14 Month/1 Month update

I have officially made it through my first month of being a mom of 2 gosh darn cute kids. It has been a crazy month for us obviously, but we survived and really have gotten into a groove as I mentioned in previous posts.

Over the last month, I won the nap battle with my son. Calan really struggled with taking two naps. I think that it was a combination of a growing phase, getting a little sister, and all the wonderful visitors that came by. However, we have turned the corner and after a month of fighting naps, Mom has won. He is back to taking 2 wonderful naps without any struggle at all. I extended his wake time between naps from 2.5 hours to 3 and that really helped. He now goes down from 10 to 11/11:30 in the morning and from 2/2:30 to 4 in the afternoon. It is wonderful and a much needed break for me. He is exhausting.

Calan playing at our neighborhood park.
We usually stop there for a bit when we go
for a walk. He loves walking around the
jungle gym equipment and playing the
piano. 

Calan is definitely a typical 1-year-old. He is getting into everything and really testing his limits. It can be pretty frustrating as his mom and the the one who is here 90 percent of the time. I hate hearing my say the same things over and over and over again. Usually when I know my patience is running thin, we go for a walk and all becomes well and I am ready for more. He is walking everywhere. He still falls a lot, but that is basically because he totally does not look where he is going. He just walks full steam ahead without knowing what he might stumble on in the process. To say he is a toddler who is toddling along is an understatement.

I can tell that he has hit a new developmental stage. While he seems to be showing signs of selective hearing, if he wants to and is paying attention, he follows some commands like turning on and off lights, putting pieces in a puzzle, showing me his head, etc. Now if I could just get him to listen to "No touch," I would be one happy mom.

Calan is eating really well for the most part. He becoming more selective and knows what he likes and what he doesn't. Vegetables are still a struggle to get him to eat. Sometimes he will, and sometimes he won't. Most of the time I can fake him out by feeding him it on a spoon instead of him feeding himself. But overall, I love that he is eating all table foods. He also had his first eating out experience where I just ordered him food from the restaurant. It wasn't the healthiest meal, but it is so nice to know that food for Calan is basically one thing that I don't have to think about when packing our diaper bag. I do have the option of just ordering him something when we are out and about.

One of Maisie's few smiles I have seen.
Hoping soon we will see a ton of smiles
and hear wonder coos 

As for Maisie, that first month just flew by. It really is so different the second time around. .

We had her one-month appointment on Friday and she is growing like a weed. She was 7 lbs. 15 oz. at birth and is 9 lbs. 4 oz. now. She was 20 inches long at birth and has already grown an inch and a quarter. According to the doctor, she is in the 50th percentile for weight and 75 percentile for height and head circumference. I really thought she had a peanut head, but I guess it is above average after all.

The biggest problem we face with Maisie is that she has horrible reflux. It really dictates most everything we do with her. Basically she eats every 3 hours during the day and 4 to 5 hours at night and then it takes me about an hour to make her feel better afterward so that she is ready to sleep again. We have started giving her some medication (Zantac) which will hopefully help her. The doctor said it can take up to a week to notice a difference. So until then, we will continue to do the best we can to make her comfortable.

Despite her stomach issues, Maisie has been a really good baby. Her crying is absolutely related to the reflux and when she is comfortable, she is very content and just watches everything around her. She started to smile this week and has started to focus on me when I am talking to her.

Also, despite her stomach issues, she nurses really well. She even took a bottle from Bob pretty easily after a little bit of adjusting her suction.

She hates baths, but I think that is also related to the reflux. I don't think she is comfortable in the seat we have for bath time, so on top of being cold and wet, she is having heartburn. Not fun at all.

I am really hoping that after this week, we will experience a really happy baby. She is content, but because she is in pain, she hasn't really shown signs of happiness. This has been pretty hard for me as her mother. Calan was a really happy baby and is still so happy. I just want her to feel pain free.