The time has come... Advice needed please.

Unfortunately... To begin the weaning process :( wahhhhhh! I'm thinking of waiting another month since Luke will be a year next month... Double wahhhhhh!! Is there a big rock that I can crawl under?! A place where I can go to nurse Luke for at least another year? Where I don't have to work out-in-the-field? Because yeah, pumping in my car, in-between appointments and the daily craziness that this job brings just isn't working. So, I need your advice please... Where do I start? How long, about, will the weaning process take? I haven't done any research yet but that's next on my list. Here's a little background info: I currently nurse Luke in the morning, after work, and to bed every night. He will NOT take a bottle and getting him to drink two, 4 oz sippy cups a day is already such a hassle for my mom and mil. I decided to wait until he's a year to start the process, though it seems right around the corner (i can't believe my baby boy is going to be a year old!! did I say that already?! lol).

Please please please share your tips, tricks, trials, anything you can on the subject. I'm sure you guys are far more expert than anything I can read in a book or online!

Luke's nighttime sleep update

It's been almost a week that Luke has been STTN!! Nothing was even done on our part, it "happened" when he got sick and we figured it wouldn't last but here we are, a week later and he's been sttn every.single.night since then! So a typical night is in bed/asleep by 8 p.m. and awake at 6:30 a.m. It's a MIRACLE!! Maybe it's too soon to start celebrating but seriously guys, we were so ambivalent about how to address his sleeping issues (waking 2-3 times every night) and now we're crossing our fingers and praying that his newfound habit is here to stay!!

Thanks for all of your well wishes in the previous post, it's so nice to hear/read such supporting words from those who have gone through it and/or can empathize. Please cross your fingers that this is not a phase!

10-month update

omg this is soooo overdue! luke turned 10-months-old on 6/29/10 :/ so really, this should be titled "10.5-month update.." but that just looks weird so, let me move on. things have been crazy busy around here (deja vu much?!) i think i might be starting with that statement in every blog post, unfortunately. there must be a learning curve in going back to work, i think an "adjustment period" is an understatement.

i'm exhausted. EXHAUSTED. any free time i have it's spent... sleeping. luke goes to bed by 8 and i'm usually in bed/asleep by 8:30. pathetic. luke has been waking in the middle of the night even more frequently since i've gone back to work :( he'll wake about 10pm, 12am, and around 3am. i nurse him and he promptly returns to sleep. hubbs and i have talked about sleep training, i just don't want to start that too soon, poor baby is already going through a huge transition, i don't want to shock him into another one. i wish i could do this with no problem (waking and tending to his every need), but i miss the days where he would sleep 10+ hours every night (how greedy i was to wish for 12 hours!). not only do i miss my rest, i miss his independence. i'll keep you posted on how we're able to implement some kind of training. it'll probably be soon because these past 2 nights have been hell, with me practically in tears due to exhaustion! i just wish i knew when the "right" time was/is :(

so not surprising that i didn't get around to taking his 10-month pics right?! good thing i had a few invite sessions right at his 10-month mark, so i can just use those.. already slacking :/

Here's his update first:
- still EBF, woooweee! 10.5 months of nursing, so glad i've made it this far!
- he nurses in the morning, has 2 sippy cups (about 5-6 oz ea) while at grandma care and then nurses twice at home (1 when we get home about 5pm, and then at bedtime). oh - not to forget his midnight meals :/
- at 10 months he started rejecting his purees (which aren't really puree since i make them, so they're kind of thick/texturey). regardless, he only wants to eat our food so we're slowly doing away with the purees. sad sad day, my baby is growing up!
- eats 3 meals a day, still all homemade, mostly finger foods like toast w/cream cheese for breakfast, pasta w/cheese + fruit for lunch, and then some kind of protein and veggie + fruit for dinner.
- cruising since 9.5 months
- upper two central incisors came in back to back, first one (on his left on 6/18) and the second one on 6/19!
- just a couple days ago (7/13) both of his lateral incisors came in! poor baby, he was a champ though, we didn't even know they were coming in (no teething symptoms whatsoever) until they were out already!
- he's crawling a mile a minute now (and boy do we get a workout!) it seriously happened overnight and he just gets faster and faster everyday.
- he loves playing fetch with himself. he throws a ball and crawls after it, throws it again... and so on.
- he's talking a lot now. again, overnight. he grunts when he wants something (usually the food on our plate, lol).
- hubbs caught him (red handed) teething on the crib a couple weeks ago, the crib is now decorated with cute little teeth marks (see pics below). we've since found a resolution to this dilemma, pics to come in the next post.
- he just recently started waving, chasing after the door when daddy or mommy leaves, and throwing a big tantrum if we tell him "no, get down!"
- he's a generally happy baby, not fussy at all unless it's bed time. he's an easy baby for sure, loves people and kids (not so much sharing but that's natural right?! lol).

i think that's it for now. here are some pics of him at 10-months. get ready for pictures galore!

i think he was done with the hat..

and i don't know when one would ever not want their baby in focus... but i was playing and think it's a cool perspective (too bad i didn't catch that adorable expression in focus).

that's more like it!

lol

and last but not least...

oh, almost forgot to include pics of Luke's latest, er, hobby... it's even worse now! these were taken after the first incident.

Little everyday quirks

There are always some things Luke does that makes me say, "dang, forgot to note that in his monthly update!" so here I am now, nursing him to sleep (yep, still doing that every single night!), making a list of all the cute, crazy, awesome things he does that male his little personality so adorable.

1. He crosses his ankles & covers his face with the burp cloth every time he nurses. The ankles he's been doing for as long as I can remember.. 2 months old maybe?!

2. He's nosy. Like REALLY nosy! I have to nurse him in an empty room or else he's popping off every 2.5 seconds! He swears they're talking to him. Same applies when he eats solids. Has to be minimal distractions or forget about it.

3. He's understanding the word "no" now, at 10 months and does NOT like it. He throws a fit (with involves the cutest little pouty, crying face I've ever seen!).

4. He loves playing fetch with himself. He'll throw a ball and then crawl after it. He'll continue this for awhile, until something else catches his eye.

5. He is not a fussy baby at.all! The only time he fusses is when he's ready for bedtime and/or we put him in his crib to nap. Other than these two times he's the calmest little boy I know.

6. Have I mentioned that he's not a big fan of naptime?! Yeah, I think it's more the crib he's not a fan of, but ugh, I hope this changes soon! We've tried sleeping training him using the modified CIO method but it just broke my heart, letting him cry like that. I'm such a whimp!

and with that, he's up so I gotta run.

My favorite pics...

i have sooo much to update on (Luke going to urgent care - he's ok, Luke wanting to play with mommy & daddy at 1 a.m., and so much more) but instead i'm going to share some fun pics. i've been playing with my new camera and have fallen in love with taking pics w/o Luke in them... fancy that?! of course they don't exceed the love i have for those WITH him in them, but nonetheless, here they are.

*publishing this now w/o the pics but will come back, at some point in time, to update with the photos*

Spaghetti

mmmmm... Luke has recently been refusing his typical purees so we've upped the amount of table foods we're giving him (and let me tell you how much work that is! i guess it's supposed to be easier, in theory, but since the hubbs and i rarely sit down to a nice home-cooked meal anymore, it's actually more of a challenge that i have to cook every night, on the + side, Luke eating more solids will help me eat healthier :) here's a look while he enjoys his first, uh, plate of spaghetti :)


and these are just hilarious! pinky in the nose and all!

Luke's Birthday invite

so you've seen the out-takes here (lol - poor baby!). now here's the final product. much better right?! i found this adorable invite on one of my favorite sites - Etsy (surprised right?! haha, yeah right, who doesn't LOVE etsy?!). it's actually a store that i've ordered from before, 4LeafBoutique. so check! one party-planning thing done, a million more to go ;)

Productive Weekend + Luke's 1st Birthday party planning

this weekend was a productive one.. finally! hubbs and i both got off early on friday so took Luke to the park to try and get some shots for his birthday invite... this is what i got...

hopefully he was just having a bad day and not hating the baseball theme altogether or else we're screwed come game day! good thing this was the 3rd attempt (yep, 3rd!). so, to finalize the invite i had to use some pics from the previous 2 attempts. i swear i just need to work on not trying to be a perfectionist in every.single.thing i do! which brings me to another productivity accomplishment...

i started the scrapbook! yep. i never ever ever wanted to ever (get the idea?!) get into scrapbooking! i always knew it was never for me since i have no creative bone in my body. so i thought about doing "a year of photos" for his birthday party (as display) but wanted to do something a little more... creative. WHY??! who in the world jumped into my body and gave me that stupid idea? well since i'm not naturally creative, i had to buy a cricut (surely it'd bring some creativity juice my way right?! um, NO!). back to the story - it took me 2-3 hours to start & finish the cover that says a whopping, "My 1st Year"

Really?! because i didn't just start a new job and i didn't just lose over 40 hours a week of being home to actually work on this birthday party right? right? i seriously need to be checked into a mental hospital if i think i can pull all of this off within the next 2 months. so please. please wish me luck! sorry - no pics of this :(

oh, and before i forget. here's the first pic taken (well, not technically the very first pic, but one of them) with my new camera. i am in absolute LOVE with this camera. i'm sure it's a combo with my lenses but man, i am loving every single pic that this baby produces and it's absolutely amazing that i can produce an image shot at an ISO of 3200 with little noise. HEAVEN!

and since i can't decide which finish i like.. you're getting both ;)

and here's one i took at a wedding i went to on Sat. playing with the macro end of my macro lens for the first time.

luke's been up to no good :( i'll have pics of that in a whole new post (to come soon). he's already getting in his lateral incisors so it hasn't been smooth sailing around these parts in at least a few days.

oh, and what do you think of the larger pictures? go back to the smaller/blogger ones? have a great week everyone, hopefully you all are getting much more sleep than i am these days.