Lucas' 8 Month Update

Oh how this little boy of mine has changed so much over the past month!  I can't even believe the amount of new skills he all of a sudden just knows how to do. He loves to clap when we say "yay!", walk around furniture, and tries to play with Rowdy.

Lucas is now fully crawling and let me tell you, he is quick!  I called it from the beginning, he is so much happier now that he can get where he wants to go on his own.  He loves to chase our dog, Rowdy, around and he thinks it is really funny when Rowdy jumps up and runs to the couch and sits just out of reach.

Zack and I are pretty sure Luke is going to start walking in the next couple months.  I almost hate to say that because I don't want my baby to be able to run away from my cuddles!  Seriously though... I can't believe how fast he is growing up.  Luke can pull himself up on anything then he lets go and stands on his own for a few seconds and looks back at us with the biggest smile, then very slowly sits down, my sister calls it "ass to grass, the perfect squat form."  The kid is strong!  He has also mastered walking along the furniture.  We usually keep Luke confined to the living room because we have stairs going upstairs and downstairs, but I was sitting with him on the stairs one day and I sat him down and he just started hauling ass up the stairs like he had done it every day of his life!  I was a little shocked at how fast he made it up ten steps and when he made it to the top he looked back and he just looked so proud of himself.

Luke is always making new faces and cracking us up but his newest, most hilarious face is his "turtle face," oh my gosh!  I don't know where this face came from, but we laugh so hard every time he makes it.  He also has the most adorable baby belly laugh I have ever heard.

So a few months ago I thought for sure Lucas was getting his bottom teeth, well, he wasn't.  But a couple weeks ago he finally got his two bottom teeth and I have to say, he handled it like a champ.  I never really noticed him being extra cranky, he just took longer naps and breastfed slightly more often.

Poor Rowdy doesn't stand a chance, but he is so sweet and patient with Lucas.

Hello turtle face!

Up those stairs!

We Have A Mover!

Luke has been army crawling around for a few weeks now and actually moves really fast but  last week he actually started crawling on his hands and knees!  Time to go baby gate shopping.  He is such a happy boy, you can just tell that he is so proud of himself.  We will put him on the floor and he will take off across the room and look back at us and just start laughing.  Since he can get where he wants to go by himself now I have found myself extra busy because of course, he is now tired of all his toys, instead he thinks chords and the vacuum are the best!  He has been keeping Zack and I (and Rowdy) on our toes these past few weeks.

Along with crawling, Luke has been sitting on his own like a champ and has started to pull himself up to stand.  I was so not prepared for all of these milestones to happen at once!  It amazes me that he just knows how to do these things, he is such a big boy!

Zack and I have started to use some baby sign language from This Book here and there with Luke so he can start to communicate a little better with us.  We try to be really consistent but neither one of us knows sign language so it just doesn't come naturally to us.  Luke thinks it is hilarious every time we sign anything, especially when we say "no" and do the sign, we may be in some trouble...

Luke is 7 months and I am absolutely loving this age! I can sit on the floor and play and read books and interact with him and I feel like he is actually getting into it, for a few minutes anyway.  He is generally in a good mood, loves to eat, and of course loves to move around and be outside.  I am hoping for a mild winter so we can take Luke outside to play a lot.

Hallelujah, My Baby Is Eating!

When Lucas was 4 months old our Dr. told us we could start feeding him some baby cereal and slowly add in some fruit and veggie purees, I was stoked!  For about a week and a half Luke ate baby oatmeal once a day and loved it, I planned on adding a second feeding at the two week mark, but one day, Luke just decided that he wanted nothing to do with food.  I wasn't super worried, our Dr. had said that at 4 months, it wasn't super important that he got solid food, it was just practice to get him used to eating off a spoon, he was still getting most of his calories from breast milk.  I still tried to feed him oatmeal two or three times a week but he never ate more than a spoonful, and usually it was by accident and he would spit it out.  Looking back, I think the reason Luke stopped eating his oatmeal is because I fed him some sweet potato about a week in and he ate it fine, but later that night he threw it all up and I think he just was just like "Nope! Not doing that again."

Fast forward to Luke's 6 month appointment, Luke had dropped from the 50th percentile to the 20th percentile for weight, I kind of panicked a little... even though our Dr. told me it was fine, just that breast milk was not enough calories anymore, I need to start sitting down three times a day and at least try to get Luke to eat.  For the first week or so he still didn't want to eat any food.  I tried mixing fruit puree with oatmeal, putting avocado in the mesh fresh food teether, and finally I froze some fruit puree with a spoon the the container to make a popsicle.  The popsicle is what ended up breaking the ice, I think he liked having the control to feed himself.  After the popsicle, I cooked a sweet potato and mashed it up and he ate almost the whole thing and from then on, all of a sudden, it seemed like he liked everything!  

I feed Luke mostly Plum Organics pouches and a few kinds of Beech Nut Organic jar food.  The reason I chose these brands is because there is a very simple ingredient list.  There are not a ton of gross preservatives and dyes and additives, they literally say "pureed sweet potato and water."  I also recently made some of my own baby food, I started with sweet potato and honey-nut squash, they turned out pretty well, Luke eats them with no problem.  I want to find some more recipes and make my own food more often, I had fun with it.

Luke's Typical "Menu"

Breakfast: Fruit puree mixed with oatmeal

Lunch: Fruit and veggie Puree, something like Sweet potato and pear

Snack: Cereal puffs or yogurt drops

Dinner: Veggie puree 

Snack: Cereal puffs or yogurt drops

I also still breastfeed 5 or 6 times during the day, usually right when he wakes up then after each meal and right before bed.  I really don't have a set schedule for breastfeeding, if Luke wants to breastfeed, I let him, I want him to have as many calories as possible.

And now... a thousand pictures of Lucas eating!

Luke loves when Zack feeds him!  He is always smiling and laughing.

This was the popsicle, Luke loved feeding himself but he would start crying because his hands would get cold and I noticed later that day that it made his face kind of raw because the way the food froze was kind of sharp and he was rubbing it on his face.

I couldn't resist!  His feet always look so cute when he sits in his high chair!

Luke's Torticollis Update

This week we had an appointment with a physical therapist to start woking with Luke on his torticollis.  Overall, I am happy with how the appointment went.  They taught us several exercises and carrying positions to do to try to correct Luke's tight neck muscles.  Along with the physical therapy, we are also going to take him to a rolfer in our area who uses the blue laser technique and treats babies at no charge.  Hopefully we have really good results with the rolfer so we don't have to go to a ton of expensive physical therapy sessions.

Since going to the physical therapist, I have become much more aware of how tilted Luke's head is, especially when he is in his car seat.  It has gotten better since he was born, but not as much as I thought.

Luke's Six Month Update

I cannot believe my little baby Lucas is six months old already!  It is so fun and exciting to watch him grow and learn but part of me wishes he was still a tiny little baby who just wants to lay on my chest and sleep.

Today Luke had his six month well child appointment, he is 15.9 pounds and 26 inches long and had to get two shots.  I hate when he has to get shots but he actually did pretty well this time around (aside from the mean stink eye he gave the nurse when she came at him with shot number two), he only cried for a few minutes.  He hasn't gained much weight since his last appointment but he still doesn't want much to do with food. I think we have him figured out though, he doesn't like being fed, he wants to do it himself.  Our Dr. gave us a few ideas to try and get him to start feeding himself, I am excited to try it out.  I just have an independent kid.

When I was pregnant with Luke he was all scrunched up on the right side of my belly with his head up under my ribs, and he was in that position for the better part of the pregnancy.  When he was born our Dr. told us that because of the position he was in, he had torticollis, which just means his neck muscles are really tight on one side and he has a hard time turning his head to one side.  She told us that if it hadn't fixed itself by the time he was six months old he would need physical therapy, it has gotten better, but its not completely fixed so we are looking into physical therapy to correct it.

Aside from Luke's Dr. appointment, he is really starting to become more mobile.  He can roll back to front and front to back in both directions, he is starting to be able to sit by himself for longer periods of time, and he is starting to scoot a little bit.  I know he is going to be crawling really soon and it has me thinking about baby proofing.  He is always into everything so I just know its game over when he starts moving around on his own.  I really think he is going to be a much happier kid once he can crawl, he just loves to move.

Luke's Favorites:

Being outside

Being carried in the Ergo 360 facing out

His Sophie Giraffe Teether

Bath Time

Being Naked

Petting our dog, Rowdy

Kisses from my sweet baby boy

Busy Week And Weekend Fun

Over the past week we worked on our shop and got it ready for in-floor heat and concrete floor.  Monday through Thursday we laid insulation and ran the pipe for in-floor heat and on Friday we had concrete trucks come and we laid the floor.  I have never been in on a concrete floor that wasn't mixed in a wheel barrel, it was kind of a chaotic shit-show!  Luckily we had tons of help all week; both of my sisters, my mom and dad, some of our amazing friends that were visiting from Wisconsin and of course, Zack and I and our little mascot, Luke!

We have had record breaking heat here in Alaska over the past week, were talking 80 degrees every day for over a week!  We have been loving it.  Since it has been so nice, we wanted to do something outside all weekend, so Saturday Charley (my sister), Luke, and I took our friends from Wisconsin fishing and Sunday the whole crew went floating down the river.  We try to float the river at least once every summer, we make a whole day of it, take lots of food and beer and float for about 5 hours.

In other news, a few months ago Zack and I noticed a few discolored spots on our ceiling in the basement, we checked them out and felt them but it didn't look like there was any water damage, it just was a slightly yellow color, so we kind of forgot about them.  Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, we noticed another yellowed spot, but this one was in our kitchen, so we called the plumber to check them out.  Turns out, we have three separate leaks in our in-floor heat. UGH!!  The plumber figured out that, when the flooring guys were installing subfloor in the bathrooms and laundry room, their staples were too long and punctured the in-floor heat tubes. Unfortunately, to fix this problem, the plumber had to cut holes in our ceiling.  It's a bummer, but at least it was caught before it got worse. 

My Teething Baby!

Luke is teething!  Not in the "his teeth are breaking through the gums" way, but in the "his teeth are moving up toward the surface" way.  He has had a couple of miserable days, these are the days that I just give up on trying to get anything done, post up on the couch and cuddle my boy while watching a whole season of How I Met Your Mother.  

Since Luke has been teething I wanted to note his side effects because I was surprised by a couple of them.

-Flushed cheeks

-Lots of saliva

-Runny nose

-Has started to refuse to eat baby food and oatmeal (this one really surprised me, Luke went from loving his oatmeal to gagging on it and refusing to eat it.)

-Putting anything in his mouth that he can get his little hands on
Of course he has the normal increased irritability that usually goes along with teething as well.
Breastfeeding has changed for sure, Luke is still eating really good and often but instead of just relaxing and snuggling while nursing, he wiggles around, kicks his legs, and pushes on my chest.  I'm not entirely sure why he started doing this, I have it narrowed down to a teething thing or him just turning into a busy little boy.  Either way, it makes it interesting to feed him sometimes.

Sofar we have given him Hylands teething tablets here and there and on one particularly miserable day, a half dose of tyelnol (Dr.'s suggestion).  Other than that, I just have continued to nurse on demand, sometimes that means we hang out in the living room all day, but oh well.  I know when he is older I will miss these times, so I am trying to soak up every last cuddle!

This was a rough teething day for my sweet boy, so I took advantage of the snuggling opportunity and wrapped him up in my Solly Wrap (goldie) and he relaxed and slept.  Thank God for Solly Wraps!

We spend the money for "the best teether" and all he wants is to chew on Grandma's kitchen table!

The Munchkin fresh food teether with an ice cube is pretty messy, but he settled right down when we gave it to him.  It's the simple things...