until then, I'll give it a try when I can and see if we can get some good results. We definitely seem to be heading in the right direction!

Little thumb sucker

Dylan has recently started sucking his thumb - especially at night. For a few nights I heard a lot of loud sucking noises off and on as he worked on his fist. But over the last 4-5 nights or so he's finally found his thumb, and the sucking noise has gone way down. :) It's been so adorable to look into his little bed and see him sucking away! It seems that in the same time frame he's been sleeping longer at night. I'd say the average is now 10 hours, and two nights ago he went 12.5 hours!! It's nice that he seems to be soothing himself with his thumb instead of waking up. :) Go, Dylan! Getting more sleep has helped me to feel like a real person again, and it helps me to not get as frustrated during the day since I'm not really sleep deprived anymore. What a difference! Here's a picture of our sweet boy sucking his thumb in bed this afternoon:
Over this past weekend we went out to Rockford to go to the Boone County Fair with Steve's parents. We thought Micah would enjoy it this year even more than last year. We walked through lots of the animal barns, and he seemed mildly interested. After a while he got sick of being in the stroller, so we took him out and let him walk around by the Home Ec building. There was one step up into the building, then a ramp to come out of it, and WOW, was that his favorite thing of the day! He must have spent at least a half hour going up the one stair, down the ramp, and repeating this over and over and over. The other highlight was drinking water out of the water bottle instead of out of his sippy cup. He ended up soaking himself, of course, by spilling the water all over, but it was a hot day and I bet it felt good! Dylan slept through the whole thing (in Grandma's arms), and Steve and I enjoyed some yummy, greasy fair food. :)

Dylan's 2 month appointment

Dylan had his 2 month checkup this past Thursday. He continues to be a huge baby! He weighed 15 pounds (95th percentile), was 24.5 inches long (greater than the 95th percentile), and his head circumference was 16.25 inches (75th percentile). Go Dylan!! We praise the Lord that he's very healthy and growing so well. He had four shots and an oral vaccine that day too, and he seemed to do fine with those - no reactions that we can tell. His doctor told me that I should wait to start sleep training until he's 3 months old due to a startle reflex that starts to go away around then. So, hopefully in a few weeks I can start working on that.

In the last week or so, Dylan has started cooing and "talking" to us a lot more. He's still full of smiles and loves watching our faces. If we lay him on his changing table to change his diaper, he gets a great view of the face of the person changing him. He gets so excited, swinging his arms and kicking his legs like crazy! He still loves to watch Micah too.

Our car ride situation has improved only slightly - at least Micah has stopped screaming now! Dylan still cries any time he's in his car seat. But it helps that Micah has gotten used to it. Dylan's doctor suggested that maybe around 3 months Dylan might be distracted by hanging toys in his car seat...we'll see.

We had a fun day today - we all went to Woodfield together. Micah got to play in the fun play area, we got him some new shoes for the fall (he's wearing a size 7.5 wide!), I got Dylan some cute 6 month size rompers on clearance (he's grown out of most of his 3 month stuff already!), and we had lunch at the mall. It was nice to get out as a family to do something fun!

One other note - today Micah is 22 months old! Where has the time gone?! Better start planning a birthday party...

Micah's ever-increasing vocabulary

Micah has been working on words since February, and he had a huge burst of new ones from then through early May. It seemed like he took a little break in May and June, but was back at it again in full force for July. I wanted to post some of the cute and funny things he's saying now. :) He's been wanting to repeat almost any word after we say it lately, so that's leading to the current vocab explosion. It's so much fun!

He was saying cup before, but now he's added an "f" to the end - as in "cupf." I think he realized that the "p" sound is a very hard sound, so he needed to add another sound to the end of the word to make himself sound like how we sounded. It always makes me smile when I hear him say this, because I can't help but think how smart he must be to hear the little nuances in how we say the word cup! (And it just sounds cute too.)

He talks about our cars by saying "Micah's car." It sounds like "ee-ka-cah."

-high chair (ha-chee)
-frisbee (bi-bby)
-cantaloupe (ka-co-copf)
-apricot (a-ki-cot) - he says this one very deliberately to get each syllable just so!
-get up - he also says this one very deliberately, pronouncing the "t" fully before saying "up"
-Tim (Steve's brother...uncle Tim. Micah says, "Timmmmmm!")
-home
-big step
-gate
-gentle
-happy
-ouch
-swing
-paddle boat
-shuffle board
-peek a boo
-I know

In the last two days he's been stringing three words together for these two phrases:
-there you go (something like "ay-go-go")
-Go, Cubs, go! (go cubuh go) - this one is SO cute - how he says "cubuh"! Love it!