4 months old!!!!! (tomorrow)

but seeing how tomorrow will be a busy day for mommy, we will wish harlan a happy 4 months right now!

at 4 months old Harlan can:
* completely hold his head up unsupported
* lift his head from a lying or reclining position
* smile back at you when you smile at him
* say goo, ah goo and mommy thinks he can sing cause in the car he goes ahgooooooooooo over and over
*laugh, but still working on the giggling
*charm the pants off of anyone he meets
*make his mommy and daddy laugh a ton

stay tuned because we are planning to start cereal and solids with him over the next few weeks pending his 4 month check up. Harlan is already a good eater and a good sleeper so the plan is to feed him only cereal with a spoon just so he learns how to eat that way. of course if you have followed this blog at all, you know what happens with most of my "plans". but i do promise that he will learn to eat somehow or another!

over this past weekend Harlan and mommy went to a family shindig and saw some cousins, aunts, etc that we dont get an opportunity to see often. Harlan had a full day, that wore him out, but i think he liked it. he didnt get to see mommy most the day but mommy is getting accustomed to that more and is more comfortable than ever with other ppl taking care of him when she is around, as long as they know mommy is still in charge.
here are a few pictures from that day:

This is a picture of Harlan with my mom's cousin Tootie. Which makes Harlan like her 3rd-ish cousin. I dunno, but what I do know is that we all adore her and Harlan seemed very happy to be her sidekick.


Harlan and his aunt Lissa, who definitely fought for her time with him


Harlan with his aunt Libby and cousin Cayti, they are 2 of the sweetest girls i know!




there were tons of other really fun people there as well, but mommy didnt get pics of harlan with them :( she got sucked into the world of werewolf too easily;)

Toots and more

Harlan and Mommy are spending the night with GiGi (a.k.a gma little) tonite. Tomorrow we have a family shindig to attend in Danville, IL. We tried to get some pics done with aunt melody but Harlan was not in the mood to be photographed. We will try again tomorrow.

Today Mommy caught Harlan attempting something new. While he was sitting in the bouncy seat he raised his head up. Kinda like the way you would raise your head if you were doing crunches. He did it again over and over during his bath. We think he may be trying to get his toes. He is amazing. Always seems to be learning something new. His back and neck muscles are getting so strong now. He is also very good at standing on his legs when he is on somebody's lap. I can tell that he desperately wants to crawl but his arms and legs just arent quite ready for that yet.

Oh and yesterday the funniest thing happened. Yesterday Mommy and Daddy were giving Harlan a bath and he let a HUGE fart in there. You know how it sounds when you fart in the bath tub, it is super loud. Holy cow, he was so entertained by that fart. He just smiled and laughed like he was so proud. Guess boys will be boys right.

Song by Reba....describes it pretty well

6lbs and 2oz. lookin' up at me
Like I have all the answers
I hope I have the ones you need
I've never really done this, now I know what scared is

Sometimes I'll protect you from everything that's wrong
Other times I'll let you just find out on your own
But that's when you'll be growin',
And the whole time I'll be knowin

CHORUS:
You're gonna fly with every dream you chase
You're gonna cry, but know that that's okay
Sometimes life's not fair, but if you hang in there
You're gonna see that sometimes bad is good
We just have to believe things work out like they should
Life has no guarantees, but always loved by me
You're gonna be

I'm afraid you'll have to suffer through
some of my mistakes
Lord knows I'll be trying to give you what it takes
What it takes to know the difference
Between getting by and livin'

‘Cause anything worth doing is worth doing all the way
Just know you'll have to live with all
the choices that you make
So make sure you're always givin' way
more than you're takin'

REPEAT CHORUS

Someone's everything
You're gonna see
Just what you are to me

You're gonna fly with every dream you chase
We just have to believe things work out like they should
Life has no guarantees, but always loved by me
You're gonna be
Always loved by me

Good Night Everyone

Harlan is sleeping over with grandparents tonite. But he wanted to tell everyone he will be back over the weekend with more adventures. good nite everyone!

Sleeping through the night...no more

This child is crazy. He surely keeps it interesting. He has went to not wanting to nap and now for the last 2 nights he has not slept through the night. I heard this can happen though, that babies can go through a growth spurt or just stop sleeping through the night. I'm not thrilled about it, but I guess something is making him need that extra feeding at night. As for feeding, I am still as confused as ever. The schedule seemed to be working. Daddy gave him an extra bottle yesterday because he seemed to need it and he still ate 8 oz before going to bed. yet still woke up at 2 am to eat another 4 oz. Now this morning he went down for a nap no problem, actually fell asleep in his bouncy seat. So here it is. I am giving up trying to figure this kid out. he is going to be a day to day kinda kid, you know. and whoever happens to be taking care of him that day, is probably going to have a totally different experience than we has the day before. The good news: not vomiting for 2 weeks now. so whatever was causing his vomiting was more than likely nothing serious but maybe a combination of amount he was wating/crankiness at bedtime/maybe he wasnt feeling well.

I have also considered that maybe this means he may be redy to start cereal. We are not making any decisions on that until his next appt the beginning of Oct. I am also looking forward to seeing how much he weighs at that appt. my guess is somewhere around 14 pounds, but i really have nothing to base that on. but that would be about a 3 lb gain and so we will see. he gained 3 lbs between his 1 month and 2 months appts though, so i could be way off.

Harlan sitting up, without help!


"Mommy, catch me. You werent supposed to let go!" So maybe a little more practice til he can sit on his own.


He is such a handsome little guy


GO COLTS!!!


Hanging out with daddy, looking good in green

Silly Daddy

These two are the best buddies and Mommy is going to stay very entertained!

New Routine

I bet you are all wondering how Harlan is doing with his feeding and puking issues. Well i called doctor and I was basically told that I was feeding him too much. Well at first I was upset by that and a little mad. I felt like the nurse was kinda talking to me like a child and not an educated mother of an infant. So after my initial over reaction, I calmed down, and devised a new plan. I figured a night time routine was working very well for us, that we might find success with a daytime one as well. this is a very skeleton outline of how it works.

8-9 am - Harlan wakes up. He gets a 6 oz bottle then

9-Noon playtime/naptime He will play for awhile after he eats and then when he starts getting fussy, i rock him to sleep for naptime.

Noon-1 Bottle #2 - 6 oz.

1-4 playtime/naptime. just like in the morning.

4-5 Bottle #3 - 6 oz

5-7/8 playtime and Halan usually will take a mini nap in here

7-8 bathtime in there somewhere

after bath starts the same bedtime routine as always. only now i am offering him 6-8 oz and then attempting to rock him to sleep or let him fall asleep in his swing.

so basically i upped his daytime feedings by 2 oz and we are using distraction for the fuzziness btw. i.e. toys, singing, walking, baby orajel, whatever it takes. we have only done this for a day and a half but so far i am optimistic.

so far i have noticed;

~ He is letting me rock him to sleep which before didnt really happen and it is an enjoyable time

~ He is mostly taking the full 6 oz when i feed him. He may take a little break in the feeding but usually eats it all in a 30 min feeding.

~ He is napping more consistently. of course we dont know how this will change on day we are out for extended periods of time but we will work with it.

Of course you will have to check back in a couple weeks and I will let you know how we are really doing then, but like i said i am super optimistic so far, and i know i good attitude will help more than anything.

Remember when?

Mommy has a ton of pictures of Harlan on her phone. We take pictures everyday and send them to Daddy at work to make his day happier. I thought I would share some of my favorite ones. (Remember they are from my phone so some maybe a little fuzzy, but soo worth sharing)

This picture was taken the day he was born. He was a beautiful baby from the beginning.


So tiny and so perfect. 5/28/08.


Already putting his fingers in his mouth. 6-5-08.


Always the expressive face. Some things havent changed. 6-11-08.


And some things do. He loves bathtime now, but didnt in the beginning. 6-11-08


In his cute little preemie outfit. Wow, he has changed so much 6-15-08


One of my favorite. 6-17-08


I'm not listening to you 6-20-08


He has went backward from this picture. He can no longer hold his own paci in. He prefers someone else to hold it in for him. 6-23-08


Too cute for words. 6-28-08


Such a big guy. 7-9-08


Look how much he has changed. In a short 3 months we have went from this 6-11-08


to this 9-9-08

More pictures

"It's ok. You can admire my cuteness, I don't mind"


"Hey, I'm getting the hang of this!"


"I stick my tongue out when I concentrate. Now what side of the family does that come from?"


"Excuse me, I am trying to bouce here"


"What are you looking at?"



"Hey Mommy, I think I need a little more practice with this sitting thing!"


Hanging out in my bumbo


Outlet mall shopping with Mommy, in my cool football hoodie


Being goofy


Sleeping on the job


"Mommy, I love my new glow worm!"


He fell asleep holding the glow worm's hand. So precious

Riley vs Harlan

2 Best buddies hanging out


Innocent harlan distracted by his toys on the floor


Riley starts her attack, using her fluffy tail as a weapon


"Riley, your big fluffy tail is tickling my face!! Can you get outta here?"


Riley is relentless


Is her tail too much for Harlan?? Will he have to surrender??


Looks like Harlan came away the winner in this one

Questions??

I think mommy will be calling the doctor tomorrow. harlan seems to be having a rough time with feeding. he screams like he is in terrible pain when he is hungry and lots of time will ry through his bottles at night. he also is now vomiting (projectile) 2-3 nights a week. it is very frusturating because at times he seems to be in such pain and nothing much helps until i can get him calmed down enough to eat. bath time seems to help but i cant keep him in the bath all the time. this seems to be the same kinda thing that happened a couple weeks ago and then seemed better and now is back again. i tried switching him to the getle ease formula but he seems to want absolutely nothing to do with that and if he does eat it, it seems he is screaming in hunger again 30 mins later.

how do i know it is hunger. well i dont, but feesing him seems to be the only thing to help even if he then just pukes it up. his pacifier can help but you have to hold it in for him and then he just tolerates it for short periods of time. this is not an every night problem but pretty frequent. so we shall see what the doctor says and go from there.

in other news, the two of us were able to go to the outlet mall on friday and spend too much money on fall/winter clothes for harlan. but there were great sales and he is gonna look so cute. mommy no longer enjoys buying clothes for her but is now lovng going shopping for her little prince. i am hoping we have another boy in the future so we can pass these clothes on, but if not oh well, he is worth it. friday was a cooler day, so i got the opportunity to dress him in his football outfit with the cutest hoodie. i will have pictures and will put them up soon. it felt good for the two of us to get out of the house for several hours. and harlan tolerated the day well. it was a good mommy baby day.

Harlan is officially sleeping through the night!!!!!!!!!!! most nights he will sleep anywhere from 9-12 hours. mommy and daddy had to wake him up sat morning bc he had been asleep for 12.5 hours.

Tonight is my last night of work at methodist hospital. I will start in the ER at major hospital next week. i am really really looking forward to it. I believe that my skills as a nurse will grow so much and I think even though I will be working more hours, they will be better hours and I hopefully wont be worn out as much. (wow that was a long sentence!) On wednesdays, lissa will be coming to watch harlan at our house, and then he will be spending alternating thurs and fri nights with justin's family and my family. i think it is a good situation for everybody and it gives everyone their weekends back. Everyone has been so flexible and helped out so much and I am super appreciative of all the support we get from our families.

I will try to post in the next few days and let everyone know what the doctor says. Harlan is more than likely okay but i just wanna make sure. He keeps me extremely busy throughout the day and seems to sense when i sit down at the computer and has no tolerance for it. But i really wouldnt change this for anything