Hellobee Boards

@babyjmama: Oh my goodness, that happy little face is adorable! J looks gorgeous, I bet coming home to that smile every day just makes your day! I'm glad to hear things are going well - it sounds as though you really have a handle on working full time and mommyhood!

@Lindsay05: Awww, she is darling! She's just beautiful with those big blue eyes and that blonde hair! I'm sorry that bf'ing is still a challenge but it's great to hear that she's sleeping so well! And yes, I agree, people seem to have no hesitation in sharing "helpful" advice on how we should be raising our children! It can be so frustrating sometimes! Ah well, we all know we're doing the best we can and judging by the pictures you and Babyjmama posted, you're both doing a darn good job!

I'm going to try this whole summoning thing to see if we can't get some of the other Junebug mommas to chime in with updates. @heatherloveskenny: @plantains: @cyndistar: @pregnantbee:

(not sure if that will work but worth a try. Who did I forget?)

And now for our update:

Things are going really well over here! Baby E is a very happy little baby so it makes being a SAHM very enjoyable. Now that she's 4 months old, we're trying to get out and about a bit more but I have to admit, I'm a homebody and am just as happy to stay at home most days. I know she needs to get out though so we've been heading to a babies session at the library twice per week and catch up with friends on the weekend so she gets a bit more socialisation.

As for feeding, she's still EBF with a bottle of expressed milk every other day or so. It took a good 8 weeks or so, but we're finally at a good place with bf'ing. I do struggle a bit with blocked ducts as she only feeds 5 times per day and goes for 13 hours overnight without a feed, but I've been ok with getting on top of them fairly quickly and have only gotten mastitis once (and hopefully never again!)

Sleeping - I almost don't want to admit this but she sleeps 12 hrs through the night without waking. She has given herself a very early bedtime, 5:30 pm, which of course means she wakes up around 5:30 a.m., but we can live with that. DH doesn't get to see her in the evening as she's asleep by the time he gets home, but at least he gets a good hour and a half in the morning before he heads off to work. I keep waiting for this 4 month sleep regression to hit but have my fingers crossed we skip that!

Other than that, she's doing well! She's definitely a talker and loves nothing more than having 'conversations' with us, which always involve lots of laughing that usually escalates up to squeals. She still hates tummy time and is not anywhere near pushing herself up on her arms or rolling over. They say babies are either walkers or talkers, so I'm guessing we'll fall into the latter category.

@Lindsay05, funny you should mention that you're thinking about another one, I've been thinking about #2 as well! I think we're going to start trying after Christmas.... we'd like three kids and we'd like them somewhat close together, so I guess we'll see what happens!

Anyway, here's a couple of recent pics, we're just heading in to summer so we can finally start wearing some of her gorgeous little dresses!

Hmm, I don't see our photos either, I'll have to try again.

@heatherloveskenny: How adorable is she!?!! Look at that blonde hair! And she totally has that expression saying "yes, of course I'm adorable, what else did you expect mom?" So cute!

Ok trying our photos again:

Oh and what about @junebugmama: ?!

Our update:

Jax is a pretty needy baby. He doesn't like to really be by himself and gets easily bored. He's rolling over, standing, and now gets on all 4's and rocks, so he should be crawling any day now. He can crawl backwards about a foot or so, which I find hysterical. He hasn't quite managed moving forward. He's super chatty and is now cutting a tooth. He's a mover and a shaker for sure!

We are ebf. He's never received a drop of formula. It was a crazy struggle. I had low supply, he was tongue tied, my body didn't make milk only colostrum for 14days do to my early induction, but we made it! I actually am working at the local hospital as a breastfeeding mentor and am working to become a IBCLC. My struggle and reward have really changed me and proved to me that I really can do anything if I put my mind to it. As Jax gets older there really is a bond that him and I have formed. He now holds my hand while he nurses which I think is super cute.

Jax is pretty standard sleeper for a bf baby. Most bf babies will sleep for about 7 hours straight and then every 2 hours. He falls asleep around 9pm, wakes at 11pm to feed and then sleep until about 6am, feeds again and then sleeps until 9am. I do however have to lay with him to get him to fall asleep and it can take awhile.

Even though I'm a Junebug if you all remember he was born May25th so he just turned 5months. We had family pics taken that weekend so heres one from last week along with a few others. We also went to Halloween party where he was Elvis!

@babyjmama: my ears stick out too! my nieces and nephews got my ears as well

Yes I do have a bonus son he turned 5, 2 weeks ago and just started kindergarten. He's an amazing big brother and helps so much with Jax. He will entertain him while I cook and what not. He says their best friends Here's a pic of Jacob. He carved this pumpkin all by himself this year! He's doing great in kindergarten and already has 2 girlfriends! Grace and Nicole lol

Hi, Ladies! I miss all of you. It's so great to hear from you and see all of the updates. I can't believe our LOs are 4 months old (5 months for Jax) already! They're all so cute, and I'm so glad you're all doing well.

Little Man C is doing well overall. Becoming a mom was so much harder than I ever thought it could be. And I certainly didn't go in thinking it would be easy. His smiles and amazingness do make up for all of the sleep deprivation and my anxiety over doing things "right." I was on maternity leave for 4 months, which included several weeks before his birthday.

It took awhile to become comfortable with breastfeeding -- between what I think was forceful letdown and his tiny mouth, it was tough for him to get a good latch and stay on. After about 3 months, it finally stopped hurting. I'm still EBF, and his daycare gives him bottles of pumped milk while I'm at work. And DH gives him the occasional bottle at home. Since I just went back to work today fulltime, I'm still working out how this whole pumping/daycare thing will go. I'm glad I returned to work gradually and did 2 weeks parttime first. In a workday, I'm not able to pump as much as he eats at daycare, so I'm wondering how this will go. Will be throwing in an extra pumping session per day if I can. I may have to provide 1 bottle of formula per day, but I'm going to try upping my supply before doing that. The other thing with that going on now is C gets pretty distracted while nursing -- he pops himself off to look around the room or look at me and coo. It's so freakin' cute, yet annoying at the same time, especially if it's at 3 a.m.

I'm envious of everyone's LOs who are better sleepers than mine! We've had a couple fluke long 7-10 hr stretches, but his "normal" is much more like a 5-hr, then 3, 2, 1-hr stretch. Maybe a 5-6 hr, then 4 hour, then 2 hr. Last week, he was waking up overnight every 1-2 hours, and it was killing me! Daycare suggested he was cold, so I double-swaddled, and that seemed to work, especially if we remembered to turn on the heat, too! I've been reading several "no-cry" sleep books, but I'm not sure yet which will be the winner. I'd like to not have to have him CIO, but I really want him to sleep better. His naps when home with me are shorter than I'd like, but he sleeps well at daycare.

I miss him while at work, but in some ways, I think I enjoy my time with him more now that there's not as much time. I really love my job and am happy to have conversations with adults during the day. Maybe at some point I'll change my mind, especially when he becomes more interactive, but working is the best choice for me for now. And I really love his daycare.

As for C himself, he is so curious about everything around him. He has to take in everything before he'll feel comfortable -- much like his mama. I really wonder what his internal monologue is! He's also a babbler and coo-er, and I'm trying to capitalize on his curiosity and apparent love of communication by teaching him some American Sign Language. He's also really strong -- he prefers "standing" to laying on his back or tummy. His head control is really good, and we keep having him practice holding his head up. He accidentally flipped himself onto his back months ago, but hasn't done it since. And he's dying to roll from his back to his stomach, but he hasn't done that yet either. And he's a drool machine. We go through multiple bibs a day. Not a tooth in sight, though.

And now for a couple recent photos. The one on his tummy is from last week. The one in the bouncy chair is from a couple weeks ago.

Let's try and check in with each other from time to time. Miss you and am happy to see so many of you here

@HeatherlovesKenny: Aww, thanks! Elly looks like so much fun. Love her little headbands!

Our Junebaby update:

Things are going really well now! We had a rough start with my milk not coming in; E having colic, and me having severe PPD almost immediately after birth. 4.5 months later though; things are great!! E is a very, very easy going baby and is usually very happy. She smiles all the time, and laughes.
E sleeps through the night; which is so nice since both my husband and I work full time outside of the house. We haven’t had to CIO at all yet; she’s very good about going right down after a bath and bottle.

E can roll from back to belly but she doesn’t show any interest in doing it often; she would rather “stand” or sit up. She can sit up unassisted for about 30 seconds at a time; and for several minutes with minimal boppy assistance.

She talks non-stop!! I walked into daycare one afternoon to pick her up, and all the babies were quiet except E – who was loudly telling stories to everyone from her bouncy chair. All her teachers comment on how verbal she is; and from the minute she wakes up to the minute she falls asleep she is chatting away to anyone who will listen. She has really figured out how to high-pitch squeal and shriek, so there is lots of that going on too.

She LOVES daycare, which makes it really easy to drop her off there every day. She is so social and loves to meet new people. As soon as she sees the other babies at daycare she starts flapping and waving her arms and laughing or talking really loudly. She absolutely loves playing with the other babies and loves watching the older ones learn to walk and eat.
We’ve started introducing purees a little bit; so far we’ve tried avocado and peas and E seemed to like the flavor of both, although of course she doesn’t have the hang of “eating” yet. She’ll get there though.

E’s favorite activities are holding hands, standing up and dancing to music, watching the cat and reading books. She almost has the hang of turning block book pages herself!
She’s doesn’t care for tummy time, unless you put toys in front of the boppy for her to reach for and play with. Then she’s fine to do tummy time for quite a while.

Here's some pics of E: bathtime, reading about Rome with papa, and watching the cat jump around and play.

@yoursilverlining: so sweet! Question for the purée's, do you cook them first? I want to try avocado in a few weeks but not sure if they can have it raw or if it should be cooked (not sure if you CAN cook avocado, lol)

@HeatherlovesKenny: The avocado we did raw (I’m not sure how you would cook avocado either!). I just waited until the avocado was super ripe, then ran it through the food processor and added a little formula to make it more liquidy. You only need to use like 1/8 of an avocado haha, so make something yummy for yourself with the rest!

The peas I cooked (steamed them), then ran them through the food processor until they were smooth. I added a little formula to that too; at the suggestion of the pediatrician.

@HeatherlovesKenny: we just did raw avocado with Jax. You just add bm to it and mash with a fork. The bm actually breaks it down, so no need to puree. We took this picture, he was licking it like a dog, and I thought it was a funny halloween pic. He looks like he puked up pea soup lol!!!!!

@junebugmama: hahaha! That's awesome.

@cyndistar3: Glad you're doing well. What a sweetheart! Love her hair and expressions!

@HeatherlovesKenny: I always thinks @cyndistar3 LO looks a lot older than Jax too! and I think she's younger!

I can't believe that I'll have a LO this size this time next year (EDD 6/22/13). All your LOs are so beautiful! Congrats!

@babyjmama: how nice to see you round these parts again. J is soooo adorable, he has such a delicious gummy smile. I'm so nervous about going back to work. I'm still on leaveyet nothing gets done. I can't imagine what it will be like when i go back.

@Lindsay05: everyone has such an opinion about what we should be doing don't they? Your baby is such a cutie. I love the look on her face in the first photo.

@Ree723: How are you? So glad you are enjoying staying home. She is beaustiful. Her eyes are incredibly striking, and look at all that hair!

@HeatherlovesKenny: that hair flower is incredible.

@junebugmama: gosh, i'm so proud of you for persevering through all that breastfeeding drama. Job well done, Jax has suc a cheeky look to him. His Elvis costume is awesome.

@pregnantbee: so good to hear from you! Your little man looks like so much fun. His personality just shines through doesn't it?!

@plantains: I can't believe I missed this and your update, too! Lara is so freaking cute, I can't take it! I hope your trip went/is going well.