Family Fun (2013)

Note: I am over a year behind on posting. I plan to eventually make books about our life using my blog so I need to get caught up while I have the time (ha!) and I'm off work. So bear with me as I do a little reminiscing. ;)

The day after Thanksgiving 2103, we headed home so we had the weekend to relax and regroup before heading back to work the following Monday.

After the 3+ hour car ride home, we unloaded the car, took showers and freshened up, and then headed up The Hill to my MIL's house for dinner with Kevin's big family.

Kevin's uncle Jim was in town from St. Thomas, Virgin Islands (he lives there) so we wanted to make a point to see him before he made the trek back home.

It was a really fun night. Preslie was the only baby at that point so she got a lot of attention from everyone!

^ Preslie and her Uncle Matthew

Tricks with Uncle Leo!

^ Preslie loves her Aunt Courtney!

Landon at Two Months

Landon turned two months old on Monday, December 1st.

Measurements
Weight: 11 pounds, 9.8 ounces (46th percentile)
Height: 22 inches (41st percentile)
Head circumference: 15 inches (71st percentile)

He's growing right on track!

Appearance
~CHEEKS! He has some pretty kissable, chubby cheeks.

~The hair on the top of his head is starting to grow in pretty thick. I think he'll be hairy like his dad (poor thing - ha!). The rest of his hair never really fell out.
~His eyes seem to be getting lighter. They are kind of a blueish gray.

~Now that he has some meat on him, he has yummy little leg rolls!

Sizes
~At two months Landon is wearing 0-3 month, and 3 month clothes.

^ He was having a chubby day on this day, 

and he wasn't pleased I was taking his picture. ;)

~We finished up the last of his newborn diapers, so he's in a size one diaper now. 

Personality
~The day he turned two months old I was able to catch a purposeful smile on camera for the first time!

~He is a little flirt.

^ Flirting with his Great Grandma Helen!

~When he gets mad, he gets mad really fast and there's no calming him down.
~I think he'll have a passionate personality.
~The crying has let up a lot so that's been a nice reprieve.

  
Likes
~Mama's milkies.
~His bouncy seat that vibrates.

 ~Baths

^ Chins!

~His Mama, Papa and Sissy. He will just stare and stare at Preslie when she's around him.

  
Dislikes
~Naps! This would be the reason I struggle to post just his monthly updates because the kid does not like to sleep during the day.
~Tummy time.
~He's getting a lot better at car rides, but he still has his moments.

Eating
~His eating (at 2 months - he's now 2 1/2 months) was beginning to get frustrating. I had to nurse him in a laid back position because he couldn't handle my forceful letdown. That was just an awkward way to nurse and I didn't enjoy it and Landon always fought it. So I took a little break on the breastfeeding and focused on the bottle for a while. He was still having issues with the bottle until I changed the bottle I was using. Then he started taking the bottle a lot better and was getting nice, full feedings. Each week I try nursing him to see if he can nurse without choking and this week we're finally there! So he's been nursing a lot more as of late. I'm thankful he seems to be a pretty flexible nurser.
~At two months he was eating every three hours during the day and once at night around 2 or 3am.

Sleeping
~As I mentioned before, he does not like naps. I am a proponent of Crying It Out (CIO). I did it with Preslie when I sleep trained her and it worked and she does a great job at self-soothing now. Landon gives CIO a run for it's money. I won't tell you how long I've let him CIO lest you think I'm a horrible person and mother; but Landon wins every time.
~At this point Landon goes down for a nap in his crib two to three times a day and will "nap" 30-45 minutes. I've tried letting him nap in his swing, in his bouncy seat or on the play mat and he won't go longer than 45 minutes. Once he's awake, he's awake.
~HOWEVER! He is an awesome sleeper at night! So I'm done complaining about his no-nap-taking-self. ;)

~I consider "sleeping through the night" to be from the time he goes down (which was about 8:15pm at two months) to any time after 5am the following morning. At two months he had not slept through the night. BUT...he did go a 7 hour stretch a couple times and that was awesome! I'm sure he'll be sleeping through the night soon.
~Which..side note - I don't get why he'll sleep so great at night but he won't during the day. Even at night if he stirs and wakes a little he will fall back to sleep. I do everything the same during the day (crib, swaddle, sound machine, dark room) that I do at night.

Schedule
At two months old, he was still on the same schedule as last month, except I moved his nighttime routine up because I was tired of him crying so much in the evening. So at two months his bath would start at 7:45pm and the rest would follow, and he'd wake between 2-3am for a feeding.

New Experiences
~We went to Grammy and Grampy's house and Landon met his Great Grandma Ruth for the first time!

~This was also his first long road trip and he did surprisingly well!
~Sister decorated him with stickers and he took it like a champ. ;)

~He met his Grandpa Pino for the first time.
~He enjoyed a Sunday brunch with friends and family during the 49er game.

 ~He got in lots of snuggles with Mama.

~He met his cousin Joseph for the first time!

~He had his first set of vaccines and only cried for a few seconds.

~He has discovered his hands and will put his thumb in his mouth when he can find it. I have a feeling we'll have another thumb sucker.

 ~He enjoyed his first Thanksgiving!

 ~He had a nice, long visit at Grammy and Grampy's house after Thanksgiving.

As Landon gets older and does something new each day, it's so fun to see his little personality peek through his newborn-ness!

Landon at One Month

I realize I'm over a half month late posting this. All stats listed below were what he was/doing at one month old (over two weeks ago).

Landon turned one month old on Saturday, November 1st.

Measurements 
We don't see the doctor until he's two months, so these stats are my best guesses...
Weight: 8.5-9 pounds
Height: 20 inches

Landon had a mild case of jaundice once we got home from the hospital. We had to go see the doctor the day after he was discharged from the NICU. Between the time he was weighed in the NICU before he went home and when he was weighed at the doctor's office the next day (which was less than 24 hours) he had already gained 4 ounces! I was pretty proud of that since I was strictly nursing him.

 ^ Looking super orange because of the jaundice. 

The orange onesie doesn't help either. Ha!

Appearance
~We've come to the consensus that Landon looks a lot more like me and my side of the family than he does Kevin. Which I'm okay with. :) Preslie resembles Kevin so much that it's nice to see a little part of me in Landon.
~He has very big eyes and the most perfect lips.

~It's hard to say what color his eyes are at this point.
~He doesn't have a ton of hair, and the hair on the top of his head seems to be falling out so he looks like he has a receding hairline. No bows to cover it up either!

~He scrunches up his forehead a lot and resembles a little old man.
~His right earlobe tends to have a slight bend to it. Hee hee! So it's a bit more noticeable than your average earlobe.
~He is a scrawny little thing. Not much meat on him at this point.

 ^I love this picture!

~At one month his umbilical cord was just about to fall off any day. He held on to that for a while (which grossed me out).

Sizes
~At one month Landon was in all newborn size clothes.
~Newborn size diapers, but we'll be going to size 1 diapers after the last of the newborns are used.

Personality

~He doesn't really have much of a personality yet, since he sleeps most of the time. So far he seems very serious.

~He cries a lot more than Preslie did. Preslie was an unusually good baby though so it's unfair to compare.

Likes
~Milkies, milkies and more milkies!
~He loves to sleep on someone and to be held.

~He likes to be snuggled in soft blankets.

^My favorite guys

~His umbilical cord has yet to fall off so the jury is still out on if he'll like a bath.

Dislikes
~The swing. Landon will tolerate it at random times.

~Being put down. Fun times!
~Tummy time.
~The Miracle Blanket Swaddle. He HATES this with a passion! So we swaddle him "manually" with a regular baby blanket.

Eating
~Landon was taking some formula the first week of his life (along with breast milk) due to being in the NICU and a delay in my milk coming in.
~At one month, he nurses every 2-3 hours. This has taken some getting used to for me. Preslie was bottle fed breast milk so she consumed more at a feeding. With nursing, it's a little easier to let him fall asleep and a little more difficult to tell how much he's getting during a nursing session. It's getting better though.
~We've started giving him a bottle at his bedtime feeding so he can sleep a longer stretch for the first part of the night.
~He can go from bottle to breast and/or paci to breast with no issues.
~I have a forceful letdown and he tends to choke when he nurses, so that's also something we're working on.

Sleeping
~We started Moms On Call at four weeks with Landon, so we were just in the first week of it when Landon turned one month.
~He slept in his crib overnight at four weeks. Prior to that he'd sleep in the cradle by my side of the bed. While in his cradle he would sleep three-hour stretches.

 ^Sister peeking at her baby brother.

~We have one side of his crib raised because he's had some issues with spitting up and we want to make sure he doesn't choke.
~Landon absolutely hates taking a nap in his crib.

 ^First nap in his crib!

~He sleeps swaddled, with a sound machine, in a pitch black room, with the door closed, and the Angel Care Monitor on along with the video monitor so I can see him from our bedroom.

Schedule
~I'm someone who likes a schedule. With Landon, I have been a lot more lax with his schedule, but I still try to keep him on one.

Here's his schedule at one month. It's unusual we actually follow the schedule during the day but in the evening we follow it pretty strictly to keep his bedtime routine consistent. It's rare he goes the full three hours between eating.

6am/7am: Wake and eat
7:30am: Nap 
9am: Eat
9:30am: Play
10am: Nap
12pm: Eat
12:30pm: Play
1pm: Nap
3pm: Eat
3:30pm: Play
4pm: Nap
6pm: Eat
6:30pm: Play
7pm: Nap
8:30pm: Bath
9pm: Eat
9:30pm: Bed
1am/2am: Eat

New Experiences
~Well, for starters...he was born!

~He met a lot of his family members.

^His sister

^His Grampy (my dad)

^His Grammy (my mom)

 ^His Uncle Matthew (my BIL)

 

^His Uncle JJ (my brother)

 ^His Auntie Courtney (my SIL)

He also met Grandma, Great-Grandma Helen, a slew of second aunts, uncles and cousins. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of them all yet.

~He enjoyed his first BBQ at Grandma's house.
~Landon experienced his first Halloween and dressed up as a football!

~He went to the pumpkin patch for the first time.

 

It has been a big adjustment for us all, welcoming Little Lando into our family; but now that he is here we wouldn't have it any other way. We love this sweet miracle baby with everything we have!