Nick Laughing!

Twenty Weeks

Today Nick is twenty weeks old! When I was twenty weeks pregnant we were visting my sister in North Carolina, and had just discovered that Nick was Nick, and not Kate :) Hard to believe that was 39 weeks ago! Time does fly when you're having fun - and we are having so much fun with Nick! He is a really happy baby. He laughs and smiles all the time. He is really starting to play with his toys, wiggle a lot and move around. In his exersaucer he can turn himself around 360 degrees with his feet. He loves when we hold his hands and pull him up to sitting, then all the way up to standing. It's so fun to interact with him!

Last weekend was fun! Saturday Nick took a two hour nap alone, while mom and dad met some neighbors and chatted in the backyard. Later on, we had our Connection Parenting meeting. Nick and mom went while dad had some alone time. Sunday mom had some other moms over for a pie crust making party. Nick and dad watched while the ladies had fun with flour :) Sunday night mom, dad and Nick went to grammie and grandpa's house to take them a pie and hang out. The oddest thing happened - in the car on the way over, Nick was laughing and smiling. We took him in his infant carrier into the house. I was standing just inside the door, holding the infant carrier. Grammie and grandpa were talking to Nick, and one touched his hand and one touched his foot - and he burst out screaming and crying! I had to take Nick out of the infant carrier and it took a good 5-10 minutes to calm him down. We stayed for a couple hours and I held him almost the entire time - at one point, Jeff's mom tried to hold him, but after a minute or so he started doing The Lip, so I took him back. Nick so rarely cries, and when he does cry, it never lasts as long as it did that afternoon. I had just nursed and changed him before we left the house, and he had a good nap. We never figured it out, but we hope for Nick's sake it doesn't happen again! He cries so little that we assume when he does cry, he is very unhappy, and we hate for Nick to be unhappy!

Monday dad had a dentist appointment after work, so mom picked Nick up from daycare. Wednesday dad tried to go get his car checked out, so he can finally have the body work done that's needed, so mom picked Nick up, but the computer system was down, so dad had to go back Thursday. Wednesday mom and Nick stayed home while dad went and saw a movie with grandpa. Thursday dad went to get his estimate for his car, but still made it to daycare to pick Nick up before mom could. Traffic on 696 was bad this week after work!

Tonight Dana and Chris are coming over. We plan on having pizza and playing Yahtzee. This weekend we have Connection Parenting, and grandpa is coming over for dinner afterwards. Sunday mom and dad plan on going to downtown Plymouth for lunch, and then mom is taking Nick to a babywearing meeting in Livonia. Nothing else is going on this week, until Friday, when dad and Nick will be on their own while mom attends the 19th Annual LAA Alumni/Student Golf Outing and Annual Meeting.

We are gearing up for Nick's first visit to Raleigh! First plane trip, first time outside of Michigan - lots of firsts :) Not his first night away from home, so we're not nervous about that. We are very excited for Nick to see his Aunt Krystyn and Uncle Zack again!

Nick is falling into some routines. He is asleep pretty much every night by 7 pm, and does not wake up to nurse until 2 or 3. He still usually wakes up twice at night to nurse. Lately his second nursing has been around 5 am, which does not really work for me :) but I still feel like I'm getting enough sleep. He is a growing, happy, healthy boy and we are doing our best to make sure he stays that way! :)

Nick Rolled Over!

Nineteen Weeks

Today Nick is nineteen weeks old! Wow!! Nick was back to his old self this week - sleeping soundly, nursing, laughing and smiling. It was great to see! He is getting so strong and really getting bigger! His hair isn't filling in but the hairs he does have are getting longer. We are so anxious to see what his hair will look like!

Last Saturday while dad worked on his charity website, mom and Nick went to Costco. It was pouring down rain but we just had to go! After we came home, it was time for our Connection Parenting meeting. Sunday during the day, we hung out at home. In the afternoon we all went over to grammie and grandpa's for dinner, to say good-bye to Great-Grandma Radley, who flew back to Arizona on Monday.

Monday mom had court in the afternoon, and came straight home from there instead of going back to the office, so she picked Nick up a little early. Then dad's friend Nick stopped by. Nick and Nick are both Nicholas Paul :) Little Nick played with his gymini while dad and big Nick chatted. Then little Nick nursed to sleep. Tuesday was a normal day. Wednesday was mom and dad's three year wedding anniversary! Mom came home from work and nursed Nick to sleep, then mom and dad went out to their favorite restaurant for a nice dinner, and grandpa sat with Nick. Nick slept the whole time mom and dad were gone :)

Thursday was Nick's four month well-baby visit. He weighs 16 lbs., 3 oz and is 25.5 inches long! His doctor checked him out and said he is very strong. His doctor asked if he's laughing and smiling yet, and mom and dad said yes, then when the doctor checked his hip joints, Nick decided to demonstrate his laughing and smiling skills :) Nick received three shots. He cried during the injections but stopped crying as soon as mom could nurse him :) After he nursed, mom and dad dropped dad's car off at home and went to get take-out from Noodles & Co. While mom and dad waited for their food, Nick decided to fall asleep - in the middle of the loud, busy restaurant! We are grateful he can still sleep anywhere, through anything :)

Today is a normal day. Maybe we'll go out to Plymouth again tonight and walk around - last Friday was fun! Tomorrow we have our Connection Parenting meeting. It's Dream Cruise weekend over on the Woodward corridor, but Nick is a little too young to enjoy it, so we'll probably wait a few years before we take him. Sunday mom is having some mom friends over for a cooking tribe meeting (the art of pie crust). This coming week looks pretty normal - mom will pick Nick up on Monday, because dad has a dentist appointment. Next Saturday is a pool party here at the club house, so maybe we can finally meet more of our neighbors!

Everyone says it's amazing how fast babies grow, and they aren't kidding! Nick is already changing so much, we've already talked about what he "used" to do. For example, the first month or so, Nick would fall asleep every day on the way to daycare - but he doesn't do that anymore! He is getting more independent, and can play on his own for short periods of time. He used to lay completely still for diaper changes and now he's a total wiggle worm! He used to get upset and sometimes cry a little when we changed his clothes/dressed him and now he's fine. He used to cry in the bath, and then just after the bath - but now he laughs and smile and plays both in and immediately after his bath. He's already 1/3 of the way to a year old - time sure is flying by! We love our little boy so much and it is amazing to watch him grow and change day by day :)

Playing in his Exersaucer

Eighteen Weeks

Today Nick is 18 weeks old! This week was a tough one - Nick had some kind of virus, which caused him to be congested and break out into hives. Mom was home with him Monday and Thursday, and dad was home with him Tuesday and Wednesday (with some help from his parents!), and then he went back to daycare on Friday. The hives looked pretty bad but he kept his cheerful disposition, for the most part. We have noticed that he has pretty much stopped giving his hunger cues though - he'll be happy and cheerful and then out of nowhere, he'll burst out crying until he's nursed. We hope this is a temporary change - it's so sad to see him cry!

Last weekend was a fun weekend for Nick! Saturday we all went to Great Aunt Laura's parents' 50th anniversary party. Laura's brother owns a farm with Grandpa, which is where the party was held. They have a gorgeous pond, an old farm house, a huge garden, and acres and acres of crops. Nick was finally able to meet Great Aunt Laura, Great Uncle John, and first cousins once removed Steven and Melissa. There were some other children there, and one boy, Sean, who is 8, seemed particularly enthralled with baby Nick. Unfortunately for Sean, his mom told us there will be no more babies for them - Sean is the second youngest of 7!!

Sunday Nick got some new-to-him toys - an exersaucer and a Little Tikes slide. The slide is in the basement for now - it won't be nice enough outside to use it outside when he's big enough to use it, so we'll let him use it on the carpeted part of the basement. He loves his exersaucer! Jeff and I didn't want to rely on a lot of "things" to help us raise Nick, so we didn't register for bouncers, swings, exersaucers, etc. But he loves his exersaucer at daycare, so we decided to get him one for home, but we only put him in it to play with him in it, we don't put him in it to walk away and do a bunch of stuff while he entertains himself. We do let him entertain himself for short periods of time with the gymini - I read that it's developmentally appropriate for his age, so I try hard to do that sometimes.

Monday started out as a normal day. Nick had a bit of a runny nose, but when I took him to daycare, his caregiver said everyone around had a runny nose. I noticed a big red spot on the crook of his arm, but I thought it was a bug bite. Then around 9 am I received a call from the daycare, telling me the red spots had spread to his arms and legs. They said he didn't have a fever, just this "rash." I called the doctor and they said to bring him in, so I picked him up from daycare and took him to see the pediatrician. His regular pediatrician was on vacation, so we saw the other pediatrician, Dr. Adams. Nick weighed in at 15 lbs., 9 oz.!!! Then Dr. Adams checked him out. She said his ears and throat looked good, and based on the congestion, she diagnosed the hives as viral. She said not to give him anything unless he seemed itchy, and then to give him benadryl. Well, we've decided to try to avoid giving Nick traditional medicines unless absolutely necessary, and he never once seemed uncomfortable or itchy, so we didn't give him anything. I was sad that he was sick, but it did allow for some extra cuddle time :) Monday night John, Laura, Melissa, Steven, grammie, grandpa and great-grandma Radley all came over to show John and Laura our new house. Nick pretty much slept the whole time - they came over past his bedtime. The hives were much better by Monday night, but then Tuesday morning they came back with a vengeance. Tuesday and Wednesday dad stayed home with Nick, and grammie and grandpa both came over to help so dad could do some work from home. Thursday the hives were gone, but the runny nose and sneezing weren't, so mom stayed home with Nick again.

Today Nick seemed much better, so back to daycare he went! His caregiver missed him while he was gone and seemed very happy to see him this morning. Tonight mom and dad took Nick to downtown Plymouth. Their summer concert series "Music in the Air" was going on, featuring a band called Blues Caster, so mom and dad walked Nick around in the snap & go, and then ate dinner at Zapata's. Nick slept pretty much the whole time :) We had fun though! Plymouth is a great family town, and it was awesome to see so many other young families out, pushing strollers and watching their toddlers toddle :)

This weekend is a low-key weekend. Tomorrow is our Connection Parenting meeting, and Sunday we're going over to grammie and grandpa's for dinner. This week is Nick's 4 month well-baby visit, which means more shots :(

Wednesday is our three year wedding anniversary :) We are currently struggling with how to celebrate. We plan to go to Boodles, which we consider "our place" and where we had our rehearsal dinner. But we can't decide if we want to take Nick or get a baby sitter. We are usually there for a couple hours, which would be a long time for Nick, but he is in daycare all week, so it's tough to give up some of our weekend time with him. He has only been baby-sat twice besides daycare and we are proud of that! It might be nice for it to be just the two of us, but the whole time we'll just wonder what Nick is doing. Oh well, we'll decide eventually what to do . . . .

The other thing we are struggling with right now is Nick's mouth! We can't decide if he's teething already or not. Four months is really early, according to the book, but a few people who have seen him have commented that he's teething. He is constantly sucking on/biting on his hand and drooling, but if I run my finger on his gums I don't feel any teeth. I bought some Hyland's teething tablets, just to have them on hand. Stay tuned to see if any teeth pop up in the next month or so!!

Blowing Raspberries!