I'm Back!!

Hello all. So sorry for being MIA for a while. I have a good reason, I promise! I started back to work on Feb 20th, and since then have been adjusting to working 4 days a week and being away from my sweet boy. I knew it would be hard, but it is the absolute hardest thing I have ever done. I was an emotional mess for the first 2 weeks. I still cry from time to time, but have adjusted as well as I can at this point. It has been hard to find time to blog since all I want to do is love on him when I get home from work. After he goes down at 8pm, there is laundry, dishes and sleeping to do. Here is what we have been up to.........

Cass is going to a church around the corner from us 3 days a week. Devlon stays home with him on Wednesdays and I am home on Fridays. Cass has adjusted well to his teachers. Since he isn't a great napper, he is often exhausted (and grouchy) when we get him by 5:30. The napping is improving so there is hope! He is sleeping well at night, praise god! He on average is sleeping 10ish hours. Sometimes he is up at 8 hours to eat and then goes back down for a few more hours. We are still swaddling him. Yep, I know we need to break him from the habit. We tried a week or so ago to stop swaddling and he was up every 2 hours. So he is back in the swaddle. We are not swaddling for naps and we are looking to wean the swaddle in the next few weeks. We also still rock him to sleep.......something we are looking to wean as well. I would like to read him his story, rock him for a few minutes and put him down drowsy so he learns how to put himself to sleep. But we shall see........the times I have tried that he cries and it breaks my heart. He is a very happy boy in the mornings so it is fun, but also sad since we have to go to work while he is so happy.

We had our first sickness. It was bound to happen with him being around other kids 3 days a week. It wasn't terrible, but a fever up to 101.9 and general fussiness. Pediatrician thought it was viral and had to run it's course. The fever went away for a few days and then came back. All of that obviously affected his sleeping at night. I think we are over it and back to our normal self and routines.

We went in for his 4mo check up and shots. We have a big boy! He was 16lbs 10oz and 27 inches long. That puts him in the 80th percentile for weight and 99th percentile for height. He was almost off the growth chart for height. He is wearing 6-9mo clothes. He has such a long torso so most of his pants are still too long for him. We are probably going to start rice cereal soon. He is still a happy boy breastfeeding, so I wanted to keep him only on breast milk as long as possible. He is showing signs of wanting to eat, especially since he sits with us at dinner time in his high chair. So we are planning to start the cereal around 5 months. Speaking of breast milk.........I feel like a cow! I am pumping 2x a day a work to keep the milk flowing. My plan is to keep breastfeeding for a year at least. He does great with the bottle and has no problems going back to breast to eat. :)

Some firsts:

He has rolled over! Whoo hooo! He hadn't rolled over by his 4mo appointment so I was a little worried. Doc said no big deal, now that we do the back to sleep most babies roll over later than they used to. He finally rolled over last Saturday. He still doesn't love tummy time, but has gotten better with it. Now that he can roll over, he doesn't stay on his tummy very long once we put him down.

He has found his hands, which are always in his mouth, his feet and last night in the bath he found his boy parts. He loves bath time and kicks up a storm.

He is very vocal, but only fusses when he is tired or hungry.

He loves his outdoor swing and exersaucer, but only tolerates the exersaucer for about 10 minutes.

Alot has happened over the last few months.........his first valentine's day, his baptism, visits from family and friends and play group with his 3 girlfriends. I have lots of pics to download, but for now I will leave you with some of the most current pics from his 4mo photo shoot (www.betruephotography.com).