Week 10

How far along? 10 weeks 4 days

Total weight gain/loss: +1.6 pounds

Maternity clothes? Not yet, but I'm wearing loose fitting tops

Stretch marks? None

Sleep: Still trying to take a nap during the day... insomnia has already started at night

Best moment this week: FINALLY getting to see the baby and hear its heartbeat

Have you told family and friends: Our extended family knows now that we've been to the doctor

Movement: When I'm laying on my stomach, I think I can feel something but I'm not 100% sure yet

Food cravings: Not a whole lot this week

Anything making you queasy or sick: A lot of things

Have you started to show yet: If I wear fitted shirts, you can see my belly poking out

Gender prediction: Our gut feeling is another boy!

Labor Signs: None

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: I think I've been happy this week... mainly because I've had the help of my family and Cameron with Connor so I'm not as tired.

Week 9

How far along? 9 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: +1 1/2 pounds (I'm surprised it isn't more with how much I've been eating)

Maternity clothes? Not yet

Stretch marks? None

Sleep: I nap about an hour during Connor's afternoon nap

Best moment this week: Making it another week

Have you told family and friends: Just our parents, siblings, and a few friends

Movement: None

Food cravings: Sausage biscuits

Anything making you queasy or sick: Mushrooms, bacon, red meat (which I couldn't eat at all when I was pregnant with Connor), and a lot of other things

Have you started to show yet: Still bloated... especially at night after dinner

Gender prediction: Our gut feeling is another boy!

Labor Signs: None

Belly Button in or out? In

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Depends on if I get a nap in... I'd like to say I'm alright most of the time, but someone might disagree with that ;)

Decking the Halls and Santa Claus

Saturday, December 14th was a busy day for us. My older brother, Sam, graduated from Winthrop and we spent the weekend in Columbia to celebrate and decorate the White's Christmas tree. Because Connor is so mobile, and puts just about everything in his mouth, we decided not to put up a Christmas tree in our place this year. The combination of pine needles in his mouth and ornaments and lights being pulled off the tree would make for one stressed out mama. We did help, or attempt to help, Cameron's parents decorate their tree. Below are some pictures of Connor's attempt at decorating.

Deciding which ornaments to hang

He really liked this Santa ornament

Choosing some that don't have any hooks on them

Chipper was helping too

His pile of ornaments to hang

But really he chews them

Helping dada with an ornament ;)

He put the star on the tree this year

Tuesday, December 17th, my mom, sister, Connor, and I spent the whole day shopping at Haywood Mall. While we were there, we decided that it would be a great time to take Connor to see Santa. Connor truly meets no stranger these days, so I was curious to see what he thought of Santa. The three children in front of us all screamed when they sat on his lap, so I was sure that would mean Connor would too. However, Connor got a kick out of Santa's long beard; in fact, all he wanted to do was tug on it. We did get a picture of him with this look on his face like "why are you telling me not to tug on his beard?" The Santa was very nice and didn't seem to mind. My guess is that Connor wasn't the first and probably won't be the last.

We also took Connor to Build-A-Bear. Even though he's only 9 months old, I wanted to take him to see what he would do. He actually seemed to really enjoy himself. His bear's name is "Homer" and of course is wearing a Braves uniform!

This face cracks me up

I think he's pleased with the bear he picked out

Stuffing the bear (and flirting)

Giving his bear a bath

He really likes the tag

Can't quite reach the dressing table

"This bear is almost as big as me!"

I'm only adding this picture because you can see his bottom teeth

"These stirrups are so funny"

But seriously, the tag is my favorite

Week 8

How far along? 8 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: +1 1/2 pounds
Maternity clothes? Not yet... just lounging around in stretchy pants
Stretch marks? None
Sleep: I try to get in a nap while Connor takes his afternoon nap. I've been extremely tired this week
Best moment this week: Telling Anna our exciting news
Have you told family and friends: Just our parents and siblings and now Anna
Movement: None
Food cravings: A lot of things this week: pasta, pb&j, and sweet and sour chicken to name a few
Anything making you queasy or sick: Still Connor's soiled diapers and now his powdered formula
Have you started to show yet: Still bloated... especially at night
Gender prediction: Our gut feeling is another boy!
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: I've been pretty moody this week... especially on the days I don't get my afternoon nap in (sorry Cameron!)

Week 7

(excuse the pink chalk board. I'm using Emma's until I can get around to getting one myself)

How far along? 7 weeks
Total weight gain/loss: nothing... yet
Maternity clothes? I'm actually wearing a pair of maternity leggings today, but not because I need them... they're just super comfortable :)
Stretch marks? Nope! Luckily I didn't have any with Connor and I'm hoping the same for this go round
Sleep: As much as I can with a 9 month old running around
Best moment this week: No more nausea... but now I'm constantly starving!
Have you told family and friends: Just our parents and siblings
Movement: None
Food cravings: Firehouse Subs (that's all I ate the first trimester with Connor) and a cookies and cream ice cream cake (I had that for dinner last night and breakfast this morning)
Anything making you queasy or sick: Changing Connor's soiled diapers (bleh!), car exhaust, and Connor's peach puffs
Have you started to show yet: Nope, just bloated at the moment
Gender prediction: Our gut feeling is another boy!
Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Depends on how tired I am ;)

Nine Mighty Fine Months

I cannot believe our little boy is now NINE months old! He is so much fun and meets no stranger. At his 9-month well checkup, he weighed 19 lbs 8.5 ounces (46th percentile) and is 28 inches long (32nd percentile). My measurements from last month were off a bit ;) He is no longer long and lean; in fact, he's a bit tubby. The pediatrician spoke with us and we now are having to change his meals up a little bit.

He is still eating four bottles (8:30-9, 1, 5, and 7:20) but he's been bumped up to 7 ounces. I keep thinking he's going to move up to 8 ounces soon, but he doesn't seem to mind just the 7. He is now eating table food and loves everything we give him. We are only giving him softer things, such as tomatoes, sweet potato fries, pickles, mashed potatoes, and rice, but we are trying to give him more of a variety. He loves macaroni and cheese, sweet potato fries, and anything peach or mango flavored! Our pediatrician said that he could have anything and everything except milk from a jug and honey. We've given him peanut butter one night at dinner (the Benadryl was on hand!) and he absolutely LOVED it! It was hysterical to watch him try to get it off the roof of his mouth. When he gets more teeth, I can't wait to see how he handles a pb&j ;) After visiting with the pediatrician today (12/12), he is now supposed to only get 3 7fl oz bottles a day, and a well-balanced meal during meal times. Well-balanced means a combo of meat, veggies, fruit, and carbs. We haven't given him any meat because I figured he can't chew it since he only has his two bottom teeth. Well, that's a bad philosophy! We just have to chop it up to where he can "chew" it. A neighbor suggested meatballs and meatloaf, so we are going to try that! This table food has thrown us for a whirl!

He is working on his top two teeth (any day now!), so that has thrown us for a little loop. They have caused one extremely runny nose, which caused him to wake up between 5 and 6 each morning because he couldn't breathe. Luckily, he would go back to sleep almost immediately after another dose of Benadryl. If he didn't wake up around then, he would wake up at 7:30 wanting to wake up and play with his dad. But after a bottle around 8:30, he would fall back asleep until 10 or 10:30. Fortunately, we are getting past this runny nose and he's sleeping the whole 12-13 hours at night (7:30pm -8 or 8:30am). The past few mornings he's actually slept until 9:30. I wonder if he's going through a growth spurt. Let's hope so!

Some activities he loves doing this month are singing, waving, walking with his walker, and taunting Chipper with his toy (and laughing the whole time!). He's started doing this little laugh that sounds like a sheep baa-ing (working on a video). We aren't entirely sure what it means. It could mean that he knows he's cute and wants attention, he's excited about something, or he's thinking of doing something he isn't supposed to be doing. Whatever the meaning, it's super funny! He's also starting to pull up on things and letting go to balance for about 5-10 seconds and then falling. He especially likes doing this in the bathtub, which scares me every time. It's really hard not to gasp and hold my breath, but I don't want to "scare" him and think that it's something bad. He also has learned what "no" means. He doesn't always obey it, but he's getting better at it. I'd say he obeys it about 75% of the time. We are still working on the concept that Chipper's water bowl does not need to be tipped over every time he passes it. He is much better about leaving it alone now, but he doesn't always leave it alone. He really LOVES his baths. Cameron has started a game of timing him crawling from his room to the bathtub. His record, so far, is 12 seconds ;)

Below are some pictures of our sweet little boy and a short video of him playing with Chipper.

 

Eight Great Months

Our little boy is now EIGHT months old!! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful baby. I measured him this morning and he was about 28 1/2" and weighed 18.5 lbs. He's wearing his 9 month clothes and some are still too big. This month he has come to enjoy his naps (thank goodness)! Instead of the two 30 minute naps he was taking, he now takes two 75 minute naps. Now that I have a taste of longer naps, I'm not sure how I was handling those two short naps. He has also come to love snuggling. There have been days where I rock him for hours at a time. He also will snuggle with the women in the church nursery and at yoga, it is so sweet! 

He's also gotten a lot more curious with his crawling. It used to be that he would stay in the same room, but now if you put him down, he is gone in 5 seconds. He can climb the stairs (scary!) and he loves to chase Chipper around the house (so precious!). 

His sleeping schedule has changed a little since the time changed. Instead of sleeping from 8:30pm - 9am, he is now sleeping from 7:30pm - 8am. There are days where he wakes up around 7:30, but he usually goes back to sleep by 8 and sleeps until about 9:30! His eating schedule has been a lot of trial and error this month. He's now on formula, so we tried a bunch of different feeding schedules. What works best for him is four 6 ounce bottles (8:30, 12:30, 4:30, and 7:30) and he eats solids after his first three bottles. I was trying to do 8 ounces, but he wouldn't want to eat as many bottle during the day. So, we've stuck to this routine and it's worked out. 

He now has a tooth!! The bottom tooth poked through on October 29th! The second tooth is ready to break through any minute now. He's done pretty well with teething. He was only fussy for two "mornings" at 5am, but after tylenol and some snuggling, he went back to sleep until 8. He had one night of a slight fever and that was the night before his gum split open. I could tell something was up because he was super clingy one day. He wouldn't let me put him down or leave the room for a minute without him crying. I am glad that teething explained that because it really tested my patience.

This month he has learned how to wave and say "hey!" It melts my heart every time. He does three different "waves": whole arm wave (in the video below), a wrist twist wave (like a beauty queen), and then an open and closed hand wave. When you hold his hand, he can take a few steps before losing his balance. When he's trying to pull up on an object that's too far away, he will put his hands on it and walk on his knees to get closer. He also shifts from object to object, so sometimes he will be balancing on the couch then he will turn around and reach for his walker toy to play with it. My favorite thing he does is when he's ready to get down from whatever he's standing on, he plops down on his butt. It is so cute! Here are some pictures and a video of him waving.

His tooth! The one to the left of it is well on it's way through!

What Connor does at Mommy-Baby Yoga!

"Hey!"

Halloween 2013

Connor's first Halloween was celebrated by attending Cameron's flag football game. We didn't mind because we weren't going to take him trick-or-treating since he's too young to eat candy. We did, however, want to dress him up because that's what it's all about anyways. 

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. Cameron chose to carve the Nightmare Before Christmas' character and I chose to carve an owl. We don't have any pictures of me carving my pumpkin because I ended up having to carve it after we put Connor to bed. Here are pictures of Cameron carving his pumpkin:

"Supervising"

The remote control is the only "toy" that entertains him for longer than 5 minutes

Chipper was curious

He can't quite reach the table

Finished product

It turned out pretty good

Chipper just liked to lick the pumpkin

"No, I did not pull this over"

Sweet, sweet boy!

Finally, it was Halloween! We dressed Connor up as the blue M&M. My sister, Emma, went to M&M world in New York City this past summer. She bought him a onesie and we were hoping that it would fit for Halloween. We were a little worried that it wouldn't fit since it's a size 6 month, but it fit like a glove! He was SO cute in it and it matches his pretty blue eyes!

Trying on his costume... I think he approves

I think this face matches the one on his shirt

Such a little booger!

He's a mess