Incredibly Thankful

These past few weeks I have become more and more incredibly thankful for my perfect little boy (no matter what he does to drive me nuts) and everything God has given me. Jordon and I have been having a time with Tyler and his sleeping habits. Like I mentioned in my last few posts, Tyler has NOT been a good sleeper recently. Out stint with the Ferber method was great, but after the crazy-ness of the holidays, Tyler was not sleeping well. In fact, some nights he'll wake up 4+ times a night. Yes, I am a tired momma. I'm pretty convinced he's waking so much because his mouth hurts, but regardless of the reason, I'd like for him to sleep better haha. And because he is such a smart little baby, the Ferber method aint cutting it this time. He will just cry for an hour (if I'd let him... I've made it to 20 some minutes then normally give in). Plus, Tyler KNOWS how to get his tears to puddle up in his eyes and the right cry to sound pitiful so I have to pick him up.

So my little one isn't sleeping well at all, but I am still thankful. In fact, Jordon and I have started to laugh at our situation and look at it with some perspective. Sure, Tyler insists on sleeping in bed with us some nights, but how am I supposed to be upset with that when I wake up to him cooing at me and touching my face? It's by far the best thing ever. Or when he insists on being rocked to sleep rather than just soothing himself to sleep... When he is a squirmy 2 year old and won't let me rock him for anything, I sure will be missing these days. So for now I'll take the sleep deprivation and enjoy the time I get to spend with my little one.

Plus, I'm hoping these restless nights will soon come to an end because Tyler has a TOOTH! Yes, finally, alright! I had been getting quite impatient because our pediatrician said he thought those pearly whites would come in soon back in December (maybe even before Christmas) and I had a fussy, drool-y baby on my hands. Yesterday Tyler chomped down on my finger (per usual) and I felt something sharpy and bumpy! He wouldn't let me look in his mouth, probably because his mouth was sore, but this morning I was able to get a peek and you can see a nice hole in his gums where the tooth is growing in. I'm excited for it to come in all the way and from him to have a cute little baby tooth :-) As long as he doesn't take up biting me while nursing haha. But this experience reminds me of when I was pregnant and the midwife told me I could go into labor anytime when I was 36 weeks (only to have to wait 3 more to finally have my baby!)... I won't believe anything doctors tell me to expect until I see it! Needless to say, I am thankful for his tooth finally getting here!

As of Monday, Tyler will SIX MONTHS OLD. Wow, where has time gone?! My little newborn is no longer a newborn, but half a year old. I've had to put so many clothes away in the "too-small bin" that it is now full and Jordon and I must invest in another (where we are going to put it is beyond me!). And the box of clothes for Tyler to grow into is now nearly empty! hint hint grandmas ;-) He has been developing right on track as well... he has been sitting up all by himself for a few weeks now, and it really mastering it these days. He can sit up for 10+ seconds by himself now before tipping over to one side or the other.

Tyler has been eating very well, and has tried sweet potato, banana, apple, avocado, brown rice cereal and oatmeal so far. And he likes them all! I've had no problem at all making my own baby food... in fact I love it! We've been trying to figure out what we should try next... Jordon is voting for meat (go figure) but I'm thinking probably squash. I've thought about peas but every baby I know hasn't like peas haha, so we'll see about that. He's also been nursing much more efficiently these days which makes my life much easier! And as of Monday we'll reach the 6 month mark of breastfeeding! Six months was my initial long-term goal, so I'm very proud of myself (especially because he's probably taken less than 10 bottles of milk his whole life, so it's been 6 months of hard work for me). And despite all the work, I've loved every minute of it! We actually got Tyler to take some of a bottle the other day fairly easily, but overall he is still pretty much exclusively nursing. So I'm not really sure if we're going to wean anytime soon... I want him to have breastmilk for at least his first year, so I guess we may have to wait until he masters the cup! Anyways, I am so thankful for how big and healthy he has grown (even if it has gone by way too fast).

Last Monday I started my first day of WORK. I am technically no longer a stay-at-home-mom, but now adjunct faculty at Ferrum College. In all honesty, I'm only teaching 2 eight week classes, so I'm still a full-time mom, but it feels nice to get out of the house two mornings a week. I'm teaching a cardiorespiratory activities class, so basically I'm getting paid to workout with college kids twice a week. But I love it! I've done plyometric and yoga workouts with them so far, and both have kicked their butts ;-) I'm a mom, but I've still got it! I absolutely love teaching the class and hope I can teach some more next semester. It's definitely made me re-think my plans of going back to school... If I could work part time exercising and still get to raise my babies, I think I'd be the luckiest in the world. But who know... we'll have to see! Overall though, I am very thankful for this opportunity to work and very thankful that Jordon's grandma watches Tyler for me so I can do it!

So much to be thankful for these days! I love my little boy and wonderful husband.

My Little Sweet Potato

Ah, the time has finally come for my little sweet potato to eat his sweet potatoes! That's right, we have started solid food! Well, not quite solid (more like mashed haha), but he is sure growing up! As you've read before, we started rice cereal about a month ago, and Tyler liked it as first, but then he sort of went on strike and didn't want it much. About two weeks ago we tried reintroducing it and he starting eating it a lot better. He opened his mouth wide up like he was a pro at it! So a couple days ago we decided that at about 5 1/2 months old, we could go ahead and try to introduce some other foods. Being a fan myself, I decided we should start with sweet potatoes. He loved them! Ate like a champ. Now I have to mix it in with his cereal though because I think he thinks the taste of cereal is bland compared to the amazing taste of sweet potatoes! haha.


And I have decided to make my own baby food! Yes, I am super-mom :-) I got the Baby Brezza baby food maker for Christmas, and broke it out the other night to use for the first time. After reading the directions through and back a few times I finally got the hang out it, and whipped up some sweet potato, avocado, apple and banana baby food! I even tried everything I made, and it isn't half bad (although I prefer my food un-mashed personally). I'm still trying to decide which I am going to introduce after the sweet potatoes though! I wish I could just give him a taste of everything all in one day because I am so excited, but you are supposed to wait 3-5 days between introducing foods to make sure they don't have an allergic reaction (and if they do, you'll know exactly what food caused it!).

I have been doing all sorts of researching on introducing solid foods, and have found there is just SO MUCH to learn! There are certain foods they shouldn't eat before 1 year (like honey), and there are some foods like some people say are okay before 1 year and some say shouldn't be given (like peanut butter, chocolate and egg whites). I learned you need to cook all fruit before giving it to a baby younger than 8 months, except banana and avocado, because they can have issues digesting it. And there is just so much more. Yikes, so much to know! I guess I'll just have to keep studying up!

I'll keep you updated on our new adventures with solid foods!

Baby's First Christmas

Christmas is one of the best times of the year, and having my sweet baby boy here to celebrate with us made it even better!

It was definitely a much different experience with baby around however. Wrapping presents did NOT happen as quickly as it usually does, and I could only wrap a couple at a time, but they all did get wrapped eventually! Tyler was a huge fan of the Christmas trees and lights... he'd just stare and stare for hours if you would let him.

We did a lot of traveling for the season. The Wednesday before Christmas we headed up to Woodstock to see Jordon's family. On Christmas, Jordon and I woke up extra early so that we could have our own little family Christmas (like we would if we were home) before the whole family joined together. Tyler, who is used to waking up around 8am, was very confused as to why we were waking him up at 6am. We went downstairs and let him open his stocking and presents first. He could sort of tug some of the gifts out of his stocking, but overall I think he was probably a little too young to take in the full Christmas experience. After his presents, the whole waking up at 6am thing caught up to him and he started to fuss, so I had to nurse him while opening my gifts... All I could think about was how different Christmas was this year, but how special it was as well. And each year as Tyler grows and grows, I think it will become even greater.

When we did presents with Jordon's parents, Luke, Jenna, and the kids, Tyler slept through the whole thing. He was lucky that he had an anxious cousin willing to open all his presents for him haha.

On Christmas afternoon we drove up to Maryland to see my family. They had waited for us to open presents, so everyone had a lot of gifts to open when we got there! I think Tyler was a little overwhelmed by the amount of wrapping paper and gift boxes flying around, but he sure made out with plenty of loot!

All together, I think Tyler got about 15 toys, 25 articles of clothing, 4 CDs (some Raffi classics thanks to my little bro), 1 movie, 4 books, and various feeding accessories. I can't imagine what is going to happen as he gets older and actually starts asking for stuff... We had to bring Jordon's parents mini van home to Ferrum to actually be able to get everything home! I got a baby food maker, which I am super excited to use! Tyler has been eating his rice cereal like a champ, and we are onto feeding him cereal twice a day now. My mom got him some baby oatmeal, so we are going to add that into his diet here soon. Maybe in the next few weeks I'll break out the Baby Brezza and start making the Ty man some squash and sweet potatoes! Oh how my baby is growing up!

In other non-Christmas news, poor Ty man got his first ear infection and first bout of pink eye right before Christmas. It was so pitiful when he woke up one morning with one eye goo-ed shut. He was still smiling though! It spread to his other eye and we decided to bring him into the pediatrician, who found that he also had an ear infection! I was surprised because he had actually been LESS fussy than usual, so I guess we just have a little trooper! He's been on antibiotics (you know, that awesome bubble-gum tasting pink stuff??) for about a week and only has a couple days left. Unfortunately, the pediatrician said the fact that he had an ear infection before the age of 6 months means he may be more prone to them in the future... oh, wonderful. While we were there, I asked the doctor about Tyler's teeth, telling him I could swear they had to be coming in any day because he had been chewing anything and everything and being fussy at night. He told us I was right because they looked like they should be coming in any day, of course it has been a week and still NO teeth! This momma is about to go crazy! I'm hoping by New Years my little man will have at least one pearly white poking through those gums. But I guess I'll just have to be patient...

So the holiday season has been quite the adventure for the Robinson family! I've been so blessed to have a wonderful husband, son and families to share it with :-)

Terrible Teeth

Long time, no post. That's because Tyler has kept me more than busy with parenthood. Where to begin?

First of all, we are working on good sleep habits in our household. After much sleep regression (to the point where Ty man was waking 3 or 4... or 5 times to eat in the middle of the night) I begged our pediatrician for the key to sleeping success. His first question was "How does he get to sleep at night?" to which I answered in a guilty voice "...I nurse him to sleep." and he said "Well, there's your problem!"

Apparently, Tyler goes to bed nursing, so when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he can't get back to sleep without nursing again. Makes sense. The answer? The cry-it-out method. Torture for momma and baby. Okay, not really, but the first few days were rough! We're using the Ferber method, which in essence is putting baby down drowsy but awake, and if he fusses, let him fuss 5 minutes. Then I go in, check on him and tell him it's ok, then back out. I let him fuss 10 minutes and go back in and check again. Then 15 minutes. And so on.

The first night Tyler cried through the 5 minute, 10 minute and 15 minute cycles. He was still going strong and had those big eyes so full of tears, so I caved and popped him right on the boob. Hah. The next night was the same thing. BUT the third night he cried through the 5 and 10 minutes cycles, but was asleep by about five minutes into the 15 minute cycle. The fourth night he fussed less than 5 minutes and was asleep. So it DOES work. And he started waking only twice during the night. He even had one night where he slept 7.5 straight.

However, teething is terrible and has messed us all up! Tyler's bottom 2 front teeth are just SO close to coming through. The gums had flattened out a couple weeks ago, got rough, and now are swollen and it really looks like those bad boys want to make their entrance! And my poor child has been slobbering like crazy and chewing on EVERYTHING. He'll grab onto my finger and do a little head bob and dive to put it in his mouth... it's actually pretty entertaining. We've discovered that he really loves chewing on a frozen wash cloth, and it tends to keep him happy for about 10 minutes or so (at least long enough for me to inhale my breakfast!). But these past couple nights have been just terrible with the teeth. Poor kid will NOT sleep longer than an hour straight and we've just kept him cuddled up in bed with us so we can comfort him without having to get up 10 times in the middle of the night (bad habit, we know, but desperate times...). Even nursing him in the middle of the night isn't doing the trick, and it used to be my never-fails insta-back-to-sleep trick. sigh. And getting him to go to sleep in the first place has become a multi-hour ordeal. Tonight has actually gone much better (he was asleep by 9 pm after about 20 minutes of crying-it-out), but I'm not holding my breath that he'll stay asleep for long. Let's hope for the best.

Everyday teaches me something new with parenting. I told Jordon I think our next kid will be a breeze because now I know all the stupid things I SHOULDN'T do and all the tricks of the trade (so far that is). Soon I'll be able to author the Jordon Tyler Jr. Handbook and Instruction Manual. Until then I'm still trying to draft out the first few chapters...

The Terrible 2s

No, you didn’t fall asleep for 20 months and not know it. Tyler is still only 4 months old, however he is now wearing size 2 diapers! Yikes. To be fair, he was in size 1 diapers for a good 3 months, but still, this is evidence of him growing up too fast for my liking!

I thought he was going to stay in the ones for awhile, but we started having some leaking issues. One morning, I woke up and Tyler’s back was all damp. I thought maybe he had sweat in his sleep because Jordon and I both do that way too often (on the up side, I wash our sheets all the time because of it, so we have the cleanest sheets on the block!). But then another day I was playing with him on his playmat, went into the kitchen for something for only 2 minutes, and came back and he was wet up the back again! So I realized it must be pee. How it got up the BACK of his diaper is beyond me, but once I tried the 2s on him, this problem seemed to vanish. Less laundry for mommy, yay!

And now for the “terrible” part. My little Tyler has become “that” baby… you know, the one crying away in the restaurant and you’re not sure whether to feel bad for the parents or be angry because you can’t have a quiet meal in peace. Yup, my kid. When we went to Williamsburg for Jordon’s recruiting trip, we went out to dinner at Olive Garden. Tyler hadn’t been eating too great that day and he’s been starting to teethe, so he just decided to fuss, fuss, fuss during dinner. Oh how I miss the days when he was a newborn and would sleep through dinner! The waitress kind of made a joke about it saying “that’s why you bring Grandma to dinner too!” because she was a grandma herself. And another table of women walked by ours on their way out and said “He’s so cute” and we said ”And fussy tonight!” and one of them said “I was thinking about asking if you needed me to hold him so you could actually eat your dinner!” Ah, embarrassing.

But it was good to hear from his pediatrician, at his 4 month appointment, that yes, he was starting to teethe! An actual reason for the fussiness thank goodness. No actual teeth sticking out yet, but the doctor said he could see the gum flattening out and the teeth making their way up! In addition to fussing, Tyler is drooling a TON, biting anything and everything in sight (and all I can think it GERMS!) and being a fussy nurser. Oh, parenthood. But, he did do SO well on our trip to Woodstock for Thanksgiving. He was such a chill baby and just cuddled up to whoever held him, so we can complain too much.

It is just amazing how much this little man has grown in the past 4 months. Four months for me seems to make no difference, but for him, it has meant learning to smile, starting to “talk,” rolling over and over and over, laughing and starting solids! We’ve been giving the little man (organic) brown rice cereal (yes, I’m one of those mommas) and he’s eating it like a champ! Opens that mouth wide open and eats it right up! Well, occasionally he’ll get it in his mouth, smile, then drool it all out, but most of the time the majority gets in that little belly! Per the pediatrician’s advice, we’re going to wait another 4-5+ weeks to start other solids.

At his appointment we also found out Tyler is 13 lb 14 oz (20-25^th percentile) and just under 27 inches long (95^th percentile). Where he gets those height genes from is beyond me, but it looks like we may have a tall, skinny boy on our hands! And his head circumference was in the 50^th percentile, so any worries we had about his brain issue in utero are of the past. He had also reached ALL of his 4 month milestone and almost all of the 5 month ones as well. Gifted.

And lastly, our poor man is just doing SO much traveling but has been a champ about it. We can definitely tell he is discontent, as anytime we put him in his car seat these days he fusses (I understand though… I’m sure the last thing you want to do when you’re learning to romp and roll is to sit still for hours). As much as I LOVE the holidays, I’m almost looking forward to them being over so we can have some family time at HOME and not in a car! This week we are diving into the adventure of decorating for the holidays! This proves a lot more difficult when you’re also juggling a baby on your hip! And we’re getting our Christmas photos taken, getting a tree, and maybe getting some baking done (have to make my famous cookies for the Ferrum College Athletics staff!). Wish us luck!

It Ain't The Real Thing

Ah, the Battle of the Bottle continues! For the record we have tried Medela, Dr. Brown's, Platex Drop Ins, Breastflow, and Gerber's latex nipples. Tyler actually thought about taking the latex nipple a bit, but no cigar. I even tried putting a little bit of VERY watered down apple juice (I know, bad mommy!), but he didn't want anything to do with it. He KNOWS it ain't the real thing.

So we tried moving onto sippy cups. I bought two types, a Gerber Graduates by NUK (recommended for ages 6 mo+) and a Playtex starter (recommended for ages 4 mo+). Surprisingly, my little 3.5 month old liked the NUK one! Well, I'm getting ahead of myself. He took it a little bit, and it was pretty hilarious seeing a baby drinking from a sippy cup, but he didn't really drink enough for it to be considered a success. I think we are going to take a break for a few days, then try again.

I just love that Tyler loves nursing... we have such a precious bond and there is nothing sweeter than snuggling up to my little one, but boy am I tired!! He is either going through a growth spurt (which isn't uncommon between 3-4 months of age) or he is just reverting back to his newborn sleeping ways, because he is waking up about 3 times a night compared to the 1 time we had weaned down to earlier. It would be awesome if Jordon could give that boy a bottle so momma could sleep! I do have to give props to my wonderful hubby though... the other morning Tyler woke up fussing around 6am, so we decided to change his diaper (we normally don't do this during the night because it makes him wake wide up!) and of course, he became bright eyed and bushy tailed! Jordon took him downstairs and sat with him on the couch so I could get some sleep. Best present ever.

And Jordon and I have started to *think* about solid foods. The recommendation for starting those is 4-6 months, but really, babies don't need them until 6 months (when baby's iron needs start to surpass what is in breast milk). However, Tyler always eyes our foods and will open up his mouth if I put my spoon up to it! Cutest thing ever, by the way. So we'll see what happens, but we definitely won't be starting before 4 months. Plus, they recommend waiting until baby double their birth weight, and Tyler is only about 13lbs now, so we still have to wait for a little more growth! And after we start with cereal, I'm definitely going to make my own baby food. It seems like it would be fun and then Tyler won't get any of those added preservatives or what not from the jarred kind (of course, I grew up on the jarred kind and ended up fine, but I have the time and will make my own!). I hate having Tyler grow up and not be a baby anymore, but I am so excited for these milestones like eating solid foods, crawling, talking, etc.

Speaking of growing, Tyler is doing it like a weed! Mostly vertically to be honest. I feel like every time I do laundry, I am putting something else away in the big tub of "Clothes that are too small for Tyler, but will be perfect for our next son!" Watch us have 3 girls next haha. But between hand-me-downs from Lucas jr., hand-me-downs from our neighbor who has a 1 year old son, and the uninhibited shopping trips by my mother and Jordon's mom, we have more than enough clothes.

We are getting so excited for Christmas around our house! Normally, I don't get excited this early, but maybe having a kid has made me more anxious for the holidays. Tyler has Christmas pj's all ready thanks to my mom, so I am so ready for the red and green holiday! I'm trying to figure out what to get Tyler for Christmas. I mean, what in the world do you get a 5 month old baby? He definitely does not need any clothes, that's for sure! I'm thinking about getting a wooden toy chest from Michael's and painting it for him. He probably won't care much about the gift, but hopefully he'll enjoy unwrapping it!

Anyways, wish us luck on our bottle adventures... hopefully I'll have some good news to report next time!

Baby's First Halloween

So this weekend we took Tyler up to Woodstock to celebrate his very first Halloween. Now some people would ask, "Why would you buy a Halloween costume for a baby?" but once you take a look at Tyler's pea-in-the-pod costume, you can see why we couldn't resist!

Originally, I was planning on getting Tyler a pumpkin costume, but then the thought of a little pea-in-the-pod, with a little baby face sticking out, popped into my head and my mind was set! We searched high and low for the costume, and even considered ordering one online and paying the ridiculous $20 shipping to get it here in time for Halloween, but then we found one at a local party shop in Salem. Plus, all children's costumes were 40% off there, so we ended up getting the costume for 6 dollars and some change. Talk about bargain shopping!

On the Saturday before Halloween, we were supposed to go to Woodstock's Fall Festival, where all the kids dress up and trick-or-treat at the local businesses, but it SNOWED. Snow in October? Who thought that would be a good idea? So it got canceled, bummer. But we did find out that there was going to be "trunk-or-treating" in Mt. Jackson on Sunday! So we dressed up our little pea-in-the-pod and took him and his tiger baby cousin and Blueberry Muffin big cousin to get some treats! About 15-20 local businesses had set up shop, so we left with a nice load of candy!

We had so much fun there that we decided we had to stay and go trick-or-treating on Halloween night. And it was a blast! I think I may have had more fun than any of the kids! I'm not sure how traditional it is for a baby as small as Tyler to go trick-or-treating, but the heck with tradition. It was pretty funny because people kept giving us suckers because they thought babies could eat those... I wanted to say "You know I'm going to be eating all of this candy, so give me a few Crunch bars and a Twix please." But I refrained haha. If you think about it, Tyler will be getting all of that delicious sugar through my breast milk eventually, so the candy was really for him... right?

And on the life of our baby front, we are still incredibly unsuccessful with getting our dear son to take a bottle. I didn't know I'd have to deal with the problem of my son being addicted to breasts so early haha. We tried our FIFTH type of bottle last night, a Gerber one with a latex (brown) nipple, and he thought about taking it, but never fully committed. I guess we'll try again today! As much as I LOVE exclusively breastfeeding him, it would be nice to be able to leave him for a few hours without the fear that he is going to starve without me there.

In other news, Tyler and I have started RUNNING! Yay! I read that you can start babies in running strollers earlier if the stroller lies/lays (yes, my grammar sucks), back, and thankfully my wonderful BOB does! And I put maybe 7 blankets around his head to keep it steady too haha. Well we went running for the first time last week and Tyler LOVED it! Okay, he slept the whole time, but in baby world, that is a good thing! It is definitely challenging running while pushing your 12 lb child + a stroller, but it was a great workout and I loved being about to get out and run!

Lastly, Tyler is still a little sniffle-y from his cold. We took him to the pediatrician because it had been lingering so long, but the doctor said he didn't have an ear infection or sinus infection and that all the suctioning of his nose was probably just making his airway more inflamed causing congestion. So long story short he told us to do NOTHING and just let it run its course. But, the good news was when I asked about how he got sick so early, despite my breastfeeding efforts, he told me that if I get a sickness first, my breastfeeding would prevent him from getting sick, but if he is exposed first, breastfeeding isn't going to protect him as much. So I felt a little less guilty for my boy getting sick. And he's definitely been feeling much better these days, and slowly getting back to the good sleeping schedule he was on pre-sickness, so hopefully he will be back to normal soon!

That's all on our front, will check back in later!