Kind of 8 weeks..

Technically, Micah will be 8 weeks tomorrow, but we're traveling to AL tomorrow so I won't have time to write a post.  I can't believe he's about to be 8 week!  Two months old!  My baby boy is growing up to fast.  And I can't believe we are traveling to Alabama tomorrow for a week.  Packing us all up is a nightmare, and of course Brandon's work has him working crazy hours these past two days so I've been doing it pretty much all by myself.  The Joys of Army Life!  Luckily Micah is on a really good schedule now, and he takes amazing naps in his crib.  Of course, this happens right before we leave on a trip and it will all get messed up again :)

We have had lots of good bonding time.  I took this picture because Brandon is convinced Micah hates that pacifier and I keep telling him that Micah uses it during the day just fine.  Really Micah doesn't like any pacifiers, we barely ever use them, I couldn't even tell you where his favorite one is right now.

Of course with all these pictures with him having them in, it makes it look like he constantly has one!  I just think he looks so cute when he has it in and looking at me, so I tend to take pictures then.  Because if I take a picture without his paci in, this is what I get...

He doesn't like the flash, but sometimes if I take enough, I get a cute one..

Micah is so much more interactive now, and Brandon is absolutely loving it.  We play with his football rattle and his baseball a lot.  He also sits in his bumbo during playtime a lot.

Our house is being overran by baby toys.  And now that he is definately not fitting in newborn clothes, I'm having that struggle of do I save the adorable clothes in case we have another boy some day down the road?  Or do I go ahead and try to sell them?  My gut is to keep them, but at the same time, we might have like 5 moves between then, knowing the Army.  And same thing with all the gear, do we keep it, moving it from house to house or sell it?  I'm thinking most of the gear I will keep and I went through his newborn clothes and have my favorites boxed up for now.

This carrier is one of the things we got second hand...its baby bjorn for only $15..not bad!  This is how we will be traveling tomorrow, Brandon and Micah will be having bonding time in the plane.  (Don't you just love the Alabama socks with the Alabama onsie?)

Now it's time for me to stop putting off packing and cleaning the house..I'll let you know how this whole travel thing goes when we get back in a week!

7 Weeks

I can't believe that Micah is already 7 weeks old!  Exactly 7 weeks ago, I was being prepped for surgery.  And now we have such a great routine, and he's even been sleeping 7-8 hours a night the past few nights!  It's amazing!  But at the same time, he's growing up too fast.  He got weighed today and he already weighs 11 pounds 13 ounces.  He's in the 50th percentile for weight and height.

We've had a really great week, and hopefully it stays this way.  He's still having issues spitting up, it's so hard seeing him with a tummyache, but hopefully it gets better soon.

I also think he has cradle cap, so we've been trying home remedys to help it out.  It's not the cutest thing, and we're taking a trip to AL next week so I want him to look super cute.
We had a great St Patricks day, we went to our friends house for a cookout and it was a lot of fun. 

But after 3 hours there, I was so ready to come home!  It's hard being somewhere else and not having his bouncer, swing, play gym, boppy and bumbo to entertain him.  It has me really worried about going to AL for an entire week without all those things.  I know all those things aren't necessary, but they sure do make my life a lot easier!  He really is enjoying the bumbo now, he can hold his head up and sit better in it.

I can also tell that he can focus on things a lot better now!  He tries to bat at things on his play gym and his swing and he grabs my hair ALL the time if I don't have it in a pony tail.  So happy I didn't cut my hair off a few weeks ago like I was thinking about.
Now for cuteness of the week...

His eyes are a little crazy in that..he does the funniest faces.

He loves his daddy so much..I don't know what Micah will do when we go to Florida for the whole month of May and Daddy won't be with us...nor do I know what Brandon will do without his little guy!  They are so attached in the evenings.

Next week is our trip to Alabama!  And I'm so nervous about the whole traveling with Micah, I need to start working on my list..suggestions are welcomed!

Sleep!

So last night an amazing thing happened!  We fed Micah and went to bed around 9:45 and it was around 4:45 when he woke up!  That's like 7 hours of sleep!!  I woke up around 2:30 wondering why my baby boy wasn't crying yet, but he was just sleeping away!  It was so great!  He's been sleeping 5 hours at a time at night, which is pretty wonderful!  But I could definately keep taking 7 hours!  I haven't wanted to write about it, because I've been so scared of jinxing it, but I want to be able to remember how good of a baby he is, so here we go! 
Micah has been such a great sleeper at night from the very beginning, and we are spoiled.  At nights, we feed him, change him and put him in his swaddle blanket.  We then put him in his rock and play sleeper, turn the lights off and he falls asleep on his own!  In the middle of the night, he wakes up, I feed him and change him and put him back in his sleeper and he grunts and coos for about 5 minutes and is back to sleep.  We don't have to hold him while he falls asleep, don't have to rock him, none of that and it is amazing!  We've only had 4 nights that he was cranky in the middle of the night and wouldn't fall asleep by himself, and one of those nights was in the hospital when the nurses kept coming and going all night.  And nothing is better then waking up in the morning to him already awake, but just sitting there cooing and looking around..

Our plan is when we get back from Alabama, we'll be moving him into his own room, in his big boy crib, so we'll see if this happy sleeping baby continues then!

New Kicks..

Sorry for those that read my blog only for Micah..this one is not about him, instead about me.
So I mentioned on here before that I'm going to do a 5k the first weekend in May.  As I've been attempting to train for it, I decided I must have been crazy when I signed up for it.  But anyway, the other day I realized my tennis shoes were at least 5 years old, and it was time for new ones.  So Saturday we went to the outlet mall and bought me some new shoes!  Brandon said I picked out boring ones and needed a new bright and exciting color this time. 

And today I went to the gym with my new shoes and decided to only walk a mile and do it as quickly as I could.  So my new time was 15 minutes 18 seconds!!  I'm so excited!  That doesn't sound impressive, but to me it's amazing!  My goal is to do the 5k in 45 minutes, so it's a start!  And seeing how it was only a week ago that I did 1 mile in just over 18 minutes..it feels pretty amazing!
And now the scary part...I've decided to take pictures of myself so I can hopefully watch my body shrink.  It's not pretty looking..but remember I had a baby only 6 and half weeks ago..and I'm 25 pounds less then prepregnancy...so here is the pics..and hopefully I'll see it shrink soon..

That's hard to look at..but it'll get better..and I don't have any prepregnancy pictures like this, but here I was at 11 weeks pregnant, for comparison purposes.

And a Micah picture to end on a happy note..he likes hanging out in the gym with me.

6 Weeks Old!

I can't believe Micah is already 6 weeks old!  It's so crazy, he's growing up to quick! :)  He's getting so big so fast.  We've had a really good week.  I figured out that Micah doesn't do well with dairy products, when I consume my normal amounts, he gets really cranky and spits up a lot.  It's been hard adjusting to a life without tons of dairy, but I'm doing it.  I actually even went a few days without any dairy!  And the difference between the cranky, spitting up baby to the super happy baby made me realize dairy isn't so important.  I've now figured out that he can handle small amounts of dairy, I can have one dairy item a day and he'll still be fine...so one thing of yogurt, or one small cup of milk.  I tend to do the yogurt because it's to hard for me to stop with only one small cup of milk.
We had our first trip to the dog play area in our apartment complex, and Micah really enjoyed it..

He always looks so serious in his pictures, but he really isn't like that all the time.  I just don't think he likes the flash on the camera.

This weekend I did the dreaded post baby clothes shopping, it did not go well.  I weigh 25 pounds less then I did before I got pregnant, yet the same size pants I wore before were too tight.  It was frustrating.  I eventually jound some jeans, but it was hard.  My weight has moved so much, my arms are skinnier, and for the first time in my life jeans fit my thighs and butt, but are too tight in my stomach.  I know thats baby belly, but it's frustrating.  But so worth it for him..

He's starting to be able to focus his eyes a lot better now, which is fun.  He really loves to stare at Chester, he is fascinated by him.

What I'm most excited about 6 weeks is I'm still breastfeeding!  In the very beginning, I decided I  needed a goal, because at times it hurt really bad and I just wanted to give up.  Formula sounded so much easier, but I told myself that my goal was 6 weeks, that I could do it for 6 weeks at least.  And I did it!!  He's had formula a few times, but that's only when we had to supplement.  Pumping is definately a lifesaver!  Even with a hooter-hider, I'm not comfortable breastfeeding in public, but pumping makes it so we can go out and I don't have to worry about that.  And I'm so proud I accomplished it, because I know it's best for this little guy.

Now the new goal is 6 months.
And finish up with more cute pictures....Micah with his favorite buddy Chester..

And my super big boy..

More Doctors..

Before I start talking about doctors, let's talk about the happy stuff!  Yesterday was the most amazing day ever, Micah didn't cry once until after 1pm!  Everytime he woke up, he would just lay there and coo and talk to me.  He was such a happy baby! It was so great!!  We are starting to settle into a nice routine and I think it helps.  And last night, he slept for over 5 hours straight!  So amazing! 
And on happy Mommy news, I lost another 2 and half pounds!  My weight loss had stopped for a little bit, and it was really frustrating me.  But I think I had lost so much weight so quickly that my body went into panic mode and stopped for a bit.  My body had to balance out again.  So I'm happy to see the weightloss happening again!  We are going shopping this weekend for some cheap cute clothes because I don't want to wear maternity clothes anymore, and they are hanging off me anyway.  I don't have a lot of clothes from prepregnancy, so I just need some clothes to fill in as I hopefully continue to lose weight.  I keep reading about how people have an insatiable hunger while breastfeeding, but I'm somehow missing that.  Same thing while I was pregnant.  I'm actually really struggling to make sure I eat enough calories everyday.  I am never hungry, and being busy with Micah, it's a struggle to remember to eat.  I wish I would be hungry, so then I could at least remember easier, instead of getting incredibly light headed and be like oops..forgot to snack again.  And I know I need to eat to keep up my weight loss, especially with our daily walks.

Sorry it's a little blurry...hard to take pics by yourself.
So more doctors..I got a call from Micah's pediatrician today saying they got the ok from insurance and they're sent all the referral stuff off for Micah to see the geneticist.  El Paso doesn't actually have a geneticist, the closest one is like 6 hours away, but they do have a pediatric geneticist that comes to town once a month for appointments, and our pediatrician wants us to go see him, so we can know if Micah seems to have Ehlers-Danlos or not.  He also wants more information on what he needs to look out for with Micah and such.  It makes me nervous.  It's not a shock, I knew he would have to go see these doctors but it's still nerve wracking.  I just want him to be perfectly healthy, no Ehlers-Danlos, but we will see.  It's probably going to be awhile before we get in to see the doctor.  I called today and left a message asking to make an appointment, but I haven't heard back yet.  Since he only comes once a month, I'm guessing it will be a couple of months before he gets in.  I would love to get in soon and get it over with, but it'll probably be after we get back from Florida.  Which is probably best anyway, because I want Brandon to be able to go to the appointment, and his work is crazy right now.  Anyway, I'll keep everyone updated on when we get an appointment and such..and one last cute picture..

5 weeks old!

So my little man is 5 weeks old today!  And getting so big!  We moved him up to size 1 diapers yesterday!!  He could have kept wearing newborns a little longer, but we finished our last pack and size 1 fit, so why buy more newborns?  We will be packing away newborn clothes soon too, our biggest problem is he got his mommys head size so newborns are hard to get over his head.  He's still pretty skinny, but slowly getting the baby chub.

He has had some rough nights this week...and rough days..hoping it's just a growth spurt.  He has started spitting up a lot more, so starting to wonder if he has reflux.  He will be such a happy baby and thhen his face turns red and he starts screaming like he's in the worse pain and then spit up happens and he's happy again.

We have lots of snuggle time.
We are also getting more into a routine now, which is nice..our new thing is to wake up, eat, get dressed, read the book about puppies that Aunt Callie got him and then nap.  Definately need to buy some more baby books soon!  He doesn't care, but I'm getting tired of the same book everyday.

He's starting to smile a lot more, and I try so hard to get pictures of him smiling..but this is usually what I get instead..

And then I get this look..

I don't think he likes the flash on my camera..

So cute, wrapped up in Daddy's shirt because sometimes it's the only thing that calms him..such a Daddy's boy.

Doc Appointments and such..

So yesterday Micah and I had a very busy day.  We had two doctor appointments, one for me and one for Micah.  Mine was just my 4 week checkup to make sure I'm ok and then Micah had one because he's still really congested and is now starting to struggle to eat because he can't breathe through his nose while he eats.  My appointment was first and it went good, I'm now officially cleared to exercise! YAY!  So I need to get started because I have two months until I'm power walking a 5k! AHH! Such craziness!  Then we had like a hour to waste before Micah's doctors appointment, and we found the most amazing Goodwill!  I can't wait to go back with either Brandon to help me with Micah or by myself.  I haven't mastered the shopping with a stroller yet.
After that we went to Micah's doctors appointment.  He's still ok, it hasn't moved to his lungs, so we just have to keep doing the saline solution a lot and suctioning his nose and pump and use a bottle more because it's easier for him to breathe with a bottle.  Micah is getting big though!  He's 9 pounds 9 ounces!  And 21 and 3/4 inches long!  He's more then 2 pounds heavier now then when he was born, so crazy!
Another positive note, I fit in pre-pregnancy clothes now!!  I need to start taking pictures of myself so I can see the progression as my body changes and gets into shape.  It might help motivate me somedays when the scale is in timeout, like it is right now.  The scale has gotten stuck on a number and it's frustrating because I feel like I should still be dropping weight like crazy, especially since I'm breastfeeding.  But I have to keep reminding myself that I weigh a lot less then before I got pregnant, and as long as I keep working out for this 5k, I'll be ok.
Since my last post was Wednesday, and yesterday was a crazy day (Micah and I were pretty much nonstop from 7am until 5pm, way to much time in the car)  I don't really have a lot of new pictures to share of Micah..but here is what I have since I know that's the real reason people read my blog :)

And this last picture..my parents and Ashlyn will appreciate more..socks almost fit his feet now!!!!!!!!