Cooper's 8 Month post

Cooper turned 8 months old 10 days ago. Holy cow -- 8 months?!?! He went to the doctor on Tuesday for his very first sick visit (other than biliruben checks when he was a week old). He's been running fever ranging from 101.6-103.3 since 5am Tuesday morning, so we've been a little distracted recently. Fortunately, he is just fighting off a virus so all three of the White kids have yet to be on any form on antibiotics (unless you count eye drops for pink eye the week before Thanksgiving). 

He weighed in a 20lbs 1.5oz! I honestly thought he would be heavier considering he looks giant!! He's still wearing 6-9month, 9 month, and 6-12 month clothes. He can still wear very few 6 month clothes.

He has two bottom teeth. The second one came in the day after Thanksgiving. I didn't even know! He has been wearing his Amber teething necklace and it has made a huge difference. The moment I put it on him, his drooling decreased tremendously within an hour. I couldn't believe it. So I am a firm believe that this thing works! Best $10 I've spent so far.

He is still only doing 3 bottles a day and drinking 7-8 ounces each bottle. He's doing wonderful with table food. He's able to shovel food into his mouth at an impressive rate. His favorite food is a peanut butter foldover. (And yes, I did get the go ahead from my pediatrician about the peanut butter.) His favorite snack food are those Lil Crunchies and we haven't had a flavor we don't like yet -- well, maybe the cheese kind. I was very hesitant about Cheerios, but he was accidentally given some (thanks big bro) and he actually did well with them. So, in the morning he eats some Cheerios and yogurt melts. I know, I know, I'm not "feeding" him the yogurt like I probably should. But with three kids, breakfast is a little chaotic with waking up, getting milk cups filled, kids potty at different times (I mean could they both just go at the same time?!?), breakfast served, and coffee made. So, mornings are basically "survival mode" and I'm okay with that :)

He's sleeping wonderful -- 11-12 hours. He goes to bed between 8-8:30 and wakes up somewhere between 7:30-8:30. These past few mornings he's been waking up between 4:30-5am because he's running a pretty high temp (around 103) so he's been getting tylenol and a few ounces of a bottle so he can get back to sleep. My poor baby :(

Still not crawling or talking. He still just kind of makes the "ah" sound at very different volumes. I think everyone else just talks for him (#thirdchildproblems). He's also wanting to crawl. He pushes up on all fours and rocks back forth before flopping down like a little penguin on his tummy. He gets very frustrated and lets us know that he's very frustrated. So difficult being a baby!!

His absolute favorite thing to do (besides shovel food into his mouth) is jump in anything that has a spring. He jumps for over an hour at a time in his jumperoo. We call him the Cooper Jumping Bean because he literally just jumps and laughs for forever. He's beginning to use it as his transportation. He jumps and scoots the jumperoo around the floor. He's even pulled our little Christmas tree over on him... that was quickly moved.

So, all in all he's a pretty easy going baby. He just goes with the flow because he kind of has to. He's a sweet little boy!

A little video of him jumping and scooting

Cooper is 7 months old

I'm a week and a half late, but Cooper is now 7 months old. So hard to believe that he is closer to his 1st birthday than he is to the day he was born. AHHHHH!!!!

I have no idea how much he weighs or how tall he is, but he's still pretty hefty. He's in 9 month clothes, but can still wear some 6 month clothes.

He's doing well with eating solids. He has a hard time getting smaller food (puffs, yogurt melts, etc.) into his mouth, but has no problem jawing them whenever they make it in. He still loves his apples! I haven't tried bananas again, but he does okay with foods that have bananas in them. It takes him a while to finish those jars of baby food, but he eventually finishes them. He absolutely LOVES mum-mums - especially apple pumpkin flavor! He's drinking out of a sippy cup okay. He doesn't really like water, but I'm not giving him anything else in it - although I have thought about putting his breastmilk-formula combo in it, I just haven't because I don't want it to go to waste. He's still doing three 7 ounce bottles, with the occasion fourth bottle.

He now has one little tooth. I think the second one is on the way, but there's no telling. We've been waiting for this tooth since he was 4 months old. It's nuts! He is a terrible teether too. He won't sleep and he is super fussy and drooly. I ordered him an amber teething necklace and I'm still pretty skeptical about it. We'll see if it really works when the second tooth comes in. Maddie and Connor were awesome teethers so this is just another way of him telling me he's the third baby and is going to do things completely different from his brother and sister!

Sleep is nice when I get it. He went through a phase of waking up two times a night when his tooth came in. Then he was just fine and slept through the night - roughly 11 hours. Now he has terrible eczema on his feet. So, of course it itches all night long and you can't possibly sleep when it itches. Ughhhh!! Luckily we have the best pediatrician in the world, so we will be picking up some prescription ointment to put on it and will be on the mend soon -- I hope! He still naps really well. About 90 minutes in the morning and 3-4 hours in the afternoon.

He is still not crawling with his tummy off the floor (which I am totally okay with!). He can get wherever he wants doing his little inchworm/army crawl. I'm sure he isn't because I hardly put him on the floor. When he's on the floor, he gets trampled by his brother and sister. So, it's safer to be in the jumperoo or bumbo seat. He can pull up when I offer him my hands but hasn't tried to pull up on furniture -- again, I'm okay with this (I don't need another one to chase around right now before the holidays). He likes to scoot around on his bottom in the bathtub. It's hilarious and reminds me of Maddie when she was this age.

He loves to laugh at his brother and sister because they are so silly! He loves to jump in the jumperoo and he loves to be on my hip all day long. His favorite thing is to be in the front pack when we are in the store. He just bounces around and laughs the entire time. He can sit in the buggy, but when I have all three of them, it's easier to wear him and have Connor and Maddie in the double cart.

We recently had pictures made and this is the most accurate picture we have of the kids personalities. Connor absolutely adores his brother, Maddie is constantly loving on him with hugs and kisses, and Cooper just doesn't know what to think about it all.

And of course his monthly picture

Happy Half-Birthday, Cooper!

Just realized I never did a 5 month post for Cooper... whoops!

But Cooper turned 6 months on the 5th, and we had his well check-up appointment on the 6th. He weighs 18lbs 7.5oz, which puts him in the 68th percentile for weight. He is 27 inches long which puts him in the 66th percentile for height. His growth has slowed down tremendously, which is probably a good thing for my back and shoulders ;)

He is wearing some 6 month clothes and some 6-9 month clothes. All of his fall clothes are size 6-9 month so that's what he's wearing mostly. He wears size 9 month footy pajamas because he's so long. We have switched him over to cloth diapers because we were having some trouble with diapers sticking to his skin. We thought Pampers were the solution, but then they began sticking to him. Poor guy! So, we are doing cloth diapers and that's working out pretty good. We don't have enough to be 100% cloth diapered, but we have a fair amount and are able to cloth diaper the majority of the day. He doesn't sleep well in them so I still put disposables on him and make sure that I put vaseline on him just to get through naptime and bedtime.

He moves all over when he is sleeping. He moves so much that he is starting to hit his head on his crib and it wakes him up. The pediatrician said it's okay to put bumper pads in the crib now that he's a little older, so that's my next step. He is sleeping pretty well, he goes down around 8 and wakes up around 6 and then sleeps until 8:30 or so. The past two nights he's waken up around 2 so I've thought about bumping his bottle up a little today to see if that helps. He had his shots on Thursday so that could explain it too.

Speaking of eating, he is on baby food and he loves everything I have given him except for bananas. He even loves peas over bananas... crazy talk! I think his favorite food is applesauce. He is now on two snacks a day and loves mum-mums. He has been given a sippy cup with water in it but all he does is bang it and throw it, so that's fun. He is doing three six ounce bottles a day - which now I am bumping up to 7 ounces as of today. So he's only getting 18-21 ounces in... which is nuts for his size. I'm still doing 4 ounces of breastmilk and 2 ounces of Similac - now 5 ounces of breastmilk. If we are out of town or on the go, I just do straight formula. It's easier and doesn't waste the breastmilk. Around when he was 4 months old, we switched over to Dr. Brown's bottles from the Avent bottles and it has made a world of a difference. I highly suggest, if you are having trouble with your little one's gas, to switch over to Dr. Brown's bottles. It has made Cooper a whole lot happier. He is no longer fussing after eating and he finally is finishing his bottles.

He is still doing his Zantac 3 times a day. If I miss one dose, he is up all night long. It's horrible. So, I've set an alarm on my phone to give him his medicine. Our pediatrician says it's normal for that to happen. Some babies need it more than others because of the acidic juices from the baby food. So, hopefully he will be off of it around 9 months. We will see!

He is doing well developmentally. He is rolling over, inchworm crawling all over the place, and sitting up and down. He loves to play with his feet, like all the time. He is grabbing everything you put in front of him, and putting it in his mouth (I wish these teeth would come in already!). He is laughing a lot, especially at his older brother and sister. He loves his jumperoo and has begun jumping in it a little bit. He loves standing up and if you give him your hands, he pulls up on them. He's still a little short to be pulling up on things, but I don't doubt he could do it.

Here are a few pictures of him. Some are in our backyard and we also took the "monthly" picture in the seat at the stadium.

I thought it would be fun to see how much he has changed month to month

Cooper's 4 month post

Cooper is 4 months old. He turned 4 months on the 5th, but since we were pairing his appointment with Maddie's 2 year appointment, today was the first available date they had two appointments back to back. He's still a very big boy weighing in at 16.88 pounds (71st percentile) and 26.75 inches long (94th percentile). He wears 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. I'm thinking his 9 month clothes will soon make it out of storage, but he hasn't really needed them yet.

He is still bottle fed, but now he's doing half formula and half breastmilk. For whatever reason, my breastmilk decided to dry up so now I'm having to use my stash in the freezer. I ended up having around 800 ounces stored up before I stopped pumping, so that should last around 2 1/2 to 3 months. He is doing five 6 ounce bottles during the day, sometimes he only does 4 (just depends on how well he sleeps at night). He is given rice cereal once a day, and he absolutely loves it. In fact, he cries if you don't give it to him fast enough.

His sleeping hasn't been that great lately. He was only waking up once a night and making it through the night some, but now he's waking up twice. After speaking with the pediatrician, she may think it's because of his reflux. So we took a look at his dosage and I actually wasn't giving him a full dose. So, hopefully bumping it up will help him (and me) out. It's still not terrible because the first time he wakes up, I'm still awake, but I know what he can do. He actually has slept through the night quite a few times, so I know something must be up.

He is still working on sitting straight up and down on his own. When he sits, he kinda just leans forward and looks like a little turtle with his head poking up. But he's getting there and doing well. He loves his jumperoo and the exersaucer -- I love them too ;) He does really well in his bumbo seat and high chair, he is even beginning to play with toys while he sits in them. He rolls consistently from belly to back and can roll from back to belly but doesn't do it consistent yet.

His most favorite thing to do is to blow raspberries and then laugh about it. His big brother has caught onto this and has picked up spitting (biggest eye roll ever). So now when he spits, I have to say "Now, Cooper, we don't spit!" Not like he knows what I'm saying or even cares... but it's starting to help.

Maddie turns TWO!

It is so hard to believe that my little Maddie girl is already two years old -- so hard that I cried on and off for three days (I'm a baby, I know). She is such a sweet little girl, but she also has her sassy moments. Luckily those moments are very few. They tend to happen more when she hasn't slept well or if she is hungry.

We had her appointment today (we were pairing it with Cooper's 4 month appointment so that's why it's so late). She is 26.81 pounds which puts her in the 50th percentile, and is 35.25 inches tall (88th percentile). She has finally started to thin out, although I'm not quite sure they measured her height accurately (Connor was measured that tall at his 3 year appointment and he towers over her... so something is off). Her BMI is in the 17th percentile. So, she's growing quite nicely and the pediatrician is super pleased with it.

She is beginning to become super picky about her food. She likes some veggies, and loves all fruits. She doesn't really like a variety of food, but I'm trying to get her to expand her horizon with what she's willing to eat. I make it a rule that if she doesn't eat her dinner, I leave it on the table so if she's hungry later she can eat it then (the same goes with Connor).

She's doing well developmentally. She's counting, saying all of her colors, learning her shapes (she knows triangle and circle), saying all of her animals sounds (and loves to be quizzed), and she loves to sing. Her new favorite song is "I Know You" from Sleeping Beauty. She still sings the Frozen soundtrack on a regular basis, and she likes to sing some Ariel songs, but she's learning more and more songs.

Her potty training is going extremely well. She still has accidents every now and then but we've gone a few days without them and then she will have a couple in one day. So, as long as we are home or have easy access to a bathroom, we're good. She's doing really well with initiating her need to go (in fact, she went twice today at the pediatricians office). Her accidents tend to come when she's really tired and when she's had a lot of tea to drink. I have to make sure to keep track of how much she's had to drink.

So now about her birthday party. I went with the theme "Under the Sea." I was thinking of how hot it was going to be so doing some water activities would be fun for the kids. I spent a lot of time making the decorations, which I always say I'm not doing it again but end up doing because of the vision I have in my head.

To eat, we had peanut butter and jellyfish (pb&j sandwiches in the shape of stars and fish), coral reef (cheetos), octopus (hot dogs that were cut to look like they had legs), seaweed (grapes on skewers), fish and chips (potato chips and goldfish), crab legs (carrot sticks), sea cucumber (cucumber slices), and sea snails (cocktail weenies in crescent rolls). To drink we had ocean water (copycat recipe of Sonic's ocean water -- so good!), fresh water, and sweet tea. I also made the cake again. I made it in the shape of a fish using cake and cupcakes. It was super late when I made it (like 2am) so it wasn't as polished as I would have liked for it to be, but it looked cute.

For the activities I had water guns, water balloons, Maddie's water table, and this mermaid lagoon blow up pool thing. I was right, it was HOT, but the water activities were perfect for the kids. They all looked like they were having fun. I also found these stamps that were sea creatures, so I pulled out some paint and construction paper and let the kids have at it.

Here are some pictures from her party:

The water balloons that lasted a whole 30 seconds

This is the mermaid lagoon

Max and Lydia seemed to enjoy the slide

Playing with water guns

Birthday girl isn't so great at aiming her water gun

Tables

The food spread (and yes, I made all of those clam shells -- never again)

Drink table and cake

The fish cake

I put the kids names on their cups

Present time

She blew out her candle all by herself

Cooper is 3 months old

Cooper the pooper is now 3 months old! He's such a big boy (I mean... he kinda started out HUGE!). I have no clue as to how big he is since he doesn't go back to the doctor until his 4 month check-up (mid-August). I do know that compared to other babies, he seems to tower over them -- but every baby is different (I keep telling myself that since he's so different than the other two). He is already wearing 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. He can still fit into some 3 month clothes, but the majority of his wardrobe is size 6 months. He still has dark hair (well, what little he has) and pretty blue eyes.

He is now down to 5 ounces every 2 1/2-3 hours during the day. He was having a hard time finishing bottles, and it killed me to throw away some breastmilk each feeding, so I thought maybe if we went down to 5 and it has worked beautifully. I'm still pumping pretty much every meal. I only nurse first thing in the morning because it's easiest and the wild children aren't up yet (most of the time). He is still doing his Zantac 3 times a day, and it has really helped a lot with healing his stomach. We have been doing Maalox for the instant burn (if he ever has any) and it has worked miracles for us. If he's ever fussy during a bottle, I just give him 2.5mL of Maalox and he's good to go. It also helps with gas, so I usually end up giving him 5mL before bed and it lasts the entire night (praise!!)

His sleeping is a little out of whack. He is fighting his swaddle so he has been waking up around 3 each morning fighting his swaddle. So. Annoying. I've tried different swaddles, unswaddling him, loosely swaddling his arms, swaddling his body but leaving his arms free... you name it, I've tried it. The only way to get him back to sleep after waking up, is feeding him. He only takes in about 2 ounces before he passes out, so we aren't up but maybe 10 minutes, but I'm usually sleepwalking at that point. After that one quick wake-up, he doesn't usually wake up until 8. So he sleeps 11-12 hours -- and probably would if I could figure out this swaddle thing. This too shall pass, right?

He is almost rolling from back to belly. He has given us quite a scare in his swing and bouncy seat. We make sure he is buckled in if we ever leave him for 5 seconds now. I try to get him to do it flat on the ground, but nothing so far. He isn't much of a fan of the jumperoo, but I keep putting him in it because it's another outlet. He loves his bumbo seat for about 5-10 minutes and then he's over it. He's really strong and can almost sit up, but he gets a little too happy and loses control of his body. He is giggling more and more each day, and he says "agoo" all the time. He does really well with tummy time. I've been remembering to put him on his tummy more and more.

He still has his occasional fussy day, but for the most part he's a pretty happy little boy. He fights sleep during the day, but all I have to do is turn on some lullabies and he calms down really quick. At the table, he loves being a part of the action and sits in his highchair. I put a few toys on his tray, but he doesn't play with them yet. He just like to "talk" and smile at us.

Here are some pictures of him this month.

His monthly picture

Blue eyes

I thought this onesie was fitting since he does look like his daddy

Getting stronger by the day

Connor and Maddie were playing in a squirt pool, Cooper just relaxed in his bouncy seat

Tummy Time

I don't normally post stuff like this, but this here is my freezer stash of breastmilk (I had to recount it- for the 10th time). Exclusively pumping is a lot of work (and stress!) but I'm pleased with how well I'm doing. This is 626 ounces in less than 3 months (I have over 700 oz now). I'm not entirely sure what my goal is yet... it literally changes every day depending on my mood ;) I would like to shoot for 6 months then using my freezer stash until it's gone then formula... but we'll see what really happens.

More tummy time!

Update on the kiddos

Since June is practically over, I thought it would be fun to do a little update on the kids.

Connor:

He is the smartest little fella there is. He knows and recognizes all letters of the alphabets and numbers up to 20! He can sing the ABC song, but doesn't like to get caught doing it. One day he brought me the bathtub foam numbers 1 and 7 and said, "Look, mama, seventeen!" Lord, I about passed out. I have no idea how he knows all this stuff. It's a great thing he's starting 3K in September, because I'm not sure what else to teach this guy. He is still pretty small, hovering around 29-30 pounds. His 2T shorts still fall off of him, but they are getting better. He is a super picky eater, and can literally go all day eating like 5 crackers. It drives me nuts! So, I've decided to start him on some PediaSure. Maybe he will start growing, maybe he won't. But at least I'll know he's getting the main nutrients in. He's so funny too! You really never know what is going to come out of his mouth. This morning he told me he was a "new super hero" and that his name was "Connor White Miles Superrrrr!" He loves all things Batman and Superman. He's really a sweet guy. He cares for others like you wouldn't believe it. But, he also is your typical three year old. Sweet one minute and sour the next. His mouth gets him into trouble a lot, but he usually straightens up after a quick talk or two. He is still in his double bed and doing quite well. We were having trouble getting him to bed in a timely manner, and sometimes we still do. He's getting better about going to lay down for bed. He had a little bit of regression with his potty training, which we expected. We were struggling to get him back on track. We finally  took one of his favorite toys away and put it high up on a shelf. He would ask for it, and we would tell him that he had to stay dry for 5 days before he could have it back. He stayed dry for 5 days and we gave it back to him. He had a couple of accidents the next week, so we took it away again for a few more days. After we gave it back to him, he hasn't had many accidents and he's telling us when he needs to go. The regression was the most frustrating thing because he knew exactly what to do, but just ignored it. Womp! I'm just glad he's back on track... just in time for him to start school--- yaaaaaaay!

Maddie:

She is the boss around here. Girlfriend is a troublemaker! Don't get me wrong, she is the sweetest thing, but she definitely stands her ground and makes it known who is the boss -- or so she thinks. She is so chatty. She wakes up and falls asleep talking. At the table, she will just talk to hear herself talk. A lot of the time she sings. It's so sweet listening to her sing, especially in the car. She loves to sing along to the Frozen soundtrack, and she's starting to get into The Little Mermaid. I have the soundtrack somewhere, but for now we are listening to songs on my phone. She gets really excited when she sings to them. She knows all of her colors and the majority of animals sounds. She can count up to 10, but most of the time she skips numbers. Her favorite numbers are 1, 2, 4, 7, and 9. She says those a lot. When she walks down stairs, you can hear her attempt to count them on her own. It's so fun to listen. She is very expressive! She likes to dress up, put on chapstick, wear bracelets and necklaces, and carry purses around. She has these small Disney princess figures that she sleeps with (we used those to get rid of paci) and she puts them in her purse and carries them everywhere. As if I needed anything else going on, she has decided that she no longer wants to wear diapers. So, she is about 80% potty trained. We still don't trust her when we are out in public yet, so she wears a pull-up. But, she has to problem telling us when she needs to go potty while we are out. Sometimes she tells she has to go but doesn't really go. That's super annoying, but we just keep taking her anyways. Her favorite thing to do during naptime is to get up and go potty--- basically just stalling. So. Much. Fun. Speaking of naptime, she is in a toddler bed now. The last post that I posted, I mentioned Cooper being in Maddie's room and Maddie sleeping in Cooper's crib. Then I got to thinking how much easier bedtime would be if Connor and Maddie were in separate rooms. So, one night we transformed her crib into a toddler bed. She has done pretty well in her bed. She only got out once the first night we put her down, and now she gets up when she needs to go potty (before she actually falls asleep -- she doesn't wake up to go potty yet). She prefers to fall asleep with her door open, and I crack it when I go to bed. Bedtime is so much easier now. I bathe the kids then get them dressed for bed (Connor dresses himself). We watch an episode of their choosing while I feed Cooper. He gets swaddled and put into the swing to fall asleep. Maddie goes down once the episode is over. Connor gets one maybe two more episodes (depending on what time it is and how he's acting) and then he goes off to bed with his chocolate milk. Once he falls asleep, I move Cooper out of the swing and into his crib. It works -- for now. But she has gone from diapers and crib to panties and toddler bed in the span of a week. It's a little much, but she's doing fantastic!

Cooper:

Big boy is almost 3 months old. He is still at 6 ounces, but now he's only doing 5 bottles. He has decided that finishing his bottle before bed is not his favorite thing so he isn't going to do it. He literally drinks 2 ounces around 8:30 and then wakes up at 2 to finish it. Then he sleeps until 8. Drives me crazy!! But, it's doable. My mom can get him to finish his bottle before bed, and when he does he sleeps until 5:30. So, we are working on it. He's definitely my worst sleeper, but if 9 hours is a bad sleeper, I think we're doing alright. Hopefully he will sleep a little longer once he starts solids (at 4 months). He's starting to giggle a little bit, and is starting to be okay when he's left alone on the floor. He's acting like he wants to roll from his back to belly, but I'm not so sure about it. He gets halfway and then goes back to his back. We'll see if it's a fluke, or if he's really beginning to roll. He has his fussy days and then he has his really happy days. I'm hoping now that he's 12 weeks old, the happier days will outweigh the fussy days. He's such a momma's boy, but that could change with his age. He's in size 2 diapers and in 6 month clothes. He can still wear some 3 month clothes, but a lot of the onesies are too short on him. He still has dark hair and blue eyes. He looks a lot like Connor at this age. I was looking through pictures of Connor and it's just amazing to see how similar they both look. He's a sweet little cuddler, and we all love him dearly.

We had pictures done of the kids recently. Here are a few, I love them all!