Kemper turns 8 months old

This is the month of blissfulness!!  Our sweet little peanut (not so peanut anymore) has turned into a dream of a sleeper and a wonderful eater and is always full of laughter (and screams as well).  It truly has been perhaps my favorite month so far in this little man's life, I think because his schedule both eating and sleeping is finally solid and predictable, and because he has turned into just this little snuggly, lovey, playful little being that he is so enjoyable to be around all the time. 

Sleeping:
WE ARE ALL FINALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT, EVERY NIGHT!!  Yes, all of us.  Mommy, Daddy, Peyton and Kemper all sleeping all night long.  Its fantastic.  And I think the best part about it is that we didn't have to do the hard core cry it out with Kemper.  He just naturally progressed into it on his own.  We did first cut out any eating in the middle of the night, but literally within a week or two of doing that, he was sleeping through the night.  He still goes down to bed between 7:30 and 8:00pm and he is up between 7:00 and 8:00am.  As for napping, he is still on a two nap per day schedule, the first one around 9:30 and the second around 2:00.  He still sleeps on his tummy in a sleep sac, with his white noise machine and pacifier (although he usually spits this out relatively soon after falling asleep).  His night bedtime routine is still bath, book, bottle, song and bed.  He is also gotten really good about putting himself to sleep vs. having to be asleep in our arms before being put in the crib. 

Eating:
John and I sort of had this epiphany this month about Kemper's eating when we went back and read Peyton's blog when she was around this age.  We realized that we were being much more exploratory with Peyton than we had been being with Kemper, so we ramped it up a bit this month with Kemper.  We hadn't been giving him any finger foods yet (besides puff's), so we tried that and Kemper immediately fell in love with finger foods.  Every part of it.  Eating them, grabbing them himself, feeding himself, etc.  Needless to say, his food list has grown tremendously this month, and we are feeding him all sorts of things now, like eggs, cheese, green beans, tofu cubes (although we have some suspicion he might be allergic to soy because of some really bad, painful gas he has one night after eating it and we haven't tried it again since), hot dog (much to my disagreement!  :) ), and fruit.  This month, we used the last of the frozen breast milk and he is now 100% on formula and is doing great with it.  He has 3, 8oz bottles per day and still prefers them warmed up.

Clothing:
Kemper is currently wearing 12 month clothing.

Teeth:
Kemp has 4 teeth currently (2 on top middle and 2 on bottom middle)

Milestones/Other interesting Kemperisms:

• Said his first "word" being "dada" on Halloween this year
• Able to "walk" around now in his walker
• Able to stand up holding onto a standing toy, or the ottoman
• Able to somewhat scoot around, but not crawling yet
• Working on some sign language with him such as "more" and "all done"
• For the past month or two, he has been very active with his hands.  He is always shaking them around, moving his fingers and rotating his fists around (looks like he is really excited, but he is doing it all the time, even when not excited).
• Loves his johnny jump up still
• Loves to sit on a blanket with his basket of toys and just play
• Loves his sister who is always making him laugh
• When you go to pick him up, he immediately snuggles into your chest and tucks his hands under his body (best feeling ever)
• Screaming very loud when he wants more food (hence the reason for attempting some sign language)
• Tried turkey for his first time on Thanksgiving!
• Getting more and more curls in his hair
• Spent his first night at Grandma and Grandpa's this month
• Has a little separation anxiety and does not like being left in a room alone

  

777777777SEVEN777777777 Months old!

Here we are at 7 months old with our little boy!  It really has been a big month for Kemper with lots going on.  He continues to be the most smiley baby I literally have ever come across (he'll flash his two pearly whites for anyone that smiles at him, and even flirts with many people).  We are really enjoying watching his personality develop and listening to him try and find his voice and form words (although he hasn't said any yet).  Here's what he's been up to this month:

Sleep:
Always the most important, right?!  Thankfully this month, Kemper's sleep has FINALLY taken a turn for the good.  Really good.  Shhh!!!  I don't even want to say it out loud or even type it for fear it will jinx us!  With the exception of the week when he was sick this month (read below to see the details of that), he has either been sleeping all the way through the night, or getting up once around 4:00am to eat and then goes back to sleep.  We've continued with the 7:30-8:00 bedtime.  He has a bath, book with mommy, then a bottle and sleep.  He's still sleeping on his tummy, in a sleep sac and with a pacifier (although he usually only has the paci in for about 5 minutes when he first falls asleep and then he spits it out and is fine without it).  We are trying to wean him off of eating completely in the middle of the night, even if he wakes up because his doc says he certainly does not need to be eating in the middle of the night.  I have cut his bottle down to 4oz in the middle of the night, and will move it down to 3oz this week and so on until he isn't getting anything.  He has really become a good self soother and will put himself to sleep if we put him in the crib before he is fully asleep (both for naps and bedtime), which we are of course welcoming with open arms.  His naps are still happening twice a day and last around and hour and a half to two hours.  He still likes his music on (or at least we put it on always when he sleeps). 

Eating:
A HUGE decision was made this month to wean Kemper off breastfeeding.  I didn't think it would happen this early, but Kemper began to bite me (very hard and even to the point of bleeding once), as well as push me away most times when I would try and nurse him.  I decided to read his cues and stop breastfeeding.  In addition to his very bold cues, I began a new job at the end of this month and felt it was a natural progression to stop breastfeeding and then I wouldn't have to pump at work at a new job.  That being said, he has not seemed to care AT ALL that we are no longer breastfeeding.  He is still getting 100% breast milk for now, as I had about a month's worth stocked up in the freezer, but once he goes through that he will begin formula.  Kemper is doing really well with solid foods as well.  Here's a list of what he's had to date:

• avocado (still his favorite by far)
• banana
• applesauce
• oatmeal
• beets (loves!)
• tofu (pureed with other foods)
• cauliflower
• white sweet potato
• quinoa (pureed with other foods)
• carrots
• peaches
• butternut squash
• infant whole milk yogurt

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.

  

Magoo is 4 months old!

Our sweet little baby boy turned 4 months on July 22nd.  He continues to be a wonderful baby with a calm, happy, and VERY smiley personality.  Sleep continues to be great for a while, and then not so great for a while, but that comes with being a newborn.  Here's what he's been up to this month.

Eating:
Kemper is still exclusively breastfed, and takes bottled breastmilk while at daycare on Tuesday's and Friday.s  He made the move this month from eating every 3 hours to eating every 4 hours.  When he is bottle fed, he eats roughly 4oz each time.  His pediatrician gave us the go ahead to try solids at any time now, however we don't feel he is quite ready, so we may consider it closer to the 5 month mark.  Breastfeeding is still going well 99% of the time.  Every once in a while, he will get distracted or upset by a loud noise, or not want to eat for some other reason, and its very stressful for me.  Its hard for me to let go of the schedule that we have worked to get him on and just let things flow, but I am working on that more and more.  Breastfeeding is anything but black and white, and that in and of itself goes against what my personality is naturally.  I've had to work really hard to pay attention to feeding cues from Kemper, be ok if he doesn't stick to his feeding schedule 100% of the time, and just let things flow.  I FINALLY this month stopped clocking and logging his feeding times and lengths and side of breast in my phone.  That was so freeing to finally give it up and looking back I realize I should have done it a long time ago.  I have to constantly remind myself to be a baby watcher and not a clock watcher.  I'd also like to mention that when breastfeeding is going well with no challenges or anxiety on my part (which really is most of the time), I absolutely love it.  I now understand what it means for it to be rewarding and a great bonding tool with your baby.  Its such a tranquil, sweet, quiet time with just Kemper and I that no one else gets to share, and its pretty magical.  I am very proud that I stuck with it this time around (even given the big challenges we had the first 2-3 weeks).  It was all very worth it.

Sleeping:
Once again, we have been all over the board when it comes to sleep this month.  One good thing that has evened out this month is his nap schedule.  He currently naps twice a day.  First nap is almost to the minute 2 hours after he wakes up in the morning.  Something about that 2 hour mark for him and he is ready to go down for the first nap.  That nap can last anywhere from 45 min- 2 hours.  The second nap usually happens between 1-2pm and can last 1-2 hours.  Its true what they say about it being harder to keep the 2nd child on a nap schedule than the first one because you are constantly running all over the place with the older child that if you committed every single day to be home for all naps, you'd hardly be able to leave the house because there is such a short window when both kids are awake at the same time for more than 30 minutes.  Because of this, Kemper at times will get his first nap when we are out and about, though I try not to make too big of a habit of this.    Beyond napping, his night sleep has been anywhere from waking up every 2 hours, to sleeping 6 hours his first stretch and only waking up once a night.  If I had to say what his "average" night of sleep is, I'd say that he wakes up twice a night with is sleeping stretches lasting 4-5 hours.  His bedtime is always between 7:30-8:00pm and he is typically up for the day between 6:30-8:00am.  He's still sleeping swaddled, although we had an adventure with that as well this month.  He was constantly breaking out of his Velcro swaddle, and had even rolled over onto his tummy a couple of times.  We thought maybe it was time for him to sleep unswaddled.  We tried that for a couple of nights-cold turkey with no swaddle, and that did not fair well at all.  In fact, we couldn't even get him down to sleep at all sometimes with no swaddle.  We decided to look into other swaddles, and finally found the miracle blanket, which works great.  He doesn't break out of it hardly at all, hasn't rolled over onto his tummy in it, and it seems to help with sleeping in general.  Kemper is still being nursed to sleep at night, and we also have allowed him to sleep with his pacifier, though only if he needs it.  I feed him in the middle of the night if he's been sleeping 3 hours or more, however if its less than that and he wakes up, I try to not feed him and just calm him back to sleep with a pacifier, or rocking him.

Clothes:
Our big boy magoo is currently wearing 6 month clothing

Doctors Visits:
Kemper had his 4 month check up this month as was given a clean bill of health once again.  He weighed in at just over 16lbs (70th percentile), and in the 50th percentile for height. 

Milestones:
This was a HUGE month for Kemper.  He has made significant developmental strides during the 4th month.  Here's what he's been up to:

• Rolling over from front to back and from back to front on a consistent basis
• Grabbing for toys and holding onto toys
• Holding his head up without help
• He found his voice this month and certainly likes to hear it.  Even screams for fun sometimes
• Exploring in his Johnny Jump up.  He plays with the toys on it and also does some simple jumping while in it.
• laughing (cutest thing ever!), and its usually Peyton making him laugh

Kemper is 3 months old!

Our little monkey boy is already 3 months old, how can that be?  Kemper has been such a wonderful addition to our family.  He has brought out an absolutely caring, mothering, nurturing, playful side of Peyton.  She really enjoys playing with him, holding him, giving him his pacifier, and generally being around Kemper.  This three month mark has brought along many smiles from our little guy, lots of sleeping adventures, and cooing and giggles that warm our hearts. 

Eating:
Kemper is still exclusively breastfed and that is going great.  He is also taking bottles of breast milk now and has no problem going back and forth between bottle and breast.  Currently, he is eating about every 3 hours.  When he is bottle fed, he eats about 4oz at a time.  He nurses for about 10-20 minutes.

Sleeping:
Sleeping has been all over the map this month.  At the beginning of the month, we had just gotten home from Baltimore, so the time change played a bit into his sleeping. He was only sleeping in 1 1/2-3 hour chunks at a time.  This continued for a couple of weeks.  More recently, we went to Oregon and stayed in a house that was nicely cooled.  He slept amazing there!  The first two nights, he only woke up once and the third night, he slept from 8:00pm-6:15am!  When we got home from the trip, he wasn't doing as well, but seems to be settled into sleeping in 4 hour chunks.  We have tried everything under the moon to see if it effects his sleep and causes him to sleep longer (such as a different swaddle, different music, going to better later and earlier, feeding him more right before bed, etc).  It seems the only thing that we really see effecting his sleep is the temperature.  Our house is pretty warm at night right now (70-74), and we think that Kemper likes to be cooler than that (more like 65).  This month, we have also been tackling the task of getting Kemper on a daytime nap schedule.  We are trying out the E.A.S.Y., 3 hour schedule.  It stands for Eat, Activity, Sleep, and You (mommy) time.  With this schedule, he is getting 3 naps per day. We've also started trying to not let him nap in his swing, and instead nap only in the crib.  He does a pretty good job with this.

Clothing:
Kemper is wearing 3-6 month clothing currently.

Doctor Visits:
We didn't have a visit with Kempers regular pediatrician this month, but he did have the follow up ultrasound on is kidneys.  We are happy to announce that his kidney issue has been resolved on its own!  The urologist gave him a clean bill of health, and said that we shouldn't have to have any other follow ups.  The only thing to be aware of in the future is if he starts getting severe side pain, at which point we should have him re-examined.  He was also weighed at that visit and weighed in at 14lbs!!  2 lbs in 1 month!

Traveling:
Kemper has been to 4 states in 3 months!  He stared off with a trip to Maryland to see Aunt Helen and Leigh and family.  While there, we visited Delaware.  Just recently, we took a wine trip down to Oregon with John, Molly, Jeff, Trudy, Steph and Kath.  And of course, he lives in Washington.  This month, we also went over to Spokane for 5 days while John fished in a bass tournament.  The tournament was a memorial tournament named for my uncle Bill. With all this traveling, we've found that Kemper sleeps great in a pac n play!  This month, we took daddy's boat out for the first time as a family and the kids of course are thoroughly enjoying this.  We hope to have many more memories in the boat together.

Milestones:
Kemper has been all about his hands this month.  He sucks on them pretty much all day long.  Sometimes he even accidentally gags himself because he is going to town so much on them.  He has also figured out how to grab his pacifier and can sometimes even put it in his own mouth.  This month is the first time we heard Kemper actually giggle.  And of course the smile is still in full force!  No rolling over yet, but we are working on it!  Kemper enjoys playing under his jungle mat, so we are hoping that like his sister, the first toy he will reach for and grab will be the monkey!