Levi: Week 33 Summary

Oh man, what a week! Between teething, a cold, his insatiable hunger, and recovering from VBS last week, it has been a rough week for both Levi and this mama. I am worn out. Seriously, I felt like we were back to Levi being 5 weeks old and me not knowing what was wrong with him or how to fix it. Here's a summary:

FEEDING
Nursing is the same as last week--we are pressing on. I discovered Levi's first tooth had cut through his gum last weekend! Which was exciting! But a bit nerve-wracking. We'll see how it affects the area of nursing...I have a feeling that he might be a biter.

We're still doing rice cereal mixed with a few teaspoons of fruit in the morning, without fail. I may switch him over to oatmeal this coming week, since we are just about out of rice cereal now--but it will still be the same idea. Since his tooth has started poking through, Levi seems to really enjoy more finger foods for lunch and dinner. Several days this week, he refused his normal purees for lunch (usually one fruit and one veggie), so towards the end of the week I started giving him some sweet potato "fries", chicken breast strips and asparagus spears. He really loved that! The only problem is he still does not eat a ton when we do finger foods--and I could tell in the middle of the night. He started waking almost three times nightly! Not sure if this is definitely due to him not eating as much during the day (because he never really seemed hungry when he woke), or if its due to his teething and cold. Either way, I am going to be much more diligent this next week in making sure he gets some purees down before we do finger foods, in order to rule that option out!

NAPS
Like I said, this was just a bad week! Only one day this week did Levi nap for longer than 1 hour--and even that nap was only 1.5 hours long. Not sure what happened to the 2-3 hour naps he was taking two weeks ago! It was very frustrating. I tried not to feed him when he woke early, so that at least his feeding times were consistent. And he didn't really seem like he was hungry when he woke either. I'm still baffled by what happened. I'm just hoping it was due to his teeth or his cold and that we'll be past it come next week.

WAKE TIME
Nothing new here! Still the same length of time and the same activities. For the most part, Levi was pretty happy during his wake times this week, despite his crazy sleeping patterns.

NIGHTTIME
Levi didn't sleep very well through the night all week. He did have one night where he slept from 7 PM to 7 AM, which was awesome. But I think that one was to prepare me for the rest of the week! He woke up at least two times every other night--sometimes three. Most of the time it took him 20-30 minutes to get back to sleep too. I guess we can just attribute this to his teething or to his cold as well. Hoping he gets back to his normal self soon!

OUTINGS/EVENTS
Not too many this week, though we were pretty busy! Nothing out of the ordinary or noteworthy though :)

Levi: Weeks 31 & 32 Summary

Holy cow (no pun intended), these last two weeks have been a whirlwind! Honestly, its going to be hard to recap. I've stopped taking note of Levi's schedule each day and what he eats for each meal. It's become so consistent now, there isn't really a need to--which is nice. Here's a brief overview:

FEEDING
Nursing is continuing without issues. Levi still nurses anywhere from 10-20 minutes per session, depending on the time of day. One thing that has changed in this area is his willingness to nurse from my left side (sorry if this is TMI, but I think it's important to note for my future reference). The past two weeks, he has been completely refusing that breast. I've had to completely change the way I hold him in order to eat from that side (went from the "cradle hold" to the "football hold"). He seems to like that positioning a bit better, but he still really struggles with that side if there are other things going on to distract him. I've noticed a decrease in milk supply on that side as well, so I'm wondering if that is just his process of weaning himself. He is still going 4 hours between feedings, so he isn't phased by this change at all.

Solids are going strong too. He consistently has rice cereal mixed with fruit every morning. His afternoon meals have varied these past two weeks (mainly because we had VBS every morning during week 32). We would get home from VBS every day around 1 PM, so I would just nurse him, put him straight to bed, and then offer him solids after his nap in the late afternoon. Because we did this, he wasn't very hungry for a "dinner" meal everyday.

Levi hasn't tried any new purees lately--we are still going through the homemade ones that I had made a few weeks ago (carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, mangoes, peaches, prunes, applesauce, and avocado). The past two weeks, he has tried some new finger foods though! We've offered him waffle fries from Chick-Fil-A, homemade chicken pot pie, sauteed green beans with white rice, and penne pasta with marinara sauce. He loved all of them!

NAPS
This area hasn't changed too much. He is still taking at least one 2-hour nap per day, sometimes two. VBS this past week threw him off quite a bit--he was definitely overtired and overstimulated by the time we got home, so he didn't nap very well all week. On Saturday, the day after our week of VBS, he took two 3-hour long naps! We were amazed. That just goes to show how exhausted he was! I'm hoping to get back on track with his normal naps this next week.

WAKE TIME
Still anywhere from 1.5 hours to 2 hours, depending on the nap he took previously. He now puts his thumb in his mouth as soon as he is ready for bed, which is a great signal.

Levi can officially sit up without leaning forward and without assistance! Yay! I feel like he is suddenly such a big boy. Now that he is able to do that, he doesn't care to lay under his floor gym anymore, except during his first wake time in the morning. And he is still a jumping maniac!

Also, he can officially scoot around our wood floors (when he feels like it!). One morning, he had completely wedged himself between our living room wall and our couch. Time to baby proof!

NIGHTTIME
During week 31, I remember Levi sleeping well through the night. Week 32 was very sporadic due to VBS. His schedule during the day was completely off, so he woke at least once (sometimes twice) per night. It was usually due to him rolling over.

PERSONALITY
I feel like Levi's personality has blossomed even more in these past two weeks, as cheesy as that sounds. He is just a happy and content baby in general, but the past two weeks he has been ridiculously fun! He has become more clingy towards me, which I'm trying to really watch. I think it's just his age. I've been trying to pass him off to other people when possible, so that he is still okay with unfamiliar faces. He did surprisingly well in the church nursery for 4 hours straight all week long, which made me really proud of him!

We've noticed, even more so, how inquisitive Levi is! He loves to be outside or just out-and-about so that he can take in all the new sights. He has started to lean his head forward in his carseat so that he can see out the window better. It must kill his neck! We've started looking into convertible carseats, so that we can transition him to that in the next couple of months. We think he'll be more comfortable and he'll be able to see more!

Something that has really developed is Levi's relationship with Brian. It just gets stronger with each week that passes. The little man just adores his daddy and he'll find him across the room to give him a big smile. I love that!

OUR SCHEDULE
7:00-7:15 AM: nurse, give solids (cereal, fruit and/or yogurt), playtime on floor gym
8:30-8:45 AM: nap
11:00-11:15 AM: nurse, give solids (one fruit, one veggie, and/or BLW), bathtime, work on motor skills
12:30-12:45 PM: nap
3:00-3:15 PM: nurse, run errands if needed, playtime
4:30-5:30 PM: 3rd nap usually falls somewhere in this gap if he needs it, he usually does at this point in time
6:00 PM: sometimes I offer solids (one fruit, one veggie and/or BLW)
7:00-7:30 PM- nurse, bedtime (we had to move this a bit earlier once he dropped his 4th nap--he just can't make it to 8 PM anymore without it)**

**His feeding times were still the same during the week of VBS. I went to the nursery at 11 AM everyday to nurse him at church. His nap times just varied though--usually he only got a 30 minute nap in the morning at church.

OUTINGS/EVENTS

The past two weeks have been pretty packed! Here are some of the highlights:

Playing and reading on the seminary lawn.

Dressing up as cows to get free Chick-Fil-A!

A long, but rewarding week of VBS.

Finding out our best friends are having a girl. Norah Rose Crowder is due on November 29th!

Well, that's all for week 31 and 32. I guess I remembered more than I originally thought I would! Until next week!

Levi: Week 30 Summary

I can't believe my big guy is 30 weeks old! It went by way too fast. This past week was an interesting week for Levi. I'll explain:

FEEDING
Feedings were pretty much the same as last week, our "new normal". He nursed for about 10-20 minutes per session and then ate his solids. Some days this week, he inhaled his solids! When he would finish a bowl of whatever he was eating and I would leave to go put the bowl in the kitchen, Levi would sometimes act like he was still hungry--he would sit there with his mouth open, kick his legs, and flail his arms! He has quite the demanding side. He is officially eating pretty much every four hours, so his feeding times line up more with the standard times to eat each meal. I like that! More about his schedule later!

Here is what he ate (breakfast / lunch / dinner):
06/29- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp applesauce / tried homemade pureed peas and pureed carrots / none
06/30- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp applesauce / tried homemade pureed peas and pureed carrots / none
07/01- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp applesauce / 1 oz pureed peas / 1.5 oz pureed prunes, 1.5 oz applesauce and BLW with 1 French toast stick
07/02- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp applesauce and 1 oz blueberry yogurt / 1 oz pureed spinach and 1 oz pureed mango
07/03- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp applesauce and 1.5 oz blueberry yogurt / 1 oz pureed sweet potatoes, 1 oz pureed peaches and BLW with 1/2 banana
07/04- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp applesauce / 0.5 oz sweet potatoes and 0.5 oz pureed peaches / 0.5 oz pureed sweet potatoes, 0.5 oz pureed peaches and BLW with 5 strawberries (yes, 5!)
07/05- 1 oz blueberry yogurt / 1 oz prunes / 1 oz pureed mango and a few spoonfuls of peas

The first two days of the week, Levi tried my homemade baby food for the first time. He wouldn't eat that much of it--I think because it wasn't pureed as thin as he is used to. Jarred baby food (stage 1) are very, very thin purees. Mine were a bit more "textured", so they took more getting used to! By the end of the week, he had no problem with the thicker purees though! He continues to love prunes, peaches, and sweet potatoes!

This week Levi tried mango and spinach for the first time. He inhaled the mango (I'm pretty sure he just loves all fruit in general!) and was very leery of the spinach at first. Like I said, it had a weird texture to it. Plus, it's spinach. I found that when I alternated spoonfuls of mango and spoonfuls of spinach, he had no problem with the spinach anymore. The few days after eating spinach, he had some constipation issues though. He was still pooping just fine, but he would strain so long to get a tiny bit out. Spinach is FULL of iron, so I think that might have been the culprit. I'm going to hold off on having him try that again for another month or so!

NAPS
Levi did fairly well with napping this past week! 4 of the 7 days, he took two 2-hour-long naps and then just a short catnap (30-45 min) in the early evening. He still has trouble transitioning sometimes--very seldom does he not wake for at least a minute or two during a nap. Sometimes, he will even stay awake for 30 minutes in his crib. But I've learned his whine/cry when this happens, so most of the time I can figure out if he'll go back to sleep or not (yea, its taken 7 months to figure this out!). This week, I didn't really have to go in during his naps to nurse him for a minute or two if he woke, which is pretty good progress! Since two of his naps have lengthened during the day, he has completely eliminated his 4th nap altogether. Even a few days this week, he didn't really seem to need his 3rd--I've kind of just started playing that one by ear.

WAKE TIME
Levi's wake time has lengthened a bit this past week as well. Things are changing all over the place! He now stays awake for about 1 hr 30 min to 1 hr 45 min for his first wake time of the day and anywhere from 1 hr 45 min to 2 hours for each wake time thereafter.

He still loves his floor gym (usually only in the morning) and his Jumperoo (he is such a crazy jumper now!). He hasn't really had too much "Bumbo time" the past week (only when I'm working and he is awake), because I'm trying to get him to practice sitting up and scooting around on his belly.

NIGHTTIME
The first half of last week, Levi woke once per night and I nursed him for 2-5 minutes to get him back into "sleep mode". The last half, he did super well. This may be due to the fact that we were really busy the last half of the week and he didn't get to bed until after his normal time. Regardless, I would nurse him whenever we arrived home (usually between 9 and 11) and those nights he slept until at least 7 AM.

The majority of the mornings this week were really overcast and rainy, so Levi slept until 7:30ish most mornings. Score! I wouldn't let him sleep past 7:30 because I wanted his schedule for the day to stay somewhat consistent.

OUR SCHEDULE
Since moving to a 4-hour schedule, everyday was fairly consistent this week, which has been really nice! Here is a rough outline of our day.

7:00-7:15 AM: nurse, give solids (cereal, fruit and/or yogurt), playtime on floor gym
8:45-9:00 AM: nap
11:00-11:15 AM: nurse, give solids (one fruit, one veggie, and/or BLW), bathtime, work on motor skills
12:45-1:00 PM: nap
3:00-3:15 PM: nurse, run errands if needed, playtime
4:30-5:30 PM: 3rd nap usually falls somewhere in this gap if he needs it, he usually does at this point in time
6:00 PM: sometimes I offer solids (one fruit, one veggie and/or BLW)
7:00-7:30 PM- nurse, bedtime (we had to move this a bit earlier once he dropped his 4th nap--he just can't make it to 8 PM anymore without it)

OUTINGS/EVENTS
Levi celebrated his first 4th of July last Thursday! We spent the evening with our community group--grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, watched a few neighborhood fireworks, and tried to keep all the kiddos entertained. Levi was kind of a grump the entire time. We brought along his playpen to try to get him in bed at his regular time, but he just screamed and screamed, refusing to sleep. Usually he is pretty good at sleeping in random places as we are on the go, but for some reason he was having trouble that day/week. So, I just gave in and let him hang out with us. One time, when he started getting whiny, I gave him a strawberry to suck on. He ended up eating 5 of them. And he wasn't just sucking on them--he literally ate them down to the stem. It was hilarious! Here are some photos from the big day:

That's all for this week!

Levi: Week 29 Summary

This is a summary for Levi's 29th week, beginning on 06/22 and ending on 06/28. I'm a few days late with this, apparently :)

FEEDING
Levi is still nursing about 15-20 minutes per feeding and is continuing to extend his schedule to 4 hour intervals. We are really a mixture of 3-4 hours right now. He has consistently been waking around 6:45 or 7 AM every morning, so his feedings and nap times are becoming fairly regular. I am loving the quick nursing sessions these days! But, the fact that feeding him solids and cleaning up afterwards takes about 15-20 minutes, he really is eating for about the same amount of time as previously.

Solids this week (breakfast / lunch / dinner):
06/22- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp applesauce /1.25 oz pureed peas and 1 oz pureed peaches / none
06/23- Bottle at church / 1.25 oz pureed peas / none
06/24- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp pureed peaches / 2 oz pureed carrots and a few spoonfuls of pureed peaches / none
06/25- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 1 Tbsp pureed peaches / 0.5 oz pureed carrots, 1 oz pureed sweet potatoes, 1 oz pureed peaches / none
06/26- 2 oz rice cereal mixed with 2 tsp pureed bananas, additional 1 oz pureed bananas and BLW with 1 French toast stick / none / none
06/27- 2 oz blueberry yogurt and BLW with 1 French toast stick / 1/4 avocado pureed / 1.5 oz homemade tomato soup and BLW with 1 slice white bread
06/28- 2 oz blueberry yogurt / none / none

I made some homemade baby food last week! Of what I made, Levi tried pureed peaches and pureed avocado first. He loved the peaches! He really doesn't care for avocado pureed--so I think I'll just continue to allow him to eat that whole, as a finger food. I also bought some blueberry yogurt (YoBaby) for him and he devoured it! It was the first time he had that much dairy though and I think it upset his stomach a bit, so I'll  only give that to him every few days for a while.

NAPS
He was still a bit sporadic in this area last week. Usually, he would take at least 1 two hour nap a day (most often his noon-ish nap), but all the rest varied. I'm hoping it will become more consistent soon!

WAKE TIME
Same as last week! No changes here.

NIGHTTIME
Levi slept from his bedtime to around 6:45 or 7 AM four nights this week--so he is getting back on track for sure! The other times that he woke once in the night were because of really loud thunderstorms (we had several last week) or because he rolled over onto his belly. I would nurse him for 2-3 minutes and put him right back in his crib.

MOTOR SKILLS
Little man is still working on rolling from back to tummy, sitting up, and standing with his feet flat on the floor (with support, of course). His fine motor skills are really improving as well--he has no problem picking toys/food up and bringing it to his mouth.

DIAPERING
Yea, I didn't get to that post about diapering that I wanted to. But it's still going really great! I wash his diapers every other day and its not nearly as gross as I had envisioned. I guess as a mom, you get used to bodily fluids really quickly. So it's not that bad! We are currently using: 4 Flip diapers covers + 12 inserts, 3 BumGenius 4.0 diapers, and 2 gDiapers (on occasion). The gDiapers aren't my favorite--I much prefer the others. All of those combined are plenty to last us two days worth of diapering before I have to do a load of laundry. Last week, we did use disposables during the night and at church (he can't wear cloth in the nursery due to the church policy, which is understandable). I'm really happy with cloth diapering thus far--it has so many benefits!

OUTINGS/EVENTS
Levi went in the church nursery for the first time this past week (06/22)! I was a bit nervous about it. We honestly wanted to put him in there around his 3 month birthday, but with it being flu season, we held off a bit. Then I just got in the groove of nursing him during the service, so I delayed it even more. He is getting to be a bit clingy with me, though, so I knew it was time to stretch him socially! Our service time is during his morning nap, so the workers said he was fussy the entire time, but that he did okay. I could tell he was happy to see me when I picked him up, but we'll still keep putting him in there! I think he'll get used to it eventually.

On Friday of this past week, Brian got off work in the early afternoon, so we made it a family day! We went to downtown Louisville and got coffee at a shop we've been wanting to try called "Please and Thank You." Then we walked across a new pedestrian bridge that goes over the Ohio River, all the way to the Indiana border. We technically walked to Indiana! It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day! Levi fell asleep when we were on the bridge, so we continued to walk for another mile or so along the riverside once we came back over the bridge. We actually got some nice flip flop tans! Yay!