By participating in the Baby Love Wordless Wednesday hop I will be in a drawing to win a small prize.  Really my motivation is sharing this incredibly handsome little guy with you!

What do you think the scariest things are for a Mother?  Something bad happening to their kids of course!  I experienced my first ‘I am a terrible Mother’ incident just this morning.  Both Mother and Baby have recovered from the traumatic event but today Mama is having a glass of wine with dinner!  Luckily Baby Michael only suffered the two marks that you see pictured above and a tiny scratch on his eye lid.  One of those marks is a carpet burn and one is a bruise.  (yes he is chewing on a chicken wing teether!)  I did take him into the pediatrician’s office just as a precaution though!

Michael loves playing with our cats.  The cats hate playing with the baby because he doesn’t pet them, he pulls on them, so they run away.  With Michael getting faster as his all impressive one armed army crawl the cats are running sooner and going places he can’t get to AKA the stairs.  You might be wondering why we are playing upstairs.  Well Michael is bored with the Family Room and wants to explore other areas and items.  The cats are pretty smart and have started to lounge on the stairs versus the floor because he can’t get to them.  Well curiosity killed the cat and sure did rattle our household today.

 One minute I look over and my child is playing with the pile of shoes on the floor and the next minute I hear “thud, thud, thud, smack!”  Son of a …!  I can’t run down to the bottom of the stairs quick enough.  I pick up your child who is face down on the tile floor and try not to react.  The overwhelming feeling of guilt starts to creep in but I have to keep my cool because I don’t want to upset my baby.

I take him up to his nursery and try to console this screaming child for 40 minutes before he settled down.  I tried holding him while rocking, playing with toys to distract him from the pain, letting him stand because he loves it and playing with his hand puppet.  Nothing was working.  I took him into my bedroom and tried giving him the remote control to the TV because he loves it.  The remote coupled with the empty tin container I found eventually got him settled down.  That was actually his first drum experience!

My Mom came over and went with me to the pediatrician while my Step Dad installed the baby gate that my Mom had literally brought over THE DAY BEFORE!  He snoozed on the way down there and had a good check up.  Our doctor was very reassuring and I am forever grateful for that.  He said if he had to pick a fall that he would prefer the stairs to falling straight down, like off of a bed.  With the stairs you are breaking the momentum each time you come in contact with a new stair.  With a straight fall you don’t.

Michael passed his exam beautifully.  The doctor examined his eyes, throat and full body for any signs of injury without finding anything to be alarmed about.  Thank goodness!! The bruise on his head wasn’t concerning because it wasn’t a hematoma.  While we were there Michael was all sorts of happy while he was being examined and bouncing up and down on the table.

So Michael is to be monitored for the standard of 24 hours for any abnormal behavior and so far he is just crabby.  He seems a little shaken up because he started to loose his balance while standing and was not happy at all about it!  You could tell it wasn’t anything but being startled.  I will have to check on him in 4 hour increments this evening just to make sure he stirs when I check on him.

I was impressed with the deal my Mom got on the baby gate!  This gate was originally $68 at Meijer and it was marked down for $15!  What a find!  I come by my deal finding honestly because my Mom is pretty thrifty as well. You can see what type of gate I am talking about on Amazon.

This is a gate made especially for stairs because it connects to the wall, as you can see in the picture above.  When we get to the point where we don’t need the gate then we can leave the wall mounts in and remove the door from them to store it.  It is such a nice gate!

In the end Michael is acting pretty normal.  Except he went down for a nap at 5:15 and it is 7:50 and is still sleeping!!  That is going to wrench any sort of sleep I was planning on getting but I am to blame for him falling down the stairs so there isn’t much I can do about it.

I must say that I love my Mommy friends so much.  I felt like a total schmuck today for letting this happen.  It turns out that things like this DO HAPPEN and everyone seems to have a story they aren’t proud of.  My Step Dad had one of his boys fall off of the changing table, my pediatrician had his daughter roll of of the bed (while sleeping) at 9 months and there were many more stories.  I am forever grateful for their stories today because when something like this happens you feel like everyone is going to be mad at you, blame you or judge you.

**Update** Michael did just fine throughout the night, besides going to bed at 5:15 and waking up at 3:50 am!!  I am exhausted already!

So much happens on a daily basis now that I feel like I need to do a weekly update sometimes!  It is so mind blowing how quickly Baby Michael is reaching milestones!

• 22.5 pounds
• 27.5 inches

We had our first Christmas as a family!  It was so much fun and so hard on Michael!  It was a very long couple of days and he doesn’t like to sleep in public because he is so interested in his surroundings.  My Mother in Law bought him the cutest Santa suit and it was the hit of the party!  He managed to keep it clean from 8am until we got home that night too!

After Michael eats he lounges and watches Mickey Mouse or Yo Gabba Gabba.  Typical male right?!  He is now up to 12 ounces of solid food each day with 24 ounces of formula.  I have no idea if that is right because a lot of pediatricians hold off on solids, outside of baby cereal, until 6 months but I have a big boy on my hands!

I have found that he spits up less now that he is eating more solid foods.  I thought that by giving him solids he would start taking less formula but that isn’t the case at all for him!  I usually give him 4 ounces at the 2 hour mark and wait until he gets fussy for his bottle, which could be anytime in the following hour.

He is now holding his bottle about 70% of the time!  He will typically hold it no problems until he gets fascinated with the TV.  He has a harder time when the bottle gets empty because he doesn’t understand he needs to angle it to get more quite yet.  This was the big event that happened during the 5th month!  His ear drum burst and there were little to no signs.  I was trying to get him to sleep in the Pack N Play downstairs because we weren’t 100% comfortable with me walking upstairs multiple times a day alone with him and he kept screaming when I would put him down.  So I figured he was either uncomfortable, hated that it wasn’t his crib or was in pain from teething.

I went and picked him up and his ear smelled a little funny and when I was giving him a kiss I got my nose wet.  So I immediately took a picture of it and posted it in my Mommy group because I thought it was an ear drum bursting but I wanted their opinions.

So off to the Doctor we went!  The Doctor said that a lot of times kids come in with blood in their ears it is from scratches so I was very happy that I took a picture and even he was amazed with the amount of blood from his ear.  This was the first symptom really because he was acting normal when he was awake!  The only time he fussed was putting him down in the Pack n Play.

The more I thought about it I realized that this doesn’t even qualify me as a bad Mom because babies can’t tell you what hurts.  I am a Mom who looks for patterns and writes down feedings and naps so I know what he wants.  I can tell you that he can only be awake 2 hours before getting fussy and likes to eat 6 ounces every 2.5 hours, even if he gets 4 ounces of food.  He acted normal and that is why I didn’t catch it.

For Christmas his Great Granny got him the coolest ties that I have seen for a little boy!  He even has a formal wear bib that he hasn’t worn quite yet.  Just looking at these bibs makes me smile to myself because they are so clever!  In the picture on the left he is watching Mickey Mouse and is so captivated!  That show is amazing outside of the songs that get stuck in your head!  I found a cool tuxedo one on Amazon for $3.99 too!

Michael’s Uncle was home from the Army for the holidays and bought him a cute little Army onesie.  It is so cute how much Kyle enjoys spending time with him.  He is always over when he is home and playing with the baby.  Kyle even watched Yo Gabba Gabba with him while he was over one day.

He is crawling every and LOVES coupons/paper!  He has mastered the Army crawl and almost has the true crawl down.  Right now he rocks back and forth once he gets up to his knees and sometimes will crawl with one knew up but not both.  With the combination of rolling and crawling he gets into everything!

He is now laughing pretty much all of the time!  This video is actually his first unassisted laugh.  I wasn’t even by him and all of a sudden he starts laughing!  I was lucky he kept going so I could get it on camera for Daddy.  He will even laugh at the TV when Mickey is on.  I sure would love to know what goes on in his head!

At his 6 month appointment he had a VEP which is just like an EEG but it plays music and has colorful pictures on the screen.  They hooked of 2 sensors on his forehead and one on the back of his head to read his brain waves.  Apparently there was something abnormal with his left eye so we are going to see an ophthalmologist just to make sure.

He had his shots again this month and is doing so well with them!  The first one he gets he doesn’t cry and then he gets mad for a few of them.  After they are done he is A OK though.  They gave him half of his flu shot instead of Polio this time.  We have to go back at 7 months and get the other half of his flu shot and his Polio shot.  He is in love with that Rotovirus vaccine now because it is like he is eating!

Until next month!

The above picture is one of my favorite things I have seen in such a long time!  My Sister was changing Michael and I told her to make sure he was done before changing him.  Sure enough, he wasn’t done and one more push got a bee line of poop right to her pants!  I could not stop laughing for the longest time!

So we finally are getting a Bumbo chair for Michael for Christmas!  Just getting it now is sort of silly though because he has fat thighs.  I knew one of my girlfriends has this same problem and we both have 98th percentile babies.  He love to sit up all of the time so I sit him in his Dad’s recliner so he can pretend he is a big boy.

Now that all he does is roll over he thinks that diaper changes = naked rolling baby.  He is happiest naked for sure!

Michael is teething now and I feel bad for him some days because he gets a little cranky.  He always has his hands in his mouth and/or toys.  As you can see from the picture he even put his friend’s fingers in his mouth!  I rub his gums when he puts mine in his mouth  and he seems to like that.  I haven’t used the teething gel yet but it is out on the stand so it is easily accessible.

My Great Grandmother passed away and at her showing I found this baby picture of myself in one of her books.  I would have to say my baby is fatter than I was, especially in the cheeks, but you can still see a major resemblance.  And I thought I was a fat baby! 

He just loves to eat now.  Since I got the OK at his 4 month appointment I try to feed him a fruit, vegetable and some oatmeal everyday.  He has tried plenty of foods now and we are on pumpkin that I made this week.  Feeding solids so often has also decreased his spitting up.  He is still eating about 24 ounces of formula a day in addition to his solids.

I am so happy that he is finally pooping regularly though!  Pooping only on formula was a painful ordeal for him.  He would get all red faced and whine while he was.  Formula only poops came about every other or every third day and were very dark.  Now he is going every day, the stools are looser and sometimes you can tell what color the vegetable was that he ate!  Oh the things Motherhood makes you excited for!  haha

If you don’t know me personally you might not know that my Husband is a giant computer nerd.  He is in the IT industry for his profession and everyone goes to him for computer problems.  I thought this picture was precious because Little Mike wants to be like Daddy. I am probably to blame for his interest in computers though.  I let him watch and spin the Superpoints button a lot so he thinks it is OK to play with it.

I think I am going to try and do a monthly update versus waiting two months because there are so many things going on now! He has already done some milestones that I am saving for his 6 month update!  He has already started giving me mobility problems because he rolls around the family room if I set him down.  You would be surprised at how quick the roll to the other side of the room.

Until next month!

Well Little Michael turned 4 months on Saturday and Sunday was his baptism and our first Thanksgiving at our house!  I am waiting for the pictures from the church of him or I would post one.  That is the only downfall of not taking the pictures yourself, you have to wait for someone else to get the pictures to you.  :)

Stats:

• 18 pounds 13 ounces
• 26.5 inches long

Edit: My Father in Law awesomely sent me a picture to prevent me from going crazy because I hadn’t seen any from the church.

This month flew by and was very very busy!  Here are the highlights.

We weaned from breast feeding in 2 weeks and it was hard on him.  He has been spitting up so much of his formula that I have had to start changing his clothes, washing the blankets more often and I am burning through burp cloths like crazy.  The funniest and grossest thing to happen since he started spitting up all of the time was him spitting up right into my mouth!  It tasted like bile and spoiled milk and he was so upset that I had to tried my hardest not to puke myself.

The doctor did say that I could start him on solids since he is such a big boy: cereal, veggies and fruit!  The doctor mentioned it could be a milk intolerance and I could try soy to see if that helped him or it could be mechanical.  The heavier solid foods could help with the spitting up as well.

His vaccines at his 4 month appointment were a little rougher than his 2 month ones.  It was easier for him to take the rotovirus vaccine this time because he didn’t automatically push it back out and gag.  I attribute that to the fact I have been letting him try solids and use a spoon so he is more used to swallowing.  His Dad actually stayed to see him get his shots this time and become inconsolable.  Too bad it didn’t stop all evening.  Poor guy

He is getting closer and closer to crawling as you can see in the video below!  He does a good job rolling front to back and back to front though.  He might get really frustrated but he has mastered the art of spinning around!  I will set him down one direction and sure enough he will be pointed the opposite direction!

My girlfriends and I have been having play dates since our babies are so close in age.  Kaleb is 12 days older and Kaitlyn is 24 days older than Michael.  Here are some of the cute shots of them sharing tummy time!

 So far Michael has tried pumpkin, green beans, potatoes and bananas!  The Mommies to the above babies and I are making and swapping baby food so we have more variety for our little ones.  We have freezers full of carrots, squash, green beans and pumpkin!  It is so much cheaper than buying baby food.

For most of the month he was sleeping 9 hours a night and just recently had a few hiccups.  I think he is adjusting his sleep schedule right now.  He got congested and was going to bed at his normal 10pm then waking up at 3am for 30 minutes and going back down until about 6am which sucked!  Now he has been going to bed between 9pm and 1015pm instead of his normal 10/1030 bedtime.  So Mom is just adjusting to his new schedule- roughly.

I just learned how to use his snot sucker too!  My Mom had to show me how to get it to really work but he hates it even more now.  Apparently it works better if you push it in and then tilt it up a little so it is sort of pointed towards the floor.

Until next month!

One of my friends in my Mommy Group shared a link to Parenting’s website that listed a bunch of ridiculous parenting products.  I totally agree with some of them but I must confess there are a few that I would have wanted to splurge on.

They start off with a helmet for kids to play in and an infant pillow that is bizarre and slightly creepy looking. (see above) Some of these things are just funny things I know parents get mainly for themselves but stuffed hands to rest again your infant?  Really?

I think the placenta teddy bear is by far the grossest and weirdest thing I have ever seen though.  Here is the quote that they included with this teddy bear:

What’s more cuddly than a placenta? Not only must you cut, cure and emulsify the organ, you have to actually sew it into the teddy bear using this kit.

I still think it would be cool to have a special hospital gown if I was to be in the gown for the duration of my hospital stay after having a baby and that was on their list because you don’t really NEED it.  For this baby my Mom bought me a new robe and night gown because it was cheaper than those gowns.  There was no way I was sitting in that drab gown for three days!

What are some of the things you think are just ridiculous for parents to get?

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Can you believe how fast kids grow up?  I do not know how I have managed to survive 14 weeks now!  Last week was his official 3 month birthday and we measured him for grins and he has grown 2 more inches!  He is now 26 inches long and in 6-9 month sleeps because he is too long and his feet are too big!

I did go to a Mom 2 Mom sale last weekend and got a great deal!  I spent $22 on 22 clothing items and that awesome Boon Frog Bath Scoop!  That bath scoop only cost me $5 and that thing can retail for about $35!  The woman that sold it to me also sold her Bumbo and tray for $10 but I wasn’t the lucky person for that prize.  If you are smart you will only buy clothes from these sales because they outgrow everything so quick!  I rarely buy him full priced clothes unless it is something really cool like the My Aunt is the Best onesie I picked up the other day.

He is even starting to be too big for size 2 diapers but I am finishing out the pack of 100 that I opened just so they don’t go to waste!  He grew out of diaper sizes so fast (newborn 1 month, size 1 a month and size 2 a week longer than 1 month).  I had no idea that it would be that quick when I was stocking up on diapers and I messed up with the whole planning thing.  I had 14 jumbo packs to exchange because they are size 1 and 2.  Apparently babies in my Mommy group stay in size 3 for a while so I should be good since I have about 4 months of that size and 10 more packs I can exchange.

Little Mike is now rolling over and playing in his Jumperoo too!  The rolling over thing is cute during the day but it is presenting a little problem at night because he will pull himself out of the swaddle if I am only using the wrap and not the full swaddle sack.  He had outgrown his swaddle sacks so I was just using the swaddle portion from my Halo swaddle and he is too smart for those.  So I finally ordered him a size large, it goes to 22 pounds, so he will still sleep good at night.

He is still confused on night and day sometimes which can be very tiring but he will get it one day!  Last night was beautiful because he slept 9 hours straight!  That gives me a chance to write some things since I am not sleeping every nap time during the day.  He normally goes to bed between 10pm and midnight which makes for a lot of sleeping all morning and some of the afternoon.

My poor guy has chapped lips!  It looks like he was in a fight or we just aren’t good parents but I swear he woke up one morning looking like this!  He has two little cracks in his lips and my Mommy group said they have used Vaseline on their babies so I am thinking I am going to give that a try.  We did set up his humidifier in his room because he was sounding a little dry when breathing too so that could just help without putting anything on his lips.

Now that he has all sorts of rolls he is getting these chaffing spots in between them on his neck.  I first noticed it because he smelled TERRIBLE!  And he even smelled bad after I had given him a bath so I was so confused.  It turns out that these spots around his neck were smelling like moldy crotch, gross.  I am so happy to have figured that out and after I wash his neck I put him down for tummy time to air it out.  He loves tummy time now that he is wanting to move around everywhere.  All these things you don’t find out until you have the baby!

Weight loss is still maintaining at a great number of pounds lost but I can not wait to be able to go to the gym and tone this body back up!  With Halloween candy in the house and the fact that I can’t walk all that well I am terrified that I am going to start gaining weight and lose all of my progress!  This midsection leaves a lot to be desired for a woman who likes to be toned!

Breast feeding is still going OK and I am still supplementing with formula.  I have days where he only gets two bottles (10 ounces) and sometimes he gets three bottles (14 ounces).  Usually he takes his first bottle in the afternoon because he is just very very unhappy that nothing is coming out of Mom.  Breast feeding is a lot of work but bottle feeding is way more work in my opinion.  I hate washing bottles and buying formula!

Until next month when he has his 4 month check up and more vaccines!