Happy 1/2 Birthday, Anderson

Today Anderson is 6 months old - I can't believe it. Some quick stats from his well baby checkup:

Length: 25.3"

Weight: 13 lbs 10 oz

He's a bit on the small side, actually so much so we have to go into the dr.'s office next month for a weight check. I'm not too worried right now since he is a breastfed baby still (yay me!) and our pediatrician said that this sometimes happens with kids not on formula and he might catch up. If he does no worries, if he doesn't we will cross that bridge if/when we need to. Bri and I aren't the largest of people so I wouldn't expect him to be huge.

He started to eat cereal Labor Day weekend and has just progressed to twice a day. Last week we added sweet potatoes to the mix. At first it looked like he liked them but by the end of the week he'd seal his mouth shut and wasn't having any of them. So we've moved on to peas and it seems to be a much better success. You can see from the video in the previous post that Anderson can sit unassisted. He leans forward for balance but I think he's on the verge of perfecting this skill. Since he's getting the hang of sitting he decided to add army dragging the his repertoire - note i did not say crawling. If he wants a toy he's figured out how to drag himself to get it.

I don't like talking about this too often - actually I kind of loath it unless with my good friends, but I think it's time to celebrate a bit. I've made it to 6 months of breastfeeding (the word nurse creeps me out for some reason)! I don't think I can express it in words how much of an accomplishment this is and how proud I am of myself. It has been the MOST challenging thing I have ever done in my life and that is in no way an exaggeration. Anderson and I have had an uphill battle to say the least. The c-section, the tongue tie which led to him being on a bottle for over 10 days, to his preference for the fast and easy bottle (me pumping every 2 hrs 24 hrs a day for basically 5 weeks to get enough for him to eat), then there was this easy time for a few months, and the work came along - I feel like I pump all.the.time to produce enough for him to take to daycare. I get up at 5:45 to pump, feed him anywhere between 6:30/7am, pump 3x at work, come home, pump, feed Anderson and pump twice before I go to bed. OY! I'm tired writing it. But through it all, probably out of spite, I've kept up with it and somehow have met his demands. He's had all of 10 oz of formula when we were trying to figure out the tongue tie situation. That's part of the reason I have taken it so personally when I was told by Bri this am that he will have to have an extra weight check next month.

I don't have anything against formula and those that use it. In fact, I'm going to try and transition out the 5:45am pumping session which means I will have to send formula to daycare to make up the difference eventually. Whose says being stubborn isn't a good thing. If I wasn't I don't think I could have lasted this long. I think I'm going to splurge on a massage to celebrate!

What Anderson has been up to lately...

What Anderson has been up to lately...
Originally uploaded by dawn_79

Some video of what the little guy has been up. Sitting, eating, giggling - all the fun stuff!

Video

Just testing out video capabilities on the blog.

5 months old

Anderson is 5 months old today! What a whirlwind. I keep meaning to blog but then something always gets in the way. I've been back at work since Sept 8th, so maybe I can sneak in a blog update here and there at work. It's getting a bit harder to take his monthly picture because he's so squirmy. In the picture to the left he had just caught dad across the room.

As I mentioned I'm back at work now, so my time with Anderson seems very limited. We get an hour in the morning and depending on the day an hour to two hours at night. Not much time to hang out, but I really treasure every second he's awake (as well as the seconds/minutes/hours he's asleep at night). So what has he been up to? Well, he smiles all.the.time and we figured out that he is ticklish and because we are mean parents we tickle him to hear the giggle on-demand. He rolls over with easy mainly from his back to his front, but can do tummy to back if need be. We are all getting sleep. I'm proud to say Anderson has been sleeping 12 hours (yes, I know!!) for the past month and it has been a dream come true. The biggest development is he now eats oatmeal at dinner time. He looks adorable sitting in his highchair reaching out for the spoon. My gut says he's going to want to self-feed early.

Since our time as a family is limited we've begun a baby music class through the San Mateo Parks & Rec dept. He's the youngest in the class but only by two months. We sing songs and the older children tap sticks, drums and shake maracas. The songs have a lot of movement and after watching Anderson go up and down and swing side to side, I really believe he enjoys it. Even if he is too young to participate in some of the activities its 45 minutes that Brian, Anderson and I get to spend together doing something silly and fun.

Next weekend Anderson gets to be the guest of honor at his Red Egg & Ginger party hosted by his Toy Family relatives. It will be a great opportunity to meet many of his extended family members. I'm just hoping he makes it through without a meltdown. :-) I'm sure he'll be fine as long as we get a good nap/feeding in before and after the party.

Where has the time gone?

It's hard to believe that Anderson is 4 months old already! Sorry for the lack of an update in over 2 months. We've been busy. But let me see if I can catch you up on some of the exciting things we have been up to. Some stats...

Length: 24"

Weight: 12 lbs 12 oz

He's following right along in his percentile curve. Developmentally I think things have been exploding in the past few weeks. He's really turned into a fun little guy and you can see his personality shinning through. He loves to smile and just today started reaching out to try and "pet" Evita. I'm pleased to say Evita tolerated it and *almost* seemed to enjoy it. Bri and I had a great time watching it go down.

In the past two months our little guy has met more relatives (lucky guy!!) - some here on the

west coast but thanks to not one, but two trips to New Jersey, he has met almost my whole family. It really meant a lot to me that we have been fortunate enough to travel back east while he is still young so my family got to experience the excitement of meeting a newborn Anderson. He did very well on the flights to and from SFO - EWR and in fact has traveled in first class two out of the four flight segments. Luck kid.

Bri and I have been fortunate enough to have some very willing helping hands. We've been out to see a movie or two, had a nice fancy dinner with friends form out of town and gambled in Atlantic City all sans Anderson. We have yet to have an overnight without him but that will come soon I'm sure.

I'm nearing the end of my maternity leave - only two more weeks as of today! It's a bit of a mixed bag of emotions. On one hand I CAN NOT wait to get out of the house and do something for me, go to lunch without worrying if a baby can come and just have some adult conversation during the day. On the other hand, I'm leaving Anderson for 8 hours a day with an in-home daycare provider who is no doubt qualified, but come on, it's not me! I don't want to miss the big milestones. To make up for this, Bri and I have signed up for a baby and parent music class on Saturday mornings. This way we can spend time as a family in a fun and educational setting. We're also looking into swim lessons on the weekend. I love the water and Bri wasn't always comfortable in it, so we thought it would be best to start Anderson early. Plus, it's another way for us to spend time together.

A final thought - while it's hard to fathom Anderson is four months old the harder concept to grasp is that it was about 1 year ago that I found out I was pregnant. He would have been the size of a seed or something crazy like that.

Happy Father's Day

Wow, it's been a long time since we've blogged. Having a kid makes it kind of hard :-). Anderson is 9 weeks today and turned two months old on Friday, the 19th. He had a doctor's appointment on Friday to get a few vaccinations and have his stats taken. At 2 months he weighed 10lbs exactly and measured 22.5 inches long. He's our little peanut - his weight is in about the 15% percentile and his height is about the 35% percentile.

We've been doing well as a family of 3 (4 including Evita!).  Sleepless nights are tough, but Anderson is becoming a better and longer sleeper at night every day.  However, I have one bone to pick with my previously pregnant friends - not sure why it was kept a big secret but it would have been nice of someone to let us know the first 2-3 weeks absolutely suck. For reals, suck! Don't get me wrong, I love my kid but it was brutal. So for those who haven't had a kid yet and plan to, just know it isn't great at first but does in fact get better -WAY BETTER.

Anderson smiles, coo's and holds his head up really well.  All in all he's pretty rad and we wouldn't trade him in for anything.  For father's day we went to the Giant's game where Barry Zito had a no hitter until the 7th inning.  Anderson's record is 2-0 when attending a Giants game.  Maybe we should take him more often?

Anderson's first two weeks

So Anderson will be 2 weeks old in a few hours, he's sleeping so I thought it would be a good time to catch up on the blog. Not sure how often we'll have the opportunity to update this thing, but will do so when time presents itself. (photo to the left is from his one week b-day, chilling w/his julius doll)

These last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and learning. We didn't get discharged from the hospital until the Wednesday after he was born and it's been go go go ever since. We've had several doctor's appointments and have made a point to get out of the house as much as we can - for walks and whatnot, we're steering clear of crowds due to the flu outbreak. We are not going to risk him becoming exposed. We've also been blessed with man visitors and some great food! Thanks to EVERYONE who has come over and brought dinner. It's been really nice to not have to worry about that aspect.

So what's been going on with Anderson? He's been keeping us busy doing what he does best - crying, eating, needing to be changed, changed again and napping. He was born with a tight fenulum which in turn provided some difficulties eating and gaining weight. After a few consultations we had it clipped on Tuesday and he has been gaining weight as he should. He's just a few ounces shy of his birth weight.

Yesterday we took some family portraits with a photographer in the City, a really wonderful gift from Brian's team at work. We were able to preview some of the photos and they look fantastic! It will be such a joy to look back and see Anderson as tiny as he is. We will share some photos when we get the disk. In the meantime, below are some photos of our little guy take throughout the past two weeks.