New Year Revelations and Documenting :)

It's been a while I know, Cashew is 4 1/2 months old! We have celebrated our first Thanksgiving and Christmas as a family of four, had friends stay with us, enjoyed a great New Year, and of course discovered some new things.

Pnut has been struggling a little bit with self control and staying on task in school. She is wonderful academically, but can't seem to click with her behavior. We are trying the best we can to help her, but it is definitely a challenge. She had a lot of fun playing with her friends that visited with us for a week. They played outside a lot, which was wonderful for the adults!

Cashew is growing by leaps and bounds. Since birth he has grown 7 inches. He currently is around 17.5 pounds. We started him on baby cereal at exactly 4 months and he opened wide for it! There was no pushing it around or spitting it out like Sissy, no way. It is a trip to feed him. He reminds me of a story my mom told me about how my Grandma Kooiman used to enjoy feeding my brother because he just opened wide with no spillage and would scream at you if you didn't shovel it in fast enough, yeah that seems to be Cashew.

The boy loves his hands. He will suck on his fingers, chew on them or yours if he can get to them. He is a master at making himself bounce in his bouncy seat and is started to roll back and forth on his back to his side. He is so expressive. His whole face lights us when he sees someone he recognizes. His giggle is great, but his laugh in infectuous! He is a little bit ticklish so there is lots of fun to be had with that. And he always, ALWAYS smiles when his Sissy comes near him and hugs him from behind.

We had a miscommunication, that boy and I. Getting him to sleep at night had been going great, and he had been waking only once a night. BEAUTIFUL right? Well, suddenly he was taking 3 hours to get to sleep and waking up at least 3 times a night. He wouldn't nurse well. He would go for about 5 minutes and then stop, look up at me and think it was time to smile, goo and gah at me. After enduring this for about a week I finally figured it out. (My sleep deprived brain was running on empty and I was fading fast). I gave him a bottle of milk instead of nursing him, and he fell right to sleep after. Hmm. Then I fed him cereal two hours later, and another bottle of milk two hours later and shock of all shocks THE CHILD WENT RIGHT TO SLEEP.

It hurts my heart a little bit to realize he was hungry the whole time and not just being stubborn, but it feels so good to know that it was an easy fix. Plus the child is my child and is just too nosy to nurse well during the day. So much to see, no time for anything else. :)

TMI ALERT


So I am pumping like three times a day now to make sure he is still getting enough. It is a hassle, but to me it is so worth it. I feel blessed to be able to do this for Cashew. I wish I had been better informed and maybe not as stressed when Pnut was an infant to do the same, but with the other medical issues I had going on with myself during my nursing time with her, I don't think it would have worked as well.

Plus, we have now moved on to putting him in bed awake to let him get himself to sleep. Plus, if he wakes at night it is because he has lost his paci. Once it is replaced back to sleep he goes. So, as soon as he gets the hand-eye coordination down to put his own paci back in, oh goodness that will be a MARVELOUS day.

Finding a balance with both kids is hard. I find myself drawn to Cashew more because he needs me, but at the same time I want to continue to give Pnut as much encouragement and support that I can, when she will take it.

On a side note that I have to document :) I have lost 35 pounds since having Cashew. I am not by far at a healthy weight, but it is nice to fit into a size I haven't been in since 2001. I didn't gain a single pound with Cashew so when I had him, I feel like I kinda melted. D gives me hugs and says I'm small :D I had someone ask me today if I was a size 10 (bless their hearts I almost kissed them) which I am not, but it was a wonderful compliment in its own right.

It makes me sad Cashew is growing so fast, but I love my kids so much. I am so excited to see how Cashew will continue to grow. Pnut just keeps surprising me with her brain and I know there is going to come a day when she actually does know more than me. My fear is that that day may be, oh like, tomorrow!