Theo :: Seven Months

Well - this is me playing catch up! Theo's seven month post will be mostly pictures :)

Working on our balance:

First bath out of the baby tub and first joint bath with big sister - made bath night so much easier!

Family dance night - a major part of Ott Family fun!

Mommy and Theo doing laundry and goofing around:

My babies:

Nice to meet you!

Trying to get a good pic of his fuzzy after-bath hair!

Feed me!

Sibling love.

Two minutes before he was on the other side of the room - he's a rolling pro!

My first tooth! December 26, 2013 - bottom middle left. Bottom middle right followed on Dec 29.

Go Pack Go! (Aunties are such bad influences)

New Year's Eve 2013!
Love from Auntie Emma...

NYE 2012 vs NYE 2013 - watch us grow!

New Year's Day snuggles

My sweet, sweet boy...

This guy loves his food!

Notable happenings:

Went from wobbly tripod sitting to strong solo sitting in a matter of a few days between Christmas and New Year's. 

Sleep: everyone's (least) favorite topic. At the beginning of the month it was really hard to put Theo down for the night and then he would wake up once, usually between 2 and 4. Awesomeness occurred when Theo slept through the night five days in a row starting 1/6!! 

Already forming bad habits by letting Theo take naps in his car seat. It was just the only way he'd sleep for more than a half hour. After realizing that he would be outgrowing the car seat soon, we got serious about putting him down in his crib. He still only naps for about 45 minutes at home, but he takes 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps at Lori's.

In general, we had up and down sleep throughout the month. It was definitely the worst month of sleep since the newborn days. Nothing terrible, but nothing consistent either. He was just all over the place between slight colds and teething. Bleh!

Theo really wants to get moving! He kicks his legs like crazy when he's on his tummy. He finally started pushing himself off of his stomach the day before turning 7 months. 

We love watching him play and often comment on how Noelle played with toys vs how he plays with toys. He's definitely rougher with his toys and is very determined. When Theo wants a toy, he WILL get that toy. If Noelle wanted a toy but couldn't get it for whatever reason, she would just move on to a different toy.

That was the quick and dirty version of month 7!

My First Born

Did you know that Theo has an older sister?!  :-) Did you know that I meant for this blog to be about more than just my second pregnancy and Theo's monthly statuses (stati)?

I used to have a blog that I kept before we had kids, but I let it fall off when I got pregnant. Between morning sickness and fatigue and life just getting busy, I got so used to not posting, that it eventually became easier to just let it stay at the bottom of my to do list.

I decided in the fall of 2012 that I wanted to start blogging again for most of the reasons that people start blogging in the first place. I wanted a place to gather my often random thoughts and the comings and goings of my family. Well, that lasted approximately one post. I'm nothing if not consistently inconsistent.

Then, when I got pregnant with baby number two, I thought to myself, "Self, now is the perfect time to really get that blog going." I had a weekly topic and it was pretty easy. While I wasn't perfect in my posting, I definitely kept up with it and have a beautiful record of my pregnancy, Theo's birth, and the first six months of the little man's life - he's seven months old, but I won't let myself publish that update until I get this one out :-)

I hope to be able to get more posts out on things other than Theo, and I truly hope I can make this a place both of my kids can look to for memories. But, as seems to be the trend these days, I've made Instagram my social medium of choice. So the memories are there, they're just in a more brief format.

I'm not about to review the past 4+ years of my lovely girl's life, but I want to cover a few things that I've been thinking about lately.

This past year Noelle has dealt with more transition and upheaval than she ever has in her short little life. Starting on Thanksgiving morning in 2012 we told her the great news that she would be a big sister. She was just over 3 years old and while she got what was happening, she obviously had no idea what life would actually be like. In spring of 2013 we moved her into her big girl room - a transition that was easier than I could ever have imagined. We let her help with a lot of the decision making and that made a world of difference. I think it took her about three months before she stopped dragging every visitor into her room to show them everything - even if they had seen it ten times already!

On June 25 Noelle became a big sister to baby Theo. Again, she handled his arrival in the best way possible. The only time we ever noticed any behavioral issues was when we had visitors at home during those first few weeks. Noelle would suddenly turn into a crazy kid and run around and get really hyper trying to get everyone's attention. Thankfully that was very short-lived and she has had amazing behavior ever since.

Noelle has relished in her role as a big sister and I could never have hoped for a better relationship between my kids at this stage. Theo absolutely adores her and his eyes never leave her if she's running (usually dancing) around nearby. The feeling is more than mutual and the love Noelle has for her brother is just beyond her years. She has been an amazing helper and I find myself telling her to play or do something more "kid-like" because she takes on the role of parent #3 pretty often!

Crazily enough, the transitions did not end with Theo's arrival. In the span of about 9 weeks, Noelle went through these transitions:
--finished up her time at the only daycare center she's ever known, leaving behind great friends and some of the best teachers we've encountered,

--stayed home with me during my maternity leave (and became a master of self-entertainment),

--started 3K (darn birthday 8 days after the cutoff) at a new school,

--spent a few weeks coming home after three hours of school,
--and finally (!) started going to onsite child care at school when I returned to work.

Through it all Noelle never once complained or freaked out or did anything that would be totally normal for a four year old to do. This girl exhibits maturity way, way beyond her years on a regular basis. I am so proud to be her mom and beam every time I see her kind nature come out with friends and family.

Kind and caring and crazy and goofy are probably the top four words I would choose to describe my Noelle. She tells Bryan and I on a daily basis that she wants to be a mom and a teacher when she grows up. We knew that her transition to big sister-hood would be an easy one because she has been a mom to her baby dolls for a long time. She most definitely has a crazy side and plays hard at all times. Year-round she is covered in scrapes and bruises. This girl is very equally a girly-girl and tomboy. She has a basket of cars, trucks and toys right next to a basket of dolls and princess dress up clothes!

Noelle is also a music lover and is probably happiest when she's running (yes, running) around and dancing to music. We have always had family dance parties and it's something Theo now gets to be a part of.

Now let's not pretend life with Noelle is all puppies and unicorns and rainbows. The entire year of age 3 probably aged me 5 years. I describe the difference between the terrible twos and the year of the threenager this way: when they're two, kids don't really understand that what they're doing is wrong; they're just learning as they go. But when they're three? They know what they're doing is wrong, but they do it anyway. Most of Noelle's third year mixed with my pregnancy hormones and exhaustion in the worst way. We definitely butted heads quite a bit, but sometimes I think I've made more of an issue out of it in my head than the way it actually happened. Either way, I'm very, very glad that year is over ;)

My baby is growing up so insanely fast and I am loving every minute of it!

Theo :: Six Months

Theo turned six months on Christmas Day! He had his six month check up on December 27 and came in at 18 lbs, 3 oz (!) and 27 1/4 in. Both measurements put him in the 75th percentile.

Theo is somehow still fitting into 6 month clothing, but most pants are getting too tight around his baby gut and the shirts are getting stretched lengthwise. 6-9 month fits perfectly with not much room to grow. The 9-12 month clothes are definitely in rotation. 

Development:
--Theo finally decided that rolling over was awesome and started rolling back and forth like crazy in early December. 

--We finally started seeing little white lines on baby boy's bottom gums in mid-December and were watching his mouth like crazy! Spoiler alert: they just missed this post :)

--Theo has always been a babbler, but it seems like it has exploded this month! Most sounds are still soft vowel sounds and we're always making m, d an b noises to him. He probably things we're crazy people!

--Mr. Man is still tripod sitting and needs help, but he's getting much better and more solid. He definitely prefers to be laying on the floor and will only tolerate sitting down for very short periods of time.

Overall, we're so much more laid back with Theo's developmental milestones than we were with Noelle. It's definitely more of the second child syndrome! Of course we're watching for delays and that type of thing, but we're not forcing anything and are happy to let our little guy pick things up at his own pace. No micro managing or "my baby can already do [this]!" around here :)

Firsts:
--The first, first was Theo's first Thanksgiving! We spent Thanksgiving Day with Bryan's family in Rockford and came back home Friday evening. Theo has already made this trip once or twice and has done very well in the car, usually sleeping most of the time. We are so lucky to have our extended families close by. Even at an hour and fifteen minutes, going to Rockford is a pretty easy trip, even with two young kids. Even better is that we get to see Bryan's grandparents. Gramps is in his early 90s and Grams is in her late 80s. Both are incredibly spry and it's such a great thing for them to be able to interact with their great grandkids! I really hope both kids are able to have great memories of the times they got to spend together.

Noelle requests silly versions of our pictures these days!

--We travelled to the Home Depot Forest for our Christmas tree! Theo was bundled up and enjoyed the view from his car seat!

--We took Theo on his first big road trip the weekend of December 6th. We went up to Minneapolis to visit our good friends and had an absolutely wonderful time. Theo was an excellent traveller and we couldn't have asked for a better trip.  We got to see two sets of friends who we don't get to see very often and it was much needed to take some time off and relax with good friends. Both women in the couples are pregnant and due within a few days of each other; one with her second and one with her first. Both genders are surprises and it was fun to talk about pregnancy symptoms and give our boy/girl guesses. Noelle had a wonderful time the whole weekend, but especially enjoyed playing with Liam, our godson, and going to the Mall of America to go on rides. She even went on her first roller coaster! I didn't get a picture of her and Bryan on the ride because I was nursing Theo in the middle of the rides area :) We also got to see the insanely detailed and awesome Christmas display on the 8th floor of the downtown Macy's. It's called A Day in the Life of an Elf and is just too great for words! I definitely recommend it if you're in that area during the holidays.

--The biggest first was, of course, Christmas! We had a great Christmas and everyone kept commenting on what a happy and calm baby Theo is. As we were sitting down to dinner on Christmas Eve, my aunt commented that he is definitely a second child as Theo sat calmly in his car seat the entire time!

We had my immediate family over to open gifts on Christmas Eve, then we all went to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner and more presents with my grandma and cousins. 

Christmas morning is all about being at home with our kids. Bryan and I feel strongly about having this tradition for our kids and hope to always be able to do it. 

After opening presents and having breakfast we headed down to Rockford for more family and presents time.

While the kids definitely got spoiled, our families do a pretty good job of holding back and not getting them an insane amount of gifts. 

Christmas with kids is just so magical and means so much more to us than any Christmases we had before kids. I don't know what it was about this holiday season but I just didn't want it to end. This has definitely been one of my favorite Christmases. I'm thinking the cute kids definitely had something to do with that!

Health:
--Theo's torticollis is looking much better and his PT decided toward the end of December that we could start going every other week as he was responding to therapy very well. Yay!

--After a few nights of really awful gas at night that was seriously messing with his ability to sleep, we put two and two together and realized it always happened on the days we gave him squash. (We decided to give him homemade butternut squash puree as his first solid food.) Once we stopped this, he stopped having terrible gas pains. We decided to wait a couple of weeks and try again. This was in early December and right after Christmas we started up again. Despite wanting to avoid traditional baby food, we felt that oatmeal would be a good gateway food if we were dealing with a sensitive stomach. So far, so good!

--Nursing hit a bump in the middle of December. Even though our freezer stash was no more, I was able to keep him exclusively breast fed by pumping once before bed and as often as I could on the weekends. Unfortunately, I got a bad case of strep throat in mid-December and was beyond down for the count. Between just being sick and the antibiotics, my already sensitive and lowish supply took a big hit. At this time we had to start supplementing with formula. This was insanely difficult for me and it took me a while to be ok with it. I'm now comfortable with the whole thing, and while my supply did bounce back, it still hasn't been enough and Theo gets anywhere from 2-4 oz of formula during weekdays. He is still being fed breast milk 95% of the time and I just can't be mad at the number. It's a fantastic thing I'm able to do for him, no matter the breakdown.

Sleep (Saving the best [worst?] for last!)
While all of the holiday traveling itself didn't bring up any issues, the deviation from schedules did - big time. We are starting to see that Theo is a creature of habit, especially when sleep is involved. We only stayed over one night during Thanksgiving and thank goodness for that. [Not the visiting family part, just the terrible sleep part ;)] I think I slept about 2 hours total that night. Theo would scream the second I set him down in the pack n play so we ended up cosleeping and nursing for comfort pretty much all night long. While I love lots of things about cosleeping, the anxiety I get is not one of them. So when we do cosleep, I am pretty alert and don't get a lot of sleep. Thank you God for coffee! And a husband who let's me sleep in without any grief!

You can never have too many sleeping baby pictures - it's pretty much a rule of life.
If only he could sleep like this all the time!

We had similar issues with our trip to Minneapolis involving the sleeping patterns (or lack thereof) of our youngest. Theo had a pretty stuffy nose that weekend and had a really hard time staying asleep. He kept snorting himself awake and just couldn't breath. So again, he and I coslept in one queen bed while Bryan and Noelle shared the other one.

Travels aside, Theo was having a really hard time falling asleep in late November and early December. It was the whole "falling asleep in my arms but waking up the second I put him down" thing. It's pretty obvious that his incoming teeth are really bothering him. During the day he is drooling like a rabid dog and chewing on anything possible.

Tangent - this type of thing (issues with sleeping, or not sleeping I should say) would have, and did, really bothered me when Noelle was a baby. I would beat myself up wondering why my baby just can't sleep through the night (stuffy nose aside). This time? I just take it in stride, drink an extra cup of coffee and count my blessings. I remind myself that this is such a short season and will soon be a distant, and not entirely unwelcome, memory.

I can't believe we've hit the six month mark! That countdown to the one year milestone is getting closer and closer!