Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day weekend got off to a rough start. At 6pm on Friday, Luke started displaying the now oh so familiar signs of an ear infection. He was crying and screaming, inconsolable, resistant to sleep, not eating and had a fever. We were pretty sure he had another ear infection- his 3rd in exactly one month. The timing was particularly bad as my mother was due to arrive that evening to see Luke for the first time since Christmas. Ugh.

My mom and I took Luke to the doctor on Saturday morning- his 4th doctor's visit in one month. Turns out Luke has a perforated eardrum and an outer ear infection. My poor baby. He's on track for needing to get tubes in his ears, that's for sure! So, we are now on our 3rd round of antibiotics in a month. I hope this summer Luke can avoid illness while he's out of daycare. He's sure had his fair share! Little man has literally been sick more than he's been healthy since starting daycare in January. We all need a break.

Fortunately, Luke has seemingly rebounded from this one quickly, and managed to enjoy the weekend with his Grandmother. He even got in some good time with his Pop and Mom-mom too!




I had a very nice first Mother's Day! Luke gave me a framed picture of himself that "he" made at daycare, and then today managed to give me the best present ever- a 2.5 hour nap! That's a record, folks.
And, Daddy, Harley and Luke each gave me a card with some of my favorite candy and a dozen beautiful roses. I love Mother's Day!!!

7 Months!

How can it be that our little man is already 7 months old!?!? As you can see from the pictures, he's starting to look more and more like a little boy and less and less like a baby.

I have not been good about blogging lately, but there haven't really been that many new developments. We battled through yet another ear infection and are very hopeful that he'll make it through the last few weeks of daycare without getting sick. The poor little guy has been sick more than he's been healthy over the past 4 months. This last ear infection was particularly brutal. We had several sleepless nights and 4 days out of daycare. Thank goodness David and I both have flexibility at work!

Luke's now sitting in a high chair. We absolutely love the chair that Aunt Becky gave us. He really likes sitting up at the table. You can see how happy (and big) he looks in the pictures below.

He's still not crawling. Heck, he's not even rolling over. He has rolled over twice but doesn't even try to do it regularly. I'm not complaining. I like my sedentary baby.

We're still experimenting with different foods, but so far no luck. We have been successful at identifying what he doesn't like: avocados, broccoli, green beens, chicken. Pretty much, he doesn't like anything that's not sweet. (He takes after his mom!) I'm going to try peas next. At least they're sort of sweet.

Long time no blog

Well hello again! Yes, I've been a bad blogger. Things have been crazy, and I needed to let something go. Sorry blog:(

The past 3 weeks have been filled with illnesses: a horrible 2 week long cold, an ear infection, and a mysterious rash that developed after the ear infection. Luke has now been sick a total of 7 times since he started daycare. I look forward to a HEALTHY summer. I personally don't know how much more I can take, as I have gotten 6 out of 7 of his bugs. Little man is a trooper, though. Through all of it, he's still been a really happy baby.

Luke had his 6 month check up a few weeks ago and weighed in at a whopping 16 pounds. He's still in the 15th percentile for height (24 inches) and weight. He's growing consistently, so that's what really matters.

My dad came to visit for a few days. He even took care of Luke for an entire day while David and I were at work. So much better than daycare! It was really great to see them together. Luke loves his Granddad! As you can see, we got Luke some shades, and much to our surprise he actually enjoys wearing them! I just love the look on his face in this next picture. It's not the most flattering expression, but funny nonetheless.
Luke officially grew out of his infant tub and is into the inflatable tub. Now bath time is even more fun because there is room for toys!
We are really enjoying Luke's ability to sit! Hopefully the bald spot on the back of his head will finally grow some hair now and the flat spot will fill out:)
We've been trying new foods. He loves applesauce, sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, peaches and cereal. Avocados, though, are not a hit. Check out his reaction in this video:


Finally, a few words about sleeping. I officially resign myself to the fact that my 6.5 month old cannot sleep through the night yet. We have tried the Ferber "crying it out" method twice. The first time, we were on day 3 when the 2 week cold followed by an ear infection followed by a rash hit. We had to abort our mission as it seemed cruel to allow a really sick baby to cry hysterically for hours (because he cries for HOURS). The second time was this past weekend. He woke up at midnight and we let him cry for an hour before he finally fell asleep... for only an hour. He then cried for another hour, slept for an hour, and repeated this pattern until 7am. When I finally went to get him at 7am I discovered- to my horror- that he was covered in red spots. All night long I had been telling myself what the books say- that he was fine and that crying wouldn't hurt him. We had been checking on him through the night but in the dark the spots weren't visible. So, when I finally saw the spots in the morning my guilt was immeasurable. Now, it turns out the spots aren't a big deal but I didn't know that that morning! The point is, I give up on the crying it out method. I'm just going to let it ride for a while and keep getting up to feed him in the middle of the night. At least for now. I haven't had a good night's sleep in longer than I can even remember so what's another month or two? Ha. That must be the sleep deprivation talking:)

6 Months!

I cannot even believe that my baby is 6 months old!! Unfortunately, he had to celebrate most of his half-birthday in daycare. I left work a bit earlier than usual today to pick him up early. However, when I got there he was 15 minutes into a nap. For a while now I've been wanting to be right there when he wakes up from a nap at daycare, so I finally had my chance. For 20 minutes, I sat on the floor next to Luke's bed and watched him sleep. When he finally woke up and saw me, he had the biggest smile on his face. It was awesome. I don't know if it registered as strange with him that I was there (he always smiles when seeing me after a nap), but I'd like to believe that he thought it was a neat surprise!

I don't think you can see it in the pictures, but Luke's eyes are now... BROWN. Surely this has to mean that his hair will be brown (like David's) too! Right?!? I'm shocked at how much his looks have changed in the past 6 months. Pictures of him in the first few weeks now just crack me up. He looked like a little alien baby! Oh, but he was a cutie;)

Sleep hasn't been going so well. Like I said in my last blog, we tried the crying it out method for 4 days, but then Luke got sick so we haven't been as rigorous with it. Our new plan of attack is to feed Luke before we go to bed and see what happens. He's pretty regular with the time that he goes to sleep (7pm) and the time that he ultimately wakes up (6am). I'm not sure we should expect him to sleep and not eat for 11 hours... actually 11.5 since I feed him at 6:30pm. Yes, some babies at 6 months can do this but should I expect Luke to just because others can? He's been pretty good with getting a solid first stretch of sleep, so I've been hesitant to wake him before I go to bed. However, maybe filling his belly at 10pm will allow him to then sleep continuously until 6am. We'll see. This will either be genius or disastrous. Let's hope for the former.

Luke has been a GREAT solid food eater. He's especially cute when he eats apple sauce, because he really likes to taste it. Check it out:

Big night out

Last night Luke had his first ever (paid) babysitter! Brianna, one of Luke's main teachers at school, babysat Luke last night, and David and I had 5 whole hours out and about by ourselves! It was so great knowing that he was in excellent care with someone that knows him well and even better getting out without a car seat in tow. We hit a few places downtown to watch the NCAA tournament games, had a bite to eat and met up with some friends. It felt like old times! Well, until we had to wake up at 5am to care for a baby. In the real old times we would have slept in and then gone out for brunch.

Poor Little Man is sick with a fierce cold. His nose was a faucet today, and by the end of the day he was inconsolable. Now when Luke cries real tears- and lots of them- come out. It's so much harder to see him crying when tears are streaming down his face!! Oh how I miss the newborn "dry" crying. (Wait a minute- no I don't.) Apparently several babies in daycare were sick this week so I'm not surprised. Now David and I are just waiting for it to hit us. (David's only caught one of Luke's illnesses and I've caught 4 so maybe the odds are in my favor this time.)

5 nights ago, after Luke woke up for his 3rd feeding in the middle of the night, David decided that it was time that we let Luke cry it out. (Yep, I'm blaming David. It was his decision.) So, at 4:30am we let Luke cry it out for the first time ever. After about 15 minutes he stopped crying, so David went in his room to make sure he was ok. Not certain if he was asleep or awake, David leaned over his crib. Unfortunately, Luke opened his eyes, saw David, and the crying started right back up. Luke cried for another 35 minutes. Not going to get him was a completely unnatural feeling. It took a lot of effort not to go into his room, pick him up and hold him in my arms. I was so relieved when "morning" finally came, and I could finally feed him. I cannot believe it but I actually missed the middle of the night feedings! Since that first night, Luke has not made it through the entire night yet (so much for your 3 night rule Becky!) but he hasn't had to cry for more than 5 minutes. I'd say that middle of the night feedings are over, but who knows what tonight has in store.... the rules don't apply when he's sick:)

Since our baby is getting to be such a big boy- almost sleeping through the night, almost sitting completely unassisted- we decided to graduate him to a big boy tub. Carrie bought him this great inflatable tub that you put in the bath tub. We tried it out on Saturday, and while he really enjoyed sitting in the tub and playing with bath toys (which won't fit in his infant tub) we found it too hard to wash him since he's not yet sitting well enough. So, we went back to the infant tub. However, we did find a way to utilize his inflatable tub until he's old enough to bathe in it:
It's a great way for Luke to sit in his room without us worrying that he'll fall over! This way, if he falls he has a 4 way bumper.

Finally, the other day David and I were playing "catch" with Luke with a little ball, and he was CRACKING up. He laughed harder and longer than I have ever heard him laugh. Luke had a similar experience at daycare with a bouncing ball. So, David bought him his very own bouncing ball. At first Luke was afraid of it- can you blame him? It's bigger than his head!- but yesterday morning he conquered his fear:

Growing up

The past week has seen 3 new firsts. Before I share them, I just have to show you some new pictures of my precious little guy. I love these pictures. I could just eat him up! (Especially because he was SUPER fussy just moments before and after these pictures were taken. He turned on the charm just for the camera so his audience would think he's an easy baby.)
Still enjoying his tongue curls.
Ok, now on to the firsts.

#1 Luke rolled over for the first time! Last week we had some work done on the house. Because they were working near Luke's room, we set up the pack n' play in the sunroom so Luke could nap away from the noise. Naps did not come easy that day given the commotion. I finally put Luke down in the pack n' play and let him cry it out for about 10 minutes. When he stopped crying, I went in to check on him and saw that he had rolled over on his stomach! I was in a pickle: Follow the 'Don't wake a sleeping baby' rule or follow the 'Back is best' rule?!?! You can see which won out. For the record, I stayed within eye sight for the duration of his nap to ensure that he was breathing.
#2 Luke and Daddy have discovered the swing. David first put Luke in a swing while we were in the mountains, and since the trip David has taken Luke to the park up the street a few times. The other day Luke was swinging next to a 2 year old who, as David tells me, wasn't swinging nearly as high as Luke. David was very proud. Clearly, Little Man enjoys the thrill.
#3 I saved the best for last. Luke is now able to sit on his own for about 15-30 seconds! I am so excited for the freedom this will buy us. Here's a quick video of him in action.

Mountain Man

Last weekend we spent 3 wonderful days in the mountains outside of Brevard, NC with my sisters and their families. We completely lucked out with the weather, scoring temperatures in the 70's! We had 3 fantastic days. We went for hikes, canoed and paddle boated on a lake, played cards and games, ate a lot of great food, played ping-pong and Wii, spent an afternoon in Brevard, and still managed to squeeze in a lot of relaxation.

Luke spent a lot of quality time with his cousins, aunts and uncles. Here he is the first morning with Gabby and Leah. (Gabby's bedhead is quite impressive!)
Aunt Becky and Leah fed Luke some solid food. Becky even got him to like carrots!

Luke's cutting a tooth, so while in town to buy toothbrushes and firewood Daddy bought him a new, soft chew toy to help with the process.

During the trip, Luke discovered his tongue. His ability to curl just the tip is very impressive indeed!



Here are Luke and David enjoying a lazy morning in bed. Luke did well sleeping in the pack n' play. We're thankful that he sticks to the same night time routine while away from home. (We'd be even more thankful if he'd sleep through the night!!)
Olivia got some time with Luke.
And Leah was never far from his side!
On Saturday, the crew (minus David, who hit the golf course instead) headed down the mountain to Brevard. We had lunch at a soda shop (delicious milkshakes!) and then did some shopping at a great toy store. It was my first time in a toy store since Luke was born, and it felt really great to buy my son a few toys actually knowing what he likes!

The house where we stayed has great views! Here's some shots from the deck.


The hot tub was broken until the very last day. Even though we had to be out of the house by 10am, the kids still found some time to take a dip.


It was a fantastic long weekend. It is so wonderful to see Luke with his cousins. How many days until we go to the beach??