Matthew: Eleven Months!

 

Height/Weight: Well, I've been to the doctor twice since his last update thanks to some seriously annoying nursing issues (I'm looking at you mastitis), but he hasn't been since just after his ten-month birthday (although he will likely be going in tomorrow due to a rash that he's had all over his body for nearly a week, so there's that). I daresay that his length is catching up the weight gain he had from nine to ten months, but I guess we'll see for sure about that at his one-year well-visit!

Wearing: Mostly twelve month. Maybe all twelve month? I honestly don't know. When we don't go anywhere 90% of the time it's hard to care about what he's wearing and whether or not it fits. Ironically, his church clothes (we've been doing in-person church with masks and social distancing since about September) are the ones I pay attention to the most, and I'm pretty certain those are all twelve month. And I definitely known we've thrown more than one pair of nine month pants in the "too small" pile in the past few weeks, plus he ripped open a seam on one of his pairs of nine month pajamas the other night because they were too snug #whoops. So I suppose it's probably safe to say he's in twelve month clothes--and still size three diapers.

Eating: Of all the categories I do, this one is consistently the biggest broken record from month to month (and even from kid to kid). I guess we should consider that a compliment to the food we cook? I'm not kidding when I say this kid can pack away some serious food and we've yet to see him bat an eye about something. Don't get me wrong, he definitely still has his favorites--and he'll let you know that you are serving the wrong thing by trying to hit it off the spoon (which is definitely not tolerated)--but for the most part he will eat anything and everything. Which maybe explains why nursing has been a bit of a pain lately--he honestly probably isn't all that hungry for milk, and between his water cup and his brothers' water bottles that he is constantly getting his hands on he probably isn't all that thirsty either.

Sleep: Well, if eating is the "broken record" category, this one is definitely the wild card category. Admittedly, for Matthew at least, the majority of the months have been more good than bad (which definitely wasn't the case for his brothers), but it still tends to be all over the place. Naps will be solid but he'll be up multiple times at night (although he hasn't nursed at night in weeks if not months--he'll settle back down without a feeding) or he'll sleep through the night but be a pain for naps. Or he'll be really good on all sleep fronts for like a week but then need someone to sleep in the recliner with him for naps and/or bedtime the following week. It's a total crapshoot. Plus I think this is the area that has suffered most from the pandemic--never before have I had a kid that took a longer nap in the morning than the afternoon, but that's always been because we've been going places in the morning. Since we don't go anywhere though, he's developed a habit of long morning naps, which generally means his afternoon nap (the one that overlaps with Connor!) is crap, which also means he's a pill before bedtime. And it's not even like I can try to make a point to get out of the house even for just a walk every morning to get him that morning catnap like his brothers had because the weather is just garbage this time of year. I suppose my next course of action would be to try to get him to cut his morning nap altogether, but again, since we don't go anywhere, I'm usually just as ready as he is for a nap around 9:00 because I need some sort of a break/change of pace. Oh well. We'll get it figured out. Eventually.

New Stuff: We celebrated his first Thanksgiving in the most unglamorous way possible--not only did we end up cancelling our trip to visit Darrell's family, but then I ended up being in bed all day with mastitis. Super fun. Darrell was a superstar, though, and still ended up making the whole Thanksgiving meal that we had planned (with chicken instead of turkey since it was just the six of us), and Matthew loved every bite of it. Fortunately, he made up for the nursing headaches by starting to say "mama", although I'm not entirely convinced he is saying it with intentional meaning, but whatever. And in the world of "least surprising news ever", Matthew has gotten to be incredibly active the past few months. It's like he has big brothers to keep up with or something. He is climbing on to anything and everything, including the stool in Connor's bathroom (which caused a little bit of a close call one morning when he got up there and grabbed my coffee cup that I set down while helping Connor use the potty. Miraculously he managed to spill it all on the floor and not on himself). He loves balls--or really anything that he can throw easily--and will entertain himself throwing things around and chasing after them (and it's an added bonus when he can get someone to sit and play "catch" with him!). He'll also drive cars around to entertain himself, although he has an amazing knack for playing with the car/toy that Connor needs (aka Connor wants whatever toy Matthew currently has). He gets silly excited when we leave the gate open because he loves to throw stuff down the steps (the bigger and louder the better), and since he actually minds the edge pretty well we tend to oblige him when one of us is around to keep at least half an eye on him. And speaking of getting silly excited about things, he LOVES the dishwasher (which, if I'm not mistaken, has been true of at least one, if not more, of his brothers). He knows the sound of it opening, and I swear he has heard it open from downstairs before and immediately climbed upstairs to get to it. Also, I'm not sure if I'm mentioned this before (and maybe I have because I recall the "Meeko" nickname getting brought up before, but maybe that was for one of his brothers), but he really enjoys putting things into--and taking them out of--containers, including but not limited to garbage cans. We're pretty certain we've sent at least one pacifier to the dump, and who knows what else. Fortunately he also enjoys this game with small toys and mixing bowls, so most of the time we're able to redirect him from the garbage can if we catch it in time. 

I think that about covers it... He did get his second tooth like I anticipated he would last month, and although we've had moments of thinking he was close to cutting another, there's been no signs of anything yet. Which, given all the other nursing headaches we've had, I suppose is a good thing. I generally have mixed feelings about first birthdays, and I had anticipated dreading this one the most since he's our "baby", but with everything that's been going on in the nursing department it's given me at least one silver lining to look forward to in light of his upcoming birthday. As grateful as I am to have been able to nurse my boys for as long as I did, I think I will definitely be ready to be fully done with that aspect of motherhood. 

Photo Every Hour: December 21st

Trying to do better about getting up early... And yet still always snoozing the alarm...

7:00 Reading a quick book before breakfast because why not?

8:00 Someone is unimpressed that I stopped getting his breakfast ready to take this picture

9:00 Getting ready to meet a friend for a walk on this mild day (before winter weather blows in later in the week!)

10:00 Being silly in the car after a very enjoyable--and definitely needed--walk with some adult company for Mom

11:00 Enjoying a little play time before lunch

12:00 Matthew, again, is not impressed about having to wait for his food while I take a picture

1:00 What shall Mom have for lunch??

2:00 It may not be as "civic" as a duty as voting, but I consider donating blood an important responsibility nonetheless!

3:00 Running a few quick errands after school

4:00 Seriously Mom!! Enough with the camera business and just feed me!!

5:00 Garrett has been LOVING this air dry clay set he got from Darrell's parents for Christmas

6:00 There's a 90% chance that I haven't started eating yet #momlife (but at least Matthew was fully fed before I snapped the picture!) 

7:00 A quick run to the toy store before snack time to pick up the LAST gift for the boys. Now to finish the wrapping (but not until Christmas Eve, of course)

8:00 Getting ready to spoil the boys' teachers

9:00 Done. And trying to ignore the rest of my to-do list so I can enjoy some couch time with Darrell

10:00 Why yes, we eat the chips right out of the bag #dontjudge #bedtimesnack

 

Matthew: Ten Months!

I spy a little something white in his mouth! 

Height/Weight: Thanks to an unplanned doctor's visit a few days after he was 10 months old (thankyouverymuch teething and/thrush for the intense nursing problems), I can pretty accurately say that his weight is up to 19lbs 7oz, which is almost a full pound heavier than he was at nine months. Some people might think the numbers are inaccurate, especially considering they used a different scale than they normally do, but I say that if you watch this kid eat for even just one meal you wouldn't doubt that weight gain in the least. They didn't check his height, though, but if I had to guess I would say it hasn't increased at quite the same rate because I haven't really noticed issues with his pants being too short all of the sudden.

Wearing: Still going strong in the size three diapers. I could probably move him up to size four diapers without any issues, but I just bought another large box of size three (because they were more economical than the size four!), so at the very least he'll be wearing those until they are gone. He's still hanging out in between 6-9 and 9-12 month clothing, although there has been more than one occasion as of late where I've put him in a 6-9 month outfit and deemed it his "last go" in that outfit, so I think the days of 6-9 month clothing are slowly becoming numbered. 

Eating: Well. If there was ever any doubt that I was going to need to go back to work at some point to pay for the grocery bill for this house, this kid has pretty much sealed that deal. He has started to exclusively eat what we are eating for dinner, and for the most part eats whatever leftovers are in the fridge for lunch, and he LOVES it. All of it. On more than one occasion Darrell has diced up his food for dinner thinking that he's also diced up enough for there to be a lunch portion for Matthew for the next day only to have Matthew eat it ALL for dinner. He gets legit hangry (seriously--soooo hangry) if he doesn't eat every two hours (sometimes he'll stretch it to three hours with a nap, but more often than not he just ends up taking a short nap so he can get food sooner), but we've finally got him in to a meal/snacks/nursing routine that seems to work pretty well and helps to avoid most of the hanger: morning nursing, breakfast, nursing after nap, lunch, nursing after nap, snack, dinner, nursing before bed. Mentally, I do so much better with this kind of schedule and predictability, so even though there's added work in prepping food for him (plus the added cost of feeding the little pig--which we've apparently said enough that Connor has now started to say it whenever we comment on how much Matthew is eating #whoops), I'm not complaining in the least.

Sleeping: Unfortunately, there was no magically switch that flipped between nine and ten months that drastically improved his sleep. BUT--once we got his feeding schedule figured out about halfway through the month (including adding an afternoon snack in lieu of a late-afternoon nap), his sleep hardcore improved. He will still sometimes take his longer nap in the morning, which complicates pickup after school (plus a short afternoon nap almost always means an over-tired and fussy boy by bedtime), but despite all my concerns and reservations we're managing to make a two-nap routine work (it also helps that Darrell is still working from home because there have definitely been days where I have left him sleeping to go pick up his brothers--might as well use the opportunities I've been given, right?)

New Stuff: Not a lot? We celebrated his first Halloween, but thanks to #covid that didn't really amount to anything except an impromptu family rainbow costume to go over to my parent's house so the older boys could get some candy (well, to clarify, it didn't amount to much for Matthew. We had fun activities planned for the older boys including an at-home scavenger hunt and pumpkin carving, but those didn't really amount to much for Matthew). Otherwise he's been gaining a lot more confidence in cruising around furniture and has even stood unassisted for short bursts of time, although he still seems perfectly content to crawl 90% of the time. And I alluded to it in the picture caption, but he cut his first tooth in early November, and although I swore the other bottom one was going to follow close behind it still hasn't quite made an appearance. It's been close though, and has seemed to bother him enough at times that we gave him his first dose of pain medicine in mid-November (truthfully, we haven't been intentionally avoid giving him medicine, but for the most part we've been able to keep him content without medication so we haven't bothered with it. Plus, I kind of think we're both a little bit more tolerant of the cuddles at times because we pretty well know that he'll be our last). I fully expect to be able to add the appearance of another tooth at his next update--and only time will tell what else will happen before then!

Photo Every Hour: November 21st

I'll take it! Sure beats my alarm going off at 615 like it does on weekday mornings

7:00 Awake but not quite ready to wake up

8:00 Getting the weekend started with homemade biscuits for breakfast

9:00 Spending a little time coloring with my favorite five year old

10:00 These boys are never not touching. I've been assured by people who grew up with more than one brother that this is perfectly normal behavior, but seriously. EVERYTHING turns in to a tackle game in this house

11:00 Sneaking away to run a few errands by myself #itsthelittlethings

12:00 Do I reallllly have to go back inside?!?

1:00 Laundry. Again. Always. (I swear this is like the third month in a row I've been doing laundry on the 21st, and no, I'm not planning it that way. There's just always that much laundry to be done)

2:00 Groceries for daaaaayyyys

3:00 Naptime may be over, but someone definitely either got too much or too little sleep

4:00 Snack time for one and the other still having a rough time. It's not easy being three

5:00 Rare footage of all four boys playing together in the same room without someone crying (although I feel compelled to mention that this lasted all of five minutes. Oh well)

6:00 Everyone else is nearly finished eating; I'm just getting ready to start #momlife

7:00 A little belated (as you can see from the clock in the background, ha!) but working on wrapping up our bedtime routine and getting this cutie a full tummy to (hopefully!) last him the whole night

8:00 Dishes and "The Office". Just another night of Darrell living the dream ;-)

9:00 We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a printer that decided to run out of ink in the middle of my attempts to be productive #figures

10:00 Trying to squeeze in a little more productivity while also trying to unwind with a show. And people say moms never take a break

11:00 I should be putting away that last bit of laundry... But instead I'm going to lounge on the bed and scroll through Facebook while Darrell tries to settle Matthew back down #priorities

Still pretty terrible about the whole "going to bed early" thing. It's almost like I don't care enough to actually start doing it 

Matthew: Nine Months!

 I'd been doing so well about getting his posts up at least during the same month as his month-birthday, but that was bound to fail. He's technically still closer to nine months than ten months, so that counts for something, right?

But I don't want to sit still...

Height/Weight: Ah yes. The lovely nine-month well visit and an opportunity for me to see how grossly off my estimates have been. I had been guessing that he was longer than his brothers because his nine-month pants got too short for him reeeeal quick, but at 27.75 inches he's actually dead in the middle (tied with Connor)--which, considering there is all of a one-inch spread between the four boys, doesn't really count for much. They were essentially all the same length at nine months. I was less confident about his weight, which turned out to be a fair assessment because he is neither the heaviest nor the lightest. The spread on weight is a little bit greater--about two pounds exactly (17 lbs 11 oz for William and 19 lbs 10 oz for Connor)--and Matthew was again right in the middle at 18 lbs 11 oz. People tend to remark that Matthew looks the least like his brothers, but he's not showing any indication that he's going to separate himself from his brothers (in one direction or the other) based on size. 

Wearing: I can say with confidence that he is in size three diapers--and that's about the only thing I can confidently say about what he is wearing. It's a crapshoot the rest of the time; sometimes he's in nine month shirts, sometimes he's in a twelve month pajamas, and just on Sunday he wore a six month romper to church (although that will definitely be the last time he wears that). I'm finding that it's a little harder to pull the "too small" clothes out of his closet because I'm packing them up to be sold, not to be saved for another child, but I'm getting over it. 

Eating: I swear, this kid hasn't met a food he doesn't like. Even some of the weirder ones (like beets and spinach) he's eaten pretty readily. I think he's more than ready to start eating some of the table food we're having (including introducing meats and dairy!), and hopefully I can also start to cut down on his nursing sessions since he still nurses five times a day but only about half of those are quality nursing sessions. He's also still nursing once at night, although I think some nights he would gladly take more (but more on that next).

Sleeping: Ugh. Well. It was bound to happen. Sleep was pretty spectacularly awful this last month. He got his first cold at the end of September (and a pretty decent one--the most tell-tale barking cough that any of the boys have had) and had a few nights of just terrible sleep. He generally managed a few hours in his crib, but then needed to be held the rest of the night (partially to alleviate congestion, partially just for comfort). His nights have settled back down at least a little bit--he's rarely up more than three times and generally does okay not being fed at all those wakeups--but his naps have remained pretty terrible. They're super inconsistent, and even if I keep his first nap short his afternoon nap doesn't necessarily go any better. Plus he pretty much always needs a third cat nap before dinner, but he needs to be held for it or he won't sleep (and will then be insufferable the rest of the evening). Honestly, I think the real issue is that I need to put him down later for his second nap, but then it doesn't overlap with Connor's nap as well, plus then I'm guaranteed to have to cut it short in order to pick up the older two from school. So basically lose-lose. And in the meantime, I'm over here just losing my mind over the fact that he won't sleep when I want him to. 

New Stuff: Well, it might just be the poor sleep habits talking, but I can't really think of any big new things from this past month. We have started to notice that he basically only has two volumes--silent or maxed out. His crying has always been loud, but lately his squealing and occasional babbling noises have been equally loud. He's also starting to work some consonant sounds into his babbling, but for the most part no discernable words. And if he's not screaming at/about something, he's really big in to blowing raspberries. Any surface is fair game for getting a raspberry blown on to it, and he doesn't even need to be blowing on to anything--he'll make the noise with his lips whenever the mood strikes him. We're starting to see more of his silly personality, which is super fun--he loves playing peek-a-boo and has started clapping for just about anything, which is pretty much the cutest thing ever. Of course, when he's not being cute and funny he's working on pushing every boundary he can, including climbing up the stairs and on to anything and everything, but I suppose he wouldn't be ours if he wasn't pushing our buttons!

Photo Every Hour: October 21st

Trying to do better about getting up before the boys so I can get some stuff done... But usually I just lay in bed and browse social media

7:00 Paging William, Party of One: Your breakfast is ready!

8:00 Sweet baby smiles after school drop off

9:00 Connor is used to going 100% when he plays with William and Garrett, and bless his heart, sometimes Matthew will tolerate the same wild and crazy behavior. In fact, I daresay he even enjoys it a lot of the time

10:00 When it's too cold to go biking outside (#SoDakweatherisridiculous), you go biking in the garage

11:00 In all fairness, Matthew sometimes invites the rough play because he ALWAYS tries to get in to whatever Connor is playing with instead of just learning to leave him alone

12:00 Listening to this boy read stories to himself is quite possibly one of my most favorite things

1:00 Lunch break!

2:00 Dinner prep because we have plans right away after Darrell gets off work

3:00 Loaded up and bundled up in the car after school (and for the record, we're parked in the garage. I'm not crazy enough to try to take a picture while driving...most of the time)

4:00 Gathering up our painting supplies so we can go paint our pumpkin outside Great Grandpa's window #pandemiclife

5:00 This kid is never not moving. Including while I'm trying to nurse him. He manages some pretty decent acts of contortionism while on the breast, which I don't appreciate in the least

6:00 Working on a puzzle with my favorite seven year old!

7:00 Oof. That hair. It's been a crazy day. Thank goodness it's time to start getting the boys ready for bed

8:00 I generally don't mind cleaning up when it involves putting puzzles together--even if they are "baby" puzzles and not the challenging one William and I have been working on downstairs 

9:00 Some days just call for a long, hot shower before bed...

10:00 Followed up by some reading and a hot toddy

That's a wrap!