We’ll be moving into our dream rental unit by the middle of May, hopefully our last rental until we buy. It has the most amazing kitchen and view of the mountains on both sides of the house (along with sunset/sunrise, also over the mountains). We’re completely stoked!
Sadly, it meant saying goodbye to our little kitty, as the new place has a terrible pet policy on top of already being quite pricey. We found a good new family with 5 kids, a cat and two dogs, and their 8-year old daughter was completely in love with him at first sight… it makes me feel better, but I’ve been bawling a good part of today. At the very least he’ll have a lot of new friends that can pamper him all day long. He’s a very loving and family-friendly cat, so I think it’s for the better overall. Still. I loved that little guy.
Oof. Anyway, we’ll be busy with moving business things over the next few weeks, and Logan’s half-birthday is coming up too! We have a doctor’s appointment on the 1st, and I’ll do a formal 6-month update as well as some photos then.
Once we’re moved into the new place, I’ll take some pictures. It is SO pretty. I can’t wait. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this:
It seems like finding time for blogging is currently quite a tough thing. Like any stay at home mother, from the time I get up until the time I go to bed my life is dedicated to my son. Since he’s not mobile yet (though we’re working hard on sitting up), he’s mostly in some way attached to me, which makes getting any kind of work or play done hard.
When he naps, I usually try to help my husband with the business side of things or do stuff like, y’know, cooking, which leaves me all of an hour after I bring the baby to bed at 9:30pm. I try to find some time to read or take some photos outside to practice when the time allows, but it doesn’t happen as often as I’d like.
For some reason, Logan used to nap a lot longer when my husband and I were still alternating sleep schedules and I had a lot more time to, well, do stuff. I kinda miss it, but having more time with my husband is definitely a nice trade-off and the overall better solution. Rarily, but at least sometimes, we have time to do things like these…:
…But with taxes due (we don’t get returns, we have to pay – a lot), and expanding the home business, things have been stressful to say the least. Oh well, things are getting better. We did have our 2-year wedding anniversary and picked up this little guy to celebrate!
We named him Nocturne (nerdy gaming reference) and Logan LOVES him. He’s a 10-week old bombay kitten. I also decided to finally give in and get a jumperoo and it has probably been the best baby purchase I’ve made to date. Logan loves to jump and jump and jump and play with the toys for up to half an hour at a time, and that’s HUGE for him. Normally he gets bored and wants to be picked up or otherwise entertained after 5-10 minutes.
Yep. Loves it.
Since the weather has been getting a lot nicer, I’m making an effort to take Logan out more, so he can discover the world. He hates bright sunlight in his eyes and he hates the cold, but he’s been pretty appreciative of spring so far.
So anyway, that’s what we’ve been up to. Times are busy, but the productive kind. I hope that the stressful phase will alleviate within the next few months, so we can enjoy Logan’s first summer to come!
Emotionally, I am (and have been) pretty much back to normal. I’m a very emotionally stable person and not used to random bouts of crying and all the less than pleasant emotions that early motherhood brought with it and I’m very glad I got through it.
My husband and I have put our sleep schedules back together and I get up at night with the baby, while my husband gets him when he wakes up for the day after 5:30am. This gives me a chance to catch up on sleep I might’ve missed if Logan has a night waking. It’s been working out pretty well since we made the change 2 weeks ago, though Logan has been waking up at night the past 2 nights and been rather crabby too, which always takes a toll on me. Regardless, it is nice to have my husband around again and spend more time together.
I do bring the baby to bed by myself now, which is usually relaxing and easy, but the past two nights has been hard. Even though he’s tired, he just won’t go to bed! I digress. Physically, apart from the sometimes iffy sleep that motherhood brings with it, I feel pretty good.
The scale, as of yesterday, said 137.2, which is about 10-15lbs away from what I ultimately want to get back to. I’d probably be pretty happy at 127. Looking at myself naked is becoming a lot more bearable. I still have a bit of a jelly belly, but it’s much tighter than it was even 2 weeks ago and my shape is definitely coming back.
I feel pretty strong, though I haven’t started a gym routine back up. We’re thinking about it though, we just have to fit it into our schedule and decide to trust the gym daycare service… which I can’t deny I’m a little weary of.
Logan is probably going on 19lbs and my arm strength is definitely better than ever thanks to him. He spends a good part of his days attached to me via the ergo or me holding him, and it’s a pretty good workout. Since the weather has been getting slightly better, we’ve been taking more walks as well, and my husband comes with us now! It’s definitely a nice change of pace.
I’ve also been getting some work from home done, but since getting back into my job would require a full-time time investment and one of us has to be there for the baby, it’s not feasible. My husband has always had the main income and mine was a nice extra, so it makes more sense for him to continue growing his career and me to take a break. I am however consistently trying to improve my photography and want to see if I can take that from a hobby to an income at some point in the future.
So, in short, things are going well! The only thing I’m still working on is my weight, but I’ve been making good improvements on that front. Life with a baby is ever-evolving, of course, and I don’t think I’ll ever have all the answers, but we’re doing the best we can!
My little baby is all grown-up! I know I say that every month… and every month it’s a little more true. This month, he’s developed a huge personality! His interest in the world is neverending, and he’s starting to be weary of strangers. Not long ago, he’d smile at everyone… but now, he merely tolerates other people and shoots them glares, so as long as they don’t get to close. The relationship between him and us parents is flourishing, meanwhile. He shows us that he loves us all the time and is at his happiest when we pick him up and play with him.
He absolutely loves being naked and being tickled, it makes him giggle like crazy. He also really loves playing with toys – his favorites are a music box, a wheel spinny toy and of course Sophie, the Giraffe teether. He passes toys from hand to hand, chomps on them, stares at them and interacts with them (he’ll spin the wheel and push the button on the music box, though not always). His babbling is also getting a lot more distinct (lalala, mama, gaga are some of the more distinguishable sounds) and he’s discovered how to blow raspberries… and doesn’t stop doing it. Ever.
He’s generally very amiable and happy; bad days are pretty rare. He’s a decent napper and currently gets about 8 hours of sleep at night from 10pm to 6/6:30am, then naps every 2 hours for varying amounts of time. He still drools a lot, but we haven’t had any sign of a toothie, and most of the common teething symptoms such as loss of appetite, low grade fever, crankiness, night wakings, etc have disappeared.
His bedtime is slowly becoming earlier and earlier – a month or two ago we were dealing with an 11pm bedtime, and currently we’re at 9:30pm, though I think I might have to make it 9 considering he’s starting to get tired around 8pm. He also tends to skip his late afternoon nap lately, which, if it keeps up, is definitely an indicator that I need to adjust his bedtime a little. He now gives me clear signs of tiredness – he pulls his ears, rubs his eyes and yawns. It’s awfully cute in a kind of sad way.
He’s not doing as well as some babies as far as physical development goes, but I don’t think I have reason to worry just yet. He’s rolled back to front and front to back, but only a few times each and doesn’t show much interest in being a roly poly. He’s not anywhere near crawling, though he still aces tummy time. Instead of trying to move towards toys, he’ll try to pull them to him if possible. And hey, I’m pretty lazy too, so I totally get it.
Still, he’s pretty close to sitting on his own and he does put weight on his legs when we have him “stand”, so I don’t think I have any reason to worry. Everything is on par (I think!), the pediatrician hasn’t mentioned anything to worry about, so I think he just seems faster with his mental development than he does with the physical stuff.
I think he might be developing some stranger anxiety, as he’s stopped smiling at people he doesn’t know and holds on to me pretty fervently when they get too close. He also doesn’t much like being dropped off so mom & dad can have a date night. However, he hasn’t yet cried when we left him at his grandparents and I keep strangers at a distance anyway.
On the whole, he’s just a lot more interactive and it seems that he understands the world a little better. He’s starting to respond when we say “hi” or his name, and every once in a while he’ll try to mimic the “hi”. It’s pretty cute! That’s about all I can think of for his 5-month update, so I’ll be back with my postpartum one soon!
Times are busy, but the productive kind. I hope that the stressful phase will alleviate within the next few months, so we can enjoy Logan’s first summer to come!
