4 months!

Wow! Time does fly! I feel like ever since he turned 3 months old things with him have started to move waaaaay too fast. He sits up (with support but puts his hands out in front of him sometimes and holds himself up), he grabs stuff and of course they go straight to his mouth...and the best one of all, HE CAN ROLL OVER! He has mastered the rolling over from tummy to back and has almost mastered from back to tummy. I really think he can do this one most likely this week. I am really happy at the day care that he is at because I can tell that they really work with him to reach his milestones. It made me feel really good that within a week being there that he can officially roll over now. I  can tell a huge difference.  I've actually started giving him about a pinch or so of cereal in his bottles (only at home and once a day) because he is very active and I feel as if he needs a little bit more other than his 4 oz bottles of breast milk every 3 hours. The great part about the day care he goes to is that they provide all of his foods. So the cereal and when he is able to eat more of solid foods, they provide. So this week I am going to let them know that they can go ahead and give him some cereal in his bottle for one of his feedings.  That reminds me....Hunter can now go down for a nap in his crib now with no problems! This day care has helped me more than I thought! I mean, I have to of course, soothe him and have to place him in his crib elevated in the corner of his crib with a pillow but hey it works! That is how they have his crib positioned at day care so they told me to do the same thing and of course it works.

Here's a video of Hunter rolling over. Bear with me, this was the first time I used another video camera that we had:

I'm such a big boy! I am fitting in 6 months clothes already!

This is how I sleep in my crib now...haha. I know the issue with having too many blankets but he is only in there for naps and I check on him all the time. Also, he has to sleep with his binky that he is holding! Uncle Matt and Aunt Jessica gave him the one he is holding. Also, he hardly takes a paci so his first two fingers are what he likes.

First week back at work....

Luckily, I started work back on a short week (4 days) so that helped a lot. It definitely felt weird being at work! I even thought that our office changed the carpeting on our floor when I walked in and everyone thought I was nuts! Haha. Anyway, my boss wasn't too hard on me this week. It took at least a day to get my bearings after being out of work for 4 months but the second day I was there it felt like riding a bike. I remembered what my job description was! Not sure if I mentioned on here before but my boss approved of me 2 days a week coming in at 8 and leaving at 4:30 on the days that Sean works and on the other days to work my regular work hours: 9-5:30. Weeeelll, the first day I worked, I left at 4:30 and then the second day I left at 5:30 and that day did not go very well leaving at that time. When I leave work at 5:30 I don't usually get home from working in downtown Miami around 6:45  So, Sean picked Hunter up from day care around 4 and brought him home and knew that he would need to give him a bath at 6 and then read him a book and sing a song and hopefully by that time, I should be home to feed him. Yeah that didn't work like it was supposed to be. Of course, I was in some hellacious traffic and didn't get home until after 7 pm. Obviously, Sean fed him a bottle because Hunter was hungry and fussy but when I got home Hunter was super fussy and I guess he was expecting his momma to be there already and ended up getting very upset so it took me awhile to calm him down and put him down to sleep. I know that you other mother's out there can relate to me when I was stuck in traffic trying to get home and I'll I did was cry. I had to call my mom to help me get through the agonizing torture of not moving any closer to my house. In reality all I wanted to do was plow over every car and ask them why of all days does everyone not pay attention and just go! Haha. Yes, I was nuts that afternoon by not seeing my son all day, except for the 15 minutes in the morning of getting him dressed and singing to him while getting out the door to work. The next morning I went to talk to my office manager and tell her that leaving at 5:30 was not going to work. I told her that I would eat lunch at my desk if needed in order to leave early.  So, I ended up talking to my boss on my own and told her about what went down the night before and she completely understood (she has 3 kids of her own, btw). She asked me what would make it better and I just said leaving at 4:30 everyday would work out perfect. I could beat some traffic and be home in time to keep Hunter on his routine at night with his bath at 6 pm and then book, songs, feed and maybe a little play time and lots of kisses goodnight. She okay'd it and the next day I left at 4:30 and was so relieved! Ahhhhhh, I love my new schedule. 

This week I have to point out that my husband did such a wonderful job helping me adjust getting back into work while juggling Hunter and trying to spend time with him.  I really do have the best husband in the world and I couldn't be any happier with him.  He cooked dinner every night that he was home. Not sure if you guys know this but Sean does not cook at all! Seriously, when I met him, he had no idea how to turn the stove on at all! I had to teach him a few basics. Anyway, I guess teaching him a few things here and there and him paying attention to the guys cooking at the station really paid off. He made beef stroganoff and like a arroz con pollo (rice with chicken).  He also cleaned up the house - vacuumed, dusted, cleaned the bathrooms, emptied all the trash cans in the house, mowed the lawn (his job anyway) and did such a wonderful job. Thanks, Sean! I love you very much. 

To top it off, Friday night, G-Foxy and Teddy came over and brought dinner! Haha! They came over and we had a nice time. Sean and I bought Teddy an Android Tablet for Christmas and Sean was teaching him how to use it and downloaded a bunch of Apps for him to play with. Hunter was in bed the majority of the time but woke up for Grandma and Grandma to play with some (and then go right back down to sleep). 

I don't have any photos to post with this blog....which I know helps but its soooo hard to take any  during the week so my new years resolution is to make sure that I take some during the week. I'm not going to put the pressure on myself like my friend Kelly Beane has done. Take a photo every day that she did in 2011 but I will definitely try. I don't want to look back and think that I didn't take any! 

Day care with Hunter: Week 1

Week 1 of day care has surprisingly gone really well for Hunter. For me, it has been pretty tough.  Not that I think that his day care is doing a bad job taking care of him but it is more of a personal thing with me.  My maternity leave is coming to an end and I'm not going to spend every moment of every day with him.  He has definitely adjusted well and all of his teachers love him (I mean who could not love his cute little face)! They have done a really great job with keeping me posted of his progress throughout each of his days. They called me the first day to let me know when he drank all of his bottles and each time of when they put him down for a nap. Then for the rest of the week they let me know about how much milk I will need to leave for him each day and then for emergency's I have left the formula that he takes when I feed him at night.  In their nursery they have a sheet that they write down at what time each feeding and nap time takes place that I can see every day. He is already pretty much on a schedule there. I have dropped him off by 7:30 am each morning (which will be more like 7 am when I return to work) and he takes a nap by 10 am then his second nap at 1 pm and then his 3rd nap at about 4-4:30 pm. So each day that I have gone to pick him up at 5:30 pm he is just waking up from his final nap. When I come home with him I go ahead and give him his bath and feed him and shortly after and he is already wanting to go back down to sleep which is around 7:30 pm.  I put him down to sleep and then wake him up at about 9 pm for what is considered a "dream feed" so that he can go right back down to sleep for the night.  He has been sleeping for about 6 hours straight and then I feed him and he goes right back down. So at least I can get a few more hours of sleep before I'll have to get up and go to work and get him ready. I am so not looking forward to getting up at 5:30 am on the days that both Sean and I will work but I have to do what I have to do. All in all his week at day care has been a success and I will miss snuggling with my little pumpkin in the mornings but at least I will have the weekends to do that! 

Prior to this week was Hunter's first Christmas! He had a great time at G-Foxy's and of course he was spoiled by Santa and his family.  We had a nice dinner and Hunter wasn't too fussy until it was time to leave. He had enough and needed a nap.....big time!  

From Left to Right: Marnie, Uncle Joe, Hunter, Me, G-Foxy, Sean and Teddy with their dog Cruiser

Christmas was for me just to look cute!

Update on Hunter

Now that Hunter is 3 1/2 months old he has definitely come a long way since being a newborn. His 4 month appt. at the pediatrician's office isn't until the end of next month so I am not quite sure how much he weighs. Sean and I think that he weighs about 12 pounds if we have to guess. Sometimes I think he weighs more because he is growing out of a lot of his clothes....ahem, his little pants are getting a little snug around the waist! I guess feeding him that 4 extra ounces of formula at night are starting to show on him! Anyway, he is considered a "supported sitter". He can't official sit up and stay put but he can sit up with some help from his Bumbo chair especially.  Right now, he is always trying to sit up in whatever position I put him in. For instance, in his bouncer since it lounges back he doesn't really like it that much anymore because he can't sit up and he looks like he is doing a mini crunch to try and stay up. So I feel bad putting him in there. So between the Bumbo chair and his Jumperoo he is loving it. By the way, the Jumperoo is amaaaaazing! Sean kept telling me that he is too little for it and I totally disagreed. Since Hunter can hold his head up very well (actually) he can now focus on gaining the strength in his legs and it has really worked too. Now Hunter can stand on our laps while we hold him. He used to not be able to do that. I also got a little bather thing to put in the bath tub so that he can completely sit up while he has a bath now. He LOVES his baths and I could tell he was getting frustrated because he couldn't completely sit up and watch himself use his legs to splash. So that has been a big hit for him.  I feel like since he is in this "in-between" stage of not being able to fully stay put sitting up it's hard to find stuff for him. I know it won't be before long until he is able to sit on the floor and play but I guess this will have to do. I have told Sean that I want Santa to bring Hunter an Exersaucer (by Fisher Price) as another activity he can benefit from. So we will see.

Hunter has also had A LOT to say lately. Not only does he talk like you have seen in the video I posted before but he is yelling and cracking up a lot now. Sean gets Hunter on a roll laughing and it is the cutest thing! In the mornings when he is awake and ready to go explore he likes to yell and also right after his bath time. I think he likes to hear himself and see how loud he gets because me and Sean at first thought that there was something wrong with him but now we see it as him being a little boy and getting some energy out! 

Here is a video of Hunter with Sean laughing that I posted on YouTube: 

Cute huh? I love this little guy. He really makes us so happy! By the way, the little jeans that he is wearing in this video did not fit him 2 weeks ago at all and now they do. He has been going through a huge growth spurt and is definitely teething and super drooly! He hasn't been sleeping his usual 5-6 hours straight at night because I guess he is waking up because his gums hurt. I talked to my pediatrician yesterday and they said for me to give him some baby Tylenol at night and last night it worked a little bit. He was able to give me 4 straight hours instead of the 2.5 he was giving. Phewwww...I can't have the 2.5 hour deal again when I go back to work. So, hopefully this will help for awhile. Also, Hunter is not a big fan of his crib. I mean he likes to lay in there and watch his mobile go around and sing but when he he knows he is getting sleepy he will just not sleep in there. I know you guys are thinking that I should let him cry it out but I have let him fuss/cry it out numerous times and it doesn't work buuuut, he does like to sleep in his pack n play that we have in the bedroom! Even though its the same format as a crib, I guess he doesn't like that his crib is so big??? Or maybe because he knows mommy is close by??? Haha.  Hmmmm...I know I know, one day he is going to have to move to his big boy crib. I have a feeling when he is on a really rigid schedule while being at day care and being worn out that he is not going to care where he falls asleep. So I am thinking that will help. Plus they have him fall asleep in a crib so looks like day care is going to help me out more than I think it will. We'll see. I'll keep you guys posted.