11 Months!

We have been getting consistently good sleep for about 2 months now, YES! It makes such a difference. We've been going to the park regularly while the weather is still nice. After picking Aiden up from day care we'll stop at the park at the top of our neighborhood. He LOVES swinging, plus watching the other kids and eating dirt is fun too. 

I bought Aiden a bunch of new socks because he has to wear shoes at day care daily now. We had a blast throwing them up in the air and piling them on top of him. It was a good hour of entertainment which for a baby is a really long time. 

With my new found energy, I hung a bag (bought from Craigslist) in the garage so that I can really easily workout. I like doing 20-30 minute hard, non-stop workouts lately because time is precious. Working out at home eliminates the need to coordinate leaving the house with Andrew or it gives me the option to workout when I'm home alone while Aiden is sleeping. I'm very excited to be able to resume some Combat Conditioning stuff on my own (The gym has just been too elusive the last several months.)

We caught up with friends this weekend. Laura and Kahlil came over Friday to hang out and celebrate her new career adventure :) We caught up with Tom and Emily on Saturday. And on Sunday we saw James and Whitney, and lent them a bunch of baby stuff we aren't using. Aiden tasted Apple Cider, pizza and peanuts/peanut butter for the first time this weekend. 

I feel like when Aiden's awake we are constantly feeding him. I will feed him in his high chair as soon as we get home from day care. Then when Andrew and I eat dinner he'll eat dinner with us. At day care he has breakfast, lunch and snacks in addition to 3-4 bottles. On sunday morning he ate 4 scrambled eggs, an entire banana with peanut butter and then had a container of greek yogurt with Andrew. This was all after nursing as soon as he'd woken up for the day. It really seems ridiculous. I fear what the future holds for our grocery bills :P We occassionally get pictures texts from day care...

We are sort of doing 'baby led weaning' if you were to label it, but mostly we do what's convenient. He feeds himself unless it's something like yogurt. We love the pouched food when we're out and about but typically he just eats whatever we are eating. We don't keep a huge stock of baby food and avocados are still a daily staple.

You can tell when he's full because he becomes a lot less accurate and concerned with actually eating any of it... 

At this point breastfeeding is still working well for us, he will nurse when he wakes up and goes to bed, and then 2-3 times during the day. While at work I pump 3 times. I haven't noticed a drastic change in the amount of feeding as we approach the one year mark. It seems to slowly be decreasing, but we've noticed a major increase in the amount of real food he's eating. During the day we typically offer food options first and then offer milk if he still seems hungry. If he wakes up in the middle of the night I will nurse him because that puts him back to sleep quickest. I can count on one hand the number of times that hasn't done the trick and it's usually been because he's sick.  

A New Season

I started my new job and Aiden got his second ear infection, so Andrew and I each had to miss a day of work because he had a fever for about 3 days. Luckily work was understanding.

Naps with a snuggly baby are rare in our house. This little guy just never stops, so we take full advantage when he's sick to get in any baby cuddles we can. 

We visited Mr. Mike at ATG during his last week, the day before I started my new job. Aiden put on a little concert in Mike's office. 

 We got the Special Edition Madden 25 which came with Direct TV's NFL Sunday Ticket. So without cable, we can watch most of the sunday football games... and Aiden is ready!

 "FEED ME!"

 My new spot at Responsys with a 27" Mac... totally spoiled :P

 Team happy hour after my first week, and Max came too :)

 Aiden and I went to Wayzgoose where Responsys was participating in the steam roller poster printing competition for the first year. (Thanks Henry Alva for letting me swipe a few of your pictures for my blog post.)

 Eating dirt at the park... because swings and other kids are just no fun.

 Spaghetti and broccolini, NOM NOM NOM!

He walked himself 5 houses up the hill and stopped to pick up some leaves along the way. 

Mastering his toys...

10 Months!

I have completely failed at blogging the last several weeks. After our travels and visitors I ended up sick for 2 weeks with mastitis and a sinus infection so we've pretty much been in survival mode. Luckily Aiden is sleeping through the night, sometimes waking up once, so I've been able to get lots of rest.  

In more exciting news, I gave 2 weeks notice at work. I will be starting a new job August 4th at Responsys in Seattle. I'll be going from an all-in-one email marketing position to a more focused role as email and web developer which I think will be a welcome change. I will get to really hone my skills. My commute will be a little longer and I will have to pay for parking but these are minor compared to the positives of this opportunity. 

Aiden still loves to eat everything. He is transitioning to the waddler room at daycare now that he walking all over the place. He will still spend time in the infant room but the waddler room is bigger, has more toys, things to climb on, they go outside more regularly, more real food is offered, and they nap on cots (good luck to them with that one).   

He has mastered emptying things...

Aug. 25th 

Sept. 2nd

Playing outside and chauffeur training...

We took Aiden to the Bellevue Mall kids' play place and it was a HUGE HIT. He was a glowing smile the entire time, found a few other babies to play with and climbed all over. 

The Goodies

There are items we have found very useful. Some are still useful but many were useful for such a short time. I would have preferred to borrow or purchase them used so that I could then give back, give away or resell them. Instead our garage has become more of a storage unit while we decide if there are any other kiddos in our future. If you knew for a fact you wanted more kids this probably wouldn't be as much of a consideration. (Noting this for others, but mostly for myself because I've already forgetten so much.)

USEFUL FOR A SHORT TIME: (maybe worth purchasing used or borrowing)

Stroller/Car Seat Set
We purchased this set on Craiglist. It worked out perfectly for about the first 6 months. Being able to get out of the car and run errands without disturbing a sleeping baby is a great convenience. But the car seat quickly gets too heavy to be pulling it in and out of the car on a regular basis. We ended up purchasing a second car seat on Craiglist so that we could leave a car seat in each car, save our backs and just remove the baby. The stroller is also huge and heavy, even when folded up. When we traveled we could only fit it with one large suitcase in the back of my Escape.

Swing
This was where Aiden slept at night for the first 2 months of his life in our room. He slept longest here and it allowed us to get quality sleep in between feedings every 2 or 3 hours. Once we weren't using it at night we moved it to the living room. He would nap there and it vibrated which he liked. The other nice thing about this specific swing was our Graco car seat fit into it.

Bassinet
This was a great convenience. I could slide it up right next to the bed and it gave us the option of baby's room or our room at night without moving anything. Once baby can sit up, it can't be used anymore which for us was around 4 months. A friend had a good suggestion, which was just to use a pack n' play (which is functional for longer) and not have a separate bassinet.

Floor Gym
We used this from month 2 to 5. Once baby was sitting up and crawling, it didn't hold his attention long.

Bouncer to Rocker
Again great for a small amount of time, especially the vibrating feature but once our little guy could sit up, he was not interested in being reclined and strapped in. This specific version is supposed to be convertible to a toddler rocker later so hopefully it will be functional again in the near future.

Doorway Jumper/Jumper
Our first jumper was just too big for our house. It wouldn't fit through a doorway without being disassembled and we don't have a ton of space to waste. Luckily a friend had given it to us so we just passed it along to some other friends. We ended up buying a door jumper which was a huge hit. But only for about a 2 month window. Once our little guy was crawling and pulling himself up he just did not want to be contained.

Swaddles
We loved swaddling. It seemed to work well for us but from talking to other parents it really just depends on the baby. We used the miracle blanket recommended by our doula and the woombie. They are a little pricey considering they are a glorified blanket but we got by with 2 or 3. Once he was rolling over around 4 months we had to stop swaddling.

Nursing Pillows
I have the My Breast Friend and the Boppy. I didn't end up using either much for nursing, but I very much think it's a personal preference for a mom. I would prefer the Boppy because it provides more function, propping baby up to sit or for tummy time.

STILL USEFUL:

Umbrella Stroller
We love this stroller and it's useful for a long time. Lightweight, compact, great price with the only downside being lack of storage. I solved this by purchasing this very inexpensive stroller caddy. A very happy medium we found that was still relatively compact but with the features of the bigger stroller was a Peg Perego, and by finding it used on craigslist we avoided the large price tag.

Pack N' Play
This has been super useful. When he was first born it was in our living room for naps and a changing table. I don't think the bassinet attachment is necessary with the raised pad. It's his crib and changing table when we travel. Now, it's in our room for him if he's waking up a lot at night. I purchased this off Craigslist as well. But knowing now how useful it's been, I would have purchased it new.

Toy Straps
Useful in so many places, cars, restaurants, stroller, etc., and saves us from playing the "pickup" game over and over and over.

Book Bag
We used a book bag as our diaper bag which was an idea I got from my cousin. I've have not once missed having a shoulder bag. It's not gender specific so we only need one. Having it strapped on my back frees up both hands and I don't worry about it constantly slipping of my shoulder. This was extremely important while traveling. I was already pushing a stroller, sometimes carrying him in a sling or trying to get situated in our seats.

Room Darkening Shades
Our little guy was born at the end of October so the sun coming up bright and early to wake him was not a concern. As spring came we noticed he was slowly but surely getting up earlier and earlier. We hung up a room darkening shade and the next morning he slept an hour longer than he had been. Well worth it and he still sleeps until about 8 or 9am which we love.

White Noise
We used this from the very beginning. We had a sheep and giraffe that would play white noise for up to 45 minutes. Then once Aiden was sleeping in his room longer we had white noise playing constantly. We recently purchased a white noise machine for his room which I wish we'd done sooner. We were using my iPod which makes for a pretty expensive noise machine. When we travel we have free apps on the iPad, iPod and our phones. Since our main floor is the second floor I think this helps drown out the uspstairs racket while he sleeps. We don't tip-toe around, we do dishes, laundry, walk around and he in not bothered.

Bumbo
We got this free from a friend. It was good to have while he was learning to sit up, and we bought the tray attachment so now he regularly eats in it. I think it's worth noting, he's a pretty lean baby and will probably grow out of it very soon. I don't think most babies his age would still fit.