Matthew: Two Months!

Yes, it's another photo of the image from the screen on the back of Darrell's camera. If you're thinking quarantine would be a good time to get things done around the house--like catching up on uploading and editing photos--you'd be wrong. I swear there are fewer hours in the day now than there were pre-quarantine. 

Height/Weight: 12 lbs, 6 oz and 22.5 inches. Roughly a pound lighter and an inch shorter than his brothers at this age--which is enough to have this Mama be a little concerned, even though our pediatrician didn't bat an eye at his stats. I've been doing the super un-official weighing at home to make sure that I'm seeing consistent gains every couple of days and I suppose as long as that is happening I should stop worrying about comparing him to his brothers and just let him be himself (which--let's be honest--I should probably do that regardless).

Wearing: Well, I pulled out his 3-6 month clothes because I *knew* he was going to be needing them by two months (because his brothers did, obviously) and, guess what, we're still rocking pretty much all 0-3 month stuff. Likewise, I started to run out of size one diapers, which was fine, because I *knew* he'd be moving up to size two diapers by two months (because his brothers did, obviously), so when we ran out of size one and slapped on the size two, imagine my surprise when they were a little big. But, we're making do with them because I've been too lazy to get more (plus, you know #quarantine). Fortunately, he isn't prone to explosive blowouts, so the fact that the diapers are perhaps a little big hasn't been a huge issue.

Eating: He eats every 2-3 hours during the day, but he is usually only up once at night(!!), so I'll take it. Plus we introduced a bottle a few weeks ago and he's pretty much taken it like a champ every time. We're continuing to give him a bottle every Saturday and Sunday just to keep him on his A-game, and it seems to be working so far. Granted, we can't exactly go anywhere right now, but when we can, you best believe we will and he'll be darn ready to take that bottle.

Sleep: Well, like I mentioned, he's only waking once at night to eat. It's pretty wonderful... But I honestly still don't feel like I'm getting enough sleep #momlife. We've been able to get him to take probably one nap or so a day in his crib, but generally his best naps are when he is wrapped in his swaddle and laying in the swing. It's not ideal and definitely a short-term solution, but life is pretty much survival mode right now so we're letting it fly. I really don't think there's too much else to say on this front, and honestly, I've probably already said too much and jinxed myself to high heaven. Oh well.

New Stuff: So this is usually the spot where I rattle off all the things we've done as a family over the past month and count it as "new" stuff for Matthew because at only two months old, most everything is still pretty new to him. However, since roughly March 12th, we've been under quarantine due to the Coronavirus. So I guess technically that's "new"--although it entails just being at our house, which is definitely starting to get really old. He did take his first trip to the lake cabin at the end of February for Garrett's birthday party, but other than that it's been a quiet month.

Developmentally, he figured out the smiling thing just shy of six weeks old and has been all over that business ever since. Darrell can even get him to chuckle a little bit and it's pretty wonderful. He's started to pick his head up a little bit during tummy time, but given that his height and weight are in the 30th and 50th percentiles respectively and his head is in the 80th percentile, that is a task that is easier said than done for him. But he's getting there. He's also started to have rather infrequent bowel movements, which isn't inherently concerning, but he spends a solid 12 hours before the poop being super gassy, squirming in apparent discomfort while eating (which makes nursing super fun #not), and sleeping restlessly, and those things make the infrequent bowel movements more of an issue. Our pediatrician recommended him giving him a little bit of apple juice to help get things moving along more smoothly, so we started doing that a few days ago. Unfortunately, it's likely that this is just the way his body is (Connor was the same as an infant, as opposed to both William and Garrett who had multiple dirty diapers a day and way more frequent blowouts), so it's just something we'll all need to get used to. And as long as he keeps flashing those gummy smiles at me on the reg, I think I'll manage just fine forgetting a handful of slightly unpleasant nursing sessions every few days. Because baby smiles just make everything better (including quarantine).

Photo Every Hour: March 21st (Quarantine Edition Part One)

Well, the good news is that since I like to get my posts up in chronological order, the fact that Matthew was born on the 22nd of the month and I take my Photo Every Hour pictures on the 21st means I'll be forced to get these posts up in a timely matter. The bad news is that I don't have anything holding me accountable for getting Matthew's monthly updates posted in a timely manner... Except the next "Photo Every Hour" post nearly a full month later. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Without further ado, welcome to Photo Every Hour #QuarantineEditionPartOne. Because let's be real--this s!%* isn't going to be over by April 21st when I take my next round of photos.

I forgot to take a picture during the feeding (sorry that you missed out on the photo of Matthew's backside), but I'm not even upset when this was his only feeding of the night

Sleeping in, Mom-style

8:00 Time for my first shower of the week #quarantinelife

9:00 Oh, hi empty grocery store shelves. Guess lots of people have decided to use their quarantine time to do some baking. Or, you know, they are probably just hoarding stuff like flour because #panic and #irrationalthinking

10:00 Garrett got some Shrinky Dinks for his birthday and watching them shrink in the oven is apparently awesome

11:00 Apparently I still have to pay the bills in quarantine #lame

12:00 Running a few more errands and soaking up every minute of being out of the house

1:00 I swear I'm not hoarding, this is honestly just (a portion of) how many vegetables I need to buy for a normal week's worth of meals

2:00 Taking a few minutes of R&R while *someone* is supposed to be napping in his swing (but isn't)

3:00 Reason 394,485 why I need so much food in my house--my kids think snacks are appropriate at all hours of the day

4:00 Someone finally fell asleep for his nap--and big(est) brother is entertaining himself with a game of solitaire 

5:00 Game time--I spy with my little eye four boys killing time until dinner!

6:00 Saturdays are for pizza and beer, quarantine or not

7:00 Making smoothies is apparently a very loud process

8:00 The kid is only two months old and he's already giving me attitude #itsgoingtobealong18years 

9:00 Updating the budget to figure out how much money we have to help support small businesses during the quarantine (spoiler--not much #sixpeopleoneincome)

10:00 Still trying to be productive by getting some pictures ready to print off for my grandpa who is stuck in his room in his assisted living facility, but at least I have a drink in my hand and "Friends" on the TV

Quarantine Bedtime is only slightly later than "normal" bedtime--my kids definitely don't understand the concept that they can sleep in if they want to

Matthew: One Month!

Yes, I know, the quality of the picture is terrible. It's a photo of the image on Darrell's camera screen. If I waited to do my post until Darrell got the picture uploaded and edited I'd never get these posts published. Once Darrell gets the picture edited I'll replace this one, but for now consider this your "preview" of the picture to come. Also--how cute is my baby?!? Not to pick favorites or anything, but I'm pretty sure this is the best one-month photo we've gotten of any of the boys (although Connor flipping us the bird in his one-month photo was pretty darn awesome)

Height/Weight: At Matthew's two-week visit, he was *only* weighing in at 9lbs, 8oz. At half a pound over his birth weight, the doctor was more than pleased with that gain, although it's markedly less than most of his brothers had gained at that point. However, at about 3.5 weeks old we did the super official at-home scale method to weigh him, and he clocked in at nearly 12 pounds, which easily puts him on pace to catch up to his brother's weights at two months old. And while we haven't attempted to see how tall he is, we know he is getting taller because all his 0-3 month pants are definitely getting shorter.

Wearing: Nothing new to see here--we used the newborn diapers from the hospital because that's what they provided, otherwise it's been all size one diapers. And we went straight to 0-3 month clothes, some of which were already getting a little snug as he got close to one month old.

Eating: I kind of feel like I could just have copied and pasted the updates from his brothers at one month because seriously, so many things have been exactly the same. Like his brothers, he's a "barracuda" nurser, so he gets in, gets his milk, and is done. The first couple of weeks he probably spent close to 3 hours a day nursing, but that was pretty well down to under two hours by a month old (which is in stark contrast to some kids who spend at least 30 minutes on the breast per nursing session). He pretty consistently eats every two hours during the day, but thankfully he gives us longer stretches than that at night (we've even had a few five hour stretches!)

Sleeping: Is it cliche to say that he sleeps like a baby? When he's sound asleep, he's sound asleep--he can be in his swing with his brothers creating total chaos in the room around him and barely even stir. And, like all babies, he's getting us up two or three times a night to eat (although most nights it's usually just twice, which is awesome). He definitely likes his swaddle (it was pretty much a guaranteed way to calm him down in the hospital), so it's no surprise that he equally likes sleeping while we are holding him, but that's not always doable (although since he's likely my last baby I try to indulge it when I can). Fortunately he has no issue sleeping in his car seat when we are out and about (which, let's face it, is pretty often), he does pretty well in his swing, and nights in his crib haven't been too problematic. So really, no major issues/concerns about sleep. Moving right along then...

New Stuff: Being out of the womb. That pretty much sums up the entirety of his new experiences this past month. So rather than listing basically everything we've done since he was born, I'll just hit on a few fun highlights and some general personality observations.

So, in no particular order, some of the fun "new" things that Matthew has done since being born include going to his first (and then second) Augustana basketball game, attending chimes and choir rehearsals at church with Mommy, having a girls' night at a brewery with Mommy, and going on his first family hike. He's also managed to make it through a few rounds of sickness at the house (including a major one where all of his brothers had fevers and/or were puking in a three-day span) without getting sick himself, so fingers crossed we can keep riding the healthy train until the worst of the flu season is over.

Other fun things to note: Matthew has been a major loose cannon. At the hospital, he peed on Darrell three times, and I silently judged Darrell (because seriously, it's our fourth boy; Darrell should know how to change a diaper without getting peed on). However, the trend continued at home--and we were both getting peed on--plus one time he even pooped before I could get the clean diaper on. Fortunately that only lasted a few weeks; we've been accident free for at least 10 days (minus legitimate blowouts, but there isn't much you can do to prevent those). He's been hit or miss on taking the pacifier, and at night he gets really stubborn and doesn't like to burp, which has made some of the night time awake sessions last longer than I'd like, but I just keep reminding myself that it could be worse. We've been trying to do tummy time daily, although so far it seems like the only thing he cares to do while on tummy time is attempt to suck his thumb, which we definitely want to avoid if for no other reason then we don't want to have to break the habit later. So the tummy time sessions are usually pretty short lived. And honestly, even if we didn't have the concerns over him trying to suck his thumb, the tummy time sessions would probably be short-lived anyway because he has two big brothers who have to constantly be picking him up and holding him and moving him and carrying him. I can't even count how many tantrums Garrett has thrown because he's been told he can't hold Matthew for one reason or another, even though it's rarely been more than two hours since the last time he held Matthew. However, let me make it clear that this is not entirely a complaint--they generally do a really good job of soothing him, so it's a nice break for me to not always be the one who has to go pick him up when he's fussing (of course, as soon as he poops or spits up or if he won't settle down he gets passed over pretty quickly, but I'll take whatever breaks I can get). His youngest big brother, though, is a different story. For the first few weeks, he wanted nothing to do with Matthew. He wouldn't go near him, and wouldn't even go near a parent who was holding him. If, for some reason, he had to refer to Matthew, it was always just "the baby". Fortunately, we've started to see some slow signs of improvement--he's shown interest (on occasion) in knowing where "the baby" is, he's allowed someone to hold him even if they are also holding Matthew, and he's even shown his Lambie (his security "blanket") to Matthew a few times when Matthew has been fussy (he's never actually given Lambie--or anything--to Matthew, but hey, baby steps). Hopefully it won't be long before Connor forgets that he was ever the baby and Matthew will become a normal--and accepted--part of his existence.

One of the most frequent questions we've gotten about Matthew is "Is he a good baby?" While I'm honestly never quite sure how to answer that question (what exactly distinguishes a "good" baby from a "bad" baby?), I can pretty truthfully say that for the most part, Matthew is definitely a good baby. Of course, with three big brothers, he doesn't really have much choice--good baby or bad baby our lives aren't exactly going to slow down for him, so he might as well make himself at home among the chaos and enjoy the ride!

Photo Every Hour: February 21st

My first photo every hour post with four kids! And you know what that means--middle of the night feeding fun (and I actually remembered to document it!)

3:04am Of course, nursing photos are super exciting

5:39am More feeding fun...

Time to get up for the day--although let's be honest, I'm basically still awake from that last feeding session

7:00 Darrell adjusted his work schedule so he can be home longer in the mornings to help me get the boys up and fed before I have to get William to school, and let me tell you, it's been a lifesaver

8:00 My view while I feed Matthew (much more exciting than a picture of Matthew's butt, right?)

9:00 Baby cuddles and coffee--and of course the inevitable second (or sometimes third or fourth) child who is constantly all up in my space

10:00 This is how we make frosting for a birthday cake with a one-month old!

11:00 Reading time before lunch (and I swear, this is totally unstaged. Sometimes my kids are awesome)

12:00 Reading time with Mommy before naps

1:00 Lunch time!

2:00 Matthew actually took a nap at the same time his brothers were having nap time, so I celebrated with a little extra snack and a second cup of coffee

3:00 Play date at a friend's house

4:00 Snack time

5:00 Time to head home--but not before a giant green snake attacks Matthew!

6:00 Time to bake Garrett's birthday cake with my happy little helpers (or really, just one happy helper and two helpless observers--Garrett insisted that since it was his cake he got to "do it all by himself" and his brothers somewhat willing obliged)

7:00 Making an effort to clean up before snack time/bed time

8:00 Okay, I swear I didn't mean to get so many reading pictures in this post. But hey, sometimes that's just what happens, and the book nerd in me totally loves it

9:00 Time for Mama to actually make some progress on the cake without a bunch of little fingers getting in the way

Turns out Mama didn't make too much progress because she went to bed early to try to beat the stomach bug that had been going around the house (spoiler--it didn't quite work)

Garrett: Five Years!

Who is this handsome big kid?!?

Garrett's Birthday Interview
Age: 5
Height: 3 ft, 5 in
Weight: 35 lb, 4 oz

What is your favorite color? Red and Blue
What is your favorite animal? Puppy Dog (No surprise there!)
What is your favorite book? Puppy Dog Books (Shortly after he remembered the name of a specific puppy dog book, "The Perfect Present", although I honestly think he only named that one because he had read it the previous day)
What is your favorite song? Hark the Herald
What is your favorite sport? Football

Hanging at an Augustana football game last fall!

What is your favorite thing to do with Mom? Birthday Outing (I'll just pretend he means all the outings I take him on, not just his singular birthday one)
What is your favorite thing to do with Dad? Cuddle (A little surprising, since most "cuddling" with daddy turns into a tickle-fest. Although maybe that's why it's his favorite...)
What is your favorite thing to do outside? Dig (Seriously. He got some construction trucks for his birthday/Christmas, and while he's made do with using them in the snow, he can't wait to get them out in some sand and dirt)

If I had to guess, I would say fishing is a close second to favorite outdoor activity

Where is your favorite place to go? Pavilion (Same answer as William at five!)
What is your favorite fruit? Cherries (I believe it, although I could justify indulging him more often if they weren't so darn expensive)
What is your favorite vegetable? Sweet Potato (Fortunately, these are generally easy to find for a reasonable price)

He likes them so much he insists on helping Mommy peel them! (Seriously--we had to get him his own peeler. He loves helping out in the kitchen, and most of the time he is legitimately helpful)

What is your favorite cereal? Marshmallow Treasures
What is your favorite treat? Lollipops (Thank goodness we get enough Dum Dum suckers at parades during the summer to last us the whole year)
What is your favorite meal? Jambalaya
What makes you happy? Playing with Mommy and Daddy (Awwww...)
What makes you sad? When everyone is sick and I can't play with them (This is been the story of his life this year. William was sick for something like five days in January, and Connor was sick for another two, plus they all recently took turns being sick over President's Day weekend. It's been fun running an infirmary... Not)
Who are your best friends: Kason and Oriya
What do you want to be when you grow up? Construction worker who works on roads (I'd like to think he could set his sights a little higher than that, but hey, whatever makes him happy!)

I think he'd also make a pretty fine construction worker who built houses--or even the architect who designed the builds!

What was your favorite part about last year? Going to the bowling alley (And thanks to the Kids Bowl Free summer program, we get a whole bunch of trips in during the summer!)
What is one thing you want to do this year? Play with toys (Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure we can arrange that)


Well, here we are. Another five year old. Another kid starting school in the fall. Two years ago when I was worried about William's separation anxiety and how he would adjust to Kindergarten, I would have told you that I wasn't worried at all for when Garrett's turn came around. But now that we're here, I'm not sure how I feel. I can't exactly pinpoint when it started, but he's gotten way more clingy to me, he acts super shy all the time (to the point of not even wanting to answer questions from grandparents; he'll hide behind my leg instead), uses a whiny baby voice most of the time when he actually does talk, and his ability to control his emotions (especially the disappointing ones--like being told no) seems like it has gotten worse. Oh, and he absolutely does not like participating in instructor-led activities (like songs at library story times). So that stuff will be fun for him to figure out in kindergarten. And honestly, even if he navigates those hurdles well, I know the first few weeks will still be rough because he sometimes still struggles in the evening if he doesn't get a nap during the day--so a solid day of kindergarten without even his normal afternoon rest time is sure to leave him exhausted (and prone to acting out). Yay.

While he has never been the "star of the show" during Sunday School performances, he's regressed from at least singing and attempting the actions to this: standing like a statue and hiding out as close to his cousin Jonathan as he can

He did start YMCA camp last summer, which seemed to go well despite some reservations on his end, so at least that's a good sign for kindergarten (although I'm curious to see how this summer goes; I'm a little nervous that it might be worse than last summer!)

A few notable accomplishments from the past year: he figured out how to ride a pedal bike (William got one for his 6th birthday and Garrett had it mastered about as quickly as William did) and he started full-on reading shortly after his 4th birthday (and he is now reading the chapter books William brings home from school!). I'm sure there are tons of other ones, but those are the big ones that come to mind.

Biking boys!

And just a few other notes/observations from the past year. He definitely likes to be silly (see above picture for proof) and enjoys making other people laugh, but sometimes to a fault. Connor will sometimes do things he isn't supposed to do (like throw Legos), but because Connor is laughing and thinks it's funny, Garrett will sometimes join in (and usually escalate the situation to a higher level of wildness), even if he knows it is wrong. On the flip side, if he doesn't join in on Connor's bad behavior, he will try to reprimand Connor for it. And not just a simple telling him to stop; I've heard him threaten Connor with consequences in a full-on parent mode. So we've been working on what is appropriate for a brother to do (remind him that he's breaking the rules and getting Mommy or Daddy if he doesn't listen) versus what is appropriate for a parent to do (set consequences like being sent to his room).

Living his best life at the beach

Enjoying the smoke bombs at the 4th of July

As I mentioned earlier, Garrett has a tendency to have some really big emotions, and I often find myself struggling with how to parent him through those moments, and I think part of that is because he is showing a tendency toward being a right-brained learner, and I am very (very) much a left-brained person. He's really good at coming up with creative solutions to problems (especially if the solution--like moving chairs and climbing on to things--gets him something he wants). He really gets into art activities and loves to free play/free build with things. He is a lover and a nurturer through and through (which I know I've mentioned on probably every single one of his updates). And I know that absolutely none of these things are "negatives", but man, it's been a challenge for me to figure out how to get into that side of my brain so I can do my best to meet him where he is.

Onions making me cry? I'll just wear my sunglasses! Problem solved (well, sort of. The onions still bothered him a little bit)

We took the boys to see my cousin's son perform as Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, and Garrett was totally enthralled the whole time

Who needs building instructions to create awesome block towers?

Still nothing but love for all (and I do mean ALL) his stuffed animals

Happy Birthday Garrett! You may be small in size, but you do life big--you love big, you play big, you fight big, and you give me attitude big (I couldn't get through the whole post without throwing that last little bit in there--you can be plenty sweet but boy when you want to you can be full of sass!). We love you!