October 2017 – Peanut Smiles

Halloween 2017

October 31, 2017March 31, 2019 peanutsmiles

I cringed when Lexi requested to be a princess for Halloween this year. My years of cute animal coordinated costumes were over and was so disappointed that I wouldn’t even get one year with all three of you in them.

As the weeks went on, Lexi was insistent on being a Princess, Repunzel to be exact and claimed she had been growing out her hair for a whole year for this. However, William had developed a very odd attachment to the Beast (and would often roar at people the way the Beast did when he was angry, from Beauty and the Beast)

I used this to my advantage and planted the seed that Lexi could be Bell, William could be Beast and Katelyn could be little Chip. They were thrilled with the idea and I was thrilled I could have them at least be coordinated–even if they weren’t in adorable animal outfits.

I bought Lexi’s because there is no way I could make a decent Bell costume. There weren’t any decent Beast costumes to buy so I pieced the outfit together and bought a Beast Hat. Then Daddy’s artist skills came in handy as he drew Kate’s Chip face on a onesie and I paired it with Lexi’s 1-year old Tutu.

It was pretty chilly out this year so we didn’t make it as far as last year, but the kids had a great time and LOVED all of the candy they got!!

Kate Halloween 2017 Love,

Mama

Kate, Kate monthly posts, Uncategorized

Katelyn 4 Months

October 20, 2017April 13, 2019 peanutsmiles

Dear Kate,

When you were still in my belly, I gave a speech at your Auntie Sheila’s wedding about how awesome it is to have a sister, and sweet baby girl, you have one for the record books. I pray that this relationship only continues to get stronger but the love your big sister has for you brings me to tears. You’ll be pretty upset or crying about your gas pains, and while Lexi is doing a puzzle or coloring, she’ll start singing you songs to help calm you down. She sings the traditional nursery rhymes with the normal words, but then will also go rouge and make up verses with your name in them. One morning, I went to wake her up for school and very groggily, she asks, ‘Is Beatle awake?’ and I said no, and she responds, ‘OK well then I’m still too sleepy to get up. Come get me when she is up.’ She loves to play with you and nobody can make you laugh more then Lexi. Her love for you is bone deep.

Sleep

Sleep is going OK. I feel like you have regressed a little since I’ve headed back to work. You’ve started to wake up several times throughout the night and I’m working on giving you a pacifier or bouncing you a little and trying to get you to fall back asleep on your own without eating. You flip between sleeping in the magic merlin suit and a fleece swaddle, but probably favoring the swaddle. I’ll either bounce you to sleep (think me jiggling you in my arms, or doing squats) or I’ll put you in your crib awake with your beloved pacifier and you’ll fall asleep on your own, around 8:00ish. Every night the wake-up time is different but you usually need to eat between the 3:00 and 5:00 and then will fall back asleep until 7:30 or so. There was a week where you were getting up 4-6 times a night, which was pretty tough.

Naps are still pretty inconsistent too as far as the length and when they take place. But there is usually a morning, afternoon and evening nap and they are almost always taken in your rock n’ play. Similar to your sibs, they are pretty short (like 20-40 min). You will fall asleep in your carseat when we are out and about, but will wake up when the car stops or we carry you inside.

Eat

The eating adventure has been a bit of a rollercoaster since I headed back to work, and probably the most stressful thing for me right now. I’m barely producing enough milk to feed you while I’m at work. My work schedule is all over the board, and I often don’t have control over it. This is hard because I feel like I need to stick pretty close to whatever your schedule is to ensure I pump enough during each session for the next day AND that when I get home I have enough to nurse you. If I don’t stick to your schedule (even if I’m off by a half hour or 30 min) my body doesn’t have enough time to produce the milk that you need and then I’m short. I have very little milk saved in the freezer for emergencies and I know that we can always use formula, but if I don’t have to, I don’t want to. You eat about 5-6 times a day (3, 7, 10, 3, 6, 8). Two or three of them are bottles depending on when I leave in the morning get home in the evening. When you have a bottle, you’ll easily chug 5 oz. I am working on trying to wean you from that middle of the night feeding, then I’ll be able to pump in the morning and get some extra milk to help build up the freezer stash and help reduce the stress around this a little. The Dr. also suggested pumping before bed each night and then pumping each size during each session (was only doing one) to help increase the production.

Development/personality

You despise tummy time and we rarely put you on your tummy on a flat floor because you spit up so much
Speaking of spit up, you still do this a bit. I regularly walk around with a spit-up stained on the shoulders of pretty much any shirt I’m wearing.
If there was a prize for the best smile you would get a blue ribbon
You love love love music. You love when anyone sings to you (especially Twinkle Twinkle). Your light up star is a fav toy and generally just clam way down when music is playing.
You’ve rolled from tummy to back a few times, but I think it is more from gravity than you intentionally rolling over.
You’re super ticklish, especially on your neck and we’ve heard your beautiful giggle
As I was reading your big sib’s 4 month post, I got nervous because they were both grabbing at toys by this point and I didn’t feel like you were doing that, but then realized we don’t give you very many opportunities to do so and as soon as I put you on your playmat your started to reach for toys
You still love the paci, but become a little less dependent on it each month.
You have super great head control–you’re still a little bobble head from time to time, but do a pretty good job holding it up
You’ve gotten pretty gassy. You’ll often wake up because of gas and scream in pain. I’m wondering if this is caused from the bottles so we’re trying the Dr. Browns bottles to see if that helps. When you’re in a lot of pain, you just scream with your mouth wide open and won’t even latch onto the pacifier to help calm down. Sometimes this even happens while nursing.
You poop every 4-5 days
You remind me a lot of William. I feel like you have very similar sleep patterns, eating tendencies and have his big beautiful eyes. Hopefully, you’ll also have his long eyelashes and dark complexion

Monthly Stats

Height: 24.25 “
Weight: 13.36 lbs
Head Circumference: 16.5″
Size 2 Diapers–and they are pretty big
Clothes: 3 months (but are starting to dabble into 6 month as you’re a little tall for some of the 3 month sleepers)

My sweet little Kate, we love you beyond words and I can’t imagine life without you. You bring to much happiness to your daddy and I and we are so excited to watch you grow and learn.

Love,

Mama

Kate 4 Months

William

potty training round dos

October 11, 2017April 13, 2019 peanutsmiles

William, where do I even begin this long journey with you?

Is it here?

Potty training technically began with you back when you were still in daycare. Mrs. Essi would have you go and sit on the potty while the other kids went. You would always sit on the potty but never actually go.

Fast forward to the July and I thought things with Kate were going pretty well and you seemed to kind of understand it, let’s give it a shot. Especially while it was warm outside and if he had accidents outside, not that big of a deal. Day 1 was a hot mess with 10+ accidents but thought that’s how it was with Lexi too. Day 2 was another hot mess. Day 3 there was no progression made so we reverted back to diapers. I think I attempted this on two separate occasions.

Somewhere In between all of these attempts, you were trying to get to the bathroom sometimes but sometimes not so I knew you got the concept of it but thought you were just too lazy to actually care. You also started to refuse diapers at this point so I knew we really needed to buckle down. We broke out the sticker chart and I tried the drink lots of fluids, keep you on wood floors method, and this helped you learn the feeling of pee. You could feel it was coming but had a hard time getting to the bathroom, getting your pants down and getting yourself on the toilet. There were lots of accidents on the floor in the bathroom, but you got it.

The hard thing was pooping. You would poop your pants 5+ times a day. Not an entire load, but enough to make a mess. The hardest part was, you didn’t seem to care. You would just sit and play with it in your pants and act like nothing happened. There was no consistency in the time of day that you went and you didn’t seem to mind if you were around people or not. I tried to watch you like a hawk, but the moment I turned my back to make lunch or nurse Kate, you would have an accident. With all that said, you would poop on the potty, but it wasn’t anything sizable. You would push out these these tiny little rabbit turds and for a kid that would regularly poop 3-4 times a day, I knew there was more in there.

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We tried to bribe you with a spiderman toy, all the treats in the world, threaten diapers, gave you a little potty to sit on, I talked to every boy mama I know, sought advice on social media on two different occasions, read the book, oh Crap! Potty training and nothing seemed to resonate with you. After a month and a half of this, Daddy raised his hands and said, ‘That’s it, I’m done.’ He has to go back to diapers. I can’t clean up any more messes. After being without diapers for almost two months, I just knew we couldn’t do that to you. Initially, when I read the book Oh Crap! Potty Training, I thought you were already past some of the key stages as we had been at this for several weeks and you were doing a decent job with the pee situation. But desperate to figure out something that worked. I went back to the book and decided to start from square one.

I knew you understood that you were going to the bathroom so we skipped step 1 and went to step 2. I sent Daddy out of the house with the two girls so I had no excuses to be distracted by anything. I set my phone out of sight, promised myself not to do ANY housework, got you naked and started to pump you with apple juice. We sat and played trains and cars and the first time you started to poop, you didn’t even notice but I saw it and we ran to the bathroom. The laxative from all the apple juice helped it be more than a tiny little turd. We went back to playing and the next time, it started to come out, you noticed it and said, ‘I feel the poopy’ so we ran to the bathroom and you went. This happened two more times that day and it was the thing you needed to get you over the hump. You had a couple of more accidents, but you finally started to poop regularly and could identify the feeling of needing to go.

In hindsight, it felt like such an easy thing to do once I really focused and sent Daddy out of the house with the distractions and wish I would have done that from the beginning. We could have reduced a whole lot of stress and messy clean-ups. But none-the-less, you are now pooping and peeing on the toilet 80% of the time. The other 20% happens on the floor in the bathroom as you just can’t get everything down fast enough. BUT considering you’re two and a half and most boys don’t do this until 3, I’m going to give you that grace 🙂

Love,

Mama

Uncategorized

The Thick of It

October 1, 2017April 13, 2019 peanutsmiles

Around 6 pm, William called me into the bathroom to hold him while he pooped. I pulled up a stool wrapped my arms around him and tried to enjoy this sweet moment after a day of testing my patience. Within two minutes, his breathing and deepened into soft snores while a pool of drool soak through my sweatshirt.

You see, about 5 minutes prior to this, while sitting commando at the table he called to me, Mamma, I’ve gotta poop. A significant chunk was already sliding down his leg. It proceeded to fall onto the floor as he waddled his way to the bathroom. I caught the rest of it with some wipes, got him cleaned off.

You ask, ‘Why was he sitting commando at the table’. Well about an hour prior to that he declared he had to go potty, but by the time we got to the bathroom, he had already peed in his diaper? So we took that off, but didn’t have any underwear downstairs.

‘Why was he wearing a diaper?’ Funny you should ask, because about an hour before that he had pooped in his underwear, and Daddy was so fed up with the pooping in the underwear, he said, that is it, you’re wearing a diaper.

‘Why was daddy so fed up?’ Well about an hour and half before that, you had pooped in your underwear, and tried to clean it up yourself. While taking your underwear off, you whipped your duty all over your legs, then threw your underwear in the toilet and smeared poop all over the inside of the toilet and the seat. Then I think you tried to wipe your butt with three times as much toilet paper as you needed and proceeded to get it all over your hands and then I think you stepped on the poppy toilet paper that never made it into the toilet and somehow you also smeared it all over the top of the little potty. With your hands, legs, butt and the bottom of both feed covered in poo, it was decided that you were heading into the bath, even though you were supposed to nap. Especially because you had already pooped 2 other times in your underwear today prior to this fun little art project.

Six pooping accidents, 0 successes. Sigh.

Let’s also throw in the fact that Daddy was trying to grout the tile in the basement, Kate was extremely gassy and screaming unconsolably for many moments throughout the day and Lexi was a hot winey mess.

It has been a day my littles. We are in the thick of these moments that are so challenging. I’ve been told, that these days make you a better stronger mom and I’m really hoping they are true because man it was a tough day. As much as I rave about how good things are with three kids (because that is the 1st or 2nd thing nearly every person asks me). We have our moments and days that are just shitty.

Love,

Mom