Photo Every Hour: June 21st

3:02 AM What a way to kick off Father's Day/Darrell's birthday! Clearly Matthew wanted to get the party started early with a second post-bedtime feeding (which necessitated a diaper change to make sure his clothes would stay dry until morning)

6:39 AM Speaking of keeping pajamas dry.... It's always a fun morning when your two year old climbs into bed to snuggle with you in pee soaked pajamas 

7:00 But look how cute he is! He asked so politely to play this game with Mommy that I just couldn't say no, even though all I really wanted to do was veg out on the couch with a cup of coffee

8:00 The love Garrett has for Matthew is unreal--and sometimes I'm pretty sure Matthew shares the sentiment

9:00 Time for church! It will probably be a rough adjustment to get used to wearing real clothes to church again instead of just pajamas (whenever that time comes...)

10:00 Happy Boy after his mid-morning snack!

11:00 Play time! (And yes--if you are counting there are extra arms/legs/heads. Our neighbors are moving--cue the tears!--so we are trying to soak up as much play time with them as possible before they go)

12:00 This stinker wasn't too happy about taking a picture with Mommy, but we managed to get a pretty decent one

1:00 The boys found my old molecular model building kit from organic chemistry and they think it is an awesome toy. I think it is awesome that my seven year old knows how to build a benzene ring

2:00 Grocery time! I must admit, I'm starting to enjoy my solo trips to the grocery store (although it definitely takes more planning than when I was able to take the boys with me)

3:00 Bubbles + Sprinklers + Neighbors = Perfect Summer Day

4:00 Working on Darrell's birthday dessert #nothingbeatsprocrastination

5:00 Finished up dessert, now time to work on dinner!

6:00 Dinner time is family time

7:00 Daddy's birthday request: Blueberry Dessert Pizza. The boys were a little confused at first with the word "pizza" in the name (they kept thinking it was going to be something we ate for dinner), but they were more than okay with it once we served it (with freshly made whipped cream, of course!)

8:00 This guy. It's Father's Day and his birthday and he's still doing the dishes. My boys have one of the best to set an example for them

9:00 This is my unimpressed face. Someone was not interested in going to bed at bedtime 

10:00 Maybe when Father's Day and your birthday fall on the same day they cancel each other out? After finishing the dishes and doing some other general cleaning, Darrell started tackling additional items on his To-Do List, like editing his full family photo from our beach trip. I figured that I needed to be productive as well, so paid some bills and worked on the budget. At least we were drinking beer?!?

11:00 Time to get ready for bed, and I just had to snap this perfectly "COVID" picture: Darrell's "office" in our master bedroom, complete with three screens (the laptop on the far right is cut off), a thermometer for daily temperature checks, and the "less work more pay" sign that I got him for his birthday (which I honestly ordered back in February before all of this went down and fortunately he went back to working full time hours the day after his birthday so I didn't feel terribly guilty about giving it to him)

Nighty night! 

Matthew: Four Months!

Womp womp. Back to the good ol' photo of the photo preview on the back of Darrell's camera!

Height/Weight: Well, the trend continues. Matthew is not just my youngest baby, but my smallest baby--although not by much. At his four-month well visit (which we got to have in person with only minimal modifications) he weighed in at 14 pounds, 14 ounces, which is roughly half a pound less than the average of his brothers. His height was 25 inches, which is shorter than his brothers, but not by much. Connor was the tallest at four months at just under 25.5 inches.

Wearing: Not surprisingly, he's still got plenty of room in his size two diapers. Which is good, because apparently I mistakenly bought a large box of them when I already had a large box on hand (I blame Darrell for reorganizing our storage room and I didn't know where he had put the diapers). He's also got plenty of room left in his 3-6 month clothes, although per the tag a handful of them are technically the 6-9 month size, but they've definitely shrunk. I suppose passing clothes down through four kids and washing them how many dozens of times eventually causes them to shrink. Go figure.

Eating: Breast milk. From the tap or from the bottle, he isn't too picky. Of course, he prefers for there to be absolutely no distractions around while he is nursing, which is a little difficult with three older brothers, but we've managed. I'm lucky to get a three-hour gap between nursing sessions during the day, but he's typically up only once at night, so I guess I won't complain too much.

Sleeping:Well, his sleep definitely hasn't improved--but it has already been pretty good, so given the age he is at I don't really expect there to be too much improvement. We did have a little bit of a setback just before he turned four months (a couple of nights where he was up every couple of hours and would only sleep if we held him), but we're hoping it was the four-month sleep regression and that now we're done with that. Most nights he'll stir at least once around ten (after a roughly 8:00 bedtime), but he settles back to sleep until between two and four when he gets up for a feeding. After that he'll sleep until seven or so, and this Mama is grateful for every minute of night time sleep that she gets from this boy. He's started to occasionally give us a long nap during the day, but usually his naps only last for 35-45 minutes. But, he takes them in his crib and with minimal fussing, so again--no complaints here.

New Stuff: Oof. Is it bad that I had to check the calendar to see what--if any--special events occurred this past month? And don't even try to blame it on #fourthchildproblems--this is absolutely a result of #quarantinelife. Regardless--the calendar reminded me that Matthew did get to help me celebrate my first Mother's Day with my four sweet boys! It was as lovely as a day as we could have in quarantine, and Darrell even picked up on my not-so-subtle hint to get me the "Friends"-inspired "Mother's Day 2020: The One Where We Were Quarantined" mug. Anyway. I digress from Matthew. We (still!) haven't really gone anywhere or done anything, so no new stuff in that regard, but developmentally he is a totally different child (or at least it seems that way some days). He's really started getting in to playing with toys, which means he can occupy himself in his exersaucer for at least a little bit (and honestly, his play time in there is usually ended by one of his big brothers--cough Garrett cough--before he actually starts to fuss about being in there). His favorite toys are anything he can get in to his mouth (including his toes! The toe sucking is seriously out of control--I usually have to force his feet out of his hands in order to get a diaper change) and as a not-at-all surprising result he needs an outfit change at least once (but usually two or three) times a day.

On May 11th--with no witnesses--Matthew rolled from back to front for the first time (he's got the front to back well under control). Darrell swears he placed Matthew on his back, walked away, and then looked over a few minutes later and Matthew was on his tummy (and no, his older brothers didn't do it--they were at the table waiting for a snack). Prior to this, we had no indication that he was close to rolling over because he had never really rolled to his side, but apparently it happened (and for this reason alone I am glad we have had his arms out of his swaddle for at least the past three weeks--the prospect of his first "back to front" roll occurring while he was fully swaddled in bed is a little terrifying). For the next few weeks we desperately tried to get him to repeat the feat, but he would readily roll to his side and then stop. There were many times he would get his hips all the way turned so that tops of both of his legs were on the ground (hopefully that makes sense...) but he wouldn't quite get his upper body turned. So while I believe Darrell that the "first time" happened, it definitely seems to have been a fluke.

The only other thing I can think to mention is his spitting up. Constantly. If he isn't needing an outfit change from drooling it's because he has spat up all over his clothes. And it's a rarity for me to make it through the day without an outfit change. We've dealt with this with pretty much all the boys, and while we've asked our pediatrician about it on more than one occasion, Matthew has been our first child to "show off" his proliferation for spitting up while at the doctor's office. Let's just say that our pediatrician actually made the comment that he's glad his office floors are laminate and not carpet like they were at his previous practice. But--like his brothers--his spitting up was diagnosed as a laundry problem and not a health problem because he is a "happy" spitter and still putting on weight at a reasonable rate despite the amount of milk that he projectiles out of his mouth. So I guess that's a good thing? All I know is that I'll be glad when I don't have to keep a minimum of three burp rags stationed throughout the house to clean up the messes he makes--although I'm sure that with four boys I'll probably never outgrow the need to keep easily accessible rags stationed throughout the house to clean up inevitable messes!

Photo Every Hour: May 21st

So even though it's technically still quarantine because people are still being encouraged to stay home and places are closed/offering modified services, it doesn't feel as much like quarantine because the weather has been better and places are slowly starting to open up and William is done with 1st grade (as of yesterday!) which I suppose technically makes it summer break although it doesn't feel like summer break because all the summer activities we'd usually do and places we'd usually visit aren't open so it pretty much still feels like quarantine and I don't even know how I'm supposed to feel anymore or what I'm supposed to do and every day just kind of feels like a blur....

12:39 AM A little early for this kiddo to be up for his night time feeding... We'll see how this goes...

5:56 AM Up a little early, as I suspected. A this is a little too early to start our day. Fortunately he settled back to sleep pretty easily and Mama was able to get a little more rest too 

7:00 Fed and ready to start the day!

8:00 Big brothers watching their morning show

9:00 Trying to be productive while Matthew gets a little nap in

10:00 Taking advantage of a rare long nap from Matthew (of course, this was short lived and I'm pretty sure I didn't even finish that cup of coffee before needing to reheat it, but at least I got a few minutes of reading in!)

11:00 Thank goodness we can't have any play dates during quarantine. The older boys can destroy this room in no time at all

12:00 They're excited to play outside, I'm excited to have them out of the house for a short bit. It's a win win!

1:00 My lunch date is cuter than your lunch date

2:00 Giving up on drinking my coffee hot and switching to iced coffee. Perfect for enjoying another short break while the other boys are resting and William is playing a game on the iPad (it's called Two Dots if you haven't heard of it. It is awesome and super addicting). 

3:00 Getting ready to get some milk in the nursery (which is where the majority of the nursing now has to take place because he is too distracted to eat when his brothers are around)

4:00 Look at my dear husband starting dinner prep while I get ready to go run a quick errand

5:00 Outside play before dinner....

6:00 ...And more outside play immediately after dinner 

7:00 Reading stories with my boys before snacks (yes, William is reading too, and no, this picture definitely isn't staged. My boys love books)

8:00 I got some strawberry plants from my mom to put in to my garden--and if they actually make it in there it will be more than I got planted last year 

9:00 Seriously. Why is my house always so messy?

10:00 Finally. Cleaned up, popcorn popped, drink in hand, NCIS on the TV. Time to relax

And apparently I was so relaxed I forgot to take a picture at 11:00. Whoops! G'night 

Matthew: Three Months!

Guys, I got sooo close to actually getting this post done in April. So close. And with everything that's been going on lately, I'm not even going to beat myself up over a few days. And as a bonus, I actually have an official edited photo to post with the update! So it's totally worth the extra few days (or, ahem, week).

Height/Weight: Our pediatrician's office has pretty much been closed for the past month (seriously, I think the week we had Matthew's two-month well-visit was one of the last weeks it was open regular hours), plus there isn't a regularly scheduled three-month well-visit anyway, so all stats are totally unofficial. I've been weighing him fairly regularly because I was a little concerned that he was too light at his two-month visit, and by my best guess he is up close to a pound, putting him a little over 13 pounds. He's definitely the lightest of the bunch so far, although his length seems pretty on par with his brothers; Darrell held a tape measure up to him the other day and he was nearly 24 inches, which would make it pretty reasonable that he would hit 25 inches by four months like his brothers.

Wearing: I pulled the trigger on the 3-6 month clothes the week he turned 3 months old. I probably could have gotten another week or two out of some of the 0-3 month stuff, especially the short sleeve onesies and pants (his arms were definitely the first thing to outgrow the 0-3 month clothes), but it was just easier to switch it all. Some of it is definitely still a little baggy, but it's not like we're going anywhere for other people to notice #quarantinelife He;s still rocking the size two diapers with plenty of room to spare.

Eating: Basically all the same as two months--waking up once at night to eat and eating every 2-3 hours during the day. We've gotten a little lazy on keeping up with the bottles, but he took to them so well from the start I'm hoping we won't have any issue re-introducing them.

Sleep: It hasn't been consistent, but we have gotten a few nights where he's dropped his night feeding and slept from (roughly) 8:30 to 6:30 (praise hands!). Of course, I was still up at least once those nights and had to go in and check on him, but such is mom life. Naps are way more inconsistent and usually super short (20-30 minutes tops), which is super frustrating, but we're pretty much doing them all in the crib, so adjusting to that is probably part of the issue (if he's in the Ergo or we're holding him he'll nap for much longer, and on the rare occasions he's in his car seat he'll take a good nap in there as well).

New Stuff: Well, quarantine life has basically meant that his "firsts" are pretty much limited to things we can do around the house, like his first bonfire. We did spend Easter weekend (ah! First Easter! I almost forgot that one--although let's be honest, the celebrations were far from a typical Easter) at the lake and it was nice to get out of the house (and hopefully keep him somewhat adaptable since we don't want him to protest trips in his car seat or "need" to be at home to sleep). With Darrell working from home--and especially with the recent drop to a three-day work week--he is definitely getting more Daddy time than his brothers did at this age, which I think is fun for both of them (Darrell especially since this is almost certainly our last).

Developmentally, he keeps on moving forward--quite literally at times. He is constantly wriggling and squirming, and has even managed to scoot himself forward and rotate himself on his blanket. He's getting really good at holding his head up during tummy time, and he's even rolled from tummy to back a few times, although I think that's mostly because his head is still a little disproportionately large compared to the rest of his body, so when he gets it up high and turned to the side enough gravity just takes over and pulls him onto his back. He has found his hands and they rarely leave his mouth, which means drool is pretty constantly pooled at the nape of his neck. Needless to say he goes through quite a few outfit changes a day. He's still smiling and giggling all the time, and definitely starting to coo, which is fun to hear. His only other notable auditory feat is his burps--this kid seriously sounds like an obnoxious old man when he burps. I can feel the burps starting down in his belly as I'm holding him, and they just erupt out of his mouth. It's actually rather impressive, and I oscillate between being glad that I'm not out in public feeding him for others to be able to hear the burps and wishing I was feeding him out in public so that others could be equally impressed by the burps he is able to produce. Although at this point I'll just be happy to be able to get back out in public and doing our "normal" things (whatever "normal" is going to look after this) that I won't even care what his burps or anything else are like. Circumstances outside of the walls of this house may be unlike anything his brothers (or parents!) have ever seen before, but inside this house he's just a typically three-month old doing typical three-month old stuff and we're just trying to make it from one day to the next. And fortunately, most days he makes that a pretty easy task to accomplish.

Photo Every Hour: April 21st (Quarantine Edition Part Two)

Is anyone really shocked that I'm doing a Quarantine Edition Part Two? The real question at this point is whether or not there will be a Part Three and/or what Part Three will look like since it almost certainly won't be "normal" (although who knows what "normal" will be anymore...)

I forgot to snag a picture at Matthew's 4AM wake up (I'm sure you all miss that picture terribly) and although this is what time my alarm first went off... 

This is what time I actually ended up getting out of bed (can I call that sleeping in? I think I can). Darrell has had his hours cut at work so he is only working three day weeks. Monday and Tuesday are his days off, and while there's a certain element of excitement over regular four day weekends, his PTO won't last forever. 

8:00 Breakfast views. Connor has long been done because he insists on eating immediately after he wakes up, but shortly after the picture he did come back to the table for twosies (and I wonder sometimes why I can't keep my grocery purchases within my budget)

9:00 William working on a gym assignment. He was on a scavenger hunt for certain items, but he was required to "move" in a certain way for each item. This is his army crawl (and please disregard Darrell changing a poopy diaper in the background)

10:00 Fairly accurate representation of our quarantine life: William doing school work on the iPad, Garrett playing with Matthew, and Connor doing who knows what. And everyone in their pajamas. Oh, and a mess all over the place. Cleanliness standards have really deteriorated lately

11:00 Quick, everyone, mad dash to Costco!

12:00 My (fairly typical) Costco haul: Peanut butter, fresh fruit, and pantry/supply items (aka toilet paper). I honestly hate myself a little bit for having bought the toilet paper because we still had at least half a dozen rolls at the house, but people have been such idiots about toilet paper lately that I didn't want to pass it up and then not be able to find any when we actually needed some. And usually I try to pick it up when it is on sale, but let's be honest--with the demand lately that probably isn't going to happen for a good long time

1:00 Trying out the exersaucer for the first time--I think he likes it!

2:00 Snack time!

3:00 Taking advantage of the nice weather and Daddy being home to go out and get some fresh air (and--not pictured--play some disc golf per one of William's PE assignments. They were encouraged to do it at home with buckets and yogurt container lids, but I figured we had the means to do the real thing so why not?:

4:00 A robin decided to build a nest on the light fixture outside our back door. Garrett gave it a partial thumbs up--he thinks the location is nice so we can lift him up to see the eggs, but he isn't too impressed with the execution of the nest 

5:00 Don't get me started on this one and his naps... 

6:00 Fajita night!

7:00 S'more time!

8:00 So grateful to have a husband who helps our around the house....

9:00 So that I can pay the bills and balance the budget (for the record, I'm not sure which one of us got the short end of that stick)

10:00 Updating our letter board with a little NCIS in the background

I forgot to snap a photo before bed, but it's safe to assume lights were out somewhere around 10:45. That's been our pretty standard bedtime lately, and as much as I would love to get to bed earlier it always seems like there is so much that we want to/need to do in the evenings after the kids go to bed that it just isn't possible to get to bed any earlier