~110~ 1/2 Birthday

Happy 1/2 Birthday Ethan!!

It’s crazy to think that this time last year I was about 8 weeks pregnant and now Ethan is 6 months old! My how things change. A lot has happened in the last month, so here’s the run-down:

Weight: 13lbs, 12oz

Length: 24.5 inches

Activities: 

1) We went to MN a few weekends ago so that Ethan (and us) could meet my cousin’s new baby, Noah.  He’s about 3 months younger than Ethan and as cute as an be. They live in Baltimore so it was extra special that we got to have our babies together!

2) Ethan started daycare, which means that I’m back at work.  This year I’m teaching 4th grade again after having taught Title I math for the past 6 years.  It’s a big change for sure, but a good one :) Ethan seems to enjoy daycare.  He’s the only baby, and gets spoiled by the other 2 three year olds who attend with him.

3) Ethan got to swing in his first big boy swing during Jake’s company picnic and he loved it!

Favorite Things: Much to my dismay, Ethan loves to suck his thumb, particularly when he’s tired or falling asleep.  I’m hoping that this doesn’t last too long and that it’s partially attributed to teething. Ethan also loves playing with his blankies and putting them in his mouth (along with everything else he can get his hands on).  Jumping in his jumper and talking to his animal friends on his mat continue to be some of his favorite things to do. He also enjoys sitting in his high chair in the kitchen while we make dinner at night. And bath time-we still love bath time! :)

Not So Favorite Things: There’s not a lot to put on this list. He doesn’t enjoy being wet or hungry (but I mean, who does?). He also does not like prolonged period of sitting in his carseat.  On the way to MN to visit my cousin, he probably cried for 2 out of the 4 hours during the drive. It was pretty brutal for all of us. Luckily 3 weeks later we timed everything right and he slept the whole way there and back.  Ethan knows the sound of his buckles unclipping and will immediately start to arch his back and push his arms out of the straps. 

Milestones: 
1) Ethan easily rolls from back to stomach, and though he can do it, he seems to have a harder time rolling from tummy to back (either that or he’s just being really stubborn!).

2) Sitting up by himself. Sort of. He leans really far forward and almost folds himself in half, but he can do it with out support most of the time. I think it’s because his cheeks are weighing him down ;)

3) Starting Solids. We’ve been given the official go-ahead to start feeding Ethan solid foods, starting with veggies and fruits.  I let him suck on a piece of watermelon the other night and he seemed to like it.  We plan to do Baby Led Weaning instead of using purees, so we’ll see how that goes. 

~109~ 5 months

Last Thursday, Ethan turned 5 months old! It was about this time last year that I found out I was pregnant, and now my baby is almost 1/2 a year old!  Crazy how much can happen in a year! I’ll definitely be soaking in the next week since I go back to work on the 18th (insert sad face). I am very grateful though and so lucky that I got as much time at home with him as I did. Had I not had Ethan at the end of the school year, I would have only gotten 8 weeks at home with him. I know that many, many other moms only get between 6-12 weeks, which is simply put, not nearly enough time. 

My little man has continued to grow and change every day.  I love seeing him discover and learn new things.

Weight: Even though we didn’t have an appointment, I took Ethan in to the doctor’s to do a weight check. He was exactly 13lbs.  I’ve read that the average weight gain at this age is 4-5oz/week.  At his 4 month appointment, he weighed 12lbs2oz, so a 14oz gain is pretty on-par. 

Activities: We all went to MN again over the weekend of July 17 just to visit family.  As always, Ethan enjoyed seeing everyone, and Jake and I were able to spend some time with friends.
We really enjoy the fact that we can take Ethan pretty much anywhere without any issues. He’s even been to my classroom a couple of times so I could do some work. He has no idea now, but this will be the first of many summers that he’ll be helping out mom at school ;)

Favorite things: Sucking his thumb. He cannot get enough of his thumb and it’s driving me crazy! We try to pull his thumb and fingers out of his mouth when we can, but it just can’t be avoided 100% of the time. I’m hoping this doesn’t last too long, but oh well.

His blue “crinkly blanket” that we got from my sister-in-law’s mom.  He just loves it and we take it everywhere with us.

We are also starting to like tummy time more, and have even gotten a few smiles and giggles when we do it.

Not So favorite things: 
Naps. For whatever reason, this kid does not like to take naps. I’m hoping that when he starts having to wake up earlier and gets into more of a routine that he starts to nap a bit better. Typically he’ll get 20-30minutes here or there, but never takes a long nap throughout the day. So of course he becomes an overly tired and cranky baby at night.

Milestones : Ethan has successfully rolled from stomach to back a few times, but not consistently yet.  He does very well with purposely grabbing things.  He also loves “talking” to us. I swear he says mama and mom all the time; whether or not he means to is another story... When he gets really excited, he’ll let out a very loud high-pitched scream that gets Jake and I laughing.  Ethan also likes to join in with the laughing and will get into giggling fits over the weirdest things. He particularly likes it when mom dances (which let’s face it, IS pretty funny), repeats funny sounding words, or teases him. We couldn’t think of a better sound.

Next month, I’ll have been back at work for a little bit, Ethan will have started daycare, and he’ll have had his 6 month appointment!

Until then, 

~108~ Monthly Updates & 100 Day Celebration

I’ve honestly been meaning to post about Ethan turning 3 months old for - well, a month now. But, as a new mom, life.happens. and I just never got around to it.  The little guy finally decided to take a real afternoon nap for once though, so here I am with his 3 and 4 month update.

3 Months

Weight: We didn’t have an appointment this month. When I took him to Mommy and Me class, he weighed about 11LBS. 

Eating Habits: Ethan is still eating about every 3 hours (sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more). At the end of May, he was bottle-fed pumped milk when my dad and Jake’s mom watched so I could go back to work at the end of the school year and he was eating about 3-4oz at each feeding . I have to give a lot of props to moms who exclusively pump. I did it twice a day for 2 weeks and that was more than enough for me!

Sleeping Habits: Ethan is now 100% transitioned to sleeping in his crib at night. Miraculously, Ethan started sleeping through the night the night before I went back to work. He slept from 10pm-5am!! It’s like he knew that mama needed her sleep. This has continued ever since, with only a few nights waking up once around 3 or so. Fingers crossed he’ll keep it up!

Activities: Ethan enjoys playing on his playmat and has gotten good at batting at the stuffed animals hanging down. He isn’t really grabbing things yet, but I have a feeling he’ll get there soon! Twice a week, Ethan goes with me to tutoring; and running errands has gotten a lot easier now that he can easily be carried in the Ergo. 

Favorite Things: Bath time! He loves it now. We give Ethan a bath on Sunday and Wednesday nights before bed. It is always a fun and relaxing time for him. After we’re doing washing everything, we take him out of his bath chair and let him float around and “swim” in the tub on his back.  I hold the back of his head to keep it above the water line, but everything else is free in the water. 

He also really likes when people look down at him when he’s laying in his crib or on the changing table and will often smile back at us. 

Least Favorite Things: Tummy Time. I’ve been bad at getting this in because he dislikes it so much. I need to be a tougher mom and make him do it everyday. Sometimes he won’t even try to lift his head (even though he can definitely do it) and will just put his face into the mat and cry.

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Shortly after Ethan turned 3 months old, we celebrated him turning 100 days old on June 14.

 This milestone (Baek-il, 백일) is celebrated in the Korean culture as a sacred time of nurturing for both baby and mom to ensure good health and longevity, as historically the survival rates would drastically increase after a baby's first 100 days of life. To protect mom and baby, they would stay in the house until the baby was 100 days old. On this day, family and friends gather together to give thanks and to share in traditional food and rice cakes. The rice cake represent purity and perfection, and it is believed that the more people it is shared with, the longer life the baby will have.

To celebrate Ethan’s Baek-il, I made a traditional steamed rice cake and other traditional Korean foods for Jake’s parents, brother and his girlfriend, and uncle.  

We had bulgogi, mandu, and rice cake soup (which I had never made before).  It all turned out great and there were no left overs to be found!  Since I hadn’t made the rice cake before and had read that it was an acquired taste, I decided to pick up some gourmet cupcakes as well from a local bakery, Cache Bake Shoppe. Normally, it would kill me a little bit inside to buy cupcakes vs. making them, but with everything else I was making, it was a relief not to have one more thing to have to worry about and prepare.  And I really can’t complain - they were delicious! Even though I didn’t make the cupcakes themselves, I did make some cupcake toppers with Ethan’s name in hangul and his picture. 

Happy 100 days Ethan!!

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4 Months

Weight: 12lbs, 2oz (up 2LBs, 2oz from his 2 month appointment).

Length: 23.5 inches long

Eating Habits: Now that we’re fully back home for the summer, Ethan is back to being 100% breastfed, which is still going great! At his 4 month appointment, his pediatrician said that he could start trying rice cereal and purees if we want to. I picked up a box of rice cereal that night and got his high chair all set up. He loved his new chair, but wasn’t so sure about the cereal. 

We’ll try again in a week or so. At this point in time, we’re just experimenting with things. Once he’s about 6 months old, we’re going to try baby-led weaning to actually introduce solids. 

Sleeping Habits: Ethan is still a great sleeper (knock on wood).  We’ve got a great bedtime routine going and he is consistently sleeping about 10-11 hours overnight. He’s not much of a day-time napper though. After about 12:00, he doesn’t really sleep much until he goes to bed around 9. 

Activities: Being mom’s muse for her new DSLR camera! I’ve gone a little picture crazy, but how can you not when you have the most adorable photo subject?!

Ethan also went on his first “camping” trip at Mikey’s Acres over 4th of July weekend. This special place is dedicated to Ethan’s namesake and Jake’s best friend who we lost 6 years ago April. 

Favorite Things: Kicking his new piano under his playmat. He’s quite the musician! Bath time, and watching mom and dad. 

Least Favorite Things: Still tummy time and shots :(

~107~ Nursery Tour

I've been meaning to do a picture tour of Ethan's nursery for a while, but have been a little preoccupied these past couple months (I wonder why??) and am just now getting around to it. 

Thankfully, we had all of the essentials in place prior to Ethan's arrival, so even with him coming so early, we were ready.  

Soon after we found I was pregnant, we decided to paint and put in new carpet.  The carpet wasn't in great shape when we bought the house and a couple of dog accidents made it necessary, and we wanted to get it done early. Since we were planning to paint the entire room, Jake got that done first so that he didn't have to worry about getting paint on the new carpet.  We went with a soft grey on 3 of the walls and a beautiful teal color on the 4th wall as an accent color. This is also the wall that the crib is on.  I originally had planned to do teal if it was a boy, and lavender if it was a girl, but the more I thought about it the more I realized I really just wanted teal and didn't want lavender at all, which had nothing to do with whether or not we were having a girl.  So teal it is.  I love, love, love the color we chose and am so glad that's what we decided to go with. 

  

The carpet we went with is a grey blend and it is so soft and plush.  It's just a mid-level Home Depot brand, but we got a really good pad to go underneath (made from recycled Nike shoes), which made a huge difference. I only wish we'd had it in the budget to re-carpet the whole house!

Now that the bones of the room were set, it was time for furniture.  My parents very graciously gifted us the crib, which we ordered in white.  The nursery is not a very big room, so we chose to do white furniture to help keep the room looking open and bright. 

Our dresser was another gift-from a local radio station.  We entered a photo contest in the fall and won! All we had to do was submit a picture with a pumpkin and get people to vote for ours.  As a prize, we won a nice gift card to a local baby boutique, Suite Dreams, and a little extra cash.  On top of that, the boutique had a grand reopening sale where they gave out $25 gift cards to the first 50 customers, and offered 15% off store wide.  I was able to find a dresser that was the exact style I was looking for-on clearance-and walked out with it paying only $37.  What a steal!

Just before Ethan was born I finally had the chance to complete the crib skirt-a project I had been wanting to do for months, but never had the time (or fabric) to get it done. I finished it the weekend before Ethan was born. Oddly enough, I had quipped that I should have waited to work on it until the next weekend when Jake was supposed to be in Vegas, so I'd have something to do while he was gone.  I'm glad that I didn't wait!

For my birthday, Jake's parents gave me the rocker I had my eye on. I wasn't sure at first if I really needed a rocker in the nursery, or if one would even fit, but this one is perfect. I use it every night now that Ethan is fully transitioned to his crib at night. It's comfortable, narrow enough to fit in the space that we had for it, and I just love the chevron pattern. Even better, it has pockets on the side to hold books, burp clothes, nursing pads, or whatever else I might need. 

After my baby showers, we were able to put the finishing touches on the decorations. 

On his changing table, we have an organizer which holds his diapers, wipes, butt paste, hand sanitizer, bulb syringe, and thermometer.  We also have his Vikings pillow-pet night light that casts stars and the Viking's V on the ceiling in varying colors. We turn it on every night just before bed. 

Above the changing table is a floating shelf that holds his piggy bank, my favorite picture of him from the NICU, his board books, and wooden blocks spelling out his name. We also have a beautiful word collage that was given to us by 2 of my coworkers. 

On the right side of the window, we installed 2 gutter shelves from Target to hold his books. They're not very deep, so they don't hold a lot of books, but I like the look of them. We made sure to hang them somewhat high so that when Ethan becomes mobile, he isn't able to reach them. 

One other thing that we added was a small shelf to hold his overflow of books and humidifier. It's slightly wider than the space where we wanted it to go, but for now it works okay. I think we'll eventually move it to the closet and replace it with a single cube shelf. 

Lastly, we took the door off of the closet to allow more room for the crib and rocking chair so that we didn’t have to worry about having space for door clearance.  Inside we have 2 wire shelves for hanging E’s clothes. They are organized by size and sleeve lengths. I also have some cute elephant bins that I found at the Home Goods store. 

Even though Ethan’s room is on the smaller side, I think we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping it bright and open feeling. There’s plenty of room for his everything and I don’t feel cramped when I’m in there. There’s even enough room on the carpet in front of his crib for him to play!

Until next time, 

~106~ First Mother's Day

I had the honor of celebrating my first Mother's Day this month, and what a special one it has been. I am still in awe of lucky I am to have the most special little boy in life and his daddy by my side. 

I started out the day with baby snuggles and breakfast in bed, which was gift enough for me, but Jake and Ethan went above and beyond and really spoiled me! I got a stainless steal mug that says "world's best Mom in Korean" and a beautiful and personalized snow globe from Ethan, which I can't wait to display proudly in my new classroom.  The rest of the day followed with more snuggles, lots of movies, and more treats than a person should consume in one day-but shh, it's Mother's Day and those calories never count ;) 

The night before, I whipped up a batch of sunflower cupcakes to bring to our Mother's Day celebration at my in-laws house, but Mother Nature had other plans in mind, so they had to wait until the next weekend.

~105~ Ethan: 2 months

Believe it or not, Ethan is now 2 months old! I have no idea how that happened. Time is flying by way.too.fast.

Weight: 9lbs 0oz (59%ile)

Length: 20.25inches (33%ile)
I'm pretty sure he grew, but measuring height of an infant can be a rather tricky thing. His doctor thinks his 1 month measurement was off. 

Eating Habits: At this point he is exclusively breastfeeding, however that will change when I go back to work on May 18 (tear!) and will have to eat from bottles during the day. However, he will still be exclusively fed breastmilk. When E does get a bottle, he's easily knocking back 3oz so we're going to try upping it to 3.5-4oz and see how he does. 

Activities: We're staying awake and alert for most of the day with the occasional nap here or there. We do tummy time daily whether it's on his play mat or our chests. He's getting really good at lifting his head to look around. E's also successfully traveled to MN twice! The first time was to surprise Aunt Lauren for her 30th birthday. This was also the first time mom left Ethan with a babysitter (grandma/grandpa) and that dad was away for more than a night.  The 2nd time was for a wedding and my uncle's memorial.  He was quite the handsome stud!

Favorite Things: Mom and dad making silly faces (at least we think so-still waiting on that social smile), sleeping on mom and dad's chests, and dare I say bath time? We practice splashing the water with our hands and feet and after we're good and clean, we practice swimming (mom helps E float on his back)

Least Favorite things: Diaper changes still and shots :(

~104~Ethan Update: 1month+

I have no idea where the time has gone, but I know it's been a while since I last updated.  

It's hard to believe that Ethan will already 8 weeks old on Friday!

We've been out of the NICU for a little over a month and boy does it feel good! Ethan is doing fantastic and has turned into a great eater and sleeper.  Right now, he's only waking up once, sometimes twice in the middle of the night and going about 4 hours in between feedings.  While I long to have just 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep (I don't even know what that would feel like any more), I am doing surprisingly well with getting a lot less than I did pre-Ethan.  Check back with me after I'm back at work and see if I'm still singing that tune. 

Since coming home, Ethan has had lots of visitors.  My parents came to visit for a few days when we were discharged from the hospital, followed by my best friend, Lauren who also helped me celebrate my 30th (!!) birthday.  Local family and friends have also come over to meet the little guy and graciously brought us dinner as well.  Over Easter weekend, my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew, as well as my grandma came to meet Ethan.  It was a wonderful weekend and one I will remember forever.  We are so lucky to have so many people in our lives who love our little boy as much as we do!

Ethan's 1 month appointment was the following Tuesday.  We really like his pediatrician.  She seemed surprised that he was in the NICU for so long given that he wasn't on oxygen, IV fluids, or having difficulty with the mechanics of eating (sucking, swallowing, breathing).  We were happy to hear that he looked so good considering how early he was, but felt a little perturbed (is that the right word?) that we had to be there for so long when there wasn't a glaring reason for it.  Regardless, we're just happy to be home-healthy and happy!

Ethan's 1 Month Stats

Weight: 6lbs 13oz

Length: 20.25inches

Eating Habits: When you left the hospital, it was 60ml (roughly 2oz) and the pediatrician gave us the go-ahead to up it to 75 (roughly 2.5oz). You tend to eat every 3 hours since that was the schedule you were rigidly set on in the NICU, but you're slowly starting to create you own.  2 nights in a row you ended up going 4 hours in between (we both slept through the 3 hour mark) and the Dr. gave us the okay to stop waking you up to eat!

Activities: You like to lift your head and look at whomever is holding you when laying on their chest.  Everyone has marveled at how strong you are and your ability to hold your head up.  You're still sleeping most of the day, with a few moments of awakeness here or there.  Grandpa Hockenberry jokes that he doesn't think you have eyes because he has yet to see them. 

Favorite Things: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and all of the snacks in between; Laying on mom or dad's chest. 

Least Favorite things: Diaper changes-oh the horror! And bath-time. 

One thing that I do want to note here is that it's difficult to know when exactly Ethan will do all of the things typical babies do at certain age-markers given his premature status.  Even though his actual age is 1 month, it is still almost 2 weeks before my original due date.  So align with this, doctors will take into consideration what they call his corrected, or adjusted age, which right now is 38weeks, 5days gestationally.  This means that for milestones that most babies reach around 1 month old, Ethan  wouldn't be expected to reach them until he's around or even a little more than 2 months old.  However, by the time he reaches 1-2 years old, he should be caught up in his developments with babies who were born full-term. 

Until next "month" (which will really be next week, since I'm posting this so late), I leave you with this.  Seriously, how can you not fall in love with this smile?