Mommy's Favorite Things

Taking a note from Oprah this time of year (where she used to talk about her favorite things and then give them away to her audience, though sorry, no giveaways from me, haha!) I wanted to talk about the things that I am thankful and grateful for since Preston's arrival. You know, some things that have evolved over the years that are making life easier/more fun!

1. Let's be honest. Convenience wins! There are a lot of services, in the last almost six years, that have developed to make life easy. Delivery services. Pickup 'without getting out of your car' services! 

Meal delivery! As in where ingredients for dinner meals get sent to you, so all you have to do is prepare them with the ingredients and instructions included. You mean I don't have to go to the store, where a car seat takes up the whole cart? I don't have to plan, buy, and prep dinner? SCORE!

Example of instructions. Very close 2nd to someone literally bringing us food to eat!

Wal-Mart as well as Frys grocery store pickup. Meaning, you order items online, pick a day and time you want them to be ready, and then you park and someone brings your order to your car! No getting out! You mean, no battling car seat/screaming infant in the store again? SCORE! 

 No picture, but let's talk Amazon Prime! 
Now this one has been around longer than five or six years I think. But, today it is still awesome. Order something on Amazon and, if you have Prime, a special kind of delivery, you will get that item within a day or two (or sometimes even the same day!) It has been so handy, especially if I've done an errand and forgotten something, or just don't feel like doing an errand, chances are Amazon has it that I can just order it and receive it in the mail that week. If I can't pickup without getting out of the car, if it's something I can just get via Amazon than you betcha I'm going to do it! Whatever time I can save with just being home with littles versus going out. Seriously, it takes more time to prepare doing an errand with littles than it does to do the actual errand!


2. Now this one is just all about cuteness. Oh wait, and eco-friendly. There are so many more options for items Earth friendly and organic out there nowadays, for generally everything!

Honest diapers and wipes! Not only eco-friendly, but deliverable which goes back to awesome-ness number one :)

....and, Honest just has the cutest diapers! Here P is modeling one of their Christmas designs.

3. Now this I remember from having Aaron, it was just coming out at the time but it cost a bazillion dollars, naturally. They are down a bit in price so we got one this time around - and that is, a video monitor!

Hooray for being able to SEE baby! To SEE what is wrong with baby if he/she cries. You can possibly tell that in the past, when we lacked video and had to open said door, we woke up past babies from their naps to do so. No more! Plus, with this one I even even TALK through it. Now I don't even have to enter the room, haha! 

Those are a few things I'm finding myself grateful for this holiday season. As Preston grows, I'm sure I'll be finding other products that make our lives easier/more fun and cute! :) 

Two Months Old!

Cutie pie turned two months old last week! We just had his appointment.

Some tid bits :

--Now is 23 inches, 10.13 pounds! He has gained almost two pounds in the last month. I'm so proud of us :)

--Not sure I mentioned this before, but he enjoys bath time. Funny as the other two didn't at first.

--Eating every 2-3 hrs still, around the clock.

--Still on medicine for reflux. We're being told this is something they can outgrow, eventually. I hope we'll be feeling 150% confident about it doing better soon.

--...because he does still sleep in our room and is not sleeping through the night. He sleeps in the swing/car seat during the day. I'd love for him to do all his sleeping in the crib, but I want to feel good about his reflux being under control first. I worry otherwise about him choking :(

--Does take a paci now! It is 50/50 whether he uses it, but for the times he does I'm glad, when he's able to find comfort through something else other than me. Or, his fingers! He's much more of a finger sucker than the other two . At least those don't get lost!

--Not on a "schedule", but we do have a routine. He'll eat, then we'll play and have awake time for at least 30-45 minutes, then he goes down for a nap that usually lasts 1.5 - 2 hrs. Then pretty much the process just repeats itself!

--Seems to do better in the car when his brothers are back there with him. I have to agree in one way - it sure is nice to have their helping hands if Preston does get upset!

Looking forward now to celebrating his first Christmas this next month!

Preston's Baptism

With the craziness the end of the year brings, I was going to wait until next year to baptize Preston, but, since our long standing Pastor will be leaving our church in the coming months I decided to go ahead and have it done.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we held his baptism -

I'm glad we got some pictures of Preston in his baptismal outfit (which, by the way, has been passed on from Josh's family, Josh and his three brothers were baptised in it). In the last few pictures you'll notice Preston is wearing an unusual blue..!! He took a royal crap in the family heirloom. Thankfully, it washed out. I was not going to be looking forward to having to tell Josh's mom the outfit was ruined! The other two brothers wore the same outfit and did just fine...

After the service we came home with both of our families and had a nice lunch and dessert. Blessed day.

Halloween 2016

So what if it's almost Christmas and I'm just posting about Halloween, right?!

Not too eventful...boys had school (which they weren't allowed parties or costumes as usual). When they got home we anxiously watched the clock and window to wait for it to get dark enough to start Trick or Treating!

Pretty easy this year - the boys wanted to be a Jack O Lantern, ghost, and I found a glow-in-the-dark onesie for Preston. Preston's unhappiness lasted the whole evening, daddy came home with him while I stayed out with my family and the boys to trick or treat in our neighborhood for the first time. It was a good opportunity to scope out our new neighbors! Everyone is pretty friendly. This year I let the boys keep all of their candy... :p No Switch Witch.

Kind of amazing to think that Preston could be walking next Halloween with us!

One Month Old !

The last two weeks have gone by in a flash! Preston is now a little over a month old. Here are some month old facts on this cutie...

--He is now over 22 inches long, and 8.13 pounds! He has gained 1.5 pounds since he was last weighed by the pediatrician's office. He has had formula (an ounce or two) here or there, but otherwise has been exclusively breastfeeding. This means things are going well in that department, yay! Feeling like my first real successful time thus far.

--Like his brothers, enjoys looking out the window in his room from the changing table. Very interactive there!

--After trying not to use the swing for sleeping, it has been a saving grace for us some during the day now. We think Preston has reflux, which would explain why he dislikes being flat on his back (and the first two weeks of constant grumpiness when I tried to do so constantly). During the day he either sleeps in the swing, the carseat or the Boppy. Putting him down flat on the couch/bed no longer works...

--Which brings us to nighttime sleep. Preston is on medicine now for reflux (TBD to see if it really is working, it has only been a few days and we're suppose to allow a week to see progress).  Yes, nighttime in general is suppose to be difficult with a newbie but I'm finding it's especially difficult with P. It can take awhile for him to fall asleep "for the night", sometimes between 10-11PM . I'd say maybe twice a week we'll get lucky with an earlier time. During the night, after he eats (still every 2-3 hrs generally), it's 50/50 as to whether or not he goes back to sleep ok. Again, I think this relates to being on his back possibly, since he is at night.
11/6/16 UPDATE : I think we'll start calling him Vampire Preston! Nights are rough. Now, they go something like this -- finally, when both daddy and I get into bed (still, not usually before 10-11), I'll nurse him and daddy will hold him to sleep. Then, two hours later it's time to nurse. Then, it's time for daddy to hold again.Put on repeat...

--Still an otherwise alert baby. I'm loving that we're already starting to get a little babbling, and I've even caught a few smiles! :)

--Likes looking/being outside, as well as watching the ceiling fans. Whether they're on or not...

--Doesn't take to pacifiers.At all. Maybe I've already mentioned that. Not that I totally mind, it'll be one less thing to wean him off of, but he does like sucking for comfort. That's where me and the top of the bottle come in, those are the only things he likes. It'll just be tricky to get him to hold a bottle top in his crib eventually? :/

Those are some tidbits for now. Holy cow, in two more weeks he'll be two months old and we'll see if anything has changed then!

Fall Break 2016

I best hurry to recall our little break last month before I forget about the things we did for good!

As I mentioned before, it was nice having Josh home to do things with us/ take Nate and Aaron out while I was with baby. They went to their Grandmother's house a few times, played with their cousin Autumn, daddy took them to a movie...

One day we did go out as  a family to a pumpkin patch (a whole only ONE this year we did), plus out for lunch afterwards.

Bouncing

Rolling in a large tube

The boys also got to visit the zoo - they were so intrigued by the Lego figurines there right now!

Lego!

Love looking at maps

One day they got to visit a little theme park of ours, Castle N Coasters - the cheapest, closest Disneyland to us. They LOVED it.

They also decided they enjoy golfing :)

Nate and Aaron had a playdate with their friend Ben one day, a playdate with one of Aaron's friends, Miles, one day, and daddy took them to a play place with a bunch of different tunnels and slides they crawl through. When daddy went back to work I took the boys to a bouncing place and lunch one day...a special little trip to Toys R Us when we realized a place they wanted to go to was closed...and otherwise, lots and lots of free play time at home. You know, as much as my older son likes to go out and do things, I can tell he has been enjoying just getting to do things here, too.

We hope, one day soon, the weather will cool down for them to start playing outside/going to parks!

Nate & Aaron Update

It's time for a post to talk about my two oldest gentlemen!

Nate is doing good with school, we've found a groove with the extra homework.He's definitely growing like a weed. I wanted to share his school picture from this year ;)

Fresh off the Caribbean islands!

Some days you pick your battles, you know? He's not a fan of button shirts, and to make a long story short, this ended up being his third shirt he changed into and refused to change again, so Bahama shirt it was. In years past I had parent volunteers that stood around with combs, those must be gone now (as witnessed by the hair). Good slideshow one day!

He enjoyed having Grandmother come to his class for Grandparents Day.

He's still very much my little parent, helping keep tabs on everyone, especially helpful with baby Preston if mama needs a potty break ! Bless his heart.

What's so cute, though, is to see how excited Aaron is now to have a little brother. He definitely wants to help out (He's my designated Diaper and Wipes Stocker on the changing table).

Always asking to hold brother

He'll run to Preston if he hears him crying, he'll also help watch brother (literally by jumping in the crib with him). He was excited to show baby off to all his friends when we came to school.

On the school note, it was exciting that Aaron got Student of The Month the very first month of school! He was awarded for being a good example to others, and continues to be.

Excited to be on stage

Good friend Miles got the award too

Smiley Aaron

He is doing well in school (and already has much better handwriting than his 3rd grade brother!)

For now they seem to be enjoying playing with each other yet, but I can tell they'll be happy to play with younger brother when he's able, too! 

First Two Weeks

The first two weeks of having Preston join our family have been overall pretty good (maybe with some bits of chaos in between!) Naturally we're transitioning, and it has been really nice to have Josh home this whole time to help out with that. Starting to get a little bit of a groove...though it has also helped that the boys are now on Fall Break, so that has eliminated the stress of trying to do deal with school work + chauffeuring + trying to get dinner on the table, etc (though that fun will begin next week!)

Anyway, like a typical newborn Preston lost a bit of weight coming home. Right away the pediatrician exclaimed that he needed a formula supplement in addition to nursing. Frankly, the third time around, I've grown a little tiresome of that advice. I tried nursing with both Nathan and Aaron, and both times the pediatrician said the same thing, which eventually just led to them both being full formula fed soon after. I really wanted to make nursing work this time around and wasn't very anxious to introduce formula unless I really needed to, or in other cases such as me being away every now and then, if it wasn't possible for him to have milk.

I'm glad to say that since then Preston has been gaining weight, I think in thanks to effort on both sides - him eating frequently (I'd say his definite favorite activity of the moment) and me also trying to eat,drink and take things that are suppose to help with lactation. In a way I'm anxious for our next pediatrician appt when we can see if he is still thriving (all signs point to yes in my opinion). This would make the first time I have strictly just nursed without any additional help.

For us that has been the biggest stress since having him home. Preston is a very alert baby. He knows our voices. He doesn't take to a pacifier yet, if anything, actually the lid of a bottle (or me!) Sleeping wise we have about a 50/50 shot at getting him to sleep in his bed during the day, otherwise he sleeps being held. I'm trying to avoid introducing anything that rocks, as I've learned in the past that's just one more thing to wean him off of later.

At night right now he's really good about eating every 2-3 hours. Bedtime ranges usually between 9-11pm, and by 7am usually he's awake and ready to eat and start the day. I've had days so far where it seems like he doesn't sleep at all during the day, and just eats, and others where he goes through a nice cycle of eating and sleeping.

His first week home was very busy with a lot of appointments! Both of the doctor and picture taking kind.

Tricky, tricky, tricky those newborn pictures are! Keeping baby warm, ever so slightly keeping them covered to undress/dress them in outfits...I didn't realize. We're just getting his birth annoucements sent out this week and scheduled his baptism for next month!

We also already had family portraits done (might as well just get it all over with!)

There you have it, our first two weeks with baby P! The next two will be more interesting as Josh heads back to work, and Nate and Aaron continue on Fall Break before starting school again next week.

It's been awhile since I've given updates on Nate and Aaron...that's up next!