Levi: Week 36 Summary

This week was very different and very fun because we were in Florida for the majority of the time! We traveled home to Pensacola for the first time since we moved to Louisville two years ago. It was also Levi's first "road trip" and first time to meet his cousins. Needless to say, his routine and schedule were completely thrown off. Not only were we on the go for most of the time that we were there, we were also an hour behind our normal time in Louisville. So it made for a pretty interesting week!

FEEDING
Levi ate tons and tons of food. Did I mention tons? We had fun buying all kinds of jarred and "pouched" food for him--something we don't normally do because I make homemade purees for him. But for the sake of convenience, we definitely knew that buying food was the way to go for our trip! It was fun to buy him things he had tried before that were mixed together for new flavor combos, as well as foods that he had yet to try. He ate so so much (which reminded us why we try to make a lot of his food at home)! The kid probably went through $25 worth of baby food during our 5 day trip!

Because he ate so many solids, it seemed he had less and less interest in nursing. I nursed him for every feeding because I didn't want to worry about pumping during our trip, but he would only eat from about 10 minutes (if that!) from his "favorite" side. I definitely noticed a decrease in milk supply in his least favorite side. I'm trying to decide what to do from here--either keep him nursing from only one side, pump extra so that the other side produces more (and have him nurse from both again), exclusively pump and bottle feed him for the next 3 months, or just completely wean him and start him on formula. So many decisions!! Now that we are back from vacation, I'm going to see how this week goes and hopefully make a decision by the end of it.

Some new foods that Levi tried this week:
Pureed meats and veggies
Pureed pears mixed with raspberries
Pureed apricots
Whole lima beans (LOVED!)
Macaroni and cheese
Mashed potatoes
Grouper (not so much!)
Hush puppies (he loved these too!)

NAPS
Sporadic, for sure! They were finally getting regular again at the beginning of this past week, but they were short and sporadic once we got to Florida. Most of his naps were in an unfamiliar crib/bed or in the car, so it was just an off week.

NIGHTTIME
Surprisingly, this entire past week, Levi slept super well through the night! Even while we were on vacation. Usually, he wakes a ton while we are on vacation because he is in his playpen and because his daytime schedule is so thrown off. Not this time! It was so nice. He slept from his bedtime until at least 6 AM every morning (7 AM EST). Granted, his bedtimes were a bit later than usual, but he still got around 9 hours uninterrupted every night.

BATH TIME
Levi now sits directly in the bathtub without his bath seat and without assistance! I was a bit nervous about it at first, because he seemed to have trouble sitting in the water without slipping, but he has learned to keep his balance really well. He loves to play with the bubbles and splash water all over. I'm excited for some more bath time fun ahead!

OUTINGS/EVENTS
Below are some pictures from our vacation to Pensacola. It rained the entire time that we were there, which was a bit of a bummer. But we still had a nice time with family!

Levi did pretty well in the car, considering it was a 9-10 hour trip. He actually did not sleep well at all once it got dark. He would wake every 30 minutes or so and start crying, so I'm really glad we decided not to drive through the night. Brian and I think he just normally wakes up periodically in the night like that (and he'll normally get himself back to sleep), but the fact that he was stuck in his car seat and unable to move around freely upset him. On the way back to Louisville, we made it a 12 hour trip and stopped for a while in Birmingham and Nashville so that we could all stretch, eat, and have some time out of the car. That seemed to really help Levi.