4 month dr. visit

Well, Dylan had his 4 month dr. visit today. He did GREAT! I woke up alittle late so we had to hurry out the door. She said he's doing great, he's in the 75th percentile with his weight, height and head size. He is 15lbs, 15 oz. So he's right on track. She said that he didn't need to be waking up as much as he is in the middle of the night, so I'm supposed to let him cry and not pick him up to feed him everytime. I did read that in my book also, but when I tried it one night, I felt so bad. But she said i have got to break that habit now, or it's only going to get harder. So I guess it's going to be a long night for us. I have noticed that he has very dry patches of skin and so we have been putting lotion on him every night after his bath. She said that he has exima though. But she also said it's very common in babies. So, we have to start putting a cream on him instead of lotion since it works better like 3 times a day. so I'll start that today. Ummm he got 3 of his vaccinations (one by mouth). We have decided to spread them out so he got 3 today and he will get 2 next month. Normally he would have gotten all 5 today. I just feel like that's too much. He's doing good so far today. He has already napped and smiling as big as ever. He was really fussy last time, hopefully he won't be like that again. Everything else went great. He's 25" long. What a big boy! She said I can start introducing cereal if I want (which I already have last week). I think that's about it. She had him on tummy time on the table and he was looking up at her smiling. I took a pic with my phone but not so smart me didn't save it!! grrrr.

well that's all that's going on with little man. He's doing great!!
Jill

Update on the D man

Pimpin his new outfit.

His new shirt.

His Halloween onesie that paw paw and nana got him. (and the jeans too)

Smiling so big. What a cutie.

Don't mind my white trash look, just look at Dylan! hehe.

awwwwww

Well things are great in the Harper household. I GOT A JOB!! whoo hoo. It's with a pretty good company in Addison, right where I used to work (which is also right down the street from Mike, so that's cool). It's for a Marketing Coordinator. I have been wanting to enter the Marketing industry some how but I couldn't find anyone to get me any experience. Finally, I will be able to get some at this company. I am excited to finally get started and have a real job instead of being an admin or something. So this is kinda my first job after my degree, so I'm excited. The pay is great and so we are excited to have money again!

We have decided to try my friend Angela out for watching Dylan. She has answered a lot of my questions and concerns this week. Mike and I each had a list of things we were worried about, so I discussed them with her. She is catering to us pretty well and has assured us of our worries. Of course, we are still sooo scared to leave him anywhere that's not with either one of us, but we have to do this. She is a great mother to her 3 boys and I think she will do good with Dylan too. Plus, Dylan loves to watch her boys play and I think when he gets alittle older, he will have fun with them. Plus, he won't be getting sick as often since he won't be in daycare, she is right down the street and she is a lot cheaper. So this is working out for all of us. She isn't watching any of the kids she was and said she will not accept another newborn if she has Dylan. That was one of our main concerns. We budgeted enough for a full daycare just so we didn't get our hopes up about saving money since that was the least of our concerns. But, we told her we were going to try it out and see how it goes. I'm so nervous. I will also miss him like CRAZY!!! I got what i wanted though, a good job, now I'm like, ugh, why couldn't I have just enjoyed being home with him instead of worrying about it so much! hehe. I guess we just want to be able to buy him lots of things and go on trips and stuff. With me home with him, we were on such a budget that we couldn't do anything!! We just plan on moving his bed time back an hour and then that will give us about 3 hours a night with him or something like that. We will just do family time, bath, book and stuff. that's still not enough, but it will have to be I guess. Then I'll just smother him on the weekends with lots of kisses. hehe. I just dont' want him to forget who his mommy is. :(

Well, I went and bought some new clothes for him today. He needed some long sleeve stuff.

He has his next dr visit on Thursday, I'll keep everyone posted on how that goes and what he weighs etc.

Jill

My little man

The pics are alittle backward, sorry.

He liked eating it off the tray better.

This is where he was SOO DONE WITH IT!! hehe.

It's more fun to play in it!

he likes to eat it off the tray.

ready to eat..all clean and everything!! Didn't last long though.

Well, things are going good lately. Dylan is getting SO big. He is so tall when he stands on us now. He loves to stand up also. We will try and sit him down and he gets upset and wants to stand. He also loves sitting in his little boncer because he can stand up and bounce and things. He loves it. We think he's about 16.5 lbs now or something. He has his next Dr visit sometime in the next few weeks. I think it's next week because he will officially be 4 months. He gets his next round of shots but I think I'm goign to space these out. I'm just so torn about it all but I just think it's too much for babies to take at once, so I'm going to space them out I think. I just have to ask her what will happen now, and how often we will come in and which ones he will get if I do it that way. We didn't do that with the first round because we couldn't decide, but I think we will with these. Too much pressure to decide this though!!

He is doing SO much better with going to sleep. Used to, when we would put him down, he would not want to fall asleep and would be up until midnight or something. Now, we read about getting him on a schedule and we have started that, so now he falls alseep at the same time every night!! It was at 8:30, but lately it's been 8:00. And, he used to wake up atleast one more time after we put him down, that was guaranteed, but now for the most part, he will fall asleep and stay asleep. The only thing we haven't conquered yet is getting him to sleep through the night, or atleast past 1:30am. He wakes up at 1:30am, then 3:30 then 5:30. I think it's because I don't have enough milk for him and so he wakes up every 2 hours to eat. But, I was reading and it could also be because everytime he wakes up, I feed him. So when he wakes up, he thinks ok, time to eat everytime!! So they said to try and soothe him back to sleep without feeding him. I treid that last night and he was like "umm lady that pacifier has nothing coming out of it , feed me or I'm going to go crazy!!" hehe. But, I tried that with the first feeding at 1:30, he hasn't eaten since 8:00 at that point, so I think tonight I'm going to try the soothing thing at the 3:30am feeding.

He has also started getting great about his naps. He now is getting on a pretty good schedule with them. He still isn't a long napper, but atleast he's getting some in. He naps for 30 mins at 10:00am and 1:00pm. Then he takes a long nap from 4-5 or even until 6 sometimes. (it depends on if I'm laying with him or not). I'm trying to not nap with him anymore or feed him laying down so he isn't so dependent on that to nap. So now he doens't take as long of one at 4.

I am still having a rough time breast feeding. I'm just not producing enough. Mike is like PUMP, PUMP, PUMP. I'm trying but it's hard to pump when Dylan wants to be entertained or held a lot during the day. I try and pump atleast 3 times a day but I still am not producing enough for him. So he gets about 2 bottles of formula a day. I'm just glad he's still getting breast milk. He is still getting the nutrients and stuff, he just has to be supplemented with formula once during the day and once before bed. I guess I'm just not the best at this pumping thing. I don't mind breastfeeding him, that's not it at all. It's just the pumping. It's time consuming and I guess I just am not a big fan of it. That has been my downfall with breast feeding I guess. Maybe I'll be better with our next one. Yes Grandparents i said our next one! hehe. :) (not for awhile though!!). So, I am trying to breast feed as long as I can. it gets pretty frustrating during the day though not having enough for him and he gets pissed when I'm trying to pump and he won't nurse from me, it doesn't come out fast enough. it has to be from the bottle, so that makes it even more difficult. He will nurse from me at night but not during the day, so weird. So anyways, i'm trying as long as I can. He will be 4 months next week (he's already 16 weeks, but won't be officially 4 months until next week). My short goal was to do it for 3 months, so atleast I have passed that. :) It's easy for Mike to say you have to do it this long, he has no idea what it entails, but all I can say is I'm trying to do it as long as I can.

I gave him his first taste of cereal today. Actually we put some in his milk this past weekend but the nipples aren't big enough so it barely came out, even though it was barely much thicker than the milk. They say to put it in the bottle the first time, so that's what i did. He didnt mind it but he just couldn't get it out. So today I made it pretty runny but tried it with a bowl and spoon. WOW, it was pretty amusing. So funny!! He made the biggest mess ever, but I think he enjoyed it. He woudl have rather just ate it off of the tray but he liked it I think. It was not fun to clean, but it was pretty funny to watch. I added the pics on top.

So anyways, things are going great with him. We are just having a blast together. I'm loving every minute (for the most part, haha) with him. I complain non stop about not having a job, but I do enjoy being home with him and not someone else raising him. I had another interview last Friday. It was a great job and I think It would be a great fit for me. They called me and I had 2 phone interviews and they called me back to come in. I did and now they haven't called. I get so nervous in interviews, I probably said something stupid! It just gets so frustrating that I have applied for SOOOO many jobs and still haven't found one. I guess it did make me feel alittle better that they (this most recent job that called) called me out of 250 resumes to come in!! But the problem I'm coming across right now is that there are SO many people applying that there is always that one person that is more qualified or more likeable than you! it's hard to not start questioning myself and getting down on myself too. I think "what did i do wrong". It's kindof like a relationship (not that I know what that's like anymore, hehe). You sit there and wait for the guy to call you by the phone and if he doesn't you start to question yourself and wonder what you did to make him not call. So that's where I'm at right now with the job situation. I have such mixed emotions. I'm so frustrated with it but also so thankful that I get to be home with Dylan. I really do need to count my blessings each day instead of dwelling on the one bad one.

Everyone is coming up in the next few months and we are SO excited. My sister and her fam are coming up, then my parents, then Mike's family for Thanksgiving. I'm SO nervous about that, but so excited that they are coming here to spend it with us. I love it when people come to see us eventhough I stress myself out on how clean the house is and food and stuff. But it's just so much fun to see all the family. Dylan is lucky that Mike and I have such great families.

Ok, Dylan is waking up!!

Jill

Doing good

This was at that Uptown Village that we went to

Dylan screaming at the nice restaurant. :) Too bad he doesn't like pacifers.

Oops, blurry sorry.

Me and D.

Well, Dylan is now 15 weeks and he couldn't be any cuter!! He's doing great and growing like a weed. I weighed him and he's about 15.4 lbs now and we estimated how tall he is and it was about 23". He's so tall when he stands up straight now. Plus, he's doing this screaming thing now. We have no idea where he got it from (probably from Mike yelling at the dogs to lay down in his fancy truck!). :) I'm sure Dylan is screaming "lay down Gunner!" hehe. Anyways, I am going to try and post the video because it's just too cute not to share. Ummm let's see what have we been up to.

Last weekend Mike's sister Andrea came and stayed with us because she was taking a flying test. She is getting her pilot's license. I'm so envious. I wish I loved flying that much!! She has already flown by herself too, so cool!! It was great to see her so much and she got to spend some time with D too. He was a bit fussy, but he's just in that phast right now. Friday night we all went to dinner and Dylan did ok until the end, then he was over sitting in his car seat, he was ready to get out! So we had to wrap it up quick. Now, if we go to dinner with anyone, it's like ok you need to know what you want and we need to order it right away and then get the check so we can check out anytime we need to! hehe. yeah, dinner is a bit different these days. So then after dinner Andrea said "you guys go and do something, since I'm here I can babysit." I think before she got out the words "since I'm here to babysit" we were already gone. hehe. No, it's not that bad, but we were excited to get to go out and have a drink together. So we did his routine of going to bed (bath, book and bottle) and put him down for her so all she would really have to do is listen if he wakes up. So then we headed out to this new place sortof near the house. I had a few glasses of wine and Mike had a few beers and then we headed home. had great conversations and lots of fun together. Of course we texted her about 3 times to make sure everything was ok. He slept the whole time luckily. So it was nice. We enjoyed it. Then Saturday we woke up really early and got breakfast then headed to the car show we go to every year in fort worth. This was Dylan's first car show, we were excited about it, even though he would have NO recollection of it. He did great too. He cried a few times but only because he was hungry. So I would feed him a bottle and then he was good to go. Then we headed over to Mike's friends house to watch the Tech game and see their new mansion. Huge house. Holy cow. My house is their kitchen alone I think. So that was fun and then that was about it.

Mike had to go out of town all last week pretty much. It is so hard when he is gone for so long. I really do feel for single parents. It wasn't anything I couldn't handle, but it was a heck of a lot harder than with him here. I had a few moments where I had to let him cry for a second and just walk outside and breathe. He is hitting a growth spurt or something and teething so he cried a lot last week! Plus, I didn't realize this before but he hates milk that has been frozen. I tried twice and he cried the whole time. I tried switching the nipple on the bottle, switched bottles, warmed it more, etc and he hated the whole thing. I finally tried some fresh milk and he drank it so dang fast. So I guess no more freezing. I was almost done with breast feeding. I hadn't been pumping and my milk was slowly going away. I felt bad but I was just so tired of it. But Mike talked me back into it so I spent all last weekend pumping and getting it back up. I mean it only makes sense for me to do it atleast until I find a job, which who in the heck knows when that will be. I might be breastfeeding when he's 4 at the rate my job search is going! haha. jk. eww. So anyways, Mike was gone all week and last weekend we had planned a night out with friends for each of us to just have fun. So we planned it before we found out about him going out of town, so he got back on Friday and had a guys night friday night. That was hard, but it was ok, we had already planned it I guess and plus D went down really easy, so I sat home watching a movie by myself and reading stupid girly mags. Saturday was supposed to be my girls night. I was pretty excited about it, but kristie, who I was supposed to do something with, ended up sick, so no girls night for me. So Mike felt bad and took me out on a girls night to this area called Uptown Village, it's in Cedar Hill. It was really nice. They have a band there every other saturday of the month and lots of shops and restaurants. We had a good time. There was this restaurant that was decent. We walked in and I asked if it was too nice of a place for a baby. They said no of course not but as soon as we walked in, all I saw were candles, wine and romantic settings. I was thinking oh great, this is not going to be fun!! hehe. So we sat down, I ordered a glass of wine, Mike got tea and I ordered an appetizer. Right after that, Dylan decided to show the restaurant how well he does know how to scream!! hehe. He wanted to show off his new scream that he learned over the weekend. hehe. So we quickly packed it up, I finished the appetizer and wine by myself while Mike walked him around out side and then we picked up dinner on the way home. this would be a great time if we liked pacifers, but he doesn't! :( Boo! We tried, but it turned out to be a great night anyways. Mike was so sweet. He said we will watch whatever girly movie you want and eat whatever you want for dinner and I'll take care of D all night. It was supposed to be my night off from Dylan duty but I ended up staying home, but Mike still took care of him. He got up at his 2:30 and 4:30am feedings and everything. Then 7:00am came around and he said, "girls night is over, tag!" hehe. which was fine. It was driving me crazy being there while he is crying and stuff and not helping. (but I did enjoy just laying back and relaxing) I was disappointed at first but it ended up being a great night with my 2 boys.

Then today we woke up, Mike cooked breakfast and Dylan and I played all day. he is just so much fun right now. I have a blast just playing with him. I am loving every minute of motherhood!! mike is doing great in school and really studying hard. I'm so proud of him. I just can't wait until he graduates!! That is going to be the biggest party ever.

No luck on the job search, i'm applying for a lot today, but I'm not counting on anyone calling, I guess that's my attitude with it now, pesimist! hehe. I just feel lucky that I get to spend all this time with D. It's great. I will miss it when I get a job, so I'm trying to remember that.

Oh and Dylan is in his room now!! we moved everything in there today. he didn't go to sleep too well tonight, but it's a new room and new things to look at. He will get used to it. I just hope we can! I already miss him sleeping next to our bed. :( He's growing so fast. hehe.

ok, off to bed