I am such a slacker...but my kid sure is cute, does that make up for it?

Sorry ladies, I don't remember the last time I posted, but I am sure it has been months. I cannot believe this blog has been up for a year at this point. Andrew's birthday party is around the corner and the idea of baby proofing hard core and looking for a new place to live to accommodate a growing child is daunting. This little boy is out of control; he is a professional crawler and is cruising all over the furniture. My favorite thing he is doing right now is pulling up the the kitchen table and trying to pull himself up off his toes! I swear it is the cutest thing seeing him try to pull up with all his might. And to make it that much cuter he is sticking his tongue out when he is "concentrating" and it cracks me up!

I think I mentioned to you guys that Andrew was a little behind developing his fine and gross motor skills. Well, we are coming to the close of our therapy sessions and he is doing amazing, it just took him awhile to get there. I am so proud of him and he is equally as proud of himself with all his new accomplishments-it is written all over his face.

Our biggest challenge right now include sippy cups (which I think we have finally found one he likes) and eating. By the way, he loves the "born free 6 month +" sippy cups. They are more bottle like and they have removable handles. He has no problem holding his bottles I think the spouts on the ones we have been trying are just too big and awkward in his mouth. This little boy loves to eat. He eats all his purees and formula in addition to puffs and mum mums. But anything that looks like real food (except for bananas) he hates. He gets all chocked up and angry. I need any suggestions you can give me. I spoke to the doctor and she said that children with reflux usually have a hard time eating finger foods. For me not to push pieces of food in his baby food and eventually he will get it.

By the way I am so ready for Halloween, this kid is going to be so cute in his little costume...he just hates the hood part of his outfit...

mel

Things We Can Live Without

Well, I never got around to doing the "things we can't live without" post when Hadley was first born like the rest of you did. But now that she is almost 10 months old, I decided there were a lot of things we could live without. Here are the things we did not need over the last 10 months:

1. An expensive layette set to take the baby home: I spent like $50 (kind of embarrassed about the amount, but I was nesting, so I had an excuse) when I was pregnant on what I thought was the cutest little nightgown, cap, sock and mitten outfit for Hadley to wear home from the hospital. I bought it online in "newborn" size. Well, let me tell you, it just now fits her at 9 1/2 months. It was HUGE when I got it in the mail. I couldn't even roll up the sleeves or anything, it just swallowed her. And now that she is 9 1/2 months and very active, nightgowns are not really appropriate.

2. Any brand of socks other than Nursery Rhyme brand, which can be found at Belk. These are the only socks I have been able to find that stay on Hadley's feet. All the other ones just fall right off.

3. Onesies that don't come with matching pants. I think this is just a pet peeve of mine, maybe because Hadley was born in the middle of winter, but the baby sections all have these cute little onesies. But then they either don't have matching pants to go with them, or the pants that are supposed to go with them have a weird pattern that does not match the onesies. I finally found Hadley some jeans and some solid colored pants. Don't other babies wear pants?

4. Different levels of nipples for bottles. We are still pretty much using level 2 nipples. We bought some higher ones when Hadley had an ear infection to see if they would help make it less painful for her to drink her bottle, but they did not help at all, and I generally just think they are another gimmick to make us spend more money. Breastfed babies don't get different nipples, and they do just fine with cups when the time comes, so I don't think bottle fed babies need them either.

5. Inclined sleep positioners. Some people do not use sleep positioners at all, but I really liked using them. When the reflux issue started, the doctor told us she needed to be on an incline, so we looked and found several different inclined sleep positioners. None of them worked. Because of the incline, Hadley would slide down the positioner. We ended up just putting towels under the mattress to incline the mattress, used a flat sleep positioner, and took one of the positioner pillows from the several extra sleep positioners we had and put it under legs right below her butt so she wouldn't slide down. Thank goodness she has grown out of all of that now!

6. The Medela breast pump. I hated that thing. Definitely designed by a man! The Playtex was much gentler, and I think more effective too. Thanks for the tip, Emily!

Baby Proofing

I would like to ask for some advice on baby proofing. Isaac has started to crawl (s l o w l y) so we're going to start the process of baby proofing pretty soon. I'm in no rush since a snail could catch him at the speed he crawls, but sooner or later he'll get fast, and I'd like to know what kind of products you're using, which one's you'd skip, and if you guys had any trouble spots around the house.  I'm especially concerned about the corners of the coffee table and our brick hearth.  I've seen those rubber bumpers, but I'm not sure they'll really work enough...especially on the brick where they only cover the edges and not really the hard top surface.  I don't really want to gate the whole thing off, but short of duct taping a beach towel to my fireplace, is there anything I can do? Thanks!!!

I can't believe some of you will have walkers soon!! How crazy fast did this year go by?

8 months!

I'm actually pretty on time with this one...only 3 days late! Molly is a mover and a shaker so these pics are not the best but I think they're fun!
-Emily

10 months!

Hey fellow mommies! Sorry I have been such a slacker on my posting lately. It's been a little crazy around the Caldwell house, as I'm sure you can all relate to. We had a pretty exciting weekend: Laine turned 10 months the day before I turned 26. To celebrate, Laine woke up Saturday morning with a fever of 102.4! As soon as I picked her up from her crib that morning I could feel how hot she was and of course I freaked out when I saw that number on the thermometer! We called the nurse line and were told to take her into urgent care or the E.R. They reassured us that it was probably just a virus or some kind of infection, both of which were easily treatable. But of course I was still worried! Unfortunately, I had rehearsal that morning and Joe had to take her by himself. I felt so guilty not going, but of course Joe handled everything just fine. Long story short, she probably just has a UTI, so they gave her a huge shot and a prescription for antibiotics. The hardest part was that she was just SO not herself the whole day. Usually she is talkative and cheerful and independent, but she was obviously in pain and miserable. It broke my heart! But the good news is that the antibiotics seem to be working their magic and she was back to acting like herself this morning. It is such a stressful thing to have a sick little one... all you want to do is take the pain from them and it is hard to be unable to do anything.

Also, I wrote Laine another letter for her 10 month birthday, which is posted on my blog HERE.

Have you all noticed that having a baby multiplies all the housework? I feel like the laundry and the dishes have multiplied by three! The motor even burned out in my old washing machine, and I had to get a new one (although I have to admit I was not too upset about that). I feel like I have spent all day just trying to get the dishes and the laundry done, and I haven't even made a dent! They keep piling up faster than I can get them done. I can't imagine what it would be like to have twins!

--Amanda

Fingernails or FingerKNIVES?!!?

I have never had a problem with cutting Molly's fingernails. I use to wait until she was asleep to do it and now I normally clip them while she's nursing. Cutting her nails is not my issue. It's the next day! After I cut her nails they are so sharp and she always scratches her face up the next day. It makes me so sad to see. Have any of you tried filing your baby's nails after you cut them? I haven't tried it yet but it has been suggested. I just don't know if Molly will be patient enough for that. I guess we'll just have to see! I'll let you know how it goes!

-Emily

Standing up is worse than Sitting up!

I tell you what! Now that Molly has learned to pull herself up we are having a nightmare of a time at nap time. This morning we 'fought' for 40 min, with herself standing 4 different times, before she fell asleep for only 30 min! This afternoon it has also been about 30-40 min with her standing 3 times, though I think she has just fallen asleep (fingers crossed!)

Because she is now crawling and standing in her crib, we no longer use her sleep sack. I absolutely LOVE that thing! And Molly does not go to sleep well if she is cold. That stinks for nap time because I can't just put her down if she is in shorts or a skirt because she gets too cold. So I'm having to change her into pants before I put her down for a nap.

When she first learned to sit up we went through a similar process but I feel like it didn't take as long. That could be attributed to teething! What an awful design flaw! I mean really, your teeth have to cut through flesh to come out? We have bought Hyland's Teething Tablets to try. Our doctor recommended them. He says he doesn't think Orajel does anything so I'm taking his word. Have any of y'all tried the teething tablets? I am so ready for the teething process to be over but know, that with only 1 tooth in, we have a long way to go!

It's crazy how fast these milestones happen. I am kind of baby proofing as we go along but I'm realizing we have A LOT to do. Since we're still in an apt we are so cluttered! (soooooooooo ready to buy a house!)

-Emily

Sleepwear for 9 Months +

Does anyone know where I can get some good sleepwear for 9 months +? We were putting the Circo sleepers from Target and then the Gerber sleep n' plays on Hadley to sleep, but she has grown out of those and I can't seem to find any good sleepers for 9 months+ for less than $14 a piece. I don't pay that much for her daytime clothes usually (although I have noticed clothes are getting more expensive in general now that she has hit 9 months).

--Amanda

comment emails

Hey ladies!

I don't know if y'all want to do this, but you can enter your email address and get emailed when someone comments on a post. That makes it a lot easier than always trying to find something you originally posted to see if someone commented. Just go to the Dashboard, click on Settings, then click on Comments....scroll to the bottom and you can enter your email address next to mine!

Happy reading!
-Emily

Molly-wobbles!

(The post title is actually what Todd calls Molly because of the way her hips shake!)

I can't believe how my life is changing every day. Not in any bad way, and not in any drastic way....but Molly just keeps me on my toes! Of course, she's learned to crawl. She is in no way the speed demon that Laine is, but still she's on the move. Up until recently she would crawl to get a toy a few feet away but that was pretty much it. She could crawl longer distances, she just didn't. And she didn't get the concept that if I was not right next to her, she could actually crawl to me. Normally she just sits and cries until I come to her. That being said, yesterday Molly actually left me. We were sitting on the floor playing like normal when she just up and crawled away. Not just a few feet away, she left the room! She headed straight into her room and started playing in there. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, and I truly encourage the independence, but a little piece of my heart ached. My baby, she's growing up! I can just imagine the first time, when I drop her off at Kindergarten, that she walks into the class without even looking back at me. I know we're a ways from that, but as fast as these 7 1/2 months have gone by, 4 or 5 years really aren't that far away!

And not only crawling, but she has been found standing in her crib! And every day she practices pulling up on me and then letting go so she can stand on her own!!! :-o It only lasts a few seconds and then she throws herself down on me (which means I better be paying attention to catch her!) but still, another sign of her independence. And I don't have to coerce her into doing it, she will actually push your hands away so she can stand.

I am loving every stage so far. I understand why some people just have one child, because we are having so much fun just the two of us during the day, and the three of us at night. But I also understand why people with 7 1/2 months old are ready to have another child (don't worry, I'm not there yet). Cause I miss those snuggles that I use to get! (I have a friend with a 5 month old who is pregnant! Her kids will be 13 months apart.....I'm not that crazy!)

-Emily

7 months!!! (plus like 3 weeks)

I really HAVE to get better at this! But here is Molly, 3 weeks ago on her 7 monthary. :-D





-Emily