We braved the road with both Lena and Davin and took a road trip to visit family the last weekend of June and 4th of July week.

Normally it takes us 12 hrs to get from Nashville to my grandparents in MD, but since that sounded like a bit much for Davin we left Thursday and spent the night in Roanoke, VA. Took about 9 hrs to get there – would have been 7 without Davin lol.  He didn’t sleep as much as normal so he was a bit fussy but he wasn’t terrible. But he and Lena were definitely happy to be out of the car at the end of the day!

Friday afternoon we got to my grandparents and hung out with them, my dad, some aunts & uncles, and cousins that weekend.  Davin enjoyed being the center of attention lol.

Then Monday we drove to Snowshoe, WV where Ben’s family rented a house for a little reunion – 12 out of the 15 siblings in his family were there plus his parents, 3 in-laws, and 6 grandkids so it was a full house – Lena even got her fill of attention I think lol.  It was very beautiful and we had lots of fun hanging out with everyone!

Click here for 4th of July family pics of us that we won at the reunion auction – thanks Jill!

Then Saturday, July 7 we hit the road at about 4am so we could get some driving in while Davin was asleep which worked out well and we got home before 2pm! Not the most exciting birthday for Ben, but it was good to be home and we went to a movie the next day to celebrate!

June 17, 2018

Davin turned 5 months old on Father’s Day!  Ben really is such an awesome dad and parenting partner!  After I nurse Davin at 7pm, Ben does our new bedtime routine of PJs, bottle, & book…and eventually sleep. Ben is great at making Davin smile and has lots of patience when Davin isn’t so happy.

<<Notice anything different???                 ….No more beard!

The day before Father’s Day we hosted a brunch with some friends, so we had lots of yummy leftovers for Father’s Day breakfast and then we went on a little hike to Percy Priest Lake with Lena & Davin… we were hoping Davin would sleep in the stroller but Ben got to carry him while I pushed the empty stroller lol. But Davin was still pretty happy for missing a nap. (We did manage to go out to brunch last weekend while Davin slept under the table in his car seat tho!) And for Father’s Day dinner we grilled steak. Between our Saturday brunch and Father’s Day dinner I think Ben did more cooking then the last few months combined lol (his least favorite household chore) since Davin kept me from being as productive in the kitchen.  The day before our brunch, Ben “accidentally” ended up at Home Depot and saw the outside table he’d been eyeing last year was on sale so I guess that was his Father’s Day present to himself lol. I got him & Davin matching shirts and pictures for his office.

What else about Davin this month? He’s still a pretty happy smiley baby :). He finally noticed Lena this month and thinks she’s pretty great (altho mom isn’t so sure about all the dog slobber and hair lol). On my birthday we went swimming for the first time (sitting on the first step counts, right?) with my cousin Juleen and we tried out a baby pool with a neighbor friend! He likes baths in the tub (instead of the sink), the park swing, and sitting in his bumbo chair while we eat dinner! He isn’t crawling but somehow moves all around the crib – rolling and inch worming all over.  He wants to grab and check out everything he sees and likes to put everything in his month – including his toes! Last month eating his hands was his thing, this month his toes are his favorite. Apparently Ben also liked eating his toes as a baby lol. Davin also gets his bald head and long eyelashes from Ben. Davin still takes 3 naps a day and is (almost?) down to eating 1x at night around 1-2 am altho he still wakes up a second time some nights and will go back to sleep with a pacifier… eventually… and sometimes I cave and feed him a second time.

And here’s lots of cute pics from this last month:

May 17, 2018 – 4 Months Old Today:

At his 4 month appointment, Davin weighed 15.5 pounds which is 50th percentile and was 95 percentile for height and head! (Was only 20th percentile for height when he was born so he has outgrown lots of clothes!)

He’s generally very happy and laughs and smiles lots, especially when he sees people he loves and when you tickle him in the right spot.  He loves playing with my mom’s cousin, Juleen, once a week and he likes our nanny who watches him and another baby his age 2-3 days a week!  Thanks to them, I’ve been able to get back to working on research and attend the monthly health econ advising group. And I need to start prepping the class I will be teaching in July (macroeconomics 101 for undergrads). He takes 3 naps in his crib (yay!), likes to eat his hands, and finally kind of likes a pacifier, and is rolling from his back to his tummy (last month he rolled from tummy to back a couple times).

We’d been double swaddling him, but right about when he turned 4 months old there was no more containing him lol.  So right about at 4 months he was no longer swaddled, started rolling onto his stomach in his sleep, and hit the “4 month sleep regression” where he woke up lots more at night… It was a rough 10 days. Before he was in bed about 8pm-7am and would eat at around 1:30am and sometimes a second time at 4/5am… but during the “4 month sleep regression” he woke up lots more… and woke up on his tummy which he wasn’t used to and wasn’t very happy about.  I really didn’t want to get in the habit of having to nurse him every time he woke up so we’d give him a pacifier if he woke up before 1 … sometimes he went back to sleep in 5 minutes… sometimes it took over an hour… Ben would stay up and work until 1 and help Davin go back to sleep so I could at least sleep a bit before 1am.  We changed his bedtime routine so he wasn’t nursing to sleep and added a 2-oz bottle which I don’t think helped him sleep longer but when he woke up before 1 we wouldn’t feel guilty that he was starving. Anyways, it was nice to get past the “4 month sleep regression” and back to getting up only 1-2x/night!

And lots of pics from this last month:

May 16, 2018

9 years already! Crazy how time flies! Our anniversary was our first date of just us two since Davin. (We did have a date on Cinco de Mayo where we put Davin to bed and left him home with a friend and we went to another friend’s house for Mexican food – thanks Ebehi!) But first date with just us two! Ben took the day off work (definitely made up for it working the next two weekends :-/ ) and planned lots for us – we went kayaking on the Harpeth River, out to lunch, painted some pottery, and went to dinner!  It was a great day :-).

Copper, willow, & pottery are all 9 yr themes 🙂

A couple days before our anniversary was Mother’s Day and Ben made that day awesome too! He made me a quick breakfast of oatmeal and fresh orange juice and we were off before it got too warm and went on a hike with Davin & Lena to Edwin Warner Park. Then in the evening he made some homemade ice-cream and got lots of fun mix ins like how ColdStone/MaggieMoos does ice-cream :).

3 months old already! (April 17th)

<< 1 month on the left vs 3 months on the right!

Naps in the crib were becoming a battle so when we found he fell asleep by himself looking at the swing mobile he suddenly only took naps there lol. It was nice to be able to have him get good naps but I was a little paranoid about leaving the room since swings aren’t technically safe sleep spots :-/.  But good thing Ben was still on paternity leave so I could get a shower in!

The spring weather was beautiful and right as he turned 3 months he learned how to really hold his head up for tummy time :).

Not quite ready for the chair tho lol

Lena turned 2 years old April 23! And we didn’t even get a picture that day :-/…She did get some extra treats and eventually got to go to petsmart for a new toy tho. She’s adjusting to being a big sister and is pretty patient with getting only 1 walk a day instead of 2 and is learning to be gentle and not lick Davin to death lol. She may be a little jealous of all the new toys he gets but no damages so far.  Davin on the other hand… I’m not entirely sure he’s noticed her yet lol. I’m sure they will be good friends eventually, and for now she at least gets us to go on a walk every day and she makes Davin’s pictures even cuter.

Every day she brings us toys to play tug of war and eventually gives up and lays with her bear friend (still around since day 1!) lol.

#HappyStPatricksDay #2MonthsExactly

At Davin’s 2 month appointment he weighed 12 pounds 13 ounces, and was in 75th percentile for weight and 90 percentile for length and head size!

He got his first bath at 5 wks old thanks to my cousin Juleen – she’s a NICU nurse so gave us a professional how-to :). (I know we are a little slow lol but his cord didn’t fall off til 4 wks old?)

This month we kicked Davin out of our room – down the hall to his crib. He stopped liking the pack n play napper and were using the flat pack n play bassinet, but he was keeping us awake too much – even when he was sleeping he made lots of noises and Ben kept checking on him. He did pretty well in his crib at night and still woke up to eat – day or night – every 3 hrs to eat. He seemed to get over the cluster feeding in the evening but instead was sometimes really gassy and would just fuss and cry for an hour :(. Gas drops and gripe water didn’t help, I tried going off dairy, we got probiotic drops, and finally about 10 weeks old he stopped being fussy at night and we could put him to bed by 8-9pm. I think his tummy finally just grew up a bit.

When he was about 7 weeks old and 11-12 lbs we tried to start getting him to only wake up 2xs at night instead of three times between the 7pm and 7am feedings (10pm, 1am, 4am). Ben was really good about getting up with him for an hour or so every night to help him go back to sleep and only have 2 feedings instead of 3 (3 was killing me… cause I never got to sleep more than 90ish minutes at a time). Finally about 10 weeks he was down to just 2 night feedings – about midnight & 4am which was much more doable for me and Ben didn’t have to get up at night much after that!

We even ventured out of the house a bit this month – went on a hike (which Lena loved), had a Bradley class reunion, and got pizza while Davin slept :D!