Or at least that’s what I’m going to say for now! haha So stay tuned…

10) Breast Pump – yep… life would have SUCKED without a good breast pump. I’m so fortunate to have a good friend with a GREAT pump I’ve been borrowing. It was so nice after Cooper was 4 weeks old or so to be able to pump a bottle for him and be able to leave him for (gasp) more than 3 hours! Granted it hasn’t been too much longer than that because the girls tend to fill up and get uncomfortable! haha AND I did fight leaving him tooth and nail, but Daniel knew what was best for me and would force me to leave him occasionally.

9) Outfits with mittens – because those baby fingernails are TRICKY and who wants to show off a baby who looks like Edward Scissorhands got a hold of his face? Cooper pretty much stayed in outfits with mittens for the first couple of weeks of his life. Side note – baby toenails are ridiculously sharp too.

Cami’s and Yoga Pants – not really for Cooper, but I STAYED in cami’s and yoga pants until I went back to work when he was 12 weeks old. Yep… perfect outfit. Easy access for Cooper’s mealtimes and very easy to throw a sweatshirt over if people happened to stop by unannounced.

Boys – skip this next bullet point

7) Breast pads – yep… those first couple of weeks where the girls are figuring out how to literally contain themselves can get a little messy. Those breast pads were AMAZING! Trust me! Without those little suckers I would have been changing sheets all the time.

6) Swing – yep Cooper’s swing was a God-send! It helped keep me sane. I could put him in his swing (still can) and run around like a maniac getting a few things done around the house. Made me feel like I was accomplishing something other than nursing a baby (important as that is).

5) Swaddling blankets – someone wisely told us to steal everything we could get our hands on at the hospital including their swaddling blankets. They were RIGHT! Those swaddling blankets are SOOO much better than the regular ole swaddling blankets. They are BIGGER. And considering I’m STILL swaddling my almost 5 month old baby, bigger is better!

4) Night Stand – yep that little thing is more handy than I would have ever thought. Its amazing how much forethought goes into making sure you have EVERYTHING you could possibly ever want at your fingertips when you know you might be nursing a baby indefinitely or holding a sleeping baby because that’s the only way he would sleep. A night stand came in handy to house all my necessities while confined to bed for hours on end during the early days.

3) Flashlight app on your phone – yep one of my most used apps! Just enough light to be able to grab the baby, change his diaper and throw him on a boob without waking up Daniel or making the baby too alert.

2) Pack N Play – I’m beginning to wonder if we really needed to set up Cooper’s crib. He slept in the bassinet portion until his feet hung off the end. Now he’s sleeping in the raised portion of the pack n play. Its so convenient to be able to hear him as he’s beginning to stir around, scoop him up, give him a boob, and lay him back down and nobody really has to wake up too much. I can’t imagine having to get up and go to a different room to feed him in the middle of the night. Pretty sure he will stay in the pack n play until I’m no longer nursing… sowwy Daniel!

And my most favorite baby item that will most definitely be bought for any of my friends who want to nurse their baby???

1) MY BOPPY!! I CANNOT imagine nursing a baby and having to arrange pillows or hold a baby up the whole time or whatever else non-Boppy people do. The few times I’ve had to nurse Cooper without the Boppy have been very uncomfortable. AND I recently figured out another use for the Boppy: it makes a great textbook holder. It nicely props them up at a nice angle for reading! haha

So there you go… hope it was helpful to someone.

I think the tooth fairy must have decided to give you a break or you’re learning to cope with it, because you seem to be better. Still no teeth yet though.

This weekend was a little stressful. Saturday you decided to have an all-out meltdown in the car. You were screaming like you were dying, your little face was purple, and tears were streaming down your little face. You didn’t even react that badly to shots. We pulled over and scooped you up trying to decide what was wrong. Never figured it out but suffice it to say Mom and Dad didn’t feel like eating for a very long time. TOTALLY STRESSED US OUT! So please don’t do that again. Again can’t stand for you to be in any kind of pain.

Anyway, other than those fun moments, we’ve just been trying to soak up as much time with you as possible. You’re still rolling over every once in awhile and can make a 360 on your playmat in about 30 seconds. It’s funny… I’ll look away for just a minute and you’ll have turned yourself around. You’re a quick little booger.

Love you lil man

Momma

There! Don’t you feel better? Always makes me feel better to stare at that little mug for a minute!

I needed that this morning. I’m having kind of a rough few days, well weeks! Seems ever since I went back to work and had to start pumping a lot more my body has started rebelling. I think I just much rather prefer to nurse my baby than be hooked up to a pump like a cow.

So my supply has been dwindling it seems. I’ve tried EVERYTHING! I’ve gotten advice from numerous people including lactation consultants, I’ve nursed for hours on end in the evenings and weekends, I’ve increased my skin-to-skin time, I’ve tried herbal supplements and other things that might make my Baptist friends cringe but nothing has seemed to work long-term.

Cooper is up to eating 15 ounces while I’m at work and I’ve been only pumping 7-9 ounces during that time period. So it doesn’t take a finance degree to figure out that is not adding up. So yeah! For a few weeks I’ve been going home and continuing to nurse Cooper AND trying to pump the remainder of ounces he would need for the next day. I’ve been up all hours of the night pumping, pumping while Cooper’s eating, pumping after Cooper eats, pumping when Cooper obviously wanted more to eat, pumping, pumping, pumping… and it’s just not making my tail wag.

The real kicker is my poor lil baby is not getting as much as he wants in the evening because I’m having to worry about making sure he has enough for the next day at the sitter’s! AAGGHH So I refuse to half-starve my poor lil guy anymore.

I’m having to supplement formula to make up for what I’m lacking in the good stuff I just feel so defeated about it. I know I shouldn’t feel that way, but I think my real problem is I feel like this could be the beginning of the end. And I’m just not ready to be done yet. I know its purely selfish on my part, but I SOOO enjoy our little time together and that he prefers me over everyone just because I’m his food source. Yep… I’m selfish! But whatever. I’m just not ready to give that up yet.

So I’m going to continue doing everything that I’ve been doing in hopes that he’ll get as much of the good stuff as I can get him for as long as my body cooperates. And hopefully my supply won’t continue to taper off.

I’m willing to bet that me no longer stressing about how many ounces I have left to pump for the day will cause me to start producing more! haha Here’s to hoping!

You rolled over for the first time Saturday. I actually sorta missed the first time, but your Dad yelled for me to look because you had just rolled over. So he put you back on your back and you did it again (and I took a hundred pictures of it… big surprise!). Don’t think you’ll ever do it again since the end product is you are on your tummy which you HATE! But we’ll see.

I got you all to myself Sunday since you’re Daddy was at Six Flags with the youth. You are just so adorably sweet. I laid you on my bed and you giggled and smiled at me for awhile before taking a two hour nap. I think you LOVE taking Sunday naps with your Momma… at least that’s what I’m going to believe. You woke up all giggles and smiles to see me lying next to you. You know just how to melt this Momma’s heart and ensure your ranking in my heart.

Momma’s been super stressing because you are growing like a weed which means you like to eat about 15 ounces while you’re at Miss Jessica’s house! I can’t exactly pump that much food for you while I’m at work so I’ve been having to pump and nurse you all evening. I’m pretty sure that’s leaving you a little hungry and frustrated at night Poor lil guy. I think we’ll have to try you on a little formula to make up for what you’re lacking in the good stuff. Of course I’m all down the road thinking about how our special little nursing time might be coming to a close soon and that’s just DEPRESSING the heck out of me! But I know that’s purely selfish of me, because you’ll be just fine one way or the other. Just not ready to give up that time with you yet.

Well anyways, I’m sure you don’t care about this whole conversation at all… but just know that I love you more than life itself and only want the absolute best I can provide for you! Love you booger!

Love,

Momma

You’ve started TALKING non-stop! You pucker your lips in an “o” shape and jabber constantly. It’s just so stinking cute. You also grab your feet all of the time. My favorite is when I’ll look over at you and you’re holding onto just your big toe.

You’ve also gotten really good at entertaining yourself. We used to tease that you were our 20 minute baby. We would have to do something different every 20 minutes or you would get fussy. Just thought you were exactly like your Daddy -  you bore easily. But now you are perfectly content to sit in your swing and stare out the front door for 45 minutes to an hour. You also love to lay on our bed while we’re running around getting ready or cleaning up or whatever. You will just hang out there and talk to the ceiling fan or the lights from the windows.

The cutest thing is to listen to you jabber when you wake up in the middle of the night. That is THE SWEETEST thing to wake up to. I couldn’t imagine a sweeter sound

Love,

Mom

Asked the doc if there are any advantages to starting him on baby food now as opposed to waiting until he’s closer to six months old. She said there are basically no advantages nutritionally. Obviously we want him to continue to get full on the magical breast milk instead of veggies or fruits that we will boil most of the good stuff out of. The only advantage is he starts to become accustomed to different foods and the feeling of a spoon in his mouth.

So to do it or wait? Hmmm… sounds like so much fun and lots of great photo opportunities, but is that a good enough reason? Hmmm…

Think we’ve decided to try out a little rice cereal flavored with breast milk. Figured that wouldn’t be too foreign for him but will get him used to being fed from a spoon. Think if the cereal makes him too full to eat as much breast milk, we’ll have to stop it for now. Want to make sure he’s getting plenty of the good stuff  However, he’s such a little piggy I don’t see him deciding not to drink as much. I betcha he’ll be excited for something a little extra!

• Weight 12 pounds (up 2 1/2 pounds since his last visit two months ago). He’s tracking right where they want him to be and will definitely meet the goal of doubling his birth weight before his six month appointment.
• Height 24 inches (up 1 1/2 inches since last visit two months ago)
• He has a little eczema on his feet (takes after his Daddy)
• He can officially start baby food (if we want)
• We were assured that its okay that he HATES tummy time. He might be one of those babies that skips crawling all together and goes straight to toddling around
• He’s teething!! Guess we’re completely oblivious. We knew he LOVED to suck on his fingers but he’s done that ever since he found his fingers so didn’t assume that meant he was teething. But apparently the doc could tell he has teeth trying to come through on the bottom. Poor little guy.
• He did really well with his shots. Screamed for just a few seconds until Daniel picked him up. Then he was fine. Also figured out he sleeps REALLY good when he has Tylenol. He slept 7 1/2 hours last night!!!!

So all in all, he’s perfect But we already knew that!

For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition which I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27

Most of you probably know this verse is about Hannah who prayed for a baby and when given one willingly offered him back to the Lord. I CANNOT imagine how strong of a woman she must have been.

Anyway, reading this verse makes me tear up thinking how long we prayed for Cooper (7 years). Now that he’s here, I can’t imagine anything better! He fills a void in me I didn’t know I had. I can’t help but just stop and soak him in whenever he’s snuggling up to me, giggling at me, or spitting all over my face. I feel like I tell myself about a hundred times a day to stop and remember these moments. AGH Lord please make the days slow down!!!

He wasn’t particularly fussy, just seemed to be wide awake for some reason. And when he’s awake in the middle of the night, he assumes he should eat, therefore mom should be awake.

Funny part – It never ceases to amaze me that Daniel will wake up all bright-eyed and bushy tailed the next morning and be in shock that we were up all night. Guess he’s a really heavy sleeper! haha