BabyM Turns One (Photo Heavy)

On Father's Day weekend we celebrated BabyM's first birthday. We decided to make it a family affair by having a small low key party with just the four of us. I can not believe he is one already. Time truly does fly. I feel like I just had him yesterday.

I kept all of the decorations simple and easy. When Savannah turned one we were living near family and she had a huge party that hit our pockets deep. Call it second baby syndrome but I was more than happy to have this low cost family only party.

To add a special touch to his birthday I took his photos myself. This was my first time ever trying my hand at a real photo shoot. I think his pics turned out great. I was really happy with them. I now understand why you only get about 6-10 shots from a photographer, LOL! I edited the pics using picMonkey. Oh. And taking his pics made me want a DSLR even more. Maybe for Christmas?

During his one year well baby appointment the doctor was pretty pleased with how he's grown. Remember BabyM was born five weeks early?! Look at him now. So big and strong! He talks a lot and is standing up but hasn't decided to walk yet. If he's anything like his sister he'll wait until he's good and ready to walk which could be a couple months from now. (Savannah was 14 months when she decided to walk.)

Speaking of Savannah, here she is serving (and enjoying a lollipop). She has been such a great big sister this past year. She plays so well with her baby brother. Every now and then I do have to remind her to share but other than that I am so happy that she didn't put me through any of the nightmares I hear about toddlers reverting when a new baby comes home. Shout out to Sav for being such a big girl!

How do you think my pics turned out? Any photographers have tips for me?

The Human Pacifier

Last night it occurred to me that I have become a human pacifier. Not all day though. Just from two AM until about five in the morning. Can you hear the sarcasm in my voice? I don't know when it happened or how it happened but lately sleep around here has been hard to get. Following in his sister's footsteps, I am now in another sleepless stage. Not complaining. Just catching you up on where I'm at with BabyM.

I would like to attribute his night waking to his teeth. He's teething now and that could be causing him some discomfort. Sometimes I think that he could be looking for me during that time. More often than I would like to admit I fall asleep while nursing him during those hours. It's possible that he's grown accustom to being with me so he wakes up to call for me.

Either way.

It's time to actually sleep train before it get's worse. I haven't really had to sleep train him up till this point so I hope it goes okay. I can't keep going night after night without adequate rest. He needs his sleep too. Savannah didn't stop night waking until I stopped breastfeeding. I wonder if that will be the case this time?

He's not really waking up a lot but he's incredibly restless and in a wakeful sleep state from two to five. Every night. I've got to figure out something soon. I gave up Dr.Pepper so I don't even have caffeine to help push me through the day. What's a Mom to do? Anyone else go through this? How long did it take you to get your baby back on a good sleeping schedule?

BabyM Update: 6 Months

Can you believe my baby is already six months old?! I sure can't. He's a six month old busy body. I could barely get him to sit still long enough to snap a pic for this post. BabyM is doing well. He's sitting up by himself. He's still trying to balance his head out so sometimes he topples over but he's getting better and better.


He's eating really well and his doctor recommended that I go ahead and start doing three solid food meals a day. She thinks he'll be ready for finger foods soon. So far he's had cereal, apples, peas, carrots and potatoes. He's liked everything except carrots. I don't like carrots either so maybe he got that from me.

Baby M is really good with flipping over and getting from the seated position to his belly or back. He scoots backwards and forward but isn't crawling.


















































































































His absolute favorite thing to do is play with Savannah. They laugh and play almost all day. It's so cute to watch. He thinks she's hilarious and loves to watch her misbehave. It's so weird. He actually knows when she's doing something wrong and he cracks up laughing at her.

Making Your Own Baby Food

A few weeks ago we introduced Baby M to the spoon. He had no problems eating and loved his cereal. Now that he's five months old it's time for me to start making and freezing baby food. When I had Savannah a friend of mine told me about making baby food. Not only does making your own food save money but it also gives you peace of mind. You know exactly what your baby is eating. 

I decided to make Baby M some sweet peas for his first food experience. You can find baby food puree   recipes all over the web so I'm going to share my quick and easy process for making and storing food. Of course, you have to start by cooking your food. 

Once the peas were done I put them in my blender. I never bought one of those baby food making gadgets because I already had a blender with a puree button. Call me cheap but I prefer low maintenance. I just don't see the point in buying an additional appliance when you already have something that does that same job. See how close we've become. I didn't even try to clean off this counter for y'all. Notice my little sous chef. I let her push the puree button on the blender and she thought she was cooking for real!  Here is my finished pea puree. Isn't it so pretty. It taste pretty good too. 
I took a spoon and filled all of the cubes in my two trays. I reserved a little of the puree for dinner. From 14oz of peas I got 24 servings of food. 



I use the Fresh Baby trays. (I'm not getting paid for this.) I like them because they come with a lid. I was only able to find them online. The best deal I found was ordering them though WalMart online and picking them up in the store to save on shipping. I got two trays with lids for eight bucks. What I love about these is that I can also use them to freeze breast milk. That way, when I make his cereal I won't have to defrost whole bags of milk. I'm crazy about my breast milk and do not like wasting it.
After the puree freezes I pop the cubes out and place them in a labeled ziploc bag. Overall, I think I really like these Fresh Baby trays. It took me some time to get one of the lids on but other than that they performed right up to where my expectations were. I'd recommend them.

Baby M Update: 4 Months

I feel like I just had Baby M like two seconds ago but he's already four months old. This morning we had his four month check up and shots. Things have been going pretty well. He's such a sweet baby. Steals my heart. I can see so much of my husband when I look at him. Sometimes it's frightening.

Baby M smiles, laughs and coos. My favorite thing to do is talk to him. He responds with all his coos and it's the best. He's a pretty good sleeper right now. In the morning he takes a nap for about an hour. Around lunch time he goes down for another two to three hours. At night he goes down at eight sharp (right after his sister) and sleeps until about three before waking up for a feeding. Not too bad, right?

I'm breastfeeding and I pretty much feed him on demand. I started Savannah on cereal and veggies when she was four months old. I plan to start him on solids by the end of the month. I ordered some more freezer trays with lids and they should be here by the end of the week. I'll share more about my baby food making process in another post. We'll more than likely start with peas or green beans. He's ready for food. He's started sitting on his own a little. He stares at us with pure jealousy when we eat and after nursing for a while he still wants more. I've started doing actual feedings and "snacks" via nursing. Cluster feedings I guess. It's time for him to have a little more of something else at least once a day. I'll still continue to breastfeed until he's at least twelve months.

During his appointment his Doctor was very impressed with his strength and how well he moves. She told me that it was time for him to start working out in an exersaucer or standing activity center. I'll be picking up one today. I plan to sell some of the baby gear we have here to a resale store. I can not believe we are already getting rid of baby things! 

I'm feeling so blessed and thankful that our little guy is hitting all of his milestones. When he was born early I was very nervous about how his development would possibly be delayed. Thank God for miracles big and small. Baby M is right where a four month old should be. I guess that means he'll be crawling and getting into everything very soon. Can't wait!