Where've you been???

Woah. I have A LOT of catching-up to do and negative time to get to it. But, I'll try my best to get everything up to speed shortly. It's been a whirlwind over here (maybe closer to a hurricane) and I feel like I've been treading water in the deep end for weeks now. 

It's okay. We'll get through. It's hard. It's stressful. It feels impossible but every day is a new day and we just keep chipping away. 

Quick update for those that may not know. August has been life changing:

August 7 - Mandy and I turn 34

August 10 - Kip turns 3

August 12 - We close on our first ever house

August 15 - We move out of our apartment in Brooklyn and into our new home in South Amboy, New Jersey

 

August 17 - Ivy turns 3 months old and I return to work from maternity leave (still remote but I'm expected to be "on" 9 am - 6 pm Monday - Friday) 

Maybe you're thinking...wait what? You moved??? To a house??? To another state??? And you never mentioned any of that here?

Yeah. We did that. I didn't mention our planning because it wasn't truly planned. And I didn't mention the process because it was all so tentative, we didn't know if it would happen until we signed the papers and then three days later we moved. Crazy. But don't worry, I'll fill you in with a nice house post coming soon.

In the meantime, right now we're just trying to unpack everything and get to a place of being semi-settled. We're figuring out how to parent on multi-levels and childproof three times the space we were used to. I'm trying to figure out how to get back into the groove of working at home. Kip is trying to adjust as well and we've seen a huge uptick in tantrums and clingy behavior. Trying to extend as much grace as I can muster while keeping my own patience. 

Then there is Ivy. Getting her adjusted as well, trying to get a nap schedule figured out, and what about the bottles? I'm back at work at home but I will have to go into the city soon. We need her taking bottles regularly and it's bit more difficult than it was with Kip (he took a bottle from day one and liked it cold, never minded fresh vs. frozen). Ivy is picky. She likes it warm and, so far, detests my frozen milk which accumulated to over 500 ounces during my leave period. We are trying different strategies and all of us (Dan, Mandy, and I) are still getting used to caring for two kids. Talk about a circus.

Change has always been difficult for me. Not being in complete control is my constant battle. Hormones still adjusting after having a baby...oh and add in that pandemic thing we're still living with. How many more stressful things can we add to the plate? We made the right choice with this move. I KNOW THAT. But it will take some time before we see the persistent benefits of it. Right now, we're just treading. 

This past weekend, we returned to Brooklyn to finish clearing the apartment. Yesterday, Dan returned the keys. Truly the end of an era.

Ivy || 3 Months Old

Today Ivy turns three months old! Time is warped. It seems like she has been here forever and yet sometimes I still think...wait...wasn't she born last week? Life being so upside down in many ways hasn't helped. But our little baby sister is growing and changing every day and we sure do love her.

Ivy at Three Months

Weight:  11 lbs. 4 oz. (10 lbs. 3 oz. last month)

Height: 24 inches (23.6 inches last month)

Personality: chatty charmer + a little sensitive

Likes

Any and all attention

Fashion? maybe? She seems to like me dressing her up for photos

Bath time

Kippy!

Dislikes

Baby carrier

Any loud or abrupt noises

Nursing on the right side

Getting out of the bath

Being put in the car seat

Getting spit-up wiped off her face

Wearing

Size 2 diapers (a little roomy)

3 month clothing (it's getting tight, lengthwise)

Love to Dream swaddle up for night time

Things I want to remember about Ivy at three months old:

Coos that sounds like "hi"

Kicking so hard she can bounce herself in her seat

How she relaxes so quickly when in the bath

When she spit-up directly into Kip's face when he got too close to her

Tony (the corner ghost - long story I'll have to share some time)

The way she sucks on her fist and has started sucking on her thumb

Receding hairline (it's so sad)

When she toots in her sleep and wakes me up

Haba babies with Kip

When she smiles and coos at me in the middle of the night - ready to chat

Being covered in spit-up (well I don't really want to remember that but it is the reality of this month)

Sleep

Right after Ivy was born I started following two baby sleep accounts on Instagram. Both are run by moms that are sleep consultants and they offer sleep plans for a variety of baby sleep issues. I haven't bought any of the plans but they both offer tips on their feeds with essentially the same advice. One piece of advice I didn't know about when Kip was a baby is something called wake windows. Basically, as babies get older they extend the time they are able to stay awake. Seems obvious right? Well, creating a nap routine is dependent on following the wake windows, which I didn't know. With Kip we just guessed and we often kept him up for hours during the day which resulted in a baby that was overtired and had a hard time falling asleep for naps. He slept great at night but had zero predictability for his naps until he was around a year. With Ivy we've tried to pay close attention to her sleepy cues and her wake window. For a 3 month old the wake window is an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. So once she wakes up for the day, I feed her and then we have chill time. Around an hour later we watch for yawning, fussing, sucking on her fist. As soon as she does that we put her in her sleep sack and in her bassinet with a paci. Usually, if we didn't push it too far she goes to sleep by herself almost instantly. Around an hour later she wakes up and we do the routine again. Eat, chill, back to sleep. So although her naps are generally no more than an hour, we can predict them and plan the day around that. According to these accounts, the older she gets the longer the wake window and the longer the naps. Then as she gets to 6-9 months the naps consolidate into a schedule. So right now we have a general routine (with no set times) eventually it will fall into a timed schedule. 

 

Now, after I typed all that and made it seem easy...it's not. We often have days where sleep or no sleep is all over the place. It's not perfect every day but it is working well for us for the most part and has given me great stress relief regarding baby naps.

Ivy sleeps great at night. She goes to bed around 6:30/7 pm, wakes around 4 am for a quick feed, and then back to sleep until 8 am. I think she could drop that 4 am feed but my ladies are nearly exploding at that point so I typically don't mind getting up to feed her.

Eat

If you've been around for awhile you know that Kip and I really struggled with breastfeeding initially (see here). Fortunately, all those lessons learned really paid off with Ivy. She and I had a much better start and with the advice I got from the Lactation Consultant in the hospital, I was able to avoid a lot of pitfalls that got into with Kip. I still have an oversupply this time around but it's not nearly has bad as it was with Kip. My supply regulated around 6 weeks and I haven't been painfully engorged or prone to clogs. Ivy figured out how to adjust to my forceful let downs and I discovered the Hakka suction pump for catching the let down on the side she isn't latched on. Thanks to that, we have a healthy freezer stash and I've only used my electric pump a handful of times since she was born! Now that I am back at work (even though working from home) I will pump throughout the day so that Mandy and Dan can bottle feed. She takes a bottle well although it does have to be room temp (Kip liked his cold). Overall, I'm just really grateful for both breastfeeding experiences and I have so much sympathy for moms who don't have an easy go of it. Often times people talk about breastfeeding like it's instinctual and for many women (and babies) it's not. We need to normalize that. Anyways, got off track there. Ivy eats every 2 hours during the day for about 6-7 feeds in a 24 hour period. Her only "night" feed is around 4 am.

She has awful reflux and spits-up nearly every feed. According to the pediatrician, since it doesn't interfere with her weight gain or her sleep she isn't a good candidate for medicine and we just have to wait until she outgrows it...around 6 months to a year. Ugh. Until then, she will always have a burp cloth or a dog piddle pad under her. I'll spare you any gross spit-up photos.

Play

Playtime for Ivy is sitting in her bouncer chair and cooing and smiling at anyone who will give her attention. She loves when Kip engages with her. She has started to kick a lot more and tracks objects in front of her face. She HATES tummy time due to her reflux but she has great head control on her own so fortunately we don't have to torture her by making her lay on her belly. I'm looking forward to her beginning to sit up and grasp soon.

Little Ivy Bean we all love you so much. I have a feeling you're going to be a talkative little girl with how chatty you are already. There are big things happening all around you and you just soak it all up. I'm sad I have to go back to work now but I am so grateful that the current circumstances allow me to still be with you all day. What a hidden blessing in this crazy year! Love you little nugget! We survived the 4th trimester together. Onward!

Now a little outtake from her three month photo shoot...behind the scenes

Kippy's Birthday Celebration

 The reality of 2020 didn't change how we have always celebrated Kip's birthday. We have yet to host a "friends" party for Kip so he didn't notice any difference this year with just a small celebration at home.

Cake. Balloons. Presents. Phone calls with family. He enjoyed every moment and has loads of toys to keep him entertained for months!

Kip received a excavator and dump truck for playing in the sand, some cars and wood town pieces to play "town," a bubble machine, THREE remote control cars, a Hot Wheels track (his first), kinetic sand 10 pack, a board game, card game, stuffed animal and geode, die cast fire trucks, and some new books. There are some more gifts to come but we are delaying those to spread out the celebrating a bit. Gosh it's good to be the first born + first grandchild. It's so hard not to spoil him.

 

 

 Happy 3rd Birthday bubba!

Kippy || 3 years old

Today Kippy is 3 years old!!!! Ahhhhh! My baby!

 

When I sat down to write this post I went and looked at Kip's 2 1/2 year post (back here). After I read the post I literally said to myself, "okay what happened in the last six months?" Uhhhhh....the world collapsed in on itself like a dying star. That's what happened. And it just keeps spiraling. Geez.

World events aside, Kip conquered his own big transitions in the last six months. Year two was a big one for this buddy. I can't believe he is THREE!!!

Kipling at 3 Years

Weight: 31 lbs. 3.2 oz (30 lbs. at 2 1/2 years) 

Height: 38.23 inches (37.99 inches at 2 1/2 years) 

Personality: Friendly and creative

Sleep

Kip has been sleeping in his big twin bed since February! We also moved his bedtime from 6 pm to 7 pm during the early weeks of quarantine. He continues to wake up at 6 am and respects his OK to Wake clock. He still takes one nap a day from 10 am to 12 pm-ish. He loves his bed and can be found "taking a break" in it regularly throughout the day and often says his bed is "so cozy." He is still obsessed with the pacifier. Yikes.

Eat

Kip does pretty well at mealtimes and can sit at the table for 10 minutes + provided he has an appetite for whatever we are serving. If he isn't interested, he will last 2 seconds but has learned to say "'manny escuse'" which means may I be excused? before leaving the table. He tends to eat several breakfasts, eats barely any or no lunch, enjoys lots of afternoon snacks, and dinner is often hit or miss. He loves waffles, "baby" toast (cut up toast), cinnamon rolls, "hamburgerers" (cheeseburgers), pretzel crackers, "diamond" crackers (graham crackers), "train" crackers (saltine crackers), strawberries (freeze dried or fresh), broccoli trees, cooked carrots, "ma" (applesauce pouches), yogurt, and any and all chips! He also loves condiments and eats them with a spoon. Ranch, ketchup, BBQ sauce, and his new favorite - salsa! 

 

He has picky moments but for the most part he does pretty well. He will eat something one day and love it and refuse the same thing the next day. He sits in a booster seat at the big table or often eats at his small kids table. He still loves milky the most and even though we had to ration him during quarantine, all bets were off when Ivy arrived. He gets FAR too much milk during the day. Strong bones though, right? Oh, and he loves iced coffee.

Play

Kip has turned into the most imaginative player the last six months. His current favorites are tiny trains (wood trains) and his small die cast trains. He loves to run them across the table while simultaneously watching one of a dozen "train shows" on Amazon and reenacting the scenes. These shows are mainly just footage of steam and diesel trains around the world set to music or train-themed songs. I feel like all kids at this age have a fixation. Maybe dinosaurs or outer space, Kip is ALL ABOUT TRAINS and makes some awesome sound effects. He also enjoys Duplo legos, his play kitchen, his Mama doll, kinetic sand, his stuffed animals which he calls "friends," and cars. Basically, anything with wheels has his heart. At the end of February I would say going to the playground was Kip's favorite thing to do and starting in March he was cut off from that. It was a big and sad adjustment for him and he still talks about playgrounds all the time. I hope some time soon he can return on a regular basis but for now it's just not something I'm comfortable with.

Some unique things Kips likes to play that I want to remember about this age:

"Toe Toes" with Dada - a game where his stuffed animals eat each other's toes for breakfast

Baby with Mandy - a game where Mandy crawls around and talks like a baby

Larry with Mama - a game where I make a large apartment out of Legos and we play with a character we named Larry who loves bagels

Town with Dada - Dan drew a town on paper and they play with matchbox cars

"Do the dishes" with anyone - a game where Kip wastes a ton of water with cups in the kitchen sink

Picnic with Dada - post bath game where Kip and Dan have a play picnic on his towel in his room

Sleep - a game where Kip puts one of us to bed in his room with the lights, sound machine, etc.

Rescue team - a game where he puts any toy, car, or train in a perilous situation and calls for a rescue team

Talk

In the last six months Kip went from a few common phrases and conversation responses to a full blown talking human. The communication light bulb went off and I am so grateful we were all able to witness it in person since we were all together in quarantine. He says the funnest things, repeats everything (watch out what you say), and has some really adorable catch phrases. In the last couple of weeks we've noticed he picks up on people's moods and will comment on it. One day he said to me, "so, Mama...how you doing?" I said, "I'm okay, how are you?" He replied, "I'm just Kippy." It was the sweetest thing ever.

We try to keep track of his little sayings in a small book and I adore all his mispronunciations. Some of the things he says right now that I want to remember:

Last night - a phrase he uses to refer to anything that happened in the past whether it was literally last night, weeks, months, or even a year ago. Everything happened "last night."

No thank you - whenever he gets in trouble he will get upset with whatever it was that got him into trouble by saying "no thank you" through tears. So if he threw a train toy out of frustration and got scolded for throwing it he will throw it again and say "no thank you" to the train.

Five minutes - what he says whenever he wants to keep doing something or watching something. He will say "Five minutes" and go set his timer for 5 minutes. Surprisingly when the timer goes off he does whatever we've asked quite willingly. Timer train your kids!

Beeep - Mandy has the habit of saying "beep" any time one might say a curse word. I picked up the habit from her. So now Kip says "beeeeep" if he drops something or something breaks! He knows exactly when using the word is appropriate, it's hilarious and much better than repeating actual curse words

I'm just Kippy - what he says when you ask him how he's doing

Haf good dea (I have a good idea) - This is my absolute favorite little phrase of his. He will run off and say "I'm hafing a good dea" to let us know he has an idea for play. He will also say, "that's a good dea" if one of us does something he likes

Gosh I wish I could bottle his little voice at this age. 

Milestones of age two

- Big bed

- Potty trained

- No more stroller riding

- BIG BROTHER

The last six months have no doubt been crazy and confusing for everyone and for a little kid with so little understanding of the world, I'm sure it was alarming. I hope Kip didn't sense any fear or uncertainty about his own life but rather felt safe and secure and happy to be with the people he loves. He truly relished all the attention he got in quarantine going from one adult with him all day to three adults every day all day. He made huge developmental leaps in language, play, and social growth - even though he has not interacted with other children since March. Perhaps the thing I'm most impressed with the last six months is how seamlessly he transitioned into the role of big brother. He adores Ivy and greets her every morning with a high-pitched "hiiiiiiiii...you awake?" He talks to her, plays with her, gets worried and upset when she is fussy, and wants to do all the things to help with her. I can't wait to witness their relationship blossom over time.

Kippy - I'm so proud of you and the sweet, empathetic, playful, friendly, and inquisitive little guy you are growing into. You are funny and affectionate and so much fun to play with. I wish you were starting preschool this fall because I know you would love it, but I'm also glad we get to keep you at home and witness your development first hand. It was a wild year and I can't believe how much you've changed. As you grow it's hard to know you're getting closer and closer to the world and farther and farther from me. Its that bittersweet part of parenthood that makes me ache for the past and the days you nestled in my arms as a baby. But you are my baby. My Kippy baby. Little monkey K-man. I love you bud. Happy Birthday!