10 Months...Michael is on the Move!!!

10 months! This little boy is always moving now! Michael has learned to crawl, although it is a weird little crawl, and loves to explore. He is a happy little boy now that he can move around and is not confined to one area. His already quite the independent boy. Michael's other favorite thing to do is cruise along furniture. Our coffee table and window sills are the perfect height for him. This month we introduced cheese and he loves it. He is definitely an Andrade :) Michael continues to be in the 90th percentile for height and is in the 20th percentile for weight. Who knows where he gets this long lean little body.

Highlights and new things this month:

*Michael loves books and gets upset if you stop reading before he is ready

*Stands up in his crib (his mattress is now on the lowest setting)

*Starting to get better about drinking from a sippy cup)
*Says da da , ma ma, and ba ba

*Claps hands

*Waves bye bye

*Pulls himself up on everything

*Loves when you "chase" him and he tries to crawl away from you and looks back and laughs

*Copies facial expressions and noises (closes eyes when you do, leans head to the side, makes a buzzing sound with lips)

*Raises arms up when we say touchdown

*Crawling

Sorry its been so long!

Wow it has been a long time.....Let me just say it is hard to blog when you have an 8 month old little boy! He keeps me quite busy! These past few months have been very busy. We had a great time in California visiting family and friends for the holidays and I was sad to leave. Michael was spoiled by his grandparents, aunts, and uncles and we had a packed car full of toys on the way back to Texas.

Michael is changing and growing so much everyday. I can't believe that is already 8 months old. The time is really flying by! I got a little sentimental this past weekend as I was packing away some of his clothes that don't fit him anymore. He is getting so big so fast! Michael has been getting teeth like crazy. We are now up to 7! He has four on the top and three on the bottom. Ryan thinks he will have a full set of teeth before he is walking. Luckily we haven't had any problems with the teeth and breastfeeding (I am very thankful for that) so I am still breastfeeding him about six times a day.

He is also a champ at eating solid foods. So far Michael hasn't met a food he didn't like. His foods to date are: carrots, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, apples, bananas, pears, peaches, cheerios, Gerber puffs, mum mums, and we just started chicken. He is pretty good about eating and picking up bites of food so we have just been giving him pieces of chicken to eat instead of the pureed meats, which I think are a little gross. We have also been working hard on the sleeping/napping schedule and it is MUCH better. Michael's routine for bedtime is a bath, lotion and jammies, read a story, I nurse him and then put him down his crib. Usually he will cry for a minute or less and then falls asleep. He usually wakes up once during the night and for now I have been nursing him and then putting him back in his crib. I know this is something I need to break and we are working on it. For naps we are working on getting him to fall asleep on his own and for no we usually rock him before putting him down for a nap.

He loves to stand and can now pull himself from a sitting position using the coffee table or Mommy or Daddy's legs. He is also scooting more but seems to enjoy standing over anything else. I know that once he starts walking or crawling we are always going to be on the go with this little boy. He is so curious and I know he is going to constantly be on the move!

5 Months!!!

I can't believe Michael is already 5 months! It is crazy how fast the time is going...it seems like we were just bringing him home from the hospital. We didn't have a doctors appointment this month so no official stats, but Michael is now wearing 6 month sleepers for the length but is still wearing size 3 month pants and shorts (the 6 month ones are WAY too big for his skinny little waist).

The past few weeks we have had some major sleep struggles. Michael went from waking up only once during the night to waking up 3 - 5 times a night! I was exhausted to say the least. We decided to take Michael to the doctor to make sure there was nothing medically wrong. The doctor told us everything looked fine and to try letting Michael cry for 10 minutes at night, then going in to check on him and soothe him, leave the room and let him cry for 10 more mins, repeating the process until he fell asleep. Well we must have a stubborn child on our hands because this did not work. Michael just became more and more frustrated and upset and so did I! It is hard hearing your baby cry :( I know that it is important to teach your child to fall asleep on their own but I think it is also important to find something that works for you. So I decided to say screw the books and we came up with our own plan.

I went back to nursing Michael to sleep at night and after a few days Michael went back to waking up only once a night and even slept for 7 hours straight the other night! He has actually started pulling away when he is almost asleep while nursing, then I lay him in his crib, pat and soothe him a little and he falls asleep in his crib! This may not seem like much but I think it is a HUGE accomplishment! I know that Michael will be able to fall asleep on his own as time goes on and for now this is what works for us :)

We also started rice cereal this month and Michael loves it! I was preparing for the worst. I have read how some babies do not like it and how the first time you try solids babies may reject it and make a huge mess. Not our Michael...he opened up wide and ate every bite! He didn't even spit any out or make a mess! We now give him about 1 tablespoon of cereal at dinnertime and are going to start giving him a tablespoon at breakfast as well. We will start introducing other solid foods (fruits and veggies) at 6 months. I am looking forward to seeing if Michael keeps up these good eating habits as we try new things.




New Things This Month:

• Rolling over both ways. Anytime Michael is playing on the floor he is constantly rolling back and forth.
• Putting his feet in his mouth
• Laughing when we tickle him...I love this sound :)
• Grabbing for toys and noses, mouths, and hair when people hold him
• Passing toys from one hand to the other
• Sitting up briefly on his own
• Turning towards you when you call his name
  

4 months...It's been awhile!

So I have been terrible at updating this blog. I am going to try and do better :)

Michael is now 4 months old! It is crazy how fast time goes by. At his 4 month appointment he was 27 inches (97th percentile) and 14 pounds (30th percentile). He is a long and lean baby. Michael is rolling over both ways...although less from his back to belly and "talks" all the time. He is also drooling up a storm and by the end of the day his shirts are quite wet. I think he needs to start wearing a bib! He has also started grabbing his feet and trying to put them in his mouth. He puts everything in his mouth these days! It is so fun and exciting to watch him grow and learn everyday :)

Michael has now been to two TCU football games and did a wonderful job at both. He loves cheering for the Horned Frogs!!!

We have been having some sleep problems since Michael started going to daycare...I don't know if he waking up because he is hungry, teething, can't get back to sleep on his own, or something else. Hopefully we will figure it out soon....I am getting very tired :(

Ryan and I also had our first experience with a sick baby. I got a call from Michael's daycare saying that he had thrown up twice and had diarrhea :( I went to pick him up and after a call to the doctor I was instructed to give him pedialyte (1 tsp) every 10 minutes and not to nurse. Thankfully Michael didn't get sick at all once we got home and by the next day he was back to his happy go lucky self.

Chicago...Wedding and Baseball

This past weekend we were in Chicago for Mike and Heather's wedding. We had an amazing time and the wedding was beautiful! I was a little nervous about taking Michael on the airplane but he did a wonderful job and didn't cry on the plane at all! The people sitting around us said they didn't even know a baby was on the flight.

On our first day in Chicago we went to Wrigley Field to see a Cubs game with a bunch of people from the wedding party. We had so much fun and Michael enjoyed the first half of the game and then fell asleep. How he slept through all that noise I have no idea. A guy at the baseball game even gave me the scorecard from the game to put in Michael's baby book to remember his first Cubs game.


On Friday we went to the rehearsal at the Willis Tower (Sears Tower) and rehearsal dinner at Lou Malnati's. The Chicago style deep dish pizza was amazing! While we were at the rehearsal on the 66th floor of the Willis Tower a HUGE storm hit Chicago! The building was swaying and people were being evacuated from the tower. We later found out that windows were shattering on the 40th floor! It was pretty crazy and thankfully the weather cleared up the next day for the wedding.

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous! Heather was a beautiful bride and the ceremony and reception were so much fun. I know that the Buttenobs will have a long and happy marriage :)

Ryan and I were so proud of Michael and thought he did a great job on the trip!

2 Weeks and Then Some....

So I know this is a little late but Michael's 2 week appointment went very well. He weighed 9lbs. up from 8lbs. when we left the hospital. He is 22 inches long and is in the 90th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight. At his next appointment (1 month) he will get the second hepatitis shot and then we will go back at 2 months for the bigger round of shots.

Having Ryan's mom here to help us this past week has been amazing! The extra hands to help are greatly appreciated and we will miss her help when she leaves.

Michael is doing well and we have started him on a schedule that seems to be working out so far for all of us. I have been taking tips from the book Babywise and have him on a three hour schedule. He eats and then has a little bit of "awake time" and then goes down for a nap the last 1 1/2 to 1 hour of the the three hour cycle. Hopefully if things continue to go well we have a little boy that can sleep through the night in a few weeks :) We have been doing more tummy time with Michael and he is already starting to hold his head up....granted it is only for a second but it is exciting to see him growing and learning!

I just made Michael's appointment to be circumcised on Monday, June 14th. The surgeon was not available while he was in the hospital so we had to make an outpatient appointment. I am a little nervous for him and hope he recovers quickly! We are also excited to see Tara and Paul next weekend when they will be in Fort Worth for a wedding and can't wait to go to Chicago to celebrate Mike and Heather's wedding! June is a busy month for the Andrade family!

Here We Go...

So I decided that I should start a blog so all of our friends and family can share in the joy of our precious little boy, Michael. It is hard being in Texas with most of our family and friends in California and I hope that this blog will keep those we love up to date on what is going in our lives.

We have now been home from the hospital for a few days and are getting settled. The first night home was rough but each day things have been getting better and better. Michael is eating every two to three hours and has had a stretch of 4 -5 hours between feedings once a night (hopefully this continues as it as has allowed me to get some much needed sleep). Having my Mom here helping us has been WONDERFUL!!! I can't even explain how amazing she is and I hope that I will be just as good of a mother as she is :) She leaves tomorrow and Ryan and I will have a few days alone until his Mom arrives on Wednesday. We are looking forward to having her here to visit and helping us out.

Michael's first doctor's appointment went very well. He is gaining back some of the weight he lost at the hospital and we will go back for his two week check-up. He has a "birthmark" on the side of his head that we will monitor as the months go on but the doctor said it will probably be something he has for the rest of his life. It is about an inch long and looks kind of like a patch of dry skin. The doctor said that it is something that can be cosmetically removed but she suggested we wait awhile to see how it develops.

I love being a mommy and can't wait to see where life takes our wonderful family. I know it is going to be a crazy ride!