6 Months Old!!! Half a year, can you believe it?

Today Peyton went to his doctor's appt. for his 6 month checkup. He was 16 lbs 6 oz. and 26 1/2 inches long. He hasn't grown much in height, but he's chunked up so much. There have been lots of changes in his life in the last month. He sits VERY well now and will sit for hours playing with his toys on the floor or watching Sesame Street. He gets around the living room by rolling. It's amazing how quickly he can get across the room that way. He's getting pretty close to being able to belly crawl too. We've introduced solid foods which he took to very well. He loves his rice cereal and so far the only thing he has completely rejected is peas...go figure. It made me sick to my stomach just smelling them when I was trying to feed them to him.

Sleeping on his back is a thing of the past. Yes, we still put him down on his back like all the experts say, but it takes less than 2 seconds for him to be flat on his stomach. He sleeps in some of the most awkward positions, but most of them are exactly like I sleep. His naps have, for the most part, greatly increased in length to 1 1/2 hours to 2 instead of his previous 30 minutes or so, which is great for me getting things done around the house.

He's now able to go hiking with us in the backpack. We went up to Kenosha Pass to hike with our neighbors and their son and both boys ended up falling asleep in the packs. Boy did it look uncomfortable, not to mention that it was about 45 degrees and it rained on us. The backpack is so much more comfortable to hike in than the Baby Bjorn.

Peyton has probably begun teething. He is suddenly waking at night again even though he's been sleeping through the night for the last 2 months. He gnaws on everything and bites his bottom lip, which is so cute. And he drools...man does he drool. I love his toothless grin, but I wish this tooth would come in so that he's back to his normal happy self.

So that's that. Half a year old. Seems like just yesterday that he was born and now we're thinking we need to baby proof the house sooner than later because he will be crawling soon. This age is so much fun, his personality is growing by the day. We love that little boy!

Peyton is 5 months old!!

Can you believe it? Our baby is already 5 months old. It seems like just yesterday that we were wondering when I ever would go into labor and were holding that tiny baby of only 6 lbs 7 oz. It's a distant memory when I pick up his now 17lb, chunky body that likes to be thrown in the air and turned upside down that he was ever so small and fragile. What was life like before Peyton? I know I have a hard time remembering. It feels like everything in my life has led up to this point. Goals and dreams that I had to travel and pursue, that almost prevented me from wanting children, now don't seem all that important. What is important is our little life here in Colorado and doing what is best for him everyday and introducing him to the world, for better or for worse. I feel blessed every day that I am able to stay at home with him 5 days of the week. I keep waiting to wake up from the happiness I feel every day when I look at him and play with him. It's too good to be true.

Peyton has such a great personality...most of the time. He's extremely happy...most of the time. It seems like every time we hang out with people from Zack's work he is fussy, but at home he's always laughing and smiling. He likes to watch Sesame Street and sports on TV. Rockie's games freak him out now, because he startles easy with the loud noise. We can still go, but we just know now that one person will have to be up walking with him out where it's not as noisy. He loves going hiking in the Bjorn and today we are going to take a trial run hiking in the backpack since he can sit independently for short periods of time now. The outdoors is still our pacifier. If he's crying, walk outside and he's a whole new child. He's become quite the Mama's boy lately, not wanting to be held by anyone but Mommy and Daddy and often only able to be comforted by Mommy. Now that the seasons are changing I will be interested to see how he is in the cold weather. He loves to not wear clothes which won't be an option once the weather turns.

We think he might really be teething now, but we've thought that before. His new passion is chewing on glass, ceramic, and electronics...I'm assuming because they are hard and cold, not because of a lack of silica in his diet. He has become fascinated by my food lately as well. Around 6 months we will begin introducing solid foods, which I am on the fence about. On the one hand, it will be nice to not be "exclusively breast feeding" anymore, but on the other hand, breastfeeding poop is so much better than solid food poop. Oh well, it has to happen someday. He also has started night waking again, which may mean teething as well.

He's getting much more mobile too, making me think we should start thinking about baby proofing sooner than later since it seems like we'll just wake up one day and he'll be crawling. That seems to be how it happens. One day he can't do something and the next day it's as natural as if he'd been doing it since birth. He does well moving from one end of the crib to the other by rolling around and turning on either his back or stomach. We had to put the bumpers on the crib because he kept rolling on his stomach and getting his legs stuck out the sides. He plays like crazy now too, loving a toy one day and not being interested at all in it the next. The general rule of thumb is that if it makes noise and it fits in his mouth, it's fun.

So anyway, that's the update on our little man. When I get my new Mac I will post more video. It's too hard on this slow computer. Take care.

Connie, Zack, and Peyton

New Peyton Videos on Youtube

Because the blog does not have much memory for videos, we have posted some misc. videos of Peyton on youtube. Here are the links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djQ8WglibC8 17 week update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qYzscN94EI 18 week update
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_0Nw-btboA Bath time
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbo8PmVOuq4 Changing table watching the light
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXNzUu3TMzA Fake coughing and laughing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4elHGFCIWQ Laughing and standing up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5VoiiBqwjI Peyton flying
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmaJVwpH3q0 Sleeping in funny position
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSvTjAGcyUw Sleepy red eyebrows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dg-5DbJ1Xrs Teething ring

Enjoy:)

4 month checkup at doctor's

Peyton had his 4 month checkup today at 18 1/2 weeks old. He was 26 inches long, 14 lbs 11 oz and NOT happy about having his 2nd round of vaccines. Poor baby got sore again and was very upset this afternoon, but by evening he was better, just tired.

Peyton is changing so much every day. He's developmentally well ahead of where average is at 4 1/2 months. He is rolling both directions (with coersion...he really has no desire to roll otherwise), LOVES to stand, can sit propped on his hand for short periods of time, laughs and plays all day long and still loves being outside. We've taken him camping in our new HUGE tent several times now and he's getting more used to it. He still has issues going to sleep and eating when we're outside b/c he is so interested in every little thing going on around him. We probably won't be able to do much more camping this year because it's already chilly at night in the mountains.

Mommy has gone back to work just 2 days a week. It's actually working out quite well. Daddy works W-Sat, and Mommy works Sun-M. That way he has no daycare needs.

For the most part Peyton is a smiley, happy baby. He sleeps pretty much nightly from 8 pm to 4 am, without any fight, eats at 4 and goes back to sleep on and off until about 9 am. He does not like to nap, though. I guess he's afraid he'll miss something if he sleeps during the day because unless we are in the car, getting him to sleep during the day is always a fight. His eyebrows turn red when he's tired so it's very obvious. He's seemed to have been teething since about 10 weeks old, with lots of drooling and chewing, but still no teeth have emerged. He has started the past couple of days sucking, not his whole hand, but his thumb. I have a feeling soon the pacifier is going to be a thing of the past because he's not all that interested in it anymore, but unfortunately we can't take away his thumb.

I will be posting video soon to youtube from the past 6 weeks or so so stay tuned.

Peyton, Connie and Zack

12 weeks old-Planes, Florida, Steamboat, and milestones

Hello all. Time for another Peyton update. He is 12 weeks old...hard to believe it was only 3 months ago that I had him. He's growing and changing so much daily. He's had a very active life for only being 3 months old. Zack has been home for 5 weeks (went back to work today) so we've been able to do lots of things as a family. Who knows if we'll ever have that much time together again. So here's what Mr. Peyton has been up to.

We went to Florida at the beginning of June for 10 days to see friends and family. Peyton met his Grandpa, Great Grandpap, Great Uncle Ron, and Great Great Aunt Loretta. We had a BBQ to meet all the generations. Aunt Cathy and Grandma greatly enjoyed their time with him. He got to go in the swimming pool and LOVED napping in a chair on the porch by the pool. He didn't like the beach so much. We only stayed an hour because of how hot and humid it was. Aunt Cathy was nice enough to baby sit the next day so that we could go back to the beach. Grandma also babysat one day so that we could go canoeing. Those two days were the longest I've been away from him. He was great on the airplane, sleeping most of the time and perfectly content maneuvering through the airport in the Baby Bjorn. Not one bit of crying during travel. Oh, and while in Florida we took him off the reflux medicine and he's doing great.

We also went to Steamboat Springs for the 4th of July with Grandma and Granddaddy. Peyton got to see the botanical gardens and the 4th of July parade, which he actually watched part of (when he wasn't asleep in the Bjorn) and seemed to enjoy. He almost got crushed when the nearly 7 foot old man standing next to Zack passed out and Zack was holding him. It was a scary moment, but Peyton was passed back to me unscathed (and we think the man ended up being fine too). Peyton did sleep through the fireworks because they were passed his bedtime. Maybe next year. On the drive to Steamboat we had to travel over several mountain passes over 11,000 feet and he did great. At his 4 month appointment we'll need to see when it's safe to keep him at that altitude for any length of time. The same week as the 4th we went on our first camping trip. We went up to about 7400 feet near Buffalo Creek and did some roadside camping. Everything was good except Peyton wouldn't nap or eat well because there was so much distracting stuff around (flies, trees, wind, etc.) We used our backpacking tent and have since bought a family tent because it was way too cramped. I rated the experience a B+ and hope for an A once we try out the bigger tent.

Finally, we went in for a weight check today at the doctor's office because of the confusion about his weight at 8 weeks. He weighs in at a whopping 12 pounds 15 1/2 ounces. That's a HUGE gain in the last month. We double checked his weight last time so it was definitely a gain of over 2 pounds. That puts him back on the growth curve he was on initially. He's also started really laughing...almost a HA HA HA sound. Before he would try to laugh, but it was funny sounding. He makes us laugh so hard we cry when he does it. He's starting to push with his arms when on his tummy and is so close to rolling over. He rolls to his side constantly now, but doesn't make it all the way over. He's also starting to reach for things and play with soft toys. One of the PA's at the doctor's office thought he was 6 months old because of how he was holding up his head and sitting in my lap. He's constantly wanting to chew on things and started drooling a lot so we think teeth may be in the near future. He rarely cries, usually only when he's fighting going to sleep, but still is regularly in bed by 9:00 and sleeps between 6-8 hours straight. We couldn't ask for more.

Addendum to 8 week update

I forgot. At 5 weeks old Peyton got to go to his first Rockies' game for Daddy's birthday. He loved it. He stayed awake through 7 innings and loved watching the people walking around and the crowd noise. When they came around with the camera to film to crowd the people behind us and the people in our group got his attention and Peyton got to be on the jumbotron. He's a star!

8 week old appointment

Today Peyton had his 8 week appointment. It was the first time that we've gone to the doctor that Peyton was all smiles and noises other than crying. And then... Today was his first round of vaccinations and he screamed, but was easily calmed after it was all over and fell asleep on the way home. Then it hit him. The pain in his leg from the tetanus. He won't straighten out his leg or let us touch him without screaming the most blood curtling yell you've ever heard. Now he is sleeping, but will only sleep and eat curled up in a ball...it'll be a long night. Now that Zack and I are aware of what triggers the crying we've been able to limit it and so far he's not running a fever or having any other problems. Of course when he was screaming earlier and we didn't know why, I cried. I can't stand to see my baby in pain.

He weighed in today at 10 lbs. 9 oz. and was 24 inches long. If you follow the blog then you know at the last appointment a month ago they said he was 10 lbs. 8 oz. Us and the doctor agree that the past weight must have been wrong because he eats well and is otherwise healthy. We'll go back for a weight recheck when we get back from Florida just to make sure he's doing well. Otherwise he still has stomach issues so I get to try cutting things out of my diet now to see if it's something I am eating that's hurting his belly.

He's a very happy child mostly. He's started really having a personality. He laughs and smiles and coos. He's lifting his head pretty well, but still doesn't have a lot of rotational control...he looks drunk sometimes when he tries to turn his head unsupported. We play all kinds of games to help him develop his motor skills and his visual skills. He loves the outdoors. We spend time outside every day it's nice out, frequenting many of the Denver parks and trails. We go to Florida in a week, so Peyton will get to go on his first plane ride and Zack and I get to experience our first time traveling by plane with a baby...and packing.

Thanks for reading.

Connie and Zack and Peyton