Hellobee

Late again as usual with this update. I could say that things have been crazy at the Wagon house, but I think I say that every month, so let’s just assume that crazy is the new norm, and not crazy is something reportable! Our nanny started this month and things have been going great so far (knock on wood). She brings her own daughter who is just a month younger than Lil Miss Wagon, and so far not only do the girls love each other, but the daily interaction seems to have helped both of their sleep! Wagon Jr. also likes interacting with her in the mornings, since she usually arrives as he’s in his chair eating breakfast. We finally bit the bullet and got a side-by-side double stroller for the girls, since our current stroller setup (UppaBaby Vista with Rumble Seat and Piggyback Board attachments), while great for an infant and a toddler, isn’t ideal for two infants. We found the Combi Twin on crazy discount from Albee Baby and we absolutely love it. For their first stroller ride, both girls fell asleep, so that’s a good sign.

We have dodged illness so far this winter…!! Knocking on wood, crossing fingers, and praying that we continue to stay healthy, because I really dread the first time all four of us are knocked out at the same time. We all got our flu shots (LMW was old enough at her 6 month checkup and they had one, so she got one too) so fingers crossed that we don’t catch this awful flu going around our area.

Let’s dive right on into the updates!

6 MONTH STATS
Weight: 21.3 lb (99%)
Length: 29 in (100%)
Head Circumference: 17.9 in (99%)

LMW is still topping the charts in stats. She’s a very big girl, and that’s definitely slowing down some physical milestones since she’s so heavy. For instance, she still has trouble rolling (both ways) and she can’t sit up unassisted yet. But we saw this with Wagon Jr. since he was a big baby as well, and we’re not concerned. Our nanny (I’ll refer to her as C) is excited to work with her daily on things like this since it helps prepare her to work with her own daughter on the same things, and her daughter (B) loves to watch and learn!

LMW loves vertical time and she can stay in her jumperoo or exersaucer for an hour if I’ll let her. She’s become an expert at grabbing toys and bringing them to her mouth and has been inseparable from her Sophie the Giraffe for a week or two. This is a relief because Sophie was expensive and Wagon Jr. didn’t take to her at all!!! Chewing on Sophie has been a relief for LMW because she JUST cut her fourth and fifth tooth. So she’s got her bottom two (they’re a really good size now!), the entire ridge of the top right tooth showing, and the nubs of the top left and the one to the left of that one just came through. Needless to say, her night sleep has completely gone to poopies now. On bad nights she wakes screaming out of nowhere, and even if we sit and hold and rock her, she still cries in her sleep and wakes screaming. It’s tough because she’s got her eyes closed the entire time. If we give her infant acetaminophen, she freaks out because we’re basically waking her up so she’ll swallow the liquid. But it usually takes effect quickly and she can fall asleep. I know I’m basically drugging my baby every night, but her screams are so heartbreaking, and we’ve really tried everything. It’s so sad because she was sleeping through the night consistently for two weeks, then when all 3 top teeth started coming in at once she started suffering like this. We all miss her STTN! On the positive side though, she’s constantly running her tongue along her new top teeth, and pulling her top lip over them, so she makes the cutest and funniest faces.

On another note, she is also definitely obsessed with animals. She loves all stuffed animals, especially dogs, and she loves to watch our dogs, especially Remy. She’s constantly emitting a high-pitched coo towards him and always smiles at him. He’s jumpy around kids, even Wagon Jr., but he has never once growled at her. I have a feeling they’re going to be best buds.

Eating

Eating has been an issue since she fusses with the bottle in her mouth. C has found that letting her chew on a cold washcloth helps her get through a bottle. But because of this fussiness, she ends up grazing all day. I’m really glad at this point that I’m not nursing because she constantly chews on the bottle nipple, getting milk all over herself in the process. I can’t really blame her– 3 teeth coming in at once must be oh so painful.

We haven’t been starting on solids really, purely because we just haven’t had time…! We’re not going the baby led weaning route and we’re starting with rice and oatmeal cereal, then moving to vegetables, then fruits. We will probably let her try foods that aren’t purees, but we plan on sticking with purees for her primary foods and just using table foods for experimenting.

LMW only poops 2-3 times a week. This is so new to us because Wagon Jr. used to poop between EVERY feeding. On the positive side, we go through fewer diapers, which is always a plus. But when she hasn’t pooped for several days we’re all tense… her because she MUST be uncomfortable, and us because we’re constantly dreading the poopageddon that will require immediate scraping/washing of outfits or, simply, just throwing an outfit away.

Sleeping

I’ve gone back and forth on this, but I have to come to the conclusion that LMW is a really good sleeper. Her teething has really gotten in the way, but the fact of the matter is that she falls asleep really easily, and when things are ideal, she stays asleep very well as well. She can usually fall asleep on her own in the crib (if she doesn’t fall asleep while drinking her bottle) and if she wakes for a night feeding, she goes right back to sleep. She falls asleep every time she’s in the car, and pretty much every time she’s in the stroller. We’ve even gotten her to sleep several times in a noisy restaurant, feeding her a bottle and rocking her a bit. She stays asleep when we transfer her to the stroller, and when we take her carseat out of the car and put it onto the stroller. This makes family outings a whole lot easier!! Even though she’s so big and heavy, I’m really putting off switching to the convertible carseat because that’s a much rougher transition if she’s asleep in the car. But I bet she’d stay asleep in that transfer too.

She has taken to her lovey, thank the Lord above. She won’t take a pacifier and doesn’t suck her fingers, so without the lovey she’d have no self-soothing mechanism. But she takes her dalmatian Angel Dear blanket and rubs it against her face, and sometimes even falls asleep with it covering her face. (She always pulls it off once she’s asleep.) If she loses it in the crib she freaks out… and all we have to do is run in and throw it onto her face, and she is able to soothe herself back to sleep.

As for timing, naps have been about the same: 1-2 hours for the first, then 30-60 mins for one or two additional naps. Her awake time in the morning has stretched to 3 or more hours, so here’s a typical schedule these days:

7:00am: Wake up
8:00am: 2 oz bottle
10:00am: 5 oz bottle, 1st nap (2 hrs)
1:00pm: 2 oz bottle
2:30pm: 5 oz bottle, 2nd nap (30 mins)
4:00pm: 2 oz bottle
5:00pm: 4 oz bottle, 3rd nap (30 mins)
6:30pm: bath, 6.5 oz bottle, bedtime
anywhere between 1:00-4:00am: 6.5 oz bottle

As you can see, I included the night feeding since she’s still technically getting one every night. The pediatrician is urging us to cut it out since she doesn’t need it anymore and she shouldn’t be expecting to eat (thus helping her to sleep through the night again), so we are in the process of cutting it out. I think she’ll be fine without it, but with the teething hell she’s been going through lately, nothing soothes her back to sleep like a nice big warm bottle. Talk about comfort eating…!!

Wagon Jr.

3 YEAR STATS
Weight: 32 lb (51%)
Height: 36.1 in (15%)
BMI: 17.26 (84%)

We have stats!! The last time we had official stats from the doctor was a year ago. It’s nice to see that even though we struggle with his eating, he’s still average weight even though he’s below average in height, making his BMI plenty above average.

Ah, life with a 3 year old… the ups and downs are crazy. He is so loving and adorable, and the funny things he says just knock me off my feet sometimes. We’ve started a twitter to record the hilarious things he says.

He’s still the same old moody kid, and we still use time outs effectively, but usually the threat of one still works at getting him to obey. He’s starting to ask “Why?” for pretty much everything, even things he knows the answers to. I don’t want to be constantly answering questions, especially if we both know he knows the answer as well, so I’ve started saying things like “You know why, you tell me!”

Eating

I think eating is just always a challenge no matter what stage you’re at… whether it’s pickiness or allergies or balance of nutritious foods or whatever else you’re facing at the moment. Right now Wagon Jr. is beginning to try new foods, which is wonderful. But he doesn’t want to eat large amounts, ever, and when we try to make him, he’ll put the food in his mouth but not chew. Then he takes a sip of milk to try and wash it down without chewing and ends up gagging and vomiting. This started happening at every meal, and once it happened in restaurants and in front of friends and family, we decided that we needed to stop forcing him to eat. It obviously wasn’t helping and was creating a negative association with certain foods (as well as ALL food and eating!). In just the first day of not pushing him to eat, we had no vomit incidents and he ate a decent amount. We’re hopeful that this will solve the vomiting problem and start to help with the pickiness problem! It definitely cuts down on stress during meal times.

He is still obsessed with milk and would just drink milk and eat fruit snacks if I let him.

Sleeping

Wagon Jr.’s night sleep has improved since we introduced a larger blanket! He still has night wakings but much fewer crying wakings. He has also gotten better with waking up in the mornings. About half the time he wakes up quietly and asks us to get him or just sits and plays with his stuffed animals. Napping, however, seems to be going down the tubes. His daycare teachers have about a 50% success rate with getting him to take a nap. Getting him to nap at home is a huge challenge, so most weekends we just plan on having him nap in the car while we’re out and about. (We have had many a car nap with both kids sleeping in the back and mommy pumping in the front seat while parked in a secluded spot!) But when he does nap, it’s always over an hour (and sometimes up to 2 hours) so I’m still convinced that he needs his nap. Plus, whenever he skips his nap, he always wakes crying with nightmares, without fail.

Sibling Love

Wagon Jr. and LMW definitely have a mutual respect for each other. Wagon Jr. has never acted out towards her and is always sharing his toys with her. He’s always asking about her and wanting to include her, which can cause problems if she’s napping at the time! We have to keep him downstairs because he’ll just barge right into her room if we let him wander upstairs. LMW is always watching Wagon Jr. and is always enthralled with him. Right now their favorite way to interact is Wagon Jr. singing songs to her (usually arranging his instruments so we can give her a concert) and she watches and laughs.

The past 6 months of my life have definitely been the busiest and most sleep-deprived… but I have never been happier or felt more complete.