Happy Half Birthday Monkey Man!!!

Kemper is 6 months old (well technically not for another day, but close enough)!  I've been thinking about this blog post for a couple of weeks now.  How I want to approach it, what I want to say, trying to remember the details, thoughts, feelings, emotions over the past 6 months.  If I'm being totally honest, I just now (6 months after birthing the sweetest little boy I've ever met) feel that I am coming out of the newborn mama fog.  I thought going into my second baby that I would come out of the fog earlier since I had done it before, knew what to expect to some extent, and  knew that I could get through the sleep deprivation since I had done it once before.  In some sense that was correct.  I felt like I could curb my fogginess feelings on a day to day basis in order to be present for my children, be the best mom I could be and get through the days.  In another sense I was so wrong about that prediction!!!  I truly believe that it took longer for several reasons.  Though Kemper was a very mellow tempered baby, he didn't take on the same great sleeping patterns as early as his sissy did.  Having 2 children really is double the duty!!  Even though as parents we have become greatly focused on the newborn, naturally, Peyton his continuing to thrive, grow, progress, learn, and she needs our help with all of this each and every day.  Just because Peyton's sleeping and eating (which is the main focus typically of a baby), is smooth and predictable doesn't mean that she doesn't have other needs.  While these are all things I enjoy experiencing with my children, I've also found that its more difficult for John and I to have time to focus on each other and for each of us to have some independent time.  Its taken six months for us to sort of come to this realization and to commit to making that stuff a focus on top of the kids.  Never before has the phrase "there aren't enough hours in the day" been more true.  Or should I say there isn't enough energy in our bodies to take on all that needs to be focused on every day.  Yes, that is actually the better statement.  Being ok with the idea that we can't do it all is certainly something I've had to come to terms with over the past 6 months, and that I am ok with this!  But do you know what else I have had an epiphany about at this 6 months mark?  How incredibly blessed, lucky, thankful, grateful, or any other word like the previous that we are to have love in our marriage, health in our children, and true happiness in our little family.  Its almost overwhelming to realize how important it is to have these things and how incredibly wonderful it is that we do have them.  I sincerely feel that we were meant to have these two children, one girl, one boy, Peyton, and Kemper and each other to walk through this journey of life together.  I truly feel that our family is complete and that we have exactly what we need at this time in our lives.  Sure, we may not be millionaire's, we may not live in our dream house yet, and we may not have the biggest savings account, but we do have 2 absolutely incredible intelligent, loving, thriving children and we have some have the most respectful marriage that anyone could wish for, full of love and commitment.  What more could we really ask for at this point in our lives?  WE ARE BLESSED BEYOND BELIEF!!!!!!!

Ok, off my soapbox and moving on to our dear little Kemper boy.  Its been a great month full of transitions for this little boy.  Lets talk specifics:

Sleep:
Thank the good lord that we have turned a corner with sleep...finally!!!!!!!!!!  We aren't sure if its just coincidence or not, but we did start Kemp on solids on his 5 month birthday which seemed to coincide with better sleeping.  We are now on a pretty good stretch of him waking either once or twice a night either to eat, or just needs his paci put back in.  I will not complain about that!  He is still sleeping on his tummy in a sleep sac, going to bet at 8:00.  He is still a good napper, taking 2 naps per day.  The first one is two hours after he wakes up in the morning and the second is between 1-2pm, with each nap lasting 1-2 hours.

Eating:
The most exciting thing about eating this month is the fact (as mentioned above) that we started Kemp on solids this month.  He has done fantastic with them and we know this was the right time to start him.  His very first food was avocado (as was his sisters) and he LOVED it and still does.  Since then, he has also had peaches, butternut squash, banana's, pumpkin, and most recently oatmeal.  We are making it all home made and he is already eating 2-3 meals per day!  In addition, he is still exclusively breastfed, although he is doing it less than before we started solids.  He is now nursing in the morning after waking up, around lunch time, in the afternoon and then right before bedtime (and of course usually once or twice in the night).  There have been a few times in the last week also where he refuses to nurse and wants a bottle.  Its taken me some time to get here, but I am ok with this now.  He is still getting breast milk and that is what is most important to us at this point in time. 

Clothing:
We were lucky enough this month to inherit Kemper's bigger cousin Kylan's clothes since Kylan is expecting a little sister in February.  Its so fun for Kemp to wear little outfits that I remember little Ky wearing not too long ago.  Kemper is currently wearing 6-9 month clothing (and truly is moving more into the 9 month).  This month, we've started putting the little Roebeez shoes on him as well, which are more fun for us than practical for him!

Babysitting:
Kemper had his very first night away from mommy and daddy this month with Nana and it went wonderfully!  John and I decided to have a really nice night away at Pan Pacific hotel in Seattle and dinner out at Daniel's Broiler (surprisingly one of my first experiences at a steak house!).  We are grateful for Nana being willing to do this!!

Milestones:

• Eating solids
• 2 teeth
• Grabby, grabby, grabby!
• Feet in mouth
• up on all 4's (looks like he is prepping to crawl, though he's not there yet)
• sitting in the highchair
• starting to sit up on his own, though this is not mastered yet
• screaming!

Happy Birthday to my sweetest baby boy!

Kemp has TOOFERS!

Kempers first tooth began popping through his gums on Saturday, September 7th at 5 1/2 months old.  The tooth that popped through was the lower middle right tooth, though on Tuesday September 10th, the lower middle left tooth popped through as well.  Here's to some Tylenol for sleeping, and drool rags!!

Monkey Man is 5 months old!

Wait, 5 months means almost half a year!  How can that be?  I know they say that time flies when you have children, but I must say that for the second child this is even more so the case than the 1st one.  I truly feel that just a few weeks ago we were driving this sweet baby boy home from the hospital.  We are truly enjoying him and his developing personality so very much.  One of the best things is seeing his relationship with Peyton develop.  They simply adore each other and both have the ability to make the other one happy at times they are upset.  Its the greatest thing ever to witness as a parent.  Ok, so how's this little man doing with all his development and milestones?  Read on to find out.

Sleeping:
I must address this one first as we all know with the newborn stage, this topic is of the upmost stress, trying on the patience, and inconsistent.  Weird, because those exact words describe Kemper's sleep this past month (similar to the last).  He is back to waking every 2-3 hours once again (all night long I must add).  Most of the time it seems he wants to eat, but sometimes we try and just give him the pacifier back.  To make things more difficult, we took away the swaddle once and for all towards the end of this month.  It truly needed to be done as he was getting out of every kind of swaddle every single night, as well as more consistently rolling over onto his tummy while in the swaddle, which of course is no bueno due to the fact they can't get their arms out to roll themselves back over if needed.  The first night was pretty tough.  Ultimately, after trying many, many times for 2 hours in the middle of the night, we laid him down on his tummy and he slept great that way the rest of the night. What does this mean?  Its means once again we have a tummy sleeper (as Peyton was at this age also)!  And we are embracing this and deciding to be comfortable with it since he is healthy.  We are hoping that we have some better sleep in store next month! 

Kemper is still napping twice a day.  He goes down for his first nap 2 hours after he wakes up in the morning and sleeps between 1-2 hours.  His second nap is usually around 1:30 or 2:00 and he also sleeps for 1-2 hours during that nap. 

We continue with the 8:00 bedtime routine.  Bath, jammies, nursing and then down for the night.  We usually put him down with his pacifier, but he almost always ends up spitting it out within the first hour.  Instead of the swaddle, he is in the Halo zip up sleep sacs.

Eating:
Kemp is still exclusively breastfed and eats about every 4 hours.  He has always preferred the football hold while nursing until this month where I think he has just gotten too big for that position.  Now he nurses in the traditional cradle position.  He is eating 5-6 oz of breast milk out of the bottle while at daycare.  We plan on starting solids this next month.

Clothes:
Kemper is wearing 6-9 month clothing and is growing rapidly!!

Babysitters:
So far, Kemper has been babysat by Nana, Trudy, Stephanie, and grandma.  We have yet to leave him overnight, but I think we are almost ready to do so!

Milestones:

• Kemper has become MUCH more aware of his hands this month and is very grabby with everything.  He can transfer objects between his two hands, hold onto items, and grab for items off a surface.  He also is mastering picking up his pacifier and putting it into his own mouth.
• Rolling, rolling, rolling.  Front to back, back to front, all over the place!
• NO.  MORE.  SWADDLE.
• Grabbing onto and sucking on his feet.