Lenore at 16 Months

16 Months Old

Today is Lenore's 16 month birthday, and it dawned on me the other evening that she normally would have to celebrate such an occasion on March 1. Today is Leap Day!

We started the day/week out at the pediatrician's office this morning. I was on the fence about whether to take her in, once I realized her thick, yellow-greenish snot has been around for two weeks. I decided to take her, and it turns out it's just a cold. :( Her ears had a little bit of fluid but no pus, and a strep test came back negative. The doctor said since it's been so long, we could try antibiotics for a sinus infection, but I decided to just wait it out and see if we can clear her up with saline and the NoseFrida (snot sucker). Unfortunately we had to wait in the room for an hour before seeing the doctor, so it's kind of a crummy way to start our week, but oh well.

She weighed 26.5 pounds [75th-90th percentile] and was 31.5 inches tall [50th to 75th percentile] this morning.

What she's been up to:

• She's had this runny nose for a few weeks now, and before that, she was in a lot of teething pain. I still haven't seen any new teeth, but they're apparently on their way. Must be those terrible, awful molars coming through.
• She is sleeping well (probably from feeling crummy). She's still going between one to two naps a day, depending on the day. If we have to pick Lewis up at 12, I keep her up until after lunch. On days when he stays until 2, she'll take a mid-morning nap that is usually 10:30-1:30ish, and that's it for the day. If her morning nap lasts 3 hours, that's all we'll do, but she's had a few days of napping 1 1/2 hours in the morning and again in the afternoon. She is clear with communicating her napping needs, way more so than Lewis ever was.
• Her appetite has been a little puny from the snot, but she continues to eat pretty well. She HAS started to throw food on the ground once she's finished, which is super annoying. She has also started gagging herself at mealtimes, which I remember Lewis doing as well. I haven't seen her do it since last week, so hopefully she's forgotten about it.
• At certain times of the day, she might point to a banana, go to the pantry and grabs raisins and bread, and wants in the fridge. All at once, in that moment, she wants it all (though she rarely eats much of it, she is very demanding). She eats way more than Lewis does, overall, though he drinks milk and she still doesn't. 
• She's getting better at feeding herself with a spoon. She's got the scooping part down pretty well, but then she flips the spoon over and dumps out its contents half of the time. She's getting there, though.
• I might have said this last month--she loves to pick up little pieces of trash, dog hair, etc. around the house and take them to the trash. She loves to 'clean up' with a wash cloth or paper towel--she'll wipe her face and her body, wipe off her high chair, clean the floor. 
• She is back to waving. The other day, I was at the computer and she was playing next to me (we were by the front window), and I saw that Kevin was pulling in the driveway. I said, 'Who is here?' She looked out the window and started full-body waving like crazy, saying 'Dadadadadada!' The cutest thing.
• She doesn't say much beyond an occasional Dada, Bubba, or Mama. She has started trying to say Peter and Hattie--she'll point to one and say 'Buttah' for Peter or '___' for Hattie (I forget). She's got shrieking down pat. Otherwise, she gets around pointing and grunting at us. Oh, she also says 'woof' when reading one of her peek-a-boo books. Two cute, little 'boof boof' and that's it. 
• She looooves to play outside. I keep having to wipe down her shoes because they're constantly covered in mud. Or her socks or pajama feet. I did find some outdoor shoes for her over the weekend, so we'll try to keep those as the designated muddy shoes. I'm definitely looking forward to consistently nicer weather because Mama loves being outside, too!
• In clothing, she is still wearing 18 months for the most part (a few sleepers are getting snug). She has a few smaller 24 months/2T pieces that are working, too.
• Current Tooth Count: still 12, but I expect some molars to make their grand entrance soon.

Lenore at 3 Months

My pretty girl at 3 months 

And showing her personality at 3 months :)

Lenore is 3 months old now and is a very sweet baby girl. No doctor's appointment this month (at least no wellness-checks...hopefully no more sick appointments, either), so I took the measurements myself:

Her stats (percentiles from BabyCenter):

Height: 25 inches (in 90th percentile)
Weight: 16 pounds (above 95th percentile)
Head Size: 16 3/4 inches (between 90th and 95th)

What she's up to this month:

• Sleep has been rough on me. With the sickness of the past few weeks, she's started waking up 2-3 times a night (at like 12:30-2-5 or 1-3:30-6:15), and I've had trouble falling back asleep some nights in between feedings. I put her down between 7 and 7:30pm, and then I've been going to bed shortly thereafter (8 or 8:30pm) to try to get enough, but it's still been rough. I try to get her to stay in bed until at least 6:30am--sometimes she won't go back down after a 5am wake-up, though. I know I'll look back on these days 'one day,' but man. What I wouldn't give for a continuous night of sleep.
• She has the sweetest giggle. That helps. A little. :)
• She is having more 'active' time...in the Jumperoo, on the floor, standing on our laps, etc. She really seems to like to stand.
• I've started trying to do her naps in her crib this week. She was napping in her rock-n-play or her swing up until now, but her naps were only lasting 30 minutes or so. I'm trying to keep her in her crib for at least an hour--it's going well in the mornings and at mid-day, but not so much in the late afternoon. (Update: we're back to napping in the rock-n-play. Still trying to avoid/wean off the swing naps if we can.)
• We've both noticed that she seems more verbal than we ever remember Lewis being at this point. She coos and makes all sorts of noises, like she's ready to talk already.
• Breastfeeding is better than it was, but still not as it should be. I no longer have the toe-curling pain at latch-on, but I do still have a lingering, burning (raw) pain after we're done feeding. She will not take a bottle when we've tried on occasion, which feels very limiting to me. I've been reading about how to get her to take them, and it seems a lot of people say to keep offering bottles-only (no boob) for a day or two, and that she will eventually give into it (and then reintroduce the breast once bottles are established). If I can get my *(&$ together, I can pump and try that, though. I'm just having trouble finding time to do much of anything besides keeping the children out of trouble right now. I also dug out a different brand of bottle we used with Lewis, and a friend might bring a third brand over for me to try out...maybe Lenore is just unsure of the particular design? I had a friend suggest that last week, too. I'm not sure, but I really hope we can get her to take one soon so that I can maybe sleep through a couple of feedings and let someone else take over.
• She is wearing 6 month clothes.

Crazy Busy Life

Phew! Life has gotten so crazy busy this month! I feel like every day has been an uphill battle to some extent, and I'm hoping that things will calm down a little in the next months. I still need to write my Boise post, I realize. I had some free time a few weeks ago and had to wait too long for Dropbox, so the moment passed. I will do my damnedest to get it together, I promise.

After Boise, both kids had colds. Lewis had it worse at first (fever and runny nose), but then Lenore got fussy and snotty (not fevered, though). I ended up taking her in because she had an exceptionally fussy day of only 30 minute naps, and they found that she had a double ear infection! They put her on 10 days of amoxicillin, and by day 7, she was still a fussy pants, so I took her and Lewis in that time to be checked again. Sure enough, they both had double ear infections, so we switched to 5 days of Zithromax and went on our way. The last day of that was last Friday, and I think Lenore is better. Lewis still has a runny nose and cough, so we'll see about him. Needless to say, these past few weeks have been difficult around here.

On top of it all, Kevin got a promotion at work (yay, Kevin), which means he's been working more and has more responsibilities. It is great, but the timing of it has made home life a little challenging at this particular juncture. I haven't been able to get into much of a routine yet, so home-cooked meals have been meager and the house is a bit of a wreck (from the infant stuff + toddler stuff coming together). Sooo, on top of all of that, we've decided to move to a bigger house! Why not just pile it all on at once? New baby? Check. New job? Yes. Move? Why not?! We've clearly lost our minds. I met with a Realtor on Friday, and we are aiming to put it on the market in March. Life definitely won't be calming down anytime soon, but we'll at least have a proper bedroom for my parents and our friends to stay in when they come to visit. And we won't be tripping over toys at every turn if we can get some sort of toy room set-up.

I'll get the 3 month post up this afternoon. I have to wait for Miss Lenore to wake up so I can take her picture and do her measurements.

40+ Weeks: Baby's Been Served

40 Weeks 2 Days with Baby #2

(3 Days Before Induction)

41 Weeks with Lewis

(Day of Induction...2 Days Before Birth)

We are officially into extra time now, and this baby has an eviction plan in place. At my appointment last Friday (my official due date), things remained unchanged, so we moved on to discuss induction. Of course, she wanted to give the baby a chance to come on its own, and she again said I could go to 41 weeks (which is Halloween). She asked if I wanted a Halloween baby, which I do not, so Wednesday (tomorrow) is the day (40 weeks 5 days). She isn't on call anytime in the near future, so we are going to be with one of her partners who she was able to get to cover our case (and his on call day is Wednesday). I've seen, and been induced at, 41 weeks 2 days with Lewis, and who knows if this one would stay put that long if we let him/her. At this point, I feel like no, definitely not...he/she will never, ever be born. Ever. :)

Thankfully, I have had plenty of time to complete everything on my to do list (and then some!). I was feeling sentimental about the end of pregnancy and the end of life with 'just' Lewis, but I am ready now. 

Note: I did just get sad, reading to him at nap time, realizing it would be our last time to do so without also having a baby to tend to. I am not totally jaded/cold-hearted. :)

Lewis and I have a cold, which is great timing. His is worse than mine (and I caught mine from him). He had a fever Thursday, so I called my parents to come down and start their pre-baby stay with us (on Friday). He had to miss school Friday, and he might have to miss tomorrow, too, depending on how he's doing this afternoon after nap. The fever has been off/on since Thursday, along with a cough, runny nose, being hoarse, fussy, puny, etc. I finally took him to the doctor yesterday to make sure it isn't an ear infection, and it is not. The doctor said it's just an upper respiratory thing, but she went ahead and prescribed an antibiotic, in case there is an infection and to try to help it along faster with baby #2's impending arrival. 

Unfortunately, it has affected his sleeping. He woke up at 3:15 Monday morning, rearing to go--I heard him taking off his PJs and opening his drawers to change into comfy clothes, but I was able to go in and sleep with him until a more reasonable 7:30am. This morning was not as nice--he was up at 4am and he (and I) stayed up. Kevin took a while falling back asleep, too, so, we're all a mess, just in time for the new baby! Hooray! I did catch a nap today while my parents took Lew to open gym, and I'll try to (ha!) go to bed early tonight. I guess we have many more sleepless nights ahead, so why not get a head start?

I have some fall festival pictures from the weekend to post, and then the next will be about the new baby! (Finally!)

Memorial Day Weekend

We seem to go through phases where we have no plans (with others) at all, and other times we are really busy. Memorial Day weekend was certainly a busy one--we went up to Indianapolis on Saturday for a baby shower, graduation party, impromptu surprise birthday dinner, and a movie. Then Sunday we had a pool party to attend and had to miss another baby shower back here at home. 

While Saturday was completely exhausting (but fun), Sunday was nice and relaxing. We had a great time and saw a bunch of people over the course of the weekend, so that's always nice:

The Runyons hosted the pool party, and we had a great meal and nice afternoon in the pool. Lewis, Kevin, and I had all had allergy problems the week prior, and Sunday (at the party), Lewis' seemed to turn to something more. He was pretty puny and ended up taking a 2-hour nap during the party. I took him to the doctor on Tuesday, and it turned out he had an ear infection, poor buddy. :( And Kevin had a sinus infection. Antibiotics for everyone! I made it through the whole ordeal with just some allergy headaches, thankfully.

After Lewis woke up and before others were leaving, Don (the host) wanted to get a picture of all of the kids (plus a few adults):

 15 kids, in total!

I think the oldest is Lily (10), and the youngest is little Eliza (1 month).

Lewis had perked up a little after his nap, so we went down to watch the cows eat their dinner. The one in the middle was pretty sweet, but the other two were not so nice.

 Lew thought they were pretty neat, but he kept his distance. He wouldn't pet them, but he wanted me to hold him up to their eye level so he could get a good look. He did crouch down at the fence line to watch one eating grass by our toes.

  GATOR! John Deere!

Probably the highlight of Lew's day. :)

Kevin took a couple of pictures of us driving, hence the action shot. :)

We only did one lap through the yard, and he was 'all done.'

Boise Trip, Part Two

The second half of the trip was kind of dampened by Lewis getting sick. He had sort of a fever on Saturday afternoon/evening, and overnight Saturday he was a sweaty/fevered mess. Emily came over Sunday morning with medicines and snacks, and we decided to take the day 'off' to hang out at the hotel and hopefully let him get better. He was still not 100% the next day, but we decided to go ahead and go to the zoo since it was our last full day there.

Sickly Lewis Pete :(

He had a fever, cough, and runny nose.

We did go over to their house that evening for dinner and some more play time with the chickens:

 Juni and Hamburger Helper, the friendliest one

 Lewis petting Hamburger Helper (Joe named her that...)

The next day, it was onto the zoo!

  Sweet Otis :)

 The coolest giraffe slide!

 I think I tried to get them both to climb on the same animal, but they weren't having it.

It's MY elephant! It's MY gorilla! :) 

Cousins :)

 This one I would caption, 'I want to drive, NO, I want to drive!'

 ALMOST tall enough to reach those pedals. :)

Back at the house on our last evening, Juni and Auntie Schwee taught us how to look for bugs:

 Juni, Lewis, and Drina

 Checking out the chickens one last time

 We learned that the roly-poly bugs like to hide under rocks!

And we've since been looking for bugs at our house. Lewis wasn't really into it last summer, but we spent about an hour outside last week, studying worms, a locust exoskeleton, a dead beetle, etc. I was feeling my nature nerd-ery coming back a little. :)

 Hugs for Otis :)

We had an hour-long first flight from Boise to Denver that went very smoothly. Our flight to Louisville was about 2 1/2 hours, and much to my surprise, Lewis slept THE ENTIRE WAY. This was him, already asleep, as we were taxiing out to the runway, and he slept until we touched down in Louisville. I couldn't believe it. Granted, he was still not feeling well, did not nap the entire week, and didn't sleep as well overnight, either. Regardless, it was amazing.

Sweet dreams, Lew.

It was a great trip, and we can't wait to see them all again soon. :)

'Tis a New Year

 Peter pretty much sums up how I feel on this first day of the new year:

:)

Since he was resting on Kevin's pillow, I made the bed around him so that he could catch a few more zzzs. 

He and Hattie spent a few more nights at the dog hotel, so they're probably extra tired from that. We had a fun couple of days up in Bloomington, but now I feel tired and possibly more sick than I was. The cold is officially at 2 weeks now (for Lewis and I...a few days less for Kevin), and I feel like I might have some flu going on, too.

Lewis slept from around 8pm last night until 9:40am this morning, so I'm not sure if he's also feeling worse, or if he just needs to catch up from missing naps the past few days. His cough is still pretty awful-sounding, so we might have to go to the pediatrician tomorrow.

I'll work on posting pics from our Bloomington trip soon.

Sickly Times are Here Again

Another week, another ear infection. :/ Lew started acting sick again last Friday, and by Sunday he had a horribly deep cough and greenish yellow snot. He seemed a little better by Monday (but we still kept him home from school), and then Tuesday he woke up saying that he had an Ear BooBoo. :( We went back to the pediatrician, and she found that he had another ear infection in his left ear (same as last time). 

Now that he's had two nearly back-to-back, he is on antibiotics again and we have to go back to be rechecked in three weeks to make sure it's gone. The first round of antibiotics caused no side effects whatsoever, but this time they prescribed a different one and it has caused diarrhea. I have a call in this morning to see if we can switch to something else. I also had a bad cough for a few days and now have sinus congestion, so it's been kind of a crummy week.

Monday, however, our day was brightened by a package in the mail from Mamaw Carter! Here are pictures of Lew opening it:

Room on the Broom (book) and Creepy, crawly bugs (in his hand)

m&ms!!! His favorite.

His face says it all. :)

Happy Halloween, Biscuit was the other book

Mom said she has a book about a dog at her house that they read, too. He is obsessed--we read it three times yesterday before nap, and then he slept with it under his head. No joke. He loves the 'puppy dog book.'

After reading the books a few times and eating a few m&ms, we went outside to carve our pumpkin into a Jack-o-Lantern that looks like the one in the puppy dog book:

Look out, Lew has a knife. :)

He had fun tracing the cuts I'd made, but he had no interest in helping me scrape out the guts and seeds. I later roasted the seeds, and they were awesome.

Posing with his pumpkin :)

And again :)

I told him to sit on the step and hold up his book...I guess, technically, he is doing what I said. Just not the step I had in mind. :)

Jack-o-Lantern at night

And during the day

Mom got me the big orange mum, so I added in a couple of yellow ones and a red one to decorate the front porch.

The other side of the porch

I copied the 'Welcome' pumpkin idea from Pinterest, and the gourds and white pumpkins came from our trip to the farm with Tonya and Carlton.

Thanks, Mom, for helping us get into the fall spirit. :) I'm working on Halloween costumes now--Lewis is going to be a race car driver, and Kevin came up with a last-minute idea of he and I being Lew's pit crew. So I'm working on our costumes--we have a fall festival and trunk-or-treat at Lewis' school tomorrow night, so I have to have things finished by then.

That reminds me, another bummer about being sick this week is that Lewis missed school picture day! His class had theirs taken on Tuesday, but thankfully other classes were having theirs taken on Wednesday. We dropped in yesterday, and I think the pictures will be ready next week.

A Very Rainy and Cold Great Pumpkin 10K and Goooo, Cards!

Yesterday morning, Kevin ran a 10K at one of the new parks in town. It was the first race they've hosted, and we could tell right away that there are some kinks to be worked out. We thought we would arrive about 25 minutes before the race, but the only road that led to the parking area was a windy 2-lane road--it was bumper to bumper the whole way and took us over 30 minutes to almost get back to the parking area. Once we were close, they came by and told us to just pull over as far as we could on the road and park there (they ran out of parking spots)!

By that time, it was well past the 9am start time and was raining pretty steadily. I think they delayed the start until 9:30 so that everyone could get to the start line. Anyway, Kevin braved it, rain and all! Lewis and I sat in the car for a little bit before heading out to find the finish line. It was so cold and wet and muddy! Definitely one to remember. :)

The very cold and wet finish line

Go, Dada!

I had an umbrella, and I thought the stroller was pretty well covering Lewis from the rain. However, he kept putting his feet out... :)

There he is!

Go, Kevin! You rock!

Finished!

There was no time for chit chat after the race. Once we got over to him, he said, 'Let's go!' On the walk to the car, he was telling me about the course and revealed that the road we were parked on was actually a part of the course! We thought it would be a mess to get out, but there were enough breaks in the walkers that we were able to whip a three point turnaround and get the heck out of there.

We had just enough time to run home, change out of our rain-soaked clothes (and Kevin showered), and we got our Louisville gear on for the Red and White Basketball Scrimmage:

Coach Pitino before the game (with no zoom!)

Thanks to Kevin being on top of ticket sales, we were in the 2nd row, center court. Totally awesome seats!

This time last year we all went to a UL football game on a Saturday, which Lew sat through in its entirety. The following day we took him to the scrimmage, and I very clearly remember having to leave after like 20 minutes because he was fussing and fighting and making a scene. This time, we went in prepared. :) Our lines of defense were 1) pretzels, 2) yogurt melts, 3) Kevin's phone (to watch a show), and 4) candy. We did slowly use up each trick, and thankfully he made it through the whole game this time! He did get squirrely a few times, but overall I'd give him a big thumbs up. :)

Laying on his seat to look up at the big scoreboard :)

Being a goof with Dada (and not posing for a picture)

Looking for the Ladybirds

The Ladybirds are UL's dance team, and he really liked watching them dance during one of the commercial breaks. He wanted them to come back out (Watch girls dance again?), but they just danced the one time. We did use that as a bit of a bargaining chip, too, by telling him that we needed to stick around to see the girls dance again (which, in our defense, we assumed they would dance more than once!). 

Coach Pitino again and a couple of players

We had another secret weapon--our new friend, Simon, who was sitting in front of us. He was the sweetest boy, and he really helped us out with Lewis a few times. He talked to him, asked him questions, showed him his Nintendo game, showed him a cool UL necklace, etc. By the end, Lew was gently patting him on the back like he would do to a good buddy. :)

That was the best incognito shot I could get of Lewis and Kevin together (sorry, Kevin's head). :)

Yesterday was a busy day. After the game, we attempted (and failed) a nap, so we headed out to get some dinner and run a few errands. This morning I headed to Kate's house for most of the day to hang out, catch up, and do some crafting. Kevin and Lewis stayed back and had a Guys' Day. I have a few pics from their day and my day, so I'll save those for another post. (I still have a few finishing touches to put on my craft projects.)

Unfortunately Lewis is sick again, so I think he's going to have to miss school tomorrow (unless he wakes up a new man). I've heard it will get better as he builds up his immunities, so I'm looking forward to that. :) Maybe he'll be well enough by Tuesday!

Sick Days

I took Lewis to the pediatrician Monday morning after he woke up very warm and snotty and cough-y again. (He clocked in at just about 40 pounds and 40 inches tall.) The doctor found that he had an ear infection in his left ear and strep throat, so I'm glad we went and didn't try to tough it out! He had to miss both days of school this week (M and T) and will miss next week for their fall break, so he'll have plenty of time to get back to 100% and ready to kick some germs' butt yet again.

He has been on antibiotics since Monday, and today he seems to be in much better spirits. He's still a bit on the fussy side, but he is no longer feverish, is much (much!) less snotty, and his appetite has returned. I overheard Kevin asking him what he and Mama were going to do today, and he said, 'Eat pancakes?!' in a very sweet, hopeful voice (we usually only make pancakes on the weekends). I made them this morning and he ate 3-4 small ones, strawberries, and some of his yogurt. That's a lot, compared to the past 4-5 days, so things are looking up.

We did have a pretty good meltdown this morning. We ran to get some dog food and treats, and I picked out a couple of hot dog-shaped cookies for the dogs. Lewis really wanted to hold one, so I let him while we were checking out. At one point, I heard him say, 'Delicious,' and looked over to see that he'd bitten into/tasted the cookie (he didn't actually ingest any, but did get a taste of the icing on it). We finished checking out, loaded the car, and I took the cookie away so that the icing didn't melt all over him. That was it--he started crying and thrashing for 'Hot Doooooog!' as I was buckling him in his seat. He cried through the drive, through a stop for gas, and the rest of the way home. I'd ask him what was wrong, and he'd stop crying momentarily to say 'Hot Doooooog!' No amount of explaining that the cookies were for the dogs was getting through to him--when we got home, I let him give the cookies to Peter and Hattie, and he was fine after that. :) Phew! 

Kevin took a few pictures with his phone from a day last weekend--I'd run to Kroger during Lew's nap, and he'd woken up very upset and wanting Mama. Kevin sent me a text asking if I was going to be home anytime soon, and I arrived home to the two of them sitting on the porch, waiting for me. :) 

Poor Lewis was a hot mess. :)