Ethan is 6 Months Old!

Ethan is officially six months old...can you believe it?! I cannot believe how much our lives have changed in such a relatively short period of time. I must apologize for the lack of posts lately. I have been so busy with my freelance work that every minute I haven't been taking care of Ethan has been spent working. It was great to have a big project to work on over the course of the past week a half in addition to my regular responsibilities, but I'm looking forward to the return of normalcy. This past Wednesday I woke up at 2:30 am and couldn't go back to sleep so I started working at 4...am! That is seriously crazy, and made me realize that I need to do a better job of balancing being a full time mom and working part time from home. I'm doing a good job of taking care of Ethan and getting all of my assignments completed, but I haven't been doing such a good job of taking care of myself. If I ever have another week where I have a project with a tight deadline I think I'll have to have a friend come over and help me out with Ethan for a few hours so that I don't have a repeat performance of the day of the living dead that was this past Wednesday. (And no, I did not nap or anything all day - I looked freaky scary by the day's end!)

Ethan has started solid foods in addition to his rice cereal. So far he has had bananas, apples and sweet potatoes. I'm giving him each food for 4 days and then moving on to the next food so that I can watch closely for any signs of an allergic reaction. He did not like bananas the first day he tried them:

Day 2 with bananas went MUCH better:

I realized that I made a big mistake the day before - I tried to feed Ethan bananas at his regular feeding time and since he was hungry all he wanted was his milk. The next day I waited about 45 minutes after I nursed him and tried the bananas again and SUCCESS - he loved them! He liked his apples okay, and then we moved on to sweet potatoes today and after making a priceless face of disgust to start with he devoured his whole serving. So far the introduction of solid foods has not caused any constipation issues (not to be gross, but I've heard that this can happen) but I have some prunes on hand and if that seems to be an issue that will be the food that we'll do next to fix the issue.

Ethan had his six month check up on Thursday and everything went really well. He is officially 17 pounds 2 ounces (50th percentile) and 27 inches (75th percentile.) He was in the 50th and 75th percentiles respectively at his 4 month check up as well, so he seems to have found his growth curves and is staying steadily on them right now. We'll see if this holds up at his 9 month check up as well.

Ethan is sitting up now! I still have to sit right by him so that I can keep him from toppling over (he's not super steady yet) but it's so cute to look over and see him sitting there. He has changed so much in just 6 short months. One of his favorite activities is to sit in my lap (this boy is a serious cuddle bug) and play with his around town baby driver toy that my mom got him for Christmas. I can sing every song on that toy, but he loves it so I won't give that toy a time out...yet.

Ethan and I are going to visit my sister tomorrow for the rest of the weekend. Patrick is staying home since he has to work, so he is going to get a weekend off from daddy/husband duty. I'm hoping that he might want to clean the house in my absence, but we'll see ;) As busy as I've been the past week, our house looks like a tornado has crash landed here. At least this coming week should be much more normal.

I know I'm way behind with posts and I have so much to catch up on, but I'm going to cut this short for now and go spend some qt with my husband before I leave tomorrow. Cross your fingers that Ethan does well this weekend with just me - I'm a little afraid of a car trip by myself, putting Ethan to bed in the pack n play (he loves his crib so I'm hoping that he'll still sleep through the night), and getting him totally out of his routine. I'm sure I'll have some stories to share when I get back!

A Trip to the Emergency Room

Last night was one of the scariest of my life...we had to take Ethan to the children's emergency room. Let me say right now that he is fine, we are all home, and everything is okay. I don't think that I have ever gone from mildly concerned to absolutley panic stricken in such a short period of time before. Ethan generally goes to bed around 6:30 pm and has been pretty good about sleeping until morning (or getting up just once) but by 10 last night when I was getting ready to go to bed he had already been up and crying several times. I didn't think much about it, until he started getting up every 20 minutes or so in tears and there was nothing visibly wrong - he was not hungry, he had a clean diaper, and he did not need to burp. I finally decided to check his temperature to see if maybe he was sick and it came up 96.5. I thought I had done something wrong so I did it again - 96.4 this time. Mother of the year award here - I still did nothing and I just cuddled him (it was 1 in the morning at this point) and he fell asleep for another half hour or so. I was sleeping in his room at this point because he had been up so much already. When he woke up 30 minutes later I decided to call the after hours nurse line to see if they had any advice/concerns. The nurse instructed me to take his temperature again and this time Patrick took it and it was 96.1. The nurse then told me to bundle him up and take him to the ER. WHAT???? I immediately burst into tears and Patrick and I loaded him up and made the same drive we made also 6 months ago when we drove to the hospital to meet our beautiful boy.

Evidently his temperature was below their acceptable limits (the same way as if he had a fever that got too high) so we brought him to the children's ER and he got checked out. He had to wear a tiny hospital gown, they monitored his heart rate through a tiny cuff they put around his big toe that blinked red (like Rudolph) and he got a thorough exam. We were sent home several hours later with instructions to keep monitoring him (but there is nothing serious that they were able to ascertain.) His temerature rose to 97.3 so off we went to make the drive home...this time in the middle of the snow that had decided to arrive while we were in the ER. What fun! Needless to say, all three Strains are pretty much exhausted today since we didn't get home until around 5 this morning.

I just keep holding Ethan tightly in my arms and am so very thankful that he seems to be alright now. Please say a prayer that whatever was causing his issue has passed and that there is nothing serious wrong. I never understood before having Ethan how strong the bond truly is between a parent and a child, but there is nothing in this world that I would not do for my son. My heart is no longer my own, because it belongs entirely to my boys. I am so very grateful to have Ethan in my life and last night was another reminder that no matter how hard it can sometimes be raising a baby, there is nothing else in this world that I would rather be doing.

Ethan - 5 Months, Week 3

There is so much to catch up on! As you can probably tell from the title, I've given up on counting the exact weeks for purposes of this blog and am now resorting to months and weeks. I guess that means my baby is growing up. He is growing up so very fast...I'm trying so hard to cherish every moment I get to spend with Ethan because I feel like in the blink of an eye he won't be my little baby anymore and I don't want to miss a thing.

A little late...Ethan's "official" 5 month picture

Here are a few of the updates from Ethan's world these days:

• Sleeping (nights) - Ethan still goes to sleep by 6:30 pm each night, but the good news is that he's finally started pretty much sleeping through the night. Of course, he likes to start his days between 4:30 and 5:30 am but at least Patrick gets up at 5 to get ready for work so after I feed Ethan I get to go back to sleep until Patrick leaves the house around 6:30. Ethan has started going down for an early morning nap somewhere between 6:15 - 6:30 for another hour and a half, so I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel with our crazy sleep deprived nights. One day I might be able to feed him and put him right back down until a reasonable hour...let's hope!
• Sleeping (naps) - Ethan is still a champion sleeper during the days, but I established a really bad habit for Ethan's napping and now I'm having a hard time breaking it. I held him for his morning and afternoon naps for awhile (I just loved cuddling him) and now that is the only way he wants to take naps. He sleeps in his crib all night without a problem, but if I put him in his crib for naps he wants nothing to do with it. If I put him down when he is drowsy he will cry immediately. If I put him down when he is already asleep he will stay asleep for a few minutes, wake up, and cry. I've repeated that cycle a few times and gotten him to give me about 40 minutes, but considering this child takes a morning and afternoon nap of at least an hour and a half this wasn't the best because he was still tired for the rest of the afternoon. I'm not too sure what to do here. I've heard that babies view day and night sleeping differently, and Ethan is proving that theory to be correct. I would be content to keep cuddling him for naps for as long as he wants, but I know that I need to fix this habit (and it's my fault that it started in the first place.)
• Food - Ethan is so efficient at nursing these days. He's down to about 4 minutes on each side and he is done. He is still only eating 5 times a day too. At first I was worried that he might not be getting enough to eat, but he continues to grow (and grow and grow!) so I think that he is getting enough to eat. He's been showing a huge interest in our food lately, and since he's almost 6 months old we decided to start him on rice cereal yesterday. We made it pretty thin since we mixed it with my milk (sorry if that's too much information!) and he did pretty well. He kept grabbing for the spoon and trying to feed himself so a lot of it ended up on his bib, but I considered his first feeding a success since he seemed pretty happy. We'll keep the rice cereal along with his early afternoon nursing session, and if all goes well in a week we'll start his first fruit - either bananas or apples - I haven't decided yet.
• Movement - I am referring to Ethan as my "holy roller" now because he will literally roll across the room in a matter of seconds. Gone are the days of plopping him on the activity gym and working on the computer (which is right by the gym so I can keep an eye on him) because if I turn away for a minute he might be under the table, moving towards the couch, etc. etc. He is on the move all the time and loving it. Of course, he's starting rolling in his crib at night some too, which means that I've found him sleeping on his side or tummy several times. I know that I don't have to flip him over onto his back, but it still makes me nervous to see him sleeping and not being on his back. If he is on the move this much now, I can't even imagine what it's going to be like once he's crawling or walking.
• Playtime - Ethan LOVES his exersaucer. I love it too, because I know that he is entertained and contained. He bangs on all the different toys, puts things in his mouth, and is a ball of energy in that thing. His favorite toy right now is his around town baby driver from his Nana (I'll have to take a picture sometime soon.) It's essentially a steering wheel that sings and makes noises and Ethan will sit in my lap and play with that thing for a solid 20 - 30 minutes. Speaking of sitting, he does really well with assistance but still can't quite stay upright on his own for more than a couple seconds. He likes if I sit with him in my lap and he'll play with his toys while pretty much ignoring me. He also really likes his learn and groove drum, which lights up. He has always liked his takealong tunes toy since it lights up, so the drum is like that only bigger. He continues to put everything in his mouth, but his absolute favorite thing to do is still to put his toes in his mouth. If he ever seems bored, all I have to do is take off his socks and put him in his crib and he is happy as can be. This child is nuts!

Here are a couple of pics from the past couple of days: Ethan modeling his Christmas present from Aunt Bethany

He loves eating his toes

Ethan wiggles all around all the time now

Ethan was so excited to sit in his highchair for the first time

Getting ready for his first rice cereal

Taking a break to look at the camera...what a ham!

Snow & Friends

I am so behind with posts! In an effort to catch up more quickly, I'm going to post some more pictures that tell the story of what we've been up to lately. I should be able to write more this week, and hopefully I'll get back on track with Ethan's weekly post this week (fingers crossed!)

The Strain family in the snow - Ethan wasn't too sure what to make of it!

I had Ethan in a jacket underneath his snuggle suit - the poor child could barely move he was so bundled up!!

Our good friends Lindsay and Casey came for a visit, and brought their adorable son Graham to visit with Ethan. Even though Graham is 7 weeks older than Ethan, he is already smaller than our little linebacker. He was so cute sitting up and sucking his thumb, that I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of him.

Graham is soooo sweet! He reached out to hold Ethan's hand (and Ethan tried to hit him once - do I have a bully on my hands?!?!?!)

Ethan's First Christmas

We had such a wonderful time celebrating Ethan's first Christmas. There was something extra special about Christmas this year, and our family has truly been blessed. Patrick had a week off work which was awesome and we really enjoyed getting to spend some quality time together as a family. I have so much to catch up on, so for now I'll post some pictures so you can see a little bit of our first Christmas as a family of three.

Reading together...Ethan is more interested in eating books than hearing me read to him but I'll keep trying (I so want him to love reading as he grows up!)

Ethan LOVES his exersaucer (and so do I...he is so easily entertained that as long as I have an eye on him it means freedom for me to get things like baking Christmas cookies done)

Getting ready to deliver cookie trays to our neighbors

It's Ethan Claus!

Go Panthers...hopefully a number one draft pick will help us not repeat this awful season!

Putting out milk and cookies for Santa and cheese and a small milk for Santa Mouse

Ethan opening his stocking that Santa Claus filled with goodies

Cuddling with Grandpa

Ethan in front of all his Christmas presents

Ethan's elephant music box from his grandparents

He's learning early...go Blue Devils!!

Ethan and I waking up to snow!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (it was all off the roads the next day, which made this a perfect snow!)

Ethan - Week 21

What a fantastic weekend! Our dear friends, the Tenney family, came for a quick visit on their way to visit Jen's family in Florida for Christmas. Before they made it to Charlotte, we all met in Salisbury, NC with another of our friends from middle school, Jennifer (I still think of her as Jennifer Magoon even though she has been married for a number of years now!) so that we could take the kids on the Santa Train. It was wonderful to all be able to get together again. I realized during this visit that Jennifer does not live too far from my in-laws so hopefully we'll be able to get together a little more frequently in the future.

Ethan did really well on the 45 minute drive to the Santa Train and slept the majority of the way. He woke up once we arrived so he missed about an hour or so of his nap, but he seemed to be in pretty good spirits so I wasn't too terribly worried about it. Of course, feeding time was quickly approaching so I wasn't sure how he would act. I brought a bottle with me, but this child practically refuses to take a bottle from me. When I offered it to him on the train he was acting like it was choking him (even though he takes the exact bottle from Patrick without an issue from time to time) and kept pulling on my sweater. I had to break it to him that I was not about to nurse publically, with or without a nursing cover, so this bottle was as good as it was going to get. This prompted a big cry, and I kept looking around to see who was staring at the idiot who brought a 4 month old on the train. Nobody seemed to be giving me evil glares (thank goodness for the loud Christmas music that was playing!) but I was relieved to get Ethan back into the car where at least if he decided to howl only I would be subjected to it. He promptly fell asleep for the entire ride back as well (even though he now had not eaten in almost 6 hours.) At least the car trips were uneventful...if only he hadn't decided to lose it on the train!

Later that night we did our Christmas gift exchange with the Tenneys and I cannot wait to put Ethan in his new clothes from his Aunt Jen and Uncle Patrick. They are soooooo adorable. I will be posting pics as soon as the clothes are out of the dryer (yes, I already have them washed and ready!) It was a quick visit, but they'll be back on their return trip to WV and I cannot wait.

Patrick is on vacation this entire week, so I am enjoying having some time at home with both of my boys. All Christmas gifts have been purchased, wrapped and shipped so we can really just relax and enjoy hanging out this week. I have several Christmas treats I am going to make - thumbprint cookies, chocolate delight cookies, cherry bars and brown sugar shortbread and I am so excited about being a domestic diva this year. There is something so special about this time of year and to get to introduce Ethan to all of our family traditions (and make up some new ones) has made this especially fun. I'll try to keep the updates timely this week as we prepare to celebrate Ethan's very first Christmas.

I LOVE this (if only I had thought to grab Ethan out of his carrier it would have been complete!) We attended middle school together and now here we are 20 years and 3 kids later!

Jennifer & Ethan at the train station

So cute...Maggie got jealous when she realized her Mommy was holding Ethan

I love this...Ethan looks so serious while Maggie is smiling!

Morgan is all smiles!

Jennifer & Jennifer checking their cameras while Maggie & Ethan hang out

Poor Patrick Tenney rode with all our purses, diaper bags, and baby carrier for the majority of the ride...he was a great sport about it

Ethan wasn't too interested in Santa this time (I guess it was their third meeting after all)
Pardon my expression - I was trying to get Ethan to smile

Morgan & Maggie watching the world go by from the train window

Roaring Rex - it took two Targets before I found the last one!

Morgan loves to play with Ethan's Twilight Turtle so hopefully she will enjoy having her very own Twilight Ladybug

Patrick's Steelers Mr. Potato Head - I will have to watch to ensure that no harm comes to him :)

Scooby Doo movies - Morgan watched one later that night!

Ethan - Week 20

So I realize I am definitely behind in posting updates about Ethan during his fourth month of life, so here's my attempt at catching you up on everything that's been happening with Ethan and life in general over the past several weeks. Let me start by saying how much I am absolutely loving this age. Ethan is so interactive right now and smiles at just about everything, but still isn't mobile so that keeps life relatively simple for me. I'm not sure how it happened, but I may have the happiest child I have ever met. I'm such a stress case/worrier that I never anticipated having such a laid back child. Ethan laughs all the time, and all it takes is a funny face or voice or sound from me and he grins from ear to ear. It is so simple - I think I must have been a seriously high maintenance child because it takes so much more to entertain me. His favorite things right now are when I spin around with him in a circle, gently toss him in the air (and no, I do not let go - I'm too afraid I'll drop him!), when Patrick plays his "claw" game with Ethan (think of a Jim Carrey movie here - I'm not sure which one though) or when he can lay down and put his toes in his mouth. Yes, his favorite activity may be the simple joy of putting his toes in his mouth. Gross!

We introduced Ethan to the bumbo seat and exersaucer following his 4 month appointment since he had decent "trunk control" (I don't know why I find that term so amusing, but I love to use it!) He was not at all sure about the exersaucer at first and kind of slumped over in it for a few days. I'm glad we didn't give up on it though, because now he loves to sit in it and play with the various toys all around him. I still think he likes the mirror best (this child is in love with his own image!) I put the exersaucer in the middle of the kitchen and it has been a huge help to me in getting cooking and cleaning in the kitchen done while he is entertained. He's still not 100 percent sold on the bumbo seat. He'll do great in it for a few minutes and then for some reason he decides that he has had enough and will start arching his back and I'm terrified that he'll tip over so that signals the end of bumbo seat time. Maybe he'll decide he really likes it one of these days, but I'm not holding my breath. I can usually get at least 5 -10 minutes with it, which is more than I can say for tummy time.

Ethan still does not enjoy tummy time. Really, he never has. When I put him on his tummy now he will do one of two things. Now that he knows how to roll over, he will either immediately roll himself over onto his back or he will do push ups for no more than 5 minutes before his little face turns bright red and he lets out frustrated sighs. If I don't flip him over when this starts, he will start crying. (I found something that will make Ethan cry...yes, he can do it! Oh, and if I wait too long to feed him he will definitely cry then too!!) I'm not too sure what to do here because everything I read keeps stressing how important tummy time is but I cannot seem to get Ethan sold on the idea. I think he thinks I'm trying to torture him or something. Any ideas? I've tried getting on the ground with him, using a boppy to help prop him up, putting toys all around...I'm at a loss!

Right after Thanksgiving Ethan had another first (he rolled over for the first time the day after Thanksgiving as well)...he had his first cold. It wasn't too serious and he never developed a fever or anything that would require a visit to the pediatrician's office, but for a couple of days there we were both pretty miserable. Yep, I got his cold at the same time! I was pretty achy and had the runny nose as well, so staying up with my poor little baby at night was especially not fun. I slept in the chair in his room for a couple of nights because he was waking up every couple of hours. The worst though, was that I had to continually aspirate his nose (which he HATES!) If you think he doesn't like tummy time, he REALLY doesn't like having his nose aspirated. Fortunately we have put the cold behind us, and I managed to make it through with only two calls to the pediatrician's office :)

Last weekend my in-laws came for a night so that Patrick and I could go to a couple of Christmas parties. If you'll recall my post about the coolest Christmas party invite ever (a live tree with a bow tie!) then you know this party had to be good. We pulled up to a mansion and there were 5 valet guys out front. The couple had designer trees throughout their "home" (I use the term loosely because although I have been in some ridiculous houses before, I have never been in one like this!) The entire backyard was tented in elaborate fabrics and chandeliers, the pool had a plexiglass cover on risers so that you were dancing on the water, there were live bands, ice sculptures with shrimp, carving stations, every kind of passed appetizer you could imagine, and then to top it all off there were three live penguins that were flown in from a zoo in Ohio. The society pages were there taking pictures of people with the penguins and I almost laughed in the one photographer's face when he askeed if we wanted our picture taken. I guarantee they would wonder who we were when they were looking through the film because we don't frequent the same events that these people do! There were several hundred people there (and all I could think about was that each of these couples received a Christmas tree invitation as well!) I was talking to one gentleman who asked what I did with my tree - I told him I set it up in my foyer and decorated it. He smiled and then said he gave his to his maid who thought it was the best thing ever. Evidently I have quite a lot in common with his maid because I thought it was the best thing ever too! When the valet brought us our car to leave, there were bottled waters with the same design as the party invitation in our car and a Christmas CD as a parting gift in our car as well. It was an incredible evening and I am so glad I got to see how the other half live. It is a different world, but it was fantastic to be able to visit for a night. We had a great time!

We took Ethan to our neighborhood breakfast with Santa last weekend and it was fun to be able to meet some neighbors from around the neighborhood. We are really close to our neighbors in our cul-de-sac, but it was nice to get to meet some new people. I think kids really are an "in" to making new friends!

Neighborhood breakfast with Santa - Mommy & Daddy enjoyed all the treats and hot chocolate!

I love the ears on this suit!

Ethan in his Christmas snuggly, getting ready for breakfast with the big guy