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!

Matthew: Eight Months!

Yes, his tongue is out. Again

Height/Weight: Nothing official (which means no doctor's visits--yay!) but I feel like he's longer than his brothers. Not necessarily heavier, but he's definitely no bean pole. I'm very curious to see what his stats are next month at his well visit (we got the first round of his flu shot at Connor's well visit a few weeks ago and I was secretly hoping they'd take his height and weight there, but no such luck).

Wearing: Still rocking the size three diapers. I've started buying some size four diapers, but I'm sure as heck finishing off all the size three diapers (however many there are) before I make the switch. He's fully in 6-9 month clothing, although for one-piece items (like rompers and some pajamas) I've needed to move up to 12 month items so they aren't too short.

Eating: Plenty of solid food, plenty of Mama's milk. He still nurses five times a day (morning, after each of his three naps, and before bed), and about 70% of the time he nurses once at night, but rarely--if ever--more than that. He's also eating three meals a day of solid food, and pretty well loving every minute of it. We're pretty much only doing single-food purees (with the introduction of a new food every four days), and honestly, he doesn't get a ton of variety beyond the new food because we haven't done a very good job of keeping his puree options well-stocked. However, he is loving finger foods, so we've been giving him some of the vegetable sides that we're eating (like sweet potatoes and green beans), and those are generally seasoned, so he's at least getting a little more variety that way. 

Sleeping: Another month, and no major sleep complaints. Something just doesn't feel right... I can only assume I'll have it coming for me when this kid is a toddler. We're into a pretty solid three-nap routine, and he has started to stretch the afternoon nap out a little longer (even a few days where he's matched Connor's two hour nap!), so that's been nice. We had a glimpse one day of what a two-nap day might look like, and honestly, it wasn't pretty. I'm trying not to stress out about it too much and just enjoy the "comfortable" routine we have now, but honestly, I have no idea how we'll make a two-nap day work with school pick up at 2:45. Maybe we'll just go from three naps to one nap?!? That's doable, right?!? Night time has been pretty good as well; as I mentioned earlier he still gets up to nurse the majority of the time, but he goes back to bed really easily (even after a diaper change). He occasionally wakes up around 5AM, which is not acceptable behavior in this house, but if one of us sits with him he'll usually sleep until his normal 6:45-7:15 wake up time. 

New Stuff: Well, it didn't take long for him to get from army crawling to hands and knees crawling--and he was equally quick to figure out how to get to a seated position from a crawling position. His brothers aren't exactly loving his mobility and ability to get in to anything and everything, but they are equally his biggest cheerleaders. The first few days he started hands and knees crawling they all got so excited every time he did it and gave him the biggest cheers. He is also pulling himself up on EVERYTHING, so we've had to reevaluate which of our "bigger" toys can be left out because some of them are a bit of a toppling risk when he tries to pull himself up. And--for what I am pretty sure is the first time--we actually got his crib mattress lowered BEFORE he started pulling himself up in his crib! I think with the other boys it always took an "oh crap" moment where we saw them standing in the crib (and in major risk of leaning too far forward and toppling out) before we remembered to lower it (and I know for at least one boy that moment happened around 9:00 at night). The biggest downside to his obsession with pulling himself up, though, is that he can't sit himself back down yet. Not a huge issue during the day, but in his crib, well, that's a different story. I'm convinced he would sleep through the night more often if he could get back down on his own--plus when he's tired in his crib he has a hard time laying back down from a seated position, so he'll get "stuck" that way too. Honestly, though, it isn't a major enough of an issue that I'd even consider it a complaint; it's just the reality of the phase that we're going through, and after raising three boys through this stage I can finally recognize that without stressing over the negative (and mostly minor) impacts this phase has on my life. 

A few other, smaller, new things: in mid-September, Matthew got to join us on Connor's birthday outing (a special Mom-Dad-Birthday Boy date), and Connor chose an indoor swimming pool for his outing, which I think Matthew might have loved just as much as Connor did. The pool has a warm water area, which also happens to be zero-entry, so Matthew could just sit and splash and crawl around in ankle deep water and he was in heaven. Additionally, he has tolerated the first month of having TWO big brothers in school pretty well and doesn't usually fuss terribly about pick ups and drop offs (although right now we're still parking and getting out; we'll see if his tolerance changes when he has to sit idly in the car once we start doing the pick up line this winter). He took his first family trip to the Apple Orchard, which ended up being terribly anti-climatic because due to some bad storms last year and a rough drought this summer, selection was super limited and we didn't even get to do a tractor ride. Equally anti-climatic were his first few Vikings games--it's starting to look like he might be a bad-luck charm, but at least he's a cute bad-luck charm (and his brothers aren't half-bad either!)

Photo Every Hour: September 21st

Slowly (slowly) working on getting up earlier than the boys so our mornings aren't quite as chaotic

7:00 In the blink of an eye we go from four boys...

8:00 To two. And I'll be honest, I hadn't realized how burned out I was getting from quarantine until the older two started school All of the sudden it was like I could breathe during the day and it has been pretty darn magical

9:00 Plus with two fewer boys to worry about I get to focus on this cutie more! What's not to love?!?

10:00 Trying to squeeze in a few chapters of the book that I'm supposed to have read by Sunday #procrastinationatitsfinest

11:00 Playtime while Mama gets lunch ready

12:00 Work from home perk--Daddy gets to occasionally help out with lunch/naps if he doesn't have meetings. I'm not sure who loves these moments most

1:00 Lunch in the microwave, two boys napping, and mindless social media on the iPad. These mid-day breaks are definitely spoiling me a little bit

2:00 But it's not all "mindless" time! I've been trying to get better at incorporating some fitness into my "free" time while the boys are napping

3:00 Library time!

4:00 The boys found our old Mario Brothers game for the Wii and they've been straight-up obsessed. We don't give them nearly enough technology time for the amount of time they want to spend playing the game

5:00 Just in case any one needed some proof that he isn't always a happy baby. Diaper changes are not his jam--he's either fussing or trying his hardest to crawl away

6:00 Typical Mom Life--I'm the last one at the table eating because I spent the majority of the meal time taking care of others (in this case, feeding Matthew)

7:00 Bedtime for the baby!

8:00 Bedtime for the oldest two! (well, technically, bedtime for the oldest three, Connor just isn't pictured because he's upstairs with Darrell)

9:00 Working on Connor's three-year blog post so I can hopefully get this "Photo Every Hour" post up with some timeliness (and then in turn get Matthew's eight-month blog post up within a reasonable time frame)

10:00 Making some watermelon sorbet! 

11:00 School in the time of COVID--both boys bring a device home each night in the event the class/school needs to move to remote learning on short notice. We don't really let them use their devices at home (#meanparents), although William does occasionally have homework, but we do need to make sure they charge them every night because they use them frequently in their classroom so they are familiar with the apps and programs that will be used in the event of a closure

We aren't doing too hot on the "getting to bed at a decent time" thing. Probably why I'm still having a hard time waking up early in the mornings